Monday, February 23, 2009

TOO MUCH EXCITEMENT!




Smoke from the gas truck fire, taken at our compound gate.













Can you stand more traffic stories? Again, everyone is OK.

Yesterday (Sunday, Feb. 22) afternoon a truck delivering gas to a gas station overturned and exploded in a major intersection close to the American School. Don't really know if anyone was hurt - hope not. They heard the explosion at school and went into "lock down" until they got the details. I was just about to leave for school (had Girl Scout Thinking Day) when a friend called and told me what had happened. Good thing she did - I didn't panic when I saw the smoke and I knew which way to go to avoid the backed up traffic.

Earlier in the day a Qatari started tailgating me (white Land Cruiser, young guy in white robe - the typical Qatari). I was in the left lane and he was so close I could only see his face in my rearview mirror. Traffic was heavy and I couldn't get over. Picked up camera - turned it on and pointed it back at him. (After what happened to Andy I wanted a video of him doing this - in case he back ended me). He backed off, I saw an opening and moved to the right. He came up beside me - I pointed camera at his car (often times they will then pull in front of you and slam on their brakes - if he did it I wanted it on camera). He sees camera and takes off - OK problem gone.
Oh no, I go up the road a bit and see him in the far right lane, going very slow. I get in right lane behind him- I want to go right into the mall. He goes slower - I go around him and pull into the mall parking lot - wanted to see if he would follow. He followed me - I went through mall parking lot and pulled back out onto main road - he followed (not tailgating, just following). I picked up my phone and put it to my ear like I was calling someone. I moved into left turn lane - he kept going straight - guess he figured I was calling the police and since I had him on camera being a jerk he would go be a jerk somewhere else. If he had kept following me I would have driven to the Embassy.
Leaving here in July - Never returning.

3 comments:

Willa said...

O M G !!!!!!!!!! Again, I can't wait until you are home. I guess the moral of the story is you should never travel without a camera and cell phone close at hand!

Kate said...

What an asshole! Maybe I should start filming people around here... would they use their turn signals then???

Home SOON!!! You all are welcome to plot here for a bit while waiting for your house to be available again if you want.

CB said...

From now on will have camera and cellphone sitting right beside me!