This morning was the most catastrophic morning commutes in a long time. My work day starts at 8, and I usually leave home by 7:30 and get there on time or 5 minutes late, tops.
So today, I get in at 9:13.
Do you have any idea how long have I been behind the wheel for what is normally a 30 minute drive?
Reason one being that it rained lightly, and Bahrainis usually skate over wet roads rather than drive on them. So everyone was driving cautious like.
Second reason, the real reason? George W. Bush.
He is in Bahrain visiting, and of course, he needs to get around. When he does, members of his own security team, probably helped with members of his 5th fleet AND our Bahraini special guards and traffic men and policemen are all out on full alert. Helicopters flying and most importantly: Roads.
Roads were blocked all over, in an attempt (in my understanding) to funnel cars into limited routes for security reasons or to clear up certain roads for same the reasons.
Now that might work everywhere on earth, but Bahrain is... Bahrain is like TINY man!
It's "official" size is 662 squared KMs. And we are not using that all, almost everyone works in itsy bitsy Manama. Its what? like 30 squared Kilometers?
So imagine this, a whole country works in a radius of 30 square kilometers, we have no proper public transport and almost everyone uses cars.
George W simply Screwed up our day.
Its amazing, just by being here he can screw things up! It's like he has an aura around him or something!
Anyway, I suggest for such cases: A Nintendo DS. Get a good game that does not require timely responses (Phoenix Wright or Pokemon would do, since they are mostly turn based)and away you go. This method is also good for killing time quickly until Dubya's term is over.
11 comments:
Even better, dust off your brain and listen to some intellectual podcasts. I've been doing this for the last 5 months and my traffic-jam-stress-syndrome is totally controlled by now :)
I listen to technology shows but iTunes has tons of flavors.
Well BuZain, you'd be glad to know that I do listen to Audio books (last one I listened to was Covey's "the 8th Habit") and am learning Japanese via MP3 tracks downloaded off the net.
Still, I would argue that videogames are needed stimulation to your brain. Like exercise or chess. It stimulates parts in your brain that usually, would not be in everyday life. Hence keeping you sharp or even increasing your mental performance in some areas.
Agreed. I do play video games all the time but doing it while driving in a traffic jam sounds awkward. I actually tried it once with a little game on my Nano and I almost ran over the car in front of me :)
I'll stick to podcasts for now until I get my own chauffeur :)
dont you still owe me those japanese CDs? :p
yes, today was ridiculous, but hey, what to do. big man's in town. well, at least he's outta here!
today was good though; i used it to video some traffic, the reasons for which you should know very very soon.
Want the DVDs in the next bloggers meeting or sooner? We can agree on a time.
anytime man... where do you work again?
Hi,
I'm a journalist at www.observers.france24.com (a France 24 web site). I'm looking for amateur videos or photos of Bush ardha Dance. Any idea where I could find that?
Best,
Julien Pain
A French journalist looking for a video of bush dancing? I dunno, but I sure want to help!
Let me ask around!
Can you believe that Dubai gave people the day off...!
it usually takes most people a good hour and a half to get to work in dubai.
imagine the delays. it makes more sense that way.
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