Blog
day!
Today
I was asked to pick up a friend from his mechanics. Of course I said
yes. I’m just a helpful kind of gal. I was asked to meet my
friend at the Playero at 10:30. While I have lived in the DR for a
while now, I’m still on Canadian time which means on time, not
Dominican time which can be any time.
I
arrive at 10:20. Great! I have a couple minutes to run inside and
grab a few bits (things for anyone not British). Park the car, put
the car in park and turn the car off. Not going into get my bits
cause the damn key won’t come out of the ignition. Now
what.........ok, re-start car and turn it of. Nothing. Damn. Ross
is not going to be happy. Start car and drive to where my friend is
parked. So, my car is running and I say, alright, let’s toodle. I
follow my friend to the mechanics shop (more about the Russian
compound later). I turn the car off. No, the damn key will still
not come out. Now’s the time I start to sweat. I silently utter
several curse words. OK, who am I kidding, the words spewed out of
my mouth like a drunken expat.
Now,
let’s discuss the Russian mechanic’s compound. Tall, slim,
shifty looking guy. Cigarette hanging out of his mouth. Not sure if
he was packing but I wasn’t about to find out. There is something
entertaining about a Russian that speaks Spanish. Strangest accent
ever. My friend honks his horn when he pulls up to the 10 foot iron
gate set it a 12 cinder block wall that surrounds the compound. The gate opens and my friend
drives through. I’m wondering if I’ll see him again or I’ll be
paying his wife a visit with bad news. Finally, my friend’s
business is conducted and the gate slides open. The Russian dude
takes one look at my chariot and his mouth drops open. Ok, my car is
not in the best of shape but the look on his face was not necessary.
Further, he began to laugh....so does my friend. Seriously guys?
I’m more worried about the damn key stuck in the ignition then the
fact that the paint is a little rough.
Well,
the trip from the mechanics did not get any better. Driving down the
road, I notice the fuel light is on. Damn. So, now I need to stop
at the Texaco for 500 rd of gas – at 214 rd per US gallon so I got
2.34 US gallons or 8.85 litres. Today 500 rd is 13.19 Cdn. So my gas
was $1.49 Cdn per litre. Don’t you just love this side story? Ok,
time to get back to the real story.
We
are driving down the narrow road to get to the gas station. Cars
parked on both sides. Off in the distance I see a small white car
coming towards me. I have more than enough time to make it through
the cars so I proceed and if I don't, the car will stop and let me go through. Ok, stupid little white car suddenly
accelerates and meets me head on about half way. I now have four
cars behind me so I am not going anywhere. Stupid Russian woman
climbs out of her car and begins to yell at me to back up (in Spanish
but my friend speaks Spanish so it’s all good.) I just would have
told her to take a flying leap. She is adamant that I am in the
wrong and I should back up. What? Over four cars? Stupid Russian
woman tells me I am in the wrong again...what the hell?? How is it even
possible? So, I put my car in park and tell her I’m not going
anywhere once she magically changes to fluent English. Then she asks
me if I am stupid. Hey, I’m not the one creating a traffic jam.
She finally gets in her car and backs up. I drive by and give her a
Trudeau salute. My friend called her a really nasty name which I
won’t repeat here. Can you say road war? Oh, and where I come
from, the biggest tires always win, so I won!
Still
need gas. Gas light has been on all this time. I still can’t get
the damn key out of the ignition at the gas station. My friend asks me what I’m going
to do about this problem with the key and my response is that I’ll
let Ross deal with it. He just laughs and laughs.
Driving
today in Sosua was like driving in a video game (arcade game for you
old-timers). I needed to get from the Texaco turning left back onto
the main road. Traffic was seriously backed up. I wasn’t the only
one needing to turn left. A van with a local driving pulls up on my
left. SCORE! He pulls into traffic blocking it. I slide up beside
him and YAY! I also cut off traffic but I’m outta the damn gas
station. Rules of the road you ask? Well, yes there are but most
take them as suggestions unless there are legal implications such as
a traffic accident. Then the rules of the road are most important.
Oh,
and the damn key came out of the ignition when I got home. Ross put the car all the
way into park, looked at me and rolled his eyes.
