I can't actually believe that I am sitting here in front of the laptop, but I need to stay awake long enough to fetch Alix some time in the early hours of the morning, to make matters worse I have to drive again.
I love driving, probably because I was a very late bloomer. I was finally forced to learn to drive in Namibia. I made Frank buy me a car, got it and started lessons the following day - but I already picked up the boys from school on that first day! Okay - I did drive a few times on some dusty farm roads, but I am a quick learner!
Sweden is one of the best countries for driving in, wait Namibia too! In Windhoek, six cars at a traffic light constituted a traffic jam - not many of those I must say and you were, back in the mid 90's, never more than 7 minutes drive from the edge of town! There were however too many very steep hills for a beginner thought. Okay, Sweden was a dream, alright, I will admit driving in winter was a bit scary, but after a week to polish them forgotten skill one was sliding around as if on a Formula 1 racetrack! Learn't my lesson the first winter by being caught without 'studded' winters tyres and forced to wait 5 hours at the local 'tyre shop' to have them exchanged. Never happened again.
Back in South Africa after Sweden was an adjustment! Whilst I hardly ever had to use strong language in Sweden, I developed a very bad vocabulary of expletives in SA. Managed to have my car bumped twice - whilst stationary in traffic jams! I ask you. I must have had an invisible sticker on my car that said 'Bash me!' Driving home from Johannesburg International Airport on Thursday and Friday nights after 20h00 was a a total nightmare, never seen so many accidents in my 46 years of life as I did in those nine months. Worst nightmare, the burn't out car on the highway with the body of an innocent woman still in it! I guessed that nothing could be worse. At least from my point of view.
Yea and then I started driving in SP. Accidents, I have not yet seen with my own eyes as I never get anywhere near the highways. Band News loves to give a moment by moment account of accidents so yes they do happen, mess up the roads for hours. For my South African friends, imagine a city the size of Gauteng - yes there are more than 10 million people living in this city alone with a total of 20 million in the state of Sao Paulo. Almost 8 million cars, that would be akin to almost every Gautenger having wheels! Yes, scary, I agree.
However my biggest gripe is the fact that the road system is a total disaster! Stockholm was bad with it's one way streets, which had one travelling miles just to get around the corner. SP is a total nightmare in comparison. After four months I barely drive anywhere, rather use the taxi - which is another nightmare - they haven't a clue of the city and none have a GPS!! It's mind boggling! I print a map of my destination from 'Google Maps' and show them where I need to go! It's the only way to prevent them spending hours driving around! BUT using 'Google Maps' and trying to drive somewhere by yourself just doesn't work! On the maps routes look so easy, until you hit the road! For those that know me, my 'Internal GPS' is totally useless here - oh and don't even try and use the map book! There are hundreds of streets with the same name in the city! Two weekends ago we needed to travel 9km to Casa Flora to buy 2 bottles of wine for the Tasting I was presenting. well we never made it and then got lost driving home, took almost an hour and a half driving around down town in heavy rain. I was in tears and ready to get on the first plane out of here!
So back to tonight. I agreed to drive Alix as I know exactly where the Club is, been in that area a few times. BUT, for a journey of 6.3km it takes more than half an hour! Mind boggling but, one has to take detours to get from point A to B. In SP one can not make a left turn at any intersection, note that Brazilians drive on right side as in Europe. One has to make lengthy detours to get everywhere. U turns not allowed anywhere - hahaha - only thing I can do otherwise I would never make it home if I had to drive to Timbuktu looking for a 'Retorno.' Yea they have specific places where you drive around blocks where a u turn would take 5 seconds! Problem is they are usually through dodgy dark areas! Ain't going to find me using those especially not at night.
I have also come to a conclusion that, like Swedish Volvo's, very few Brazilian cars have indicators. And my pet peeve, driving all over the place, each driver drives as if they are the only person on the road and as for lanes - they have never ever heard of them. You drive in the middle of them and where there are two lanes they make four! Oh actually I have two pet peeves. Unlike civilized countries where one usually turns from the lane closest to the direction in which one intends to turn, here if there are 3 lanes, you can turn form anyone! So if you want to turn left, drive in the 'rightest' most lane and then cut everyone off and turn! So far I have seen only one intersection where arrows are used - of course no-one knows what they are for!!
In SA Taxi drives have a habit of jumping red traffic lights, we all know and are careful - here anyone does it! You just never know when someone is going to come flying in front of your nose!
Stephan became rather exasperated with all my traffic stories - until he arrived, his pet story, the Taxi that cut behind my car and the car following me at an intersection. He cut the red light and sped between us! Never in my worse nightmares, not even the SA taxis have done that!
Okay, now it's off my chest. For someone who have driven and navigated around Europe and can't even get around more than her own neighbourhood is no laughing matter. It's no wonder that many International companies supply they ex-pats with drivers, armed ones too.
And one last peeve, our Head Office has 'upgraded' Brazil as being and 'easy posting!' Very obvious that someone lost the plot and Buenos Aires, to which, incidently, ex-pats flee to when they've had enough of SP has retained their 'difficulty' classification.......
I rest my case. It is now 00H30 and I still have a few hours left before braving the roads again!
