Hide my identity?

yesterday had an interesting experience. i was coming back from picking a colleague at the airport. meanwhile before i carry on, the park at the airport is automated. i have been living in the dark ages. you drive your car to the park press some button on a yellow box and a card pops out. the barrier goes up and you can pass and park. when you are ready to go you take the card to a little lady behind a teller window and give the card, she swipes it and tells you how much you have to pay. you pay for an hour and some for every other hour. when you've paid she gives you back the card and you have 15 minutes to get out of the parking lot or you pay for another hour. its so simple a contraption i wonder why we haven't implemented it in the home country. i mean i can park fly to here, come back the same day and pick my car and pay just a 100bucks!

anyway back to my experience. on my way out of the airport i ran into the roundabout. here let me digress again. when i was learning driving , i vaguely recall my dad telling me something about giving way to traffic on your left. vaguely because when i actually started driving, no one seemed to obey the rule. when i came to ghana, i noticed that at the round about people always seemed to wait. i figured it was because of this rule but i wasn't sure anymore whether it was right or left. then once i was told that cars on the round about always have right of way. well i took note of this and i took on the 'when-in-rome' attitude until yesterday.

i got to the round about , i waited and waited. the cars kept passing and passing. then right next to me a taxi made a run for it. well i guess instinct (something you develop driving in lagos) just made me follow suit. well i thought i had gotten away scot free then a car overtakes and parks in the red light lane. i was taking a side road which didn't have lights but the car infront was in my way. i didn't horn because i realised early on that in ghana you hardly heard the blaring of horns. well the light turns green and instead of the car to move the door opens and this young lady steps out. she comes over to my window and indicates i should wind down. i'm wondering if she wants to ask a jjc like me for directions. boy was i wrong.

she was making what i'd call a citizens arrest ( well i couldn't move my car). she asked if i didn't know that at the roundabout i had to wait for cars? that what i did didn't give a good impression about nigeria ( my car has nigerian plates). she said she was nigerian too. blah blah blah. well i was amused so i apologised and told her i was just new in town. she went back into her car and drove off ( she had actually caused a little snag in free flowing traffic).

as she drove off it got me thinking. her major problem was that i had nigerian plates and i drove like 'a nigerian'. why do i have to come to another country and put up a pretense? lagos is the lousiest place to drive. people don't obey traffic rules that's why they need lastma to help them. there's nothing like right of way. right is might. if a trailer comes bounding by your left let's see where your right of way comes in. so why do nigerians expect to behave differently in another country and put up a 'good' image when at home they behave in a crappy manner. you want to launder your image when your underpants are dirty and stinking? its a pity the lady in question isn't reading this blog, i certainly would have wanted her comments.

today i got one item off the long list. i hung up the curtains for the palour with the aid of a 'professional'. it remains putting furniture and the sitting room is set. well almost, there's the home theatre etc. i'm contemplating laying mats japanese style. after all its my home, you sit on whatever furniture i present to you. and if its a mat so be it.