Feeling Crabby ...!

Hello again friends!  How've you all been and what have you been up to?

I am sure you won't have missed the fact that a few short weeks ago (has it only been that long?) Donald Trump was inaugurated as the 45th President of the United States (still can't quite believe I am typing that!).  I have been desperately trying not to get involved in the whole politics thing over here as after all, I am a guest in this country and (thankfully) he is not our President and so I don't really feel entitled to complain.  However, for the record  ... he makes my flesh creep.  Even before there was any whiff of him running for President, I have always thought him to be an egotistical bully and nothing I have seen or heard since his inauguration has yet to convince me otherwise.  The political furore doesn't seem to have died down any here either, and if anything appears to be getting worse as each day goes by, so it will be interesting to see what happens as it all unfolds (or unravels, whichever comes first).  Watch this space. 

At the end of January, Mr B and I had a nice evening our with the Newcomers Group (it is still called 'Newcomers' even though a lot of it's members have been here years now, lol) at a restaurant called 'The Angry Crab Shack'.  It was a new concept to us ... essentially you choose your seafood (which comes by the pound), then choose a sauce, and then add your spice which ranged from a 0 described as 'Me no Likey Spice'; 1 - Mild (Wimpy) to 5 - Scorching Scorpion (Order at Your Own Risk)!  

"Do I have to wear this bib?!"

There are no plates or cutlery and food is delivered to you in the large plastic bag it was cooked in, together with an equally large plastic bib.  Interesting (luckily I had decided against white jeans at the last minute!).  

I chose Shrimp with a Pacific Rim sauce, which the waitress described as a 'coconut curry' type of sauce.  Perfect.  When the food was ready, a large plastic bag arrived in front of me containing a steaming concoction of large juicy shrimp (still in their shells with heads intact) in a bright yellow curry sauce.  Hmmm, where to start?  I guess there was nothing for it but to get my hands in there and start peeling... man, it was hot!  I should mention at this point that Mr B (ever the adventurer) had chosen grilled salmon, which was served in a much more civilized fashion in a basket with fries!
Some time later, exhausted from the effort of grappling with red hot, slippery shrimp in an effort to snap their heads off and relieve them of their curried coats of armor and up to my elbows in sauce (I hate getting my hands dirty at the best of times so I was positively freaking out by now!) I conceded defeat and hurried off to wash my hands.  After I had been scrubbing away for several minutes in an attempt to remove all traces of crustacean guts and gubbins from under my nails, I noticed that my previously immaculate manicure was now rather less 'baby pink' and more ... how shall I describe it? ... a lovely shade of 'baby crap'!  Cosmic.  (Vivian was furious .... "whaa da heww?!?"... Lol)

Yikes!

Last weekend, Mr B was catching up on his news feed and told me that apparently Phoenix had ranked No. 1 in a list of cities with the best drivers.  Seriously?!  There are some of the worst drivers I have ever encountered here!  At least once a week you can guarantee when you turn on the news first thing in the morning there will be another report of a 'wrong way driver' on one of the freeways overnight that at the very best has caused an accident or, as is the case far too frequently, killed someone.  And don't get me started on the number of drivers I see on a daily basis who are on the phone whilst driving.  You can tell instantly.  Apart from the giveaway hunched shoulder and bent neck,  they are usually veering from one side of the lane to the other or drifting steadily towards the curb before realizing and swerving back on track (there should be no excuse for this these days as most cars now have bluetooth capabilities).   I see people texting whilst driving here ALL THE TIME and also those holding their phone about 2 inches from their face as they attempt to drive whilst simultaneously trying to read the GPS on their iPhone (other smart phones are available)!   The most astonishing thing of all though is they are not breaking any law.   Nope.  Whilst it is an offense in 44 states in the US to text whilst driving, here in Arizona it is still perfectly legal (except for school bus drivers)!  Unbelievable!  I was also astonished to learn that currently it is still legal to use a hand held cellphone whilst driving in 37 states **shocked face** ... and you won't be surprised to learn that Arizona is still one of them.   For my American readers, in the UK it has been illegal to use a hand held mobile phone while driving, or while stopped with the engine on, since December 2003.  You can be fined £100 and receive 3 penalty points on your license.   From 1st March, this will increase to £200 fine and 6 points on their license.  Take note Arizona - get with the program!

Today though, I saw something that makes all of the aforementioned pale into insignificance.  Ethan and I were driving home from school this afternoon when, as we were waiting at a red light, I happened to glance in my wing mirror at the SUV behind.  I thought I was seeing things at first, but after a swift double take (and also getting Ethan to look through the back window to confirm I that wasn't seeing things), we established that the driver, whilst having her right hand on the steering wheel, was in fact holding a vase of flowers in the other!   Surely, she must have taken them from a passenger for a brief moment whilst stopped at the lights, but after further scrutiny we also established that her passenger seat was empty and that as the lights turned green and we continued along the busy highway, she continued to drive with one hand whilst she clutched her vase of flowers in the other!  Unbelievable!

I should also add here that whilst researching for this post, I found said article to which Mr B had referred.   It actually states that Phoenix, well, Scottsdale to be more precise, is No. 1 in a poll of 'Best cities for driving' (as in amount of traffic, quality of roads etc. etc.), not drivers **rolls eyes**  I also discovered that Arizona is actually ranked 6th in last year's poll of states with the worst drivers ... now that I can believe! (In case you are interested Texas and Louisiana tied for 1st place :-/)

Finally, thought you might like to know that 'quiche-gate' resurfaced as a hot topic this week!  You may recall from a previous post that I made the mistake of making one last year for the Teen's Yearbook class lunch and the teacher and classmates alike have been asking for it ever since!  I'm not sure why ...it was literally just a bog standard Delia Quiche Lorraine ... surely they must have quiche here?  I already made another one for the teacher concerned during Teacher Appreciation week (yes, that's a thing here!), and then another for the Teen to take for his lunches (which lasted all of two days as he had to take in extra slices for his friends) after apparently the subject was raised during French class whilst talking about food ...
"Ethan's Mum makes the BEST quiche!"
This week though, we seem to have reached a new level on the quiche scale ...
"It's Rafaela's birthday on Tuesday ..."
"Mmmm?  Is it ...?" I answered distractedly as we were driving home from school last Friday.
"I thought I would take her in a quiche ..."
"Oh, that's nice .... Wait ... WHAT?!"

Think I might be accidentally losing my quiche tin in the very near future!

Now patiently waiting for Eldest to get here later this evening, although just heard that his plane has gone tech at Heathrow and so it could be a very long night! **sigh**

Have a great week folks and be good to everybody!

TTFN
Bev x