Petrol

Petrol, gas if you are from the US and are not quite sure of the various states of matter, has been exorbitantly priced in Saudi Arabia for some years now. Filling my Toyota Echo (about the same size as a Corolla) would cost me SR33 every ten days or so. A rare eccentric here might drive a Smart Mercedes, but in general my battered six year-old is the smallest thing on the road. Overlooked and ignored, we weave in and out of a forrest of Suburbans and GMCs, trying not to get squashed. It is probably the owners of these behemoths that the king was thinking of when he decreed that they price of petrol should be brought down to a more sensible level. My full tank was a mere SR23 today, GB£3.18 at the current exchange rate. Of course the expatriate drivers of the huge 4WDs and the petrol station attendants are unlikely to benefit, but the sensible price of petrol here still makes me smile. Until I go back to the UK at least ...