bumper steeekers

One of the other fads in Bahrain that I've totally missed out on is the bumber sticker craze... Ok let me rephrase, it's not just bumper stickers, they're stickers all over a car, on the rear windsheild, side of the car, front of the car... you get the drift...

Driving around you see these minibuses: small white Japanese minibus with curtains on the back side windows, something dangling from the rearview mirror... the dude drives a bus that he rents out to drive people around, so he's got this huge advertisment consisting of his number and his name... I don't find this weird, I just love reading the names: Bu Hashim, el Jasmi, Sayed mahmood... I just like reading the name cause then you immediately assume it's el Jasmi driving the bus and you just want to honk your horn and say hello.

Riceboys... If i am getting this term right, it is a poke towards people who take their Japanese cars and fix them up to look "riced out"... Anyways, stuck in traffic again you might come across a ricemobile... something really slick, a honda taken to the max, real low, dynamite rims, a scary kit - or you might come across a wannabe rice... I'm talking about the poser in his sunny or corolla, with nothing done to the car, except a multitude of racing stickers plastered all over the car... I'm mean honestly brah, why would you even have a NOS sticker on your car if you don't have it,, what's the point?

My favorite stickers are the ones on celebrity characters... Che, bob, and the hero of my childhood cartoon adnan wa leena (future boy conan), absee... I would love to know where they sell those stickers.. I get so flustered when I see someone showing off Che's image - do you even know what the man believed in? boludo... Sometimes I wonder, if he were alive, how would he feel that someone was making money off his face on t-shirts, posters and stickers...

People go to the extent of naming their cars... I really appreciate the bahraini's love with his motor vehicle.. The guy just falls in love with his mode of transportation that he gives it a name... some of the names are just hillarious.. There's el anood, azzizah, el khateer, el ajeeb, Fallllaah, nite ryder, etc. Just great humor, you can't deny it...

This has nothing to do with bumper stickers but it's also worth mentioning... commercial establishments sometimes advertise on their cars. Some companies dont bother with making sure the advertisement is edited. There was this maintenance company that serviced fridges and gas terminals? (I'm just recounting what was on the back of the truck).. the advert said "FRIGEN GAS" - It was just too funny thinking frigging gas...

This one takes the cake for me... More religiously fervent people feel that they need to make a public statement by thanking god... Being with the new century you can buy these stickers that thank God in Arabic and in English.. The Arabic phrase for it is Al hamdulilah - thanks be to God. The graphic in arabic is stretched out enough to make space for the english translation : Thank Godness... I honestly don't know if it's grammatically correct or not, I've never really heard the phrase before, but I'm not here to discount it. You know when you read something that isn't normally in your vocabulary.. Thank Godness or Goodness? I've never heard of Godness, what do they mean?

I love getting amused on the road.. A little humor can go a long way, and when el Jasmi drives by, give him a hello honk on your horn, he'll honk back and you'll have a laugh.. totally worth it - trust me..