!!!! I GOT DiESEL !!!! HALLELUIAH!!!
ALHAMDULILAH!!!YAHOO!!!!

Am I getting nuts? Not quite. There is a problem that lingers since 2, 3 month: there is a shortage of diesel in town. When I drive around I always check every single station. If nobody is cueing up, no point of asking. But I acquired a kind of instinct, the smell for the station that has got a few drops left. On my way back home I smelled my luck, and I got 10 gallons of diesel at the Lutong Shell station. It's just wonderful to watch the counterwheel at the gas station turn again, and the smell of the yellow oil feels better in my nose than Chanel 5. Having the tank full means also that I can go to the jungle over the weekend, and I won't have to empty my two five-gallon spare tanks for that.Fact is that a lot of low-tax diesel (some 85 cent per gallon) is stolen by some crooks, probably Chinese loggers, and resold somewhere. The government had the great idea to impose a monthly quota which means that in week 3 and 4 of the month no diesel is left nowhere, and every good citizen in town pays for the sins of the ugly few..Be it as it may, I got enough fuel until begin April, when the new quota starts. Yahoo!

******

This reminds me another story, an Armenian friend told me a while ago. It's about another precious commodity of strong smell, and taste. My friend once travelled to post-Shah-already-Ajatollah Teheran, carrying a (strictly forbidden) bottle of Cognac in his hand-luggage. (Why the hell he did that I don't know). Unfortunately he got caught at the customs counter, and was asked to uncork the bottle.The customs official took the bottle, sniffed, closed his eyes, and took a long sniff again. Then he said with a tonality inspired by wonder: C-O-G-N-A-C, a deep voice that resounded the beauty of a lost distant paradise in which he dwelled for a few happy, nostalgic seconds.Then he rapidly opened his eyes and whispered: "Go, go, run quickly, my friend, and hide your bottle."

(c) 2005 by Franz L. Kessler