here a toot, there a toot

There's one thing that we will never get used to in Bermuda, yet it happens everyday. It's the toot toot syndrome. Being on a small island it's a given that you'd pass someone you know on the street. Most who are driving will honk their horn as they're passing by or will honk & then stop for a mini chat - sure, it holds up traffic on most of the one way roads but who cares. It's the island way. Everyone is expected to wait as pleasantries are exchanged.

When we first arrived, Hubby had to start driving us around on a scooter - something that he'd not done before. I was scared out of my wits for it was so long since I had been on one. Thankfully, Hubby mastered it faster than you can say 'honk your horn'. But then when we were on the roads we noticed the horns were being honked a little too often. At first we thought we were doing something wrong because in Toronto they tell you not to honk your horn unless the driver's doing something wrong. Well, turns out honking horns or tootin' as they say here in Bermuda, is a common reflex motion for when you spot someone ye know on the road.

MrWayans (Ms.StopYourNoise's bf) has a unique car which is always spotted on the road. Firstly, it's an American car so the driver's seat is on the left as opposed to most of the right hand drive cars on the island. Secondly, it's a some kind of snazzy station wagon & it's the only car of it's kind on the island. He always says that he gets a lot of toots & at times doesn't pay attention to who's tootin', until the tooter runs into him a few days later telling him that they saw him on the road & tooted at him. It's just funny to hear MrWayans say toot. I guess if you grow up here on the island you're used to the toots. For us ex-pats, it's something we may not get used to. So how do you let someone know when they're really doing something wrong. You definitely want to toot but you don't want them to think that it's friendly. Do what we do - we accompany our toots with dirty looks so they know we mean business.