Saturday September 6th Temp 38c

Well the weekend is over and its back to school. This isn’t bad as we are on reduced teaching hours because of Ramadan. We now start teaching at 8.50 and finish at 1.30 AND have 2 x 20 breaks! Heaven!

Well last Wednesday we went out to the Qurm shopping centre for a look around and of course to try out another restaurant. This time there was me and India, Cirst, Brian and Linda. Ended up in a restaurant called Automatic. Again a very nice meal and again very reasonable (about OMR 4).

Thursday the girls were going holiday shopping so I packed my snorkelling gear for a day out with Brian, Linda and Donald. Took them to Marjan Beach (Brian was driving) and we all had a good swim and general chill out. Was really hot, with clear skies and it was the first time I felt I needed the sun block! Used factor 50 and still got a little burnt on the face!. Weren’t out too long as we couldn’t really drink anything (or eat) due to Ramadan (it’s very bad manners to eat or drink in view of Muslims who are fasting between sunrise and sunset.)

That same night though we were booked at the Shangri La Restaurant. This is right on the outskirts of Muscat (Along the Bustan Road, near Jissah). This was a special buffet type meal for celebrating Ramadan, and as we are residents we were also able to claim a discount on the bill.

Friday I’m afraid was cleaning and washing day! The main cleaning chore is to get rid of all the sandy like dust that gets into the apartments. After that I just basically chilled out although I did a little studying (Thanks for the stuff Gill! Got any more?)

Oh by the way for anybody who may be thinking of coming out here to work, try and get an HSBC international account as there are branches here and you get one free transfer per month.

I think I mentioned that Oman seems to be one big building site, but it amazing how quickly things get finished. The major road link that they are building near my apartment is nearing completion and it looked a mess 3 weeks ago!

Click this link for another mixed load of photos. http://picasaweb.google.com/Lezmcg54/VariousPictures#