I've made a few friends that I'm sure (well, hoping!) will become quite firm. One Mum took me to the nursery as her son goes there. She invited me for a coffee in the shopping mall but I couldn't make it as we were getting my resident's card... But even if I don't make firm friends here for a while, there are always people around looking out for us and whom we can talk to.
The house still feels and looks like a holiday home. Our container has now been delayed until 1st March. Once we get our things that will be a bit better and more organised. But we don't know how long we will be here before we get moved to the complex. I can't just sit twiddling my thumbs not doing anything with the house for months. So we're just getting on with it and deal with it when it happens. So we went to a couple of furniture shops last night. It's amazing what you chose when you're in a sunny country! Even Husband loves the heavy, ornate wood and the sumptuous, garish colours! But priorities say that we need a dishwasher first and then a barbeque (yep, a priority!) then we can start adding things. We bought some crockery in the week finally, as we have to return the loaned dishes mid-March.
The garden is dry and needs working on. A few things are overgrown and I'm desperate for my secateurs. It will be sorted once I get my gardening things. Although it is a thankless task sweeping the leaves up from the olive trees. The front step needs sweeping every day. There is a road near here with just nurseries and garden centres on, at least ten! Apparently you can't get all you want in one place though!
OK, as alien as it is to me, we now have a maid. Well, I'm telling myself she's a cleaner who comes is a couple of days a week!
One of the ladies organised a coffee morning in the club on Thursday. There were quite a few women there - it was really nice actually and just the sort of thing I saw myself doing being out here! I'm going to the Quilt Group/sewing guild tomorrow, much to Husband's amusement. They meet once a month. I wasn't interested at first as I thought it would be the old women meeting place but apparently there is a broad spectrum, old, young, native and expat.
C's swimming has come on incredibly. His confidence doubled in a week. He is now jumping in and kicking up to the surface on his own. The main thing for me is that he is actually lying on his back - he hated doing that in the pool at home. F is doing so well too, goes without saying really...she loves trying to touch the bottom with her feet and swimming up like a mermaid!
We've had loads of trouble getting our landline sorted. It's just a farce actually. And very incredible that anything actually works here or gets done at all. I'll not go in to detail as I'm sure Husband will take the opportunity to rant. Don't ask him about the getting the new car either....
Tuesday, 24 February 2009
Wednesday, 4 February 2009
Not a great start to the day...no sleep...It. Is. Noisy. Where is that peaceful tranquil Oman I was expecting? This bit isn't! Our housing complex is next to the main road - our house's location could be worse though; we're adjacent and a bit further in, at least we not right by it (I'm being positive!) - we're not far from the airport and the Omani Air Force have been playing with their jets (well, not at midnight obviously). Oh, and Husband's snoring seems to have got louder...or maybe it echoes more around the tiled and marbled house!!!! I came back upstairs at 2am but set up the duvets in C's room. He has been unsettled, understandably. He's been up 2 or 3 times the last couple of nights, so I'm now paranoid he'll get up and wake Husband (who has an early start) and not see me on the floor. Then I'm worried F would come in looking for me and wake him. So really not much sleep to be had. Sod's law they both sleep through! I heard the prayers at 5am. It's very haunting yet it was a simple reminder that we are abroad. F heard them another time and we compared them to the church bells of Holy Cross back home that we could hear every Sunday.
I've been feeling a bit cooped up this morning. Hubby's straight in to a routine and we're in the house with no idea what to do with ourselves. We're tired as well I think.
First coffee in Oman...albeit Costa... We can walk to the local shopping centre from the house. The kids and I went to the local grocery shop where I had a Lee Evans moment...let me explain. I don't know what tour it was but Lee Evans was talking about women who take pushchairs to supermarkets and load up 2 weeks worth of shopping on it [I'm sniggering thinking about it...] You turn back and the buggy is on it's back and the child has his legs in the air...(can you see where this is going?) I'm loading shopping in the basket that is on the handle...I pop in the bottle of juice we need...'oooh, what's this other juice...great, look F, it includes 8 vitamins...' [creeeak...] I look back and there is Callan on his back looking quite horrified! Any other time, and if I hadn't have seen Lee Evans I would have been so embarrassed but I was p**sing myself today! It made me feel better. I have to keep smirking to myself.
There were lots of Omani children in the shopping centre. I smile at them but their mum or dad does not acknowledge it and seem to whisk them off. Yet they smile at my children. I'm imagining maybe, that they avoid the western woman...?
C had his hair touched again by a youngish man (late twenties I'd say) who was walking with his wife.
I'm on the step having a cup of Home. Still not at the stage I want to be! Am I restless? I'm still washing up. I'm still doing laundry. I'm still tidying up.
Wow. We've been watching the news on the snow at home. I'm so glad I'm not doing the school/nursery run. I crashed on the ice before on Lewes Road in Isfield. I couldn't bear to head out as it is now, I'd be scared stiff. Drive safely everyone!
The shops here shut about 1/2pm and reopen about 4pm. So Hubby had a few errands to do so headed out. He went to buy a washing machine, sort out the phone at Omantel and pay the car loan. He was out for 3 hours. Everything takes so long! I'm not sure if it is because of the paperwork or that the Omanis are just relaxed and disorganised!?
Because the packers back home packed my wardrobe quicker than expected, I had to wear my brown Fat Face cords today. Hot! (temperature, not level of womanly sexiness that I so often emit(?)). So I bought a couple of very long floaty skirts - very swishy - and some cotton tunics. A long one was 5 Omani Rials (about £8) and a short one was 3.5 OR (£5). Nice. Later I'm told that I should have haggled.
F was dancing to the Arabian music in the shop. Very cute. She has not questioned the women's dress and veils - she is very accepting. Probably a good approach to have here for so many things!
Women seem to wear different things here. Mostly black abayas with black headscarves, some with coloured scarves, we have seen one or two women wearing the abaya but with no headscarf, some abayas have been another colour or even patterned. One was a beautiful Chinese floral print all over on black. The younger girls, around 10 or 11 years old wear their own clothes with headscarves. I can't decide yet whether it is a case of 'anything goes' or the styles are according to age/family/staus/mother/married...I am embarrassed to say that it is certainly highlighting yet challenging my very little knowledge of Islam.
I've been feeling a bit cooped up this morning. Hubby's straight in to a routine and we're in the house with no idea what to do with ourselves. We're tired as well I think.
First coffee in Oman...albeit Costa... We can walk to the local shopping centre from the house. The kids and I went to the local grocery shop where I had a Lee Evans moment...let me explain. I don't know what tour it was but Lee Evans was talking about women who take pushchairs to supermarkets and load up 2 weeks worth of shopping on it [I'm sniggering thinking about it...] You turn back and the buggy is on it's back and the child has his legs in the air...(can you see where this is going?) I'm loading shopping in the basket that is on the handle...I pop in the bottle of juice we need...'oooh, what's this other juice...great, look F, it includes 8 vitamins...' [creeeak...] I look back and there is Callan on his back looking quite horrified! Any other time, and if I hadn't have seen Lee Evans I would have been so embarrassed but I was p**sing myself today! It made me feel better. I have to keep smirking to myself.
There were lots of Omani children in the shopping centre. I smile at them but their mum or dad does not acknowledge it and seem to whisk them off. Yet they smile at my children. I'm imagining maybe, that they avoid the western woman...?
C had his hair touched again by a youngish man (late twenties I'd say) who was walking with his wife.
I'm on the step having a cup of Home. Still not at the stage I want to be! Am I restless? I'm still washing up. I'm still doing laundry. I'm still tidying up.
Wow. We've been watching the news on the snow at home. I'm so glad I'm not doing the school/nursery run. I crashed on the ice before on Lewes Road in Isfield. I couldn't bear to head out as it is now, I'd be scared stiff. Drive safely everyone!
The shops here shut about 1/2pm and reopen about 4pm. So Hubby had a few errands to do so headed out. He went to buy a washing machine, sort out the phone at Omantel and pay the car loan. He was out for 3 hours. Everything takes so long! I'm not sure if it is because of the paperwork or that the Omanis are just relaxed and disorganised!?
Because the packers back home packed my wardrobe quicker than expected, I had to wear my brown Fat Face cords today. Hot! (temperature, not level of womanly sexiness that I so often emit(?)). So I bought a couple of very long floaty skirts - very swishy - and some cotton tunics. A long one was 5 Omani Rials (about £8) and a short one was 3.5 OR (£5). Nice. Later I'm told that I should have haggled.
F was dancing to the Arabian music in the shop. Very cute. She has not questioned the women's dress and veils - she is very accepting. Probably a good approach to have here for so many things!
Women seem to wear different things here. Mostly black abayas with black headscarves, some with coloured scarves, we have seen one or two women wearing the abaya but with no headscarf, some abayas have been another colour or even patterned. One was a beautiful Chinese floral print all over on black. The younger girls, around 10 or 11 years old wear their own clothes with headscarves. I can't decide yet whether it is a case of 'anything goes' or the styles are according to age/family/staus/mother/married...I am embarrassed to say that it is certainly highlighting yet challenging my very little knowledge of Islam.
Tuesday, 3 February 2009
Still surreal...
Oh, my god - we really did make it our here in the nick of time what with the British weather...we wouldn't have made it for days if we had planned to leave any later!
I called school this morning - we decided that F would start on Saturday for the new week rather than one day and then the weekend (remember that the weekend here is Thursday and Friday!). I'm jotted my notes down for today on the front step...I'm not quite at the stage of wondering what the fuss has been about. Although I do have a cup of 'home', as Lolopo put it perfectly! So all is good...we're getting there. I'm just thinking about Neighbour - it's taken her some time to settle and I don't think she's there yet.
The garden needs doing...it is dry!...there are olive leaves everywhere....but some beautiful pink flowers...the tiniest bird keeps landing on some of the orange flowers (don't know the name). The bird seemed no larger than a wren and was bluey black in the sunlight.
Although when Hubby asked me on the first night what I thought, the first word was 'isolated' but this seems a slightly harsh word to describe it. I'm making the most of the relative peace and tranquillity as it will all kick off eventually as soon as I get thrown in to the reality of it all, what with driving, school runs etc (oh, and finishing my Uni assignments! - this serves as a reminder to me!)
Well, I am being reminded of the removal men's efficacy...I have only one pair of cool trousers! Rubbish. Again, that will teach me to be more organised at removal time (hopefully that won't be for a LONG time - within Oman or back home!) It does of course mean a shopping trip. City Centre (name of a mall) has lots of lovely clothes shops. It has an unusual (ok, maybe unexpected in my eyes) selection of shops from stores that sell abayas (I never thought you could vary a black gown in quite so many ways!) to western style clothing stores (very tight tops on store mannequins with outline of nipples showing...!) to lingerie shops incidentally called Woolworths...I wonder if they would have survived in the UK selling just frilly undies?) Plenty of Omani women were in the shop. I'm not entirely sure they are as restrained and restricted as I believed they would be. Having said that, Neighbour said that you can't wear a bikini or swimming costume on a public beach, the smaller beaches are ok as there are never many people here. I wonder, however, relating this to what I've read in the Resident's Guide to Oman, that you can wear a bikini or swimming costume but be aware that you will be stared at.
First purchase for the house - a lovely red vase for the front room (M&S!).
I called school this morning - we decided that F would start on Saturday for the new week rather than one day and then the weekend (remember that the weekend here is Thursday and Friday!). I'm jotted my notes down for today on the front step...I'm not quite at the stage of wondering what the fuss has been about. Although I do have a cup of 'home', as Lolopo put it perfectly! So all is good...we're getting there. I'm just thinking about Neighbour - it's taken her some time to settle and I don't think she's there yet.
The garden needs doing...it is dry!...there are olive leaves everywhere....but some beautiful pink flowers...the tiniest bird keeps landing on some of the orange flowers (don't know the name). The bird seemed no larger than a wren and was bluey black in the sunlight.
Although when Hubby asked me on the first night what I thought, the first word was 'isolated' but this seems a slightly harsh word to describe it. I'm making the most of the relative peace and tranquillity as it will all kick off eventually as soon as I get thrown in to the reality of it all, what with driving, school runs etc (oh, and finishing my Uni assignments! - this serves as a reminder to me!)
Well, I am being reminded of the removal men's efficacy...I have only one pair of cool trousers! Rubbish. Again, that will teach me to be more organised at removal time (hopefully that won't be for a LONG time - within Oman or back home!) It does of course mean a shopping trip. City Centre (name of a mall) has lots of lovely clothes shops. It has an unusual (ok, maybe unexpected in my eyes) selection of shops from stores that sell abayas (I never thought you could vary a black gown in quite so many ways!) to western style clothing stores (very tight tops on store mannequins with outline of nipples showing...!) to lingerie shops incidentally called Woolworths...I wonder if they would have survived in the UK selling just frilly undies?) Plenty of Omani women were in the shop. I'm not entirely sure they are as restrained and restricted as I believed they would be. Having said that, Neighbour said that you can't wear a bikini or swimming costume on a public beach, the smaller beaches are ok as there are never many people here. I wonder, however, relating this to what I've read in the Resident's Guide to Oman, that you can wear a bikini or swimming costume but be aware that you will be stared at.
First purchase for the house - a lovely red vase for the front room (M&S!).
Monday, 2 February 2009
First full day
Husband was due to restart his course tomorrow but he was asked to go today. I met next door - they have been here a couple of months I think. She said it was a process of slowly settling and found it quite tough at times. Her youngest daughter is beside herself with being here so that's contributed to the slow settling. I think it is best to do these things the younger the children are - this opportunity definitely came up at the right time for us.
Bear has not been too happy with the heat. And this is their winter! (Although it has been quite warm by all accounts) Hopefully it's just a case of her acclimatising. Will she be ok for school tomorrow? As the day wore on this was not the case! She definitely won't be going to school! She seemed to just get more hyperactive the more tired she became! We made it to the beach in the evening thought and this seemed to focus them both. We all paddled in the Indian Ocean! How lush!!!
We've had the first case of hair touching! Bear had hers touched when she went out with Husband yesterday. When we went out earlier today, Pops had his touched twice. It was almost absent minded. The ladies were just walking past us in the opposite direction and held out their hand to rub the hair between their fingers. It was so sweet and he didn't seem to notice.
Bear has not been too happy with the heat. And this is their winter! (Although it has been quite warm by all accounts) Hopefully it's just a case of her acclimatising. Will she be ok for school tomorrow? As the day wore on this was not the case! She definitely won't be going to school! She seemed to just get more hyperactive the more tired she became! We made it to the beach in the evening thought and this seemed to focus them both. We all paddled in the Indian Ocean! How lush!!!
We've had the first case of hair touching! Bear had hers touched when she went out with Husband yesterday. When we went out earlier today, Pops had his touched twice. It was almost absent minded. The ladies were just walking past us in the opposite direction and held out their hand to rub the hair between their fingers. It was so sweet and he didn't seem to notice.
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