It has been a while, sorry!

The first 2 weeks of term have absolutely flown by!  I'm revelling in the joy of teaching once more, remembering what it's like to concentrate almost solely on the teaching bit rather than all of the other bits that go along with the job in previous schools.

We have been rather busy I'm afraid, car hunting and then just driving around lots in a car that actually accelerates rather than just making lots of noise instead of actually going anywhere.  It was kind of sad to say goodbye to the old Nissan Tiida because it did us well in our first couple of weeks, but driving now is infinitely more comfortabe and significantly less stressful.  Suddenly, when you fail to move in anticipation of a green light, you no longer get beeped at.  In fact, you can not move on the green light and people still wait before honking at you!

Finally, after many hours and kilometres, we chose our car.  It was a tough call in the end, but I won through in true girly style on colour.  I allowed Joe to believe it was his choice on mileage and age, and he graciously allowed me to choose on colour.  I call it gold, he calls it beige!  Still, whatever the colour, it has been lots of fun to drive!  My first opportunity arose when we arrived at the garage in the hire car... the car which only Joe was insured on!  So I stepped up to the mark and got behind the wheel for the first time alone amongst crazy drivers.  Fortunately, by the time we had finished our dealings and were ready for departure, it was twilight so most were settling in for their Iftar feasts rather than scaring young impressionable drivers with their bizarre antics.  We arrived home safely, me grinning from ear to ear because it's the best and smoothest car I've ever driven.

We finished for an extended Eid break on Wednesday and have been manically preparing for off-roading ever since.  Our first off-road experience on some local sand did not end well, with me getting out of the car and trying to push a 2.2 tonne vehicle down a slope when all of the wheels were a good 3 inches in sand.  I was relieved of my futile duties when Joe managed to change setting and reverse out instead.  At this point, having had visions of toddling over to the nearby hotel to disturb our colleagues sitting by the pool drinking cold beverages to give us a hand, we decided to prepeare more properly.  I must add at this point that we had not got stuck on the dunes, but on the slope leading up there.  Not a great first attempt.

A trip to Carrefour saw us loaded with equipment which seems to equip us to traverse desert, bog and mountain.  Never let it be said that we do things by half, oh no.  If we decide to do something, it has to be done well.  Our Eid road-trip didn't quite go as planned because (and I never in a million years thought I would utter these words) it is just too hot to camp.  So, instead we have been on a couple of day trips so far and are planning to drive up to the highest point in Oman later in the week.

Friday, the first day of the Eid holiday saw us once more driving on sand at one of the most beautiful beaches around Sifah.  Fortunately, this was a much more successful effort and we got on and off without too much trouble.  Having borrowed some snorkelling gear from the friends we went with, we had a much more successful fish-viewing expedition too.  It was amazing!  I really wished I had an underwater camera to capture the sight of the hundreds of fish swimming through the coral.  Even on the maldives I did not see fish of quite such vibrant elecric blue.  A mental not was made to definitely buy some decent snorkelling gear.  Kicked myself once more for not bringing our snorkels from the UK!

We then spent a most pleasant evening at a BBQ with some more people from school - this time aussie style.  No hanging around trying to light the thing - just pour the lighter fluid over it, light it and leave it for a while.  It's so much easier when you're not trying to cook food before the rain starts or the night turns too cold and damp too.  We had our first experience of Omani halloumi cheese kebabs too.  They were delicious!  No more frozen veggie burgers which fall apart when you try to cook them, no way.



We went snorkelling round those rocks!

 An early start on Saturday meant that we could go on more of a road trip. This time, even more off-roading.  The strangest thing was that we were sometimes on roads and other times the roads simply stopped and we were driving on dirt track.  Oh well, good job we had the car for it.  We headed off towards Wadi Tiwi and stopeed off for more snorkelling on another beautiful beach (name I have no idea, I will find out and report back).  Another aussie expreience - this time the picnic.  In order to avoid sand sandwiches and warm drinks, simply eat the picnic out of the car boot.  A revelation.  Suddenly, the picnic on the beach was much more civilised.  I think that maybe us Brits have always trudged onto the sand to eat simply because it's such a novelty to have sufficiently good weather not to eat in the car through necessity!

Words fail to describe just how beautiful this is!

Road?  What road?!

We went from beach to wadi.  More fun and exciting driving - this time through a ford (great fun in a 4x4, too many memories of the Fiesta and getting stuck in a puddle in Weoley Castle for my liking though) and literally to the end of the road.  The road had been washed away during the summer floods and just disappears.  It's quite spectacular.  I have piccies - hopefully I can manage to upload them.  Once we arrived, the wadi was even more beautiful than I had ever imagined.  Huge pools of fresh green water bordered by huge mountains.  Breathtaking.

I thought I had seen it all, but the penultimate stop of the day was at a sink hole (again, name unknown but I will find out).  It looked as though someone had bored a hole roughly 100 feet wide and 200 feet deep.  The water at the bottom was again an amazing green colour.  Yet another opportunity for swimming.  This time we had the added bonus of the fish spa too.  A rather unusual experience - the small fish which eat dead skin...  There is a place in one of the malls here where you pay roughly £25 to sit with your feet in a bath of water full of fish which eat the dead skin from your soles.  I had seen it once before  - in Waltham Cross shopping centre.  I was prepared to give it a go in the more natural environment, whereas outside Sainsbury's just didn't appeal!  Rather bizarre, but I do now have less dead skin.

Our final port of call was the Shell garage for an ice cream.  Our first since arriving!  A trip to the seaside here just isn't the same without the obligatory ice cream at the end.

On the subject of food, we have had many more exciting culinary experiences since my last post!  We have found a gorgeous Indian restaurant where we are now greeted personally by 'our' waiter.  I think it could turn out to be the sort of place where we would get Christmas cards if they celebrated Christmas.  We're not quite on first name terms, but not far off.  Just last night we decided to be brave and try the place where a very nice chap invited us to try his cuisine.  After a few rather worrying moments trying to explain that chicken was still meat, and no vegetarian meant just vegetables, we managed to order dall and potato and green pea curry.  Well, we were not disappointed!  Again, wonderful fare the likes of which I have only tasted at the Shah household.  My tast buds did not let me down - they were Pakistani.  Even discussed the cricket on our way out!

Having had lots of sun and trips to the beach, we decided to have a more reseved day yesterday - a trip to the golf course.  We managed the driving range.  Far too hot to play.  Today - the ice rink.  Much better.  Joe was the only person on the ice at the beginning of the session.  I simply observed.  I wasn't in the mood for a bambi impression.  Baskin Robbins ice cream afterwards.  What a fitting end to the afternoon.

I have now been blogging for an hour, so need to get showered and changed for dinner. Turkish tonight.

Suggestions for altenative superlatives todescribe the scenery here gratefully received.  My vocab is just too limited.