What an exciting weeek!

Well, Eid finally arrived and has gone again for another year.  Still, hopefully not so long until we have days off again - we are waiting to hear when the National Day celebrations will be and how long we will have as holiday! 

We currently have our first visitor - Aunt Amanda and we have spent the week toddling around Oman showing her the sights.  We have investigated all of the large hotels to see which has the best leisure facilities - they're all pretty much the same, although the one you would choose every time (the Chedi) is not open to non-guests. Hmm!  We have also been over to some friends' for an Italian evening - jolly good food and all home made! 

Unfortunately, we spent Saturday and Sunday at work as usual before we were free to sight see, but never mind - it has been good to have the rest of the week off.  Time off wouldn't be the same without going to the beach at Seifah, although no camping this time - that was reserved for the beach at Fins.  More glorious sun, sea and sand with a bit of snorkelling thrown in for good measure.  The sea here was slightly rougher to say the least and made for rather exciting entries and exits - quite hairy at times!  More barbecuing and this time far more exciting after the discovery of real veggie burgers - the fake meat type and Bird's Eye veggie burgers too.  Thanks to Amy for this find at Al Fair!  I'm not sure we'll be frequenting there so often, I don't really fancy paying around £1 for Waitrose Essentials custard creams when you can get local ones for around 20p!

Joe and some of the others were rushing back to see the football (Oman V Belarus) on Wednesday, so bravely left us ladies with the car to  make our own way home...  We did jolly well! We found our way to Wadi Tiwi (eventually, after re-discovering the washed-away road.  They don't appear to bother changing the signposts even when the road no longer exists!) and then the Shell garage for the obligatory ice creams by the side of the road.

The second lot of fish and chips at Left Bank - they really are very good - saw us being recognised by the manager...

We had a lazy sight-seeing day yesterday with a trip to the Mosque in the morning while Joe played golf followed by photographs outside the Sultan's palace.  We tried to go to the incence burner shaped viewing platform, but the gates were closed and didn't fancy climbing over as the gude book suggests! We did discover a stall selling chips, pop corn, ice creams and little pots of sweetcorn with spices - the sweetcorn was very nice indeed.

Another exciting first - a visit to Mark's and Spencer!!!  Lots of beautiful clothes and even a small food section selling Christmas cakes.  A feeling of home, although slightly disconcerting when they have simply covered the UK prices with a label and you can tell just how much more you are paying.

We have just arrived back after our third visit to our curry house.  This time, we have discovered a new dish - vegetable kofta.  It's potato balls in a really good curry sauce.  Amazing!

Photos to come later.

Back to work tomorrow...  I don't like getting up at 5:30!!!