Saturday, September 27th - A nice weekend

We took a short drive on Friday morning, going towards Ruwi, a part of Muscat that is normally very busy, and had breakfast in a restaurant associated with a grocery store (type of Superstore at home, where they sell everything from food to bikes to camping equipment, and so on...). It was a breakfast buffet; it was very good and the price was quite reasonable. After that, we kept on driving to find a place that has a lot of used cars for sale. We didn't even get lost going there; things are getting better! Everything was obviously closed, but we just wanted to see how to get there - a lot easier on a Friday morning when there isn't much traffic! We came back home, did a bit of school work then went to the Crowne to "relax" for a bit! Had dinner at home and had a quiet evening.

Saturday morning, we went car shopping again. We pretty much decided that we'll buy a used car, but are looking at a 2012 - 2013 as we want something that still has some warranty left on it (just in case the AC clunks out!). It will be more money than an older car, but the resale value is better and we get some piece of mind with the warranty. Not to mention that we cannot get a loan from a bank until we've been paid three times, which takes us to early December. So buying now from a private individual means for us to transfer a certain amount of money from back home to pay the full amount whereas if we buy a "fairly new" used car from a dealer, where we can get financing right away, means having some monthly payments without touching our money back home. All we have to do now is decide on what we buy. We are looking at a Honda City (I don't think we have those in Canada, just like the Honda Jazz, which is much smaller - it doesn't seem to have a front end!) and will check out the Toyotas on Sunday. Hopefully we can have something by the end of Eid - our week off, which is from Oct 2nd to the 9th. We'll keep you posted! You would think that with three cars at home, we'd have enough, but I guess not; let's get another one!!!
We had a cleaning lady come in today, so while she was here, we went grocery shopping, and since she wasn't done by the time we got back (she did the windows, behind the stove, the cupboards, ,,), we decided we would leave her to her work and went to the Crowne Plaza for a cold one by the pool, and a little dip in it! It was so nice, as temperatures are still in the mid 30's with humidex of low 40's. All we can say is that we are not struggling too much! We are really enjoying ourselves!!