Jacqui and Richard Abroad: May 2015

Thursday, May 28, 2015

Thursday, May 28th - One week - 7 days that we are counting- before we come home

Yes, we are reallly looking forward to coming home for a bit. It won't be long (8 days) but it will be more then welcomed! It will be nice to see our kids, our families, our friends, hopefully some rain, and temperatures below 40 degrees! We know where we are at on the planet, but even the locals are saying that it is warmer than usual. Next week and for the rest of June, the kids finish at noon. We have to stay in school until three, but with no students, it allows us to do a whole lot of work! We also start exams as of the 7th of June, so that makes it a bit easier too (even though we won't be there!!).

This past week has been OK. I attended our grade 12 graduation on Sunday night; it was a very nice evening, with graduation ceremony and full meal that followed in a top notch hotel in Muscat. The rest of the week was fine. I didn't have hydro in my office for 3 days - it got a little steamy as temperatures were between 40 - 43 degrees Celcius - but other than that, things were fine. On Wednesday night, we went out to an Irish Restaurant (that is what the sign says outside of the building), but as soon as you get in, it transforms into an Irish Pub!! It was great; the food was really good, the beer was fine, and the table next to us just had a person coming in with a guitar, another one with a violin, a third one with another guitar and mandolin, and a fourth one with some kind of portable drum. Next thing you knew, you had a band jamming. It was great!!

Thursday, May 21, 2015

Thursday, May 21st - It's hot

We had a long weekend last week as we got Sunday off for a religious holiday. It was very nice to have the extra time off. We didn't do much; basically caught up on our school work and our sleep! We did discover two more restaurants that fit our standards for food and liquids, including a mexican one. We had dinner there tonight and it was very nice (we hadn't had margaritas in a long time!).

Schoolwise, it's getting close to the end. We were hoping that management would tell us that kids would leave at noon starting next week, because of the heat, but it did not happen; they are still going to wait until June 1st before we start that. But it is pretty hot right now. You know it will be on the warm side when you get up at 5:15 am and the temperature outside is already around 35 degrees. By midday, we hit the low 40's. So we try to stay inside as much as we can, where it is air conditionned. However, we still see flowers growing along roundabouts and along highways; they must be pretty resilient to grow in this kind of heat.

Two weeks from now, we will be on our way home for the boys graduations. We are really looking forward to it.

Saturday, May 16, 2015

Thursday, May 14th - Three weeks before we come home (the first time)

Nicolas, Jacqui and I spent the weekend in Dubai. We weren't there very long but still managed to do a lot. We arrived at the hotel Thursday night, had dinner and called it a day. On Friday morning, we went on a desert safari. It was very nice as we were the only passengers in the 4X4 with our driver. It was also the most exciting ride we've had in the three times Jacqui and I have done this. The driver would, or try to, go up on sand dunes that offered a lot of steepness and slanted positions. It was a lot of fun. After our return in the city, we went to the the Mall of the Emirates for a bit (to check out the ski hill) and the Dubai Marina area, including a drink on the 52nd floor of a hotel which gives you a good view of Atlantis - the Palm (a part of Dubai that is in the shape of a palm tree, and built in the sea), then came back to "The Cave" - a very cool wine bar - before going for dinner. On Saturday morning, we went up the Burj Khalifa, to floor 124, to take in the view from up there. We spent a bit of time at the Dubai Mall afterwards (1200 stores, parking for 40 000 cars - my kind of place!!). We checked out the skating rink and the aquarium, then went for a drink in a nearby hotel. From there, we headed to the airport, as Jacqui and I were coming back to Muscat while Nic was headed to Tokyo for 10 days. We really enjoyed spending a week with Nic but it was weird saying goodbye in an airport, halfway around the world and going our different ways.

Upon our return, on Sunday, we were told that next Sunday, the 17th, would be a religious holiday. We knew the holiday was coming, but weren't sure if it would be Thursday or Sunday. We normally don't find out this early. We are not planning on going anywhere; it will be a working weekend (at least one day) to finalize exams and start preparing report cards.

We will be home in three weeks as we are coming home for Vincent's graduation on June 8th and Nic's on June 12th. We will be arriving on Friday the 5th and leave to come back to Muscat on Saturday the 13th. We will then return for the summer on July 3rd. We are really looking forward to seeing as many of you as possible while we are there!

Burj Khalifa, towering over the skyline of Dubai

The desert goes on and on and on ...

Our guide/crazy driver, Nicolas and I

Mommy, I'm hungry

Jacqui made a new friend

No chair lift here - you walk up the hill (at 40 degrees C)

The Middle Eastern look

At the ski hill, Mall of the Emirates

View of Atlantis (the hotel is top center left) - the Palms, from the 52nd floor of the Marriott - Dubai Marina

Dubai Mall, seen from the 124th floor of Burj Khalifa

Those skyscrappers don't seem to scrape anything anymore!

The Burj Khalifa

The waterfall at Dubai Mall

The aquarium, at Dubai Mall

Thursday, May 7th - Nicolas is in Muscat

We have company again!! Nicolas arrived last Friday morning, after having the final leg of his flight delayed by about 5 hours. Jacqui and I were in a "set the alarm, go to bed, get up, check the web site, set the alarm again and go back to bed" mode a few times. He was supposed to arrive at 11 pm Thursday, then 1am, 2:15, 2:45 and finally 3:50. He finally made it, but his bag didn't! It arrived on Friday around noon.

We didn't do much on Friday: went for lunch, drove around a bit to show him the area and went out for dinner. Saturday, we drove to Nakhal (about 90 minutes away) to visit an old fort and their hot springs. The fort was pretty amazing as it is built mostly around a big rock; it offers some very nice views of the Batinah plains below. The hot spring was kind of neat to see as well as the hot water is coming out from the side wall of the wadi and flows into a small river. We walked in the river for a bit, sometimes stopping to let the little minnows peck at our feet. We came back and had dinner, then Nic called it a day.

Sunday and Monday were quiet days: we had to work and Nic rested. We would go out at night for dinner but that's it. He went for a walk on Monday and found the temperature a little hot (about 40 degrees). We did a sunset cruise at night; however it was cloudy and we couldn't see the sun set! It's almost never cloudy in Muscat, but the view from the water was very nice as we got to see things from a different perspective. On Tuesday, I took the day off and we drove to Wadi Shab and the sinkhole that is along the way. It was again pretty hot for a walk in the wadi, but we went for a swim as we got to the third and final pond and it helped to cool things off a bit! Nic did manage to swim to the end of that pond, where you have a cave - the opening above water to get in it is only large enough for your head in some spots - that has a waterfall coming from the wall off the rocks. He found that pretty cool. We went to the souk that evening; it was very pleasant as temperatures cooled down a bit and it was a full moon.

On Wednesday, he went with Jacqui (who came down with a sudden case of indigestion for the day!) to the dive center and took a lesson and did his first scuba dive. He really enjoyed it.

Thursday, we met after work at the airport and flew to Dubai for the weekend. His stay in Muscat was very pleasant, and it was nice that he could see where we live and what we do.