Jacqui and Richard Abroad: Saturday, November 7th

The last two weeks have been good. We had dinner with some friends from Kuwait at the end of October. One couple is now here working in Muscat while the other one is still in Kuwait; it was very nice to see them. The next day, we went to the Royal Opera House of Muscat to see a ballet - Don Quixote. It was my first ballet and Jacqui had seen one or two before. It was pretty neat. The costumes were fantastic, the music was really good and the dancing was, ... well, ballet dancing - I couldn't do what they do! (however, give them skates and it would be very much like figure skating). We went back to the Opera House on Wednesday for a presentation of the preparation and what goes on behind the scenes during a show. It was quite interesting.

This past weekend was quiet. We started our Christmas shopping by going to the Mutrah souq on Saturday. It is a really cool place, especially if you don't get lost in it! As you enter from the street, there is one main artery which after a while branches off into three smaller arteries, But everywhere in those arteries, you have "side streets", with a bunch of small shops, and once you get in those side streets, God knows where you will end up! It is however pretty neat to walk around and see all the beautiful things that the various shops have to offer. We then went for lunch at the marina, as we hadn't been there all year - it was just too hot to sit outside for lunch (or even dinner for that matter). Temperatures have cooled down a bit. We now have highs in the 32-33 range and lows in the 23-25 range. It is actually very nice and we enjoy it a lot. We are not counting, but we'll be home in 6 weeks for Christmas holidays! Can't wait to see everyone!