Jacqui and Richard Abroad: January 16th, Back to the routine

Our Christmas holidays were pretty hectic, mostly the first week back. Staying over night in Dubai at the start of our holiday was "brilliant", to use a UK expression! It really cut down on the fatigue after we got "home". Thanks Rich and Jackie, Lucy and Harry for letting us have a "home"; it was greatly appreciated! The first few days, we were all over the place, trying to see as many people as we could. Things were pretty hectic, but a lot of fun at the same time. We had a chance to visit with friends and family, and spend time with our kids and son-in-law (so nice and yet weird to write this). The return to Muscat (and to school) was physically challenging. We left TO at 10ish pm on Jan 1st, got home at about 1am on Jan 3rd and were at work on the same day at about 7:15. There is a 9 hour difference, but classes still start on Oman time. So basically, we had 3 hours to adjust to our local time and to get going, It took about 3-4 days for both of us to get back to the local time.
Our first weekend was fine, and quiet,,,, some time at the pool at Crowne Plaza, and finishing some school stuff.
Big news coming back on the first day: our VP has been promoted to Principal, which means we don`t have our "energy black hole sucking principal" in place anymore. That is really good news for all of us!! Our VP, now P, is always positive and an educator, instead of an administrator. It makes a big difference!
We had a social gathering this past Thursday at one of Jacqui's grade 4 colleague. He lives in a different part of town, and has a nice patio, with a BBQ grill on it! We therefore spent our whole time outside and enjoying ourselves a lot! Friday was a pretty typical day, which entails a walk on the beach, a bit of school work and we went to the movies at night (The Revenant). I did some tutoring on Saturday while Jacqui relaxed at home. Our weekend ended with a nice meal at a mexican restaurant and a quiet evening evening afterwards!