wanderingquilter

After baking at the beach on Friday, we visited the Armed Forces Museum. It’s in a wonderful old Omani house – the kind with two stories and a courtyard in the middle. The walls are made of stones and mud, and the ceilings of logs and palm fronds.
After we paid our 1 rial each, a young soldier took us from the reception area to the museum. He toured us into the first two or three rooms, but when he realized that we were interested in reading all the displays, he left us to it.
The museum has two floors – the ground deals with Omani history, and the upper with military stuff. They begin with the Persian invasion, and carry on to when Islam spread into Oman, and in separate rooms off the main hallway, details each period of history in turn. There was an amazing, old  illustrated Koran that I would have loved to photograph, but the lights would have reflected on the glass. The displays are well written, albeit with some interesting language at times, and photos abound, there are various types of fire arms mounted on the walls, all carefully labeled, and some interesting display items encased in glass cubbyholes in the walls.We didn’t have enough time to really see it all – begged” khamsa digiga” (five minutes) for the upper floor and didn’t get near the outside display.  We definitely have to go back.

Afterwards, we went to Muttrah – to the Marina Hotel Restaurant.  The hotel is right across the street from the old fish market, and right along the corniche.  The light was just fading, so here are some shots from the rooftop restaurant as the sun went down.I’ve attached a slide show of some shots of the museum.

A few photos I’ve taken in the past couple of days on my morning walk with Snoopy.

Yesterday when we first left the house about 5:15, the clouds looked like this:When we got out of the yard, and could see across the wadi, the sun was an orange ball in the haze, and there was a tiny purple cloud across the face.  I’ve never seen that before.it moved, but just before we went into the alley and couldn’t see the sun any more, a few more drifted down over the top.  I only had my iPhone with me, so the sh0t’s weren’t very clear.

This morning, we went a bit earlier, and drove down to the beach.  With only an hour before I needed to make breakfast, there wasn’t really time to walk there and back – usually we can spend 1 1/2 – 2 hours down there.  Again, the sun was just rising, and it was so different seen over the wet sand and the water.As it rose, the reflection on the water and sand was quite pronounced.This little crab hole was only about as big as a 5 baisa coin – if that.  when I was taking the photo, I saw the crab start to come out and then retreat.  This sand-throw was smaller than the palm of my hand.  I think crabs are so cool, especially when you see them running around with their eyes up.  We were chasing them around on the beach at the club again a couple of nights ago.

This is something else cool – this tree trunk has been cut down and laying out in the sun for about 5 days… look at how crisp the leaves on it are… there must be a lot of sap still in the trunk to produce them.I’ll try tomorrow to show you a bit more of what we saw on our trip to Salalah.

Ever since I signed up for wireless internet last January, we’ve had problems.  It took forever to get it set up.  And then, it would just NOT work, all of a sudden.  I phoned and talked to the help desk countless times…. following their instructions to reset the modem or the router, or change a setting here or there.  good for a day or so, and then back to the same old problems.  Twice a nice young man came to the house, went through everything, changed some settings……. and it worked for a day or two…

Before we left for Salalah the 10th of May, it quit working again.  When we return…. I called again, and got another work order number.  They finally called about it on May 20 – the day I was leaving for Kuwait.  I told them I would be back Monday – and please call then.  When I had not heard anything by May 27, I called AGAIN.  Yes, they had it on my record that I had said I’d be home on the 23rd… they would get in touch with the technicians.

Well, today is June 4.  I have spent the past two weekends Off Line – because the cable connection was actually working for David so I didn’t want to try to reset the modem in an effort to kick start the wireless again. last night, the cable t my old, non-wireless computer quit… and this morning, David’s cable quit as well.

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Today is June 4. I called the help line and asked where the technical area was – back on the 20th, they had said I could bring my equipment in to be looked at.  I wasn’t waiting around any longer for someone to come to me.

9:30 am, I presented myself at Nawras.  After a bit of checking, they discovered that my modem wasn’t working – it was receiving the signal but no passing it on to the router.  So they gave me a brand now, upgraded jobbie that is both modem and router in one – and it is pink!  Well, pink and white.  It was 11 am by the time I was on my way home to try it out.

It works pretty slick, although I may have to set it on “always on” rather that “on demand”.  If it stays going, it will be worth it.  i just wish I’d done this months ago.  Now I know!

Yesterday (Monday) was David’s birthday.  After presents and a festive breakfast of oatmeal (special oatmeal with raisins and cinnamon and nutmeg) he had to go to work….. silly man, not to plan his birthday for a weekend!

He came home early, as we planned to go our for dinner.  He was all ready to dive into the toast and peanut butter to stave off the pangs until we left, but I tempted him with birthday cake instead…. well, OK….  two small pieces of cake with no candles as neither of us need extra cake in the house and I can’t find my candles.

After a beer and fries at the Qurm Beach Hotel, we thought that we’d stop at the “Fish Market” for dinner.  The lone inhabitant of the restaurant server and he showed us the fish.  It looked good, but was more than we really wanted.

David chose Kargeen for dinner.  It is a lovely open-air traditional Arabian restaurant.…..and THAT’s where it happened!

We’d just received our food when this brazen hussy came and sat down right beside David. Small and dainty, blue-green eyes, she divided her time between making eyes at David and at the food.  We both tried to ignore her, but she was insensitive to any hints we threw out…when it was evident that we weren’t going to share our dinner, she settled down on the seat behind me, purring.

She stayed with us for the whole meal, rubbing his shoulder and trying to make him pay her attention….and then doing the same to me.  She had the funniest meow – more like a  duck.  But she wasn’t the least bit worried about us – she wanted petting and food…. and guess who gave her a snack when we were finished?????

We took the last bit of dinner home with us – look at the huge bag they put it in.

Of coarse, Snoopy and Jenny were most interested in the “cat” smell on our clothes when we arrived home – but they forgave us.