Belated posts and New Years

Well hello 2015 and farewell 2014. Can't say what happened to the second half of 2014, other than I must be a bit slack. There is a bit to tell.

In August, at the end of Ramadan Katrina and I jumped a flight to Salalah. It's the Southern end of Oman and the climate is just a bit different. In general Salalah is much more tropical, coconuts not dates, bananas, mangoes etc, etc and there are roadside fruit stalls everywhere. Fancy a fresh coconut? some pawpaw? Luverley bananas......

When we went it was the Khareef season. That's when a low lying mist rolls in off the sea and turns everything in the region a wonderful lush green.  It's also a welcome relief from the summer heat. Mind you everything gets constantly damp and while its not raining the roads are constantly wet, the wipers forever on and apart from the green everything is greyed out. Sigh.  But we found Salalah to be ok and there was enough to see and do for the four or five days we were there. Ancient ruins, rugged scenery and coastlines, and its where frankincense originates from.

Camels and the water near Salalah

The Khareef effect

Frankincense tree

Police barracks at Mirbat - where the last rebellion faltered.

Fresh fruit in Salalah

Katrina and the ruins

After that the balance of the year was fairly quiet the only other things of note were that I had another Brussels adventure, which I coupled with a trip to Manchester and a visit to Meaghan, Jamie and the girls and we had a weekend away in Bahrain - our second visit there.

Our living area

Other than that our other big news is that we moved house!. Our little villa in Al Hail has been swapped for a not quite so little villa in Al Hail! We moved in the weekend before Christmas and then ended up hosting a bunch of people for Christmas day. Much fun was had by all, let me just say that a bunch of 50+ ish adults and table top wooden santa bols do not mix - much danger but much fun. And don't believe it when you buy the wash - outable, draw on - able tablecloth. It is not a kids toy! We adults (maybe the definition adult is a bit questionable) had a great time with it!.

Guest living area

Having been in the house for almost a month now it is mostly set-up. We have 6 bedrooms which comprise of one master bedroom, one master guest room, one (yet to be furnished) secondary guest room all on separate floors plus a dressing room, a hobby room and a storage room. We also have a study, dining room and two sitting areas, plus a balcony and smallish backyard/garden. The good news about the balcony - and the rest of the front of the house are the ocean views. The panorama from the roof is spectacular.

Katrina and the VIEW

So now its mid January and I have another Brussels adventure next week. So we are going to leave on Thursday night and have three days in Paris before cutting across to Brussels for a week of work. 

Soo see ya - can't promise the next blogg will be any more frequent!