Oman a year on

Time flies! That's what I hear everybody say. Let me add that apart from those 3 infernal months in the summer time seems to fly even faster over here.

The year milestone of our lives here in Oman has come and gone. So what's the verdict? Well let's see. After a year no doubt we have settled.

Here are a few highlights of the last 13 months in a country that we now call home

• Making lots of new friends of different nationalities and backgrounds and learning about so many different ways of life
• Moving into a big house and going shopping for furniture with the company's money :D
• Beach bumming at the Yacht Club when we feel lazy at the weekend and can't be bothered to do anything
• Playing boules against the French at the annual international boules tournament and lose miserably ;)
• Crossing the desert and the salt flats to end up in one of the most beautiful beaches in Oman down in Bar Al Hickmann
• Getting lost up around the mountains on a camping trip to Ibra Tombs and having our friends start a search and recovery tour to try to find us then seeing their faces when we turn up at the camp and explain that the true reason for being that late was that we left hours later than planned and that we actually stopped for lunch.
• A visit to the Public Notary with Maura which saw us floading the notary's office with a bunch of men willing to help us with instantaneous tranlation
• Watching turtles laying eggs and small hatchlings running for life in the early hours of the morning at Ras Al Jinz (many times)
• Laying around a bonfire under a perfect canopy of stars during the night in the desert
• Feeling the heart racing on my first go at dune bashing climbing up a high dune on our 4x4 in the desert
• Screaming like a kid and sensing the need to open the door and jump out of the car at S.'s first attempt to come down a huge dune ;)
• Finally attending my Instructor Development Course, graduating succesfully and crowning the dream of working as a Diving Instructor in tropical waters
• Learning how to read Arabic script and munching a few basic words of Arabic
• Our pit stops at the Crowne Plaza for sundowners after work
• Popping to Dubai for a shopping spree and generally spending stupid money on meals and treats and not feeling guilty about it
• Going on holiday and still feeling happy about coming back home when the holiday is up because really our time off back home is like a permanent vacation
• Soon becoming the proud owners of a leasure boat :D

In general living a life of comfort for a bunch of acceptable compromises