Summer

The summer over here is never a particularly eventful time of the year. There is the heat and at the moment there is also Ramadan. Although at least it is about to end: just a few more days then finally back to normality.

In summer (and particularly during Ramadan) most of the expats escape; it is very quiet in town. We also went away. With a few trips back and forth to Europe I have clocked five weddings (great occasions to spend some nice time with people we hadn't seen in a while), a lot of air miles and an inflated credit card bill.

So now we are back and relatively settled for a little while (although we are already planning a holiday. The proper one I mean). The weather is already a lot milder, we have already started going to the beach. The good season is upon us and fun activities will start again.

For starters we are going to visit Salalah for Eid (the public holiday period that signs the end of Ramadan. This year it's 4 days off): finally we are going to see Dhofar in the Khareef (the monsoon that hits the south of the country transforming it into green land). Apparently it is about 30c and drizzly over there.

Amongst other news I have also been asked to lead the next expedition in Musandam with Biosphere Expeditions in October. Very excited to be going back.

The uni project is proceeding and hopefully I won't go into a fit when the deadline approaches (2nd December). S. says that of course I will.

I guess I am trying to be optimistic. Life is good, as usual, just a little bit uneventful at the moment. My hunch is that it won't stay that way for long;  in fact I can feel change in the air and.. as we say with Chiaruga "la stagione di Aldo, Giovanni e Giacomo sta per iniziare". :)