Category Archives: Uncategorized

Seeb Waterfront

Posted on May 7, 2013 | 2 Comments

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Earthquake Felt in Muscat Less Than an Hour Ago!

Posted on April 16, 2013 | 26 Comments

Earthquake      I was in my office having a “teacher’s conference” with a group of students less than an hour ago and I felt the desk shaking against my leg.  I first thought it was my student kicking my desk. “Mr Saleh, are you kicking my desk?”…of course he denied doing it.  I kind of thought he just didn’t want to admit to it.  I didn’t think anything of it until the next group of students came in for their meeting and asked, “Did you feel the earthquake?”  Wow! I know that earthquakes in Oman are extremely rare.  My students and I briefly talked about whether this might be an effect of “climate change” as that happens to be the very topic we’re discussing in our class these days!

Students with their WhatsApp and social-networking are reporting that it was felt all over the Sultanate and wasn’t only felt here in the capital of Muscat.april 16 earthquake near iran pakistan border     Now that I’m back home, I see that it was a 7.3 magnitude  earthquake on the Richter scale near the Pakistan-Iran border.  Here’s a quick report from Muscat Daily.  For a great write-up from another blogger, Muscat Mutterings reported on this the fastest and now has over 80 comments on the post!

Here’s a funny pic from the Muscat Ads facebook page, haha!:526436_493333840715702_63977656_n   So did any of you reading this blogpost in Oman feel the earthquake? What were you doing? What’s your story?

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Entertainment in Muscat – “Let’s Go to the Mall”

Posted on April 4, 2013 | 2 Comments

Never thought I’d turn into “a mall rat”, haha!  I blame it on married life. (That’s my excuse and I’m sticking with it!)  My wife and kids love going to the mall and it seems we’re at the mall at least twice a week to eat out and shop.  Going to the mall is always an option.  The promos, sales and events at many of the malls here give you even more excuses to hang out.fairy in mall  At the beginning of this year, Muscat City Center had several folks in costumes to entertain the kiddies.  It seemed to be a big hit.yellow bike silver mangeisha in mallrobot in mall  donuts promo  Donuts + car = perfect promo for capturing my son’s attention!  :-) (Dunkin’ Donuts at QCC)gershom and lightning  You can never go wrong with Lightning McQueen on display for the little ones! (Carrefour, MCC)  “Lightning McQueen” must have been one of my son’s first words. ;-) Naomi in her car  It started with Gershom, but now even Naomi wants one of these cars/carts for kids when we’re shopping!  (1 OR/hour or $2.6 US)2 in 1 car  When we’re lucky they have these 2 seaters which costs 1.5 OR/hour  (or $3.9 US).book hunting  Whether you’re looking for a good book,Gershom on ipad  a quiet place to try your luck at angry birds,our princess  an enchanting spin on a mini amusement ride,naomi and tita  something different to bring back a sense of wonder,pinkberry addict  or simply looking for a place to stuff your face, the malls of Muscat seem to have it covered from A to Z!  :-)

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“Wa Habibi” (My Beloved)

Posted on March 29, 2013 | 2 Comments

“Wa Habibi” is a beautiful Eastern sacred song which is usually associated with Good Friday, expressing the deep sorrow of that day some 2000 years ago, which is just as significant today as it was back then.

My beloved, my beloved
What state are you in?
He who sees you, for you would cry
You are the one and only sacrifice

My beloved,
What blame have the nations put upon you?
They melted you with wounds,
To which no healing would do

When in the dark orchard at night
The God Creater kneeled and prayed
Life was praying with the One
Who gave life hope and prayer

The olive trees are crying
As the lips of men quiver
My beloved how will you go?
Has loyalty gone forever?

My beloved, my beloved
What state are you in?
He who sees you, for you would cry
You are the one and only sacrifice

وا حبيبي وا حبيبي أي حال أنت فيه
من رآك فشجاك أنت أنت المفتدي
يا حبيبي أي ذنب حمل العدل بنيه
فأزادوك جراحاً ليس فيها من شفاء
حين في البستان ليلاً سجد الفادي الإلة
كانت الدنيا تصلي للذي أغنى الصلاة
شجر الزيتون يبكي و تناديه الشفاء
يا حبيبي كيف تمضي أترى ضاع الوفاء

There is something about the deep, sorrowful singing in “Wa Habibi” which has always stayed with me and it’s a song I listen to each year as Good Friday approaches.  On the other hand, it’s a bit too Catholic-y for me in that there is no need to remain in that sorrow (and certainly no need to prop Mary up to some role she was never intended on having!) because as we know now, “Sunday was Coming“!

  Happy Easter Resurrection weekend (aka “Passover”!), everyone!!

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Omani Teacher Shoots Student in Secondary School!

Posted on March 23, 2013 | 13 Comments

Gulf News report         I was quite surprised to read a tweet from Merge Fm about 2 hours ago (about 2:30pm local time) that read, ”Local Update: ROP confirmed news of a student shooting in a public school in Shinas. The police are still investigating the cause #oman”.

On one hand, it’s good that it’s not like what we might expect after hearing about so many bloody school shootings in Ameria.  It involved one person getting shot. (Notice I didn’t write “only one person” as one person getting shot is still far too many!!!)  On the other hand, it is shocking to hear that it was a teacher who shot a student! Gulf News was fast in getting an article out, posting an article online a little over an hour ago titled, “Oman teacher shoots student suspected of abusing his son“.  Read it for yourself.  There are so many unknowns about this case that make you wonder.  When local papers report on someone “getting abused” it can mean all kinds of things…  Apart from old rifles from the days of fighting the communists in Oman, I thought that almost no one (apart from police and military) had firearms.  Why did this school teacher have a 9mm pistol and where did he get it from?  By far, the most disturbing part of the report from Gulf News is the quote from an unknown source saying that “it was a matter of honour for the teacher“.  Excuse me?! Honour?!  Maybe we have different dictionaries because that is far from honorable.  Why not report the matter to the police?  I hope that such “honor shootings” don’t catch on here.

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