Month: January 2012

Josh was in a car accident yesterday — he’s totally fine, it’s just the Jeep that got a little banged up. There are certain intersections that we talk about as being “accidents waiting to happen” every time we drive through Muscat. Sure enough, one of those places is where it happened.

He was headed to the embassy when a brand new Mercedes SUV turned left right in front of him. He couldn’t stop in time and even tried to swerve out of her way, but she kept turning into his lane. Crash! In fine form the lawyer (Indian — this matters later in the story) jumped out of the car declaring, “You hit us!” Then he tried to intimidate Josh by waving his lawyer card and vowing to fight it out in court unless Josh took responsibility for the accident. Sorry guy, you obviously have never met my husband before. I can promise you that’s not going to happen.

So Josh called the police (and was speaking to them in Arabic) and the lawyer, overhearing this, must have gotten a little nervous because he didn’t speak Arabic so he called up his cousin who spoke a little bit of Arabic and had him come down to the accident site.

In the end it was obvious that the Mercedes was at fault. Then, according to accident procedure here, everyone goes to the insurance company of the person who caused the accident. Once there, it turned out that the car was registered to the husband, but the wife (the driver) was the one with the driver’s license. He claimed, “I don’t have a license because it’s too dangerous to drive here.” Yeah right. Totally shady.

So the Jeep is now in the shop, waiting for other dude’s insurance to approve payment for the repairs. Not a big deal, just a little inconvenient. Especially since car repair here is a notoriously slow process. Enshalla it will be fixed soon and we won’t have any more bumps to contend with in our last few months here!

ETA: A year ago we were sitting around in our house in Egypt waiting to get the call to see whether we were going to be evacuated or not (we were) and trying to decide what to include in our 44 lbs/person that we were able to take with us when we left. When I can’t figure out why I’m so tired I think about the past 365 days and then wonder why I’m not more tired.

I’m thankful today that we’re not facing evacuation tomorrow.

One of the exciting things about being in Muscat this year is being present for the Royal Opera House’s first season. While my mom was visiting we were able to go to a performance in honor of Chinese New Year.

All dressed up for a girl’s night on the town

The Opera House is only about 5 minutes from our house. It is lit up beautifully every night. 

White marble everywhere

Just like at the Grand Mosque, I can’t explain how huge this light is, but as you can tell from the photo below, the pillars extend upward forever and ever before reaching the ceiling. 

The carved wood ceilings

My mom wanted to have her picture taken with this woman wearing traditional Omani dress. This was my compromise so we didn’t look like complete theater novices.

View from our seats — front row of the third balcony

The seats are plush and high backed. It’s like sitting on a throne.

I was actually really happy we weren’t sitting in the box seats. Box seat ticket holders are on display for the entire theater (so you always have to look like you’re paying attention!) and they don’t get thrones to sit on.

The show started and I wasn’t sure what to expect from the Chinese Traditional Orchestra of Inner Mongolia. Yes, that’s actually what it’s called. The amazing thing about the music was the majority of instruments were unidentifiable to me and the sounds and melody were much different than a “traditional” orchestra. I loved that the orchestra members were able to pull a crazy variety of sounds from these traditional instruments — one moment I was hearing hoofbeats, the next a flock of birds whistling, the next a swelling wave of harmonious strings. My mouth hung open in amazement as I tried to pick out which of the instruments were responsible for creating the different sounds. 

For a close-up look at the group we saw, go here

This video features Mongolian Throat Singing. During the concert I was trying to figure out which instrument was making a loud, bullfrog vibration and then I realized it was coming from the soloist. Crazy.

This type of show/kind of music isn’t something I would have expected to like, but it kept my attention the entire time. Bravo to them.

During intermission we walked around and checked out the view from the different levels. The detail on everything from the carved walls to the metal lanterns meant that there was way more to see than a 20 minute break allowed. 

View of the lobby from above

I love these lights

at the end — mass exodus

Looking down on the different balconies. Josh and I have tickets to see the ballet and an opera next month and our seats will be on the second level. We’re moving up in the world!

Mom still has several hours of travel left — hopefully she’ll be happy to come home to these photos from her last day here.

This park is only a short walk from our house. I’ve passed it before, but never stopped to play. The best part? The swings fit grown-up hips!

I took these photos while we were both mid-swing

Climbing to the top of the slide.

The slide looks a little rickety — it’s got to be murder in the spring/summer/fall. Skin sizzling on scorching metal? Youch!

Making faces

One last story before heading to the airport. Miss you Nana!

Mom is flying somewhere over Europe right now, the baby is sleeping, I’m fully medicated and tucked in bed, and I just discovered you can watch entire episodes of Judge Judy on YouTube. Tonight is going to be awesome.

For those of you who aren’t running off to YouTube to watch Judy, here’s a video I took tonight of the baby “reading” to herself — until she looked up and caught me filming her.

As for me, I’ll be over here watching this case where the guy sues someone over a marijuana cookie — you can’t make this stuff up . . .

These last few days I’ve been flying toward my target/goal weight — unfortunately most of that progress has been because I’ve been sick. Again. I knew I was in bad shape yesterday when I was shuffling around the house like a zombie, fumbling for a down jacket to put on. Then I crawled under my down comforter, with an extra quilt thrown on top for good measure and prayed that death would come quickly.