Tag: Muscat

My Grand time at the Mosque

One of the things Art and Barbara wanted to do during their visit was take a trip to the Grand Mosque here in Muscat. We didn’t take the boys because this mosque doesn’t allow children under the age of 10 and they weren’t all that thrilled to spend one of their precious days off at the mosque, so we had pity on them and let them stay home with Lucy. 
I was all dressed in my appropriate mosque-going gear: headscarf, long skirt, long sleeved shirt. We get up to the front gate and the guy points at my skirt and says, “Not acceptable.” Ah, yes. In order for my long skirt to be practical to walk in, it has a small slit that exposes part of my shin. The flash of an ankle and one shin as I walked made my attire too risqué to be permitted to enter. 
So Josh was all over the guy in Arabic and they had a conversation that ended with the same result — no entrance for the harlot with the slit in her skirt. I went into the gift shop to see if they had a safety pin or some tape, but they had neither. The guy behind the counter did volunteer to sell me a pair of socks. Really? That’s all I need? Sure, give me a sock to cover up my nakedness. 
So he hands me a small box and inside are those super sheer black pantyhose socks like grandmas used to wear with slacks. I pull one on and it comes to right above my ankle so I ask the guy for a pair of scissors, cut off the toe of the other one and stacked them. Then because I was wearing flip-flops I cut a slit in the toe so I could get my sandal on. The entire thing was ridiculous because you could practically see my skin through the sheer fabric anyway, but whatever. The guy behind the counter got quite the giggle out of the situation. I could tell he’s never seen anyone butcher a pair of “socks” the way I did. I swear, every time I go to a mosque, it’s always something . . .
All covered up and ready to go
An up close view of my “modest” leg.


After that drama, they were going to have a hard time winning the award for “My Favorite Mosque,” but I tried to keep an open mind. Yes, I had to wear an abaya in Abu Dhabi, but at least it was provided free of charge for everyone and they didn’t declare that my ankles were too awesome for public viewing. 
The women’s prayer room in the above photos wasn’t anything spectacular, but the women’s rooms are rarely where the mosques shine. They aren’t used as frequently so they don’t put the same effort into decorating them.


The inside of the main room was beautiful, but not as much my style as the Grand Mosque in Abu Dhabi. And I promise it’s not because I’m bitter about the socks. This mosque used to have the largest carpet in the world (until the record was broken by Abu Dhabi), but the carpet didn’t fit the room properly — the corners were all bunched up against the pillars and the lines in the pattern in the carpet had been stretched so they were not longer straight, but wobbled their way around the room. Minor details, but the finishing should be immaculate if you’re talking about a record breaking mosque (I think it’s currently the 7th largest in the world).
The ceilings had dark wood inlay with gorgeous crystal chandeliers hanging all over the room. This sad picture of the dome is the only one I got. For scale, look at the picture below. That huge structure is the small arch in the bottom center of this picture. The place is enormous. 
Close up of the front of the prayer room and the tile work that covered the walls and the dome. 
part of the dome
This is the largest of the chandeliers that hangs from the central dome. It sparkled with all different colors: red, blue, white — the photos are a pale comparison to the real thing.
By zooming in, my camera caught a tiny bit of the color. It was all white, but the way the crystals were cut caught the light and illuminated it like it was made of a million little prisms. 

These gorgeous arched windows lined both sides of the room.

In Abu Dhabi, we were able to walk on the carpet, sit on the carpet, feel the carpet. Here we had to walk on blue sheets that were laid out all over the floor with only a small portion of the carpet exposed. Our visit to the mosque in Muscat was like being invited to an open house. Walk through, look around, take a few pictures. Our visit to the mosque in Abu Dhabi was like being invited to a friend’s house — come in, sit down, let’s talk for a while. 

Making sure to keep appropriate space between us so we don’t break the “no touching!” rule.
I gave a quick class in the art of self-photography
Aside from the initial trauma over my leg, the rest of the visit was uneventful. It was a grand mosque, but it still can’t topple my favorite. We’re planning on coming back with the kids (the 10 and older rule only applied to inside the mosque, not the grounds) and I’ll be sure to bring my own sock next time. 

In the Zone

Today is Islamic New Year so Josh and the boys had the day off from school. To “celebrate” we spent the morning at Adventure Zone.

Each time we visit it’s clear how much Camille is growing and changing — this time she was climbing up the stairs, walking across the rope bridge, and trying to do everything her brothers did. 

She even loved the super steep plunge into the ball pit. 

and she found a friend

Nana went on all the slides, including the red slide that is straight up and down.

The boys were spinning each other — going for maximum sickness.

Happy New Year!

good news, better news, best news

Several great things happened today, but I’ll let you decide on the good/better/best part because I can’t pick my favorite. First the bad news. I woke up this morning with my eye swollen almost shut. Again. At least this time I had one good eye to see out of. Later on today when the swelling went down some, we could see that I had a bite of some sort right on the corner of my eye. My bet is on one of the many minuscule ants that I see in our bathroom every now and then. I also have a few huge welts from some other bug on my shoulder and back — I’m guessing mosquitos for those. :sigh:

But I woke up to Josh’s parents in our house! Their flight came in at 4 this morning so Josh picked them up before he left for school. We had a fun breakfast and chatted for a while before and after the kids headed off on the bus and then they headed upstairs to take a much needed nap.

Meanwhile, another part of the good news was unveiled. Art and Barbara brought my new toy — a MacBook Air. I had always said I could never justify paying 4xs the amount for a Mac when the PC version was perfectly adequate, but I finally caved and had it shipped from Amazon to their house right before they left so they could bring it over (they’re still selling the 2010 version here at a higher price than the 2011 in the US).

ugly puffy eye, pretty new computer

So I opened it up and started playing around with it — I LOVE that it automatically found and set up my wireless network. Usually I have to wait until Josh is around and have him do it for me. It is already proving to be a good fit. I loved my netbook, but I always ended up saving things on my desktop because if I let the computer pick the location, I could never find them again. They say “once you go Mac, you never go back,” so we’ll see if it lives up to the hype. I haven’t spent much time on it because my puffy eye started making me feel tired (probably the combo of the antihistamine and having to work to keep my eye open) so I gave up and took a long, long nap (4 hours).

Meanwhile Lucy made dinner and played with the baby and managed the house so I didn’t have to worry about a thing while I slept. I woke up to find Lucy gone and Josh home with the news that our time here has been extended until the boys finish the school year. Our 12 months is up in April and we were trying to figure out how we could get the boys through until the end of the school year . . . but Josh asked, and we received! No news yet on where we’ll be moving to, but Josh has requested Bahrain. Otherwise it will be somewhere in the states, hopefully West coast.

A puffy eye photo is coming as soon as I can figure out how to get photos from my computer to my blog. As easy as the Mac system is, I still need a for Dummies book.

(it’s amazingly skinny!)

Happy Birthday!

14 years ago I went to my first ball with my 2nd Leutenant in a $20 dress from Ross. Tonight my date was a Major and I danced the night away wearing a dress from the clothes closet at church. (Not a huge sacrifice since it’s a Ralph Lauren and it came in with the tags still on it and Holly said, “You have to take this and wear it to a ball.” I didn’t argue with her).

We had a great night with friends and with each other and came home to sleeping kids and a clean house. A perfect birthday.

*** Adding our “official portrait.” We don’t usually take pictures at the ball (usually just snap one of ourselves like the one above), but I wish I had one from that first year to compare side by side.