Our Place on The Map

Back again. Been a busy few days.  Getting braodband internet here has been a bit of a challenge.  A local friend assured me we should already have the land line to the house here so I went to see Omantel to get it sorted.  They told me to look for a grey box on the outside of the house that would have the CAS and DP numbers which I need to put on the form to get the service.  I couldn't find it so I went back to another Omantel shop.  When I asked the girl what it looedk like, she turned the page over and drew a square on the page and said " It looks like this".  Hmmmmm not extreemly helpful, this is the same girl that said after I asked for a Mobile Modem, "oh sure, which model would you like?", I said "what do you have?", to which she replied "oh we don't have any at the moment".  Hmmmmm.....  So anyway we end up at the Nawras store yesterday trying to find our place on google maps in order to be able to get broadband delivered via sattelite instead of the phone line.  You think we found it while in the store?  Nope!  But we did when we got home.  So off to the Nawras store again today.  Here is an idea of where Villa Vennik is on the map.  Hint: If you click on the map it comes up larger.

Oh yes and we did manage to buy a stove too yesterday so we should get that on the 30th :-)

Got Ourselves a House Boy

Have been dusting and mopping floors this morning.  Gosh the dust just sneaks in all the little nooks and crannys.  A bit like cockroaches really, but we got the pest control people onto that particular one.  Roaches are considered pests by some and apetizers by others.  We are definitely of the former variety, while Frodo tends towards the later variety.

But back to the house boy.  While there were many good candidates we decided to go for the cheapest option that provided the best value.  It was quite possible that a good house maid here would take a lot of training.  We did meet one who was quite experienced, but she wanted too much money and was more interested in the lodgings.  So our best friends in NZ are sending their first born to lodge with us a for a bit and help out.  At 21 years old he has his most of his adult life in front of him so an excellent oportunity for him to take some time out from the serious job thingy and take in some of the good ol' Kiwi OE. 

Some House Pics

At last I have figured out how to post pics.  It is a lot easier now than last time I was blogging.  On this blog you will never see a post titled 'Our House in the Snow' but it has it's own beauty.  Here is a pic of our house the day we had a few pieces of furniture delivered.  We needed some extra furniture because as you can see it is a pretty huge place.  Speaking of huge, check out the size of our kitchen below.  After the one we had in Belgium we are kinda getting lost in this one.  Mik and I need to text each other to find out where each other is - hehe!

Off to pack the doglets into the car to pick Mik up from work and go for a walk along the beach for sunset.  Photos to follow - my how we have missed the beach.  Till later XXX

Muscat News

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Gots me a liquor permit :-D

Busy day today - but I am now the proud owner of a liquor permit *grinz widely*.  To buy alcohol here we need this permit.  I had to go to the Ruwi Police Station with a copy of my residency card, copy of my passport, an application form (filled out in Arabic of course) and a letter of no objection from my employer.  Paid 85 OMR and I can now buy up to 90 OMR of alcohol per month.  Alcohol is seriously cheap at the liquor stores here so I am sure this will do us fine.  Watch this space to see if we survive - hehe!!!

Oh still getting the hang of blogger again, so as soon as I figure out how to blog pics I will do so...

Week One in Muscat

Hi again - time for a new blog seeing as we are on a new adventure.  I thought it would be nice for people to see what we are getting up to and don't want to clogg up facebook.  It is also very therapeutic to write a log - so I found out when we did it for our adventure in Belgium.  The above pic was just taken when we left Belgium - the crazy Frenchies threw a bon voyage party for us.  We will miss our friends in Belgium a lot actually but here we are - so making the best of a new adventure.

Been here just one week now and still trying to get everything sorted.  We packed up our things in Belgium early this month and it is now on a slow ship to Muscat.  We have been told it will arrive mid December - so now it is just a waiting game.  At that time I will be in the field and Mik will be on his way to NZ so it will be a bit of a juggle to actually recieve it then.  The house is kinda empty but my good friend Ronaye arranged a bedroom suite for us so we could at least have something to sleep on when we got here.  Frodo and Forrest travelled well and are adjusting to their new home.  The place was a mess when we arrived so have spent some time cleaning.  It is a huge house and the dust seems to get in the tiniest of cracks so am frantically interviewing for a house maid.  We really need someone in the house also to look after our babies, so that Mik has more flexibility for his work when I am not here to support.  Lots of things on the list to do before I go back to the field; broadband internet, car, maid, liquor license ;-)  we got ourselves a fridge and microwave and a few kitchen things so we can at least eat in now.  A collegue of mine helped us out tremendously with some red wine stocks so we all good there.

Lots to tell, did some walking on the beach on the weekend (early in the morning as after 9 it is too hot for the boys) - had our first run in with a scorpion.  Got some furniture arriving soon so better sign off.  More to follow and some pics of our house.