Welcome to the Hotel Occidental

I can not claim to have written this, a collegue of mine did - but I did inspire it.

On a dark Mukhaizna wadi-way, hot wind in my hair

Warm smell of curry, rising up through the air

Up ahead in the distance, I saw a sodium vapor light

My head grew heavy, and my odor grew grim

I had missed the last flight

There he stood in the doorway;

I heard the fire alarm (again)
And I was thinking to myself,
This ain't heaven this surely is hell.
Then Kelman lit up a torch and showed me the way
There were voices down the conference room I thought I heard them say.....

Welcome to the Hotel Occidental

Such a lovely place
All in such a haste
Plenty of room at the Hotel Occidental
Any time of year, you can find Herman here
 
Lot 1 is chemically twisted, it got dolomitic lime on both ends
It got a lot of pretty, pretty reactions,
that will soon fill up LIMS
How they sample in the clarifier, sweet summer H2S .

Some smell and remember, some smells we'd like to forget

So I called up the  Field Manager,

please bring me my contract
He said, we haven't had that day-rate here since 2009
And still those other projects are calling from far away,
Wakes you up in the middle of the night Just to hear McTiernan say...

Welcome to the Hotel Occidental

Such a lovely place

All in such a haste
They steamin it up at the Hotel Occidental
What a nice surprise, all have alibis
 
GRE on the ceiling,
The strawberry pop on ice
And Smith said we are all just prisoners here, to our own surprise
And in Chamber's chambers, Expats gathered for the feast  (goat)
They stab it with their two fingers,
But they just can't eat the beast

Last thing I remember, I was

Running for the plane

I had to find my ticket back

To the place I was before

relax, said the PRO man,

We are programmed to receive.

You can checkout any time you like,

But you can never leave!

Enter guitar solo .....

Hello from the Desert

Thought it was time for another post.  I got back to the field on the 6th and one week down today.  I spent an extra week at home so only doing three weeks in the field this time.  It took me longer to get into it this time as five weeks off is a serious amount of downtime and I had to get used to the pace being a bit quicker and thinking about different things.  Quite frankly I am simply looking forward to flying out of here on the 27th, even though it is going to be a seriously loooooong flight this time.  Off to New Zealand that night and for some strange reason (cost I think) I decided to book a 30 hour journey - urrgghhh!  Will be interesting as I have never flown through Bangkok before.  Got 7 hours lay over in Hong Kong so will just have to do some shopping - dang!!!  Am really looking forward to catching up with friends and family in NZ & OZ.

Braden arrived today.  Braden is the 21 year old son of our very good friends Mik & Deb who live in New Zealand.  I can not believe how those 21 years have wizzed by.  Braden decided it was time for an adventure so he packed his bags and jumped on a plane to Oman :-)  While Mik was waiting for him to arrive he txt me and said "I hope he arrives".  I txt back saying "Yeah me too, otherwise we will have Debbie on our ass".  Happy to say he arrived all in one piece and has begun his Middle Eastern adventure.

Pic of the Grand Mosque in Muscat at night. 

Apparently it is very beautiful inside but we have not seen it yet, but can see the dome from our house at night.

Sultan Qaboos Street Lit Up for 40th Celbrations Last Year

Road Rules in Muscat

Road rules in Muscat?  I am pretty sure there are no road rules in Muscat and if there is any, nobody follows them.  Certainly one should not try and follow the markings on the road as they will just put you crook.  Like I am driving down an off ramp from the highway - certainly knowing I am going the only way possible and there is an arrow on the road pointing back at me - I am like WTF??  Oh and Stop signs are merely suggestions, Give Way signs doubly so!!  If you see a spot you just go for it and if there is no space you just create it by nudging your way into someone elses space and push them out.  There is no way of knowing what anyone is going to do until they actually do it because hardly anyone actually indicates and if they do they usually do as they are making the manouvre.  Noone here has heard about the two second rule, nor have they heard that one should never pull into another cars blind spot.  So I am like indicating that I am going into the fast lane on the highway, giving the obligatory 2 seconds see nothing in it behind pull out and honk, honk someone is pulling into my blindspot right there and then - pffftttt!!!  The only way to safely travel around a roundabout is to do so in the inside lane as this has the right of way to exit the round about - I mean like hello????  Actually took me ages to figure that one out.  General rule of thumb is you give way to anything that is bigger or more expensive than you.  A quick cost to mass ratio is a handy calculation to be able to do in your head on the roads here.  There is an average of 20 deaths on the road here every month!!!