Our Travels

I've had a really bad few days: mood wise. Two girl-friends who were at odds with each other for awhile now finally came head to head this week. We're all friends but they were inseparable. However when I became better friends with them, cracks were already showing in their relationship and it finally boiled over last week. I just kept telling them that they have to sit down and talk about it. Anyway so it finally came to a point where both were telling me why the other was so and so...I felt like I was dealing with school girls. So after listening patiently I decided I didn't need this and told them I was taking a break from them until they settled their differences. This is just not working out and I'd rather enjoy friends then play dodge the other. It's made me sad as my son and their kids are friends too but I really had to give them a break in the past week so they can sort out their own troubles and not get me involved. It brings me to the subject of how some...

There are now two parties in power in Samoa which is a great outcome of yesterday's elections. There are about 12 members in the opposing Tautua party so that gives it less chances of it dissolving if some of them are disqualified for whatever reason. In Oman people here and there continue to protests. We just heard that the Oman Air staff were now protesting in from of the Oman Air headquarters in Seeb! On Friday, when we were driving back home along the ministry street we saw a group of Omanis about 20 men gathering near NBO with what looked like a banner as if they were about to march. I guess it must have been more protests of sort. Further down the road there were two big army vehicles parked on the road side as if protecting the protest but also on guard in case violence broke out. It seems the people are now protesting in peace with no more violence since last week in Sohar to everyone's relief. Hubby is going to the UK for a week for work so hmm it will be interesting ...

It's election time in Samoa at the moment and voters went to the polls today. There are two main political parties vying for government, the reigning HRPP and wavering Tautua party. HRPP have been in power for about 20 years and in their last ruling the one opposition party in parliament at the time dissolved because they could not agree on anything really which left the opposition party with under 8 members which under the constitution meant there was no party. Moreover according to the law no party can be formed after the elections by any members of parliament. So it's a foolproof law to protect the ruling party. So our country has been a one party state for the past four years and a lot was done with no one to oppose some interesting law changes and implementations. The road switch occurred which cost the country unnecessarily but it went smoothly and now there are cheaper cars in Samoa, some quite old but affordable for the masses. The land laws have been altered to give po...

So hubby had the day off today and I seized the opportunity to escape the 'mummy_dom' for an afternoon and do what 'I' want to do. I went to pay our bills first and the office closes at 1pm but I got there at 12.55pm and the Omani girls behind the counter were very patient with the few of us that arrived at the same time and let us get our bills and pay. I was left by myself with the two Omani ladies processing my transaction, I decided to be faikala(nosy) and ask for inside views on the current situation in Oman. I asked any news from Sohar(where the protests(vandalism) were a few days ago) and one of the girls laughed and said. I don't know I haven't read the paper today. I said so you haven't heard anything further about any more protests? And she laughed and said, "After work I'm going home to sleep." and laughed and I laughed along cos I thought that was such a funny reaction. She was dismissing the Sohar fiasco as a waste of time. I loved...

I'm a slave to the flowers phenomenon. I love receiving flowers whether it's from winning something, from my hubby to receiving a squashed one from my 2 year old son. So I found out one of my friends was sick I decided to go visit her and ordered her a bunch of flowers. She was at home so we went to her's knocked on the door and when she saw the flowers she was teary eyed and was so happy. I was happy to see that look on her face and was glad that I did that. Obviously she liked flowers as much as I did. We had a nice afternoon visiting with them. On our return to our house I discovered the biggest floral arrangement on our dining table to my utmost surprise. For a second I thought my husband with my talk about flowers this morning went and ordered me the flowers. But low and behold the flowers were from our gardener!!! This is the same gardener that I'd decided to fire last week. Hubby dearest made me feel so guilty about letting the guy go that I told him he was rehi...

On March 1st I searched the internet and tuned into every channel imaginable that could have news on any more protests in Oman but there was nothing. I called friends around the place and no one heard anything interesting. There were supposed to be a gathering at the grand mosque at 4pm in support of the Sultan but I didn't hear anything about it. My son and I went to visit a sick friend and everything seemed normal on that side of Muscat that we planned to go to Shatti beach in the afternoon for our kids to play. We went to Shatti Beach and found it as usual. It was easy to find a park so I guess it wasn't as busy as usual. So we set up on the beach with out mat, chair and toys for the kids. We'd been there about half an hour when I saw and Omani guy in football gear amongst the many that were there drag a goal post to one side of us. I realised that we were then sitting in the middle of a make shift football pitch. I started to fume and anticipating the confrontation wit...

Reminiscent of the tsunami that hit Samoa almost two years ago was my experience of when I found out of the earthquake in Christchurch. I was so scared for my families and friends down there. Only five months ago there was an earthquake there but no one was hurt and this time immediately afterward they reported 65 people had died. It was a sad sad day for New Zealand. I was so scared for my families as I tried frantically to get through to them or to other families that may have heard from them. 24 hours later we heard from all of them that they were okay including one of my best friend's parents who normally worked in the city and amazingly they were in Wellington to visit their other daughter when the earthquake devastated Christchurch. As sad as it is, there are some beautiful stories of people and their heroic efforts to help others out of the rubble and lots of New Zealanders are offering their homes to those that need a place to live for the time being. So far 145 people have...

There are reports of more protests in Muscat aside form the ones in Sohar yesterday where supposedly 2 people were killed. A Lulu supermarket was supposedly burnt and looted along with a police station and cars. I seriously hope it doesn't spread to Muscat.