Friday + Monsoon

And as expected, the monsoon never fails to start on time or even early! It started raining this morning in Salalah. Folks, Khareef is officially in. HOORAY! 

Salalah on a Tuesday

I'm alive! I promise. Don't go away! I won't explain my blog's slowdown because previous posts have done enough explaining. Tonight I'm busy reading through 37 journal articles (skimming, cross-eyed, looking for key words, forming ideas, scanning through bibliographies, etc ... you can imagine).

My inbox is over-flowing with questions and requests! I promise I'll get back to you! 

Now, .... news from Salalah:

1) Weather sucks. Heavy. Humid. Hot. The absolute worst. Of course, this is only a build-up to the first monsoon rain that we hope will happen on June 21st, not a day later. You do realize that's four days away right? MONSOON IS FOUR DAYS AWAY! For some reason, I truly am excited this year. I want to see green and rain and mud.

2) Ramadan is next week. You do realize Ramadan is probably on June 28th or 29th? That's like next week. Time to prepare myself. Month of fasting, here we come! It will be a nice change to have Ramadan in the rain like last year. It will be over by July 26th or 27th? Meaning we have the whole of August to picnic and party. I was at Lulu's yesterday looking for chevre and stumbled upon a mountain of vimto, reminding me that Ramadan is just  around the  corner. For more on the mountains of vimto, read my old post here. 

3) Naturally, our municipality totally screws up their road-building schedule by ensuring the main highway and roads are under construction in the middle of tourist season. Right now they're in the middle of building two major bridges (one near Saada over Um Al Ghawarif roundabout) and the other at Hamdan/Lulu intersection. Furthermore, the main highway is shut from the clock-roundabout to the fountain round-about, causing wonderful traffic jams each morning, as policemen stand by the side of the road and watch blankly expecting the traffic jams to go away all by themselves. 

4) Casa Mia, the new Italian restaurant is open at Salalah Gardens Mall. I hear their Tiramisu is very good. I'm waiting to pay them a visit. Does anyone know if they serve gelato? I could do with some Italian gelato. Perhaps passion fruit, cookies, and nutella flavours. Oh yum.

5) I haven't seen an accident for two weeks. Something must be changing.

6) There's a major anti-drug campaign in Salalah from May 27th to June 25th I think. Posters everywhere. For some reason including photos of children. I didn't know drugs were a serious problem with younger kids. 

7) Yesterday I noticed a sign on a building near Lulu entitled the 'Association for Caring for Orphans' or something to that effect. It looks brand new. I'll have to investigate. If they're active, this is fantastic news. If they'll look at children born out of wedlock who are abandoned at the hospital in Salalah then sent up to the orphanage in Muscat, that would be even better. Orphans who have only lost their father but whose mother and siblings are alive are usually much better off because of the tribal network and support in Dhofar.

8) I stumbled upon a new chocolate (and watch and expensive gift) shop in new Salalah behind Barbecue Nation and near the new Al Fair. It's called Al Awadi. Their chocolates are darn good.

What's new with you?

Nadia