Eid Mubarak !

Festival Time,

Yes Ramadan is ending, ended and now behind us. It wasnt anywhere near as bad as last year. I think we are use to it now, but we knew to sneak our Maccas and Icereams into the car and eat below the windows during daylight hours. We had a lot of time together, Darren taking the boys to school at 8.00am and then all home by 3pm, so lots of time going to the beach and across the road to the club, where Darren and the boys did some gym/squash and I sat by the pool, Yea well no, I had to join in the squash, but not all the time. Cant believe we have used our own pool a few doors up. Well we might be soon they've doubled the club fees.

So after 10 weeks of holis, were 4 weeks into term and yes another week off, Yipppeee never had that before in my working career, paid for more than 4 wks a year holis........You know this time is like the Arabic xmas time, much partying and gift giving.

So where to go, hmmm Darrn co. cant make up their mind how long they should give their staff off of an Arabic public holi, damn Aussies. Was going to go to Jordan great specials, but needed to know exact dates...too late....Shall we go to Muscat teh home of Ali Barber and forty theives . Next time.....Everyone has enticed us into a camping trip in Oman Acacia forest.

Hmmm, buying tents, chairs, hey dont we have this stuff at home !!!!

Seven familes head off. Can you beleive it mum and Kel, 3.5 hrs at border....best way I can describe the road to Kansab, Great Ocean road without any vegitation. Beautiful. Got to our spot down unmade roads and into the forest, A friend who is a security specialist, (hmm, yes your thinking would be correct...... ) tells us it is much like the plains in Africa. well heres a picture,

This is our tents, same as home, very very dusty, no water.

Hmmm, what shall we do with the rubbish, while we go off to the beach, yea....we'll put it in the trees the goats cant get up there...yea....right !!!!

After the beach, everyone was going on the boats, Josh decided to go out on the boats again with his mate and their family snorkeling and watching dolphins, while Darren Nath and I went for a drive up the mountains.

Unbelieveable. We drove all the way up to the plateau, I think I read 3,000mt above sea level !! You can see in the far distance the top first point where the plateau is, a farming village was there, then a little further to the top, you cant see it in the picture, to the listening area, where the defence notice said to KEEP OUT! So we did.

By the time we got to the top the temp had dropped from 38 down to 31, wow and a cool

Its actually hard to see from the pictures but we drove up the mountains on a verticle dirt road, very hair raising, at one point Darren click the shift down and a big clunk was heard and i screamed thinking we lost the breaks and were going to go straight over the clift, I reckon it was about a 1000mt drop at the end.

In this picture you can make out the road we drove along and at the very bottom, in front of the furtherest mountains , you can see the flat land where we drove up from.

A spot of cricket then pack up and on our way home.

And a great chat with my mate maddy when I got home, finished off a good weekend.

Hi All,

I'm not even sure how longs its been since I had time to sit down and type. Since summer break its been quiet hectic and I havent really stopped. The boys have moved to new schools with Josh now in Grade 7 high school and Nath G5. They both love it and enjoy the greater amount of sport on offer. Josh is loving Rugby and his coach says he is a natural, straight into the forward line, had a bit of problems with the NZers at the school, I think they thought they were pretty hot at the rugby until the Aussie boy came along and gave them a run for their money...they werent impress initially and now I think they have warmed to the new kid on the block, their pride dinted a little.

We have met an absolutely fantastic family, they are wonderful, friendly and a joy to be with. From the yarra valley they have 5 boys (so they know all about my woes and trials) 2 boys are here with them and the others home. Both are Josh and Naths age and get along like long time mates, yippppeeee, it really makes me feel more settled here. Jen and I have so much in common, she is an easy target like me and we get into a lot of funny trouble but we laugh and move on. I think if i had my time again I would have moved out to the country with my boys they would have loved the space too.

School for me is going great. Alot of organising, planning and teaching though. But we are moving forward so I suppose Im OK, I often think of a missed mate during work as he got me into this work, So my love and thoughts are always with him.........I think its because he helped me so much, that this week, my boss is nominating my department for an award, the best run team in the companies group - hotel, construction, schools and cars. I was touch and my buddy Silvia was rapt, all our hard work has been worth it. So who knows, well at least we may get a free night out at the formal award function....stay tune. Oh and we just had an award night for Darrens company, very nice, got to frock up and everything . And Darren's mate Muzza won an award. So the spot light fell on our table. Well it fell three times, we seem to be with the winners.

We headed up to Oman in Aug. with Wendy, Murry and family and stayed at the Golden Tulip again, very nice.

and checked out the fort while we were there. Heres the boys hunging around.

And here I am, caught eating the dates off he date palm, Yummm, you havent had a date until you eat one straight from the tree, So sweet, my dad would love them. Like soft warm toffee.

The view out the fort window looking toward the beach, about 42 dgrees in the shade.

Can you count the sea birds along the rocks??

They were lined all along the waters edge, as it is breeding time for them. They were also all on the water and our boatman drove straight through them and they flew all around us.

Wendy and Josh watching the birds take off. What a great day, snorkelled and saw Dolphins, The colour fish and coral fantastic. No stingers this time Kel!