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JUNE 2007
> JULY 2007
AUGUST 2007
click pic to play this short film of melodica improv and sunset
our new apartment friend
one of the many wonderful minarets in muscat
mountains south of muscat
three friendly locals
crabs on the beach at quriyatt [click to play]
Our life in Muscat has settled down into a routine of early mornings and early evenings. Those are the best times to venture out of the apartment to avoid the heat. So we've been getting much earlier nights than we ever did in Mongolia, which is no bad thing, and watching the sunset from the beach has become an almost daily fixture.
I have now produced an hour of solo melodica recordings on the beach at Al-Azaiba (our district of Muscat). Each has the ocean tides as a constant background, and I have found the experience of performing alongside the ebb and flow of the waters somewhat like performing alongside an Indian tampura. It provides a constantly fluctuating aural background to my improvisations, ever-present and ever-changing. It fills the gaps between breathes and phrases very well and gives a pleasing continuity to the series of Omani recordings (now spanning a little over 20 days and continuing).
Thurs 5th July 2007
Drove today for the first time since we left the UK, since as long as you have a clean UK licence you can drive in Oman without changing your licence to a local one. It was an interesting experience, since the cars over here are left-hand drive. It is a really strange feeling when your left hand instinctively goes to change gears, but you have to redirect the command from your brain to your right hand instead! But I started to get used to it after a while, and the roads in Muscat are mostly A-road-style dual carriageways, so you have a reasonable amount of time to think about what you're going to do next. Driving on the right side of the road made for a few confusing moments, also - especially at roundabouts! I am endeavouring to be comfortable with driving on the "wrong" side of the road before we find ourselves on the insanely congested roads of Dubai.
Thurs 12th July 2007
We have a new friend in our apartment building - some kind of small lizard. He or she doesn't seem to get up to much during the day - freezing when you get near, and usually hiding behind the strip-light. It's the closest we're going to get to a pet in these parts, I think, and maybe it (nickname: Skeeter) is keeping the flies at bay!
We had our visas renewed at the start of this week, since they were only valid until the 7th July. That means we can now stay up until around the 10th August and then head off to Dubai. I still need to get my degree certificate attested at the UK Embassy over here, which I'm planning to do on Saturday, all being well. This is so my work visa can be arranged for teaching at CMA. The date on the certificate is June 11th 1997 - amazing how much has happened since that day, a little over 10 years ago. I wonder what will happen in the next 10? A couple of Grammy's, of course, and a gold disc or two...
Thurs 19th July 2007
Another week in Muscat has come and gone. Yesterday, we finally managed to get to the UK Embassy to have my certificate attested for my UAE work permit. We just about made it before closing time, and I paid 14 Rials to get 5 official photocopies attesting to the genuinity of my degree. I have to go back sometime next week to pick them up after the Consulate has formally okayed them.
The call-to-prayer is fascinating. For the first week I was pleasantly surprised at each prayer time to hear music suddenly erupting into the air from the many minarets around the city. Besides the singing from the nearest mosque, it is possible to hear some of the voices from nearby ones, too. It produces an interesting interpenetration effect, with the seperate solo lines joining together to make an unintentional polyphony. I have recorded some of it (of course!) and it works well under electronic manipulation, revealing unexpected sounds and moments as its time and pitch are altered and looked at more closely.
Mon 23rd July 2007
Today is Oman's National Day, celebrating the date when Sultan Qaboos came to power back in the 70's. I've spent the morning beginning the long task of classifying the many, many photos we've taken since leaving the UK. Once this work is done, I'll be able to crop and code them into the relevant photo sections in this continuing travelogue. There are so many to choose from, it's difficult to edit the selection down, but I'm getting there! I'll annouce the arrival of all the pictures once the editing and coding is complete, hopefully sometime in the coming weeks not months!
Tues 24th July 2007
Yesterday afternoon we went to the fishing town of Quriyatt, about a 90-minute drive from Muscat. We went with a couple of friends (one of whom drove) and took a great scenic route through the Al-Hajar moutains south of the city. It's real Holy Land scenery - barren mountainsides, rocks and frankincense trees on either sides of the winding roads. You can't imagine 40 days in the wilderness until you've seen this kind of landscape. It's awe-inspiring and terrifying in equal measures - especially to imagine being out there in the heat without air-conditioning or shelter of any kind. I think it's the extreme heat that brings on these kind of fears, since we never felt them in Mongolia, even when we were up in the mountains during thunderstorm season!
The town of Quriyatt itself is very quiet. We arrived during the 1-4pm siesta, so it was especially quiet, with only half-a-dozen goats and three smiling locals taking a break next to the town fort (who sportingly didn't mind being photographed by four nosey tourists). The fort is in pretty bad shape, with what look like bullet or cannonball holes (a la Beau Geste) - or general wear-and-tear (considerably less Beau Geste). Unfortunately, it was closed to the public on that day, so we never got to see inside.
We stopped for a snack at a small cafe before venturing to take a look at the town's fish souk (fish market - which of course smelt pretty bad, no thanks to the fly-blown fish heads we realised we were standing next to at one point!), before heading straight for the pristeen beach. The sand was a lovely dark colour and the crashing waves were slightly wilder than they generally are on the beach at Al-Azaiba near our apartment.
One thing that was a pleasant surprise was the sudden realisation that there were masses of tiny crabs all along the water's edge. We've only spotted one or two crabs over the last couple of months, but the beach at Quriyatt has loads of them - tiny little things, all waiting for juicy morsels at the water's edge. Watching them edge forward nervously, closer and closer to the shoreline, before scurrying back when the tide comes too close was hilarious! I made a short film of this and click the pic on the left to watch it.
All in all, it was a lovely way to spend the day and a great opportunity to get out of the hussle and bussle, no pavements and endless traffic of the city.