Bootleg DVD Rentals & Oman Blood Test

Weekend one of Ramadan now completed, I feel like I need another break!

Wednesday evening consisted of a spot of physical exercise for a few hours, and then I went to a friends house for a social gathering. This friend of mine had decided to buy one of those huge inflatable water slides from Toys R Us and subsequently decided to throw a party for the kids, and parents. By the time the wife and I rocked up at 10pm the kids were a bit thin on the ground, but apparently the water slide was a big hit :)

On Thursday I saw a big car accident. Nothing new there. The 18th November St - Wizarat Road car crash count stands at 9 separate accidents that I've counted so far.

Thursday evening saw a nice bbq near the beach in Azaibah with some friends. A local fishermen sold us a Kingfish and it was fantastic :) It's a shame all the best catches go to Dubai. Doesn't anyone realise that there is no one left in Dubai?! Also we had some great beer-can chicken!

Beer can chicken is pretty much what it looks like: Get a chicken, stuff a half-full beer can into the hole and then whack it on the bbq for a few hours. I was of the opinion that the Diet Seven-up chicken was actually better than the beer ones, but diet-seven-up chicken just doesnt have quite the same ring to it, does it?

One night last week, the wife and I went to go and see a friend of ours and hang out, have dinner and watch a movie. Our friend had joined a DVD rental place next to the VKool store in Al Khuwair / MQ boundary. She paid RO 35 one time fee and could rent 25 movies before needing to re-charge her rental card. Not bad she said, until I saw the DVD - it was a fake! RO 35 (thats US$ 91) to rent 25 movies ($3.64/movie) is not too bad when comparing to Blockbuster or similar. But these movies are bootlegged, and skipped a bit towards the end. So, if you're going to rent movies, maybe give the Video Club near V Kool a miss - those movies they are renting out cost all of 100bz to produce, they're just raking the cash in.

In other news, it's that time for me, 2 years gone already, I had to go to give blood today at the Infectious Diseases Examination Section in Darsait. It's situated here and it looks like this:


So I turned up this morning at a little after 8:30 to be presented with the usual chaos that ensues when there's lots of people all trying to get the same thing done. The Omani ringmasters did a great job and I emerged 3 hours later clutching my stamped bit of paper and a bit of cotton wool stuck against my arm. I'll go for my labour card later this week I guess. To anyone interested to know what they test for, they test for: TB, VD and HIV. So all you naughty people who are fans of THC will be just fine.

le fin