Wednesday 30 June 2010

Happy Canada Day!


It is July 1st today, and that means it's Canada's birthday!

On July 1st, 1867, Canada was founded. The British North American colonies of Nova Scotia, New Brunswick and the Province of Canada were formed into a federation of four provinces (the Province of Canada being divided, in the process, into Ontario and Quebec). Manitoba and the Northwest Territories joined the party in 1870, British Columbia in 1871, Prince Edward Island in 1873, Yukon Territories in 1898, Saskatchewan and Alberta in 1905, Newfoundland (later renamed Newfoundland and Labrador) in 1949 and the formation of Nunavut in 1999.


So, on occasion of Canada's 143rd birthday, here are some amusing facts about Canada:

1. Smarties, Crispy Crunch & Coffee Crisp are all Canadian.

2. Baseball is Canadian - First game June 4, 1838 - Ingersoll, ON.

3. Lacrosse is Canadian.

4. (Ice) Hockey is Canadian.

5. Basketball is Canadian.

6. Apple pie is Canadian .

7. Tim Hortons beats Dunkin' Donuts.

8. In the war of 1812, started by America, Canadians pushed the Americans back past their White House. Then they burned it, and most of Washington.

9. Canada has the largest French population that never surrendered to Germany.

10. They have the largest English population that never ever surrendered or withdrew during any war to anyone, anywhere. Ever. (They got clobbered in the odd battle but prevailed in all the wars).

11. Canada's civil war was fought in a bar and lasted a little over an hour.

12. The only person who was arrested in the civil war was an American mercenary, he slept in and missed the whole thing. He showed up just in time to get caught.

13. A Canadian invented Standard Time.

14. The Hudsons Bay Company once owned over 10% of the earth's surface and is still around as the world's oldest company - although an American company (NRDC Equity Partners) purchased them in July 2008.

15. The average dog sled team can kill and devour a full grown human in under 3 minutes.

16. They invented ski-doos, jet-skis, Velcro, zippers, insulin, the paint roller, roller skates, duct tape, the jolly-jumper, air conditioned vehicles, the Zamboni, the barcode, short wave radios, the Blackberry and the telephone.

17. The light bulb was actually invented by a Canadian (Henry Woodward patented it in 1874). The patent was bought by an American named Edison who improved upon the design and took credit for inventing it.

18. A Canadian invented Superman.

19. They have coloured money.

20. The handles on their beer cases are big enough to fit your hands with mitts on!

To show that Canadians are not just all about partying, here is a picture of the Canadian War Memorial in Green Park, London (just outside Buckingham Palace):


Over 1,000,000 Canadians came and fought in World War 1 & 2, and 113,663 of them died. The inscription on the memorial reads: "In two world wars one million Canadians came to Britain and joined the fight for freedom. From danger shared, our friendship prospers."

Enjoy the weekend everyone!

le fin.

Tuesday 29 June 2010

Muscat - Tehran flights start today.

The weekend is nearly upon us!

Today marks the first flight on Mahan Air between Muscat and Tehran. Excellent planning means that there is no information on a flight to Tehran available on the Muscat airport page, neither on Mahan Air's website (where it's impossible to actually book a flight to anywhere outside of Iran), nor on the website that's been advertised in the paper, www.bluelineholidays.com. Obviously there's not a lot of demand for trips to Iran currently! I wonder why!

And, as it's Wednesday, here's a funny picture from around town. If you see something funny, please send it to me!



=)

le fin.

Muscat 176th most expensive city to live in.

It's a slow news day today. But of some interest today was Mercer's Cost of Living report. The report basically lists the most expensive cities to live in for expatriates, based on a common set of goods, services, accommodation, etc.

The top 5 Most expensive cities to live in, as an expatriate, anywhere in the world are:

Luanda, Angola (1st)
Tokyo, Japan (2nd)
N'Djamena, Chad (3rd)
Moscow, Russia (4th)
Geneva, Switzerland (5th)

I'm amazed. I always thought Manhatten, London and Moscow were the most expensive cities. OK so Moscow is up there in 4th, but where are the others?!

The top 5 most expensive cities to live in anywhere in the Middle East & African region are:

Luanda, Angola (1st)
N'Djamena, Chad (3rd)
Libreville, Gabon (7th)
Victoria, Seychelles (13th)
Tel Aviv, Israel (19th)


But Muscat comes in at 176th place. So where did we stack up against the other major cities in the GCC?

Abu Dhabi, UAE (50th)
Dubai, UAE (55th)
Manama, Bahrain (139)
Riyadh, KSA (144)
Doha, Qatar (146)
Kuwait City, Kuwait (152)
Muscat, Oman (176)
Jeddah, KSA (181)

And it's been my experience that groceries are more expensive here than in Dubai. Hmmph!

Also, a small highlight, local manufacturer Oman Plastics Industries began making "oxo-biodegrable" plastic bags. I am assuming these are the new type of plastic bags that degrade a lot quicker than your standard shopping bag. I wonder if any of the local supermarket chains will start using them?

That's all for today!

le fin.

Monday 28 June 2010

Shanfari assimilated merge with Zubair, and other stuff.

So the big news today is that Shanfari Automotive merged with Zubair Automotive's Dodge, Jeep & Chrysler brands to form Dhofar Automotive. A 70% - 30% joint venture (in Zubairs favour, of course) will see a new flagship showroom built in Wattayah (where else?!) and the closure of the existing showrooms & service centres in Azaiba and Al Khuwair (or is that MQ, never really been sure what to call that area). A new service centre is also being planned in Seeb near the airport which may be converted into a showroom in the future.

So what's the news here then? Having nearly bought a Dodge Charger last year, I went to both Shanfari and Zubair for quotes. When I went to Shanfari first, I said "Oh but the guys at Zubair were willing to give me this price, and free servicing for x years, and a years free insurance". I said that having absolutely no idea whether they would actually offer all that, but the response from the Shanfari guys was: ok, well for you we can offer you this very special price, and match that offer. Now having a firm offer in hand, I went to Azaiba to see the Zubair people and showed them the offer and said that I'd rather buy from Zubair blah blah blah, and Zubair ended up offering me a price 900 rials below sticker price, with full options, 3 years servicing and some insurance deal too, all with a financing plan to boot.

That is the benefit of a competitive market. Shanfari and Zubair have obviously decided that they can make more profits by monopolising the only un-monopolised brands in the Oman automotive market and mark my words: Pricing will increase. And lets not even start talking about the pricing of the spare parts. One only has to look at the plight of local Omani businessman Tariq al Kiyumi and his battle with Bahwan for Toyota parts.

Shanfari had a fairly good reputation for it's service department (even winning a coveted Other Oman Automotive Award for best Sports car mechanic and best spare parts dealership) which offered usually cheaper parts and usually better service than Zubair did. Hopefully Shanfari's service team will get to call the shots in the newly formed Dhofar Automotive. I doubt it though.

In other news, Oman have been busy cranking up their commodities exports. the Ministry of National Economy recently issued the monthly statistical bulletin for May 2010 (yes OK things are a bit slow, its the summer). Contained within that bulletin, is the Foreign Trade report which amongst other things shows a significant jump in Chemical products (125.9%), Plastics & rubbers (125.3%) and Minerals (88.6%) exports. Should any of you be savy investors, you might want to take a punt on some listed companies in those market sectors before they post their results. Could be a nice little earner. Also, notably, Transport Equipment imports (aka cars!) have dropped 35% in the last 12 months from Jan '09 - Jan '10. Now doesn't that tell a story?!

And in a follow up to the Oman Rail network (I like trains) some more information has emerged on the planned network. The Sohar-Muscat section (260 km) will have eight passenger stations and an unknown number of cargo stops; the Muscat-Duqm section (526 km) will have nine passenger stations and two cargo stops; the Sohar-Buraimi section (140 km) will have four passenger stations and two cargo stops; and Sohar-Khatmat Melaha section (58 km) will have four passenger stations and one cargo stop. I should imagine Oman Air and local bus companies / cabbies will not be too pleased with the number of planned passenger stops. Especially because the real benefit of rail is in the movement of goods, not passengers. As evidenced by the rail networks of North America (almost entirely goods these days).

Approval has been given for the construction of two lines for the railway track which will be operated at a speed of 200 km/h for passenger trains, and 80 km-120 km for cargo trains. The specification of the tracks is for speeds up to 350 km/h - potentially an upgrade there then!

Perhaps the biggest surprise of all though, is that the trains will be operated by electricity. I would have thought that Diesel would have been a much better option. Perhaps the people in charge haven't noticed the considerable demands on the electricity network here in Oman?

And lastly, what on earth happened with England last night? And am I right in assuming that the linesman didn't award the goal because he was too slow to actually get to a place to do his job? I guess it's Brazil's for the taking now then!

le fin.

Sunday 27 June 2010

HM's special representative passed away & Muscat airport workers go on strike


If you happen to have been watching any of the Omani TV channels today, you will have noticed that they are broadcasting the Quran non-stop. This is because HH Sayyid Thuwaini bin Shihab passed away this morning.

The most senior member of the ruling family, Sayyid Thuwaini was a "Special Representative" of the Sultan and was listed next to HM in official line-ups. When the Sultan is absent, he chairs meetings of the cabinet or the specialised councils. A former Wali (governor) of Muscat, he was a key member of the Financial Affairs and Energy Resources Council.

The Omani Flags will be flying at half-mast for the next 3 days as the nation mourns the loss. This has been quite a long time coming, as HH Sayyid Thuwaini has been out of the public eye for over a decade due to illness.

HH Sayyid Fahad has been named as the successor, and I suspect the papers tomorrow will be running this as their lead story with lots more information on both of the men.

In other news, an impromptu strike happened at the Muscat International Airport on Friday night. It appears that the baggage chuckers handlers got the hump because of non-payment of salaries and bonuses. The showed their dis-gruntledness by refusing to do their jobs late on Friday evening. About 5 flights were affected, and many people went home without their luggage. The administration at Muscat International Airport deserve a slap for the simple reason of not telling the passengers what was going on. No mention of a strike was made, in fact, no notifications were made at all. Presumably the line of thought was that if they say nothing, a few hundred people will just naturally assume that all of their bags vanished and they'll just go away, eventually.

Also, rather amusingly, the only paper to carry the story was the Muscat Daily with a small section. None of the other (English language) papers carried the story. As usual then.

It's England V Germany tonight. Hopefully ze Germanz will be seen off and dealt with swiftly by the boys in red. We'll see.

A slight update on the Intercon sports tent. The Intercon just rented the land to a third party company that is running the World Cup sports village. A RO 2.000 for entry fee, it was a pretty great idea. That is, of course, until the foolish management of the Sports village decided that selling alcohol to kids was a good idea. They were busted, and subsequently had their license removed. The only thing it's got to do with The Intercon, is that it's on Intercon land.

le fin.

Friday 25 June 2010

Local spot light: Muscat Buy or Sell

For those of you that are facebook users, you probably will have at least seen this facebook group: Muscat Buy or Sell. This group is for locally based people who are looking to flog stuff. It's an electronic version of the Al Fair supermarket notice board. All sorts of items appear to be up for sale, ranging from pets, kitchen equipment, electronics, cameras, furniture and vehicles.


If you're looking for a bargain, it is worth at least having a look. It appears to have been a group started by a South African (perhaps I'm wrong) by the name of Azelene Williams and has been gathering speed at a remarkable pace.

As the summer slow-down takes hold, and the wives flee to cooler climates, I wonder if we will see adverts tail off, or pick up? I suspect gadget sales will do just fine. Anyone for an iPhone 4?

le fin.

Wednesday 23 June 2010

Oman's rail network.

Thanks to an anonymous reader who emailed me the picture below:

As you can see, there are 4 phases. Phase 1 being Muscat - Sohar, Phase 2 being Muscat - Al Duqm (thats a long stretch!); Phase 3 being Sohar to Al Ain, and Phase 4 being Sohar - Dibba.

That suggests a lot for Sohar! And Duqm - the line down to Duqum predicatably snakes down to Nizwa, but surprisingly shoots off to Ibra in a separate arm. Now that part of the country is still mountainous, and the cost of building that rail connection strikes me as a bit of a financial non-starter. Is Ibra a large importer of something? Does it export minerals or something? Surely it'd be more economical to truck it from Nizwa? Or a station closer to Ibra along the way to Duqm.

There's not much mention of the Salalah connection, but presumably that is in the works, or perhaps all things stop at Duqm for the time being?

In other news, Muscat Airport Main Contract 3 (MC3) is still not awarded. Addendum 4 was issued recently and there are still tendering Contractors in the race. Latest rumours say it's a three horse race between: Bactel, CCC - TAV (a Joint Venture), and J&P. Didn't that big thing in the news paper the other month say that it would be awarded by the end of June? I guess that's not happening then!

Enjoy the weekend everyone - I wonder if England will actually win their game tonight in the World Cup? kick off in less than 2 hours!

le fin.

Monday 21 June 2010

Resuming transmission.

And I'm back.

A combination of laziness, work, social activities and a vacation got in the way of me blogging.

But now here we are. A few things to blog about today:

Intercon Hotel. So the Intercon people decided to setup a large World Cup tent so people can watch the games (and buy drinks). Except that they had their license to sell alcohol removed because of selling to minors. I dont know if the license has been reinstated yet, but thats just very foolish from the Intercon management. I'm told that the Duke at the Crowne Plaza has been decked out in astro-turf... how, erm? sporty?

And in other unfortunate news, as broken on twitter and then picked up by Other Oman the other night - a man in his early 20's drowned in the Intercon pool 2 days ago. He and his friends were drinking and his friends thought he was acting. Terrible really.

I recently took a vacation, and flew with my airline of choice, Etihad. This time my wife and I got upgraded to Business class. Unlike the fortunate first class flyer Muscat Jet Driver, I am usually permanently doomed to Economy (cattle class). Perhaps one day I'll experience the luxury of First Class on a long haul flight, but I suspect that day will be a long way off. However, I do have this report on Etihad Business Class for an Etihad Airbus A330: The service is great, you suddenly become a human, the food / drink choices are much better, and the cafe service which was available the entire time was great as well. The chairs have a massage machine built into them, which certainly made for a nice relaxing change from the usual cattle herders in the back. The lay-flat beds, were built for children. I got off the plane after 8 or so hours with a sore back as a result of attempting to sleep but just not even getting close! I was grateful for the upgrade, it was a nice experience, but now I know about the chairs, I'll not be paying for it any time soon. Additionally, 3 people I was aware of in Business had faulty entertainment systems (my wife was one of them) - not really very good!

I'd love to see what First class is like! I'm sure if I found a suitcase full of money I'd probably complain about the colour of the bag.

More from here soon!

le fin.

Wednesday 9 June 2010

Dictionary Game


 Dictionary game is an amazing way teaches how to use dictionary.In this game you can learn more words and their meanings.It also gives details about whether a searched word is an  adjective, verb or noun. Have Fun and learn more.
Dictionary Game
Read the clue and search for the word in the dictionary which best fits the clue.Then label the box correctly.




Source:BBC

Easy and Simple way of learning Decimals

Decimals


Use our testing room to compare different decimal's values.




    


For More Visit Virtual kidspace!

75 Children Websites

Many useful sites are there.Here is a few collection of sites for Children's safe search,studies,homework,Maths,Science,Books,health,News,Games and More.
KIDS
Kid’s Portals & Safe Searching.

  1. ALA – Great Web Sites for Kids
  2. Ask for Kids.com
  3. Awesome Library.org
  4. CyberPatrol – Software for safe searching
  5. CYBERsitter – Internet filter software
  6. CyberSleuth Kids.com
  7. Dibdabdoo.com – Safe searching for kids
  8. Family Friendly Search.com
  9. Google.com – Guide to search preferences
  10. Internet Security Software from Amazon.co.uk
  11. Kids.gov – Kid’s portal from the US Government
  12. Kids.Yahoo.com – Kids Games, Movies, Music and More
  13. KidsClick ! Web Search
  14. KidSites.com
  15. KOL – AOL Web Site for Kids
  16. MSN – Search options
  17. Net Nanny – Parental control software
  18. Open Directory – Kids and Teens
  19. Pitara.com News, reference, games
  20. SearchEdu.com – Searches educational sites
  21. Surf Net Kids.comWebsite Reviews for Kids, Teachers and Families
  22. TekMom’s Search Tools for Students

HEALTH

  1. Kids Health.org
  2. Children First.NHS.uk
Maths
3.EducationCity.com

Books and stories
  1. Amazon.co.uk – Children’s Books
  2. The Word Pool – Children’s book site for parents, teachers and writers
  3. UK Children’s Books – Directory of authors, illustrators, publishers
  4. BBC CBEEBIES

Games


  1. FamilyGames.com – Fun, Games and Trivia
  2. Funology.com
  3. Yahoo ! Games
  4. Yahoo ! Video Games – Video Game Demos, Cheats, Reviews, Previews and News
News & Global Issues
  1. Time for Kids.com
  2. CBBC Newsround (BBC)
  3. First News.co.uk
  4. The Newspaper.org.uk
  5. Exhibitions at Wolverhampton Art Gallery – Looking at the ways in which children can become caught up in conflicts
  6. Global Gang.org.uk – Global Issues, from Christian Aid
Homework Help / Reference
  1. About.com
  2. Encyclopedia Britannica
  3. Fact Monster.com – Dictionary, Encyclopedia, and Homework Help
  4. HomeWork Elephant.co.uk – Homework help at your fingertips
  5. Homework Help – MSN Encarta
  6. Homework Help.com – Find Online Tutors
  7. Homework Standards Site – UK Government
  8. LearnThings.co.uk – Learning resources for the UK national curriculum From The Guardian
  9. MSN Encarta Online Encyclopedia, Dictionary, Atlas,and Homework
  10. school.DiscoveryEducation.com
  11. SuperKids.com – Educational Software Review
  12. Topmarks.co.uk – Search for homework help & revision websites




Science & Nature

  1. BBC – CBBC
  2. National Geographic Kids – Kid’s games, animals, photos, stories and more
  3. Scatty.com – Kid’s jokes & activities for children of all ages
Things To Do

  1. Build – It – Yourself.com – Toys, robots, puppets, contraptions .
  2. Cartoon Network – play games, win prizes and have fun
  3. FunBrain.com – Education Site for Kids and Teachers
  4. Funorama – Fun for Kids
  5. Global Children’s Art Gallery – Children’s drawings, paintings, greeting cards, prints and more .
  6. MagicTricks.Com – Magic Tricks for Children
  7. MSN Lifestyle – Family & Parenting
  8. The Idea Box.com – Kids crafts, games, recipes, activities and more

    Please Share your favorite children sites.

Monday 7 June 2010

10 Cool Facts about Earth


Earth  formed around 4.54 billion years ago.It is the fifth-largest planet in the solar system.It is called the "Goldilocks planet."

"Goldilocks and the Three Bears," is the story about a little girl named Goldilocks.In that story,her porridge couldn't be too hot or too cold. And her bed couldn't be too hard or too soft. Similarly,in our home planet("Earth"), everything is just right for life to exist. It's warm, but not too warm. And it has water, but not too much water. 

Earth is the only planet known to have large amounts of liquid water. Liquid water is essential for life. Earth is the only planet where life is known to exist. 

10 Cool Facts about Earth

1.Earth is almost a sphere



2.Earth is mostly iron, oxygen and silicon

3.70% of the Earth’s surface is covered in water

4.The Earth’s atmosphere extends out to 10,000 km

5.The Earth’s molten iron core creates a magnetic field

6.Earth doesn't take 24 hours to rotate on its axis.
 Earth
 Earth


7.Earth orbits around the Sun everyday.

8.Earth has 1 moon and 2 co-orbital satellites

9.Earth is the only planet known to have life

10.Earth actually has 365.2564 days for a year. It’s this extra .2564 days that creates the need for leap years.