Rugby Team Fundraiser: Comedy Night

Those of you that remember the last comedy night held at the Rugby Club will remember how much fun it was. They're doing it again, this time to raise funds for away trips. And this time, for your RO 10, you also get a free complimentary drink!

The bar's prices are significantly cheaper than the prices found at the Craic Attack events, and they support home-grown local Omani talent (as well as a few imported residents). Call 9577 4018 for more information and to buy tickets, it will be a fun night, and you'll help support two local groups with your patronage.

Also, there will be a raffle with more prizes to be won, including dinner for two at the Raddisson, Oman Mobile internet dongles and many more things - tickets for the raffle are RO 1 each!

le fin.

Happy Halloween!

Happy Halloween everyone! I don't know if there will be kids anywhere trick or treating, but if they are I imagine they'll be somewhere around MQ or The Wave.

If you fancy a bit of mid-week partying, Zouk are throwing a Halloween party tonight. If you go dressed up in costume, there is no entry charge (just pay for food and drinks as you want them at the bar) and there will be prizes for the best-dressed Halloween costumes. I'm told that there will be special cocktails and shots just for tonight, and that the bar has been decorated to suit the occasion. I wonder how many ghost's in white sheets will attend?!

:)

le fin.

Ahmed Ahmed for one night only

The ever-popular Craic Attack group is bringing Egyption born (but raised in America) comedian Ahmed Ahmed is bringing his Just Like Us tour to Muscat this Wednesday night.


Tickets cost RO 15 and available from all the usual outlets from today!

le fin.

More on the Oman Railway plan

Thanks to Alex Adams of Muscat Daily for the latest update on the Sultanates railway plan in today's Business section.

Pertinent facts of the railway line are:

• It will be 1000 KM long with sub-lines branching to feed various towns (eg Nizwa)
• It will be a dual line (one each way)
• Passenger trains will reach speeds of 200 KM/h
• Freight trains will reach speeds of 120 KM/h
• It will be a fully electrified line, allowing for upgrading in the future should it be required
• Expected passengers per day between Muscat and Batinah region to be 3000; between Muscat and Salalah, 1000 people per day.
• Expected freight to be exported to UAE each day around 11mn tonnes, and imported around 2.5mn tonnes.
• The tender for Construction is expected to be floated in Q4 of 2012 or Q1 of 2013, with completion slated for 2017

Additionally, the UAE, Saudi Arabia and Kuwait will be using Diesel trains on their rail networks, while Bahrain and Qatar will be joining Oman on the electrified route. I wonder how border crossings will work - in order to compete with air-travel, the immigration procedures will need to be streamlined. I also guess no direct trains will be available to the UAE - because of the different train technologies, a passenger will have to change trains at the border, a bit of an irritant.

Anyway it's exciting stuff, if you're sad like me and like trains.

le fin.

Halloween Party!

For anyone interested, there will be a pick-up game of touch rugby held on Shatti beach this Thursday at 4pm. Then at 8pm, the doors will open for the halloween party at the club. The drinks are cheaper here than any of the hotel bars in town, and there is a fantastic outdoor area with overhead fans to keep you cool. At RO 4 for non-members, and food and drink specials available, it should be a fun evening! You can buy tickets on the door.

le fin

Muscat International Airport MC3 awarded for RO 706 Million

Finally, after a Tender process of nearly 2 entire years, today the Tender board awarded the airport building contract (MC3) for RO 706 Million to the Contractor Bechtel. So here's a new logo to get used to seeing when driving past the airport:
What is strange about the award is that Bechtel were the most expensive of the three final Tenderers for the MC3 package, behind consortium's lead by CCC and J&P.

Now, I happen to currently be reading a book called "Confessions of an economic hitman" in which Bechtel are specifically being named as being a favoured Contractor with the US AID and similar aid organizations. Well worth a read if you have the time! Funnily enough, click here to see Bechtel's work in Iraq - the Client..... USAID!

Timing is a funny thing, sometimes. I wonder why Bechtel were awarded the job, when they were the highest of the three final tenderers? Technical expertise?

le fin.

British & Commonwealth Citizens oppurtunity to see The Queen

For those that have not received the email, I've published it in it's entirety here:

Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II and His Royal Highness The Duke of Edinburgh will visit Oman on 25-28 November 2010, at the invitation of His Majesty Sultan Qaboos Bin Said Al Said, to celebrate the 40th Anniversary of The Sultan's reign and the strong relationship between Oman and the United Kingdom. There are two opportunities for members of the British and Commonwealth community to experience the visit (other events by invitation only). The attached letter explains what they are and how you can participate.

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HER MAJESTY THE QUEEN’S STATE VISIT TO OMAN, NOVEMBER 2010

Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II and His Royal Highness The Duke of Edinburgh will visit Oman on 25-28 November 2010, at the invitation of His Majesty Sultan Qaboos Bin Said Al Said, to celebrate the 40^th Anniversary of The Sultan’s reign and the strong relationship between Oman and the United Kingdom. The British Embassy would like as many members of the British and Commonwealth community as possible to have the opportunity to participate in the visit.

With this in mind, we have agreed with our Omani hosts that the public will have access to two events:

The Official Welcome: An opportunity to line the route as Her Majesty The Queen and His Royal Highness The Duke of Edinburgh drive past on their way to be greeted by His Majesty The Sultan at the start of the official programme. This will mean standing by the side of the road for around an hour and a half;

The Horse Show: The Sultan’s horses and some of the best horsemen and women in the country will perform for Their Majesties for just over an hour. All members of the audience will be seated, but will need to be in place for at least an hour before the show begins. The show will take place in the afternoon.

Both events are outside and will involve protracted waiting times, so may not be appropriate for very young children or those with special needs. For security reasons, we are not able to confirm precise timings or locations at this stage.

Since space is limited – 200 tickets for the Official Welcome and 300 for the Horse Show – we will hold a lottery to decide who gets a ticket. In order to give as many people as possible the chance to participate, please only specify attendance at one event or the other, not both.

If you wish to enter the lottery, please send the form below (click here for the form) to the Embassy’s Consular Section by fax: 2460 9011 or by email: muscat.consular@fco.gov.uk, by 14:30 on Monday 25 October.

Those successful in the lottery will be notified by email on Wednesday 27 October and will be given further details about the event they will participate in next month.

Noel Guckian

Dr Noel Guckian OBE

Her Majesty’s Ambassador to the Sultanate of Oman

le fin.

Oman tourist visa price hiked from RO 6 to RO 20

Well it had to happen, and congratulations to Muscat Daily for covering it (coincidentally, when are they ever going to get around to making a website?) on their front page today.

Tourist Visit Visa's have been hiked from RO 6 to RO 20. A pretty sharp increase in the visa charge, but in line with the charges being levied by the UAE. Of course those carrying passports on the magic list don't have to pay the visa charges in the UAE, but will now have to pay RO 20 instead of previously RO 6 when coming to Oman now.

It'd be interesting to see the revenues generated from the visa fee. What do you lot think about the increase in fees?

le fin.

Craic Attack

Tonight at 8pm, the latest in the Craic Attack series gets under way. Tickets are a rather reasonable RO 12, and get there early to get a good seat - it's first come first serve.

You can get tickets from Al Fair, or call 9555 5699 for more information.

Have a great weekend everyone!

le fin.

local news round up

It's been a busy week, and we're only half way!

A couple of news stories I've meant to comment on recently are bunched together here.

Firstly, the tragic story of an Indian citizen left waiting for her embassy to come to her aid at Muscat International Airport. For those of you that have not yet heard about this story (picked up by the Gulf News on the 10th), which broke last Sunday (8th October), you could be forgiven: it was not covered in the local press. (But it was picked up by local blogger English Girl in Oman).

The key points of this story are as follows:

The Indian citizen was working in Muscat as a housemaid for her Omani sponsor. After just 2 months of work, the housemaid was sent home to India by the sponsor due to ill-health. It is evident that this woman had some serious health issues, and was no doubt ill. She lost her passport somewhere in Qatar when changing planes to continue on to her home in Chennai. Because she lost her passport, she was sent back to her port of origin, Muscat. With no passport, ROP immigration could not grant this woman entrance back into the country and thus she became stranded at the airport. The Indian embassy here in Muscat was notified of the situation within hours of the event occurring, but failed to send anyone to assist this person. Even the ROP contacted the Indian embassy but still no one from the embassy could be bothered to come and see this poor woman.

Perhaps this is what the Indian Embassy staff get up to...

After 5 days of being stranded in the airport, the woman had a seizure and died. When the Indian Ambassador Anil Wadwha was questioned as to what happened, he cited "procedural delays". What a bunch of incompetent, lazy and clearly lying people. To further rub salt in the wound, check out Issue #397 of The Week. Anil Wadwha is photographed 3 times at separate events in the "in town" photo section of the paper. It is disgraceful.

Next up: Her Majesty the Queen has formally published her travel dates. On November 25th, Oman will host The Queen and The Duke of Edinburgh until the 28th of November. I should imagine that the roads will be closed a lot!



The UAE is getting a 2 day (1 night) stop-in from The Queen on her way to Oman before hand.

The much-delayed Muscat Expressway is on track to be opened on the 18th November to mark the nations 40th National day. I dare say it will be far from complete, but it will certainly help ease traffic congestion on the Sultan Qaboos highway and 18th November street during rush hour, as well as no doubt aiding the traffic nightmare that is Ghala. Additionally, the road from Amerat to Bousher (or is it Al Khuwair?) is nearing completion and will also be opening soon.

And finally, in a "Did you know" section... The ROP maintain a fairly comprehensive website, where among many other services, they allow you to check to see if you have incurred any driving fines. Click here for the website, you'll need your drivers license number, and your numberplate. You can even choose to pay these fines online should you wish.

And a little history lesson for you all. The ROP's took over vehicle licensing duties and responsibilities on the 4th September 1970...... from the Muscat & Muttrah Municipality.

Thats all for today.

le fin.

Breaking news! AIO is BACK!

I had to do a double-take at my rss reader, but yes, finally, it seems that she is back.

Angry in Oman has reopened her blog!

le fin.

McDonalds

I hope you all had a nice weekend, I know I did!

I returned from vacation a few weeks ago, and was mildly surprised to discover that McDonalds here has started selling breakfasts. Quite how a Sausage McMuffin works here, I'm not sure (I'm assuming it's a beef patty) but I did sneak in a hash-brown during a moment of weakness. It was lovely, I do have a soft spot for those hash-browns.

Over the weekend I received an email from a friend linking me to a rather amusing story:

Click the link and watch the video on the page.... This person bought a Happy Meal and left it on her coffee table for 6 months, in New York, including the summer. Incredibly, the fries, burger and bun did not deteriorate or grow any mould. She took a picture of it every day for 6 months and made a video cataloguing her findings. I guess the news from this is that you can take up to 6 months to finish your Happy Meal!

McDonalds felt so strongly about this story that they actually released an official response to the story that stated that their burgers get mould too. Of course they would. I personally felt for sure the bun would get mouldy, but.... watch for yourself. I wouldnt be surprised if we start to see vacuum packed Happy Meals for sale next to Twinkies at gas stations soon!

More soon!

le fin.

TGIW

It's Wednesday again!

Not a lot on this weekend, but here are my two top highlights:

1. HiFM - Roger Sanchez house mix, recorded live in Ibiza earlier this year, a 4 hour set, kicks off at 9 pm. Great to warm up to before heading out for the night. Alternatively, you can listen online here.

2. Dj rita x. craft starts spinning at Zouk tonight. Check it out!

That's all. Enjoy your weekend! If you are running an event and would like me to include it in my weekend planner... please do email me at the address on the top right hand corner of the blog: mrsythe *at* gmail.com

More news on the new Sabco radio station soon.... check out 97.9 FM....

le fin.

Happy Thanksgiving

To those of you that are celebrating Thanksgiving today.... have a great day and enjoy the turkey!

More tomorrow!

le fin.

Asian Beach Games....

Here we are, on the 10th of October, with 59 days to go until the launch of the Muscat Asian Beach Games.

The clock is ticking, and work is well under way at the venues, and I have faith that the facilities will be completed on time for the games - just in time.

But I have learned some rather disturbing pieces of information in recent weeks. There is no way for me to fully verify them and so I'm sure there will be additional pieces of information to this story that may make it more understandable... please do comment.

Have you tried to book a hotel in Muscat during the games? You may find it hard to do so as many hotels have had their rooms block-booked by the Ministry of Tourism. Why have they done this? They did this to accommodate the more than 1500 registered athletes from 45 countries who are due to compete in the games. The nice hotel and apartment building that has been built at the main facility is not going to accommodate any of the athletes - it's all being used by VIP's and sponsors - I guess that makes sense, because then you'd be into a favouritism argument if one team gets accommodation over another team, etc. etc.

In fact, of the 7 athlete accommodation buildings that were planned, only 1 has been built. Of a reported $100,000,000 budget assigned to the MABGOC (Muscat Asian Beach Games Organizing Committee), reportedly over 80% of it has been spent on the hotel and apartment complex that is really being handled by OMRAN (ok that does make some sense because MABGOC would have no experience in construction procurement).

It is certainly food for thought: Why Mussanah? Why re-invent the wheel and focus most efforts on building a hotel and apartment building in the middle of nowhere, when existing facilities within Muscat could have easily been adapted and expanded upon to meet the needs of the games. A hotel could have been built at Mussanah by OMRAN to a 4* standard for a lot less than $80 million.

On another point - have you actually visited the site of the Games? Imagine the traffic nightmare that is bound to happen when people try and attend.... to date I have not seen any modifications to the roads or signage, or the motorway access and egress (a simple round about). I hope the ROP will step in and control the traffic otherwise it'll be the pandemonium that we see in Ghala every day. Traffic issues will be compounded by the fact that the athletes will also have to drive in and out of the venue as well.

It is good that other parts of Oman are benefiting from the Games, but it is unfortunate that the facilities being constructed have left little choice for the athletes but to stay in hotel rooms, which the teams themselves are reportedly expected to pay for themselves (I understand that some rooms will be provided for free by the MABGOC, but not all).

One does have to ask the question: Why do countries bid for and compete to host major sporting events? The answer (among many answers) is to do with promoting tourism to that country, and in this case, getting Oman noticed on the world stage as a future host of other major international events. Oman is a truly unique treasure: It's got golden sandy beaches, mangroves, mountains and desert dunes all within 90 minutes of each other, and lets not even get started on the beautiful areas in the Dhofar region and the interior regions. And yet, many supporters hoping to travel with their countries teams will find it hard to secure a place to stay during the Games.

In general, it does look as if the athletes requirements have perhaps been balanced against getting the hotel and apartments finished at Mussanah. And as for the spectators, well the spectators information section on the official website informs us, "Spectator’s Services information will be made available in the months leading up to the Game" - well seeing that there is less than 2 months to go until the "Game" begins, this website is now out of date.

What do you think about the Asian Beach Games? Will you be attending? Do you think Oman will benefit from this event?

le fin.

Weekend round up.

Ahh, Wednesday you shady lady, you're here again.

There's quite a lot going on this weekend, and here's my pick:

Wednesday night:

You might want to go and check out the circus at Qurum park. I've not heard any reviews on this, so if you've been, please do share your experiences with the rest of us.

Thursday night:

It's the 80's bash at t'intercon gardens. I've got my outfit sorted, keep your eyes peeled for my delightfully tacky gold chain, and sunglasses! For those of you that have been living in Muscat for a few years, you might remember the time before Hi FM started bringing acts to Muscat.... there was nothing here. We should support these gigs so that we get more...

Gates open at 7pm, and tickets cost RO 20.000 a pop. Call 9555 5699 for ticketing information.

Friday:

Muscat are taking on last seasons league champions, Bahrain in the only sport that matters at 4pm. Yes I'm talking about rugby again, and yes I'm asking you all to please come down and support the guys as they face up to last seasons champions. Real David and Goliath stuff - it should be good.
The kids section of the rugby club will be having a demonstration at 3pm on the field, ahead of the 4pm kick off of against Bahrain. If you would like to come, but don't know how to get to the field, click here for a map showing you where the field is, its right next to the ABA school in Al Khuwair.

le fin.

Robberies in Azaiba, and Salam Yiti.

Yesterday the news finally broke officially that Omran will be taking on a larger role in the development of the stalled Salam Yiti project. This has been an inevitable development ever since Sama Dubai shelved the project two years ago. The original Contractor on the project, Douglas OHI, will presumably have to re-tender in a competitive bid process along with everyone else who chooses to tender on the project.

It'll be good to see the waste-land that Yiti currently is developed into something not so ugly - construction on site is tipped to start again in Q1 2011.

I've recently been informed that there are thieves operating in the Azaiba area (again). Car stereos, ipods, bags, anything in cars seems to be the target this time. Even the face plate off of a car stereo was taken in one case. Be sure to lock up, and hide anything of value from view.

More tomorrow.

le fin.

Anyone listening to the radio lately?

The last month or so has been very disrupted for me: Mad rush at work before Eid, then a 2 week vacation, and now 2 weeks back in Muscat playing catch-up after my leave.

I have found myself in my car a lot lately. Sitting in traffic. What on earth is going on with Ghala? It's total gridlock there every day - I'm glad I do not have to work there every day or I think I'd be riding a motor bike.

So with all this time spent sitting in traffic, I have been listening to the radio occasionally, and have noticed a few changes - have you?

Firstly, as previously reported on this blog, Rachel has left - I wont miss her, I just didn't like her style, and honestly wondered why she remained in her job for so long. It now seems that the music being played is a lot more current, and Darren Shortt seems to have kicked his breakfast show up a notch - I like the Nathan segment, and the ice cream song (even though I hardly ever get it - names of things was never my strong point).

Other than the odd advertisement for the 80's night this weekend, I have not yet heard the new girl Erin's show, but I'm guessing that she will be starting soon. It'll be good to hear a new voice, if only for a change - but her voice seems to carry well on the radio. Perhaps I'm just biased to North American accents ;)

The widely spread "secret" that a new radio station is to launch now appears to be actually happening - I'm told that within a few weeks a new English language radio station will be launching nationwide here in Oman. It's format has been rumoured to be the following:

Morning show with a live DJ, rolling music until the drive-time and then another live DJ, and then more rolling music until the next morning show. I for one am not sure what to think about this. I remember when Hi FM started it's test broadcasts, and it was just non-stop music - and it was great - for a week, until all the songs in the rotation were well and truly played to death.

I have to wonder how effective that will be as a competitive radio - if I want non-stop music, I have access to that via my own cds and mp3s, and if I'm bored of a track I can always skip it - "why do I listen to the radio"? I thought to myself recently.

And, I realised, for me, I listen to the radio for different reasons at different times. In the mornings I'm listening because I'm driving to work, and I find the traffic reports are helpful - I have to drive to a lot of different places for my job. I also like the banter, and, shock horror, the music seems fresher recently. In the day, it's for some music that is not in my car's music system, and on Wednesday nights I like the house mixes. Which while we're on that for a moment: Hi FM appear to have obtained the rights for Roger Sanchez, a prominent house DJ from Miami and well known by aficionados of the world famous Winter Music Conference held annually there. Being someone that likes house music (amongst many other types of music) I look forward to hearing some of his mixes on the radio.

Now, those readers of my blog that have been following me for a while will know that I like to poke fun at Darren, and while researching for this post I saw the following picture:


What on earth is going on with that waist coat Daz!?!

I don't actually know the name of this new radio station - if you do, can you share it with us all?

Are you listening to HiFM lately, or am I the only one?! What do you all think about it? I honestly feel it's gotten a lot better than it was - how about you? If you do listen to the radio - why do you listen?

le fin.