Bryan Adams - Free tickets!

Unless you've been living in a hole recently, you will almost certainly know that Bryan Adams is coming to town on December 18th.

With special thanks to Darren from Hi FM, I am pleased to offer a pair of tickets for free (that's my favourite price by the way) to a lucky reader here on my blog.

You can enter by either leaving a comment, or by sending me an email. If you leave a comment, please leave a way for me to contact you, and if you are looking for my email - it's in the top right corner of this blog in my disclaimer. I'll announce the winner on Friday!

Tickets are selling very quickly, and if you would prefer to purchase your tickets, you can get them here: OUA (Madinat Qaboos), SCS (Azaiba), Bose (Qurum City Centre) or Al Ghazal (InterContinental Hotel). Better hurry though, they are running out!

le fin.

Muscat Private Hospital, and others.

Well that was a nice break - I hope you all enjoyed your Eid vacations.


This is a blog post that I've been trying to write on and off for quite some time. I've come to the conclusion that I cant prove anything as I'm obviously not a doctor, and can't get one to go on record (I haven't even tried) about anything that happens here in Oman at these health care facilities.

I was first approached by a reader half a year ago, and told to look into private hospitals that have been opening up around town (and even further afield these days). Over the months I've come across various stories that have left me shaking my head, and with a sole determination that should I or anyone close to me have an urgent need for medical healthcare here in Oman, we're going to a Government hospital.

Here are just two stories:

1. A married couple drove to the recently opened (well, late 2009) Al Raffah hospital in Ghubra late at night. The hospital boasts a 24hour ER facility (source - read the 5th sentence in the 3rd paragraph) and so they went there as it was the closest ER to them. Upon arriving at the ER, they were promptly told to go to the Royal hospital as they could not treat the man there. By the time this couple had gotten to the Royal, the husband had died of a heart attack and was DOA. Over the months I've heard similar stories of people being turned away by the "emergency room" at Raffah. Why are they allowed to continue to operate an Emergency Room?

2. Muscat Private Hospital and pregnancies. I am not joking about this - I have heard numerous alarming stories about problems that seem to occur with births at the MPH. On the one side, I'm no Doctor and a lot of these stories could be based on over-worrying parents who are not getting the information/confidence/communication they need when dealing with their new born children and the occasional issues babies have. However, it seems to me that the stories of problems are growing at MPH. I'm aware of 3 separate births in the last 2 months alone where there have been significant questions raised over the practices at MPH. I just feel that this is worth airing in public - where there's smoke, sometimes there's fire.

Now, I've no way to prove any of this, and so I've decided to let this story out and ask you all what your experiences have been with these "private hospitals". It appears that the Ministry of Health appears to grant licenses to these private institutions, but any sort of review or regulatory inspection seems to be a bit difficult to tie down. I'm left asking the question: Who's checking on these "hospitals" to make sure they are up to scratch? Who's regulating them? Self regulation is just something I don't think can happen when you're talking about people's lives.

So anyway - over to you, please share your experiences!

le fin

Lots of local news!

Well it's Wednesday already - where did the week go?!

There's lots of little bits and pieces I wanted to blog, so I'm going to lump them all into this post because I think it'll be easier. Please do feel free to email me or tweet me bits of news if you would like me to share with everyone.

Crime in Muscat.

Rising crime in Muscat. You've all read the papers, the letters to the Editor in The Week, and so on. It seems that crime, specifically robberies, are on the rise here in Muscat. And the ROP appear to be struggling a little with this significant up-swing in break-ins. One person who contacted me informed me he had to wait 3 days to get a police report in order to file an insurance claim - surely these things should be issued on the spot by the attending officer? Just this morning, the ROP were called to the Etihad offices in Ruwi for a break-in. Apparently some bright spark thought he could nick himself an A380 or something!

So be sure you are vigilant. Ensure your doors and windows are locked, ensure your sliding doors are secured in a way that they can't be easily forced open from the outside, and ensure you do not leave anything of value in display inside your cars.

Eid.

Eid holidays have now been called: a nice cool 3 day haul for the Government, and 4 days for the Private sector. It will be a nice long weekend for sure! I read with interest the letter to the editor published in this weeks The Week about expatriate government employees being discriminated against due to their race. I fully agree with the author of the letter, but we all know nothing will change on that front.

Tom Millward.


Tomorrow, the 11th November, sees Tom Millward start his ride for charity around Oman. 3000 KM's starting at Qurum City Centre, at 11:11am. Tom is raising money to assist the Association of Early Intervention for Children with Disability in Oman. During his cycle he is also hoping to raise awareness of Oman as a destination for Cycling to the wider community. The cycle ride will take between 2 and 3 months to complete and will cover all sorts of terrain and areas including the difficult and unpredictable interior.

If you require further information or would like to donate towards this charity, please contact omanbycycle@hotmail.com or GSM 9761 3342.

Fancy coins.

There are two commemorative coins being minted to mark the 40th anniversary of Oman as we know it today. One is gold, and the other is silver, and will contain the Oman coat of arms and a special 40th anniversary logo - so keep your eyes out for them.

Bryan Adams.

It's long been rumoured, and has finally been officially announced: Bryan's coming to town on December the 18th. Tickets are RO 25 and are on sale now in all the usual outlets. Stay tuned for a free ticket give-away right here on Muscat Mutterings soon.


War of the Djz Final - Thursday night

In new nightclub Nuts & Bolts, on Thursday night there is the final of the 2010 War of the Djz competition.


It should be a laugh, so check it out, the finalists are really good at their craft and it will be a great night of musical entertainment!

Zouk.
Tonight, the ever-trendy Zouk bar are having their very own VJ (Video Jockey) play some fun videos with crowd interaction, and of course their signature House music pumping all night long. Remember - you pay RO 20 at the door and then you get RO 20 worth of food and drinks inside.

Muscat Rugby & Aussie Rules


This Friday afternoon, from 1:30pm sees an afternoon of fun on the Rugby ground. At 1:30 the Muscat Magpies play the Dubai Dingo's, then at 3pm the Muscat Rugby Club's U12 group have a demonstration game, and at 3:30pm we have Muscat RFC Men's Vs the Dubai Exiles. There will be a music system in the stands for spectators, as well as a bbq and drinks (non alcoholic ON the rugby pitch), then down in the clubhouse there are special offers on food and drinks available (including alcohol of course). It will be a fantastic day for everyone, please do come on down and show your support for our local expatriate community.

Royal Opera

There have been reports that the Royal Opera people have been over-selling events to ensure packed nights, with the slight problem that some people who paid for their tickets do not get to have a seat. Reportedly nearly 30 people were left standing at the Monday night performance. So if you're planning on going to the Opera - make sure you get there early to get a seat!

UAE & Canada

It seems that the on-going spat between the UAE and Canada has gone to the next level: The UAE have now announced that as of January 2nd 2011, all Canadian passport holders visiting the UAE will have to apply for a visa before-hand, and pay the Visa fee (presumably RO 20 a time). One does wonder what the end result of all this diplomatic arguing will be, but it's routed in the fact that the UAE want more than 6 landing slots at Canadian airports each week for it's two airlines (Etihad and Emirates currently have to share the 6 slots). Having personally been on many Etihad flights to Toronto, I can assure you those flights are always jammed full, and more flights would be a good thing. But Air Canada don't want the competition. It would seem that the sound business solution would be to sell more landing slots to the UAE - why is a private company (Air Canada) dictating the Government of Canada's policies on this?

That's all for this week - have a fabulous weekend everyone.

le fin.

Eid holidays declared

The Eid holidays for the Government sector have been declared:

Monday 15th - Wednesday 17th, back to work on Saturday 20th.

Currently no announcement has been made for the Private sector, I'll update this when it is made, but speculation is that it'll be 15th-18th, back on the 20th.

Private sector holidays have now been confirmed - it's the 15th - 18th - back to work on the 20th. No official word on any further holidays in December.

le fin.

Saturday smile.

The big news over the weekend, as covered by the Undercover Dragon over at Muscat Confidential, was the UN report finding that Oman is the most improved country in the last 40 years.

You can read more about it here.

Other than that, he's a picture a friend snapped while out and about. It made me smile :)



le fin.

Friday fun

Those of you that enjoyed the British Corner at the Intercon over the summer will be pleased to hear that it's back!

Back by popular demand this Friday's brunch at the Intercontinental
Muscat will be focusing on a British corner with all the usual healthy
delights.

Also look out for the new executive Sous chef Neil Wilkinson and taste
his traditional slow roasted rib of beef with Yorkshire puddings.
Please book in advance if you're coming as its going to be busy.

It starts at 12:30 and costs RO 14.500 ++.

Also, there is a new night club in the Al Falaj hotel (where the fabulous Tokyo Taro is) that has opened recently called Nuts and Bolts. From what I understand, it's themed similarly to Jack Rabbit Slim's from the hit movie Pulp Fiction. They open at 8pm tonight, worth a look in.


Enjoy the weekend!

le fin.

Something fun for the weekend.

Tonight, as you will know from my previous blog, is the rugby team's fund raiser event: Comedy night. It costs RO 10, you get a complimentary drink, and it will help support local comedians and local rugby player (also arguably comedians). The last time this was done, it was a great night. You can buy tickets on the door, and call 9577 4018 for more info.

I was having lunch in a local restaurant in Al Khuwair recently, and snapped this amusing picture:
Points if you can tell me which restaurant the picture was taken in!

Now, long time Omani blog followers may remember Other Oman, and her post about Ken Block. Well, Ken's made another video. Man that guy can drive, he might even survive here on the mean streets of Muscat (assuming he can master the 1 wheel at a time over speed bumps thing).



le fin.