Oman

During the Eid break Julia, Kay and I went in to Oman for 2 days. Being the middle of winter, the weather was a little more mild, and flowers were in full bloom. Oman is a beautiful country. Here are a few photos.

Christmas Day

Christmas Day was fun with friends: Karen, her daughter Hannah, Martin, Julia and me.

Hannah had arrived from London the day before Kate had arrived. They had a lot of tales to tell about life in London.

Housing boom.

Kate was impressed at how many new buildings were going up and at how big they were. The city is sprawling and there is a law that prohibits buildings being any more than 4 storey high. This photo is fairly typical of many new houses.

Arabic art

Back to the art exhibition. Subhia was very proud of her painting - a very typical Arabic piece with coffee pot, ceremonial knife and falcon. Subhia is the art teacher at Al Masoudi and is a lot of fun. She is the same age as I am and has become a good friend. She has good English - at least, it is good enough for us to have a conversation!! Her classroom has some excellent children's art displayed.

Sand dunes

We went for a drive around the outskirts of the city to see the sand dunes. The deep red contrasting with the blue sky is beautiful. Kate was amazed at how we could be driving down a road, then all of a sudden - no road - it just stops in the middle of the sand and turns into desert. We saw some new areas of Al Ain I hadn't seen before.

Kate and I drove to the top of Jebel Hafeet (Jebel means mountain) - the winding roads are behind Kate - where we could see the whole of Al Ain and surrounding areas. It was a little hazy at the top so the view wasn't the best, but it was great for Katie to be able to get her bearings.

We spent Christmas night at the apartments in Twam where Julia lives and had a wonderful dinner with friends and colleagues. We all pitched in and had a traditional Christmas dinner with beautiful decorations and a tree. I think we had about 24 people all sitting around the table for a formal dinner. It was a great night, as we all tried hard not to think too much about our families at home! Here we are later in the night, at Julia's apartment.

Katie arrived in Al Ain on Christmas Eve. She came to school with me on Christmas Day (Yes, Christmas Day was a work day!!). She was the centre of attention at school and was asked if she was french by a few teachers. We were both taken to the art teachers art exhibition where we saw some wonderful art relating to UAE culture and heritage.

Kay and I travelled to the small village of Lefkara where lace and silver are produced. We met this lovely couple in their shop (Kay talks to everyone!!). We had Cypriot coffee and a long chat about the country and the handcraft industry. Very few women are learning the art of lace making now and it is becoming a dying art. The village is in the middle of steep hills and the streets are narrow and lined with shops. A very beautiful place. Some of the lace is 'pulled thread lace' on Irish Linen and some is very like very fine tatting. They are real keepsakes. The silver is beautiful too - some of it is very fine filigree, but they also have jewellery with gemstones as well.

Aphrodite's Rock

Here we are at Aphrodite's Rock, where Aphrodite was born in the foam and became the Goddess of Love and Beauty. (The 3 rocks in the distance are the actual place). We had joined a bus tour to Pafos, the largest town in Cyprus. On the way we saw more ancient settlements, tombs, catacombs, churches and Roman ruins. Pafos is a port city, and was definitely a tourist trap. It is amazing to see where the legends of the Greek and Roman God's originated centuries ago. It all seems to make it a bit more real, not like the legends we read at home.

Neolithic Settlement

We visited a neolithic village site at Choirokoitia, dated 9 centuries BC! The houses were small and round, constructed of rock and river stone. It's amazing to see how people lived so long ago, when NZ was so young it probably didn't even have the moa! The houses Kay is standing in front of, are reconstructions of the village. On the left you can just make out the circular design of the houses up the hill. The people were buried inside the houses, inhumation, our new word for the week!

Kay and I have just returned from a 5 day holiday in Larnaca, Cyprus. This is the hotel we stayed in, Les Palmiers, right on the beach front in the old town. It was very close to all of the historic places as well as the main shopping area. The weather was mild, but not cold, and we were able to walk around the old streets at leisure. Being the middle of winter, it was not too busy, and the Christmas sales were great!