The Melamine thing

Ahh Wednesday you beauty. What a week it's been, I'm glad it's nearly over!

Regular readers here may remember I got excited about Muscat Daily's story about Melamine last year on October 10th. I blogged about this on the October 17th here, and followed it up on December 10th here.

An example of Poultry products available in Oman. I'm not saying this particular brand is safe or unsafe to eat, it was just simply the poultry section in a local supermarket - that's all.

Muscat Daily reported that an SQU study into meats available for purchase here in the Sultanate indicated some meat products contained massive concentrations of Melamine, yet declined to report exactly which products were contaminated. The reason for this failure to report the brands affected was because the Ministry of Health declined to provide this information.

The World Health Organization's Oman representative was contacted via email (a Ms Suha Battash) on October 18th (as a result of a reader reading the article on this blog), and then a follow up email was sent to the WHO Rep again on November 25th requesting information. The WHO Rep then replied on November 28th with correspondence reference: WROMA.11/295 OMA/NUT - the contents of this email said:

From: BATTASH, Ms Suha Awni Mohammed -oma [mailto:REMOVED@REMOVED] On Behalf Of WR OMAN
Sent: Monday, November 28, 2011 1:51 PM
To: REMOVED
Subject: Melamine in local meats

WROMA.11/295

OMA/NUT

28 November 2011

Reference is made to your below email regarding Melamine in local meats, please note that we have forwarded your concern to the Director General of Health Affairs, Ministry of Health. Unfortunately we have not received any reply till now.

Please note that we will send you the answer as soon as we receive it.

With best regards.

Suha Battash

Office of the WHO Representative,  Oman
Tel (968) 2460XXXX / 2460XXXX
Fax (968) 2460XXXX
E-mail REMOVED

"Using Medicine Sensibly”

A follow up email was then sent back to the WHO Rep on 2nd January 2012, and again February 4th with no response to date.

So, the melamine issue still rumbles on. What we have learned so far is that the Director General of Health Affairs, Ministry of Health is obviously a very busy person indeed, being unable to give an answer to a single question asked of him or her (I dont know who the DG of Health Affairs is) in October 2011 until the end of February 2012 so far.

One might suggest that the Ministry of Health simply dont care about this issue and have decided that perhaps they'll just ignore the request for information in the hopes that it'll all blow over. Which raises even more alarming questions!

What if the slowness to respond is less rooted in the "too busy / don't care" pile and more rooted in the "Omani producers will get hurt so I'll stay mum about this" pile. This is a classic example of how NOT to manage your Public Relations. Here's a top tip: If the national press write a story about the potentially lethal levels of contaminants in foods available for purchase in the country, perhaps you should issue a statement so that citizens living here know what is safe to eat. Could you imagine the press reaction in, lets say for comparative purposes, China, if Melamine levels as high as reported here were found in local food products and the Ministry of Health failed to give a statement?

In China, as a result of the Melamine in milk scandal which broke in July 2008, a number of criminal prosecutions occurred, with two people being executed, another given a suspended death penalty, three others received life imprisonment, two received 15-year jail terms, and seven local government officials, as well as the Director of the Administration of Quality Supervision, Inspection and Quarantine (AQSIQ) were fired or forced to resign.

Meanwhile, here in Oman, the DG of Health Affairs is too busy to even answer the question of what meat products are contaminated so we can avoid these products. Let's not forget that the question asked to the DG of Health Affairs was asked by the World Health Organization, not Joe Public. Why is the WHO failing to follow this up to get an answer? Why is the National Press not reporting on this to force a response? Why is the Ministry of Health ignoring this?

I sincerely hope that the SQU report first reported on by Muscat Daily was flawed or incorrect, and this is all a storm in a tea cup - and if that is the case, then TELL US! If it's actually the case that this melamine contamination is as reported in the SQU findings, then what on earth are the Ministry of Health playing at?

I doubt we'll ever hear anything, but I hope my rant helps spur some sort of positive reaction, instead of landing me in hot water with Al Plod for bringing this up again.

More soon.

le fin.

Makeup Organisation and Collection

 

[Left to Right]

Storage

Draws Ikea | Lamp Ikea | Marilyn Monroe Makeup Bag | Old Tin Mascaras & Liners | Chocolate Box Storing Palettes | Cream Bowl Ikea Everyday Make up

Fragrance

Georgio Armani Acqua di Gioia Body Lotion | Natural Collection Body Spray Mango and Papaya |  Natural Collection Body Spray Passionfruit | The Body Shop Love ETC... | Georgio Armani Acqua Di Gioia | Nina Ricci Nina | Chanel Coco Mademoiselle 

Top Drawers 

Foundations | Concealers | Primers | Tinted Moisturiser

Eyeshadows | Pigments

Second Drawers

Bronzers | Powders | Contours 

Blushes | Stains | Highlighters | Beauty Powders

Third Drawers

Lip Glosses | Vaseline | Lip Balms

Lipsticks | Lip Liners | Jumbo Lip Pencils 

Brushes

Face Brushes | Eye & Lip Brushes | Tools

For any specific product names or info just leave a comment and I'll let you know the exact name etc. 

Onna x

Muscat Grand Mall to open in March

Well, the marketing people at the Muscat Grand Mall have once again set a new date for opening their shiny new mall. This time the date is Thursday March 1st. One imagines that this time the mall will actually open, just not with all the stores open.

I do, however, take pleasure in sharing this photo:

Very exciting indeed if you happen to be a fan. Personally I love their coffee, and brew my own Timmies every day in my office with imported coffee from Canada - the donuts I don't miss (even though they are super tasty). I have no idea when they are planing to open the branch, but it is definitely "in the works". Repeated (read: daily) calls to a Ms Amjaad at Apparel Group (supposedly head of marketing for the Tim Hortons Brand at AG) have gone unanswered (I've been trying to contact her for nearly 3 weeks) so there's no other information I can share at this time, except that Apparel Group's marketing team are very slow to respond.

So anyway - This Thursday, March 1st, should see the MGM open finally. I presume that Carrefour will be open, along with a bunch of stores. I wrote a blog on a complete store listing (at the time) last year in August, and you can read it here. I imagine the store listing has changed a bit since then, but it's probably more or less still correct.

Also, touching upon a previous blog post I wrote in November last year, the book Storm Front has now been released in paperback and is available for purchase (it's actually in stock!) at the Family Book Shop in MQ - Tel: 2460 0084 for the princely sum of RO 4.000. It's a great read and really interesting insight into Oman in the 60's and 70's, and I highly recommend everyone to read it - especially the bit in the start of the book about the accession to the throne for His Majesty. Interesting to see how this account differs wildly from the previous accounts - I'll not go into it any further here so I don't spoil it for you all.

Dont forget to try your luck in my free ticket giveaway to see Snow Patrol on Sunday March 11th!

le fin.

Oman cuts tourist visa fees by 75%

Well this has been talked about for months, but finally the tourist visa fees have been amended.

There are three types of tourist visa now -

24 hour Cruise - free
10 day tourist - RO 5
30 day tourist - unchanged at RO 20

Which I think is something that will genuinely help promote tourism for people. For example, if I was flying to Thailand from Europe (Oman Air flies to... UK, France & Germany (and probably others, I dont know) a very affordable (right now) way to get there is to fly with Oman Air via Muscat. With the fee now only being RO 5, suddenly Muscat becomes a lot more attractive for a day or two stop-over on the way to or from a far eastern vacation - as an example.

There's a big difference between $52 and $13!

More soon.

le fin.

WIN 2 Fan Pit tickets to see Snow Patrol worth RO 100 on Sunday March 11th

Alive events and Hi FM are once again putting Muscat on the musical map! This time, as regular readers of this blog, or listeners to Hi FM will already know, Snow Patrol are coming to town. Tickets are RO 25 for general admission or RO 50 for the fan pit - you can reserve tickets through the Hi FM website by clicking here, or you can purchase tickets (once they go on sale) at the Bose store in Qurum City Centre. You can get more info from the Facebook event page here. There is quite a commotion that this is a mid-week concert and that people have exams on that week - unfortunate timing I guess, but I still think the concert will prove to be very popular.

As always, all you have to do to win the free tickets is email me at mrsythe [at] gmail.com or leave a comment here - if you leave a comment please make sure there is a way for me to contact you should you win! I'll announce the winner on March 4th, 2012 (thanks Gatvol)!

Bon chance!

le fin.

Best Back exercises and Workouts

BASIC PULLUP

1. starting position
: The basic pullup is done with your hands facing away from you.  To width of the grip should be the same as the distance between your elbows when you point your arms directly out to the sides at right angles to your body.  The elbows point outward so the are in the same plane as your body.  Your arms are nearly straight, but not quite.  Your shoulders are down and back and they stay in this position the entire pullup – pretend you are holding a tennis ball between your shoulder blades.   Dont relax into a dead-hang at the bottom and let your shoulder come up to your ears.  OK, now that we have the basic starting position, slowly pull up on a two second count.

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Beachy Waves: Enrapture Amplify Jumbo Waver

I was recently sent the Enrapture Amplify Jumbo Waver to review. I'm sure you've already seen it, Enrapture products have been doing the rounds on the blogosphere as of late. Here's just a quick review and demo of how I use it. People seem to like my speeded up videos so I hope its helpful. Any questions... just ask :)

How Easy Is It to Use?

This styler takes a little time to get used to. It's much heavier than my straighteners and conical wand and I've never used a waver, so at first I found it a little difficult. I also burned myself because I wasn't careful enough. As soon as I practised a little, and kept the tool flat side up, I found it easy enough and had no more problems. 

How Long Does It Take?

In my demo it took me 25 minutes from start to finish. This is quite a while but I have very thick long hair. If you don't have a ridiculous amount of hair, like me, you should be able to get it done in 10 to 15 minutes. It also looks great as 'second day hair', in fact I prefer the look of the waves after they have been slept on. They become more beachy and natural, so taking time to style it once and having it last three days is not a problem for me. I just add a little dry shampoo on days two and three. 

             Before          After          With French Plaits

How Much is it, and where can you buy it?

It retails for around £74.99 and you can buy it at the usual places like Boots, John Lewis and Argos. A little pricey but if you're going to use it a lot, worth the investment as the quality is great. Also the packaging is really chic and simple, which I like. 

Is it for you? 

It should work well on most hair types but to get the best effects you need a little length in your hair. If you wear clip-in extensions a lot this would look amazing with them. It also adds A LOT of volume, so If you love big hair or your hair tends to look flat this is perfect. 

                           x Onna x

Happy Valentines Day

As is becoming sort of tradition here on MM, here's some lolcatz.

Happy Valentines day everyone that cares....

le fin.

OOTD's: Cream & Lace

My favourite SS12 Trend :)

Whole Outfit - New Look

Makeup from my: Get ready with me video:

Jeans - H&M

Top - George @ Asda

Necklace - Dorothy Perkins

Waistcoat - New Look

Valentines Day

Well, just in case you forgot, tomorrow is Valentines Day.

Did you get a V-day card yet? Remembered to get the flowers? Planned for dinner?

Well, here's my brief list of suggestions for you to consider:

Flowers: I have recently been referred to The Flower Shop in the Sabco centre (next to that awful pet store). The staff are knowledgeable, and they have a climate controlled room to keep the flowers as fresh as possible for as long as possible. You can call them on 2456 0043 to place an order. There's lots of other flower shops in town, but I've not used them, so I'm only going to recommend these people today!

Now, seeing as the flowers issue is dealt with, I'm going to assume you can handle the card on your own, but if you happened to go to Sabco centre for flowers, there is a decent card shop there too, just sayin' ;)

As for dinner, here's a selection of things going on around the city, and a little further afield too.

Starting with the Grand Hyatt:





















You can get a set menu 5 course meal for RO 39 ++ at Tuscany, or RO 25 ++ at Marjan, along with free sparkling wine for women between 10 and midnight at the Safari bar. Also, the Mokha Cafe are also serving a special Oyster bar & various other treats for RO 29 ++. For those trying to avoid Cupid's bow, you can go for an Anti-Valentines dinner up at the Safari Rooftop grill - unlimited selected drinks for RO 35 ++

 The Radisson Blu have a few events on too:

For RO 14 ++ you can have a buffet dinner in the Olivio's restaurant, or the a la carte menu in the Al Tajin Steakhouse. Also, outside in the Lazy Lizard, the movie "Once" at 8pm as well.

The Park Inn are offering "a free bottle of drink" with every dinner at the RBG restaurant. I'm not sure if that is a bottle of wine or a bottle of beer!

Nuts & Bolts, down at the Al Falaj hotel in Ruwi are also doing a special Valentines day (and weekend) event:

 A little further afield, in the Millennium Resort at Mussanah, there is a pretty attractive weekend getaway offer worth mentioning: When choosing the Valentines dinner package (RO 17 ++ for food and soft drinks or RO 28 ++ for Wine too) you can book a room with breakfast and taxes for RO 50.000. The offer is valid over the weekend, from 14th to 18th of February and I really can't recommend going up and checking out this hotel enough. It's very new, the technology in the rooms is amazing, and the pool is now open - it's a great spot to just go and do nothing for a day or two, I was there recently and found it to be a lot better than I expected - I'll write about it next week!

Here's a candid snap of the pool too:

Moving a little further up the coast to Sohar, at the Africa Coffeehouse and Restaurant there is a special Valentines menu with live music on offer too. So if you live in Sohar, it might be worth checking out!

And finally, the InterCon are hosting James Blunt this Wednesday night (15th) from 7pm. Expect James Blunt to start his performance around 9pm. Tickets are still available for purchase for RO 25 or RO 50 for fan pit access. You can buy them from the Bose store in Qurum.

More soon.

le fin.

RIP Whitney & Sailing Arabia the tour

Well, driving to work this morning I was flicking radio stations and landed on Merge 104.8 and heard Chris Fisher saying he saw Sky News and just learned that Whitney Houston died in her room at the Beverly Hilton hotel. No word yet on how she died, but does it really matter - she's dead. RIP.

Moving on, and back to a somewhat local news interest - the Burj Khalifa last night was rumored to be on fire, but it was just surrounded in mist instead, and definitely not on fire. The story appeared to break on Twitter and spread very quickly.... but fortunately it was not true.

Now, the Sailing Arabia The Tour (SATT for short, heh) was due to start today in Bahrain, but the start has been delayed by 24 hours and so will start tomorrow (13th). There are 9 teams participating in the tour, 4 from Oman, and one from each of these countries: France, KSA, UAE, Bahrain and Qatar. The tour is due to have 3 stops in Oman, Musandam, Mussanah and Muscat (well, The Wave), with the race due to finish on February 29th (I just realized we must be in a leap year), or perhaps due to the 24 hour start delay it will culminate on Thursday the 1st of March instead. Anyway - good luck to the Oman teams participating!

And finally, a black Labrador was found in PDO camp yesterday - very clean and not hungry at all - here's a picture, if you recognize the dog please get in touch with the person on the phone number listed.

More soon!

le fin.

Busy month

It's been a busy time for me lately, and so this little hobby of mine has had to take a back seat for a while. Trying to post a blog every work-day was fast becoming a chore instead of a pleasure, and so I've take a week out from it, and who knows, perhaps I'll take more time out too.

Tonight see's the second round of the 6 Nations rugby tournament, with England playing Italy at 8pm local time tonight, and then the French take on Ireland at midnight. Both games are supposed to be on Al Jazeera Sports +3, but who knows if they actually will be on. Last Sunday's match between Ireland and Wales was binned in favour of showing a football match that they were showing on another channel already. Morons. To add insult to injury, the football match shown was a goalless draw!

Well, Jazeera Sports permitting, the Muscat Rugby Club's adopted bar, Habana at the Grand Hyatt (its the bar underneath Safari Bar) will be showing all of the games live on a lot of large flat screen TV's dotted around the bar - they even have a tv built into the beer pumps at the bar so when ordering a drink you don't miss anything!

For those of you that are interested, there is the imaginatively named Carlsberger deal - a pint of Carlsberg and a burger for RO 5.5

Staying with sport for a while longer, Oman National Football team has 4 home games this month:

Oman vs Wigan Athletic - 17 Feb - HOME - (Friendly)
Oman vs S. Korea - 22 Feb - HOME - (Qualifier)
Oman vs India - 23 Feb - HOME - (Friendly)
Oman vs Thailand - 29 Feb - HOME - (Qualifier)

So if you like football, you'll have something to watch live here! There is an active facebook page for the team, with lots of special prizes on offer - so go check it out. Most games are free for standard entry and VIP tickets can be purchased for RO 50.

More sometime soon, I recently went to the Millennium resort up in Mussanah, and was very pleasantly surprised.... I'll write about it soon!

le fin.

ABS WORKOUTS AND TRAINING TECHNIQUES

The proper way to train abs is widely debated by experts. In reality, what works for someone else may not work for you. Since everyone has a different body type, results will vary from person to person.

 Crunches

• This exercises are so easy that Most already know how to perform this exercise. It is basic, yet highly effective. Abdominal crunches can be performed on various surfaces (mats, balls, etc.).

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