le weekend

Well it's Wednesday once again, which for most of us means... its nearly the weekend!

First up, this morning was the transit of Venus in front of the sun. I heard on Oman FM yesterday afternoon an interview with the guy who curates the PDO Planetarium (currently being refurbished) who said that this morning would give us  the chance to see this phenomenon, that happens twice, 8 years apart, every 120 or so years. It last happened 8 years ago, and so the next time it will happen, we'll all be dead.

I saw this picture of the transit posted on the twitter:

Thanks to fatewm of the blog Live From Muscat for the picture!

Moving on, tomorrow at noon is the rather suitably timed I-Care initiative. essentially this is a gathering in Wizarat at the car park near to the Ministry of Housing at 12:00.

Here's what the blurb says on Facebook:

The gathering you've all be waiting for.. Are you guys ready for another awesome one? Well, here it is! Join us on Thursday to distribute cold bottles of water to construction workers and bring along your friends, family, and your SMILE! Yalla! What are we going to do? - Make sure you confirm your attendance and inform everyone you know. Invite everyone to make sure we distribute as many bottles as possible. - Gathering at 12:00 PM. (Make sure you make it on time) - Collecting your contributions to buy water bottles. - Bring an ice box with you if you have one to make sure that the water is cold. - We will be providing you with directions of the targeted areas. - You can either join any of the groups or drive around by yourself. - Distribute with a SMILE. - Go back to the meeting point and share experiences. Just like our previous gatherings, you will get to experience distributing cold water bottles to construction workers, collecting smiles and meeting amazing people. Please confirm your attendance; it is going to be fun! See you soon! ------ Given that it is ridiculously hot and humid outside today, why don't you consider helping out tomorrow? Whether you turn up and help distribute bottles of water, or donate some boxes of water, or even cash to buy water - have a thought for those less fortunate than you and help out. This is a rare opportunity to donate to a charity that does not take "administrative fees" - 100% of what you donate will go to helping laborers around Muscat cool off for at least a few minutes. And it's not just the water, it's showing these people that they are not totally disregarded and that people do care for them - I'm sure that in itself will help a lot of them in this horrendous heat. After working up a sweat with the water-giving, I plan to check-in at the Hyatt for the weekend & attend the Muscat Rugby Football Club's Oval Ball, which is the only event worth mentioning for the Thursday evening :) Then on Friday at 5pm Oman kicks off at home (in the Bowsher stadium) to Australia's Socceroos in their bid to get into the World Cup - the pressure is really on after their loss to Japan 3-0 last week. Tickets are still on sale should you wish to go. Friday also sees the start of the Euro's football tournament, with the first game kicking off at 8pm with Poland V Greece, followed at 10:45pm with Russia v Czech Republic. Most of the bars around town are showing the Euro matches, but my pick of the bunch is of course the MRFC's adoptive bar, the Habana Sports bar. Really no other bar even comes close for sports coverage in the Capital, and with pints at RO 2.380, its amongst the cheapest pint in Muscat to boot.  le fin.