le weekend

Well there is a lot of stuff going on this weekend...

Tonight

Electro party at Zouk

House music night tonight at Zouk from 10 till 3.


Thursday

The Soapbox Race

There is of course the first ever Red Bull Soapbox race that takes place over in Bowsher, it starts at 2pm and runs until 6pm.

The Art of Living Carnival

Starting at 10am and running until 10pm at the Fun Zone in Qurum is the day-long event with activities for all the family, in the name of charity. There's a facebook event page here with more information.

Treasure Hunt in Muttrah - THURSDAY 25th APRIL (NOT THIS WEEKEND!)

The Centre for Omani Dress (preserving traditional Omani cultural dress) is hosting a scavenger/treasure hunt fund-raiser between 9am and 1pm. Pre-registration is required to participate, and the price is 25OMR to register per team of 2-4 people (age 12+) and at least one team member is required to have a camera or phone with a built-in camera to participate. Prizes will be awarded to the top three based on most correct answers and best time. Maps of Mutrah souq will be provided and gift bags for all participants.



Wig party at the Hyatt

It's been quietly rumbling along and this will be the big party of the night, with numbers of expected guests to be in the mid hundreds - go get a wig, dress to impress, and go get your drink on (if you're into that sort of thing) at the Hyatt's outdoor venue, Marjan, by the pool. I'll give a free pat on the back to the first drunk person to jump in the pool. Here's the Facebook event page for more information. It kicks off at 7pm and runs till 10pm, before moving up to the John Barry bar for the after party which will run till midnight.

Friday

Beverly Hills Brunch

For those who enjoy the finer things in life, genuine Moet et Chandon bubbles will be served, free-flowing, at the newly launched brunch at the Hyatt. RO 49 for the free flowing bubbles, RO 22 for soft drinks or RO 35 for freeflowing dB wines and selected spirits and cocktails. Here's the Facebook event page for more information, starts at 12:30 and runs until 3:30.

Jazz night

British Jazz singer Matthew vanKan is coming to the rebranded for one night only Copacabana "Jazz Club". VIP tickets are already sold out, and the show starts at 8pm. Here's the Facebook event page for more information, to book tickets you can call 2464 1234 or email muscat.dining@hyatt.com

That's quite a full weekend!

Have a good one everyone....

le fin.

Walkathon 2013

Tomorrow, April 8th, there is the 2013 Walkathon which is for awareness and research of Alzheimers disease as well as road safety.

It all kicks off at the Sultan Qaboos Sports Stadium in Bowsher, from 4:30pm. Registration to walk is free and its a good way to get outside and take a little exercise as well as help a great cause.

More later.

le fin.

MRFC Charity Bowling competition tonight

Tonight sees the first ever MRFC Charity Bowling competition. The charity is the Association for Early Intervention for Children with Disabilities. It's on in the Star Bowling Center on Monday the 11th of March at 7.30pm sharp. It's in the same building as the ice rink in Qurum.

The cost will be 5Rial. This includes a donation to the charity and money for a cash prize for the winner. The winner will be the person who scores the highest points. Please feel free to invite as many people as possible.

More later!

le fin.

MRFC family fun day

On Thursday 28th February from 10am until 1pm, there is the annual MRFC family fun day. This year it is in partnership with the Association of Early Intervention for children with disabilities, a very worthwhile charitable organization here in Oman.

Teams of 10 (mixed between adults and kids) can be registered for RO 30 per team with the proceeds going to Charity. This is a great fun few hours and also for a good cause as well.

For more information, email either John or Ross.

le fin.

Winter warmer winner!

Thanks to everyone that emailed in and commented for a chance to win the pair of tickets to the Winter Warmer this weekend, being held at the Royal Flight club this Thursday night from 7:30pm.

Tickets can still be purchased, call Tess on 9952 5486 for more information on how to get them, they cost a tenner and include fish n chips, 4 drinks and a donation to charity. A pretty great deal if you ask me. Oh, and you get to be entertained by 3 live bands as wel!

UPDATE: It's SOLD OUT!

However, for one lucky reader. they get 2 tickets for free.

Congratulations to:

Leia Sunil

Check your email for instructions on how to get your tickets.

Thanks everyone for reading and submitting!

le fin.

7th Childrens Writing Competition

The Dar Al Atta’a Let’s Read Committee announces the launch of its

7^thChildren’s Writing Competition

Students are invited to write a poem entitled: ‘My Dream’

This theme can be interpreted as ‘hopes and dreams’ or ‘dreams and nightmares’! The poem may be written in rhyming or free verse, and it can be funny, sad, thought-provoking, scary or uplifting etc.  The poem will be judged on its originality, use of language, the theme and its impact on the reader.

*Poems should be type written and no more than 12 lines long.

*Poems must be the student’s own work and not copied or written by others.

*The poem should be clearly marked with the student’s name, age, school and contact number.

* The telephone number and email address of the school must be included.

      

Entries will be judged according to three age groups: 4-8 yrs 9-13 yrs and 14-18 yrs and the winning entries will be awarded trophies, great prizes and have the opportunity to see their work in print.

All entries should be sent by email to: letsreadoman@gmail.com or posted or delivered to:

 Dar Al Atta’a, Building no. 119, Bashaer Street, Madinat Al Sultan Qaboos Tel: 24692996

P O Box 156, Jawarat Al Shatti, PC 134 Muscat www.daralatta.org

The deadline is 13^th March 2013. Any entries received after this date will be disqualified.

For more information please contact Jane Jaffer at: letsreadoman@gmail.com

or visit our Facebook page: letsreadoman@groups.facebook.com

Good Luck!

le fin.

Recycling in Oman

This is a post I've been meaning to write for quite a while and have just never gotten around to! Well.... here goes, the latest in my series: MM guide to Oman.

The Sultanate of Oman does not really do that much recycling, but contrary to the widely held belief, not everything you throw in the bin needs to go to the dump. Here's my round up of what you can recycle here:

1. Plastic water bottles. Masafi & Tanuf, and the Environmental Society of Oman have an active plastic bottle recycling program - rumour is that the recycling plant in the UAE is unable to accept the bottles currently, and so the bottles are being shredded and baled and stored until such a time that the UAE will allow the plastic refuse to be transported over the border for recycling. This may be old news, I've not heard an update to this in over a year. There are collection bins dotted all over the Capital, I personally use the one at the ABA school in Al Khuwair.

2. Paper. Apex publishing, the people behind Muscat Daily, The Week and a bunch of other publications, operate a paper recycling operation. They will come to your location (for volumes significant enough) to collect the paper, or alternatively there are a few collection bins around town - again I personally use the one at the ABA school in Al Khuwair.

3. Aluminium cans. Basically soda cans - not steel cans that are used for soups and such, but the aluminium ones. I'm not really 100% sure what happens with them, but there is an active group of people (at least here in Muscat) that will go around from bin to bin and collect the pop cans. I'm told they sell the cans by weight to "takers" who take the cans back to India on ships on return voyages for recycling there, and also I've heard the cans are sold to truck drivers heading back to the UAE, where apparently there are also takers who pay for the empty cans. Either way, if you separate your cans into a bag and leave them outside a dumpster, in less than an hour it's usually been picked up by someone.

4. Can ring-pulls. Yes the canning plants here are still using older machines that have the detachable ring pulls that went out of fashion in many other countries years ago for the number of broken nails and amount of litter they cause! Even the UAE has the newer style cans with the ring pulls that stay attached to the can. But, there's a silver lining, and that is that most of the expatriate schools in town run collections for these ring pulls, which are made from a high quality aluminium. The ring pulls are collected by a girl at the TAISM school, Tara Mary Aziz and donated to a charity in Thailand that melts them down and makes prosthetic limbs from them.

Thats about it, there is the charity shop run haphazardly by the Dar al Atta charity which is down in Ruwi which accepts all sorts of things - clothes, furniture etc, and there are numerous book sales run by various different groups (my two favourites are the Dar al Atta Lets Read campaign, and the Oman Cat-Astrophy expat-run animal spay and neutering program).

So, hopefully you will think the next time you throw a can in your trash, and try and reduce the amount of waste you personally generate - remember, every little helps!

I'm not aware of any other domestic recycling programs in town, if I've missed something please let me know by commenting here or dropping me an email!

le fin.

The Winter Warmer is back once again - Win Free tickets!

Well it's that time of the year again, where the charity night "Winter Warmer" takes place at the Royal Flight Club out by the airport later this month on Thursday 24th January from 7:30pm.

This year you get to listen to 3 bands (|123 Orion, The Noisy Neighbours, and The Celtic Balladeers), have fish & chips, and make a donation to charity all for the ticket price of RO 10 - And you also get 4 free drinks too. Thats a pretty killer deal if you ask me, and all for a good cause too, the chosen charity this year is Awladna for Road Safety for Kids.

You can buy tickets on the 15th January at the Coffee Bean & Tea Leaf in Markez Al Bhaja between 5pm and 7pm.... but what with this being Muscat Mutterings... I have a pair of tickets to give away!

All you need to do to get in the draw for the tickets is either leave a comment here, or send me an email with the subject: I want the Winter Warmer

And thats it!

le fin.

Project Peace

A friend of mine, Rosie Gabrielle, who happens to be a super-star photographer (more on that particular skill of hers another day) has launched an initiative and I would like to share it with you all here, the words below are hers.

--

PROJECT PEACE

As 2012 is coming to an end, and with Christmas around the corner, I thought this would be
an excellent opportunity to share something very special with all of you. I believe I was given a gift. A gift to see people. Not only to see and to photograph what’s on the outside. But to see what’s on the inside. I want to show you what I see. And give you a gift. The Gift on inspiration.

They say 2012 was going to be the end of the world. I believe they may have meant the end of humanity. Our world is ridden with greed, materialism, stress. We lack the time to sit and share with people, to get to know them. We constantly want want want and forget about those who have nothing. Instead of making a resolution this new years to lose weight, or be on time, or whatever it be. Make a resolution to make a difference. To walk a new walk. To make each day count and try to bless others. So many things get taken for granted these days. Lets slow down and remember what we have, who we have. And try to reach out to the ones who may not be as fortunate as us.

I want to introduce you to a family. My friend and I had the absolute pleasure of meeting them this last week. There are 5 children. Age 5-15. 4 girls and one boy. The mother is Pakistani and the father is Omani. They live in Muscat. We were introduced to them from a teacher at the local school. We asked her to find some families that she felt were disadvantaged. And that was an understatement. She said she knew of too many families in this condition. That some of the kids came to school starving and in pain from hunger- in Muscat.

We entered a quaint part of town and were greeted by the kids as we pulled up to park. They led us to door in which did not look as though a home would be placed. We walked up a set of stairs to a main patio. The kids seemed a little shy at first, but intrigued that we were there. My Omani friend sat down and talked with the mom and daughters. Unfortunately their eldest daughter was very ill and the father had taken her and her brother to the hospital. The room was barely 7x5 meters. It was the living and sleeping room for all 5 children and the parents. One bed. The mom explained to my friend that her husband is the Moathan (calls for prayer) at the local mosque. Per month he gets 100 rial. This is the only income coming into the family. She explained that recently he had a very serious operation on his back. Because of the severity of it they had to go to a private clinic and pay 1000 omr. He is only able to work a few times a week now, thankfully they still pay him the same amount. Daily he still suffers with pain.
 

Their eldest daughter for some time now has been ill. They say she can’t eat much and she complains of pains all over her body, they still have not figured out what is wrong. All of the children have rotting and infected teeth. The 11 year old has a massive chip in her front teeth. The girls described that they cannot play outside because the other children bully them because they are half race. Aside from the bedroom they have a dilapidated washroom that is anything less then sanitary. They had a space for a kitchen but unfortunately there were no hookups for water or electricity. The parents made a kitchen downstairs by the entrance. I was horrified at the conditions. These poor people had to eat and cook amongst bugs and rot. When asked if there was anything the family may need, the mother was too shy to say. The young daughter had overheard the question. With tears in her eyes, she simply said, our house, look at our house, it is full of bugs and water leaks in from everywhere, we don’t know what to do!

The thing that stuck out to me the most, was that the kids had rescued a small bird who had been injured. They took that bird in and cared and loved it, when they were the ones needing care and love. This family was so full of love and smiles despite their situation. The kids were so polite and thankful. Once they warmed up to us they were quite comfortable to be around us and play. They loved getting their photos taken and one even tried taking some photos herself! After we left I was buzzing with euphoria. How much I Loved each one of those kids. And just the thought, what if I can change the cycle of that family. What if I can give them hope and a new start. I want to bless the socks off them! Them, like so many other families in our neighbourhood, in our cities in our countries, need our help. There could be a natural disaster tomorrow and we would have nothing, but each other. So while we are comfortable and we can. Lets help one another. That’s what we are here to do. To Love each other! So I encourage you to live life a little differently, start to see things and people on a deeper level. Make it a new way to walk in life, a walk towards helping others. I hope everyone has a blessed, healthy Christmas and New Years with the ones they love. May I have sparked a new light in your life !

If you feel compelled to help this family specifically. You are welcome to donate any household items, clothing, food. If you would like to make a cash donation towards the renovation of their house or fixing the children’s teeth, feel free to contact me. If you are a business and would like to sponsor the renovation of the teeth fund, please contact me

Rosiegabrielle@hotmail.com / 9521 9032

Many Blessings to you all,

ROSIE

--

If you would like to see more pictures and reactions from people, there is a facebook page here.

Get involved, every little helps.

le fin.

Book sale tomorrow

Book Sale

The Dar Al Atta’a Let’s Read Campaign is holding

a sale of previously enjoyed books at

The Al Qurum Complex (CCC)

from 9.30 am to 12.30pm

on Thursday 20^thDecember

Come along to find some great books

for adults and children

 at bargain prices:

2 paperbooks for only RO 1/-

RO 1/- for hard backs

All proceeds go towards their projects to

supplement and improve school libraries and nurseries in the outlying areas, to set up a Book Busand to create reading areas and playrooms for children in hospitals.

If you would like to donate funds or books for their campaign

please contact them at: elixirhfc@hotmail.com

Many thanks for your support

le fin.

Book sale this Thursday

Tomorrow between 9:30 and 12:30 at the CCC building in Qurum (opposite Nandos) is a book sale - 2 paper backs for a rial, or 1 hard back for a rial.

All proceeds go towards Dar Al Atta projects around the country to promote school libraires and a roaming library.

le fin.

Remembrance Sunday

The Remembrance Day Service in Muscat this year will be held on Sunday 11 November at PDO Cemetery.  Anyone wishing to attend should arrive by 10:30.  Remember there is LIMITED seating, no shade and no water.

The Service in Salalah will be held on Monday 12 November late afternoon.  Anyone wishing to attend the service in Salalah should seek further information from the Oasis Club or call the Defence Section at the British Embassy.

You can purchase a Poppy to support the charity at these places:

The Embassy
British School Muscat
ABA
Womens Guild
St Georges Society
MAM Camp (4 Mess)
Medident in MQ

For those that don't know, Remembrance Day is is a memorial day observed in Commonwealth countries since the end of World War I to remember the members of their armed forces who have died in the line of duty.

le fin.

Wyclef Jean's Yele Charity For Haiti Shut After Misappropriation Of $16,000,000 In Donations

Wyclef Jean

Rapper and former Fugees member, Wyclef Jean, has closed his Yele charity under a cloud of suspicion and a criminal investigation. Yele was supposed to benefit his homeland Haiti, but stands accused of misappropriating $16,000,000 in charity money donated to benefit victims of the devastating earthquake in Haiti. 

Instead the money went to luxury items such as private jets and high salaries for Yele's staff members, including Jean and his mistress. This story is sad, as $16,000,000 could have gone a far way to help Haitians that have been left destitute. Jean owes Haiti and Yele's donors a massive apology. 

RELATED ARTICLE

Wyclef Jean Slammed By Bob Marley's Son For Claiming Lauryn Hill Tricked Him Into Believing He Is The Father Of Her Child

Online charity donations

You may have noticed that there is a new advert on the blog, this is for the Sultanate of Oman's official online donation portal for registered charities in Oman.

Currently there are 9 registered charities you can donate to via the portal, and some of them have appeared on this blog before. Ramadan for many is a time to give back, and if you really want to give back to charity organizations, this is an easy way to do it. The charities registered are:

1.     Al Noor Association for the Blind    
2.     National Association for Cancer Awareness    
3.     Dar Al Atta Charity    
4.     Environment Society of Oman    
5.     Association of Early Intervention for Children with Special Needs    
6.     Oman Charity Organization    
7.     The Association of the welfare of the Handicapped    
8.     Oman Hereditary Blood Disorder Association    
9.     Oman Association for Disabled

The purpose of the Donations Portal is to provide an opportunity for Citizens and Residents to make online donations to a charity of their choice. Designed for simplicity, making a donation is as easy making a payment using a credit card authorised by an Omani bank.

In the past, unless one knew where a particular charity was located to physically visit it, making a donation could sometimes be a difficult process.

This online Donations Portal is attempting to gain access to the largest groups of communities possible via the Internet, in an effort to promote a culture of volunteerism; a message that humanity must believe is important.

So, if you are feeling charitable this Ramadan, consider donating via this portal.

le fin.

Desert Voices book

Now I always try and do what I can for charity around town, and this is no different. Outward Bound Oman is looking to raise funds to support the local chapter of Outward Bound here.

The General Manager, Mark Evans, has written a book - Desert Voices  - about crossing the empty quarter in Oman. It’s 180 pages and beautifully illustrated by one of NZs leading landscape photographers, John Smith. All proceeds go to fund Omani young people from government schools on an OBO course.

For a high-quality coffee-table book, I think the price is great - 20 RO per book, 6 books for 100 RO, and you can get them signed too. And you know your proceeds are also going towards a good cause as well.

You can order your own copy from OBO by emailing accounts@outwardboundoman.com or getting in touch with them via their Facebook page. They have no problem shipping this book out world-wide either.


le fin.

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.

Sketch Crawl Muscat

A regular reader has written in and asked us all to help spread the word about her fund raising event for Oman's National Association for Cancer Awareness. It starts on Thursday the 12th of April in the Muttrah Corniche entrance to the Souq at 9am, and runs till 1pm and culminates at le Brasserie. She ran a similar event to this last year in Qatar for relief for Japan, and raised a total of $466, which she's hoping to beat this year.

A minimum donation of RO 4 ($10) is suggested, and she would love to meet other budding sketch artists around town to join in on her fund raising endeavor.

le fin.

Tomorrow / Bokra

On Friday the 11th (Rememberance day) a charity music single was released globally via CNN and MBC. The track is called Tomorrow / Bokra and is a re-release of Quincy Jone's original track, Tomorrow (a better you, better me).

The reason for blogging it is the local spin, local Omani artist, Salah Al Zadjali features in the track along with 23 other "leading Arab music artists from 16 nations across the Middle East and North Africa".

Anyway, here's the track for you to have a listen to. It's fairly long!

Have a nice day!

le fin.

A few updates...

Firstly...

I hope you are all having a great Eid vacation, personally I am having a great time!

Image from Joint Typhoon Warning Center

It seems that there is more rain heading towards the capital with showers expected by most weather predictors to begin tomorrow and run through until Friday at the latest - patchy showers, not continuous.

Last night was the Shaggy party, with the VIP after party at Zouk later on - I've not heard much about it yet but what I have heard was positive, great to see more acts coming to town :)

This Wednesday the 9th sees Jay Sean and Shontelle at the InterCon gardens, gates opening at 7. I'll announce the winner of the 2 free VIP tickets to The Script tomorrow. I'm told that there are a few tickets remainig for both the gigs, not many though! You can buy them at the following outlets: OUA MQ, Bose Qurum City Centre & Al Ghazal pub at the InterCon.

For people that like rock music, I woke up this morning and was surprised to see the following poster:

This Friday, at the Safari Bar in the Hyatt, RO 10 on the door, doors open at 7, band on at 9. Should be fun, even though it's on a school night for many of us.

I also saw that Craic Attack is coming back -

Tickets are OMR12, available at Crowne Plaza and OUA retail outlet in MQ. Doors open at 8pm (show 9pm).

Tomorrow I'll announce the winners to the Script concert... you can still enter... click here for details.

The Oman Cat-Astrophe lot have a petition going on to gauge support for an animal shelter campgain they want to launch. You can help by signing the petition on facebook, here. I suggest that your contact information can be found by clicking your name, and that you don't need to put your email address there publically for all to see.

Local blogger, Happily Married to a Biker has started a new blog to support her moms new store, Unique Star Fashion at the Zakher Mall in Al Khuwair. It's great to see more shopping choices with web-presence here in Muscat!

More tomorrow.

le fin.