Monday, 9 May 2011

Rock Bottom's racism and violence continues.

Rock Bottom's security guards have been written about before, noticeably by Muscat Jet Driver and Muscat's Undercover Dragon.(A special smile to the ever-amusing depiction of a meat head by the Jet Driver).


On Thursday evening (5th May), the renowned bouncers decided to operate an entrance policy: If you're white, you don't pay a cover charge. If you are of colour, you have to pay a cover charge. This policy was being enforced even on groups of people made up of all races, with the darker ones being stopped and requested to pay. The bouncers were specifically targeting people of Indian decent.

I'm told that one particular South African man decided that he was sick of this treatment and so knocked over the bouncers little table outside the entrance to the night club. Having realised in his alcoholic fuelled outburst that this was probably not the best way to go about things, decided to make a swift exit and run from the now agitated bouncers.

What happens next is, quite simply, incredible. I've corroborated this from 3 separate accounts of what happened from people that witnessed this.

There were 4 bouncers wearing white shirts in the entrance area to the club, 2 chased after the man, the other two went into the club and presumably called in reinforcements.

Outside, the first of the two bouncers ran up behind the man, who was now walking away, and with absolutely no verbal warnings just smashed his fist into the back of the man's head, dropping him to the floor. More white-shirted bouncers appeared onto the scene, a total of around 15, and proceeded to kick and punch the man who was now on the floor. A white companion of the victim on the floor attempted to pull people off his friend and pull the man up from the ground. This man took a reported 8 punches to his face from the bouncers, and did not throw one single punch in his own defence - purely only looking to save his friend on the ground from a very serious mauling. Thats some dedication right there I'd say.

There were many witnesses, including the Manager of the hotel, a certain "Ms Mimi", who then threatened the white man that the ROP were coming to the scene, and that she had video evidence of assault on her staff. 15 men kicking the living sh** out of one customer victim (of racism) on the floor apparently constitutes assault of her staff.

Now, this may sound like a drunken story of a typical night gone wrong involving bouncers. Except this is an all too common occurrence that happens at the Rock Bottoms club here in Muscat, and these bouncers appear to think that they can get away with stuff like this. And evidentially, they are getting away with this outrageous behaviour.

If you are going out this weekend, consider visiting another bar. Why take the risk of being abused like this, why give an establishment that allows it's staff to act this way your patronage? There are other options out there. Have you experienced problems with the staff at Rock Bottoms? Let us all know below.

PS - dont forget to enter into the competition for free tickets to Nemr Abou Nassar this weekend!

le fin.


Just a quickie: Silver Senses & Downs syndrome support group



Silver senses and Downs syndrome support group are hosting a day for sampling and buying from businesses both local and international. Designers from Dubai, Jewellery from South Africa, oxygen facials from Australia....even cupcakes from Oman.

Find them at the Ramada hotel tues 10th May 10am - 7pm.There is a RO 1 entry with free entry to prize draw.

Click here for a link to where the Ramada hotel is. It's in Shatti.

Don't forget to enter into the competition for a pair of free tickets to the Craic Attack night this Thursday!

le fin.

Sunday, 8 May 2011

Another MM giveaway! Craic Attack: Nemr Comedy Show - May 11th and 12th

This Wednesday and Thursday night sees the latest instalment from the Craic Attack hosted by the Crowne Plaza from 8pm on both nights. As always, a very special thank you to the team at Hi FM and ALIVE Entertainment for the tickets.


Tickets are RO 12 and are still available from OUA in MQ and the Tea Lounge at the Crowne Plaza hotel.

The main comic this time around is Nemr Abou Nassar, “Lebanon’s King of Comedy” who has previously done shows here in the last 2 years, and appears to be doing quite well with his latest tour "Epic".

Now, as always, should you fancy winning a pair of tickets to the finale showing on Thursday night the 12th of May, either leave a comment here (including a way for me to contact you) or drop me an email to my usual email address: mrsythe *at* gmail *dot* com

I will draw the winners on Tuesday evening!

Bon chance!

le fin.

April Favourites


Products Mentioned:

The Body Shop Love Etc... Eau de Parfum
Simple Sun Sensitive Protection Lip Balm SPF 30
Witch Anti-Blemish Skin Primer
Umberti Giannini Blow Dry Spray
No7 Skin Illuminator Radiance Boosting Fluid in Pink

Let me know if you wish to see more youtube videos and I may look into getting a proper camera :)

Much Love,

Onna

Merge 104.8 transponder goes active. Hi FM shuffle their schedules.

It's been a while since I've posted anything, and for that, well I have a few nice things lined up for you to read this week and next. Starting with this...

By now you should all have heard about the new English language FM radio station due to open shortly here in the Sultanate. There is still no word on the official start date for this new station, headed up by previously popular on Dubai 92 FM & Coast 103.2 FM Disk Jockey, Chris Fisher.



I quite like the official logo for the new radio station, originally leaked by fellow blogger (and winner of Oman Collective Intelligence's Top 15 Oman Blogs list) (thanks for the #2 spot by the way OCI!) the Undercover Dragon from Muscat Confidential on the 10th of April.What do you guys think about it? It does kind of remind me of MTV Arabia's style though, but I like that so it's fine with me :)

The English language radio market here in Muscat is now about to get a little bit more competitive with the launch of this new station. Marketing budgets in the country are beginning to increase, with a noticeable increase in other than print media advertising from the Financial and Telecommunications sectors in the last 6 months.

The most competitive part of the day for these three English language radio stations here in Oman (Oman FM 90.4, Hi FM 95.9 and Merge 104.8) is naturally going to be the morning show. Which perhaps may be why Erin from Hi FM has switched from the evening show to the morning show (6-9), leaving Darren the 9-1 slot, Kathy in her usual afternoon slot and new Canadian DJ, Marcus is handling the afternoon rush hour show. So it would seem Hi FM is going for a more North American sounding brand of radio, even in a lot of the advertisements now, it features fairly prominently accents from across the Atlantic.

So we have Erin, seasoned from a spell in Egypt on Nile FM (and 17 years in the business), and Chris Fisher, experienced from 2 different radio stations up in the UAE (and has been working in radio since 1993) going up head to head. Radio Sultanate of Oman FM 90.4's morning lynchpin, Faiq Al Mugheiry (known as Faiq on the Mike) probably will not see too much of a change in his audience, as the younger demographic of the audience here in Oman have already switched over to Hi FM. So in my 5 minute analysis of the situation, it looks like Merge FM will either take listeners from Hi FM, switch from an Arabic station, or will have to convince potential listeners to turn on their radios and turn off their iPods on their way to work.

It'll be interesting to see, or rather, hear, what goes on in the next month or two as Merge launches onto the market. I'm guessing that there will be lots of give-aways. I'm also interested in how much it will cost to advertise on air now that there is direct competition.

As soon as I know the launch date for Merge 104.8, I'll let you all know, if you don't know before me!

le fin.

Friday, 6 May 2011

I need your advice...




I'm so sorry I have posted in ages (over a month) and I'm afraid this post isn't going to be the most exciting. I thought I'd give you a quick update as to whats going on with me and ask for all your advice. 

So I've had an interesting month... 

I got a job, its just retail but I'm enjoying earning money and keeping busy. So far so good. 

My parents planned a trip to Sweden to visit relatives but after learning my nan is now in a home, and my "auntie" (technically not related) has become very sick I decided I would fly out for a long weekend to see them at the end of May. Perhaps this is one of the reasons I've been so stressed. 

I realised, as sad as it sounds, how little friends I have. I know tons of people in my town who I have the odd chat with etc but the amount of people who actually call me up on a regular basis, or who I could go to in a crisis is very little. Probably because most of my closest friends are travelling/at university, which SUCKS!

Random but true; stayed at my friends house after a few drinks in town and woke up with a swollen face, literally looked like I'd been punched!! Thank god it went down after two or three days!! 

To top it off I was kicked out of college!! Most of you know since last September I've been studying Journalism at a local college, a course which gets students into university. I'm going to be honest and admit I've been struggling with the course, mainly due to a build up of personal problems; but I persevered and kept up with most of my work, got good marks on all my written coursework and a distinction in my exam. Despite this my lecturer thought I was emotionally struggling far too much to be able to complete the course, so she pointed out that it might be best if I did not continue (just over a month before the course finishes). 

After many conversations between my parents, myself, her and other staff members I was basically told I wouldn't be allowed back. Although, in all honestly I didn't always enjoy the course, I clashed with my lecturer and I definitely was extremely stressed, I am absolutely gutted! I got into all the universities I wanted to go to, but will now not be allowed in, because I can't finish the course. I am also left feeling useless, unfulfilled and bored! I am a very ambitious person and now I am out of control and aimless. 

Seriously though, what do I do with myself now? Work in retail forever? There is absolutely nothing wrong with that but its not for me and I absolutely loved writing. I also love being in education, I actually like writing essays (Loser). I just don't know what to do, I have literally not been this depressed for two years! Help! 

To finish of just a quick FOTN from the over week... gotta put some makeup in this post somewhere ;) Stylish picture I think you will agree...


Witch Skin Clearing Primer
Rimmel Instant Tan (My friends, so dont know which one)
Lancome Teint Idole Foundation 01
Gosh Touch Up Concealer in 02
No.7 Skin Illuminator in Pink
NYC Colour Cheek Compact in Sutton Place Peach (Contouring)
Rimmel Stay Matte Powder in Translucent
The Body Shop e/s in Taupe (Brows)
Rimmel Matt e/s in Cocoa (Brows + Crease)
Stila e/s in Starlight and (Lid and inner corner)
Maybelline Gel Liner (Waterline and smudged into top lash line)
Bourjois Liner Effect Mascara
Barry M Lip Gloss (The pink one?)


Nails - Barry M Pure Turquoise
Top - H&M
Skirt - New Look
Wedges - Primark

Just to clarify, I didn't go clubbing with the hat and socks on :P

Hopefully I'll get my bum in gear and start blogging again!

Speak Soon,

Onna x

Sunday, 1 May 2011

Charity Gig at the Royal Flight

It's May Day today, and it's the time of year that local band 123 Orion do their May Day gig for charity. Once more this year they are playing at the fabulously priced Royal Flight club.







RO 5.000 buys you entry to the gig, a portion of excellent fish and chips and the proceeds this year will be put towards relief efforts in Japan. If you are interested you can text Jon for tickets on 9935 3712.

More soon.

le fin.