Blogs I love.

First up Jennifer from Jennifer Rosellen. She's been getting back into blogging recently which makes me very happy, she does a great mix of fashion and beauty and she's created an amazing "Internships" page on her blog with an up-to-date list of all current media internships. Go check it out if your on the hunt for work experience. Also today happens to be her 23rd Birthday so pop-over to her blog and wish her a Happy Birthday.

Next up is Lily from What I Heart Today. I love this girls style and the aesthetics of her blog. I've only found her blog very recently but so far, I love it. 

Thirdly, Jessica from J Fashion and Beauty. I really like her nails posts, her style is amazing and she make's great OOTD videos on youtube.  

Last but not least, the blog picked from all the twitter links I relieved and that is Kat from Jemima and Ted. I love her photographs, I think well taken photos are one of the first things I look for in a blog. She also has such a cute blog in general and great style. I'd definitely recommend you go follow her. 


Lots more blogs I love. posts to come. 


Much Love
Onna x

Snow Patrol - Live in Muscat - Sunday March 11th

Well, last week Hi FM and Alive Events announced that James Blunt is coming to town on February 15th (and I'm currently still giving away 2 fan pit tickets worth RO 100 to see him), and this week there is another announcement: Snow Patrol are coming to town on Sunday March 11th at the InterCon gardens.

Tickets are RO 25 / RO 50 (Fan pit) but are not yet on sale, but you can reserve them by clicking here. You can get more information from the Facebook events page.

Have a nice weekend!

le fin.

Authentic Indonesian at Marjan, Grand Hyatt

As a special birthday treat, the very nice people at the Grand Hyatt, Muscat let Mrs Sythe & I have a sneak peak at the menu and the foods that are going to be available at Marjan between the 15th and 26th of January. Marjan the restaurant itself is situated outside by the end of the pool near to the beach, it's a pretty place to sit, but just like Tomato at the InterCon, it's a winter-only venue for dinner (but it's open year-round for lunch).




The first thing I noticed was that there were actually 2 menus - 1 was the main menu for the special themed event, and a second smaller Sushi menu. Being a huge fan of Sushi and Sashimi, I had basically given up hope of getting any decent Sushi anywhere in town except at Tokyo Taro down in Ruwi. I can report that the Sushi I ordered at Marjan was amazing, I really enjoyed it and will be going back for more - and at RO 1.500 for a Sushi dish for a starter, I think it's attractively priced. Each menu had a little light clipped on to it so you could clearly see the menu items - a nice touch I thought. Click the pictures to see the menu and their prices.

Speaking of pricing, the entire menu was, I felt, cheaper than I would have expected for a 5* hotel's restaurant. All the Entree's are priced between RO 8 and RO 10 (with the exception of the RO 25 lobster). To put that into contrast, Tomato @ the InterCon - a pretty much like-for-like setting for a restaurant (5* hotel, outdoor seating only) - has a standard entree priced at RO 8 - 15.

To start, we ordered the most expensive starter, the Chicken, Beef and Lamb satay sticks (RO 7.5) and 2 portions of Sushi (RO 1.5 x 2). Both were amazing, and the portion size of the Satay was a lot more than expected. As I already wrote above, the sushi was really good, better than the stuff served in Shining Shatti thats for sure.

 

I do have to apologize, I (unlike Andy and blue_chi) do not have a fancy camera and am somewhat limited with the pictures and the quality. A fancy camera, and how to use it, has been on my to-do list for quite some time. I'll get there in the end!

After the tasty starter (and more filling than expected) we ordered our main courses, which were the Soto Padang (spicy beef broth, radishes, bean sprouts and crispy shallots) for RO 8, and also the Semur Daging (Coriander marinated beef sirloin with sweet fragrant sauce) for RO 9 (second picture below).  Now, I appreciate that these dishes may not look particularly well presented, but it's the camera! They were both really, really good.

Now, the atmosphere around the restaurant is also worth noting - it was very intimate with well laid out tables with subtle, yet sufficient lighting. The view of the pool and the main hotel building was also nice, see below (this was the view from my seat).

There were also a duo of guitar players walking from table to table taking requests and then singing them. By the time they got to our table I'm afraid I'd set the bar too high for them by asking them to play The Who's Pinball Wizard, but they more than made up for not knowing that song by playing Sitting on the dock of the bay by Otis Redding, and then singing me happy birthday in 3 different languages, which was fun :) Here's a snap I took of one of they when he was belting out round 3 of Happy Birthday in what I can only guess was Indonesian.

He looks happy!

All in all, we had a great time, and the Authentic Indonesian experience starts at the Marjan restaurant at the Grand Hyatt on January 15th and runs until the 26th. You can book tables by calling the hotel on +968 2464 1234.

le fin.

My Raha mattress

What a subject for me to talk about today! Mattresses! Like it or not, we use them every day for a number of hours, and I wanted to share my experience with my Raha mattress - because I'm totally in love with it.

When I first got to Muscat, 4 and a half years ago, a colleague at the time took me to Lulu's on my very first day and said order a mattress now because it takes a few weeks to come. I was all a bit confused with everything and so purchased a Raha 1001 nights king size mattress for about RO 55 and carried on with all the things one does when they first move here.

Flash forward to May 2011 - my 1001 night mattress is well and truly battered, and my back was killing me - it was definitely time to find a new mattress. I went to the Towell bed centre, Fahmy Furniture, Khimji Furniture, ID Design, the IKEA catalog order store in Shatti, and a couple of other furniture places, trying to find a new mattress. I really wanted to get a TempurPedic memory foam mattress, but the price was really off-putting - North of RO 1000!!

In my search, I happened to tweet about my ongoing search for a new mattress, when someone from Raha emailed me and invited me to tour their factory right here in Rusayl. I don't know about you but I had no idea that Raha was an Omani brand, and definitely had no idea that they had a factory here, so I accepted the invitation and was actually quite excited to visit a factory. The last time I visited a factory that was not for work was an industrial photo printing plant in the UK and I was 12. Joy. I've actually been to quite a few factories but I digress.

So, last May, I went on a tour of the Poly Products L.L.C.  state-of-the-art manufacturing complex spread across an area of 45,000 square meters in the Rusayl Industrial Estate of Oman. I wont get into the in-depth detail of the inner workings of the factory, but it is significant: they manufacture their own foam products, springs & coverings there, along as make additional foam products for other uses, as well as furniture too. I really was quite surprised at how involved the factory was, and how many uses there are for foam products!

I learned that Raha is a brand owned by Poly Products L.L.C. and that the parent company has been in operation since 1979,  and has a factory here in Oman, as well as one in Germany & 2 smaller ones in the UAE. The InterCon, Hyatt, Al Bustan and The Chedi all have their mattresses made by Raha, and a very long list of 5* hotels in the region outside Oman also buy their mattresses from Raha. So their stuff is top-drawer quality.

After seeing how the mattresses were made, and just how much technology went into them (who knew?!) I decided that I was going to buy local, and selected the RO 320 Cloud Nine Expectations mattress. A week later the mattress was delivered, and now, 8 months later, I feel comfortable fully recommending this mattress. It is a no-turn mattress and is made up of pocketed-springs, multiple layers of foam, including a memory foam layer, and a quilted pillow top layer as well. I can guarantee that after these first 8 months the mattress has not become lumpy or uncomfortable, and my back pains have simply vanished. I won't lie, I did receive a modest discount, it was not free (no where near free!) and I don't want people to think that this is some paid-for advert, because it really is not. But none-the-less, Raha is a shining example of Omani products, and I for one had no idea they were even Omani!

If you find yourself on the hunt for a new mattress here in Oman, or even further afield, take the time to check out the Raha mattresses, I can guarantee they are built to last and are extremely comfortable. I've not had back pain in months, and I attribute a lot of that to the fact my mattress is helping me when I sleep. Here in Muscat, Fahmy Furniture in Al Khuwair is the main retail outlet for Raha mattresses.

le fin.

O'Malley's Irish bar at the Radisson Blu

On Friday the 6th of January, the new Irish bar named O'Malley's replacing The Cellar at the Radisson Blu hotel in Al Khuwair started trading in what is being called a soft opening.

No word yet on pricing I popped in there for a quick pint tonight - RO 2.7 for a pint of Stella. It sure does look pretty, here's another snap:

Well it certainly looks nice, no word yet on the menu or the bar pricing - if you've been, please comment and share your experiences with the rest of us! I'd say it'll be busy this weekend...

le fin.

My 2012 Body

I know I know, what a cliche! A diet in January? I blabber on about diets a lot; at work, at the gym on twitter, and now on my little old blog. I'm sorry, I can't help it I love a bit of a weight loss gossip. So here I am again talking about diets...
As most of you know I lost about 47lbs over about a year and a half. I'm so proud of this but I've hit a plateau. I cannot get down past the 10 stone I now weigh. I've always dreamed of a flat stomach so now I want to make it happen. 


I get requested a lot to do videos on how I lost the weight etc, I've made a couple of videos so far but it's January I intend to make a lot more. 
I'm thinking of vlogging my mission for a flat stomach and my new weight loss goals as well as making more recipe posts etc. I want to know if this is something you are all interested in and exactly what kind of videos you would like to see. Be specific people! Weekly weigh ins? Recipes? What I eat? How to tone the abs? A gym vlog? Just let me know.


I've also taken 'before pictures' ahhh scary! Which I may be posting after I reach my goal so you can see before and after. 


My goals are as follows:


Lose 12lbs
Tone and Flatten my Stomach
Drink 2 liters of water EVERY day
Try new vegetables
Cut down on booze 
Be able to Run 5k


Fancy joining me in my challenge to get a flat stomach? Feel free to tweet me, comment or just drop me an email :) What are your diet, fitness and health goals for 2012? x

Muscular Movie Stars Are No Longer Looking Huge And Bulky

The Leading Man in Hollywood is Now Slim and Toned, Not Bulky!

Can you recall back in the 80's when Arnold Schwarzenegger was the big action hero? The man was huge. He basically brought bodybuilding to the mainstream and influenced an entire generation of young guys to want to get as big and muscular as possible. It started with Conan, then the Terminator, Commando, Predator, Twins, and many more action flicks.

The Big Muscle Look Began to Die in the Late 90's.

You see, although lots of guys were aiming to get as big as possible, women had a different idea of what looked attractive. They wanted their men to look hot when dressed in clothing as well as with their shirts off. Women are physically attracted to the "GQ" look or lean and slim toned guys, not massive freaky muscular guys. If you ever have seen a soap opera, you will notice that all of the men have average amounts of muscle but with exceptional muscle tone.

1999, the Year Fight Club Came Out, Was The Official Death of the Massive Look

For many years during the big muscle era, women kept trying to get guys to understand that they were more interested in muscle definition and not into the bodybuilder look. Guys didn't really take heed until 1999, when Fight Club came out. Brad Pitt finally showed the masses of guys out there that being ultra-lean with a normal build is more bad-ass looking than being huge and bulky. Brad's character, Tyler Durden, was able to get a "hip" funky look, but had amazing muscle definition when he took his shirt off. This is a winning combination with the ladies and all actors are striving for this look.

Since the late 90's, Many Hollywood Actors Have Begun to Slim Down

If you remember The Rock used to be very big? He is now MUCH lighter and looks great. What about Mark Wahlberg or Ryan Reynolds? Both of these guys have really slimmed down and have the sleek and toned look instead of being bulky. Same with Matt Damon. More recently Will Smith really slimmed down for his role in "I am Legend". He had to get big and bulky for "Ali", but dropped a lot of that mass and really cleaned up his physique for his newest role.

Are You "Still" Trying to Get Massive?

Being big and massive is a great way to impress guys in the gym, but won't get you far with women. There is simply a "cheesiness" factor once you get too big. You can't really achieve a hip look and clothes don't fit well. Ever see a professional football player or professional wrestler in a suit? They look stupid. If you want to be more attractive to the opposite sex, then you may reconsider your goal of getting big muscles. Opt for the lean athletic look instead.

About the Author:

Rusty Moore is a trainer who gives advice to men and women who want a body that attracts the opposite sex. Don't train to be bulky! Learn the Fitness secrets of Hollywood's finest and get lean and sexy instead. Get a copy of his program today Visual Impact Muscle Building

Avoid Looking Overdone. Get The Lean Hollywood Look. Let Rusty's Visual Impact Muscle Building guide you to get the ultra lean physique. Click here to learn more.