Laura of Oman

 I went out with some others for tea tonight to the Turkish Palace. It’s a popular casual restaurant that the school normally takes us to when we’re new and the country isn’t in lockdown. Unfortunately they weren’t taking sit ins even though they’re allowed to now, so we got a takeaway and went back to one of the villas where I met a fine cat called Rocco.

 This is most of what I saw. I might not have got the exact species but you get the general gist. The dory fish I actually followed for a while so it was like a scene from Finding Nemo. Unfortunately I did not see a slippery dick.

 This morning I went to Bandar Kahrain with a colleague to go kayaking and snorkelling. We had to leave at 4:45 to get there on time but then had an hour to spare because it was a particularly low tide so we had to wait. We took the opportunity to paddle on a beach in Sifah. I haven’t been on a kayak before - I remember going canoeing when I was little but I don’t think that counts. I assume my dad did most of the work. It was great, easier than I expected, until I had been doing it for 45 minutes then had to spend another 20 going against the current to get to the snorkelling spot. By that point I was cursing all things kayak but pretended I was fine because I don’t like to admit weakness! We snorkelled for about an hour. I saw parrot fish, pipe fish, a puffer fish and various others. I don’t have an underwater camera so obviously no photos but I’ll find them online and post them. Most excitingly were two turtles. I swam with them for a while - they are so beautiful and so gracefu...

 On Thursday I went out on my own to the City Centre Mall. They have O Taxi over here which is exactly the same as Uber so it’s really easy. I just got a few bits and bobs, most excitingly flippers! I plan to snorkel a fair bit so I used them in the swimming pool for practice. The mall is pretty much like a standard mall except much cleaner. It’s fairly quiet because of the current climate. Even though things are open it seems people are reluctant to go out, plus I have learnt that Omani people in general are not morning people, so things don’t get busy until later in the day. There are a couple of shops that sell the most beautiful abeyas so I will be getting one at some point. In November it is international day at school and we all have to wear traditional dress so I’m looking forward to that. I had a coffee at Tim Hortons which was one of the only places to eat open. They seem to have American sizes here so a regular coffee was huge. On the way out of the mall, there are taxi d...

 Now, I don’t want to make you jealous, but you know how you spend hundreds of pounds to swim in a beautiful sea a few days a year? Well this is on my doorstep. You can hate me if you like. You can have the same... it just takes leaving everyone you love. No big deal. Another thing I have learnt is that if you run a red light you have to spend 48 hours in jail. It happened to my colleague’s husband, but he didn’t mind so much because they gave him three hot meals a day.

 Here are my colleague’s cats, a mum and two kittens: