Piano Recital

I am so proud of these three girls! They have been taking piano lessons from me this past school year, and we had our recital Tuesday evening this week. They have been a special part of my life every week for many months, and I just had to include them in my blog posting.

The program:

Each girl had 2 songs.

Receiving certificates in theory and achievement! I love the big grins!

Now, on to the recital. The girls ALL played their songs very well--good tempos, dynamics, and steady beats, and sweet-sounding notes! What a treat to be able to introduce them to a wonderful lifetime skill!

 After the recital, there were roses for each of the girls and a bouquet for me and gift from them.

The girls and their parents gave me an Omani silver necklace--which I will treasure forever!

Dinner after the recital. Yummmm!

Don was my official photographer for the evening, and he could resist this beautiful sunset photo op. You
can't tell from here, but the ocean is just behind the buildings across the street.

Trying to decide what to order...

We had bets going as to who would order this lovely cooked fish...

And no evening would be compete without watching your seafood grilled in front of you!

We had a great evening of music, friendship, fun and food. I will ALWAYS treasure my memories of these two very special families--and who knows? Maybe I'll get an invite to a senior piano recital one day! Even if it is half-way around the world!

Sari Soiree

Sari: an Indian female garment that consists of drape varying from two to nine yards in length and two to four feet in breadth that is typically wrapped around the waist, with one end draped over the shoulder, baring the midriff.

Soiree: a formal party that is usually at night.

So, now  you know this blog is about going to a party at night wearing a sari. (Please note: I did NOT bare my midriff, as pics later on will prove!). I made an offhand comment one day to my Indian friend, Monika, about getting a sari before leaving Oman for good just so I could say I had one. NEVER tell Monika anything you'd like to do unless you are serious about it! She made it her mission to help me achieve sari status, starting with fabric shopping.

First stop: Lulu's Indian fabric department, where you can find all fabrics and outfits Indian for women.

The mannequin in green is wearing a sari.

This is an example of sari fabric. Note the different prints on the same
piece of fabric. The top and the wrap are printed/woven on one piece.

After selecting the fabric, the next stop is a tailor's. Monika took me to a wonderful tailor's shop in the Qurm area of Muscat called Mnural's. Yes, that is hard to pronounce! But it was a wonderful shop, and I received first-class treatment! You need more than just the sari fabric to make the complete outfit. There's lining material, and depending on what you want, possibly midriff material, as well as tassels and trim. That's where a good tailor can come in handy.

The tailor's shop was elaborately decorated. Monika and I are trying to decide
the style for each sari. I felt really special while selecting the styles!

Below are pictures of my fabric selections. I had to get extra fabric to go with the purple for the midriff top.

The turquoise and the purple play off each other very nicely! This
is a single piece of sari fabric.

This picture doesn't do the gold and teal fabric justice--it took in
 too much red from the tent awning. This is a single piece of
fabric as well.

After waiting about a month (I was out of the country for the entire month of April), I had an appointment for my first, and as it turned out my final, fitting.

I took a picture of this chair because the
back was so interesting--horses!

Standing in front of the beautiful gowns and fabrics on display in the tailor's shop.

Sharon and Margaret came along to give me their opinions on the fit! We also
had a nice cup of coffee while we waited too!

Learning how to wrap a sari

Notice the keyhole on the back. Tassles (gold and purple)
were added after this fitting.

 So--the fitting was over, the saris were completed and I picked them up the next day. We made dinner plans with Monika and Ashwin at a nice Indian restaurant called Indus in the Royal Opera House Galleria for the following weekend. Ashwin, not about to be outdone by ladies in the clothing department, got a kurta pyjama with a nehru vest (Monika, you can correct me if I got these terms wrong!):

Here we are outside of the Royal Opera House, posing before we go in for dinner. Needless to say, we  received quite a few looks for being dressed in traditional Indian clothing, considering we really don't look Indian at all!

Here's the menu from the restaurant. We had a selection of Kebabs, Biryamis, a curry (I think!)
and some nan (yummy Indian flat bread) and dal (dipping sauce made with lentils). Monika
and Ashwin still do all the ordering when we go out, as it's all Greek, or Hindi, to us!

We loved the sculpture in the center of the restaurant behind Monika and Ashwin.

We are smiling because we had a GREAT evening with good food and even better company!
 Maybe I'll get the hang of wearing the sari one day as gracefully as Monika wears hers!

Desert Storm with a Twist!

No, this is not Desert Storm as in military, this is actually a desert storm! I recently participated in a  girls' "glamping" weekend where four of us loaded up in an SUV and drove out to the desert to spend the night!

The view out of our car window as we headed off road and into the
sand dunes of the Wahiba Sands Desert.

A first look at the Desert Nights Campground

Mary, then Catherine, then Wanda at the door--taking or posing for pictures at the Reception Room entrance.

 Below are a couple of shots of the reception area. Please note the air conditioning units mounted on the wall--and boy did it feel good! The sand burned our feet as we walked across it and some of it got kicked back on the skin not covered by our sandals!

Here we are loading up into a modified golf cart with a driver to carry us and our bags to our individual tents.

Remember I said "glamping?" Well, that's a term for luxurious, glamorous camping, which is
exactly what this is! Air conditioning, a nice king size bed, tile floors,
two seating areas, and an attached bathroom. Just doesn't get any better than this!

This is a very modern bathroom with all the amenities of a nice hotel!

Hopefully my adult children won't read this and be mad at me, since the desert camp we took them to in December, while a very nice and fun experience, was nothing this glamorous!

Three of us (Wanda, Catherine, and myself) wanted to go dune bashing, since we had never been before.
Dune bashing is when you drive up, down, and across the sand dunes in a 4-wheel drive vehicle. It's what
I would imagine driving in snow out on the mountainside (with no trees!) would be like!

You can see the sand beginning to kick up slightly towards the left side of the windshield and driver's side window.

If you look at the bottom of the car window, you will see the sand kicked up there as well. If felt as if
the car was just free floating on top of the sand as we fishtailed back and forth.

I guess this is how they place markers in sand dunes so you know where you are?

Gorgeous views across the dunes.

The sand is blown into interesting patterns. Notice the multiple colors in the sand--red, brown,, and yellow.
I didn't know this, but our guide told us that not all desert sands are the same colors--which makes sense
since not all beach sands are the same colors either!

Stopping at the top of a dune for some photo ops!

Another sweeping view of the valley below. See the clouds forming in the background on the right?
Little did we know how we would be impacted by them in a few hours!

More dune bashing, slipping and sliding in the sand!

A view of where we'd come from--see the tracks? I also thought about photoshopping out the bird poop on the window,
but I thought it would be fun to leave it in as proof that yes, even birds do live out in the desert!

 The wind blowing the sand makes the most interesting ridges on the dunes. The next four pictures are my favorites! You know, it just makes one pause and consider what an imagination our God has to create such varied landscapes here on earth for us to enjoy!

After the dune bashing, we went up yet another dune right behind our camp to watch the sun set. As you can tell from the images below, we weren't exactly able to see the sun. The clouds were blocking our view, and we could tell the rain would be moving in soon!

This is a sand devil, or dirt devil as we call them in the states, dancing across the top of the dunes.

The sun is almost hidden, but the view is nonetheless spectacular, with sand kicked up mixed with rain in the distance.

Another dirt devil!

Well, we decided to take a ride back down the dune as the storm moved in. We almost made it before the rain started pouring, but we didn't get too wet running to the reception room from the car. We sat in the reception room while the storm moved in!

Rain beginning to spatter on the patio.

Sand does not absorb water, a fact I didn't know before this. People running out in this driving rain got sand plastered
to their bare skin as they ran for shelter. 

Sorry for the blurry image--it was hard to capture the lightening! We were treated to a spectacular show of lightening as the storm moved on after dark!

Our dining room--under the stars. Beautiful!

Now, what do you suppose "Live BBQ" is supposed to mean? Not what I thought at first!
It actually meant they had k-bobs fresh off the grill!

Our live entertainment for the evening, accompanied by their singing. Very nice!

The next morning dawned bright, clear and hot! The sand was burning our feet again as we walked across the sand to breakfast--which was a nice feast inside the air conditioned dining tent! Love that air conditioning!

Our "tent". Slept really well on that king-sized mattress under great air conditioning!

Camels waiting to be ridden at this camel crossing sign!

A young Omani boy was in charge of these camels. They were feasting on a
morning snack of green beans--which they really liked!

Okay, staying on the camel while he goes up is really hard.

Balancing on the camel is no small feat either--and they are really wide beasts, especially if you have short legs!

However, the worst thing is going DOWN on the camel. You feel like you are going to plunge face-first to the ground!

We were escorted around the compound by this cute young Omani boy. He was in control of the camels at all times!

And that's how we ended our weekend of glamping! We loaded up our stuff and headed back to civilization! This has been a long post, but I hope you enjoyed seeing a storm in the desert, dune bashing, dune scenes, and the fun to be had while out in the sands!