Sunday, July 26, 2009

The holidays are coming, the holidays are coming!!!

So as I lie back, chillin' beside the pool at our little private villa in Bali I thought I should update you all on the events of the last couple of months.
June went past with very little to talk about, other than a rise in temperatures and humidity and general day to day living. Oscar suffered the indignity of two biting episodes at nursery, the first on the face from a little girl which is still slightly visible a month later. I reckon that she fancies him, so we could class it as an over enthusiastic love bite!
Jacob received a very good school report for the year and as a reward was presented with his very first iPod, oh how times have changed!



But the really big event happened during the closing days of the month with a secondary private affair on the first day of the following month. I refer of course to Oscar's second birthday, in the finest traditions of the British Royal Family we had the public birthday in advance of the private family affair.
Due to unforeseen circumstances, the date of the party had to be changed at the last moment which then coincided with a days diving.
The water was warm enough that I discarded the wet suit and went down in a t shirt and shorts for the second dive. As ever there was an abundance of wildlife to be seen including disturbing a large ray at the beginning of the first dive, numerous snake eels, and a very relaxed turtle.




After two very enjoyable dives with Andrew and Chris at Plug Point and Cave Site, I returned home in time for the party but somewhat too late to assist with the preparations. Needless to say, I was in a certain person's bad books for sometime to come (My Bad).
So a load of children, arrived at our house to play, run around and scream, eat bad but oh so good food and generally wear themselves out in the space of two hours. All topped off with an ice cream birthday cake with Oscar's favorite theme, Dinosaurs.


As every parent believes their children to be superheroes, the best thing since sliced bread etc.. I would like to offer irrefutable evidence that this is really the case with Oscar and will back it up with photographic proof.


As can be seen, Oscar is none too happy at having his secret identity revealed in such a public forum, but hey, if you court the attentions of the paparazzi you have too live with their intrusions no matter what time of day it is.
So the school holidays arrived, and Becky and the boys went off to visit the Sultan's Armed Forces Museum with some friends. Much to my surprise the museum is open on Thursday Afternoons and Fridays as well! This is in complete contrast to the likes of the Children's Museum or the Natural History Museum which as government institutions are only open in the working week and up to Thursday lunch time (About as useful as the proverbial parp in a spacesuit).
The Museum has both inside and outside exhibits and according to Becky is very interesting, well laid out and is staffed by super friendly people, needless to say the boys were in seventh heaven running around, taking photographs and touching everything in sight.




A few days later and we celebrated Oscar's official birthday on the first of July, lots of prezzies in the morning before I headed off to work and a second cake in the afternoon.





Having an older brother has certainly speeded up Oscar's development, he is desperate to catch up to Jacob, shows interest in all things that Jacob does including his toys and is chatting away thirteen to the dozen. His vocabulary, surprises us both and seems to expand on a daily basis our current favorites include, “Oi Watch it”, “Mummy, chocolate milk lets go” “Bless you Daddy” (When I sneeze) and “Where's the Bakugan?” (A Japanese toy/game currently in favour with Jacob and therefore Oscar).
On and aside, Becky and her chums in search of the perfect breakfast and in the traditions of Ladies that Lunch popped down to the Shangri-La for a summer fare thee well coffee morning. In her own words, the food was rubbish, the sausages were not cooked properly, the bacon tasted of fish and the atmosphere was that of a staff canteen, certainly not worth the undisclosed amounts (I assume more rather than less) of hard earned cash that that they charged.
Oh, and the other snippet of news is that Becky and I decided upon our fortieth Birthday presents, bought shipped and delivered from America to our hands (All be it One month early) at considerably less cost than purchasing in Oman.
We are now the very happy owners of two state of the art Macbook Air laptops. Big Grins all round.
So it was time to head off on our hols, details of which I will bore you with another day.