Mini Cabrio BlogSpot

My Mini

2006-02-28T02:46:00.000-08:00

You probably wonder whats with the nickname. I am sure I did mention the reason somewhere in my blog. But this is the official blog. I chose Mini Cabrio, simply because I drive the Mini Cabrio, I love it, its my baby, I even have a nickname for it. I call her "Mommy". Neo recently bought nokias latest phone N-70, the clarity of the pictures are amazing, so we thought to take some pics of the cars and here they are:

My Huby the Entreprenuer

2006-02-27T20:06:00.000-08:00

I mentioned in my previous post that Neo my huby would be featured in the next coming Business Today Magazine, what he doesnt know that I got my hand on the article before the publication. So you lot are the first people to see it and I hope Neo wont mind :). Beside my name is in the article, try to find out where!.

As well, the company has been given an exclusive interview for the upcoming Gulf Investment Properties exhibition which would take place in Seeb International Exibition on 20th March to 23 March. The article of the company will be feautred in their main catalog that would be distributed to the visitors as well and the participators and major real estate investors offices in Oman. I will post the article here earlier if I get my hands on it as well

Alhamdulliah, everything is working well considering its only been in existence for one and half years (knock wood!!!) Anyway, enjoy the article below and tell me what do you think

Note: You and as well Neo would be the first to see it on my blog, imagine the suprise huh!
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Salim al Harthy, managing director, Oman Homes, is in the business of real estate the business of helping people find a base. The entrepreneur himself prefers multiple bases when it comes to work. The 31 year old is an oil engineer with PDO and the manager of the online discussion channel Oman Forum, besides being the mind behind Oman¹s first real estate website omanhomes.com. And Harthy doesn¹t think that he has more on his plate than he can handle.

You know what business is? It is busyness. You have to be busy in order to do business,² he says. For someone who works 16 hours a day, busyness is really a way of life. ³As an entrepreneur, you¹re always thinking of new ideas. Then you work on those ideas. That¹s your business.² He says that with the confidence of someone who worked on an idea, put in a capital of RO50, and made a net profit of RO500 with his first deal. ³About a year and a half ago, I was looking to start a business that was connected to the Internet. At first, I really didn¹t have real estate in mind. I was just finding out about different business ideas. I came across this interesting software, which was designed for cars actually. I thought that it would be good if I adapted it for housing. It took me about a month and a half to do that. And that was the beginning of Oman Homes.²

In the beginning, it was just Harthy and his partner, and an advertisement in the paper about the houses. ³Three weeks later, we were getting 10-15 emails per day, with people enquiring about the houses. We got an email from this man in Australia, who wanted a house here. He saw the house on the website, liked it, and transferred the money. We had made our first profit - RO500. And it was a net profit because I hadn¹t really spent on anything apart from registering the website.²

To start with, Harthy¹s wife Adhra managed the administration of the business with a telephone and a computer from home. As Oman Homes grew, office space, a team of seven and two company cars, entered into the picture. More expansion is on the agenda now, both in terms of infrastructure and ideation. ³We¹ve bought land at Ansab, and are planning on building and selling next.²

He credits the success of Oman Homes in significant part to how user-friendly its website is. ³How we¹re different at Oman Homes is that you can see the inside of the house through photographs on the site. It is very easy to find what you are looking for.² Besides, Oman Homes has a sponsored link on Google that improves its visibility. ³Sixty per cent of those checking out the website are from overseas. Mostly they¹ve got job offers from Oman and want to find out about the real estate scene here. So the link helps.² What also helps is an arrangement with a certified real estate appraiser. ³Whatever enquiries we get, we forward it to them and we get a commission out of it,² Harthy explains about the value addition.²

The self-taught programmer and web designer describes the real estate business as one which is steeped in the art of negotiation. ³It is essentially all about how you talk to people.² And then there are the three Ls of real estate listing (the number of houses you have), leverage (the people) and leads (the enquiries that come in). ³If there aren¹t enough listings, then I have to check how hard the people are working. If there aren¹t enough leads, I probably have to increase my advertising. They¹re all
interconnected.²

The interest in interconnections was what led to Oman Forum. Oman Forum actually started as the discussion board of the Oman Auto site. ³I realized that people just came to the discussion board to chat, and not even about cars at that. As it¹s popularity increased, we decided to make it Oman Forum.²

The website, which started with about 15,000 hits a day, now gets about 140,000 hits a day. Ask Harthy if he is trying to evolve it into a commercial platform and he says, ³Advertisers have shown interest. But I enjoy the fact that it provides information about Oman. And it will continue that way.²

For the continuing success of business, Harthy puts a premium on advertising. ³If you give me RO1mn to invest in a business right now, I¹ll put RO900,000 in advertising and RO100,000 in the business. There are so many companies here who think that the RO50 they might be spending per week or per month on advertising is too much. But they don¹t understand the power of that RO50. With that RO50, you could get RO1000.²

That sentiment makes its way back to his business. ³Every call is a potential RO1mn. You help out one guy with a house worth RO100. He is happy, he tells another guy. You help this other guy, he is happy as well and he tells his big boss. It is a chain reaction that leads to bigger things really. Each customer is important.² He points to a copy of The Millionaire Real Estate Agent by Gary Keller and says, ³That is my favourite book and that is what I am trying to become.² He adds quickly, ³But I don¹t think money is everything. When you die, you cannot take the money with you. I realise that, which is why I am not afraid of taking risks.²

Budgeting is an Over Statement:

2006-02-08T09:59:00.000-08:00

Let’s face it; few of us can actually maintain a budget. Something always turns up, whether it’s voluntarily or just its one of those thing that you got to have it. So the 64,000 dollars question is, why on earth do we even bother maintaining a budget?

For example, my hubby and I are into movies, we are deeply into them, I mean literally, if there aren’t movie that month, we would make one with our own handy cam, just to maintain the feeling.

So the budget goes like these, we would spend not more than RO 25 per month on movies, that’s include Cinemas and rental. Instead its something around RO 50, we have this crave of TV series, at least in a single month we would order two TV series, and if that month Shatti decided to join the world and show some mega box office hits than that so called budget would double. Really, you can’t just say, “I will skip Lord of the Rings, as I have exceeded my budget for this month”, how ridiculous would that be!

The funny is, it takes one major screw up on a certain budget that causes a series of chain reaction before you know it the rest of your budget is long gone.

Picture this, more movies, means more travel to the theatre or to the DVD rental shop, which means more gas for the car, which means more family visit to discuss or show them your latest DVD collection, which means more magazine or entertainment magazine to keep up to date with the latest so that you would not sound stupid in front of the family members when a member discusses other movie he or she saw. More cinemas, means more pop corn, more cinemas means more dining out, especially when watching those movies that start at 7 pm and ends at 9 pm.

And before you know it, your entire budget scheme is left to the gutters!.

How many of you actually maintain a budget and actually succeeds in doing so?

Notice The last Date Entry!

2006-02-01T05:59:00.000-08:00

Yes, you got it. Guys forgive me for I have sin, it has been ten months since my last entry!. Homes Real Estate needed my full attention, and I just didn’t have time to blog, none whatsoever. I am proud to say that the company's cash flow is constant and finally we have a healthy bank statement, we have just acquired couple of lands and we are into the business of building and selling. So if anyone of you who are willing to purchase a house, you know who to call :)

Sorry for the sales pitch there, I did promise myself that this blog is my sanctuary and work shouldn’t be discussed. But what can I say, if I don’t talk about work, than I don’t have nothing to talk about, especially when one spend 18 hours a day working!

However, its not all work work work, I managed to free two days last week and spend it with my hubby (Neo) and the kids in Dubai. I could sworn that city changes every time I visit, its like a building construction zone, building keeps on popping out of no where, and I thought my Real estate business was doing okay, yeah right!

CITY CENTER:

City center, don’t consider yourself have been to Dubai if you didn’t get a swift of city center. I am sure you are all familiar with this statement. What does City center has that makes it a must for every visitors to Dubai to visit it. One would think with so many centers being built practically on daily basis, City Center would just be yet another center. But that is not the case, City Center is a like a monument of something. Your thought?!

SNOW PARK:

Finally the so called Snow Park was visited by moi. It cost me a solid RO 40 for myself, Neo, three kids and the maid. Question is was it worth it, for a mere 15 minutes experience in the ice. I said 15 minutes, because I don’t believe that there is a normal living soul could survive more than 15 minutes, the place is just too cold. I couldn’t feel my fingers anymore, I couldn’t move my lips and at one instance I thought I was going blind Literally. But overall it was fun.

The latest Boycott that Rocked the World!:

One last note, don’t use Danish Product, it will only harm 100's of employees who relay heavily of their jobs to feed their hungry families, employees that had no relation whatsoever of what that Danish Journalist done!.

See the irony, for god sake, surely there are other means of sending message across that would directly harm Denmark, but boycotting that the only people would be harmed are of the lower class just doesn’t make sense. Than that’s my opinion.

The main objective of the boycott so that Denmark companies losses money right?. Think again, wroong. they loose one million, the lay-off couple of hundred employees, so that the shareholder dont feel the loss. Its simple economics really!.

BTW, my hubby will be featured in Business Today Magazine, however knowing Neo, he would probably tell you all about it, so figured I should let him enjoy his 15 minutes of fame and tells the story himself! :)

You Judge

2005-03-17T03:10:00.000-08:00

I have seen so many weired and wako stuff, but what i have seen today just blew my mind off. Below is a poster which was placed infront of a reputable company that either went bust, or its some sort of a prank that I dont get, or indeed they mean what they wrote, take a look and you tell me, YOU JUDGET

In English it means "We have moved to a new location, the venu will be announced later. Thank you"

Nawras

2005-03-16T23:50:00.000-08:00

Forgive me members for I have sin, it has been two weeks since my last diary entry. What was the talk of the town for the past week?. You got it, the long anticipated launch of our next mobile provider, one and only NAWRAS. And belive it or not they actually have set a date now, 16th March to be precise.

I was not so keen to get a line with them, but knowing they were new and probably they would have special numbers, I said what the heck, let me do my hubby a surprise and get him a classy number. So off I went to Araimi. It was so funny to see on one side there it was the infamous Narwas, and just opposite to it our beloved OmanMobile. Talking about confusion, this was it, I can see it now, for every potential customer visits Araimi he or she would go something like this, Inni Mini miny mo, which of the two mobile provide should I go

Let me end this diary by saying, Narwas need to be careful , with the pricing scheme they introduced it’s a matter of time before they file for bankruptcy. One would think they would be cheaper, but its actually more expensive if you think about it. The cheapest package starts with 19 Baisa per minute, provided the call exceeds five minutes otherwise pricing of 39 Baisa per minute is applied, mind you this only works if the phone call from Nawras to Nawras network, if the call from Nawras to OmanMobile Network than it’s a fixed 39 Baisa per minute. If you compare with OmanMobile, they charge 25 Baisa per minute around Muscat, its only when distance exceeds beyond the Muscat area than the charges goes up.

The questions you need to ask yourself, how often you call beyond the Muscat area, more importantly, how often your calls go beyond the first five minute. Last but not least, statistically speaking, knowingly over half a million of subscribers are of OmanMobile, than one would easily safely assume that most of the calls made from Narwas Network would definitely be towards OmanMobile Network.

Frankly speaking it just doesn’t JIVE, Narwas are expensive, and the management need to realize this sooner rather than later, and if they depend on customer service as their competitive advantage, than they need to re-think their strategy, OmanMobile have improved tremendously in that area, otherwise I foresee yet another busted company in Oman.

But what to say, its the Story of our lives right!

Mughal E Azam (Hindi- 1960)

2005-03-07T09:13:00.000-08:00

I was passing today to one of our supposodly, or is supposbly, whatever, one of our good movie theatres and to my suprise the below was one of their main attarctions

Aha, its a 1960 production movie. And to think the level we sunk down, this is all the way to the center of core, that much low we have dropped, I mean what the hell?!!??!?!?!? showing a movie which is 1000000 years old, COME ON!

Check, is muscat borrring?, duhhhhhhhhhhh

Customer is always right!

2005-03-07T06:51:00.000-08:00

How far can you go to satisfy a customer? When would you be in a position to say "That’s it, enough is enough, I can't take it no more". Think about it, trust me when I tell you that some customers have a natural talent to bring the beast out of people.

Now do I look like a person who would steal?. Do I look like a person who was not raised well with my parents?. Do I look like a person who is greedy and all what I think of is money, wait, ignore my last question; just concentrate on the first two!

Yes, a certain customer today accused me with those hideous accusations, and for what, for a merely doing my job and asking for our fee.

Well, I think I don’t need to continue what happened next, let us just say that he will remember this day for his remaining pathetic life. And yes I did get my fee, just incase you were wondering

Question you need to ask yourself though, How far you are in an agreement with the phrase "Customer is always right", if it was up to me, I would get the person who invented such phrase shot and buried, than again that’s me!

Rubber Mats

2005-03-06T08:45:00.000-08:00

Ok so I finally got a number registered for the mini, than again, Neo took the honor of announcing it to the world, nothing is private these days.

I was so overwhelmed with the look of the car with those private awesome number, I decided to pamper the mini by getting it a specially designed and made for it rubber mats. You know the ones that stays under your feet while driving, the one that gets dirty with all the mud and dirt that sticks on our shoes the moment we step out of hour homes, you know the ones that a normal sane person wont give the time of the day for it, after all it’s a frigging mats right, why on gods world would anyone take the time and effort and drive all the way to BMW showroom to buy a special designed rubber mats, where you could get a cheaper one for as low as 3 Rials.!!!

Well, I did it, I thought, the mini deserves it. So off I entered the body shop of BMW, five minutes later I was out empty handed

Don’t get me wrong, I love MOMMY (that’s the mini name by the way), I love her deeply, but to spend 61 rials for rubber mats it's just doesn’t make sense, for a moment there I was looking for diamonds beads, hey, you never know, for mats cost that much one would automatically assume there must be diamonds somewhere here!

If a stinky rubber mats goes all the way to 61 Rials, cant help to wonder what other parts worth, dear me dear me, would I be able to afford to keep MOMMY in a long run, only time will tell I guess

You see now I am depressed…

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Booorrrringg

2005-03-04T10:50:00.000-08:00

What do you get when the bowling alley is fully booked, there arent any movies to watch, and not in a mood for an outside dinner. Have you guessed yet?. No, let me tell you. You get a country that is soooooooo booring you could kill yourself.

Question is, is Muscat really boring, or is it we are so used with a certain lifestyle we end up making it boring?. Its a thought to ponder I guess!

Maybe I should ask myself this question assuming I am in another country, what if I was in Dubai. For one, I would have dozen of movie theatres to choose from, not only that, if a certain bowling alley is fully booked there is always another one around the corner. And dont let me start with the amount of various restaurants a person can choose from.

Conclusion, Muscat is not boring, its just that there arent many choices to choose from, we are stuck with couple of movie theatres, two bowling alleys and limited amount of restaurants that I guarntee that not a single soul in muscat havent dined in them (its no wonder if a certain restaurant is opened the entire country knows about it, its pathetic really)!

Next Friday

2005-02-25T11:03:00.000-08:00

" I am in a wadi mood today" my hubby said while wiping his sleepy eyes producing one loud yawn and at the same time cracking his neck and fingers. "You serious, now, this time of hour?" I Shockley asked "I am if you are" he replied.

What on earth was he thinking, deciding for a wadi trip 11 oclock on Friday morning, and I thought I was spontaneous, my hubby proved me he too can be super spontaneous. Flash back ladies and gentleman, the Friday I had last week is about to happen again only this time you multiply the speed by zillion, and I mean that literarily!

You, prepare the meat, you, get the children dressed up and ready, you, grab the camping chairs, coal and BBQ set, you, don’t forget the camera and remind me to get some ice at the nearest select. By 12 noon, we were set to go

Wadi Tayeen, that’s the place my hubby chose, for one we haven’t been there before, and typical Neo, adventurous, always seek to discover places without prior preparation or even decent warning. Did he mention about the trip where we mistakenly end up in Jabal Shams and all we wanted to do is have a nice lunch at Wadi Bani Awf and head up to Nizaw Hotel for a night?. One minor detail we didn’t know that in order to get to Nizwa Hotel Via Wadi Bani Awf is for us to climb 3000m worth of altitude at 5 degree Celsius outside temperature, with as much as half tank of petrol passing through a road just enough for the width of our Prado, one mistake turn I would be writing this diary in heaven or Hell or in the grave, anyway the point is, I would be dead by now, and every time I remember that day I still get the shivers

Going towards Nizwa taking the Sur route, 92 KM zeroed from Burj Al-Sahwa, just after the Oman Oil Petrol station we took a left turn, of which 57KM after that we arrived Wadi Tayeen. Yet another Petrol Station we encountered of which we took a left turn before it immediately, and it’s a 20 minutes bumpy road all the way to the waters

The wadi was a dream, the scenery was fantastic, is one of those rare wadis where you could see a Falaj passing by as well. The drive towards the wadi by itself was memorable, passing through valleys and villages and it could have been mesmerizing if it was not for the kids going on saying " ARE WE THERE YET" "ARE WE THERE YET" "ARE WE THERE YET" don’t you hate that.

And yes if you were wondering, who is the Gal on the picture, that’s me, sorry about the bushes hiding my face, but what can I say, after all it was Neo taking the photo, I told him to move closer but he wouldn’t listen, maybe next time I will get you guys a much clear one.

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The World of Real Estate

2005-02-20T03:29:00.000-08:00

Did I mention that I am running a Real Estate Business, well I am. Its probably the only business that trust plays a big role in its survival. By trust, I mean, don’t trust anyone, everyone would stab you in the back the moment they have the chance. First rule of real estate do not reveal your clients name, second rule of real estate, DO NOT REVEAL YOUR CLIENTS NAME.

I learned the above rule the heard way unfortunately and what about to tell you today is something that I hope none of you would experience, so buckle up, this is one roller coaster ride you don’t want to miss.

The phone rang, a VIP voice from the other side, how did I know that it was a VIP well, it’s a amazing how much these caller ID can tell, with the power of nine in front, followed by six identical digits you can pretty much safely assume that the person owning this number must be a VIP. And that fact that he was asking for a land that cost not less than 1.2 Million Rials helps as well.

While the VIP was rambling about the size of the plot and how urgent it is, showing off that money was an object, all I can think about is the commission that I will gain for it.

Hmm, 1.2 Millions Rials, 3% commission that’s 36000 Rials, not bad for a days work huh! The challenge was, where would I find such land and how fast would I find it.
“Hello are you there? Hellooo? Damn, you just couldn’t resist me day dreaming, oh well…

“Yes Sir I am still here I replied, he went ahead and said” as I was saying, money is not an object”. There you go, money is not an object sentence again. “Sir” I said cutting his sentences short, “I understand what you need, just give me sometime and I will see what I can do”

You see, with this business, one tend to get a lot of phone calls from various estate agent, and if we attend each and every call than no work will be done and easily end up loosing everything, my motto is and has always been is to follow the 80/20 rule. Concentrate on the 20 that matters and leave out the 80 that doesn’t. The tricky part is to know which ones that matters and which ones that don’t, it’s only through experience you master this, for instance, the number that I saw on my phone automatically indicated that the person behind this phone was a VIP and he means business, hence this phone call mattered as far as my judgment is concerned. I guess in this particular incident, experience has nothing to do with it, any sane person can make out the importance of this call right?. Common sense my friends, although something’s are not so common!

Let me explain you how the commission works, If my Estate Agency manage to get the owner and the buyer than that’s a full 3% commission, i.e. there is no middle party involved in getting this deal done. However, that is not always the case, there is always another agent involved, sometime it could go up to four agents even more, a person would know a person who would know a person who would know person that knows the seller, so that 3% as you know it becomes extremely divided among the parties to a point what one end up getting not worth the work done, and for this reason my policy is not to have more than one foreign agent in a certain deal, well it’s a policy, whether its doable or not is another story altogether, especially if the amount we are talking about is 36000 Rials, policy or no policy, dividing that amount among several agents is still a good deal, rules are made to be broken after all right?.

Word of Advice people, don’t ever give away your clients name, is a mistake I made by entrusting another Agent with the name, and before I knew it, streak of agents knew about the deal, and a simple chain reaction took place after that

Poor me, I started off day dreaming a 36000 Rials commission, I ended up with 300 rials gross profit, you subtract the resource money to get this deal done, the net profit is not even worth mentioning if there is any that is. Do I need to explain what happened? Well read the above, I am sure you can figure it out yourself by now. Beat the 80/20 rule don’t it.

Ahhh, The World of Real Estate, don’t you love it!

Fridays

2005-02-18T10:33:00.000-08:00

Fridays don’t you love them? Why is it for some reason I feel this day is not so interesting day. Maybe its because my house maid is not around, leaving me this gigantic house all by myself to get it clean, my family of five to feed and tons of laundry to get done. As it is looking after my man needs is a mission's of itself, you add that to Friday's work you got yourself a full scale war.

But not this Friday, no surrey, this day will be different, not a single work will be done, today, it is I who will be wearing the pants in the family. It is indeed a war, but not the routine one, I am setting up the plans this time, spontaneous is the word. The challenge was how I can fully utilize an entire Friday while the entire country is at sleep for those who think that there is nothing to do on Fridays, well think again!

We started off with a brunch at Jeans grill, headed straight to the Bowling alley at AlKhuwair, off we headed to Ras Al-Hamra for a swim, bought ourselves some meat on our way home of which we prepared a BBQ, had a good dinner, straight to Bahja for a movie, and that’s Friday for you. Was that fast enough for you? Let me repeat that again even faster. Brunch, Bowling, Swimming, BBQ, Dinner and a movie….. Lot Faster, Brunch, B,S,BBQ, dinner and movie, can you feel the speed, can you feel it?

There is nothing magical like to let your soul free and for once to forget the routine and just be spontaneous, planning well ahead in advance ruins the fun of it, just decide and act upon it, and I guarantee you with a Friday like we had today, you will end up sleeping like a baby, with your arms open ready to embrace a new fresh week

The Three Stooges

2005-02-17T00:38:00.000-08:00

You would expect the poor to have the decency to accept any amount of money given to them, but to demand for a certain amount with an attitude is just beyond me.

So there I was outside Sarooj select market, just about to step out of my mini, when these three boys approach me selling a product where if given to me for free I would probably throw it away in the gutter. Don't get me wrong, I am a nice person, I am all for helping the poor, but to be our scammed for a product that doesn't worth a dime for a money that could get me a nice meal at KFC is just not right, is plain simple day
Light robbery, only that the incident took place at night.

So I had two options, push them away, or give them something less instead, you know them being the poor and what have you. "Mam, you can keep your money, we are not interested, we want one rial for this product". And who said that the poor are not Entrepreneurs, think again, they invented the damn word

Quick calc, they had like 30 of that product on each of the three boys bag. They were asking for one rial each, so that's a total of 90 rials for all three of them. And god knows how many of those they got them stashed back home. In a good day, they would probably end up going with not less 100 rials, thats a total of 3000 rials per month, let assume it cost them 200 baisa to make that product, meaning 800 baisa of net profit per product, which equates to 80 rials per day, 2400 rials per month clean slat profit. And all the time I thought I am the one who had it good! And all they had to do is, look miserable, all innocent like and use the smallest one of them as their form of attack.

"Mam, the youngest one, probably not more than 8 years old said "we are poor, you wont loose nothing if you gave away on rials now would you do?". You must give it to the boy, he was good, with his raggedy clothes, he was really, really good, for a moment there I thought he got me, but 2400 rials per month for a semi oscar award performance, no way hoosay

The nerve those kids have, demanding one rial as if they had all the right in the world. Of course I resisted, and tried to push them away, you either take the 300 baisa or scram kiddo. Stressing on the word "Entrepreneurs" the reaction i got from them did prove my point even more. They took the 300 baisa and throw it on my face, and the boy said out loud, making sure each and every soul in that area heard "Its not the money mam, its the principle". What Principle, and all the time I thought I am the one who was trying to make a point, stressing my so called principle.

A person beside me on another car, gave me this look having "Shame on you words, written all over his face", called the boy gave each Two rials. Question is, was that an intention act from the boys gaining sympathy from the others, or they were indeed sincere, maybe they were sincere NOTTTTTTTTTT

While breezing back home on my mini top down, I was thinking, if only those three stooges used their talent in something else useful, than again who am I to say, I am the one who lost my reputation back there and they were the ones who went home with 200% profit.

Mini Words of Wisdom" Stressing on a principle to a person who believes deeply on a principle that counteract your principle is just a waste of time, and the results could be devastating"

So If you ever experience such incident, just give them the damn money" so what if they make 2400 rials per month, its just a brain Surgeon salary, no biggy!

Valentines Day

2005-02-16T07:23:00.000-08:00

So there you go, the thrill has come and gone. The dispute is and has always been, who gives who the gift. Or is it simple as being both ways. Its always an issue I am facing with my hubby, I believe that the male should give the gift, after all, Valentine’s Day is all about flowers and heart, you know anything to do with red, and red to me is a women colour, so I never did get my hubby a gift on Valentines Day. Alas, this year was different; I thought I should take the initiative to find him something special, knowingly he will get me something, well he better!!!!

Off I went to Bella Rose, and was the shop packed or was it packed, it was a complete fiasco in there, barely anyone could move, people would spend up to 100 Rials for a bunch of flower bouquet packed with teddy bears and chocolates, and I was thinking all the time, if my hubby got me this, I would get him shot on the spot. 100 Rials for flowers?!!, what were they thinking, gold or diamond anytime I would say. Anyway, so I looked and looked, I couldn’t find anything special that says all around it, so I was settled with a red teddy carrying a red heart!

The night has come, a friend of our recommended the Golden Gate Restaurant, I never thought it even existed, why would anyone in his right mind would open a Chinese restaurant in a hidden area in Madinat Qaboos, than again, I am not of an outdoor person myself, so maybe I am the one who is outdated and need to go out often. We thought of having a Tum Yum Kon soup and they say that particular restaurant serves them best, well guess what, it was fully booked. The other day I was watching Sex and the City episode and I was dazzled how the New Yorkers would need to reserve well in advance to get the booking so they can eat in a decent restaurant, and I thought there is no way in Muscat that would happen, well today I was proven wrong, apparently there are restaurants out there that requires booking in advance, or is it a Valentine thing, a spur of a moment, happens once a year, knowing Oman its probably is, me advance booking, that will be the day!

Nandos, Jeans Grill, Nando, Jeans Grill, Nandos, Jeans Grill. Of course my husband wanted Nados and I wanted Jeans Grill, never underestimate the power of a woman. Off we went to Jeans Grill.

Let me tell you something about my hubby, he is very particular when a matter comes to invading his privacy, for some reason he takes this issue very seriously. He is a smoker and if the restaurant allows to smoke, he expects to be treated accordingly, and whoever within the restaurant asks him to stop smoking, the man I married disappears for a while and this monstrous person emerges, he reckons that smoking is his problem and if anyone hates it, than tough luck, he can find another distant air to breath. A mistake that one of the couple did when they asked my husband politely to stop smoking. “Get a non-smoking seat Area” that was his reply, imagine the shock that person had, he was speechless, he knew he had no case. Did he mentioned that we don’t eat at McDonalds anymore, well, yes we stopped and I wish it was due to boycotting reasons, noooooo, its because its non-smoking restaurant. If I knew well in Advance that Nandos was a non-smoking restaurant, it would probably save me the hassle we had earlier

We ate the salad and I got myself sweet heart juice, nothing sweet heart about it really, it tasted like any normal cocktail, and not a good one as well, but, I did pay for it, so I guess the naming did work, its amazing the marketing techniques we observe these days, who would think naming a yacky juice sweet heart would sell, practically every table had it, the morons!

Gift time, I got those nifty valentine stuff and a rose and small speech from my hubby, babbling how was the last 8 years of our lives together were the best time of his life and bla, bla, bla. For or a moment there I felt a tear generating, than I gain I had the flu, so nope!. I think he noticed that I was not impressed with his speech, and he gave me that sad look and I told him Honey, you had me at “I love you” so stop the speech propaganda, you weren’t of a romantic person anyway, so don’t start now. I gave him the red teddy with the red heart, he gave a smile, and said “That’s a first, oh well, I will stick it on my flat screen back at work, thank you”. And that was it, as I said at the beginning, the thrill came and has gone, we took the car to the love street, parked it in a nice area, and just watched the sky hoping to see the stars, but nope, we didn’t see the stars, for some reason, I don’t recall seeing stars for a long time now, but, it’s the thought that matters I guess. And finally my huby said “Honey, you do know that this day has no meaning to me, I love you the same every single second and minutes and hours and days, I just craved Tum Yum Kon Soup today and the fact that it happened in Valentines day is just a coincidence, you complete me” That sentence did bring tears in my eyes and sure as hell it wasn’t the flu