I didn’t sleep well and got up at 7 to message Trish and see how her flight plan was doing.  She was at the airport and had gotten a bit of sleep at the hotel.  She plans to get more sleep on the plane.  Her flight was scheduled to leave at 8:50 am for San Fransisco and at 8:37 she messaged that they had just announced a gate change!  “All that running paid off,” she wrote back a few minutes later.  However the message received half an hour later was, “Why does the universe hate me?  There is a crying baby in the seat beside me.” Due to all the cancellations yesterday the plane was full so she had no chance to change her seat.  The good thing, I hope, is that an hour after take-off most babies go to sleep on flights. It is the toddlers who cause the most disruption because they are active and do not like to be confined for hours on end.  She is finally on a plane and heading homeward.  Please, please everything go well for the rest of her trip….

Carrie, Joseph and John all slept in a bit today.  Catch-up from the lack of sleep the other night.  We had planned to drive to Seeb to explore a park out there, but Joseph and Carrie both had some work they would like to get done. (We’ll go on the weekend.) Also the weatherman predicted rain for later in the afternoon and when it rains here, it really rains.  This would be fine if the rain stayed outside. Unfortunately the windows leak in their villa, which is ridiculous since they are the first tenants in the new building.  Rain pours down the  stairs that go up to the roof through the base of the window at the top and Carrie told us that if we had anything on the floor in front of the window in our bedroom we should move it because water comes in most of the windows.

John and I took a walk mid-afternoon.  It was definitely cooler and there were a lot of clouds in the sky, plus a light breeze.  Muggy though.  However the rain did not materialize. I only did one lap of the neighbourhood route because I knew John wanted to do a power walk lap and I can’t keep up to him when he goes like that.

J & C’s stove top is fueled by propane tank; the oven is electric.  They bought four tanks of propane on the advice of the salesman when they moved in 14 months ago.  We changed out the first tank a few days ago.  Every time the guy comes by he is incredulous that they don’t need more propane.

Also all the water is de-salinated so people buy bottled water because there is a weird after taste to the tap water, even though it is perfectly fine to drink.

Both these commodities are sold door to door.  The trucks drive by almost every day, which would be fine except the drivers feel they need to give three beeps on their horn at every house.  There are more than fifty houses in this neigbourhood so that is an awful lot of annoying beeps.  Carrie and I want to go outside and pull the wires!  Surely every fifth or six or tenth house would do.  It isn’t as if all the nearby houses can’t hear your beeping and know they can come outside, flag you down and buy their water or propane.  They do some very interesting/weird things here.  But I am sure the locals would think we do some pretty strange things too if they lived in our towns.

So, other than our walk around the block and some games in the evening it was a leisurely do nothing day – for John and me anyway.  Carrie was busy preparing for the launch of her online art creativity course and Joseph was writing a report for work and completing his medical expenses forms.  Just a thrilling day all around. And….Trish is still in the air somewhere.  As of this writing at 8:15 pm Muscat time she has 14 hours of flights and waiting for connections left ahead of her.  Talk about a long, long day.  Thinking of you Trish.

Sorry, doing nothing generated no photos today.

Happy New Year everyone.  May 2015 be for you a year of blessing and joy.