BA flight left on time nice seats, plenty of leg room. (You can tell I'm getting old!) Listened to remastered Pink Floyd whilst doing crossword (another bad sign ). Food surprisingly good then a film (Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy) good but those back seat screens never do a film justice. Slept on and off for a few hours then before you know the light is pouring through the window and breakfast is served. Landed 10 minutes early and for once passport/baggage is not a tortuous queue and we're landside in less than an hour. As before the Conrad staff were waiting for us as we came through customs and within 10 minutes we'd been checked in for our water taxi and were on our way to the lounge to wait for the final leg of the ... read more

Well the final day was spent in glorious sunshine doing absolutely nothing! We enjoyed the previous nights meal so much that we went back to the fish restaurant again and had an equally fine repast. We also got a good look at the lunar eclipse as it passed very close to Oman. Very weird to see the moon turn red! The next morning we grabbed an hour after breakfast on the sun bed before reluctantly making our way to the airport and home. Home via the dog kennels where we picked up Ruby who then proceeded to whinge all the way home and tell me in great detail what a horrible time she'd had! Torrential rain greeted us and when we finally made it back the boiler was off and refused to re-light - oh joy! ... read more

After a splendid evening's meal accompanied by a cheeky Morrocan Shiraz (went very well with the Kofti Tagine - beef meatballs to you and me) I was up with the lark (or whatever the Omani equivalent is) and breakfast was taken at 8:30. Today is Friday and therefore the Holy day and you could feel a very different, more reverential atmosphere about the hotel. The sun was back with a vengeance and as we made our way to the pool the sky was beautifully cloudless and with the blue sea made a perfect picture (which I'll include later) The morning was spent soaking up the rays with the only disturbance being the delivery of the coolbox containing the iced water and Evian face mister thingy. This was followed mid morning by the lady with the iced ... read more

Arrived at the airport on time left the car with the valet parking boys (yes this is different to my NZ trip,but I am travelling with Sue don't forget !). Check in took 5 minutes and straight through security. A quick shop for essentials (books etc) then straight to the lounge. A couple of large G&T's and before you know it it's time to board. We're flying with Oman Air for the first time and they live up to their promise. The service was excellent and their flat beds allowed us to get some sleep (although the champagne helped as well!) Landed ahead of schedule and after purchasing a visa (bit of a surprise that, dont remember doing that the first time we were here) we were through customs and in a taxi to the hotel. ... read more

Flight boarded on time but didn't take off until 14:00 (45 mins late). However, a good tail wind meant we made up the time and we landed at 17:16. We made it through security and collected our bags OK. I had been carrying my kilt so I handed it back to George for his flight back to Newcastle. We said our good byes. We'd spent nearly 1 month together and we'd had an absolutlely brilliant time. My thanks to George for being such a great travelling companion and for putting up with me for so long! Many thanks to Phil W for picking me up from Heathrow. He was there ready and waiting (although still in his paint spattered work clothes! I had expected a peaked cap and a message reading "Mr Guy") We made good ... read more