On being proved wrong

Do you want the good news or the good news?

Well, I was wrong on three counts (see last blog entry), or four if you count my unvoiced suspicions. I guess being new to a country makes you prone to being wrong a lot, especially if you are so bold as to make an assumption. (As an old teacher used to say, “If you assume, you make an ‘ass’ out of ‘u’ and ‘me’. So true, so true.)

So what I didn’t say last time was that I assumed at least one thing would go pear-shaped this week  – either our shipment from Australia wouldn’t turn up, or something would prevent us getting to Oman in time for the visa run (we were cutting it pretty fine as it was, renewing 30-day visas on day, well, 30). Many people have warned us of the general Dubai inefficiency and chaos, so I thought I should keep my expectations low.

But at 9am on Tuesday (an hour early) the Australian stuff turned up. So wrong there. And, after a bit of shuffling furniture around, the lounge room looks just fine and not the cluttered wreck I expected. So wrong there too.  On the other hand, this is how my wardrobe looks:

How quickly our plans to become a super-organised neat-freak fall apart. Wherever I go in the world, there I am.

And we made it to Oman last night with no trouble at all. Not only that, while the first part of the trip was fairly geographically and aesthetically dull, as I gloomily predicted, we pretty soon entered a region of rolling, golden sand dunes and camels, starkly lit by the low sun. I had good reason to curse the fact we were in a rush and I only had my phone to take pictures with. The dunes looked miles away and uniformly grey through my phone’s lens. As we got into more mountainous regions, though, the landscape leapt up to greet us and I got a couple of cool pics (including the one at top):

Will definitely be going back with a real camera and a bit more time very soon.

It was a very welcome reminder that we have come not just to an amazing city, but to an ancient and fascinating region. The whole Middle East is spread out around us waiting to be explored. I can’t wait.
Finally, I was wrong about that list I promised you. Next time! No, really! Just trying to have a spare moment to record that call to prayer - I always seem to be too busy when I hear it (I wonder if there is something deep in that about busyness not making way for spiritual opportunities. What do you think? Hmm. I think so. When we first got here I was using the call to prayer as a reminder to do just that, only not to who the guy on the loudspeaker was suggesting. Now that the call has faded into the background, I'm losing the habit. The new normal.)