The Expat life

Some think all expat women live this coffee morning, cocktails at sunset style existence when they move here. When it comes to organising their days it comes down to the difficult decision of doing their hair or their nails… a very good question, but not one people like myself get the chance to ask except on our treasured weekends. This of course comes only after we have paid the bills, done the food shopping (crap – I knew there was something I forgot to do this week!) and explained to 101 friends who don’t work, why getting up to meet them for coffee at 9am on my day off is a pain because I want a lie in.


Now don’t get me wrong, I enjoy working. It would drive me mad waking up every morning and hitting repeat from the previous day’s events. But the recent goodbye from a friend of mine here in Oman has made me realise how lonely the life of an expat can be. We all come and go so quickly that we are calling people friends and having these intense friendships with them after knowing them for such a short amount of time.

We move here and try to make friends with everyone who seems normal-ish and face the consequences later when you are turning down the forth dinner invitation from the mad couple who insisted everyone should wear plastic gloves at their last party because “we are worried little Timmy will catch H1N1” uh… seriously?! Before right on queue, “excuse me, I think I left the oven on.”

That situation, while amusing is just the dried fruit in the fruitcake that is expat life, I haven’t even got to the icing. Try having your partner invited to a party with people you have known for a few months and hearing the only reason he was invited is to “bump up the local percentage” Yes he is Arab, but he isn’t Omani… so isn’t really THAT local is he and I must of missed the story in the paper about parties having Omanisation quotas now.

Oh and I am still scarred after my first venture into an Omani colleagues house and they offered me Kahwa. I now love the stuff, but after going “please, no more coffee I’m fine thanks” and being poured another cup… it was my forth cup before some kind soul took pity and told me “to make them stop, shake your cup” My fault entirely but I wish someone had told me sooner.

On a slightly girlier note - if you are moving house and fancy a cute (non-email!) way of letting people know your new PO Box, you could do worse than these cards on Folsky. They are £25 and from Dig The Earth. Oh and should deliver to Oman :)

I know some of this is going to sound like a giant whinge, but I am interested in hearing your expat stories. How do you meet people when you move here? How easy do you find making new friends? Any amusing stories about friendships gone wrong ;) Thought it could be of interest to anyone moving here.

Am I a Mad Hatter?

Sorry for taking so long to do a follow-up post, everything seemed to happen at once.
Anyway, I have been going Alice in Wonderland mad since the release of the remake and when one of my favourite sites Domestic Sluttery posted about the Disney Couture range, I knew I had to whip the credit card out and start spending.

I remember reading Alice in Wonderland as a child and even went as far as to tip the sand out the little glass bottle I had made at Bournemouth beach a few months earlier and wrote “Drink Me” on it. I loved the fantastically mad world Alice went to and always secretly hoped to be sucked down a rabbit hole, ending up at the Mad Hatter’s tea party.

I have a feeling this jewellery is as close as I will get to being in Alice’s world but it is a start. The range is made up of cheaper Disney Couture pieces (which incidentally are my favourites) and the more expensive range by Tom Binns for Disney Couture which is a bit edgier – if Alice in Wonderland can be such a thing.

My favourite piece is this silver plated “Drink Me” glass vial necklace on a fine chain. It costs £30 and when payday comes round I will find out how much the delivery is from shopping classic ASOS. Went to see the movie last night and loved it once it really got going.


What books from your childhood do you still love? I am still looking for a copy of Enid Blyton’s The Magic Faraway Tree to appear in Borders – all time favourite!