DAILY DIARY: over the weekend, beach life in Muscat then, same as now

Over the weekend, despite the wind and the sand that swept and buried our picnic blanket, we spent the morning at one quiet strip of beach in Muscat, sipping lemonade, eating sandwiches, and being chased by waves. We ate a bit of sand, swallowed a bit of surf, and are still cleaning sand out of the apartment which followed us home, dusting our eyelashes and our clothes.

But there is really no better way to relax. The wind kept everything cool, and it {the weather} is really heating up outside. Summer has arrived, so a bit of wind and flying sand is okay by me, so long it stays outside and keeps us from being too hot to enjoy the sea and the sunshine.

After my daughter had a little too much of the ocean (or to suffice it to say, it had a little too much of her) we went for a walk in our quiet little neighboorhood, admiring other people's gardens. I just killed my kitchen counter top herb garden of basil and oregaono again, so who knows when a garden will ever be a practical time diversion for me?

 

Admiring others' always takes such little effort, and nothing reminds me of Muscat more than the white walls of villas with pink bougainvilla overflowing, and palm trees swaying between rays of the sun. "Nothing more than milkshakes, and PDO club beach, and vegetable spring rolls?" My little sister would ask me, for that is Muscat and Oman forever for her.

 

No, nothing. Just me and my camera, walking down quiet neighborhoods, seeing the cats (which my daughter enjoys) and pink bougainvilla, after a morning of walking alongside a long stretch of aquamarine surf. Later we go home, drink too much cold water too fast, fall in lazy daydreaming daze, and nap rather early. 

 

I never knew how to describe the surrealness of summers to my friends from back home, in the land far and away, when I went back to the reality of another existence there. You can say it, spell it out like a list: "sunshine that makes you lazy, pink bougainvilla, speckled cats with pointed ears and mysterious eyes" but you can't make them see it the same as you, espcially those who have never travelled.