Hazy conditions prevailed over Muttrah corniche and Al Bustan areas today morning.
Haze over Muscat
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Monthly Archives: October 2007
Heavy rains likely in Dhofar region
The deep depression over southeast Arabian Sea remained practically stationary and lay centred at 0830 hours IST of today near Lat.11.5°N and Long. 65.5°E. It is ikely to intensify further. However, as the system is expected to move west-northwestwards, it is not likely to affect Indian coast.
If the depression takes the north-west route, then Dhofar region in Oman will witness heavy rainfall in the coming 2-3 days (check the image below). If the depression takes the west route, then it is likely to move towards Yemen. On the looks of it, Muscat is safe for now. Gosh, we can’t handle another Gonu now!
A Weather.com screenshot confirms heavy rainfall in Salalah starting from November 2.
Related Links:
Low pressure may trigger coastal storm
Schmooze award
My blog has been bestowed upon with Schmooze award by Rambling with Bellur (Rwb). Please visit RwB’s blog to know more about the award. Thanks RwB, you have been very generous with your words about me. In fact, RwB was the first blog that was added to my blogroll. Initially, I had the option of choosing India-specific content and enjoying instant popularity in terms of hits. But, I decided to take a risk by writing about Oman in general, and in the journey that followed I made some friends on the way. I have no regrets about my decision. I promise to provide you all a regular dope of infotainment as long as I am in this beautiful country.
Omantel’s comedy of errors
It was scripted to be a suspense thriller, but sadly a week later it ended up being a slapstick comedy.
Omantel’s started off with these teaser ads (above) in local dailies, and it was quite a gripping ad, with many elements of suspense thrown in.
But last week’s ‘The Week’, a tabloid, published an ad (above) that unravelled Omantel’s campaign. The ad was about Omantel providing thousands of extra ADSL lines in Oman. The same day the dailies still continued with the first set of teaser ads, and till today continue to do so. I don’t know when the plot will be unraveled in the dailies. The suspense element isn’t there anymore. Sadly, a promising campaign has lost sheen because of poor coordination and planning skills.
I can see Nawras folks smiling!
Lessor, lessee and confusion
MUSCAT — Abdullah bin Mohammed Al Sheikh, legal expert and supervisor of the legal department at the Muscat Municipality headquarters, has reaffirmed that the Council of Ministers stipulated that the increase in rent of any property should not exceed 15 per cent. The landlords do not have the right to link the evacuation of the property with the increase in rent, he said. The lessee has the right not to evacuate the property unless by a court’s judgement, he said.
It is time for Muscat Municipality to start a hotline to address these rental issues.
Traditional bullfight in Oman
(Pix: Reuters)
Twitter, anyone?
After resisting many invites, I have fallen to the Twitter trap finally. You can follow me at http://twitter.com/kishorcariappa for all the updates. I don’t have the patience to write long posts, so Twitter fits me fine. So I shall tweak in small spooky/gossip/news/juicy stuff in Twitter henceforth.
Ghastly act
Green turtles at Ras Al Hadd nesting site in Sur being ill-treated by tourists. I got these disturbing photos as an email forward today, so I am not sure of its veracity. If it is true, then authorities will have to take stern measures to protect the innocent creatures from the hands of such cruel tourists.
Beep…beep…beep!
Of late, Bank Muscat ATMs have been giving out a not-so-impressive sound/alarm before the cash is dispensed. I thought it was only to do with a few of their ATMs, but now it looks like it has been implemented across their network. I tried using Bank Dhofar ATM, and it is well mannered like before, without any noise/alarm. Why only Bank Muscat? Is it anything to do with their heightened security for ATMs? Somehow, the sound/alarm makes you feel that you have come to rob the ATM rather than withdraw cash!
When holidays turn tragic…
A report says:
It was a sad and sudden demise of young, talented Mangalorean child filled the hearts and minds of several Mangaloreans in Muscat with deep sorrow. Melissa Goveas, 9-year-old daughter of well known Konkani activist, writer and singer Nirmala Goveas and Michael Goveas died in a car crash near Izki near Nizwa, Sultanate of Oman.
It was Eid holidays and Goveas family along with their close relatives and friends planned an outing to Jabal Al Akhdar, a well known tourist destination in Oman. There were three cars and Mellissa was traveling along with Lancy Goveas, Walter Goveas, Santosh (Nirmala’s Brother) and Prasad.
Just three kilometers before Izki, on the way to Jabal Al Akhdar, the four wheel drive they were traveling, the rear tyre got burst and vehicle rolled into the rocky area on October 14, at 8.00 am. Melissa and Santosh were thrown out of the vehicle and had severe injuries. Both were taken to Izki hospital and there after were transferred to Nizwa Hospital. Around 5.30 pm Melissa was declared dead by the doctors. Santosh is recovering in the Nizwa Hospital and is now declared out of danger.
Like all previous holidays, this Eid was no different: there were dozens of gruesome mishaps all over the country involving holidaymakers. I can’t understand why people drive so recklessly during vacations. Even if you are careful, nothing much can be done if the vehicle from the opposite side collides with your vehicle. A couple of days back, I just escaped being hit by a 4×4 near Sheraton signal. The guy in the 4×4 kept on surging ahead in full speed despite the signal turning red. A close call it was.
Another expatriate from India, who was severely injured in an accident is left in a quandary: he is unable to get himself admitted to ICU at Khoula Hospital nor he is in a position to travel to India for treatment due to his worsening condition. Khoula Hospital ICU is supposedly to be overflowing with hordes of serious accident cases.