A Margaux Montage (and a pregnancy pic)

It's been far too long with too many incidental moments that I haven't shared, so here is a little Margaux Montage...

While the weather was delightful Margaux was going to the park at least once a day. She was also going for daily swims - usually after the park - and we were all loving living in Al Mouj, where this was all possible within a short walk or bike ride.

I was growing bigger daily, but apparently it just looked like I was having a singleton baby. It didn't feel like it! But then, when I look at photos of my first pregnancy, it isn't too much bigger - I didn't have the fluid retention this time around...

Barefoot and pregnant at 6 months...

The Sultan's birthday/ Oman's National Day

Sultan Qaboos bin Said has been the ruler of Oman since 1970. He has instigated, facilitated, and overseen Oman's rise and rise in the Arab and Western world through the power of oil, and has been the one to transform it into a 21st century society. He even changed the country's name from Muscat and Oman to The Sultanate of Oman!

It is not that surprising, then, that his birthday is Oman's National Day - which is on November 18. As an aside, in greater Muscat there are two main roads. One is called 18th November Street and the other is the Sultan Qaboos Highway.

Anyway... Every year there is a massive to-do about it all, especially every 5 years, which was the case last year. There were red, white, and green decorations all along the Sultan Qaboos Highway; cars were bedecked in red, white, and green stickers/ stripes; his image was stickered on car doors; patriotic slogans (such as "My Sultan, My Hearo" [sic]) were stencilled on car sides; trees were lit up in red, white. and green; there were fireworks over two nights... basically everyone went nuts.

At Horizons Nursery the children were encouraged to come in traditional Omani dress or in red, white and green clothes, and there was a parade over two days (so all the part-time kids could join in) which parents could attend where the kids walked around in a circle class by class showing off their dress.

Horizon Kids International Nursery (HKIN)

And so, on October 11, Margaux started her second nursery in 5 weeks.

Oh. My. God. The poor Popette was gripping onto me for dear life when it came time to say goodbye, and she screamed like she was being amputated - without anaesthetic. Still, the nursery was really good about it, giving me updates during the day (08:00-12:30) and reassuring me that this was normal behaviour.

With the weather being significantly cooler it was a joy to walk Margaux in the pram for the few hundred metres to the nursery from our home. She quickly fell into a routine with her gorgeous teacher, Miss Zhiwen, and began to enjoy drop-off. Hooray!

She loved the Splash Day (playing in paddling pools) that the school held and was quickly making friends with her classmates.

Our new home!

We had found a lovely, huge villa in a community in Muscat called Al Mouj, which is Arabic for The Wave (its previous title), before we left Dubai. 'We' being Thomas, who was going from a floor plan...

It's an absolutely gorgeous, light-filled place that we have PLENTY of room to play in. There are more bedrooms and bathrooms than you can poke a stick at, but we're going to enjoy it while we're here and be very content to move into something a little more homely once we leave.

Al Mouj is a community, but not gated or a compound. It's populated by western expats and tended to principally by Bangladeshis, Pakistanis, Indians, and Sri Lankans. It's scarily reminiscent of The Truman Show, with its picture perfect lifestyle. It's honestly the most literally unrealistic place I can think of to live, but it's an absolute delight for families as there are three big parks, a shopping area that is reserved for pedestrians and kids on bikes, a nursery (which Margaux attends) on-site, private access to the beach, a good selection of cafes and restaurants... It's brilliant.

The day we were to move in, though, our stuff was due to arrive at 10:00. At about midday I received a call to say there were delays at the border and that they would keep me posted. Well, after all sorts of other problems, including access to the house, the unpackers showed up at about 20:00! Margaux and I helped for a while and then we headed back to the hotel for a final night's sleep there, while Thomas helped the movers until about midnight. Ugh.

We had a lovely explore of our new territory the next day, navigating our way around on our freshly unpacked bikes:

And with the 'pet' dog, Nico, that Margaux received as a Christmas present the year before: Nico

It didn't take too long at all for us to realise how much we loved our new home. Yes, it is vastly different from Dubai in many aspects (lack of commercialisation, lack of public transport, retention of beautiful architecture, retention of ancient culture), but it is still the Middle East with its restrictions on dress and women's liberties, and the fact that it's hurtling from the Middle Ages into the 21st century at breakneck speed thanks to the discovery of oil.

And, like Dubai, it has the superficial appearance of being a Western contemporary country, but not too far below the surface it's glaringly apparent that they just don't 'get' the nuances and culture that have shaped society over the last few hundred years in Western countries.

But this blog is about our family, so I'll leave you to do your own research on the place!

...And on to Oman!

After much throwing around of dates, we finally moved to Oman on October 7 - in time for Margaux to start nursery on October 11.

We stayed in a hotel for a couple of weeks, while all of the paperwork was finalised and our stuff was trucked down. We tried to make the most out of it, but oh Lordy it was still SO hot. And hotels are nice for a weekend, but, especially with an active toddler, they lose their appeal quickly. And this one refuses to sleep in any bed except her parents' when they go away, which we concede to because we all know she'll be in her own bed once we get home. :)

We spent the first weekend getting to know a little more of Muscat. We had a family outing to the Muttrah (or Mutrah) Souq (or Souk)... in the translation from Arabic to English a lot of words are given different spellings, which makes it awfully confusing!

A souq is a market in Arabic, and this one is one of the biggest tourist attractions in the country. It's located in the Muttrah Corniche, which is right at the port of Muscat. Oman was traditionally a trading country with India and some African countries, and you can still see dhow boats (traditionally trading vessels but now sometimes venues for cruises) in the water.

Anyway... the Souq is made up of a vast collection of shops, from traditional Omani and Indian clothes and fabrics to trinkets to jewellery to cheap, plastic toys to cooking utensils to spice shops, food shops, and perfumeries. Bargaining is expected, which is of course a little confronting to the hapless Westerner who just wants to buy a little souvenir but finds themselves having to knock down the price from enterprising store owners.

Still, the atmosphere is great, the smells are enticing, the shops are plentiful, and the souq itself is a maze that you could literally get lost in for hours.

I was 5 months pregnant here and feeling it!

A brief reconnaissance in Muscat

(In fact, this happened before Le Jardin Enchante... that'll teach me - again - to leave things so late before writing!)

Having resigned ourselves to the fact that we would, indeed, be moving to Oman, Thomas co-ordinated with his work that Margaux and I would accompany him for a week when he had to go to Muscat.

And so we found ourselves in the last week of August in stinking hot Muscat - a change of scenery from stinking hot Dubai at least. I had been taking Margaux every day to different indoor play centres, which would entertain her for an hour or two but who wants to live in a mall? Anyway...

Before we arrived I had co-ordinated Margaux's and my attendance at two Mums and Tots groups, which I was very excited about. Apart from Margaux's and my social enjoyment, I had some serious interrogating to do of other Mums: I had to find out the mostly highly recommended gynaecologist, hospital for childbirth, area to live, nursery, paediatrician... And I did! I also met a couple of women who are my friends today, even though I haven't been to a Mums and Tots group since we arrived.

Significantly as a result of that, we ended up living where we do now, and I had a great gynaecologist who always had a long waiting list for appointments. I had hoped to see her while we were there but the only option was to take an appointment in a month's time (!), which I duly did. (I booked it for a Saturday so Thomas could look after Margaux. I flew down in the morning, bought a second-hand pram I'd found online that someone in Muscat was selling, had my appointment, and flew back in time for dinner).

We were mentally gearing up for the Big Move, but we still had to sit out the rest of the summer in Dubai... Ugh.

(This photo was taken on August 22)

Le Jardin Enchante

At the start of September Margaux (finally!) began nursery. We had enrolled her in a lovely French nursery that was a short-ish train ride from our apartment, called Le Jardin Enchante (The Enchanted Garden).

We thought there would be a few tears - from me at least! - but we weren't prepared for the gut-wrenching cries of despair as we left her alone in the classroom on the first day. For the first few weeks, actually. She loved it once she was settled in and was reluctant to leave when I picked her up, but until we left about 5 weeks later she would still have a bit of a whimper when Thomas pulled up at the front gate each morning.

She was placed in the Coccinelles (Ladybirds) class and she had an absolutely gorgeous teacher, Jennifer. She's in the top centre photograph. When talking with me, Jennifer tried her best in English and I tried my best in French, and somehow between us we managed to communicate!

It was with great sadness that we left Le Jardin Enchante, but new adventures were on the horizon...

The 'suggestion' to move...

I'm paraphrasing, but this is basically how the conversation went on the way home from the airport:

Thomas: I received a call from the HR director in Oman saying that there was the opportunity for a promotion if we moved there.

Jenn: And how did you respond?

T: I replied that we had initially been prepared to go to Oman, but they were the ones who moved us to Dubai. I explained that I was happy in my job in Dubai, that we had paid our year's rent, we had settled in, Margaux was about to attend nursery and - to top it off - we had just discovered you were pregnant with a high-risk pregnancy. So, thanks but no thanks.

J: Very good. I hadn't been sure about moving here, but now that we're here I'm happy and I think Margaux is too. I'm very pleased with the hospital and gynecologist I have for the pregnancy.

T: Yes, but then I had a call from the HR Director in Norway. This time he said "We'd *like* you to move to Oman."

Basically, Thomas was given the option of no option. With the barrel price below US$40, jobs in the sector are scarce and Thomas was still in his probation period.

So the mental paradigm shift began, and we started gearing up for moving to our third country in 5 months.

Holidays during Ramadan Part 2: A French Sojourn: Hardelot (part 2)

It was such a different and special holiday. Yes, Margaux and I had been on holiday with Marie and Scholastie before (see our holiday in Corsica with them in 2014 starting with this post) but now Margaux was that much more independent and a toddler rather than a baby.

We went on two lovely excursions while we were in Hardelot: one to the Aquarium and one to a sort of history village.

The history village covered all aspects of life in the 'olden days' (whenever that was) including shops, vehicles, entertainment, home life, farm machinery. It was very cute. The kids loved playing the games (hopscotch and such) and riding the tractors especially!

The aquarium was a slightly more modern affair! It had some fabulous displays, but by far the highlight was the seal show. Everyone - adults and kids alike - was captivated by these impressive beasts! There was a strange juxtaposition of the seals performing their tricks in a swimming pool with glass walls behind them that gave a view onto the vast, free ocean... still, these ones seemed happy enough and you can watch the excellent though shocking documentary Dolphin Cove if you want to be turned off watching performing dolphins etc.

Anyway, we all had a thoroughly lovely time, though Margaux wasn't too keen on the touch pool!

As usual, the holiday passed far too quickly. After spending a day with Scholastie's parents and relatives (her parents were taking over the parental role for the three kids over the next week) Margaux and I joined Marie on the trip back to Jean-Paul and Rita's.

We spent a couple of delightful - though always cold! - days there and then made our long trip back to Daddy without a hitch. Margaux was so happy to see him - and of course the feeling was mutual for him.

It was on the way home that he dropped me with the bombshell...