Spring is in the air

After last weekend's snow, we were greeted with a far more spring like couple of days this week. After our weekly walk this morning with Marley, Guinness' new best friend/shadow - quite literally, we came home, threw the windows open and induced a spring cleaning of the stodgy air that had accumulated in the house.

With sun shining and a proper sense of warmth in the air we took another long walk to fully appreciate the English countryside in burgeoning bloom.

We finished the walk in the park to find we weren't the only ones taking advantage of this beautiful spring day. It's hard to believe the photos we recently posted from Easter were taken only a week ago...

Hope spring arrives for you all soon!

Words from a Glass Bubble

About two weeks ago, Vanessa Gebbie (Bex and Nic's aunt - Alex's sister-in-law), officially launched a book of short stories called Words from a Glass Bubble. The event was held at the beautiful Foundling Museum near Russell Square in London.

We were invited to attend, though Cora was also commissioned to act as the official event photographer. It was a really great opportunity to broaden her experience in a more formal setting and the evening as a whole went down really well from all perspectives.

There were over 100 people in attendance throughout the evening, the books sold at a good rate, Vanessa's reading went down a treat and Cora took some fabulous photos. It was all a bit tricky with limited space, green walls and golden chandeliers which cast a bit of a yellow light, but Cora soldiered through it very well.

Most of all, Vanessa had a fabulous book launch and a great celebration of a wonderful accomplishment we were proud to be part of. Congratulations Vanessa!

Check out Vanessa's blog here for pictures Cora took of the evening. This is Vanessa's blog solely dedicated to this book, but she also has a really interesting blog on more general things in the writing world - see link on the right.

Her book, published by Salt Publishing, can now be ordered on amazon.com by clicking here or on amazon.co.uk by clicking here

Happy Easter!

So, this is the earliest Easter since 1912 and won't be this early again for 220 years. Why do I mention this obscure fact? Well because we have been enjoying positively wintry weather this Easter weekend. Yesterday we had brilliant sunshine with frequent snow squalls. Too warm and short lived to stick to anything. Yet this morning what did we find outside? A fine dusting of snow, with more falling.

So, ignoring the fact that it was 730, damn dog, we went outside into the park and enjoyed the first/last snowfall of the year. Here are a few pictures from our little excursion...


Hope the rest of the Easter weekend treats you all well!

And Happy Anniversary Mom and Alan! Thinking of you and hope you have a wonderful day celebrating!




Slideshow music: Vola A Cappella, Jyvaskyla, Finland

A Vision of Home

Tried to get myself a bit motivated this weekend and look at our immediate surroundings from a different perspective. I thought I'd share the end result since it gives a bit of an insight into our lovely little surroundings of St Michaels.



Also just wanted to let everyone know that I've finally made the move and bought a domain name so you can now find my photos at www.malinakphotography.com or www.malinakphotography.co.uk

These are redirected to my pbase account, but that name has also changed to www.pbase.com/malinakphotography (previously www.pbase.com/ayobami) so any links you might have will need to be updated.

Images of Oman

Finally had the time and technology to go through the 1,500+ photos we took in Oman. It was so much fun to relive our adventures there!

Once again thank you to Adeline and Thierry (who are expecting any day now!!) for such an amazing holiday and few weeks spent together exploring the country!!

For general photos of Oman click here. Those with us in them are in 'Our Adventures' in their own little mini gallery.

Hope you can experience a little of Oman through these galleries...

A very special day off

A couple of weeks ago, Bex asked me to take the day off as she had something special planned. So on Friday, we headed into London in the morning for the first part of our exciting day, a professional photo shoot.

Bex had received two free vouchers through a friend's recommendation for us to get our make-up done, hair styled and professional photos taken. We spent about four hours at the studios being shuffled from one person to the next, changing outfits, drinking Bucks Fizz (orange juice and champagne) and overall feeling really special.

The end results were some really fantastic photos which we would have loved to come away with, but extraordinary prices prevented us from doing so. We did manage to leave with our contact sheets and two images after loads and loads of negotiating - a memory of our special morning together and in a few years time, a memory of our much younger better looking years.

The images below have been scanned from a very small original size, hence the low quality, but gives you an idea of some of the fun shots we did

Once we finished at the studios, we ran over to meet Alex, Bex's mom, who treated us to a lovely lunch at a restaurant on Piccadilly. Alex managed to get us tickets that morning to the sold out Terracotta Army exhibition at the British Museum, so we had to eat quickly to make our 4 o'clock entrance time.

For those of you who don't know much about the Terracotta Army, watch the video on the British Museum's website here for an introduction. In brief, the First Emperor of China had an entire army of over 8,100 figures in the shape of men, horses and other animals created out of terracotta to provide him with protection once he died. Buried in 210-209 BC in the land surrounding his tomb, the figures were only discovered in 1974 by a local farmer. The exhibit at the British Museum only shows a very small number of the figures but gives you a wonderful idea of what it consists of. It was really a unique exhibition and one we really enjoyed. Thanks again Alex for a wonderful experience!

After the exhibit we all met Rob and CW for some drinks at a wine bar nearby. Alex later went to meet Ian and we headed back to St Albans for a nice little Italian meal together before retiring to our respective dwellings.

All in all it was a really special day and a memory to last a lifetime. Thanks so much Bex for inviting me as your special guest! It was so great to have the time with you getting pampered and doing something completely different from anything I would normally do!

Sunday Morning Amble

As many of you might know/remember, we live in the corner of St Albans called St Michaels. This is one of the three old parishes of St Albans and sits out on the far western edge of St Albans. It has a very villagesque feel to it and is blessed by various historical attributes, such as Tudor houses, 400 year old pubs and the old Roman ruins abutting it.

As such, there is a Society for St Michael's and Kingsbury , a smaller division within St Michaels, which aims to preserve the historic fabric of the village, protect the interests of the residents and encourage a sense of community. Today was the Society’s Twelfth Day of Christmas walk. About twenty people, three dogs and two pheasants, see below, went ambling to the Old Gorhambury House ruins.

It was a beautiful winter’s morning, bright blue clear skies and only a touch of frost on the grass. It was quite a pedestrian pace, which was fine as it gave us the chance to meet some of our neighbours. We walked up past the current Gorhambury House to the ruins of the old house which was built in the 16^th century by Sir Francis Bacon’s father (see below). Bacon himself did live there for a time but was eventually left to disrepair when the newer Georgian house was built in the 1770’s.

The remains are quiet and sit at the top of a long sweeping hillside and on this peaceful Sunday morning it was magnificent to take in the sight.

Upon our return trip, one of our neighbours, Michael, convinced the Estate’s gamekeeper to divest two recently killed pheasants into his care. Guinness was rather curious about these extra members of our party, but left them well enough alone. It did however bring about some strange looks from the families out for a Sunday promenade.

We were treated to some light refreshments after the walk at one of the couple’s historic home. They are really into classic cars and own, maintain and race several. It was quite a treat to be able to see some of these spectacular machines, even if we understood almost nothing about the rather unique and complex mechanisms of 1920’s and 30’s sports cars.

All in all a very nice way to spend a wintry weekend morning.

For an aerial view of St Michael's click here

Happy Happy

Happy New Year to everyone!

We hope you all had an enjoyable celebration yesterday in whatever capacity you deemed most appropriate. We had a nice meal at home followed by a couple of drinks at the pub and then home to watch the fireworks over the Thames on the telly.

The display was rather intense; 11 minutes of sound and light fury around Big Ben and the London Eye as they let off an average of 10 fireworks every second for the duration! I can only imagine what it would have been like a couple of hundred meters away across the river!

Today is the last hurrah before the alarm shatters our peaceful reverie tomorrow morning for the trudge to work, boo! But it will be another good year with lots of adventures on the horizon, so stay tuned for rambles, scrambles and hopefully not too many brambles.

Thinking of you all wherever you are in this big wonderful world and wishing you all the best for a fantastic, successful and love filled year!

An English Ceremony

A little over two years after starting my MA degree programme in Intercultural Communication in Europe at Anglia Ruskin University in Cambridge, I have finally graduated!

The ceremony took place on Tuesday, November 6th in Cambridge. The four of us - Adeline who came back from Oman with us, her mom Claudie who came over from Provence, CW and I - all took the train up in the morning. Around lunchtime we got decked out in our graduation robes and wandered around Kings College of Cambridge University for some pictures.

Graduates at last...

Adeline and I, soon to be Masters

Posing at King's College

Adeline with her mom, Claudie (don't worry Claudie, I cut out the shoes!)

The ceremony, which lasted about two hours, was quite a typical graduation ceremony. After a series of speeches we all lined up and took our turns crossing the stage, stopping only to shake hands with the Pro-Vice Chancellor of the university.

We were honoured with the presence of a well-known biographer Hilary Spurling, who is famous for her biography of Matisse, and who received an Honourary Doctorate. Simon Schama, well-known author and historian was also present to receive an Honourary Doctorate. Both gave interesting short speeches. Simon Schama, specialist in Ruskin and Victorian culture and art, enlightened us with a few facts about John Ruskin, the university's namesake.

After the ceremony we caught up with our programme Director and Professor, Dr Anne Ife for a quick photo.

Though quick and almost surreal, it was a very special day. Thank you to everyone who supported me throughout this degree! I couldn't have done it without you all! And I am so fortunate to have been able to experience it with so many wonderful other students and professors who made the experience so much more enlightening!

And my most heartfelt thanks and appreciation beyond words to you, bo, for your patience, help, guidance, understanding, faith and unrelenting love, always.

Giving thanks!

On this day of Thanksgiving for we Americans, it is fitting that we write our last blog about our amazing trip to Oman, because we are truly thankful for everything Adeline and Thierry did for us. We used a fair few superlatives earlier and we can only echo those now and add on by shouting from the mountaintops how phenomenal it all was.

All the way to the end they were giving their time, driving skills and whole hearts to ensure that we got to see as much as was possible of the incredible country they are living in. Adeline took us to a couple of shops for last minute Omani shopping and then later Thierry took us to an outdoor Turkish restaurant for a last taste of fresh Middle Eastern cuisine; again showing their commitment to being impeccable hosts.

The parting at the airport was tearful and heartfelt for us all but I think it was blatantly apparent that we had all enjoyed the shared time together and would wait with eager anticipation for the next time we have the chance to share further adventures, regardless of what country they occur within.

A million times over thank you to you both, you are truly amazing people and we count ourselves extremely lucky to be friends with you both. This trip has been one of a lifetime and it wouldn’t have been possible without your unending organisation, driving, generosity, hospitality and unrestrained love.

We will have nothing but happy memories from our two weeks in Oman and look forward to the next time we are together, with the new member of your family! You will be wonderful parents, of that there can be no doubt because you have such giving hearts! We love and cherish you both and for what is certainly not the last time, THANK YOU!

Faces of Oman

Thought we would share some of the different characters we met during our two week journey through this amazing country...

Click on play below to watch the slideshow

Music: Desert Winds composed by H. Kaka
Photos: Cora Malinak

Sand, Stunts, Souq and Sizzle

While the rest of us slept until it was too hot and bright to sleep any longer, Cora was up extra early to catch a bit of the sunrise.

We had a leisurely breakfast, tidied up the campsite a bit and then went down to the water for a swim. We did a little ‘snorkelling’, really just putting the mask and tube on so that we could see a school of fish that was swimming close to shore and then Thierry and I embarked on a more serious game of aerobie than the previous day.

Serious is a relative term of course and really it was just a longer distance game, though one filled with atrocious throws and multiple trips either way up the beach or into the water in often futile attempts to catch the flying ring.

It was all a good laugh though, mainly for the girls sitting peacefully watching us.

We packed up and headed back to the flat before the morning was even over and cleaned up for the rest of the day. First up was an acrobatic air show by the French equivalent of the Blue Angels.

They were quite good and for 30 minutes filled the sky with red, white and blue plumes of smoke as the flipped, rolled and dodged one another.

It was the first time in years that we had seen one of these shows and it really is amazing how good those guys are. Seems the whole of Muscat came out to watch the show, so the beach was packed. It was nice to see such a mixture of people though from Omani families to Indians and expats.

For the duration of the time we were in Oman, most of the men seemed to wear white dishdashas. Towards the end, however, as storms hit the south of the country and beyond and the weather in Muscat approached more 'wintery' temperatures (low 30s, upper 20s C), many of the men started wearing their darker coloured dishdashas like that above. Some of the younger generation however, simply resort to the jeans and sweater combination like out of a Gap or Next catalogue.

We then made an attempt to leave the area, but that proved extremely difficult as everyone else had a similar plan and the combination of only two roads, Omani drivers and a heckuva lot of people/cars just proved too much for the traffic cops to handle.

We eventually managed to extricate ourselves from the traffic and made our way to their friend’s house for their daughter’s birthday party before heading to Muttrah souq for a little shopping/look around. It being a Friday night, the souq was quite busy and the smells of frankincense, sounds of sellers hawking their wares and enclosed feeling of the narrow lanes added to the overall experience.

We wandered throughout, making a few purchases and in general took in our surroundings. I think we all would have gladly spent hours wandering about there, but we had reservations for a farewell dinner of sorts back in Ruwi.

We didn’t go to the main drag like we had a couple of nights previously, but rather went to the top floor of a large hotel and walked into Tokyo! Well alright, it was merely a Japanese restaurant, but it was a very realistic looking replica of a Japanese interior, complete with Japanese waitresses. We came for the teppan yaki grill, where the chef cooks all your food right in front of you and it was a fantastic experience. So much wonderful food, including some sushi to start and fried ice cream to finish, which if you ever have the chance to try you must as it was truly an indulgent treat!

Our chef; an Indian, trained in Bahrain and cooking in Muscat; was excellent and we all thoroughly enjoyed the experience. Thank you again Adeline and Thierry for this last treat and 'farewell' dinner. It was really special...

To the sea...

After some of us slept in (Amelie, Cora and I), while others went to work (Adeline and Thierry), we set about packing half of the flat into the back of the Land Cruiser and headed for a beach about an hour outside of Muscat. The road snaked its way through the mountains before spitting us out into a village that was pretty much run by the goats. There were goats in the doorways, wandering in the road and one who had decided that the top of a car was an excellent vantage point.

From there it was a rocky track to the beach safely tucked below a small sand dune. We set up camp on the top of the dune overlooking the water with mountains behind.

Thierry and I then set off to forage for wood for our bonfire. Even though there were numerous trees, most were thoroughly covered in thorns and therefore ripping apart the dead pieces laying about the ground was less than enjoyable. In the end we did manage to find several large pieces that were thornless and returned like a pair of mammoth conquering hunters to the campsite.

The girls meanwhile had been playing a nice gentle game of boules...

Before the sunlight faded behind the mountains we had a quick dip and a game of aerobie and then went to prepare dinner. It was another fish bake, this one even better than the previous week’s, since Thierry filled the fish with a nice selection of ginger, onion, green onion and parsley. Suffice to say, no meat was left on the bones once the five of us were done with it. And this being only one of three and not even the largest one!

We then retired to the campfire to roast some marshmallows the good ole' american way and eat chocolate stuffed bananas heated over the fire, both of which were big hits with the French contingent.

Circle of Friends...

Feeling thoroughly stuffed and relaxed everyone retired to their various sleeping arrangments. Cora and I slept on camp beds under the stars covered by a mosquito net. It was a perfect temperature for sleeping and listening to the waves crashing on the beach provided a wonderful background noise to fall asleep to. Another perfect ending to a relaxing and fantastic day!

Muscat City Tour

We had the chance to stay closer to home this day and have Adeline as our tour guide instead of Thierry, who went back to work to get some well deserved rest! In the morning we went to the old section of Muscat and the Bait al Zubair museum.

Thanks Amelie for the picture! It was Halloween, so here Adeline is dressed accordingly as she was teaching that evening and wanted to bring in a bit of Halloween fun to her classes.

The collection includes many examples of traditional Omani dress and culture, i.e. the dishdashah, hijab, khanjar and a replica dhow. There are separate sections for male and female dress, items from the home and weapons. It was nice to go to towards the end of the visit after seeing many of these objects throughout the country, though I can see the benefit of going first thing when you arrive in Oman as well.

From there we went over the road to a small art gallery, which has many locally produced works exhibited in a classical Omani house, with a small courtyard in the middle and a nice rooftop terrace. From the roof you are able to see out across much of this old section of the city, including the Mirani and Jalali forts that protect the entrance to the harbour. We also drove over to the Sultan’s palace so that Amelie could see it, though I retain my view that the front of it is terribly ugly.

The rest of the afternoon was spent relaxing at home, writing some postcards and getting things ready for our impending camping trip.

CW and Thierry hard at work preparing the onions, ginger and herbs for the fish BBQ we were having on our beach camping expedition

In the evening we all went over to Ruwi, which is the Indian section of Muscat. We poked around in a couple of shops and then went for a very nice dinner in this small and extremely inexpensive café.

In fact, I am not sure I have ever had so much food for such a little price, absolutely incredible and the food was quite good as well. We walked around a little bit more and then retired for the evening.

Fins and Alleys

An early morning greeted us as we made our way through rush hour traffic to the beach and an hour long boat ride to the Daymaniat Islands just off the coast. I must say that the prospect of a few hours spent out on a boat and swimming amongst the nationally protected marine life was far better than whatever was going to greet all those other folks on the motorway.

The islands are really just a collection of rocky outcroppings that have numerous coves and sheltered white sandy beaches. These are the most popular snorkelling and diving site in Oman, partially because of their proximity to Muscat, but also because of the excellent sites to behold under the water.

We found a quiet cove perfect for getting our flippered feet under us. There were a myriad of colourful fish within the cove, just a few feet under the surface swimming amongst the jagged rocks.

Whilst we are all competent and confident swimmers, Thierry - qualified scuba diver - and Cora – half fish – certainly were the more efficient and adventurous members of our quartet. Thierry headed out of the cove and quickly discovered, and showed the rest of us, an enormous ray lying motionless on the sandy bottom and an eel swimming languidly amongst the rocks. Earlier, Cora and Amelie spotted a turtle and followed it for a little while, and we also saw a school of cuttlefish.

After maybe 45 minutes we returned to the boat and made our way to a different cove of another island and once more submerged ourselves into the warm, turquoise water. This time we stayed within the cove and were rewarded with the appearance of a Black Tipped Reef shark (don’t worry, it is only the White Tipped Reef sharks that are dangerous). Another 45 or so minutes spent floating over schools of fish and then watching a Morey eel ‘fish’ for food from its hole and we retired to the boat once more.

Thanks to Thierry's excellent ability to get down and close to this eel with his waterproof camera. For scale, what you can see of this eel is about the size of a shoebox.

We ended our time amongst the islands with a very relaxing period on a beautiful secluded beach enjoying the sunshine of a perfect early afternoon and a rather intriguing handstand contest!

Amelie, Thierry and CW enjoying the sunshine on the beach, which as it happens was another beach where turtles came to lay their eggs (hence the signpost warning you to leave them alone). There were definitely signs of their presence, large decoy holes, large tracks and even lots of mini tracks from the babies. Although the latter can get confused very easily with those of hermits who leave very similar marks in the sand.

The return trip was far bumpier than the outgoing visit, though this added a bit of adventure to what would otherwise be a rather boring boat ride.

Once back on terra firma, we embarked for our more terrestrial activity, bowling. Yes, they have proper American style ten pin bowling in Muscat and the four of us made our way, with much snipping and chatter, to the lanes for a few games of good-hearted fun. Unfortunately Adeline was working again so wasn't able to join us, which was a shame since the last time we went bowling was with Adeline and Thierry in Cambridge and we had a rematch to play!

So with Amelie as the replacement member of the 'French team', I would like to say that Team America(England) beat Team France handily and yes Cora beat me in the second game, much to her (and I am sure Dad’s) glee.

Forts, Clay and Old Villages

Another day, another fort. Today we ventured all the way to Jabrin; on the other side of the mountains. This was a nice mixture of the size and complex nature of Rustaq, with the furnishings of Nakhal, so we had a very enjoyable time exploring every nook and cranny.

The boys even had time for a quick pass or two.

Thankfully just as we were walking out the door, a large tour group of older Germans were being let off; and they would have certainly fouled up our peace and tranquillity whilst exploring this wonderful fort.

We then started backtracking to Muscat, stopping next in the town of Bahla. Here too is a fort; under renovation; and a souq; closed because it was midday. The real draw however is the handmade pottery which is made in small shops that are well hidden beyond the main town centre. Walking past the old kilns that dominate the threadbare yard, we made our way to the dark and dusty workshop. The man working the wheel was expertly moulding some sort of vessel, it was too early in the process to determine what it would ultimately become.

We then retired to the ‘salesroom’, which was just a low-slung, dirt-floored storage area with different finished water jugs and other paraphernalia laying about.

The water jugs are quite exquisite in their simplicity and after finding just the right samples, we watched as the potter expertly finished them off with a hand tied rope from which to hang them.

From Bahla we headed for the classically medieval village of Misfah. Set on a hill/cliffside over-looking the entrance to a gorge, Misfah is a mixture of still inhabited and partially destroyed village.

With snaking passageways heading ever downwards, you walk under, around and sometimes through structures all leading to the falaj and terraced plantations set below the village. We walked a ways past the green luscious plots and enjoyed the peaceful breeze wafting up from the canyon below.

The last stop of the day was the old village of Tanuf set at its entrance of Wadi Tanuf. We wandered briefly up the wadi, but discovering nothing of any true interest, returned to the ruins in time for the sunset.

The village was bombed by the British RAF at the bequest of the former sultan during the Jabel War of the mid-fifties, when the imams of the interior attempted to overthrow the sultan. Though the villagers were forced to vacate the village most of the structures still stand in some shape or form perched atop the hill, you get great views down onto the village below your feet and the surrounding mountains; perfect for a sunset.