Boxing Day

It was pay day for me yesterday so today I started the running around to pay for various things. There's no such thing as Direct Debit here, so everything has to be paid over a counter.

Electricity bills are hilarious. You have to take your made-up bill to a well hidden outlet between 8:30am and 12:30pm, present the bill to an Omani woman who adds on little extra for the sake of it, argue that it's wrong, watch her type in some random figures into her old calculator to produce a slightly lower bill, take the bill to another Omani woman to get it stamped before finally joining the 'Men' queue where a less than articulate gentleman will take your money (cash only) and stamp your receipt three more times.

Luckily, today it was just the internet bill which I totally begrudged paying due to the almost non-existent service they've provided over the last week. Still, the fact that retained even the slightest level of existence was a small miracle!

Had a nice afternoon with a couple of new friends from Larissa's school where we played Pictionary, Taboo and a movie trivia quiz my Mum bought from John Lewis (which confirmed to them that I do indeed come from the 'posh' part of Scotland).

How very civilised.