Vol 41 Cat and Rustaq

Monday, August 13^th. I was at the Hyatt a couple of weeks ago with Firas, Khaldoun and a dentist from another clinic named Muhin. I was watching the singer and her pianist while the guys chatted in Arabic. I kept thinking “I could do that”. At one point, while she was singing an Eric Clapton, song I heard her say “beers in heaven” instead of “tears in heaven”. I repeated it to my table and saw her smile at me. During her break she came over and said “I can’t believe you heard that!” Her name is Cat, she’s from South Africa and she’s very friendly; she joined our table for a while. Then her pianist joined us and she wandered off. He’s from Brazil. They met in Bangkok and it’s the first time they’ve worked together. She got the job offer here and then contacted him to see if he would join her.

Khaldoun and Firas tried me to get me to sing a song with him but I told them it wasn’t cool- it’s her gig. Really I was just shy. I don’t like performing without rehearsing.

I went back last weekend to ask them if I could sing a song with him to record for the video I was making for my friend Jessica’s wedding. But they had already left, it was their early night off.

Tonight I was at Second Cup with Mahfoodh when he got his first ever video call from his fiancé in England. He told me it wouldn’t be long. But it was long and though I got bored waiting for him, I didn’t want him to end the call because I know how cool those Messenger video calls are when you haven’t seen someone in a while. I had an inspiration to go to the Hyatt in hopes the singer would talk to me and I could ask her about her job. I waved goodbye to Mahfoodh and was off.

When I got there they were just singing the last song before her break. She waved as I came in. I sat facing them and ordered a drink. As I had hoped, she got a cup of tea and came to sit with me. She is sooooo friendly. Really nice. In no time she was telling me all about her music business history. Then she offered me her song list and her agents name, told me what the job pays and the perks that come with it and told me what I would need to get started in the biz. I'm not saying my next career will be a lounge singer, but I am giving it some thought. I do love to sing. And travel. And it pays well. I was happy and grateful that Cat was so open about how it all works. To top it all off she invited me to go with her and her fiancé and his 18 year old daughter from Sweden to the Grand Mosque in the morning. I have been wanting to go to the Grand Mosque since I got here, but non-muslims can only go at limited times. It is the only mosque in the country that women can enter. In other Muslim countries it is pretty much always a no-no, I think. And I never refuse an invitation…… so I’m looking forward to her call in the morning.

Tuesday, August 14^th. Cat called this morning and we headed off to the Grand Mosque only to find it closed to visitors for renovations. Apparently it suffered damage in the flooding and they have not finished repairing it all.

Not to be deterred, we piled back into the car and headed to Rustaq, about an hour and a half from Muscat to see the fort there. Which means more fort photos for you.

This is the actual entrance to the fort. It's possible for the full door to open but they have it padlocked so you have to enter through this Alice-in-Wonderland sized door. Once inside there is an Omani dude to collect the entrance fee. We watched as an elderly man and woman made their way through the teeney-tiny door. No help from the dude. I was thinking "My Mom would not like this".

More staircase photos. I don't know why I have a thing for staircases when I get in these forts.
This is Cat.

This is another example of an open falaj. As I've mentioned before aflaj, (aflaj, plural or falaj, singular), are the main system of irrigation water distribution. There are around 11,000 falaj in Oman. Man-made underground tunnels branch off from a 65-200 foot deep mother well. Some of them are thousand of years old. Water flow depends on the gravity gradient along the tunnel starting from the mother well and for tens of kilometers long. Drinking water is collected first, then water for bathing, then further along, open channels branch off from the tunnels to irrigate gardens. And it's all free. The water is directed to the gardens in turns.

This is an access point for an underground tunnel.

By the way- I’m growing weary of fielding the question “Are you and Mahfoodh sleeping together?” For the record: no, definitely not. Never have. Never will. As I’ve said in the blog, we are friends.