What am I doing in Muscat???

So here I am!  In  Oman.  What brought me here?  Well,  thanks to the Netherlands Embassy in Oman. A bunch of 'phlegm-stuck-in-their-throat'  cheese-worms!!  Yes!  I said that.  They basically gave me the wrong information on what my visa entitles me to.   As a result, I have had to go to Amsterdam, come back to Oman, go back to Amsterdam and they maybe repeat this cycle as often as possible.  How do they find these people?   

A scene from the 'Sheep Swap-market' in  Friesland? 

‘Two  silly humans  for exchange!!  Any takers?’

‘Ah Wonderful!  I have 2 goats! Can we swap?’ asks the man from the Justice Ministry.

‘Yes! Brilliant’ goes the trader.

‘Ah!  Now I can fill the vacancy in Oman.  We need staff there…Have you got more?  We need a lot of them..’

‘Of course! 

And that is how the recruitment process happens with the IND.  It is no wonder, they are a bunch of nincompoops! 


My concern; what is all this drama doing to ET.  For one thing when I am not around ET will not be hearing my voice.  This obviously worries me.  It is going to be influenced by too many unknowns.  Some of who are potentially IND material.

I walked into the house in Oman. We had nearly wrapped the entire house in plastic. Why?  To keep the dust out.  The dust seems to be able to get into just any place here.  After all that sealing and closing up, it still was pretty dusty.  I just have to find a way to keep ETs place sterilely clean.   If I can achieve that stage, is to be seen.

It is a week since I have been here, and I thoroughly miss Ingrid and ET.  My thoughts are wondering all the time.  How will all this turn out?  I want to be ET’s father for real.  Not on a bloody paper.  trying to while away my time, I even found a new version of Twinkle Twinkle Little Star that I was going to play to ET.

Twinkle Twinkle Little Star
I know exactly what you are

Opaque ball of hot dense gas

Million times our planets mass

Looking small because you’re so far

I know exactly what you are.

Fusing atoms in your core

Hydrogen, Helium, Carbon and more

With such power you shine so far

Twinkle Twinkle little star

Bright when close and faint when far

I know exactly what you are.

Smallest ones burn cool and slow

Still too hot to visit, though

Red Stars dominate by far

Twinkle Twinkle litte Star.

Largest ones are hot and blue

Supernovas when they’re through

Then black Hole or Neutron Star

I know exactly what you are.

Our Sun’s average as stars go

Formed 5 Billion Years ago

Halfway through its life so far

Twinkle Twinkle Little star.

Forming from collapsing clouds

Cold and dusty gas enshrouds

Spinning, heating proto star

I knew exactly what you are

Twinkle Twinkle little star

I think all Nursery rhymes must be written with an educational twist.  And that is how I will teach ET to sing.  Not about stupid humpty dumpty breaking his balls and no one being able to put them together.   Far too violent for my liking. If I need to introduce ET to violence, I will just show the faces of Bush and Blair!  That will do.

The report from The Netherlands is not too bad.  Everything seems fine.    

Ingrid is going for  yoga classes.  Prenatal yoga, it seems! Hmm….What is it  with all these people, that they suddenly become authorities on medicine and the human body.   I mean these Yoga teachers! They are happy to dish out advice and often contradict what a qualified person has to say.   Apparently,  Ingrid must not take too much calcium. As it will retard her iron absorption factor.   The typical general statement that comes from someone who indulges in quackery!!!  Yes.  The real fact is that, Calcium retards the absorption of Non-heme-iron.  That is the iron that comes from plants and vegetables.  On the other hand heme-iron which comes from animals seem to decently get along,    with a little aversion from calcium.    In any case the doctor when prescribing it made it clear that if one is taken in the morning, the other must be taken in the evening.  There you go. Simple and easy.   And for the body to absorb calcium, one must have Vitamin D.  It is like a chain of commands. No Vitamin D, sorry no calcium. 

I find these people who are into all the ‘alternative’ rubbish are just like astrologers, soothsayer, palmreaders etc.  They all live inside a cloud called Psuedo Science.    For one thing,  ET  will live within the world of sense and intelligence. 

On the 19^th was Ingrid’s visit to the mid-wife. A wonderful  experience again.  Which is most important.   All in all, mother and ET are doing fine so far.  And here I am, sitting in Oman missing out on all the fun.  The month of Ramadan has begun.  It is a month of fasting.  On the first day, it seemed like the city was in a coma.  Went to work at 9am and hardly saw anyone on the streets. Surreal it is. But then, that is how it is.  Even water cannot be consumed in public. Which is understandable.  Having said that, I am sure in the coming days people will get into the groove of things. 


And I still wonder, what the hell I am doing here!!!!