Travelling in my Sketchbook

Enough misery going on down and although I'm recovering from my OP, standing at the easel isn’t an option so travelling in my posh sketchbook. 

Hard to believe that our trip to Oman is a year ago! At the time I posted my sketches done on my hols, but I like to collect my memories and impressions in a Stillman and Birn, hardback sketchbook. Highlights were the flight on the Airbus A380, it was huge and coming in to land in Dubai the tip of the Burj Khalifa was poking spookily through a layer of morning fog. 

Of course Oman is the home of Frankincense and the thorny, scrubby trees were in our hotel garden, we also purchased an incense burner and Frankincense and spent some very pungent Sunday afternoons, listening to Sting's Desert Rose and wafting incense about. 

Probably the most memorable story of the trip was the watch that got away! Lying on the beach, we lost all sense of time, not wanting to miss lunch we needed to find out how late it was. Beside us sat a couple of glam ladies and a very sleekly dressed man talking on his mobile, so my husband (an avid watch collector) went over to ask the time! On approaching the gent, hubby noticed he was wearing a fabulous watch, probably a Hublot with a coat of arms on the face. Having asked the time, my husband said, great watch! The man started nestling on the strap and taking it off, ''Thank you, would you like it? '', politely my husband refused. The coat of arms was that of the Saudi royal family, sigh ........ the watch that got away! 

Really, the whole atmosphere was that of a trip on a magic carpet, the Omani men often in pastel coloured caftans with coloured pashminas bound to the traditional mussar, huge ornamental knives stuck into their belts. Striped tents, huge hookahs, bowls of dates and my favourite souvenir my kussah shoes. Slipping into my shoes makes me feel like an Arabian princess, ready to get on board my magic carpet and fly away to somewhere where Corona is still a beer!