A British Summer

The view outside my widnow on a lovely summer's day in the UK

I understand it is hot in Oman right now. OK, well that's a bit of a foregone conclusion really as it is basically hot there every year in the summer. Well I wish you could send some sunshine and heat over here to the UK. No doubt those vaguely interested in the tennis at Wimbledon have been watching the miserable conditions at the tournament.

Since the first week in April (yes ... April) it has been raining virtually every day, except for a brief respite in late May of about a week. Yesterday, and we're talking July here, the mercury reached the dizzy heights of 14 degC. midsummer and it is colder than an average november day in London!! The Diamond Jubilee celebrations were a cold, rainy and miserable affair (and that's not even taking into account the fact that the organisers wheeling out relics such as Paul McCartney, Elton John and Cliff Richard), Wimbledon is a mess, the cricket is washed out and I cannot see anything changing before the Olympics.

What a summer!!!

Sorry.....that's a lie; there's been no summer, just a slow progression from early spring to late autumn.

Breaking News: UK looks to Oman for advice on public holiday policy

So here's a rare event for the UK ........ I've taken 3 days of vacation this week and I've got 11 consecutive days off! "How is that possible?" I hear you ask. "The UK has only 8 public holidays a year and most of those are around Chrstmas and the New Year!" I hear you exclaim.

Well, some rather nice bloke and his fiancee, Will and Kate I think their names are, decided to get married on the Friday after Easter and just before the May Day bank holiday ... and they've given us the day off to sleep in and miss it! Bless.

So a combination of an event celebrating a rather dubious "back from the dead" escapade by a 2000 year old bloke whose existence has no concrete evidence to support it, the wedding of some rather stuffy, archaic royals and a relic of nascent socialism have combined to give me 11 days off.

You couldn't write this stuff!!!

I feel like I'm back in Oman!

Oh....and the weather is playing a blinder. Sunny and hot. Too funny!