Job Discussion Forums

[omanized]

Looks like a cheap ploy to cash in on the institutionalized hysteria that is constantly promoted in the American media. Nice title ! And in the end , it is likely to be a series of mildly amusing anecdotes about how strange and foreign life in Oman is - funny, and totally unexpected considering that it is a foreign country with very little in common with the rest of the world. If I had money to literally throw away , I would buy this book to see just how annoying or poorly written it is - from that excerpt, it looks like it is not quite at the Dave Barry level of humor or cleverness.

omzd

[kaw]

Oh......wow.......I actually worked with this guy............and I remember him saying at the time that he was going to write about his experiences - does that mean I now have to buy it just to make sure I'm not in it.....

[veiledsentiments]

Oh do... and give us a review!! (be sure to point out the parts that talk about you)

VS

[kaw]

Think I'll wait till I see it in a charity shop for 50p or something - am not forking out $19.99 - maybe he'll be so desperate to get rid of them that he'll give them to us poor things that worked with him for free - on 2nd thoughts - knowing Matt - nahhhhh

[Ateloz]

I'LL buy the book.

[kaw]

great - you buy it then fill us all in on the details....

[Tarka_littleotter]

Can I just say, his breakfast thing is not good! And Jeez, he didn't even get his facts right! MOst English people would be gutted to have, what he clearly describes as, a frankferter as a component of a "proper" english breakfast. Nothing can substitute for a proper banger - which of course, in Sohar or Sur, you're highly unlikely to find!!

Kaw > Were you in Sur?

[kuberkat]

Call me picky, but I shudder to think that anyone who can't digest a regional semantic difference (sausage vs hotdog) works as an expatriate, not to mention writes a book about it. Are these differences of meaning not the whole basis of living abroad?

[veiledsentiments]

I suspect that it had little to do with his not knowing the difference, but a great deal to do with an attempt at humor. It has been awhile since I read it, and it certainly isn't worth a return visit.

And it may very well be that the restaurant he visited knew even less about the difference and what he was served could have been exactly what an American would refer to as a 'hot dog.'

Not that this makes the little narrative any better...

VS

[Tarka_littleotter]

VS > I read it as an attempt at humour, which was not funny in the first place, but the fact that he's clearly so "un-worldly" that he can order an English fry up without knowing about bangers and baked beans makes it an even poorer attempt! How can someone criticise a hotel in a completely different part of the world, if they don't even know what they're criticising?!

The whole point of going somewhere new is exploring what it has to offer.

In hindsight, maybe he should've visited England before attempting to write his book.

[Stephen Jones]

Having frankfurters with an "English" breakfast is not just confined to Oman. It happened at the only two places I had an "English breakfast" at in Thailand (you would also get cold sliced ham instead of bacon).

Strange how absolutely awfull both things taste for breakfast.

[veiledsentiments]

Especially for those of us who would never consider eating fried meat or eggs for breakfast...

The traditional high fat, high protein breakfast was for people who went out and did physical labor... not sit in front of a computer or stand in a classroom.

VS

[Tarka_littleotter]

Oh but VS....it does taste oh so good the morning after the night before! (Not that I've had ANY of those since I've been out here!)

[veiledsentiments]

To be honest, I have always found the smell of bacon or sausage and eggs cooking in the morning to be disgusting to the point of nausea... and that is without any unusual or excessive imbibing the night before. ...not a morning person...

Now brunch several hours after getting up... that's another story!!

[carnac]

I have read the book. My opinions, for whatever they are worth:
- He starts out portraying himself as an idiot, surprised to find a "house" in the middle of the highway. Very obviously referring to roundabouts, particularly Airport Roundabout and Clock Roundabout. Immediately, he portrays himself as "Duh!"
- He has a lot of interesting things, fairly factual, to say about Oman in the first half or so of the book, relating his interestingly stupid experiences with a new culture and environment. In the process, however, he reveals himself to be a total idiot. IMHO.
- The second half falls apart when he begins to and continues to hormonally whine ("whinge" for my Brit friends) about his Indian "love" and her trilled "r" pronunciation. Who cares?
I read all of the first half, and was forced by nausea to merely skim the second half.
Conclusion: buy the book second-hand if you care that much; preferably, just borrow it from someone if you must, give it back and fuggeddabouddit.
Previous posters are correct: the subtitle is off-putting and garbage, merely a way to sell more books through sensationalism.
Other than that, gr-r-r-r-reat book, to paraphrase the transliteration of his onetime girlfriend's speech. Read the book, and count the "r-r-r-r"s. I wanted my pistol to shut this guy up.
It's just a wonderful book. Imagine all those hours tapping away at those little black keys! There is no donkey with more stamina or endurance.

Humbly submitted -