Corner View 3

The southern part of Oman, where I live, is known as the Land of Frankincense and once great camel trains carried frankincense and myrrh across the desert from here or down to the Queen of Sheba's ports. As you can see, the camels still think they are kings of the road, but nowadays most people drive SUVs. They are more common here than in most parts of the world because there is a lot of off-road driving. I'm currently driving a Toyota Fortuner, which I must like a lot as I'm even taking photographs of it!

For those of you who don't know about it, the Corner View project is a group of bloggers around the world, who once a week post photos with a related theme. It was started by Jane in Spain who is first in the list of links below. This week's theme is modes of transport; next week's will be shopping. If you want to join in, you are more than welcome. Just post your photos and let us know your link.

These are the current participants in Corner View:

jane, ladybug-zen, ian, bonnie, esti, sophie, cele, modsquad,

caitlin, joyce, ani, couturecoucou, kim, a day that is dessert, natsumi, epe, kaylovesvintage, trinsch, c.t., jeannette, outi, schanett, ritva, dongdong, francesca, state of bliss, jennifer, dana, denise, cabrizette, bohemia girl, ruth, dianna, isabelle, amber, girl in the yellow shoes, mister e, janis, kari, jgy, jenna, skymring, elizabeth, audrey, allison, lise, cate, mon, victoria, crescent moon, erin, otli, amy, ida, caroline, lisa, dorte, kimmie, la lune dans le ciel, nicola, malo, samantha, vanessa,

Corner View 2

The theme for this week's Corner View is breakfast. Well, to be perfectly honest I am an Englishman living abroad, and my breakfast is a rather conventional one of Weetabix, orange juice and coffee. The first part - just about the only part actually - of my breakfast ritual is to grind the coffeee beans in an automatic coffee grinder. But, as I live in Oman, I thought I'd try to show you what a traditional Omani breakfast looks like. I asked a colleague of mine, Ahmed, and he shrugged and said he just had tea. I must admit he is rather thin. I asked him, "Anything else?" He thought for a while and added, "bread." That is the local type of bread in the photo. Six loaves cost 100 baisas, which is less than 50 cents. You need to buy it hot and fresh and eat it immediately as it dries up very quickly. In the Arab world the father or one of the sons will go to the bakery first thing in the morning to fetch the bread back. After further discsussion with Ahmed, I was able to add two further items: dates and laban (buttermilk). These are really more typical for people who live in the desert.

Bread, dates and buttermilk are not exactly the most exciting breakfast in the world, so for my main picture I have two camels looking for their breakfast. You may think that camels just graze in the desert and don't need to be fed, but you'd be wrong. Camel herdsmen drive out into the desert with 50kg bags of animal feed to keep their animals fat and happy. They usually deliver this in white pick-up trucks. This means that whenever camels see a big white vehicle approaching early in the morning they start walking towards it looking for their breakfast! These two came up really close and looked at me appealingly through the window of my white SUV. Sometimes they'll lick the sides of the vehicle hoping to find salt deposits. Camels are lovely animals, but I have to admit I have eaten camel's meat and drunk camel's milk. I've also seen a camel race with nearly a thousand camels in it, but that's another story. Their meat is rather tough and flavourless. I only eat it when I have to at a wedding party. The milk tastes like cow's milk diluted with water. So, this morning, as usual, I had cow's milk with my cereal and coffee.

For those of you who don't know about it, the Corner View project is a group of bloggers around the world, who once a week post photos with a related theme. It was started by Jane in Spain who is first in the list of links below. This week's theme is breakfast; next week's will be modes of transport and the week after that's will be shopping. If you want to join in, you are more than welcome. Just post your photos and let us know your link.

These are the current participants in Corner View. Take a look at the wonderful world of breakfasts:

jane, ladybug-zen, ian, bonnie,esti, sophie, cele, modsquad,caitlin, joyce, ani, couturecoucou, kim, a day that is dessert, natsumi, epe, kaylovesvintage, trinsch, c.t.,jeannette, outi, schanett, ritva, dongdong, francesca, state of bliss, jennifer, dana, denise, cabrizette, bohemia girl, ruth, erin, dianna,isabelle, amber, girl in the yellow shoes, mister e, janis, kari, jgy,jenna, skymring, elizabeth, audrey, allison, mon, Ötli ,