author - oman observer

Don’t do it tomorrow, do it today! Can you not see how uncomplicated, how satisfying, how simple, life is when you just ‘do it now, and get it out of the way?’ Putting stuff off is, well, just a...

Being someone who has often flirted with, if not obesity, then certainly on-or-about overweight, I have an extraordinary admiration for those who are ‘challenged’ by their weight, and respond...

As you read this, I’m probably winging my way back home from a week in Tenerife, in the Canary Islands, after a much-deserved week off, a holiday, a vacation, or whatever. In fact, in a perfect...

There was a time, we know when we look back on history, when folk knew what their lives were going to be. Because little, or nothing, ever changed. For the twelve to fifteen thousand days of your...

The ever more intrusive Valentine’s Day is almost upon us. As always, its origins are misted by time, however we can probably accept that the original Valentine was a martyr who comforted those...

Living in today’s world, and looking back over our shoulders, I wonder how many of us yearn for the quieter life of yesterday? Just think about it... has every technological advance, every ‘must...

I have spent an awful lot of my life looking at exam papers, guiding students towards success in exams, yet I am still uncomfortable with the way the arts in secondary and higher education, are...

“Humility,” wrote the famed author C S Lewis, of The Chronicles of Narnia fame, “is not thinking less of yourself, but thinking of yourself, less.”It’s so simple, isn’t it? Something of an...

Are you starting out in business? Or maybe you are an entrepreneur? Whatever your life’s ambitions you need to be aware of the ethics of what you do. But don’t become a slave to them because the...

Looking forward to this newest of years, 2023, ensures that our reflections upon ’22 leave us hesitant, fearsome in many respects, but most of all, uncertain. Ironically, it’s exactly half a...

Well, another year has come and gone, and with it, as always, an opportunity arises for me to reflect upon the old year, its good and not-so-good, and to have a bit of fun, at the expense of a few...

Seeing as it’s Christmas Day, and from memory the first time this column has been published on this festive occasion, I thought I would wrap some Christmas wisdom. I’m a wee bit short of goodwill...

Living in the Middle East, even though surrounded by one of the most attractive and hospitable coastlines in the world, it’s easy to take the desert environment for granted, but it is very much more...

Is bigotry and intolerance on the rise? Or have we just become more sensitive? Or are we being wrangled by the world’s media, yet again?There certainly ‘appear’ to be rising tensions globally...

I enjoy food, and always have. After all, what’s not to like about it? And... as John Safran Soer put it so immaculately, “Food is not rational. Food is culture, habit, craving, and...

How safe do you think cyclists feel when they are on the road? Apart from finding them an inconvenience now and again, do you ever genuinely consider them as much road users as you are? They are...

I think we, as global societies, have achieved so much in diversity acceptance in recent years, rather than continuing at this exhausting pace, we should now, to paraphrase Simon and Garfunkel,...

It hasn’t been a dramatic realisation, but one that has gradually emerged from the experiences of a lifetime, and the observations of a uniquely equipped generation, trying to make sense of having...

I’ll tell you later. In the meantime, in what could be a significant game-changer for the Sultanate of Oman, and the entire MENA region, the Kyung Hee University in Seoul, working alongside the...

A friend confided recently that he was feeling absolutely shattered, ‘wiped out,’ was how he put it, ‘completely exhausted, but that he had no prospect of a break, or a holiday to unwind, until...