The week that was

Well, it is Monday and time to reflect on the week past.  The pressure system that has caused freezing conditions in Europe brought a heat wave to Jordan and the warm weather made a wonderful, if short, change.  Temperatures positively soared on Friday, reaching a high of 31˚C in both Amman and Aqaba! 

 

With the brief, almost balmy weather came an invasion of sorts, with some of the local Bedouins bringing their sheep to our back yard to snack on patches of green grass and plastic bags of all colours!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

This weekend also meant the last of the Wadi Rum Adventure Skydives/Paradrenilín skydiving for March.  I wonder if my darling husband will cope without dashing off to Wadi Rum and Aqaba early every Friday morning?  Unfortunately, the unseasonal hot weather, poor visibility and the Khamsin, the fierce fifty-day winds, made jumping very difficult, with André only managing one jump on Friday and, sadly, no jumps for anyone on Saturday. 

 

 

On Friday, the skydiving club hosted the Kingdom of Jordan chapter of the Harley Owners Group, or HOGs.  A group of about fifteen very keen HOGs showed up, ready to tandem, but was very disappointed when they were told that weather conditions made it too dangerous for them to jump.  The club tried their best, though, sending up full loads of hopeful bikers strapped to tandem masters, only to have some very grumpy HOGs land in the midst of horrible sandstorms.  Twice! 

 

As all the drama with the weather unfolded, I decided to inspect the motorbikes instead and fell in love with a lovely black and chrome number.  As I broke my nose the last time I was on the back of a motorbike (not nearly as snazzy as this one), I just sat there and looked, uhm... pretty?

 

 

 

Weather conditions briefly stabilised on Friday afternoon, enough to allow the Royal Jordanian Falcons to proceed with their airshow.  Here is the YouTube link, if you want to go check it out:  https://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=DE_tKO1SGdc&noredirect=1

 

 Not quite as... elaborate as the airshows we are used to seeing in South Africa, with a lot of to-and-fro-repetition, but good nonetheless.  I was fully expecting to witness a mid-air crash (watch from around 5:10 to 5:16 minutes into the video clip and you will see what I mean) but luckily that did not happen! 

 

No jumping on Saturday, which meant that we left Wadi Rum relatively early.  Now we were faced with two choices:  take the more scenic, but much longer route home past the Dead Sea, or take the faster, boring road home and stop off at Haret Jdoudna in Madaba for a much needed lunch.  Of course, food won!  As it turns out it was the better choice, as there was a huge accident on the Dead Sea highway just southwest of Amman, killing 17 and injuring 38 more when a passenger bus collided with a car and a truck/trailer. 

 

Totally oblivious to the carnage, André and I thoroughly enjoyed the food at Haret, as always, although the ambiance was a bit more frantic than usual.  In addition to the usual suspects we normally order, we tried the lamb cutlets - delish!  Will definately be on the menu next time.

And finally, home to the surviving 3 potted plants and a slightly peeved Mila-cat.  While I loved our trips to Wadi Rum and Aqaba, it is good to know that the skydiving is over for at least the next couple of months, so I can breathe normally... until next time!