Enforced detox

As I entered the restaurant we had chosen for dinner on our last night in Spain I overheard a young Australian voice ask her dining companion how much weight he thought he had put on and it deeply resonated with me. Tom and I like food, and with that food we also like wine, beer, cocktails, maybe a pre-dinner Fino sherry, maybe a post dinner Pedro Ximenex sherry. After five weeks of this gastronomic travel I am ready for a rest. And that rest is going to come in the form of 5 days in Oman, during Ramadan.

It all started with those English breakfasts - here Leonie and Tom cook up a Full English.

After this cafe breakfast I remembered to order my Full English without the beans.

In Ireland my downfall was seafood chowder for lunch, always served with one of those excellent Irish beers. 

Black forest pavlova in Portugal - sounds too much but strangely worked - the pastries and cakes on the Iberian peninsula were ridiculously good.

I am hoping that 5 days semi-fasting in Oman can undo the 5 weeks of damage I have done to my liver, kidneys and waistline. We booked our flights to Europe with Qatar Airlines months ago and were chuffed when Qatar offered a one dollar deal of a flight to Muscat. What an excellent stop-over on the way home we thought - for a dollar. Obviously we jumped at the chance, little realising that the deal landed us in one of the hottest places in the world at the height of the hot season and during Ramadan. Oh well, in for a penny, in for a pound - my plan is to jump right in and use this as a chance to detox. Let's see how that goes and anyway, that yummy watermelon juice they serve in the Middle East looks almost like a daiquari!