Darcy’s kitchen is a unique type of restaurants. There are no other similar places in Oman. It has its own style and way. It is also a nice place to have breakfast. The atmosphere is cozy and the interior design makes you feel like you are in a house rather than a restaurant (specially the one in MQ). The waiters are friendly and they always serve with a smile. This is the favorite dining place for many foreigners, and sometimes you would be surprised to see it filled with them on a weekday afternoon.

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Cities are getting more crowded. More people are born every day, and those new people need more places to live/work/study/etc (I know this seems like it has nothing to do with cars but please bare with me, I will get there). In order to satisfy this increasing number of people, the city must have more buildings = more roads = more parking space. Since roads and parking space are not what you would call a profit maker, companies and individuals tend to make the buildings bigger, while keeping the roads small. Throughout the history cars seemed to grow bigger and bigger by time. Well I think we reached the peak, and now is the era of the mini cars. Yaris, Tida, Serion are names we are getting familiar with these days. The only car among the seven dwarves that got my attention was the new Suzuki Swift. “Poor people’s GTI” is what my friend calls it, and I could not agree more. That statement is not offensive because I really think that the Swift is the GTI if it was to be translated into a Japanese car with a 1.6L-or-less engine and a 5,900 Rials price tag.

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If you are above 18 and you were interested in cars 10 years ago, you would probably remember what the name “Mazda” used to mean back then. It was at the bottom of the cars food chain. Nissan, Toyota, Mitsubishi, Subaru, any Japanese name would be better than Mazda. Omanis used to call Mazdas two things: “Mozooh” (as in banana) and “one-year visa” because it expires after that. I believe the 180 degrees turn started when the Mazda 6 was introduced back in 2002 (was it the year Ford increased its shares in Mazda to 34 %?). Passing other milestones like the Mazda 3 and the CX-9, Mazda started building a new reputation: a Japanese manufacturer that offers top-of-the-notch stylish cars that are reliable in terms of performance and life span.

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When the 1^st official pictures of the EX35 were published, we all got the same idea: it’s the product of an Infiniti FX sleeping with a G35 (or was that only me??). I really didn’t understand where this car fits into the market. The closest cars I could think of are the BMW X3, the Mercedes GLK, and the X6 (which way more expensive, but still a crossover SUV). As many people (including me) thought that this was a mini-FX35, it clearly turned out more of a large G35 after testing it. Final line is: it seems like the EX35 has its own place that works fine for it.

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