M and K in Qatar

The New Blog

2007-08-08T05:49:00.000+03:00

Well exactly 3 months since the last post!

Yes, we are all still alive and well!!!!

With just over a week until the summer break is over I am finally going to get the new UAE blog up and running (it keeps on slipping down the list list of things to do - procrastination is a great trait). Obviously lots of photos to share and posts to complete, and I will try to keep it all as short as I can and backdate them for the past 4 months where possible.

Watch this spot - http://mandkuae.blogspot.com

Has been a bit too quiet don't you think?

2007-05-08T07:59:00.000+03:00

Hi all,
Just to let you know we are alive and well. I have been busy getting used to the new job, city, country... and K & A have been busy getting through the remains of the last job, city and country. As of this Thursday night we will all be back together again to start the Middle Eastern experience Part 2.

Can tell you the new location is rather nice and already settling in to the job quite well... rather different than what I am used to but has many positives that make the days pass without too many dramas. I have actually been here for a month already and there are many things here that are different and that includes what we have been used to in Qatar.

Obviously we have quite a bit to share and other bits and pieces of news. Maybe I can start getting K to post next week while I am at work, but I have a feeling she will be busy recovering from the past 10 months!

Not in Kansas anymore Toto!

2007-04-12T21:56:00.000+03:00

Well not only are we not in Kansas, but we sure aren't in Qatar either! What a contrast.

Anyway just thought I would upload a couple of photos to let you all know we are still alive and kicking. This is our 5th night in Al Ain and we are doing ok... although a bit tired and worn out. It is not an easy life staying in the Intercontinental Hotel trying to get some furniture for our new home before I actually have to start living there.

Al Ain is as green as we were told... and it is far more peaceful than Doha. It really does have a nice atmosphere about it. I have already been to the college a couple of times, sat in on some classes and met some of my future students. I have also already finished my Residence Permit process, which should come through next week sometime (VERY quick).

What to say about Al Ain! The scenery is different... the people are different... and there are A LOT of date palms... everywhere! The added bonus is Oman is just out the window (well from the hotel anyway) and we are really looking forward to exploring when K and A come back for good. They are flying back on Saturday... and no one is looking forward to that!

I suppose one of the major surprises for me anyway is just how big our new home actually is! It just makes our place in Doha look like a shoe box! Actually make that a shoe box that has been left out in the rain for a month! Added to the size of the place is the fact it is right behind the biggest mall in Al Ain... anyway no doubt we will have much more to say about the 4 bedrooms, 4 bathrooms, the far too many doors and lights, as well as the funny little maid's quarters in the future!

We will get around to telling all, but for now we are pretty sure that the Qatar and UAE experiences will be worlds apart! So that should make for interesting reading hopefully.

Impending Travels

2007-04-02T09:07:00.000+03:00

Well it is under a week until we head over to the UAE. We are all going over on Sunday, but unfortunately K and A will have to return the following Saturday until a replacement actually takes over from her at work, or her notice period is up (whichever comes first). I am very happy they are coming over with me, but just really wish they didn’t have to come back!

As well as being flown over to Abu Dhabi, collected from the airport and driven out to Al Ain, we are also put up in a hotel for the first 6 nights and provided a “meal allowance”. During this first week I will be taken through the Residents Permit process along with the whole settling in thing. As accommodation is more or less provided as a shell, it is up to us to go around and purchase the furnishings and electrical stuff during this first week to make it habitable. This is all done with the “relocation allowance” provided… will be nice to go on a shopping spree at someone else’s expense! After that first 6 days is up I have just over a week to prepare for the 4 courses I am taking over… SCARY!

I must say I have been impressed by HCT thus far (I know… I am not even there yet). Everything has just seemed far more organised and professional than what we experience here. Right from the time I was contacted last December when I couldn’t make it over for an interview to now, a week before departure, it has been a good experience.

Although the initial offer they made was good, I wasn’t overjoyed with my starting salary. I was informed last week that my monthly salary has already been increased two pay increments… and you have to be happy with a substantial pay rise before you even start work! At the most I know I will be working as hard as K does here, and for the higher salary, better living conditions, and environment/lifestyle we are hoping Al Ain provides, I can handle that. Even the flexibility of HCT with my start date has been good. Originally my offer was for commencement on March 11th and I really didn’t think I would be able to make it over until the beginning of the 2007/2008 academic year in August. With not much negotiation at all, we worked out a mid-semester starting date that tied in perfectly with the term break at school here in Doha. I am sure my future colleagues will be happy to pass over their increased teaching load to me when I arrive!

I don't know if I am feeling stress or excitment yet, but I am looking forward to experiencing the Emirates and actually working (... as I am sure K is). It will be good to have some sort of routine as it is far too easy fall into a rountine of not doing very much at all (but I have discovered Civilization IV can easily kill numerous hours here and there)! I think the last 7 months has made me dumb down a bit, although the Qatar experience has been very worthwhile I am pretty sure work would have made it better.

Anyway fingers crossed everything goes smoothly, and in the not too distant future there is going to be a whole other experience to share with you all! I will be starting up a UAE blog and then when we are all over in the UAE we will just leave this one as it is, but link back and forth between them. I am sure we have several thoughts and things we will want to say once removed from this environment, but that is in the future.

Cruising the ‘burbs

2007-04-01T09:04:00.000+03:00

Language is a funny thing, and translation is never as easy as it first looks. With direct translation from one language into another there are so many aspects of meaning that can be lost. The names of the suburbs (zones or whatever you actually want to refer to them as here) are a good example. As you drive around you may go through Father Fish, New Salad or Old Salad among others (these are just the ones that come to mind). Of course these are direct translations of the words and more than likely have very little to do with the meaning of the place name … this makes me wonder how strange something like New Farm or Slade Point might sound when translating those words directly rather than the actual name.

Zig Zag Towers getting more zig-zaggy

2007-03-31T16:55:00.000+03:00

Came home the long way to check out the progress on the Zig Zag Towers today. Can’t work out if they look impressive or just strange as yet!

hhmmmm.....

2007-03-27T08:28:00.000+03:00

"But Ma! Do we have to move up to the top floor????"

OK... it was funny in my head for a split second! To be honest I think they are knocking it down, but around here who knows!

Parties and such…

2007-03-26T08:14:00.000+03:00

"A" was invited to a party a Jungle Zone the other day (indoor amusement centre at Hyatt Plaza). So for a couple of hours on Saturday afternoon we entered a weird little alternative reality. The reason I say this is because it was the Birthday party you have when you are not having a Birthday party (a bit like Claytons for anyone out there that remembers that).

It gets a little confusing, but it was a Birthday party for a brother and sister, but it was neither of their Birthdays. We sang Happy Birthday several times, there were party games, and there was a huge cake… but the fact is the children spent a reasonable amount of time looking a little confused by the whole proceedings (probably because they had already had their respective Birthday parties in another time and space!

The best part was the “entertainment”, although I do use the term lightly. I am sure it has been said that one mans entertainment is another mans purgatory! As "K" has stated to various people, it resembled some weird and seedy Philippino nightclub. Proceedings began with someone in a lion suit (the Jungle Zone mascot so to speak) dancing with the children to very bad and very loud dance music (actually the same irritating song about 4 or 5 times). Next was a juggler who really was a cocktail waiter, and his act resembled the movie Cocktail complete with cocktail shakers and pretend bottles of Champagne. The “cocktail waiter” was followed by another juggler who I think was a circus performer in a previous life; he insisted on doing handstands, flips and summersaults between each bought of juggling prowess (he was actually quite good). His act was complete with a performing midget (I suppose I am suppose to say “little person” to be politically correct) who as you would imagine was the comic-relief sidekick (‘tis all a little sad if you ask me). Next was the magician who kept making one or two pigeons (I believe I counted 2, but then again I possibly was so amazed I wasn’t paying close enough attention) appear/disappear and lighting stuff on fire and turning fire into other stuff. I think he bought a good magic kit and is getting better at using it with every performance. The magician was also the DJ so by this point I was more than hoping he would make both himself and the sound system disappear!

Finally the female MC took over proceedings to host a couple of children’s games. One made sense as two kids were made to run up and down and fill a bucket with balls… simple! The next lead to a large amount of confusion as it consisted of children having to form groups of a given number on the MC’s command. Over half the kids sort of stood there and were “helped” into groups by the “cocktail waiter”, “juggler” and “bat painter”. I haven’t mentioned the “bat painter” yet, but the face painter did a little bat on the boy’s cheeks… I also think he was the guy dancing around in the lion suit earlier! Finally was a dancing competition… firstly the girls who seemed to be trying to dance and then the boys who followed each others lead and ended up standing facing the crowd of nannies (and some parents) clapping nearly in time with the music.

After all this excitement things slowed down a little with the appearance of CAKE (the big one), more renditions of Happy Birthday, Burger King for the kids, pieces of cake for all, the handing out of the gift bags, and the my favourite part… the disappearance of the sound system as everything was shuffled into the next party room ready for another “performance”; another term I use lightly!
As a side note the best part of the afternoon was seeing a woman in the full black Abaya and veil come down the flume ride alone and get wet… not because she got wet, but it looked like she was having a lot of fun… I think we did too, but our fun was far more obscure…

Kittens Arrive…

2007-03-25T11:04:00.000+03:00

Must be that time of the year as various cats have been getting a little on the big size lately. We have been trying to keep all the cats outside and cutting down on their food leading up to our move, but on Friday night “Kitten” snuck into a box inside the house and had 3 rather cute little furry friends… We did well to keep Big Moza outside but she ended up having hers under one of our hedges! Who knows how many other kittens are around at the moment in and under things around the compound, but most of the cats are looking a little smaller than a week ago!

Wind Storm

2007-03-23T10:57:00.000+03:00

Had the weirdest storm last night… bit of thunder, bit of lightning, and bit of rain… and for a little while HUGE winds! We awoke to various bits of roof in our and the next-door neighbours back yards! We think it has come over the back fence, but could really have come from anywhere… no one has come looking for his or her roof yet!

COUGH!

2007-03-16T08:35:00.000+03:00

Looks like fog but believe me it is another dust storm under some grey clouds. I don't think I ever posted a photo of the "fishing pole" lights along Al Waab, but this is them... and there are a lot of them. Not particularly effective but obviously someone liked the look of them.

An update...

2007-03-13T08:30:00.000+03:00

Well there really isn't too much going on at the moment... I think we are just through the motions a bit now and waiting (a bit impatiently now) to find out if K and A are coming with me to the UAE. We have our fingers crossed for the "family move" though as it is another of the experiences we are having over here and it is far more enjoyable for those experiences to be together! AJA are trying to find someone to replace K (who of course is irreplaceable) but whether they are successful or not, we just have to wait and see (plus there are some other issues which no doubt will come to light at a later date).

Apart from that K is still coughing her lungs out and really shouldn't be at work, but is doing parent consultations this week so can't really have a day off... yes they do parent/teacher interviews for 3-4 year olds once a term!

I still haven't confimred my leaving/arrival date as yet, as I am delaying to the last possible moment, but it is only 4 weeks away... and then off to another country! I think it is 6 weeks until I start teaching again. All very surreal really!

Our Dusty World

2007-03-12T08:18:00.000+03:00

Everyone is coughing and spluttering at the moment… particularly K! There is so much dust around and our villa isn’t the most airtight place in the compound, so a lot of the very fine stuff makes it’s way inside one way of another. There is a constant dusty haze that hangs over our heads, so when the winds starts that dust starts swirling. Although the temperature is still really nice, it seems like we have to keep the place all closed up for the moment to try and keep some of the dust out. Will be looking forward to living in a nicer villa in Al Ain (which you can guarantee will be happening).

Anyway snapped a few piccys on the phone driving to and from school yesterday afternoon!

Didn't actually mean to have the phone set to B&W, but oh well. Sand snakes it's way across the road and you end up with little mini sand dunes in the gutters.

It’s been a long time coming!

2007-03-04T11:35:00.000+03:00

Well it is now official… we are moving to Al Ain in the UAE. The city is about 1 ½ hours drive from both Abu Dhabi and Dubai, and is an oasis city split by the Omani border. I have taken up a position with Al Ain Men’s College, which is part of the Higher Colleges of Technology (the one that flew me to Dubai for the interview) teaching in their eBusiness program (I think it will be teaching the 3 E’s - eCommerce, eMarketing, eBusiness, and Marketing, so basically the same as what I was teaching at Griffith)… Kerry has put in her notice with AJA and hopefully they will find someone to take over her position during the break between term 2 and 3. If so we will all be going over together on about the 11th April, but if not K and A will follow me over in mid May (fingers crossed for the going over together)!

At the end of the day HCT is a good employer and it is a decent package with relocation paid; plus it is a change of scenery and yet another adventure. As I have said before we didn’t really want to pack up and leave Qatar just yet but have to go where the work is. Unfortunately the tertiary sector here is still small and seems to be a bit of a closed shop. At the end of the day it isn’t going to be that big of a change, just a bit quieter and greener, more trees and sand, and not as flat. So Emirates, here we come!

Dust Storm

2007-03-02T15:21:00.000+03:00

We are in the middle of a dust storm today… I suppose it is what happens in a dusty country when it is windy! Visibility is very low, the world has a yellow-brown colour to it and everything is… well… DUSTY! Took a picture of the car about lunchtime… no it doesn’t normally look this dirty!

Virgin Megastore

2007-03-01T18:19:00.000+03:00

A first for Qatar yesterday when the Virgin Megastore opened at Villagio. Might not seem like such a big deal, but seriously this is the first “proper” DVD and bookstore in the country. It is nice to be able to just go and have a look through English language books of all shapes, sizes and interests as well as being able to browse a decent selection of DVDs (all at “not bad” prices too)! Actually some of the books are cheap in comparison to Australian prices and we have already walked out of there with a couple of books for Ashur, DVDs and a Taschen art book. Makes a much-needed change from the endless sea of clothing, perfume and jewellery stores in Doha!

March Arrives!

2007-03-01T10:59:00.000+03:00

Hi all
I know it has been a bit quiet on the M, K & A front of late. We are all doing ok and are pretty well (minus the odd cough and splutter... probably dust related). Will post more soon as have some piccys and news to share.

Villagio

2007-02-10T16:37:00.000+03:00

Snuck a photo in Villagio today on the mobile. Just to give you an idea of the scope of this place, this is the new section that has just been opened up and the little fence you can see is actually the canal that runs down the middle, which has full sized wooden gondolas in it. There are actually only a couple of stores in this section open, and that is pretty much the same through the whole place. You can only just make out the ceiling which is painted (rather well) as a blue sky with fluffy while clouds.

They open the mall first here, and then let it slowly fill up with tenants. A little backward, but still an interesting thing to see. Unfortunately this means quite a bit of walking between shops to see what is actually there.

HCT Offer

2007-02-09T12:31:00.000+03:00

Well HCT has made me an offer for Al Ain Men's College... nice to at least get an offer at last! More info to come...

Telephone Interviews

2007-02-09T10:29:00.000+03:00

I have decided that I am not a fan of the telephone interview… actually I am not a fan of the interview full stop, but I think the telephone interview is definitely not my favourite.

To elaborate, I had a telephone interview with the American University of Bulgaria last night. I know! Bulgaria is a little like Qatar and doesn’t normally come to mind when people are thinking about working overseas, although most people at least have heard of Bulgaria! But the thing with this interview is there were about 6 people (I think) sitting in a room asking me questions over a speakerphone… I actually think there may have been 7 at one point. That wasn’t too bad in itself, but the line was really bad meaning I couldn’t actually hear some of what they were saying as well as some of them being very quiet (I am guessing they were further away from the microphone). All this added up to me being a little confused at the best of times and having a very sore ear due to having to squish the phone against the side of my head to hear what was being said. Added to this, the line had a nasty echo and delay playing havoc with it!

Needless to say, I haven’t heard back from them as yet. Although the interview went ok from my end, given that I probably didn’t answer the actual questions they were asking I don’t think it went so well at their end.

One thing though is I can say I had an interview with a university in Bulgaria, and that is yet another experience in itself!

New AJA Accommodation

2007-02-05T11:39:00.000+03:00

Well after many rumours and something that I can’t quite work out, it has finally been confirmed that all AJA staff will be moving into new apartments that are currently being built next door to the school prior to the next school year beginning. This has both positives and negatives naturally.

Being close to school can be both good and bad, but with the location of the school for the time being it is mostly bad. The area the school is in is not the best and next to one major road and one over crowded substandard one – which means no doubt there will be significant road works in this area in the future… there also is really nothing in the way of shopping nearby. I guess we have been a little spoilt by our current location with regards shopping. Also it not only looks over AJA, but also backs onto the fence of the other school next door so basically if you look out your window you will see major roads or school grounds; no gardens and no balconies.

The plan does not allow enough parking for the amount of apartments, which may work out ok in the long run, but in addition to this there is no real place for children to play (unless they jump the wall and go into the school grounds – if that is allowed). The apartments look as if they may be quite nice once established, but very compact which leads to a lot of people living in close quarters. The other issue is it seems for anything to be established here it takes a little while, so once construction is finished and everyone is moved, no doubt there will be some issues initially as they are going to be very rushed.

I guess one of the final things is a no pet policy, which doesn’t help those here with pets (which there are quite a few) or the ones who have befriended cats. There is also no smoking in the apartment buildings, which is funny because there are many teachers who are driven to chain smoking (if you get my drift). There will be a little “clubhouse” within the walls, but there is very little chance you would be able to fit 200+ residents in there as it looks very small (actually the whole thing does look very small). All in all who knows!

Cats and Thunderstorms

2007-02-04T12:29:00.000+03:00

We had a nice thunderstorm this morning. You can feel the weather slowly warming up, but it still seems the “it hardly ever rains in Doha” comments have definitely been proved to be false. More importantly what do all the cats do when it rains? Find somewhere warm and dry to curl up and sleep!

Big-Head cat and Big Moza waiting out the rain…

As I said before, it is hard not to feel the need to give these little furry friends at least some comfort for part of their lives. You can tell that some of them have either been pets, or have been treated well by someone at some point in time. Just wish they could all find nice little homes to live happy little cat lives in, but there really are just too many… even if you just look after the nice-natured ones, you still end up with a house-full! We had to chase out 5 that were sleeping in various parts of the house last night when we went to bed.

Boxed kitten ready to be sent to a good home!

More Cats

2007-02-03T09:25:00.000+03:00

We have two new arrivals, although the little tiger-stripped cat has visited once or twice before. They have now become “Skitty-Tiger” cat and “Splotchy” cat. These two are rather cute because they are kind of small and just hang around together… the one with stripes is male and very timid and runs away every time someone or something moves. He also has a little limp, which is weird because all the tiger-stripped cats seem to have at least something wrong with one of their paws or legs. By the way, I know they aren’t really tiger stripes, but that is just what I call them. The splotchy one is a little female and very affectionate. She sort of does this pushing thing with her head when you give her scratches, so maybe she might become “dozer” or something else if she hangs around much longer. The cutest thing about these two is they snuggle up together when they sleep.

Ice Parties

2007-02-02T19:20:00.000+03:00

Headed off the City Centre this afternoon for a little bit a retail therapy and saw something interesting while we were there.

The central part of the mall is built around the ice-skating rink and when we first arrived we saw three huge bags of balloons hanging from the roof. So naturally the thought would be that something big was going to happen. Not yet though, so we continued on our walked up and down floors and in and out of shops.

Later when we walked back past the middle we saw they had set up the rink with more balloons and put a carpet over the middle. As we watched we saw a HUGE birthday cake carried out to the middle on a table and few guys wandered around with movie cameras. Ok so there was going to be a huge birthday party on the rink? Didn’t know you could hire it out for parties since it is in such a public space, but apparently you can.

So anyway along with many others, I stood and watched (haven’t quite got the hang of lining up the panorama images on the phone’s camera yet, but you get the idea). Now my guess is that there were about 10-15 children in the middle of the rink for about a total of 15 minutes. The music at the centre was turned off as a microphone was handed around the kids and their minders to sing happy birthday (very badly and very loudly). I should also say that none of the children at the party were actually ice skating, but rather just standing around on the carpet in the middle of the rink with 100’s of onlookers.

I find all this just weird and we didn’t actually stand around to watch the huge bags of balloons dropped from the roof. Extravagance is pretty normal for children here, and it seems that parents like to try to outdo each other when it comes to this type of thing. I must say though I think this is one of the strangest and most conspicuous ones I have seen.

When things go bang!

2007-02-02T12:01:00.000+03:00

Apparently the water pump blew this morning… actually didn’t know it was the water pump at all, but rather thought it must have just been a fuse. Kerry was on the phone and everything just went dead after she heard a “pop” sound coming from the box on the wall in the entrance foyer. After a little bit of work and an hour or so, we were told everything was fixed (translation being “we have patched things up and call us next time something blows up”). I went outside and saw a shiny new water pump, so the power of deduction tells us that was the problem as we have power once again!

Something Dead In Our Drain…

2007-02-01T10:56:00.000+03:00

Well maybe not something dead, but it sure was stinky! To elaborate…

Last night our main bathroom flooded. Seems that the drain was backed up so when to plug was pulled on the bath, instead of the water heading on a journey down the drain it came up through the hole in the middle of the bathroom floor (I should say this hole is actually another drain and not just some “hole” in the floor). Anyway we called the plumber type guy who came around and unflooded the bathroom… he also left by saying “oohhhh big problem” and that he would be back in the morning.

It turns out the “big problem” really wasn’t all that big… As I had to help all I know is what came out of the drain outside looked like hair, toilet paper and pooh in the shape of a dead cat! Now I am not saying it was a cat… but was shaped like one and sure didn’t smell pretty. Anyway the drain is now unblocked, the bathroom is no longer flooding, and whatever it was in the drain is no longer there… and that has to be a good thing! I think I would have rather been trying to control a class of 20 kids screaming and running around than help with the drain though!

Big-Head Cat

2007-02-01T08:19:00.000+03:00

Well after not being around lately “Big-Head” cat has made his return. Although he looks very beaten up and like he has had a hard couple of months, he still loves to flop on the floor or a lap and have roll around.

Also saw one of the “hillbilly cats’ yesterday… don’t know where “overbite cat” is but “cross-eyed cat” is still passing along the fence with it’s banjo on it’s back at least once or twice a day. Duelling banjos along with the call to prayer is something to behold!

Post #100

2007-01-31T11:32:00.000+03:00

Well maybe not a very impressive post but it is still number 100!

An explanation of cats...

2007-01-24T09:48:00.000+03:00

On any given day we are visited by any number of cats as I have mentioned before. Their relationships differ as does our relationship to them, but they all have names of some form, which we have bestowed on them for various reasons. Many of them make their way inside for whatever reason they see fit, some we can touch, and others are a bit scary… but they are among the cats of Doha and they like the cat food and milk we put outside for them. All the cats live outside and are just visitors, as we are here.

Our first visitors after our arrival were “mummy cat” & “kitten”. As you would have seen previously “kitten” has become a fixture of our home and can be an affectionate little thing (although it is slowly outgrowing it’s “kitten” status). She plays, sleeps, and generally just hangs around most of the time. Mummy Cat on the other hand has only just started coming inside for the occasional nap and pat… she also only has a stumpy tail; don’t know what happened to the rest of it. Both of them still head off together, but “kitten” normally returns far more frequently than “mummy cat” does; she normally announces her return by jumping off the roof onto the window sill via the air conditioning unit (which makes a load thumping-kind-of-crashing sound).

Next is “big moza” formally known as “moza 2”), who sort of just turned up a few months ago. She is never too far away and often sleeps on one of the dinning table chairs in the evening. She likes a pat, reluctantly puts up with “kitten” but is not really friends with “mummy cat”… they sort of give each other a wide berth as the pass (or some times just sit there facing each other sounding not particularly happy with their world). She is one of the few fluffy cats you see around here, as most have short smooth coats.

pretty cat

The other two regular visitors are “moza” (formally “moza 1”) and “pretty cat”. We think these two must be sisters (although they don’t look alike), as they don’t really have a space issues between them and eat together out of one bowl. They also turned up together not long after we arrived, but both are still very skitty so only venture inside for a walk and sniff around then head straight back outside. “Pretty cat”, who actually vanished for about a month but is now back, is so-called because she is a very pretty and fluffy cat. We can’t touch either of these two at all!

big moza & moza

The story behind the “moza” name is based on a little girl at Kerry’s work who once said “I have nose. It’s dirty”. Both the moza’s have black on their noses, hence their name. “Big moza” is fluffier and bigger than the other “moza” plus has a white stripe down it’s back… so if we had put more time and effort into naming (which you should have guessed by now, we didn’t) it’s name would have probably been something more skunky! Don’t know if the two moza’s are related, but they seem to tolerate each other better than some of the others.

There is also the “skitty cat” that turns up normally once a day, and is very skitty! She hides under the chairs out the back, eats and drinks, then runs away.

skitty cat

There are also some male cats around, but they obviously give each other a pretty wide berth. The female cats don’t really have a problem with the male cats and basically ignore them for the majority of the time. There is “male moza” who I think is possibly the moza’s dad as he has very similar markings. There is also “ugly cat” who I think may be the dominant male and possibly the father to both “mummy cat” and “kitten”. He really isn’t ugly, but just very solid and beaten up. There are others that we only see now and then. “Big-head cat” is a young male who kind of has the whole big Garfield head thing going on… he is looking a bit beaten up lately and has only been around once in the past few weeks. I picked him up one night and brought him inside, and he just flopped on Kerry’s lap… very nice natured cat but I think when he was beaten up once too often by one of the other males and has now been scared off. There is also “tiger cat” who sort of has tiger stripes, is another nice-natured big male who loves a pat, but he has only been around once in the past month and now has a pretty badly damaged foot. We also had another kitten with a damaged foot visit us for a few days, but that was has now disappeared.

male moza

Finally are the hillbilly cats. There is a male and female who we see on the top of the back fence (I have yet to see them in our backyard)… the reason they are the hillbilly cats is the male has what looks like an overbite (or at least a big bottom lip) and the female looks cross eyed, so they both look like the bad result of a little bit too much inbreeding!

If you think that is a lot, they are just the ones that visit our backyard. You can drive through the compound or on the surrounding roads and see others who obviously have their little area they stick to… all of them look related to at least one or two of the ones that visit us.

At the end of the day you can’t look after these cats too much… this is not the place to be if you feel the need to take in strays otherwise your house would be full in a week! It is hard not to get attached to our little furry friends though and our evenings would not be the same if we didn’t look over and see at least one of them asleep somewhere.

Qatar – If the weather or roads don’t get you, the washing machine will!

2007-01-23T10:29:00.000+03:00

Our washing machine continues to vibrate violently and make it’s own way around the kitchen hunting for prey (I think cat or child)… well, as far as the cords coming out of the back will let it. The back cover flies off every time it is put back on and it’s spin cycle is the source of great entertainment for all of us… especially Ashur, who while scared of it also obsessively sits and watches every spin cycle he can! He is actually very taken with the front-loading washing machines and air conditioning units here. He seems on a mission to draw the perfect air conditioner (which he is getting very good at), and each trip to Carrefour includes a visit (often by himself) to the washing machines and air conditioners. It has become such a regular occurrence that the men who work in that section of the hypermarket talk to him and discuss the finer points of front loading machines and air conditioning units on each visit.

Getting back to our machine… it has been fixed, but one thing you learn here is things really don’t seem to get fixed very often but rather are patched up. So until such time as the thing actually blows up or stops working, it will continued to be patched… and fair enough too I say as I don’t think life would be the same without it!

Home looking homely...

2007-01-23T09:34:00.000+03:00

I have been playing around with the camera on the phone and worked out it does little panorama photos. Unfortunately for some reason only known to someone else, we can't send or receive international MMS messages so we can't send any photos directly to your mobiles (but we can send and receive international SMS messages). Added to this, the photos that come off the camera aren't the best when you see them off the phone (but they will do for those times when we don't have the camera with us).

Anyway here is home looking homely this morning...

The weather thingy!

2007-01-22T07:38:00.000+03:00

I have noticed that the weather thing on the right sidebar of this page is normally out. I know this morning it says "clear" but our weather has turned weird once again. We actually had a big thunderstorm last night, which was a "just like in Brisbane" moment... today it is cold and grey... no clear skies that is for sure!

We were small, but we were there!

2007-01-21T08:29:00.000+03:00

Not the best but looks far better on our computer than it does when posted. Unfortunately the images will not come through as clickable! I know, it is a "you had to be there" kind of thing... but thought I would post these anyway.

Off to Dubai… for the day!

2007-01-18T21:05:00.000+03:00

Went to Dubai for my interview with HCT today. It was an early morning to get everyone off to school and me to the airport on time. The departures area at Doha is actually not too bad once you get through security into the “passengers only” area where you go through check-in then passport control. Saw the duty free shop which is actually pretty big, but to be honest the prices are not that different from what you get in town (but it was a little strange to see alcohol on the shelves). The flight was delayed a little so instead of leaving at 7.55 it was scheduled to leave at 8:15am. That would have been ok, but we actually ended up sitting in the plane for at least an hour and didn’t take off until after 9am! I just think I am destined not to have a good experience with Qatar Airways!

Did see The Pearl from the air as we were climbing though, and it does look very impressive! I think we flew all the way across the Gulf as I could see land on the left side of the plane, which I was guessing was more than likely Iran and then came in over Sharjah, which looked pretty big… but I was on the wrong side of the plane to see much of Dubai. The land did look a little different with not so much rock and rubble as there is in Qatar, but rather undulating sandy looking ground with bushes everywhere… plus you could actually see some hills in the distance that was a change from the flatness of home. Once through passport control and security it was already about 11:20, so jumped into a taxi to go straight to Dubai Women’s College as my interview was scheduled for 12.

Impressions of this part of Dubai was it is a lot bigger than I thought as the college is quite close to the airport on the map, but it seemed to take about 20 minutes to get there. Everything looked similar to Doha, but more finished… so even though I could see cranes and building everywhere (plus the top of a few huge high-rises in the middle of the city) and the roads all looked finished and clean… and BIG!

Dubai Women’s College was very nice and new looking… the security at the gate welcomed “Mr Michael” and handed over a visitors pass… the reception area also welcomed “Mr Michael” and another security guard showed me where I needed to go. I was greeted by two of the heads of two of the business departments and the interview went as interviews go… it was video taped as well which made me feel rather self conscious. Can’t really say anything more specific about how it went because I really don’t know… I was asked questions; we discussed some things and so on. After the interview I was taken upstairs where I was introduced to some of the DWC staff and got to talk to the supervisor of the eBusiness program there which was informative, and then talked to another staff member from the business department. Both were rather open in their conversations and answering my questions, which was a good thing, and it seems like a good working environment with some good courses in place. From my understanding HCT falls somewhere between TAFE and Uni, being more focused on vocational education but also providing undergraduate degrees.

The process is quite complicated as the interview is just one step. Next the interviewing panel sends their recommendations along with my videotape to central recruiting services. Then I have to be recommended further by one of the colleges if I was deemed to have “passed” the interview. The business supervisors can read the recommendations and view my interview, and then recommend me for a position at any of the colleges… all a bit confusing, but I guess the one thing I do know at the moment is I am one step further along in the process.

By the time I waited for a taxi I didn’t actually leave DWC until about 2:30 so had to head straight back to the airport. Tried to call home several times but even though the roaming on the phone was working; apparently you can’t call from the UAE to Qatar… who knows, but maybe it needs to be set up before you leave or something! Once through the security check into the “passengers only” area I went through check-in and then passport control yet again… one thing I noticed about both the Doha and Dubai airports, that unless you are a passenger they look very small and you really don’t get to see anything at all!

I had a look around Dubai Duty Free, which is as big as you would imagine and bought a couple of pressies to take home with me. The prices once again really aren’t too different from in Doha, but I guess the whole “duty free” thing is aimed at travellers who don’t get these prices everyday. Another thing I noticed was the huge display of Fosters in the duty free section for both incoming and outgoing passengers!

Anyway flight home took about 40 minutes and saw the river (or whatever it is) and port at Dubai on the way out but not much else. Crossing the water I saw what I at first thought where groups of fishing boats with very bright lights, but then worked out they were the oil and gas platforms… and there were a lot of them! Anyway once through passport control and security one last time I was home again… a very long day with over 6 hours of it spent either in planes or at airports… and what did I see of Dubai? Well really nothing apart from the most cranes I have ever seen in one place, some very nice buildings and some very big roads with lots of traffic, but of course that is probably more or less all anyone sees in Dubai on a daily basis anyway. But next time we will all go and make sure we have time and money to experience what Dubai really has to offer!

Qatar Exit Permits

2007-01-17T20:48:00.000+03:00

Ok so while I have posted our experience I just thought it may be useful to post a little more information in case anyone tries to do a Google search or something the same as I did… maybe it will come up, maybe it wont.

Qatar Exit Permit – All those with a Residents Visa need an Exit Permit to leave Qatar, which must be approved by your sponsor. If you are under a Work Visa your employer has a process in place, which includes handing over an internal application for an exit permit along with your passport a few days prior to leaving the country. Apparently most require a confirmed booking to do this. They then take care of the rest and return your passport to you prior to your departure date. If you are under a Family Visa you only need an Exit Permit if you are a Husband (or I think male child over 16, but not 100% sure about this one). The easiest way to do it is either online (but the online form on the MOI Website is only in Arabic), or to just go out to the immigration office next to the airport (first left and then left again after the airport heading into town along Old Airport Rd) with your sponsor who can sign the form on the spot. The actual forms at the immigration office are in both English and Arabic, so hopefully the one online will be the same in the near future!

The reason for the Exit Permit is (from what I understand) so that those who are under residency visas do not just leave the country leaving money owing, breaking employment contracts etc. I am guessing the reason why husbands (but not other dependents) under family sponsorship need one is for similar reasons, and possibly that if the male of the household leaves the country there is more chance the wife may follow.

Of course there is one problem with all this… there is nothing that I can see that would stop you from getting a return ticket and Exit Permit to fly to somewhere nearby, then booking a flight home from there… but maybe I am wrong.

The "yes, you can catch your flight" permit

2007-01-17T20:08:00.000+03:00

Well we did find out that Kerry could come to the airport with me the day before I was flying out to sign something, which I assume was an Exit Permit. So after school today we headed out to Doha International to see what we could do!

Firstly went to the departures area to discover that most of it was a “passengers only” area, so went to the information counter who sent us on to the Qatar Airways room, who then sent us to the arrivals lounge… same building but out the door, up the road a little, and then in another door. In the arrivals terminal we found a sign that said “Immigration’, so followed that upstairs to a closed door with an Arabic sign above it. We did get some information from someone helpful in another office though who told us the immigration office was only open until 2pm, but there was another immigration office next to the airport and if we couldn't come back at 7:30am in the morning, they could help us because they are open 24 hours.

So we got back in the car, left the airport and went down the road to the first big white building (which actually IS right next to the airport, but not very well signed and quite easy to miss). After lining up the guy behind the counter filled in the form which Kerry then signed and gave back a little printed sheet of paper… we can only assume this was the Exit Permit!

Not really that much of a hassle to be honest IF we had been told that was all we needed to do when we asked, but by now we are getting accustom to receiving partly correct information and then making the rest up as we go… this seems to end in the correct result most of the time!

Asian Games Ceremonies DVD

2007-01-16T19:51:00.000+03:00

They released a 3 DVD set of the Opening and Closing Ceremonies from the Asian Games today. Packaging could be better as it is just in a normal DVD case and there really isn't anything on it that you could really call "special features", plus it isn't cheap! But anyway we bought a copy and have seen the closing ceremony... I think what we saw in person was far more impressive than it looks in the telecast. The scope of the whole thing isn't really shown and the colours don't look anywhere as good as they did in person. But we did do some slow motion to see if we could see ourselves, which we think we can at least once (although no closeups)... but there is a shot from above where you see the 2 laterns K and A where waving which is a bit cute... of course very hard for us to show you, but maybe I can get a still image from it and circle us or something in the future!

Job Interview

2007-01-14T08:54:00.000+03:00

Well I finally have my first proper job interview this Thursday… in the UAE!

This is the second time I have been invited to an interview with the Higher Colleges of Technology; the last one was scheduled for 13/12/06 in Ras Al Khaimah (one of the smaller Emirates) and we just couldn’t afford for me to fly over.

This has been a little bit of a saga as originally this interview was going to be done via teleconference, as HCT are unable to set up a videoconference between Qatar and the UAE (I actually don’t know why). Then we found out that a teleconference does not replace the face-to-face or videoconference interviewing process… I guess they need to see the whites of my eyes. The problem once again was that we just didn’t have the cash available to pay for the flight upfront so this time around they have provided me with a return ticket so no reason not to go, plus they will reimburse incidentals.

The issue now has been finding out about the Exit Permit that is needed to leave Qatar. This is a continuing saga that started with me needing one, then not needing one as I am under Kerry’s sponsorship (Family Resident Visa rather than a Work Resident Visa). Now what we were told has changed again, and apparently the only dependents that require one are husbands under their wives sponsorship. At this stage the only thing we have been told is that Kerry needs to accompany me to the airport on the day of my departure… beyond that, who knows. Hopefully we will find out something a bit more detailed (or an alternative) today.

So regardless of the Exit Permit (which we will get one way or another), this Thursday I am going to Dubai for 7 hours… yet another adventure!

We now have mobile technology!

2007-01-13T19:23:00.000+03:00

Due to the impending travel (see next post) we decided it would be a good idea to bite the bullet and finally get a mobile phone. Added to this is the fact that potentially we are the only people living in Qatar without one as we continue to get strange looks every time we are asked for our mobile number and reply “we don’t have one”. We had already purchased a SIM card as Qtel are having a ½ price sale during January, so we thought we better get one while they are cheap; QR 100 (instead of the usual 200) and you get QR 100 credit with that. A bit of a bargain!

We actually went to Carrefour yesterday and came away with a Motorola for QR 499, but after bringing it home and charging it up, we discovered the screen didn’t work. This morning we took it back... they played around with it and discovered the same as us… that it didn’t work… and gave us a refund. So today we came home with a Sony Ericsson w300i for QR 650 (about $AU220)… and it works! Of course the only problem now is that our old mobile has died… the Optus SIM card is no longer registered so we can’t access any of the numbers that were stored on it!

But anyway we now have a mobile with about 6 numbers in it… at least we wont be getting anymore strange looks when asked for our contact details!

15th Asian Games Closing Ceremony

2007-01-10T10:58:00.000+03:00

OK........ so it has taken a while to finally get this up, but here are some of the photos from the closing ceremony. I think it has taken so long because it was an experience that had to be experienced, rather than something that is easily put into words (maybe they will release a DVD).

The flames burn on...

Maybe the right words to do justice to the ceremony will come at some point in time, but for now the images will have to do.

The Emir arrives to much flag waving!

The first 1/2 of the ceremony was inspired from the stories of 1001 Arabian Nights and the whole thing went for about 3 hours... so this is just a very small selection of images!

The Sands of Time
…a magic carpet ride through the closing ceremony

The Flame is Passed On
…the symbolic passing of the Flame to the Arab merchants of the caravan

Haroun Al-Rashid and the Darawish

Ali Baba and the Forty Thieves

Sinbad the Sailor

Aladdin and His Marvellous Lamp

The Dance of Lights

Entrance of the Athletes of the 15th Asian Games Doha 2006 - The Land of the Oryx

Salute to the Games

Fireworks begin...

Hopefully these images are clickable, but it seems some are and others aren't without me actually doing anything to the settings!

Back to school!

2007-01-07T06:43:00.000+03:00

Well it has been 5 weeks but today it is back to school for both K and A... 6 months, 2 terms with a 1 week break in the middle to go until the first year is complete... back to the early mornings after far too many sleep-ins!

Happy New Year...

2007-01-01T12:43:00.000+03:00

...to all!

What a year 2006 was... going to be a hard one to top!

Eid Mubarak - Happy Eid!

2006-12-30T10:12:00.000+03:00

Today is the first day of Eid Al-Adha, which for us means it is one of the few days where things are actually closed! There is a link above about this one if you are interested in reading more.

Australia riding on the sheep’s back?

2006-12-29T11:10:00.000+03:00

With Eid al-Adha approaching, the price of sheep has been reported to be increasing… all very exciting huh!

Not much point trying to explain this whole Eid thing in detail at the moment, but basically it includes distributing meat to the poor. To meet the demand for sheep there has been an increase in imports leading up to this time, and the prices are the thing I cannot work out at all…. Sudanese and Iranian sheep are going for QAR700-800, you can get Syrian sheep on the black market for QAR1000+ (apparently the most sort after)… and the lowly little Australian sheep are going for QAR370!!!!!

Doesn’t this all seem a little strange? Possibly the cheap Australian sheep is somehow tied into oil imports or something, but maybe this has something to do with why Australian farmers are doing so badly… maybe Australia just doesn’t have very good sheep to ride on anymore! The only thing I know for sure is you can buy Australian sheep cheaper in Qatar than you can in Australia and that just all seems a little strange.

Al Khor & Simaismah

2006-12-27T22:27:00.000+03:00

Drove up to Al Khor today, which is about 20 minutes north of Doha. I suppose though the 20 minutes depends on where you consider the northern part of Doha to finish. It is really about 20 minutes north of West Bay, which means it is about 45 minutes from home.

Along the highway we past camels which was nice… I was thinking this was the first time we had seen any in the wild, but latter it occurred to me that it was more than likely a “camel farm” if there is such a thing (which I am guessing there is). Still was nice to see them wandering along the side of the road going about their camel business. With the high fences and camel grids on the side roads there isn’t really any chance of them venturing onto the road, but I have read of cars hitting them and doing much damage to both car and camel… just don’t think this happens on the highways, unless they manage to jump off the back of a ute… I don’t think they are that eager to get off when they are going for a ride though… they look like they enjoy it too much!

OK... so only one camel, but with them wandering one way and us driving the other it was the only one that made a photo!

Anyway really don’t have anything nice to say about Al Khor so best not say anything at all beyond the fact they do have a little Al Corniche and a bit of a beach with a park, but with a lot of road works going on there, you really don’t get to see much of it at the moment.

We decided to head back to Doha via any exit that went back out to the coast… we ended up in a seaside village called Simaismah, a very small little community. This place has a very flat tidal beach with sludgy muddy sand once you head off the first couple of metres of beach, and at one end there is a long rock wall with small fishing boats (not Dhows though, but rather small white boats). There were lots of shells to collect, and we returned home with yet another bag full as well as some broken tiles to put in the garden. Another nice afternoon wandering along with cool sea breezes blowing making us wish we had on warmer clothes!

Al Wakra

2006-12-26T23:39:00.000+03:00

We went for a drive down to Al Wakra today, which is the nearest town to Doha heading south along the coast. Really it seems like an outer suburb as it is only a few minutes along the open highway, but does have the history of being it’s own entity over time so is not considered as being a southern part of Doha.

After sitting in the park feeding the wildlife (re: cats) bits of KFC we headed down onto the sand. At the southern end is the fishing harbour, which seemed very sleepy but did have many fishing Dhows tied up (looked like more than in Doha), and what looked like a couple of sand football pitches (if there is such a thing… but there were goal posts set up).

The beach at Al Wakra is a wide tidal beach with clumps of mangroves and the odd car part giving the sand bars something to grab hold of. We spent what seemed like a couple of hours wandering along sand and wading through shallow warm waters searching for shells. We even found a few unopened pearl shells, but when opened unfortunately didn’t have any little pearls in them. A nice way to spend an afternoon and will be even nicer when it starts to warm up a little… so somewhere we shall return to!

Al Corniche

2006-12-25T21:41:00.000+03:00

This afternoon we headed off to Sheraton Park to have a little walk around what is more or less to top end of the Corniche. The park itself is really not much of anything apart from a nice large grassy area, but it is a nice section of the Corniche with the Dhow jetty that used to ferry people across to Palm Island plus there are places you can sit on the steps beside the water (not as nice as it could be since it is still pretty cold here in the afternoons).

We went down onto the rocks and tiny beach (a little bit of sand that has been caught by the jetty) and discovered lots of little shells. Think of normal shells, but shrink them! Most of them are not much bigger than large grains of sand, and all rather cute (well as cute as tiny shells can be). Anyway we did come home with a handful of Arabian Gulf shells regardless of how small they are!

Christmas in Qatar

2006-12-25T10:00:00.000+03:00

Well while Christmas is just another working day here (well for those not on holidays), we were surprised at the amount of stores with decorations and Christmas trees. Yes, even in Qatar you can buy all your Christmas needs and the freezer sections are full of turkeys!

Anyway a Merry Christmas to all!

(The Australian phone system stills doesn't seem to be able to handle the yearly spike for Christmas phone calls)

Islam

2006-12-20T11:24:00.000+03:00

We seem to be gathering quite a few things about Islam as there is a Ministry here that sets up stalls on a regular basis to communicate the masses. They aren't out there trying to convert people, rather it simply seems to be an exercise in education. We have been given a few books and booklets since our arrival including a English translation of the Qur'an. Anyway the best place I have found to get a basic overview of Islam is the Wikipedia page so I have put a link in the post title above. Being in an Islamic country it is helpful to have a basic understanding of what unerpins the culture and society.

The Closing Ceremony - Doha Asian Games

2006-12-16T09:14:00.000+03:00

Well we went to the closing ceremony last night... and in one word, spectacular!

40,000+ people waiting in anticipation... it was all worth the wait!

We will get around to posting some photos and comments soon (promise)... so check back soon!

Doha Players Theatre

2006-12-12T10:22:00.000+03:00

The other day we went past the old Doha Players Theatre; the only location of a terrorist attack in Qatar. They haven’t done much to the building since then either! It is all a bit weird really, but I suppose it is a reminder that even in a country that feels as safe as Qatar these thing can happen. That may sound strange coming from someone from Australia, but in all honesty this place feels far more peaceful and safe (well apart from on the roads at times). I think they should think about leaving this building the way it is to remind everyone that this should never happen again.

Have put the link above if you want to read more about the 19th of March 2005.

Eclect-O-Retro returns

2006-12-11T13:31:00.000+03:00

Well it has taken a few months (and we still do not have broadband) but with the wet weather and holidays continuing, the eBay store is once again active.

Islamic Heritage Exhibition

2006-12-09T11:21:00.000+03:00

We went to yet another exhibition running in conjunction with the games today. This time it was the Islamic Heritage Exhibition located at Al Resala Girls School near West Bay.

We were greeted at the door with Arabic coffee, dates and a traditional type of sweet. Kerry can’t do the Arabic coffee because of the cardamom so she cleverly swapped cups after I had nearly drunk all of mine. We were then guided into a room, which had been set up to look like the facades of the most important mosques with a replica of the Kaaba (the black stone building in the middle of the Sacred Mosque in Makkah) in the middle. We were given very well rehearsed explanations of the mosques, the Quran, as well as the Kaaba itself. As well as this there were little exhibits about some of the nearby countries like Oman, Lebanon, etc, with the odd handicrafts here and there.

We were also taken through some of things that are have a great importance to Islam such as honey , brushing your teeth with a “stick” (from an Iraqi tree that I can’t remember the name of), “cupping” (which to me seem much more like blood letting), and the qualities of Makkah water from the well inside the Sacred Mosque (which we were given a little cup of). All of which had interest value and we even bought some extra “toothbrush” sticks!

Permanent Driving Licenses

2006-12-08T10:05:00.000+03:00

We decided to see what we could do about getting our permanent driving licenses as now we have the residence permits and both of our temporary licences had expired. Rather than go along and try to take care of the process ourselves we thought we would give Mr Mustafa (the licensing guy who had help those from AJA with the temporary ones) a call and see if he could help or not.

We got the photocopies ready that we knew were required and the QAR200 each that we knew he charged. Then Kerry gave him a call, which ended in his location getting lost in translation, but he said he would come to us instead… he ended up on our doorstep to collect everything within an hour. Not the easiest man to understand, after some confusion we worked out that because Kerry is my sponsor she had to provide a letter stating it was ok for me to have a license… this letter involved her signing at the bottom of one of the blank photocopied pages and him taking that away to type the letter in Arabic (you seem to put a lot of faith into the people who type stuff in Arabic for you, but what else are you going to do). He also asked for another QAR100 to cover the extra worked involved with mine (apparently)…

At about 6:30pm (he did say something about 6-7pm) he turned up on our doorstep once again with a big smile and handshake… as well as the documents and photos that weren’t needed… and most importantly our licenses! Don’t actually know how he did this as the license section is only open at certain times and he technically shouldn’t have been able to get mine until the following day.

All a bit strange and really don’t know what these people do, or how they do it… but it would seem that once you know what to do and who to do it through, you can do it for a lot of people for a fee!

Sports City at Night

2006-12-07T23:34:00.000+03:00

We went up to Sports City again tonight as they have traditional Asian music playing across two stages between 6-9pm, not to mention all the people and bright lights. We strolled around for a little while and watched some Indonesian musicians and then headed to the other stage to watch some drummers from Malaysia doing their thing. All very impressive… although there is only so many summersaults someone can do over a drum before it drags on a little. Sat and had a coffee and watched Ashur watching and saying hello to anyone and soaking in all the lights!

The most important part of the evening was after trying to get tickets to something, somehow Kerry managed to walk away with tickets to the closing ceremony! Not sure about this since we were told a few days ago that it was sold out… apparently not! We may not be going to see any of the sporting events but I think going to at least one of the ceremonies will make up for it all!

Rain continues (on and off)

2006-12-07T13:56:00.000+03:00

Well it has now officially become the wettest December in 42 years! So much for deserts being dry I say! Admittedly “wettest” translates into about 25-30 mm of rain, but it seems much wetter as most of it just lies around until the sun appears once again to start the evaporation process… puddles and potholes are appearing (and getting bigger) and really not going anywhere… but everything is green (and a bit slushy)!

Asian Games Tickets

2006-12-05T22:14:00.000+03:00

We tried to get tickets to a few things over the past couple of days, but everytime we come up with somehting we think would be worth going to, it seems sold out. It seems either everything has sold out because of the low ticket prices (most are QAR 5 or 10), or there is something not quite right with the computer system between the Internet sales, the kiosks, and the outlets... anyway we are going to try again!

Rentals Cars

2006-12-05T19:21:00.000+03:00

We received an email from our rental car company today letting us know that they hadn’t taken the payments from the credit card for the last 3 months. This technically means that we had only paid 2 weeks worth of rental for 3 ½ months! Apparently they like to have personal approval each monthly payment and hadn’t got through to us on the phone or something along those lines.

So anyway after a quick phone call and some directions we headed off to the industrial area to fix up the payments. I just thought it was funny that the company would let one of their cars be out there on the roads, while letting the payment lapse for three months. They are going to come over in a few days to replace the car so they can take care of the little dent from our accident and give the car it’s first full service… we have driven 5000 klms since we arrived!

The Sports City Doha

2006-12-04T20:13:00.000+03:00

We decided to get into the spirit of everything at the moment and head up to Sports City to soak in some of the Games atmosphere and more than anything, just to have a look around… After walking around the fence to get to the entrance which included us going through metal detectors and everything else passing through xray machines we entered what is a a huge complex! With the Khalifa Stadium, Aspire Complex and basketball stadium spread out throughout the place… as well as the tower, womans club and a very funky looking mosque, it took a fair bit of walking to get around. Sore feet, but all well worth the look and all very impressive!

KandA outside Khalifa Stadium

Aspire - The undercover stadium not really looking as impressive as it really is!

The basketball stadium with some locals wandering one way as we wander the other

MandA tower gazing!

Apart from the sporting venues there was another group of exhibitions set up by the museums authority at the Woman’s Club. In various rooms within the building there was “Dawn of Photography” (which had some very funky and old cameras, photography, and a huge stereoscopic viewer that you sit up and look at some rather old Middle Eastern images). Also there was a display from the Qatar Weaponry Museum, “Weapons to Sports” which traced the history of sports such as fencing and archery etc (also another beautiful “bargain” book). There was also the Philatelic & Numismatic Exhibition (stamps and coins galore), Asian Visual Art Exhibition, Asia in Photography Exhibition and the Architecture Through Photography Exhibition. Finally, if all that hadn’t kept you occupied for a while, outside the building was a display of sand sculptures.

Sand looking very well sculptured

Food World

2006-12-04T09:15:00.000+03:00

Food World, which seems an appropriate name for a store that sells food, is our “bread shop”. It has become known as the bread shop because it is the nearest place that sells Bateel Bakery white bread… soft and squishy white bread without the overdose of sugar that much of the white bread here seems to consist of. The actual sweet white bread here is called Milk Bread. I am not sure as to the relationship between milk and sugar, but I can assure you it does exist. Food World is the usual medium sized food store with bits and pieces of everything ranging from food to perfumes, and the upstairs is currently going through renovations and clothes through to whitegoods are appearing. It is just up on Salwa Road, and really is only just around the corner. Also in the small row of stores is a bookshop, pharmacy and TATA truck and bus “store”. For those that don’t know, Tata buses are big scary Indian vehicles that are very chunky and solid, and many are driven in a bit of a scary manner… we call them potato buses!

Across the road is Al Jazira petrol station… another one of those translations that are evident here. You get used to seeing Al Jazeera written, but of course all the translations from Arabic to English are phonetic so there is normally at least a couple of spellings floating around… and no, that isn’t a ghost making its way across the road… just another local taking his life into his own hands crossing Salwa Rd!

On the way home snapped this photo of Sports City… the Asian Games in full swing! The little street lights in the foreground at the bottom of the picture is our compound.

Qatar Museum Exhibits – Sheraton & Palace

2006-12-02T22:19:00.000+03:00

During the Games, Qatar Museums Authority (QMA) have set up a number of exhibitions around town to entertain and educate the masses. I think all the mini-exhibitions contain parts of greater collections that are normally housed in the Museum (which is currently closed for renovations), the Photographic Museum (which is currently under construction; and only just), the Museum of Islamic Arts (which looks finished but doesn’t open until next year), and some other places around town we have yet to discover. But to make things easier the nice people at QMA have nicely set up these exhibitions in central locations for us all.

Today we headed off to one of the conference halls at the Sheraton Hotel – Al Majlis Hall. In this one location we were treated to “Lost World Returns” (dinosaur bones and bits and pieces), “Mughal Jewellery Exhibition” (a nice collection of very old and impressive Indian bling) and the “Traditional Costumes Exhibition” (which I guess is self-explanatory).

A couple of things that we were more impressed with than anything else were the freebies. The first thing was all these exhibitions are free. As you walk in to each section you are handed a rather nicely produced soft cover book with lots of photos and explanations of the exhibition. Apart from that Ashur was given three bags of goodies as we wandered around… one QMA bag of goodies, another for the dinosaur exhibition, and then a final one, which had a very nicely boxed QMA branded coffee set (I think that one may have been meant for the parents). We also purchased a beautiful “Lost World Returns” book which only cost 50 QAR; apparently a special price during the games, which doesn’t really make sense since the exhibition is only on during the games… but very cheap regardless!

After that we headed off to Fahd Bin Ali Palace, just next to the beautiful mosque behind Emiri Diwan (the closest thing we have to a government house here). Here we were treated to some classic cars from one of the Sheiks private collections, the “Qatari Historical Photos Exhibition”, and “From Cordoba to Samarkand” (some key works from the Islamic Arts Museum). All very impressive and another no cost venue… although a bit light on the “freebies” this time around! Once again though we bought ourselves a beautiful book on the Islamic Artworks for a “games special” QAR 50!

As a side note, the wind when we were leaving the Palace was the coldest we have felt here… believe it or not it felt icy!

The Opening Ceremony

2006-12-02T08:59:00.000+03:00

The 15th Asian Games began last night with a bang! Many bangs to be honest…

Friday was a yuck day… windy, overcast, and quite a bit of rain. Not the best conditions for the Opening Ceremony at all. We actually drove past the site earlier in the day and apart from everything being wet, there was of course still work going on. As the afternoon rolled into evening the weather continued being pretty horrible, but dry and warm at home we flicked through the numerous Al Jazeera Sports channels and found one that was doing the English language telecast.

It actually started… hhmmm… interestingly is the best way to describe it all. Orry’s riding around on bicycles and running around in the rain being chased by children. Very Sydney Olympics, minus the kangaroos… looked like “insert national animal mascot here” sort of thing. But after a little while of that and come the “official” start time, the rain finally stopped and the whole thing got under way with the sell-out crowd looking like they were having fun, albeit wet and wind blown. We couldn’t here it from home, but it was all very impressive and made us wish we were there. Although the sitting in the rain for a few hours before the ceremony got under way would have been no fun!

I am guessing that most of the world saw the flame being lit… the horse (which was bought and trained in Australia) nearly slid over just before it made it to the top, but obviously someone was looking down on the whole event. As a side note, the reason stated for using Australian horses was that Arabian horses are far too intelligent and stubborn to perform a feat such as running up the number of stairs and the ramp… also there are no hills high enough in Qatar to train them on (suppose that makes sense).

Once flames (both the one in the stadium and the other on the tower) were lit the fireworks started, which dragged just about everyone from the compound on to the street to watch… the normal firework-type “oohhhssss” & “aahhhsss” were heard in many languages!

Overall the ceremony was impressive… the best money can buy! Admittedly some of it didn’t seem to make sense but that was probably because the enormity of what was going on was better to see in person rather than on a little TV screen. I still like the guy’s furry hat with the lights in it… he looked like he was having fun – for anyone who saw the ceremony you would know what I mean!

Kitten becomes “Kitten”

2006-12-01T09:53:00.000+03:00

Well it has taken a few months but the little kitten that was hanging around not long after we arrived has finally become “pet” friendly. She now spends most of her time around home and comes in for scratches. “Kitten” (appropriate name for at least a few more months) can be seen most evenings either snuggled up beside one of us on the couch having a nap and sitting on a lap having a pat. 'tis all rather cute!

Michael Got ID

2006-12-01T09:07:00.000+03:00

It has taken many months but I finally became “legal” the other day and I am now in proud possession of a Qatari ID card and my passport. Yes, it has finally been returned to me with the addition of a full-page sheet stuck in there… apparently that page is actually my Residents Permit and quite impressive I must say! But it does say “Family Vis” which makes Kerry my sponsor. Rather generous of her to sponsor me I think, so I guess I better do some more cooking, cleaning and driving or she may just have me deported!

Central Market

2006-11-28T11:18:00.000+03:00

For some reason only known to us (but obviously forgotten) we hadn’t actually made it to the wholesale market, which is just up the road on the way to AJA, until last weekend. As I keep saying, everything here seems to have at least 2 names and the Central Market… Wholesale Market… Fruit & Vegetable, Fish, Omani, Garden & Livestock Souqs are no different!

The whole area is really quite big with the biggest area devoted to the Fruit and Vegetable Market. There is a central marketplace, as well as several rows of stores running parallel to the marketplace selling the same things (I think maybe more in bulk though). Anyway we went for a walk around the market itself and ended up acquiring an old Arabic man with a wheelbarrow who proceeded to collect our purchases and follow us around. As you would imagine, everything was cheap, but the one thing I can’t quite work out is why all the stalls sell the same produce… it isn’t broken down into types of produce at all, but rather everyone seems to have more or less the same things at the same price. I imagine the guys that run them probably build some sort of relationship with returning customers over time because realistically you only need to go to the first stall through the doorway for everything you need.

Our old Arabic porter took our purchases out to the car for us and when Kerry tried to give him some money he proceeded to go through an “I am breathless” performance… as well as conveying the need for some stuff for his Asthma. Not sure why because she actually asked him how much he wanted rather than just handing over some money to him. Anyway I think he gave up after one more note was handed over. Saves carrying stuff but sometimes it just isn’t worth the hassle!

We also went and walked around the Omani Souq… it should actually be called the drive-thru souq! It is all under one roof with open sides and you can actually drive up to all the stalls and purchase from the comfort of your car if you so choose. There really isn’t much there that isn’t in other places within the Central Market but it is a good place to pick up cheap Frankincense and try to ingnore the smell of dried fish!

Not far from there is the Garden Souq, which is more or less a collection of small gardening shops along one of the back streets. Don't know how come we didn't know this was there before now! Believe it or not most of the plants are actually quite cheap (I guess we automatically thought desert = expensive plants). They also sell a variety of mostly terracotta pots of all shapes and sizes… also cheap! So we now have several pots sitting around outside, plus quite a few flowers stretching their little feet into the (somewhat sandy) soil. We also picked up a hedge trimmer… you may have noticed from the latest “rain” picky that the hedge is now straight! No more waves!

We had a drive around the outer part of the livestock souq and smelt the fish market as we went past (that was enough)! But at the back of where the sheep and goats are kept we came across the camel market. Once again, don’t really know why we hadn’t seen this before. I just presumed it would be a little marketplace where people bring their camels to be sold. It is actually a big area with lots of fences in various states of fallingness, full of camels of various sizes and colours. After only seeing the odd camel in the back of a ute driving down the road, it was a little surprising to see so many in one place… we will have to go for a return visit!

Must say the brown fluffy camels are rather cute (well as far as camels go)... must be their winter coat!

Call to Cat!

2006-11-27T19:24:00.000+03:00

Wetness...

2006-11-26T11:17:00.000+03:00

Well it wasn’t that long ago that when we arrived we heard that some people had never seen rain in Doha so we really didn’t know what to expect (and I guess the same could be said for the whole country). Thinking back now though, I think they must have been people that had only been here since the beginning of the year. Over the past week we have felt cold, seen light rain on and off, plus had a few beautiful sunny days… but today again it is rain… and actually real rain this time.

We awoke to wet ground and dripping drains so it had rained a bit over night… but since I got home from dropping Kerry and Ashur off it has been pretty steady. I guess the funny part about it is that although I now know it does know how to rain in Qatar, I also know most people don’t know that driving in the rain is slightly different from driving on dry roads. The other funny part to it all is that although I said last week that the rain has come in time to clean off all the roads and buildings for the games, now there are other problems… what does happen when brand new roads get waterlogged! Did they test the Games flame to see if it works in the rain! Can they run the opening ceremony in the wet! If they turn on everything at the stadium will it explode into one giant short-circuited electrical blue flame!

…aahhhh I am sure it will be ok and at least everything is green!

Technorati Profile

Ready for the Games?

2006-11-25T21:21:00.000+03:00

Finally got around to taking a few photos of Sports City yesterday. Things are looking ready but your guess is as good as ours. The occasional crane appears and then disappears which possibly means they thought everything was done and then remembered there was something more. There has been a helicopter flying around constantly, which is probably a security measure as today is the day they have the full dress rehearsal for the ceremonies. Metal detectors are in place and you can't even get close to the place anymore without clearance.

Sports City Road... across from the entrance to the compound looking up to the main games venue.

Al Waab Street... the entrance to Sports City and those weird "fishing-rod" lights! The tents house the metal detectors and secured entrance.

Khalifa Stadium... the odd crane still in action, but 6 days out from the opening ceremony! The calm before the storm...

Music to our ears...

2006-11-22T08:48:00.000+03:00

We made one of our “essential” purchases from Carrefour a couple of weeks ago… a Hi-Fi system. Ended up getting an LG LX-D6960, which from searching the Web for that model number, doesn’t actually exist (who knows!)… But anyway it has all the things you need like 5 speakers and a sub-woofer, 5 DVD changer, 5.1 & DTS sound, etc… your normal high range mini home theatre hi-fi system. Cost the grand total of QAR 1049 (about $370 AUD) which is somewhere in the region of half the price you would pay in Australia. It was set to Region 2, but the added bonus is after about a minute of playing around it was easily made into a region-free DVD player (got to love redundant technology).

Also bought the Cars DVD to go with it… can’t buy a home theatre system like that without getting something new to watch! DVD’s here are one of the things that aren’t cheap at all. Region 1 DVD’s are imported from the USA on release and cost QAR140 (about $50 AUD), then other various Region Codes (mostly Region 3 or 2) are available for between QAR80-100 (around $30 AUD). I think there is a 15% import tax on both DVD and CD media because CD’s aren’t cheap either; I suppose they have to tax something! Regardless we have also bought Ice Age 2 and Brother Bear 2, just to keep the sanity so we didn’t have Small Soldiers or Cats & Dogs going in the background repeatedly! Maybe we may get around to buying something non-animated one day.

With Free To Air Satellite TV we aren't watching many DVD’s anyway… although we only have about 10 English language channels compared to the 100+ Arabic ones. I am not actually sure why, but we don’t get Qatar TV through our service. They have QTV2 which is a English language channel… would be interesting to see, but given what we have seen of the Saudi English language channel it would be more for humour value rather than actually having anything worthwhile on it. Maybe we will get cable one day, but broadband comes first by far and hopefully we will get the application for that done soon. No doubt getting that on will not be a quick process as I am sure most of the Q-Tel staff are tied up with the Games.

Michael’s RP Process

2006-11-21T09:32:00.000+03:00

Kerry hasn’t got around to posting about her RP process (but will eventually), but mine has been very long and drawn out. The whole thing has been thrown into chaos due to the influx of Games workers (or at least this is what we have been told). Added to this is the fact the system and locations are being updated, for example where the fingerprinting used to be done (and where Kerry had hers done) has now changed to a brand new building with new equipment (no more ink), which is located across the road from the compound. They are slowly moving the medicals from one location to several centres throughout Doha, but this has yet to take effect.

So after the initial blood typing which was done so long ago I have had to wait for Kerry to get her RP as the primary sponsored worker, as have all dependents whether they are working for AJA or not. This means I couldn’t get in for the medicals until 2 weeks ago and have only just come back from my second attempt at getting the fingerprinting done.

The medicals process consisted of heading off to the Medical Commission that is located very close to AJA with a number of other AJA-related people including Kerry and Ashur. Kerry needed to get some form filled in and that was the process completed for Ashur… no medicals or fingerprinting needed for child dependents under 15.

While that was taken care of I had to head off the “men’s section” to wait in a room with many others. We sat in rows of chairs waiting for our turn at the windows… every time someone went to a window you were gestured to move along a chair. This meant we slowly snaked our way up and down about 6 or 7 rows of chairs… sit down, stand up, shuffle along, sit down, stand up, shuffle forward a row, sit down… you get the idea! The mysterious windows consisted of handing over some money, getting a digital photo taken while you are standing there waiting, and being given some form.

Next you head off to the next room… the process is actually numbered and graphically represented on the wall… 1. money, 2. medicals, 3. blood, 4. x-ray…

When I walked towards the desk located in the middle of everything else, a man pointed next door to number 4 – x-ray. Always the sceptic I was a little worried about this as I know everything needs to follow the correct procedure around here otherwise you run the risk of having to start all over again! Anyway not one to go against the grain I headed towards door number 4 and then into a little room where I found about 10 Indians standing around with their shirts off talking and laughing. Once joined by other AJA people, as well as various other men from one country or another the whole thing possessed some weird locker room imagery with a few men and teens of Arabic and sub-continent decent giggling and not wanting to take shirts off until the last minute and so on… no nipple-cripples or wedgies that I saw, but I was just trying to ignore it all! Anyway the x-ray was quick and painless, as most x-rays are… no one grabbed me shouting “oh my god” so I am guessing everything was where it should be and looked as it should look.

Next I had to head back to the counter where I was given a red stamp on my form and a small test tube. After joining yet another que (as you do), I walked into a little room, sat down while a very polite man jabbed me in the arm while I looked the other way… that was it… hhmmmmm! It would seem I got the good one, as many people made statements regarding pain, large bruises, or lumps coming up on their arms. I have seen it… I heard pain… saw blood… as I said; I think I got the good one!

…and that was it. I never got to see what was behind door number 2… the medicals room. I am guessing that this part of the process may be for those that enter the country without a valid medical certificate, something we had to get in Australia before leaving.

After a wait of a few days, my name appeared on the “fingerprinting list”. As the new fingerprinting place (CID) had just opened I don’t think Gulam was up to speed on the ins and outs of the new system… This resulted in the first time I went being shuffled around through a few waiting areas and one of the policemen getting rather annoyed with Gulam for not doing this or that; too many people from AJA at once, or not submitting the correct form first, or something else. Anyway it all ended with us being shuffled out of the VIP section, then them accepting 5 people to process… After waiting to see if anything changed for a while I just headed home.

The next fingerprinting list was for this morning, so once again a group of us headed off to the CID building with Gulam. Same policeman… and still not happy with Gulam for something said harshly in Arabic several times. Anyway with only three “men” we were allowed into the VIP section, given our forms and number to wait… then shuffled over to another building where some very polite men proceeded to do our fingerprinting very quickly. The system is now computerised and users hybrid photocopiers rather than the old ink and paper method that was used up until a few weeks ago. No pain, no mess, no fuss… just seems that getting in the door has a particular protocol that needs to be followed.

So after signing a yet another form and handing back my passport to Gulam, then giving him and his offsider (no idea who he is but was carrying Gulam’s bag for him) a lift back to AJA, I’m done. It has taken 3 months, but I was assured I would have my RP, Passport and ID Card by the end of the week. Just as well as my temporary drivers license expires in a few days and I need all my papers back to get a permanent one. Hopefully that wont turn into yet another adventure, but in the back of my mind I am thinking it wont be as easy as it should be…

...we shall wait and see!

The games of someones life...

2006-11-20T11:45:00.000+03:00

Well it is under two weeks until the Asian Games start and things continue to progress; apparently there are early round football matches already on. It is so easy to focus on the negative aspects of the games (as many do), with doubts filtering in whether everything will be ready and the disruptions that are begin caused to “normal” life. Quite simply put… not everything is finished and nor will it be, but they will make the most out of what they have… secondly, the disruption to normal living is evident and continues. This runs from the speeded up road works and the opening and closing of roads and traffic diversions, through to prices rising or possibly not coming back down after Ramadan and Eid (even the souq operators are more hesitant to haggle).

Among the funnier things we have seen was one night when we were passing along Al Waab (the main road leading to the stadium). This has gone from being far from completed to being “nearly there” in what seems only a couple of weeks. The laying of pavers on the medium strips is being done late into the night, but do they have high-powered lights set up so they can actually see what they are doing? No, they are using the headlights of their cars. Ok so it does the job, but I wonder how long the paving will last!

We had a drive along the Corniche on the weekend and it is all looking very green and clean. Lots of flags are flying and overpasses are either in place or “nearly there” crossing the road (the cycling and road running is being held there). Cruise liners have arrived in the harbour to provide extra accommodation.

...flags flying, grass greening, flowers flowering...

...overpasses... well... passing over!

Not sure why the bottom of all the palm trees have all been painted white, but the cruise-liners are slowly arriving to provide extra spectator rooms.

...and just in case the cruise-liners run out of rooms as well!

Wooden barriers are up on the corners of roads to cover up construction sites and empty lots… covered in Games images of course. They even cleared up across the road from our compound, which until now has consisted of piles of sand and rock. Don’t know where it was all taken to, but it happened overnight as it was obviously a bit too close to event locations. Karwa taxis have all but vanished from the roads, as most of the taxis and buses (as well as their drivers) have been seconded by the organising committee to ferry athletes and officials. Apparently one of the newspapers counted 1000 cabs sitting in the lot waiting for the Games out of the total of 1300-1400 Karwa cabs (not bad).

So they are actually getting it all together… “the games of your life…”

There is something missing though… it really all looks so “Western”. I don’t know if that is good or bad. I suppose promoting how “developed” Qatar is will be great for the country, but unfortunately in some cases “developed” seems to equal “western”. As far as this particular event is concerned, “developed” also seems to equate to Australian… not as strange as it sounds! The mascot for the Games is Orry Oryx… and no offence, but I don’t know of many countries that would come up with a name like that outside of Australia. The same company that did the opening and closing ceremonies for the Sydney Olympics is running the Doha ceremonies. Australian songwriters have written the Games song. “…the games of your life…” is the slogan and the “Friendship Flame” is about to return to Qatar after doing the rounds of Asia; of course both have that Aussie ring to it. The best money can buy maybe, but yet again it just seems to lack that sense of authenticity that I am continually searching for here.

I don’t know if anyone else will feel this way, but from Michael the marketing guy’s viewpoint it all seems to be doing a major disservice to this region along with it’s history and culture. I just hope that given time while the Asian Games may continue the process of putting Qatar on the map, it will be the countries unique culture, history, environment and lifestyle that keeps it there.

It's raining again!

2006-11-20T09:42:00.000+03:00

aahhhhhh... 21 degress and light rain... 'tis a beautiful morning in Doha!

...just in time to clean off the latest layer of dust... someone is smiling down upon the Games organisers!

The Burnt Out Towers

2006-11-17T10:18:00.000+03:00

The burnt out twin towers are a bit of a local (little mentioned) landmark on West Bay.

What do you do when you have two incomplete buildings that have had two separate pretty major fires in them within the 6 months during late 2005 – early 2006! You just leave them alone until you can work out what to do with them… maybe you could knock them down; maybe you could fix them... if you are lucky they may just disappear!

What do you do with said fire damaged buildings when you know millions of eyes from all over Asia (plus many from outside of the Asian region no doubt) are going to be focused on your capital city… ahhh, cover them with shade cloth and hope the wind isn't too strong! Maybe no one will notice!

Old (Current) Airport

2006-11-14T09:36:00.000+03:00

Went for a drive the other day to show Kerry where the Traffic Dept I had to go to was. After all this time I have only just worked out that when you see reference to the “old airport” area, it isn’t actually where the old airport “was” but rather is where the old airport is (as in the current airport). If you follow that!

Ever since the plans were laid for the new airport, which is under construction (and will continue to be an artists impression for another couple of years still), the area beside the airport has been called Old Airport… which is more or less Najma where the apartments that some of the AJA staff are housed are. Anyway as we were driving down Oqba Bin Nafie (the road the traffic dept is on and don’t ask for a pronunciation) we saw just how close it is to the airport!

Al Matar (road), which is also known as Old Airport Road is at the end of Oqba Bin Nafie… but of course they are currently rebuilding Al Matar, so maybe it will be called New Old Airport Road! As far as I can tell most roads seem to have at least two names, and of course even if you can pronounce the Arabic name the chances of anyone knowing what you are talking about are pretty limited. Hence everyone takes directions from landmarks and roundabouts, but the newer issue here is that some of the roundabouts have been replaced with traffic lights, so the intersections have become “interchanges” rather than roundabouts. So even they have their old roundabout name and their newer interchange name. I guess the funny thing is that since most of the Karwa taxi drivers are relatively new to Qatar, many of them really have little idea where they are going… no wonder!

Ah but we are now locals... or at least we can always head towards the tower that can be seen from just about everywhere (as long as they turn the lights on) and pretend we are never lost!

November rolls along

2006-11-12T09:07:00.000+03:00

Well November is progressing along nicely and we are all well… first two weeks have been taken up with AJA and shopping trips… a normal life… the weather continues to cool down… cats continue to congregate by the back door when it is open and they are feeling hungry… our villa continues to become more like home, as does Doha… oh and of course Games preparations continue (more about that later though)!

I have been applying for jobs still and my search has now extended beyond Qatar (if I was to get something elsewhere, we can deal with it if it eventuates). I honestly have lost count of the number of positions I have applied for in Doha. It isn’t that the work isn’t here, but I really want to get something substantial (preference for an internationally recruited position with at least some of the “expat package” benefits). For the moment though everything in Qatar seems destined to continue the way it is for at least another month with the singular focus on the Asian Games… to be honest I am looking forward to getting the whole thing over and done with so we can experience this place under normal conditions. It feels a little like it has been one thing after another thus far with the initial settling in, then Ramadan followed by Eid, and now with the Games and winter holidays approaching… role on mid-December.

October Ends

2006-10-31T11:54:00.000+03:00

Well we have made it to the end of another month in one piece and still with our sanity intact. It is only 4 ½ weeks until the Asian Games start, and therefore only 4 ½ weeks of work at AJA until holidays start.

Also more importantly our blog is finally up to date with nothing really to be backdated. Kerry has her Residency and ID Card… I still have to go through the medicals and fingerprinting process being a dependant (I actually think my medical may be later this week). We haven’t posted anything about the experience yet as we were waiting until we both had braved the ordeal, but Kerry does have a rather special page in her passport, while mine is still out there in the system somewhere.

Driving is getting better, and with only the one accident (plus a number of near misses) I think it is going as well as can be expected. Hey we haven’t written off a rental yet, so things must be going ok! As I said before, the roads are getting even worse at the moment as things are put into top gear to complete everything prior to December 1… I think this is the calm before the storm as I can’t see it improving until after the games are over.

There is a steady influx of people into Doha to fill the various holes in the workforce for the games. A Syrian and 2 Egyptian guys came up and had a chat when we were at the souqs the other night… some of the many new arrivals walking around with their Doha Games ID’s hanging around their necks. Funny that we are more local than others now!

The weather is cooling down as we draw near the winter months… it is only reaching the low-mid 30’s now! But it is actually nice and mild in the evenings, and the air-conditioning is actually being turned off some nights. It isn’t too far away when we will be able to have them off all the time… looking forward to the peace and quiet!

Job-hunting for me continues. I have submitted my resume quite a bit to both agencies and employers… but with the positions advertised worldwide there apparently can be up to a three month wait until they finalise the selection (sometimes longer for teaching positions starting the next academic year). It will be interesting to see if I can pick up something before the games… fingers crossed. Wont be much fun if I have to work through December while K & A are on holidays!

There are a few things we have noticed about Doha and Qatar in general… while it is developing, it also seems a little held back by years of tradition. Cheap labour is in abundance from various places in the sub-continent and SE Asia, so when you have cheap labour there are certain things that become entrenched in society. The expat workforce is employed by nationals and therefore there is something owed to all nationals or something… people from India, Nepal, etc do certain things and are employed in particular positions… people from SE Asia are employed in other positions. Westerners are employed in various other positions and seem to fill the gap between the lowly paid expat workforce and Arab nationals who don’t have the skills to fill the available jobs.

But… gaps still remain.

The banks are a perfect example, where they all look the part. The owners have seen pictures of banks and know what they should look like, from the layout to the type of furniture right down to the wood grained walls in the mangers office. But there is still something missing when you can go to one branch and talk to 4 different people and get 4 completely different answers… hierarchical and bureaucratic structure reigns supreme here. I guess that is all part of “developing”.

Similar to this is the general lack of authenticity in much you see on a daily basis. Some of this is blamed on the western influence and while I would agree with this to a point, the fact is in relative terms there isn’t that many westerners here so it stems from further a field than this (i.e. international education and media consumption). It is far more correct to look at the influence and being “the expat influence” as much of what we see isn’t western or Arabic. The fact is that it is the kids who all want to walk around with mobile phones and iPods, and drive around in any number of prestige European cars or be driven around in oversized American SUVs. It is a melting pot of a country as all are to an extent, but I feel The Gulf is at the crossroads of the world and given that, needs to make a concerted effort to hold on to tradition and culture.

Well with 20 months to go, we shall just have to wait and see what vision materialises (or unravels) before our eyes.

Here is some useless trivia… did you know that somewhere between 12-25% of the worlds cranes are in Dubai! They think that 1/3rd of the world’s high-rise cranes are there.

Oh and also one other piece of trivia to end the month. Sports City Tower is not going to open until April 2007 and is going to have a swimming pool suspended off the side of the hotel about 100 meters from the ground (or something like that). It was only the façade that is to be completed prior to the games and the bit at the top for the flame.

October Photos

2006-10-30T12:25:00.000+03:00

...road to nowhere. The overpass crossing the pipeline vanishes into the sand dune

Ashur digging in the dunes while cow-cow looks on!
The "bachelors" hit the streets during Eid!
Just to prove we are slowly collecting keepsakes... we are not allowed to sell these on eBay before we leave!

You have to love kitschy souvenirs!

Eid Break

2006-10-29T20:01:00.000+03:00

The Eid break was a nice change… no early mornings!

Today was the first day back at school and the first really early start since before Ramadan… our little robot alarm clock starts up at 5am. The only real positive to this is we are greeted by freshly brewed coffee… we managed to find one of those drip filter coffee makers with the timer on one of our many early shopping trips… it is put to very good use.

On the subject of shopping… most of the break was taken up with various little shopping adventures here and there (and also a lot of work from Kerry… catching up, preparation, etc).

City Center with the ice skating rink in the bottom left corner

Last Tuesday we headed off to City Centre, which we hadn’t been to since we got here. Lots to see and do across all the levels of what is one big shopping complex. We seem to pick up bits and pieces on each of our little adventures and our home is slowly feeling a little more homely. This time it was a very nice Iranian carpet/door surround thing from a little booth on the ground floor… plus some rather nice little wooden Abaya dolls plus various other little bits and pieces.

One of the many things for children in City Center... Ashur loved running and climbing around in here!

Thursday night we headed back into town to walk around the souqs… spent time looking through the old souq area with is looking rather nice and traditional now after all the work they have been doing. There was even a guy with a donkey, but Ashur couldn’t be encouraged to go for a ride. Also went for our first walk around the gold souq… gold everywhere… store windows dripping in the stuff. All very impressive and I know it only added to Kerry’s gold bling desire! Even saw the falcons with their little helmets covering their eyes, sitting on outside on perches waiting to be sold. The one thing that was a shame is it is looking like all the prices for the souvenir sort of things all seem to have gone up… or maybe we are just becoming “local” and know where to get better bargains! At the end of the day we are here long enough to wait out the whole Asian Games thing, and make the most on the overstock and decreased prices once it and the associated workers, athletes and tourists all depart Qatar.

...our lounge, slowly looking more homely after more shopping adventures...

On Sunday did the Carrefour grocery shop just up the road at Vallagio… major road works between here and there as they rush to finish the main road outside Sports City (or Aspire Zone, or whatever it is called this week), which meant our normal 10 minutes drive home, grew to 45 minutes as we ventured through various diversions and closed roundabouts! Don’t know how long everything will be like this but they only have a month to go to get everything finished… who knows if they will make it or not!

But anyway it is time to get the coffee ready for the morning (got to love technology).

Rain in Doha

2006-10-26T15:23:00.000+03:00

Well this may seem a little like a weather update... but to continue the recent theme of weather... WE HAD RAIN!

Ok, so it was light and only lasted about 10-15 minutes and really was hardly enough to wash the dust off the plants... but it did rain earlier this afternoon and we were suitably impressed. We must be getting used to the place because we all went out and stood in it... there was even a little girl all full of screams and excitment up the road trying out her umbrella!

(not so) Singing Dunes

2006-10-24T08:32:00.000+03:00

Monday afternoon we headed off in convoy to watch the sunset over the singing dunes, which is about 30-40 klms southwest of Doha. One of the heads of department had emailed everyone at school last week about doing a few things over the Eid break, but we only decided we would join them on this excursion at lunchtime. As it turned out there were only about 5 or 6 cars/4WDs heading out. Must say it was nice tackling unfamiliar roads by simply following the car in front!

Really the drive out there wasn’t that bad at all, although there were road works along the way (in Qatar… of course there would be road works!). Most of the road was actually very good, and looked very new… straight, flanked by camel fences once again (although we are yet to see any in the wild still) oh! ...and multiple power lines.

Although you may think sand dunes = 4WD (I did) as it turns out these are probably the most northern dunes in Qatar, so they more or less just spring up from the same flat rocky terrain we are used to. The prevailing winds just move the sand until it gets caught on the next mound etc. Thinking we would have to drive off road and get stuck somewhere was silly of me… we actually had to only drive probably 100 meters from the road to park in the middle of several dunes.

wweeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

... only problem going down... you have to climb back up!

These dunes are called “the singing dunes” because apparently the composition of the sand makes them make a unique sound… they didn’t sing for us but we will not hold that against them…Although, walking down the dunes creates an audible low ‘hum’/ ‘drone’ which resembles song (albeit, low pitched)… they are at least, Middle Eastern sand dunes, and that is more than enough for them to be at any particular time!

Our time was spent walking up and down… getting sand blown at times (still getting the sand out of our pockets)… watching the sunset… eating and talking with some of the others. Went for a little walk into the dunes once it was dark and decided that although peaceful, being lost in the dunes would not be a nice experience at all.

Lots of rubbish lying around on some parts of the dunes!

Some of our group atop one of the taller dunes watching the last rays of the setting sun...

... slowly sinking in the west!

They build big suns in these parts... isn't there anything petro-dollars can't buy!

Eid Mubarak

2006-10-23T09:53:00.000+03:00

Well apparently we have survived our first Ramadan, as today is Eid Al-Fitr – which basically translates into the celebration of the breaking of the fast, or something along those lines. So only a few more days and then our world returns to some form of normality. AJA is closed this week for Eid and then it is only another month until the Asian Games begin when no doubt everything will be thrown into turmoil for a few weeks.

Over the past few days there have been many more cars parked outside the mosques than we normally see, with lots attending leading up to the end of the fasting month. Apparently this morning was the morning of the huge mass prayers in the larger mosques, Eid prayer grounds (big open plots of land scattered around town), and possibly in some of the stadiums… the rest of the day is for spending with family and friends.

Although we were told what we could expect from Ramadan including everything being closed, stores being low on stock, prices on many things going up, and just plain nightmare roads, most of it was pretty limited.

There was more traffic on the roads (especially around midday) because everyone was working the same hours instead of traffic (and the workday) being staggered throughout the day. Supposedly the workday was 5 hours long, although I didn’t see many working ONLY 5 hours apart from those in Govt Depts. Most shops were closed during the afternoon and early evenings… many closed between 12-8pm, but then most made up for it by staying open past midnight (although the hypermarkets seemed to be open even longer than normal). Our local food stores were closed between 5-7pm so staff could attend local mass Iftars, which were the breaking the fast meal provided free to low-paid workers each day during Ramadan (I don’t think it had that much to do with attending prayers). I suppose the best part for us though was getting to sleep in an extra hour in the mornings, as the school day for AJA was an hour shorter.

Of course there was the fact that no one was eating drinking or smoking in public during daylight hours, but this seemed to be made up for nicely once the sun went down. There was a news story in the paper yesterday by some Indian research Dept stating that smoking dropped by 50% during Ramadan because of fasting during the day and “after breaking fast they were busy with prayers and other activities”. I think “other” activities mostly consisted of eating, shopping and sleeping, all of which are rather difficult to smoke while partaking in. Qatar is full of rocket scientists!

Fog Bound

2006-10-18T09:24:00.000+03:00

This morning we awoke to find a city shrouded in warm sticky humid fog. Obviously something of an event as it is one of the few weather changes we have seen beyond sunny, hazy, or dusty since we arrived. The best part of driving in the fog was seeing how the “locals” dealt with it. Various strategies were seen to be adopted such as driving as normal and hoping people would see you coming (which you couldn’t)… driving with your lights on (which helped a little)… driving slower (not the strategy of choice in these parts of course)… or (my personal favourite) driving with your hazard lights on! This last one was at times accompanied by headlights and other times not. Now it confused me a little to begin with because I was wondering about what they do if they use their indicators… silly me, they don’t use them anyway!

Round Trees and Wave Hedges

2006-10-17T10:59:00.000+03:00

We have a gardener, as most do around the compound. He is one of the blue-overall guys and to be honest I don't even know his name! He is nice and polite, and all full of smiles (especially at the end of the month when we give him his 100 QAR).

He comes along every morning and waters everything and pulls out the odd weed here and there. He also has another guy (maybe his deputy blue overall guy) who comes along with him once a month and does the mowing. When this is going on there is normally a knock on the door from one blue-overall guy soaking in sweat, mouthing the word "water". Being a current house husband I guess I am one of the only people actually around the compound during working hours, so I promptly supply them with a big bottle of cold water (hhmmm... I thought it was Ramadan... oh well).

Unfortunately they also have the habit of cutting everything back, adding waves to our hedge and virtually removing all the mass from our little trees. We keep meaning to ask if he can stop doing it, but just never seem to get around to it (maybe a tomorrow inshallah moment on our behalf). At this rate we will never have a big hedge or big trees!
Anyway as you can see from the photo there seems to be a bit of a trend with the trees around the compound... but at least everything is green!

Sports City - Aspire Zone

2006-10-16T12:06:00.000+03:00

Sports City, which is just up the road has now been renamed the Aspire Zone. Not sure about this one (someone has studied marketing but not implementation), nor why you would rename the major complex for The Games 6 weeks out from them starting! Makes me wonder if the road out the front of the compound has be renamed from Sports City Road to Aspire Zone Rd or something.

Sports City Tower looking almost complete

Anyway, construction is coming along with the tower looking almost complete. All the other venues in the area are complete, but they have a lot of work to go on the finishing touches me thinks. Lots to go with basic infrastructure etc, but I am sure one way or another they will get it done!

Khalifa Stadium lighting rigs behind the swimming complex

Aspire Complex

2006-10-16T11:59:00.000+03:00

Beautiful desert sunsets in this part of the world! This one was the other evening just before Iftar, which is the break of fasting (about 5:15 at the moment). This is the road the runs down one side of the compound (with our compound on the right).

Qatar Accident Investigation Report

2006-10-16T11:39:00.000+03:00

Nothing is ever as easy as it could be in Qatar… but in saying that I remember dealing with government departments in Australia who love employing processes that are as equally redundant and time consuming.

The process for obtaining an accident report from the Dept of Traffic Investigations is a little confusing for those of us that cannot read Arabic. The first step seems to be working out actually which Dept of Traffic and Police you need to go to (and I still have no idea if it actually makes any difference). We were lucky because the policeman from the other night wrote a telephone number on the back of the little yellow slip of paper he gave us … the same slip of paper I was required to produce somewhere at 9am Sunday. I found the number listed as being for the Old Airport Traffic Dept, so with help of more than one map I was able to make my way there by the required “9am”.

After walking up to what more or less looked like an run down and abandoned building, I worked out up a few stairs and to the left were a couple of queues… when in doubt join a queue until you can figure out somewhere better to be! After shuffling along a couple of steps backwards and forwards, to the side and then back again, I worked out no one in these queues had the same little yellow slip of paper as I did so I went in search of some new queues to join. Someone pointed me in the direction of magical door #2 (didn’t have a number on it, but there were 3 doors). Behind door #2 was lots of people sitting and basically walking back and forth was various forms in their hands. When in doubt jump in a queue! After a little while I finally had the chance to use my rather good English skills by waving my rather prized little yellow slip of paper (still hadn’t seen anyone else with one so I was beginning to feel a little special)… The policeman behind the counter asked “accident?” which I replied to with a nice well pronounced “yes” followed quickly by a “where?”… he then proceeded to point and say “left and left and straight” in very good English, so I gave him a badly pronounced “shukran” (probably should have stuck to English!)

After following the various people around I came to a corridor with another magical room at the end. This was the room of crowds waving similar little slips of paper as mine although I didn’t see any yellow ones so I was still feeling special (special actually translates to not having any idea what to do and actually feeling very alien). After watching what was going on in what I thought was something resembling a queue a nice Indian guy arrived with the same yellow slip of paper, finally a brother in arms! We compared slips and then he showed me that everyone else was handing over their various coloured slips of papers with their licenses to any policeman that came within a metre of the desk, so being a wuss I let him go first! Finally when it was my turn I handed over my paper and license and got another couple of papers and license in return with a “ok, fine, go” and hand waving away from the policeman.

Now being a bright kinda guy I guessed, “ok, fine, go” and wave towards the door meant just that. When I got home I rang the rental car company and was told that I need two forms and stamps????? I told the guy on the phone I have one 2-page form and no stamps… I was told not very politely that I need to go back for another round of confusion… not happy!

Anyway this morning I went back like an old pro… went back to the crowded room and followed the first guy that walked out with the same police issued papers as me. This led me to the first room I went to the previous day… but this time there were lots of people with the same forms as me, comparing and then some would go away and some would come back. The guy in front of me spoke Arabic and understood hand signals, so I pointed to our que and asked “stamp” with the appropriate hand gesture, which I was given some form of positive response… I was on the right track!

After a while the guy in front of me discussed some things with the Qatari in front of him… then he did what most seemed to be doing and walked off. Then on his return he looked at my papers, showed me his which were now adorned with what looked like postage stamps… he led me by the arm through the main doors (magical door #2 from the previous day for those who are following this), and pointed down the end.

After walking down with my papers showing some guy asked “Stamp?” I was then led into another section where my 2 pages were given little 5 Riyal stamps each, which I had to pay 12 QAR for (who knows). I was on a roll so I headed back to join my first queue once again. Long que, outside, very hot! Anyway finally got to see what was going on… you hand over your papers with the little postage-looking stamps on them, the guy checks his computer to see if you have any fines owing. If you do, you have to pay them on the spot or you don’t get you red ink stamp… we have no fines so we don’t have to pay for the special red stamp. To show you how special the red stamp is, if you don’t have it the policemen in the crowded room don’t look at your papers again… You have to get them to give you a final black stamp and signature before the room and desk visiting process ends. The policemen explained to me that I did have the two forms required (not one form with 2 pages as I had thought the previous day).

Once the process is actually finished it all seems far more simple than it does while you are going through it and goes like this:

The little yellow slip of paper (I think) means the accident was not your fault.
This little slip of paper is accompanied by a computer record, which is made by the attending officer. You go to the Accident Investigations section and hand over your slip of paper with your license and the police type up the accident report… two forms – one for the insurance and one for the workshop, which allows them to carry out repairs.
You then have to get a little stamp on both forms (the one that looks like a postage stamp). Expect to pass over some cash for these.
You then have to get the red-ink stamp that says you have no outstanding traffic fines. If you have fines, you have to pay them on the spot electronically; no cash accepted.
You then go back to the Accident Investigations section and the police sign and stamp both forms for you.

If someone had told me this to start off with it would have been far easier! By the way, while the whole process is somewhat intimidating, the police are quite polite and casual about everything, and there is always at least one or two other people going through exactly the same thing and will give a hand if they can.

Thought for the day:

Join a queue! It will always lead you somewhere

Friday night shopping

2006-10-14T10:25:00.000+03:00

Decided to hit the shops last night. It is a little strange during Ramadan because instead of shops being open at either 4 or 6pm, most things are open from 8-1am. After a trip up the road to Carrefour we went shopping for some more homey stuff - its funny because there are so many people out shopping after 8.00pm - kids of all ages included! It is nice being out at that time of the night tho, coz everything is very much alive and shopping is actually quite relaxed. There are some particularly nice home wares stores. One is like a Middle Eastern Freedom...lots of really nice stuff and cheap compared to what we'd spend in Aus.We bought a bed set thing (cover with pillows and cushions and stuff -10 pieces). We're going for the middle eastern opulence/royallook...so have gold swirly things on a blue/gold background with goldtassels... complete with NICK ROLLS! yep - neck spelt wrong.....sooofunny! Have got some more cushions too...slowly making a home. I seem to be drawn to GOLD and there's an element of 'tongue in cheek' when we buy stuff.

Arabian Opulence

When we were on our way home last night in the early hours, sitting and waiting at a roundabout somewhere...a ute nudged us from behind. Our first (very minor) bingle! Michael got out first and attempted to sort out the 'mess' - but not a lot of success. I was sitting in the car thinking and remembered that I was told - if you're ever in anaccident, no matter how minor, don't play the victimised expat and let the other people talk over you...blah blah..so - out I get to inspect the damage. There was a very minor nick to the paint and a small dent- if it was our car, I would have just let it go.Because we have to pay 500 QR (about 183.00 Aussie dollars) in insurance excess for any damage caused by us or to us to the car rental co - I got a bit feisty with them. They said " no English" and I said "mafimt to your Arabic" (don't understand your Arabic) and proceeded to let them (3 guys) know that not happy Jan... All of a sudden flashing lights and a cop car drove up. One guy went straight to the cops car and waved his hands to say - nothing wrong here your not needed, but I was right behind him saying 'la, la la –do you speak English' (la means no)...cop gets out and I told himstraight...we pay coz he wasn't looking... We get a yellow form in Arabic to take to the traffic dept on Sunday morning (lucky Michael gets to do that while I work) and hopefully all sorted...the insurance company will deal with it. The police dude was quite helpful and seemed to be on 'our side'. The other dudes went off not that happy.

Told you it was MINOR!

Ready for shopping?

2006-10-13T12:14:00.000+03:00

Just to show that it isn’t only Australia and the US that have cornered the market on oversized things such as pineapples, bananas, prawns, cows, and other kitschy iconic monuments to whatever… Just up the road outside Hyatt Plaza is the “big trolley” all currently decorated to celebrate the upcoming event of national pride and focus. Possibly by the end of our stay we may be able to fill this thing! Sounds like a challenge!

More Development (here, there and everywhere)

2006-10-12T10:32:00.000+03:00

As I have said before, there is a lot of major development and although most of it has been focused on the facilities and infrastructure related to the running of the Asian Games there is still much happening outside of the Doha city limits as well. Two of the biggest work sites at the moment focus on the area just north of Doha with West Bay Lagoon (home of The Pearl http://www.thepearlqatar.com/) and Lusail City (http://www.lusail.com/index-en.html).

I love the websites for these places, as it gives the “artists impression” of what will be at some point in time inshallah! One thing you learn about Qatar very quickly is the place is a work in progress and an artists impression is about as close as you will get to knowing what comes next.

Oh by the way, as you will notice I stuck a clock on the blog... not actually sure if that is useful or not, but saves working out the 7 hour time difference in your head if are that way inclined (and don't even begin to ask the difference between here and the US).

The Daily Commute

2006-10-11T12:28:00.000+03:00

Well we are getting used to this now, but every morning we head out onto Sports City Rd to play Qatari-roulette on Aziziyah Roundabout (sometimes with more success than others)… We then brave Salwa Rd and turn down Wholesale Market St to head down to Al Jazeera Academy. It is never dull and always an aspect of adventure to it. Sometimes it may be a 10-minute drive, and other times 30 minutes. There is a method to the driving here and it falls somewhere between defensive-aggressive.

I’ll have to work out how far it is as Salwa Rd is an 80 kph zone and Wholesale Market St is 100 kph, so distance is really based on the speed you can drive between roundabouts. So at the end of the day it really based on time rather than distance (which makes it all pretty relative).

Anyway I thought I would post this photo of our neighbourhood, but will try to do something a bit better some time in the not too distant future.

Intercontinental Ramadan Tent

2006-10-06T23:30:00.000+03:00

Discovered one of our favourite stores today. Actually don’t know what it is called, but to us it is the very cool cheap shop at Ramada Junction, or the “10 Riyal shop”! The reason for the name is so not to confuse it with the “6 Riyal shop” at Hyatt Plaza (which is actually called Daiso). It is big, poorly laid out and has lots of junk… But as with all junky shops it also has many not so junky things (well at least not to us). I think we only filled one trolley so we were doing well… but we still managed to leave with a couple of carpets and various other little bits and pieces.

Went to the Intercontinental Hotel with a few people from AJA to have dinner in the beachside Ramadan Tent tonight. Most of the major hotels have some form of Ramadan feast (buffet) set up for the major meal during the fasting month, which is at 8pm. After ringing around we found out the Intercontinental was one of the few that was actually set up on the beach (so we thought it would be a good pick).

Now while the food was great and surroundings palatial, the main thing we didn’t like was the lack of a genuine experience. The tent was huge, air-conditioned (of course) and they could seat about 500 people in there. Surrounding it was little markets and lots of advertising from their sponsors (which included strategically place BMWs, Range Rovers, and Ducatis). There was an endless array of food to choose from, lots of Shisha pipes, and guy walking around with the biggest Turkish coffee thing I had seen… service was first rate… BUT the whole thing (to us anyway) just didn’t have atmosphere and felt somewhat like being in a big cattle shed. There was no sense of being in anything that even remotely had a Bedouin atmosphere, which really was disappointing.
There was entertainment from a guy with a keyboard (set to the best Arabic sounds a cheap sounding keyboard can make), some violin player… a women who at times sounded like a cat stuck in a buzz saw… I will admit there was a man playing an Oud (the stringed instrument that looks a little like a Lute) as we were leaving which did sound rather nice though. There was even a Twirling Dervish but even that, while entertaining lacked the element of authenticity.

We ate well, we had an experience… it just wasn’t anything like the experience we were looking for. What they didn’t make from the food (overall the cost was quite reasonable), they made up for by over-pricing all the drinks (including the bottles of water which you normally get for free).
Rather than focusing of the local rich Bedouin culture, it was far more a combination of Turkish, Moroccan or Tunisian… given that I think they really miss the point a little. People in Qatar (regardless of whether it is what they are looking for or not) should be experiencing Qatari culture… I think I would have enjoyed it more with something as simple as a couple of camels around, or at least using the standard black and red Bedouin fabrics. They should make the most out of what they have and differentiate themselves on that… I don’t really think they have got a grasp on the concept of authenticity yet, and unfortunately the end result is that you felt like you could be anywhere in the world rather than actually being immersed in the middle of the Arabian Gulf.

Garangau Day

2006-10-05T17:27:00.000+03:00

Garangau (pronounced garrangow– rolled r’s) occurs mid way thru Ramadan – it roughly translates to “festival of children”. It’s kind of like the Arabic version of Halloween. Traditionally, children go ‘trick or treating’ – except they knock on doors and sing traditional Arabic songs for treats – usually nuts and sweets (raw nuts and caramelised fruit)…YAY! These days, the children still go from door to door to entertain (dressed in gorgeous national costume) and receive proper ‘western’ sweets.

The school celebrates Garangoa Day every year. It is customary to give and receive a garangau gift – the school is offered many lovely little (and some huge) garangau gifts! These are traditional and each has a ‘story’ attached. The school gave each child a rather elaborate ceramic door with Hessian bag of nuts and sweets. The ‘door’ is a common symbol in these parts – it represents the ‘door to paradise’ (heaven) when if you comply with the 7 pillars of Islam – the door is open to you.

Ashur dressed in his lovely traditional costume for Garangau Day!

Spot the Aussies - Ashur and his lovely teacher, Sue-Ellen!

All of the children dressed in amazing clothing – some dripping with real gold from their head to their feet. One of the traditional games played by the children is similar to ‘duck, duck, goose’ – where one child walks behind the circle of children saying something about Mohommed the Prophet is coming, so close your eyes and don’t peek and then he drops his skull cap behind one child (the chosen one!) and they chase each other – first one into the open gap ‘wins’…the words are “Karangau KarKau, Aethoona Allahu Yuetheekum, aethoona min malillah, Sallam lakum Abdulla” (Give us something, Allah will richly bless you). All of the children looked absolutely gorgeous in a variety of colours and fabrics – I was insanely jealous and wanted to wear one! I am hoping for a garangau dress for next year!

Proud parents walked their children into the classroom – most had stupidly large bags / trays / woven baskets of garangau gifts for the children and teachers. (I was forewarned to bring a very big bag to school this day – to ferry the prezzies home in!).

Prezzies I bought home

Each group was walked up to the Primary school’s hall – where the festivities were led by the grade 6’ers. One little boy sung the Quaran and had me mesmerised! It was really very haunting …regardless of what he was singing about – avenging the sinners etc - it was simply amazing.

Singing the Quaran

It was a very crowded hall full of classes and families - some children participated in a game of tag tag tagiah and sung some traditional songs (we were all supposed to entertain the families with this – but luckily for me, it was too crowded and I got to sit and observe with my class! Although, I practised a little (the words of the song) – I just couldn’t cut it!

Once back in the classrooms – we each had a small party (parents provided the party food – now, that’s a blog in itself!!). One of my mothers’ is a very interesting person! I have decided that no matter where you are in the world – there’s a ‘Westie’ in every group!!! This one person was ruffling through the boxes of presents – taking armfuls for herself and I was told later, by another person who understood her Arabic – she was saying such things which would translate to “oh, cool! Check this out! Alright!” It gave us something to laugh about later!
Gifts were dispensed and children left for the day (it was only 10.00am). There was a lot of cleaning up to do afterward – so was very happy to do that without ‘help’!…the hyped up, sugar enhanced style of help…

Our favourite prezzie - scary doll with face cover! The best thing about all of this is that these gifts are 'crafted' in Doha and specifically for Garangau!

Qatari Money

2006-10-03T11:05:00.000+03:00

The currency here is the Qatar Riyal. Now one of the problems is that Riyal is pronounced it would seem, either riyal or real ... not quite sure if there is one way that is more correct than the other, and also not actually sure whether what "we" hear as reals is just a bad pronunciation. At the end of the day as long as notes are being handed back and forth, everyone seems happy!

BTW there are roman numerals on the reverse side of the notes but that wouldn't look anywhere as good if the photo showed them now would it! Just to add to your confusion (and to see if you can work this out) a 1 is a 1, but the angled 0 is a 5 and the dash/dot thing is a 0... got it? So the notes from the bottom are 1, 5, 10, 50, 100... there is also a 500 but we don't see many of them as we are not wealthy... hhmmm then again we don't see many coins either... does that mean we are actually middle class!

I suppose now is as good a time as any to mention another pronunciation. Qatar is most definitively pronounced CutTa, and the people (and Riyals for that matter) are Qataris which seems to come out as Cuttaries (a bit like cutlery without the "L"). Now this of course isn't as simple as it all sounds because when a Qatari says Qatar there is actually some little strange guttural thing going on in the middle.

At the end of the day it is Qatar far more like CutTa than anything sounding like a guitar, and CutTaries don't sound like guitar players at all... as far as Riyals or Reals... your guess is as good as mine!

Work Stuff

2006-10-01T18:49:00.000+03:00

OK – so, the info about work has been a long while coming! There’s a logical explanation to this and that is, I still haven’t fully worked out what I think about the place – and I don’t want to sound negative as it isn’t all that bad really.

This first pic is the back view of a very small portion of the Early Learning Centre - If you look left of the large dark window /just right of the tree, you can see my window and door to the classroom I spend my mornings in.

One of the most dramatic things that separates teaching in the Middle East to Australia (besides the usual cultural differences) is that the ME parents really don’t understand the education system to begin with – so that kind of triples the workload. They just don't understand why after one whole week, little Abdulla-aziz Mahmoud Ali Dawish isn't running writing in English! - he is almost 3 after all!

As far as the school goes – I haven’t really worked it out – I’m not sure what type of agenda we’re on…one minute we’re to provide world class, innovative EC curriculum (which I understand is why I’m there in the first place) – the next they introduce IPC (international primary curriculum) into their early childhood school – I think they confuse the issue by initially naming the EC dept as a ‘school’ when the children who are enrolled are a minimum of 3yrs old and due to their lifestyles and histories – most have only really been involved in interaction with their large families, nannies, drivers and maids...and possess skill levels of children much younger. There is a real lack of basic knowledge that I take for granted coming from Australia – but I’m here for the experience and the growth – so, I take it all down a notch (or 10) and start from the basic beginnings!

Day 1 - an eye-opener! A constant stream of covered women and their children – drivers and nannies and not a lot of English to communicate with, greeted me! It took a while for the mothers’s to unveil themselves and for me to work out which parent belongs to which child and then getting my mouth around the names – I still don’t know the family names of any of the children without reading them from a list. The child has a ‘Christian’ name followed by its father’s first name and then the family name – which can be made up of a few names – all very confusing! I was alerted to the fact that the parents don’t know how to ‘wait’ and spoke over each other (and myself) to be heard! Hmmmm, I began to feel I would have some interesting times ahead!It's taken a few weeks of some consistent tough love! Forget the cursive writing - these guys have a few social issues to amend!...but, its paying off and now the group (mostly) sits together without beating each other senseless and actually sings together!...am working on the turntaking with talking and calling out. I mostly don't believe what comes out of my mouth at times! I seem to bark many one word orders..like, 'sit', 'stop', 'listen', 'wait', 'no' - all with hand gestures and facial contortions as support! when all else fails - I resort to the little Arabic I've learned 'Halas', 'shoi shoi', 'la'! There has been the odd moment, when I've just got off my chair and said - 'no story today!' and had a laugh....

(update today 12th Oct - Little boy gets up and speaks in Arabic to the unruly group and points to the small list of group time rules on the wall - they all listen!)

One of the little girls has already given me a bottle of lovely French perfume – but the mother was very honest and let me know that it was a ‘bribe’ to get her to come to school, as she really didn’t want to go each morning! How special!!! The mother of this particular girl and I get along quite well (she speaks English relatively fluently) and has invited us to their home – not sure when that is happening – but I’m sure it’ll be an interesting thing to see. The homes of the Qatari’s are like mini palaces – they are ridiculously large and going by the furniture in most of the ‘proper’ stores – rather elaborate and a bit ‘over the top’ – They go for OPULANCE! Apparently, its rare to be invited into a Qatari’s home – they don’t usually mix with lower life forms….

It seems whenever there is an opportunity - I get my head wrapped! I've decided these head covers are the perfect solution for bad hair days!

When I started at the school, my assistant was the Australian Barry (her name withheld to protect the accused!) but just didn’t want to be in Qatar and hated every second of it. Unfortunately, I worked long and hard and very much alone for the first 3 weeks before caving in and complaining. The children and the general everydayness of the place – requires a high level of interaction, commitment and sustained energy – all of which I wasn’t getting. Poor Michael, had to deal with my moods and sapped energy. Bazza left Qatar and went back to Australia where she wanted so badly, to be. That left me 3 weeks into term 1 without an assistant…in comes a new recruit! Oh dear! I thought I’d had it tough for the first few weeks….2nd assistant as helpful as a migrainee at a rave!

Thankfully for the past fortnight – I’ve had a perfectly functional assistant who has been there for a few years and is a treasure! She can multi-task, communicates with the children and myself, has initiative and demonstrates a high level of competence…The other ‘real’ assistant will be returning after the Eid break – and the dynamics changes all over again – I’ve been promised quality!

The only really sad thing for me with all of this is that I’ve not had the opportunity to ‘relax’ into working here – its been a tad stressful and not what I expected. However, I have managed to initiate some interesting things with the kids and am beginning to enjoy the days. I’m treating it as it always was going to be – an experience! I’ll do what I have to do with whatever passion I have, but at the end of the day – its allowing us all to enjoy a lifestyle we didn’t have in Australia and is opening up the options that are available which we don’t know exist yet!

Besides the very early morning starts (up at 5.00 and out of the house by 6.00 to arrive as early as possible to commence ‘class’ by 7.15 – and I HATE mornings! Michael is up first to brew the morning coffee – which I don’t thank him enough for). The workday is really only till 12.00pm. The children leave the classroom to go to after school care for 2 hours. The time from 12.00 – 2.00 is usually teacher-planning time, the odd staff meeting – or just down time.

As it is Ramadan at the moment – we get to sleep in way past 5.00am and rise at 6.00! ooh – simple pleasures! In essence, I work one less hour a day – but I still manage to crash on the lounge at 3.30 and wake up a couple of hours later (or sometimes sooner)!

Kerry Bint Kevin Perandis-Grantham

But, at the end of the day in 21years of early childhood ed (doh! Michael just alerted me to the fact I am a sucker for punishment and deserve a side swipe to the head!) I've never had a group of children dress me up as an arabic man! at least, humour is global - and they all thought it was very funny!

The GPO

2006-09-30T18:32:00.000+03:00

Today we went for our first little adventure to the General Post Office. There are other little Post Offices dotted around the place (including one just a couple of roads behind the compound) but we thought we would head to the main one to get our first little piles of mail sent off. The GPO is a beautiful building with a fantastic view over Doha Bay. When you drive in, you actually have to drive up about 3 floors in the car park as I think the lower levels are all the offices etc. The actual main floor of the Post Office is a bit like the Tardis… looks small outside but very open and spacious once you enter.

Our experience inside consisted of lining up at one window and being pointed towards what is basically a souvenir stand to get large envelopes, then returning to the first window to get everything weighed (and the postage amounts written in pencil where stamps would normally go). This weighing process was of course interrupted by at least one mobile phone call, which was more important to answer than weighing our mail. After the weighing process we were handed everything back, then of course had to find out where to get the stamps from… this consisted of pushing everything back through the same small window to the same person (who really wasn’t very interested in being a part of our overall posting experience) to get the stamps! After being handed everything back with a large number of stamps and much licking and sticking we were pointed in the direction of the little mail holes near the entrance (which are obviously for letters and not for parcels, but if you try you can actually fit something medium sized through the hole).

To be honest I don’t really know what to make of all this. I know the parcels we sent were sent as large letters, rather than parcels… I also know we didn’t have to fill in any customs declarations or put on any airmail stickers. The only people in the place that looked remotely interested in life in general were the two women sitting at the customer service desk having a chat (and they were quite happy to help staple our envelopes with us as the sticky stuff didn’t stick). Everyone else looked pretty disinterested about everything, but maybe that is the general attitude to working in a Govt Dept during a Ramadan morning!

As a side note we do know now that everything arrived safe and sound so we (and they) must have done something right. At the same time we have received all the Airmail parcels we sent to ourselves via Australia Post, plus the last Sea Mail parcel. We think everything has probably now arrived that we sent but is probably all awaiting the customs people to fossick through it all to see if there is anything they deem unsuitable (which I think translates into “anything they want” but I could be wrong). Everything we have received has been opened and checked thus far… we don’t actually know how well they check what is in there and I think they might just do the open and reseal thing to make it look like they have checked. After all no one checked anything in our bags when we came through customs at the airport, so we really have no idea how thorough they are with the whole process. Plus the bacon that is available here has to come in somehow!

Kerry Arrives!

2006-09-26T19:32:00.000+03:00

Just to let you know that we have caught up a bit today and Kerry has thrown in a few posts relating to the end of August - beginning of September. We only have a couple of weekends adventures to go from our first 6 weeks and then we are finally current! Sometimes we both sit here while one of us types away, we have decided that Michael's posts will stay basic black and Kerry's will be a rather funky deep purple (or orange if she chooses)!

Hope all is well with our readers... (I have been told to use maroon)

Cars with bendy bits!

2006-09-26T10:57:00.000+03:00

Snapped this photo on the way home from school yesterday out the front of our compound… don’t worry, that isn’t our car! The entrance/exit roads for Aziziyah come out onto this slip road where the black and yellow concrete barriers are. Now what I think is the barriers are there to stop people driving out of the compound and then straight out on to Sports City Rd, rather than heading down the slip road a bit. I know that might sound strange but that is what many do… Added to that are the metal barriers that run down the middle of the main road to sperate the oncoming traffic, which at various places have been driven through (presumably by large 4WD) so someone can do a U-Turn! Yep, they knock them down with their cars so they can turn around.

Anyway not sure what happened to this car, but by the look of the front of it, it was either heading down the road the wrong way (yes, it does happen) or has done a U-Turn through one of the gaps where the barriers have been knocked over. But then again it may have just run up the back of a truck.

It is not uncommon to see cars in various states of bendiness sitting around on the sides of the road though… you think that would be enough of a reminder to take it a little easier… maybe it is… maybe it isn’t! We have only been here for 6 weeks and I can’t even remember what it is like to drive slow… you have to laugh… seriously, you HAVE to laugh. If you don’t, you would get stuck in your compound and if you are just going to stay home you can do that anywhere in the world.

By the way… I have a bit of a head cold! That’s right… it is 40 degrees outside and I have a head cold! Apparently this happens to most people while they are getting used to the weather (and all the dust).

By the way (x2)… I am slowly catching up on the posts and still adding a few more photos here and there. Kerry still hasn’t had a chance to post anything (work is work anywhere in the world) but promises she will soon!

Ramadan is here!

2006-09-25T20:47:00.000+03:00

Well contrary to popular belief, while Ramadan is a time for fasting and attending prayer, it also seems to be a time for feasting and socialising… as well as the ubiquitous shopping!

One of things we have soon realised is no one really seems to tell you the same story (if you know what I mean). More than one person told us that basically everything would be closing down over Ramadan… or running at very reduced hours. OK, so it may only be a couple of days in, but thus far this seems far from the case!

Everything is still running as usual minus some minimal changes…

Govt working hours have reduced with most running from 9-1 (or there abouts)
Some schools have reduced hours (AJA is still running 8-2 which is only 1 hour less than normal)
Shops are closing for longer during the afternoon but at the same time have extended their hours until later at night
Because of all the feasting at night, certain things in the hypermarkets are a bit harder to get hold of but that seems to be mainly fruit and vegies (and many things have increased in price a little due to the higher demand)
There is a lot more traffic on the roads between 12-2, but at the same time the roads are pretty good late afternoon and early evening

I have also read a number of times about the increase in road accidents during Ramadan. I am not sure yet, but I think the reason why the roads are a bit more dangerous really doesn’t have much to do with the fasting but rather is related to schools and businesses all closing around the same time rather than being stagged (as is the norm).

I guess we shall just have to wait and see.

Doha Zoo x2

2006-09-23T16:30:00.000+03:00

Just thought I would post a couple of more “zoo” photos.

The zoo itself is constructed in two halves… on one side is the botanic (type) gardens and the other side is the animal enclosures. There is a big central enclosure that is mostly undercover or indoors, and around this is the herding type animals. It isn’t overly big… then again Doha isn’t overly big either, but well worth the trip and a return or two.

It is the indoor enclosures that are the ones that have everything from Guinea Pigs, a Cane toads, through to snakes and all sorts of weird and wonderful things. One of the things I liked were the big cats… not BIG cats like Lions and so on (although they were there too)… but just big cats. Apparently they are Bush Cats, but to me they just looked like overgrown pusskins (about a metre long… maybe). I don’t know but I think they would purr rather loudly! For now I will stick to the feral cats as the villa isn't big enough for a couple of those.

The Doha Zoo

2006-09-22T20:05:00.000+03:00

We thought we’d investigate the Doha Zoo, which is only a few blocks away from our compound. The unfortunate thing is that our least favoured road is the one leading to its entry. The road is big, long and not well sealed and there’s usually far too many dodgy trucks ferrying human’s and construction materials to wherever they’re going…but we made it perfectly safely – thanks to Michael!

We stood at the ticket booth and handed over the equivalent of $4 aud – for the three of us! Ashur’s child rate was a huge 75c!! we thought that was a pretty good deal for an afternoon out.

Once inside, we were impressed by the layout of the property – walking through water troughs/fountains, through a botanical garden and then towards the animals. The zoo is kind of oldish looking – though that is most probably from the settled dust from the sandstorms that happen around here.

Before we’d arrived at the ‘caged’ areas and the open enclosures we could see the most adorable little lion cub just wandering along with a baby deer and their human keeper who had a long, fine stick which he gently used to keep them on the ‘right path’. We were amazed at how ‘bouncy’ the little cub was when walking – and I just wanted to give it a big noogy on his head! The gorgeous thing had no concept of the fact that he was walking along with a potentially tasty treat! We didn’t get a photo as we thought it might frighten him. It was certainly something we never thought we’d see.

Next stop – the Indian elephants. One was painted and ‘performing’ for lettuce and carrots – it made me sad and Michael and I disagreed that I felt the other elephant in another part of the enclosure was swaying due to stress. Although, I battled with feeling like I was perpetrating the spectacle – I was drawn to watch. Ashur and I stood amongst the black and white locals watching the poor elephant do tricks for treats.

We also met the most adorable chimpanzee’s who were enjoying an iceblock each…a mix of sadness at that, but a niceness about the level of human interaction they were having – kind of weird. One of them spotted Ashur’s OJ, which I was holding and swung around the dome enclosure to put his hand out in a gesture for me to hand it over.

We saw the usual kinds of animals you would expect and a few interesting ones we’d never seen before…we were surprised at how big porcupines are and finally got to see some oryx’s – but, I think Michael was more impressed by them than I was…to me they just look like deer things with long sticks on their heads...neither of us are still not quite sure why they have a guinea pig and a cane toad on display though!

Overall, the enclosures are spacious, well kept and as natural as possible (in these parts) , the animals appeared at ease and the zoo people appeared to treat them better than I expected. The zoo hours are mid afternoon till evening – which is a great time to go as the animals are lively and doing their thing – even the snakes are slithering around their glass cages!. We ended up leaving at nighttime around 6.30pm after I spent most of the evening collecting feathers of all sorts – just couldn’t quite manage to find a pink flamingo feather – but I did ask them nicely to leave me some for next time…

We could hear over the speaker system someone rambling on in Arabic – which we assumed was the standard “everyone out – park’s closed’ kind of announcement. We discovered the next day – it was actually more likely the announcement that the moon had been spotted and Ramadan had commenced!.