ANZAC Day in Qatar

This year as Anzac Day was on a Saturday we could easily go to the dawn service without a work day ahead of us. The dawn parade is organized by a group of Australians and was held at the beach in front of the Marriott hotel. We had to arrived by 4.45am which is very, very early for me! So we were up at 3.45 and away to the event. Around 27 of the Multiserve staff attended and I think there must have been around 200 people altogether.
John lay a wreath on behalf of ANZBIQ (Australian and New Zealand Businesses in Qatar) organisation that we belong to and as he walked forward Hazel started at karakia. It made it very special for us and gave the kiwi flavor to the gathering. Some of the Australians spoke to us afterwards, asked what it meant and that they had never heard one before and appreciated it.

The Australians forgot or didn’t organize the playing of the National Anthems so when most of us Multiservers gathered as a group at the wreath area we sang our anthem in Maori and English. It was quiet emotional and I must admit I shed a few tears then. I noticed the Aussies didn’t sing theirs at all. So it was the start of a very special New Zealand day in Qatar and it made us all feel a little homesick but also happy that we have such a neat group of people here to be with and support us.
Oh and then there was the rugby, we returned home to watch the Hurricanes win!! Told you it was an NZ Aotearoa Day in Qatar.

Dubai - All Malled Out

I have travelled to Dubai twice in the period of a month. The first time I went with my friend Ann to see Cirque de Soliel. I had never been before and it was an amazing experience, I would certainly go to any other productions. The one we saw was Alegria and it was astounding. The whole atmosphere is hard to describe. I can’t say I understood the story but I enjoyed the acts.

Next I went over with Lynne Thomas our ICT specialist to a conference on ICT. The conference was so - so but I did manage to get in some more sights especially as the Friday was a day off and some of the team from Abu Dhabi took as around in their car. The traffic is certainly lighter in Dubai and some of the building sites have just been abandoned because of the recession. I looked at lots of malls but didn’t help their economy much as we can now get nearly everything there in Qatar now. I did have a new phone follow me home from duty free though.

Over two trips I managed to get in visits to most malls. One of the newest and most interesting is Ibn Battuta Mall.
Ibn Battuta (1304–1368 or 1369)[1] was a Moroccan Muslim Berber scholar and traveller who is known for the account of his travels and excursions called the Rihla (Voyage). His journeys lasted for a period of nearly thirty years and covered almost the entirety of the known Islamic world and beyond, extending from North Africa, West Africa, Southern Europe and Eastern Europe in the West, to the Middle East, Indian subcontinent, Central Asia, Southeast Asia and China in the East, a distance readily surpassing that of his predecessors and his near-contemporary Marco Polo. This information is thanks to Wikipedia.
The mall is set out in five sections that show his journeys China, India, Persia, Egypt, Tunisia and Andalusia. I don’t know about the shops but the displays are great. It is well worth visiting.

I have also managed to go to
· Dubai Mall (new with huge aquarium covering two levels and walk through)
· Mall of the Emirates (full sized ski field and other amenities)
· Festival City Mall (as quite new and nicely set out with inside and outside spaces)
· Wafi City – Egyptian theme and underground souq area that is impressive and covers many different groups such as Moroccan, Tunisian, Egyptian, Syrian etc
· Souq Madinat at Jumeriah which is lovely with canals of water around it and the Burj Dubai in the background
So I am all “malled out” for quite some time! Didn’t get to the Creek or beach area this time but I did that last year with Chris Jager. Time to go somewhere else I think , it was nice to get home to Qatar and I still like our Souq Waqif best.

Close encounters of the ostrich kind

We went for another trip to the Zekrit peninsula this weekend. Three four wheel drives off for an adventure to breathe the country dust instead of the Doha city dust. Well - it rained so being kiwis we went anyhow. Luckily it wasn't too wet so we headed for the fort and then we saw the ostrichs and went closer.

The male ostrich was not very happy with us interlopers and circled the suzuki nearly pushing at one side! They are very big, the front of their legs flash bright red and they have very large claws. Luckily we were in the car and he was outside and that's the way we stayed. It even followed us for quite sometime as we were leaving the area. I am glad it didn't attack the car as how would you explain it to the car insurance people, "Oh I am sorry about the damage to the car but it had the cr*p picked out of it by an ostrich." Well they might just believe it here. Believe the pictures don't really do them justice when they are beside with their feathers nearly in your face they are big mommas!

So after our close encouter of the feathered kind we headed for the fort and then up the top to the sea. No flamingoes today they must have decided to head for somewhere warmer as it was only 18 (that's cold here).
We picniced in the rain and then headed but to town - happy for our day out, damp, filthy car, gosh wet sand sticks like...... mud and ostrich free.