Dusty Doha

Well today in Doha is NOT worth writing about. It is hot and windy and dusty. We are having a dust/sand storm and it just gets everywhere. You can easily see the air you are breathing - which can't be a good thing. I can't go to the Dip Club because I would need dusting if I lay outside. Mind you a good sand blasting might be good for the complexion.

So I will write about last weekends Athletic Mete.

Every year in May they have the international circuit of Athletics and we get quite a few international stars. I have now been 4 times! The ladies high jump has been my favourite and the woman who won the gold in Bejing has been here each time.

I like this photo with the two very different amounts of clothing that you can see!

Anyhow its neat night out and good to see these events close up. We especially like all the little things you don't see on TV like the remote control car that delivers back the hammers from the hammer throw and the javelins etc.

Some of the officials and a lady from the press.

The lady below is a 100m runner from Bahrain. She was at teh Olympics too. She is a great role model

Up Zekrit with two paddles

Title per courtesy of my friend Lynne, who is more creative than me! This weekend we went camping! Yes me with an aversion to places without proper toilets, comfy beds and room service! I am even the twit that went out and brought the tent so we could go on this adventure.

We set off at 3.30pm which was straight after work on Thursday and were going to our favourite picnic spot up the Zekrit peninsula. It takes about an hour and a half from here and as dark arrives about 6.30 we needed to be there and set up before that. We set out and Raewyn, who took Gaye’s daughter Anna, managed to get two flats tires so a diversion to Dukkan to get them fixed took up some time. The three 4x4’s (Lynne and Brian Thomas came too) then hoofed it up the rough peninsula tracks to arrived about 5.30 and Steve did the most important thing for him. He got the tire tub dinghy (aka The Titanic) organized and set a fishing line for overnight.

I put up the tent – which was very clever of me has I haven’t done this before luckily Lynne and Brian helped. This help was especially necessary as when I unpacked the new tent someone had cut the elastic things that held the poles together to create the dome! A bit of kiwi ingenuity and much swearing saw the tent poles assembled though.

During the evening the wind got up and so Steve tied our tent and the Thomas’ to the Suzuki. At once stage during the night we wondered if it would all hold together but it did. If you have ever wondered what sleeping in a bag of chippies would be like try sleeping in the wind in one of these nylon tents!

The wind dropped just before dawn and it was very pleasant about 36 degrees. Steve put together the proper boat christened Michael as in “Michael row your boat ashore” and the guys went out to check the line for fish. I got out the BBQ with anticipation of fresh fish for brekkie. We had sausages!!

After another swim, imagine all before 6.30 am we started to relax for the day. AND then about 8am wind came back. So eventually we had to take down the two big tents before they blew apart and ended up in Bahrain! This was a four man job in the wind and even then the Thomas’ tent ended up in the sea for a bit. We decamped for a second spot that was more sheltered for the days picnic and Monica, Haven and Jackie drove up to join us.

This new beach is spectacular and as the temps crept up to the low 40’s we spent much of the time in the water. Monica and I snorkeled and actually saw some lovely reef fish with yellows, silver and black around one rocky outcrop. These are the best we have seen. Brian and Steve were surf casting off this area but unfortunately no bigger fish took the lines.

Don't you just love Anna's (on the right) hat !

We lasted until early afternoon but then the night in a tent, the early start and the sunshine made us tired so we had a more leisurely drive towards home and guess what? Raewyn got another puncture!

I might do this all again mainly because I love that beach area and the sea is just so nice to swim in BUT I need to invest in some good airbeds as the ones I had were terrible. I am too old to sleep on the hard ground. I will just take another volatrin and I will be all go for the rest of the weekend

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.

Qatar National Day

This blog is now out of order but I didn’t write about Qatar National Day which is on the 18 December. It marks the beginning of Qatar as we know it and the Emir at that time winning battles to remove the Turks from Qatar
This year for the first time they had a major parade along the Corniche. Steve and I went along and standing beside me were a lovely Qatari family. The teenage daughter happily chatted away and explained what was happening if I wasn’t sure.
It was such fun and we were thanked by locals for sharing their special day with them - how cool is that. The day ended with great fireworks and a lazer light show over the water- this is a great little country
I have put some photos showing the progression of the parade from olden days to nowadays. I will post more on my facebook page if you want to see more of them them .

Sheik Faisals museum

Well I haven't updated the blog for a long time so I will go back to January and share some of our outings with you. One sunny day we headed out of town to Sheik Faisal's museum. It is a private museum that holds a great collection of interesting artefacts from Qatar’s Past. It is housed in this amazing new building that looks a bit like a castle I suppose. It was a great day out and Gaye and Anna Voisey came with us and so did Pat and Jeff Churchill and Hazel Reddington who was looked the persian carpets. Hazel was amazed at the similarity between the designs in the carpets and maori designs.

Sports in Qatar

Andy Murray

Well we have just had the Qatar Exxon Men's Tennis here in Doha. It was amazing this year as we had Nadal (World No 1), Federer (World No 2), Andy Murry and Andy Roddick so even I had to go and watch. It has been a but chilly so you need to rug up warm.

Nadal

Gaye and Anna Voisey and I trotted off to the stadium for the amazing cost of $10 each. We even got seats one down from the "gods" and enjoyed watching Murray, then Nadal and then Federer as win their matches. This was the night before the quarter finals and I must admit I watched the rest of the tournament on TV in the warmth of the lounge!

Federer

Andy Murray ended up winning the title for the second year in a row so he will be one of the favourites in Melbourne. The next sport event is the Qatar Open Golf and Mark Brown is playing so we will get along to that just before we head off to Australia for our semester break.

Khalifa Christmas

We had a great Christmas in Doha this year. First we had our work function at the Intercontinental Hotel, it was an international affair. It started with a small Maori welcome and waiata by a couple of our consultants.This was great as we all felt close to home, progressed to singing and dancing with the karaoke and many of us finished learning Palestinian dancing from some of our translators husbands. It was great. Mind you it was a bit hard to get to work the next day but we all managed. The photo is me with one of our translating team, Bashar and his wife.

On Christmas Day itself we were allowed the day off. So we had 26 people to the Khalifa apartments for a shared Christmas dinner that started about 4pm. We all did different things and in true kiwi fashion there was a mountain of food. The tables were set out on the third floor, where we life, as we have all four apartments on that level. We used the passageway out side for the tables and the apartments for serving and mingling in. It was a great meal and there was much hilarity as we shared jokes, food and wine. I ended my night having a quiet sheisha at Lara's place with Gaye, it was mint flavoured lovely.
Even though we were far away and miss family and friends being with our Qatar whanau was great.

Merry Christmas and Eid Mubarak

We are starting to get the Christmas feel here. I have put up the Christmas tree in the apartment and Adam and Amber helped me put up the tree in the passage way outside our flats. It looks cool. I also found a Christmas shop in Qatar. It is at a shop called “The One”, and its cool. The supermarkets and other places have decorations and most shops in the malls have some sort of Christmas display. I can’t believe this is the third Christmas we have spent in Doha. The first was when we came the first time in 2005 and we are nearly at two since we returned in Feb 2007.

At the moment we are having a week off for our second Eid break. We have two Eid’s and this one is called Eid Al Adha and it is the Eid of sacrifice. It is also the official Eid for doing Hajj which is the journey to Mecca that each Muslim should do once in their lifetime. Our Head translator Osama had gone to take part. I am looking forward to him telling me about it when he returns. Around three million people take part at this time each year.

Last Friday we had thunder, lightning and rain. The rain was heavy and there was some hail it was amazing. It has stopped now and the air feels very clear and crisp. The flooding around the streets was almost instance they don’t do drainage in this place very well! The temperature is dropping and lots of people like it while am I feeling a bit cold. It is down to 15 at nights and only gets to about 25 at max during the day. It feels like winter and while these temps may sound warm to you remember that this is winter and the sun is further away and there can be a chilly breeze. It is not like 24 or 25 at home.

However today, Wednesday, was lovely. As I walked on the Corniche the sun shone and it was a clear sky after our rain and 25 degrees . I couldn’t help but think how lucky we are to be here and experience all this. I had a lovely trip on the harbour on a dhow with a friend and then coffee in the souqs watching many nationalities enjoying the holiday.

It is certainly a week to count our blessings and one touched with sadness. One of my very special friends has a sister who is fighting cancer and we think of her daily and then we heard of another friend in New Zealand who had an accident in a bike race in Christchurch and sadly passed away from his injuries. Our thoughts go to his family even we are so far away we still care deeply.

So Eid Mubarak (happy Eid) and Merry Christmas to everyone at home and make the most of everyday and be especially kind to all your special friends and family.