Wednesday 19th June
Just for a change decided to do something different and check out the Lusail shooting range which is about 20km north of Doha. As is the want in Qatar it is a very big complex with several rifle and pistol ranges, and ten clay pigeon shooting stands. Clay shooting is quite popular in Qatar as they won a bronze medal in the last Olympics due in no part to having such a great place on their doorstep. Not much in the way of any safety checks or licences just pay QR100 (£20) for a box of cartridges and off you go. Enjoyed it so much I had to have two goes and then a beer on the way home at the golf club.
Thursday 20th June
Final golf lesson of the six, postponed from the previous week due to very high winds. Had a short practise on the driving range and then Andy, the coach, laid on a putting competition. A very good end to the sessions but don't think I'll take up golf. Will drop in to use the driving range and the 19th hole occasionally but that's as far as I think it will go.
Friday 21st June
The main event - Pub Golf Charity event around the five star hotels of Doha. Was I mad to organise such a thing? Quite a few people thought so as they paid the QR50 'green fees' but didn't want to join in in case it got messy. Which funnily enough it did. There were twenty of us who braved it into the bloody hot Doha evening and via minibus visited the expensive watering holes around West Bay. I was very uncertain how the slightly conservative door staff might react but as it was probably one of the first Pub Golf events many of them would have seen I think they thought we were Americans coming back from a day on the course.
First bar was a bit crowded, as Happy Hour was about to end, but lots of punters were very keen to chat to us and as the wine (a par four drink) flowed it all went well. The minibus was a God send as, unlike in the UK, the 'bars' are quite a distance apart and with the temperature at probably 30C+ there could have been a few who fell by the wayside. At the second bar we had a few cocktails and it was back on the bus into the main hotel area. The bus driver said he knew were the hotel, The W, was but gave us all a fright/thrill by ploughing through traffic the wrong way up a one-way street. Bit mad but, if you'll pardon the pun, par for the course in Doha! We finally ended up at a rough approximation of a British pub called 'Champions' which is in walking distance of were most people lived. Was a bit miffed that there was a QR60 entrance fee as there was a band playing but, as it turned out, they ROCKED! They were a seven piece Filipino covers band and they were excellent. By now Jaeger Bombs seemed to be the order of the night and the rest as they say was a terrible hangover after hitting the sack after 2am. Raised about £200 which is going to a women's charity in Rwanda that one of the evening competitors had been working for. A good night, as far as I can tell, and I think everyone got back roughly in one piece. If I haven't heard anything from the Qatari authorities within forty-eight hours I'll assume the best!
Saturday 22nd June
Maybe, in hindsight, not the wisest of decisions to have booked onto a trip with the Qatar Natural History Group the day after a massive bender. Woke up at about eight o'clock strangely without much of a headache but with, for the first time in my life, a bad case of the delirium tremors (the DT's if you will) - not a nice feeling at all and certainly not a good advert for excessive drinking. But off we went, Cath, our neighbour Tom and myself, to the slightly bonkers Sheikh Faisal Museum. I was expecting a few rooms with some nice bits and pieces, but what you actually got was a vast complex crammed with all sorts of stuff - fossils, ancient manuscripts, weapons, furniture, cars, motorbikes, boats, an aeroplane, more guns, ceramics, Bedouin heritage, did I mention guns, paintings, coins, and, just for good measure, some cannons. Absolutely crazy; very little explanation about where/what/who, and where it did exist it was obviously wrong. The funniest I saw, and maybe it was done by a bored curator, was a drawing of two fierce Arab warriors fighting with swords entitled 'The Arrival of the Prime Minister of Algeria' - priceless. The strangest thing was a bamboo bike from the Far East, and the most impressive a whole T-Rex fossilised head. Totally mad, but utterly fascinating. I really must go there again when I'm not feeling quite so, shall we say, delicate.
Just for a change decided to do something different and check out the Lusail shooting range which is about 20km north of Doha. As is the want in Qatar it is a very big complex with several rifle and pistol ranges, and ten clay pigeon shooting stands. Clay shooting is quite popular in Qatar as they won a bronze medal in the last Olympics due in no part to having such a great place on their doorstep. Not much in the way of any safety checks or licences just pay QR100 (£20) for a box of cartridges and off you go. Enjoyed it so much I had to have two goes and then a beer on the way home at the golf club.
Thursday 20th June
Final golf lesson of the six, postponed from the previous week due to very high winds. Had a short practise on the driving range and then Andy, the coach, laid on a putting competition. A very good end to the sessions but don't think I'll take up golf. Will drop in to use the driving range and the 19th hole occasionally but that's as far as I think it will go.
Friday 21st June
The main event - Pub Golf Charity event around the five star hotels of Doha. Was I mad to organise such a thing? Quite a few people thought so as they paid the QR50 'green fees' but didn't want to join in in case it got messy. Which funnily enough it did. There were twenty of us who braved it into the bloody hot Doha evening and via minibus visited the expensive watering holes around West Bay. I was very uncertain how the slightly conservative door staff might react but as it was probably one of the first Pub Golf events many of them would have seen I think they thought we were Americans coming back from a day on the course.
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| Some of the 'golfer' prior to the off! |
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| At 'Trader Vic' with a mad work colleague Colleen Still relatively sober at this point. It went down hill rapidly after this! |
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| Bar #3 Wahm at the W Hotel |
Saturday 22nd June
Maybe, in hindsight, not the wisest of decisions to have booked onto a trip with the Qatar Natural History Group the day after a massive bender. Woke up at about eight o'clock strangely without much of a headache but with, for the first time in my life, a bad case of the delirium tremors (the DT's if you will) - not a nice feeling at all and certainly not a good advert for excessive drinking. But off we went, Cath, our neighbour Tom and myself, to the slightly bonkers Sheikh Faisal Museum. I was expecting a few rooms with some nice bits and pieces, but what you actually got was a vast complex crammed with all sorts of stuff - fossils, ancient manuscripts, weapons, furniture, cars, motorbikes, boats, an aeroplane, more guns, ceramics, Bedouin heritage, did I mention guns, paintings, coins, and, just for good measure, some cannons. Absolutely crazy; very little explanation about where/what/who, and where it did exist it was obviously wrong. The funniest I saw, and maybe it was done by a bored curator, was a drawing of two fierce Arab warriors fighting with swords entitled 'The Arrival of the Prime Minister of Algeria' - priceless. The strangest thing was a bamboo bike from the Far East, and the most impressive a whole T-Rex fossilised head. Totally mad, but utterly fascinating. I really must go there again when I'm not feeling quite so, shall we say, delicate.
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