That's a month.....

This first month has just flown past. It doesn't seem five minutes ago that I arrived all wide-eyed and innocent and now it feels like I've always been here.

Had my first real experience of driving the tank yesterday. As Friday is like Sunday used to be several decades ago there was virtually no traffic on the road and so an ideal time to practise with all the new 'issues' - driving on the right, in an automatic, in a bl**dy massive vehicle. All went well and we toured around the city, using the GPS to get us out of trouble, and saw a few places we hadn't come across before. Eventually ended up at Landmark shopping mall where, after a very nice lunch in a french bistro/cafe, I spent quite a bit of money on some new outfits at Marks & Spencers; can you believe it?

This morning we went, very early, to the family beach at Al Khor. We got there at about 09:00 and it was already very hot with almost nobody about. The beach was strewn with rubbish; left from the previous evenings goings-on. But a small army of workers appeared and in less that twenty minutes the place was habitable again - fantastic job by the lowly manual workers, shame on the lazy gits who left all the rubbish in the first place. We had arranged to meet some work colleagues at the beach but we saw them arrive just as we left due to me not having sufficient mobile numbers yet.

Found this shell at the beach this morning.

Then this afternoon I went fishing with a boat load of Canadians and it was excellent. We all piled into a 36' Magellan launch and blasted out to sea for an hour; we must have been a good few miles out but thankfully stopped before we hit Iran. The fishing was good and my two small rods were more than enough for the feisty little fish we caught - most of which I had never seen before. The trip lasted for just over four hours and included tackle and bait, and all for the princely sum of £25.

"Where did you get that hat?"

Made sure both this morning and during the fishing trip that I had plenty of sun screen on but still know that I been out most of the day due to a slight tingle of the skin maybe due to wind burn. Anyway can't complain as the UK is still in the grips of a cold spell and it doesn't do to gloat!

Cheers for now..... 

I go to work for a rest......

More Qatari treats over the last couple of days:

i) On Saturday we went to the Cultural Quarter, an area called Katara, that has museums, art galleries and different aspects of Qatari culture. We had gone specifically to see a Martin Parr photographic exhibition - very good with lots of reminders of why Britain is at one and the same time great and not so, and an exhibition called 'Halal Hal Qatar' highlighting the lifestyle and agricultural practises that Qatar was originally built on. Farming was mostly sheep and goat herding, and they had some weird and wonderful breeds. Several of the goat breeds had extremely long ears, possibly three feet long, and in some it looked as though they were trimmed but what for I have no idea - food, kid gloves! 

Cath in a re-construction of a Qatari house
probably from the 1960's

ii) Last night I went to a football match, the QNB Final Cup, between two of the local professional teams - Al Arabi and El Jaish - the latter winning 2-0. But for all its pretencions of being the top Qatar league the standard of football was not great, even with a sprinkling of former top notch players from around the world. Thankfully though the fans, especially those of El Jaish, were a sight to behold and the Arabic/samba beat with constant changing singers was the real highlight of the evening. In middle of it all, just to add another level of strangeness, was an Arab guy playing a full-set of tartan bagpipes; thankfully in an Arab stylee and not the dirge that our Celtic soul brothers usually force upon us.

Can you spot the bagpipes right in the centre?

All this for the pricely sum of QR10 about £1.70; shame the very grand stadium (probaly seating about twelve thousand) was nearly empty. I think nthere were nearly as many security guards as spectators!

Anyway still very entertaining. Off out to a pub quiz now! 

So much to do....

....and so little time. It's strange to think that before I came to Doha I based most of my expectations on what I read in a couple of ex-pat web forums. They were generally neutral or fairly scathing about the lifestyle on offer, with a lot of emphasis on how little there was to do here. I suppose it might be an age thing, as many of the forum contributors appeared to be late twenties or early thirties, or lack of imagination, with constant reference to how difficult the culture here can be; but I suspect a goodmeasure of both. Thank goodness I didn't take much notice of their comments as at the moment I'm glad to go to work for the rest!

My weekend has consisted thus far of:

1) On Thursday afternoon I was taken for a 'new staff' lunch at a very nice restaurant in the high end hotel simply called 'W'.


The best and, as Cath just pointed out, the only deconstructed
cheeseburger I have ever eaten!

2) Friday morning an invite to a work colleagues snazzy breakfast - that lasted so long it actually became 'brunch'. I didn't need to eat all day after the  Bucks Fizz, Eggs Benedict, Fois Gras on Melba toast, chocolate pancakes with maple syrup, and enough tea/coffee to float a battleship.

 

 

3) Next came a crazy high speed dash to an old airstrip about thirty kilometres away to see a "Run What You Brung" motorbike and car drag event titled as the "300kph Club"; that's about 186mph in old money. There were plenty of very expensive, carbon-fibre laced, Ferraris, Porches, Nissan GTRs and American muscle cars of all descriptions, but these were all totally blown away by a trio of, what looked like street legal, Suzuki Hayabusas. All three of these bikes topped out at over 320kph (over 200mph). Only one car, a very un-street legal Nissan GTR with massive wheels and a parachute, managed to do over 300kph; so a good victory for the two wheelers!

 

Forget carbon-fibre Supercars give me
pizza delivery moped everytime!

4) In the late afternoon, after first having stopped for a pint of Guinness at the Doha golf club, it was off to meet Cath and some of my work colleagues at a Kite Festival. By this time, what with all the running around, I was about two hours late. When I finally got there they had all, as there were quite a few young children with them, called it a day. I stayed for about an hours watching all the kites (brought in especially from Afghanistan) and then walked the few miles back to our apartment. On the way I went a bit crazy in an Adidas shop and bought lots of the things I'd always liked but always considered too expensive back home.

 

5) When I got back to the apartment Cath told me I was invited to one of her colleagues leaving party that was starting in about thirty minutes. After a quick wash and brush-up, I slipped into an Adidas inspired outfit and we walked to the adjoining apartment block - all of two minutes away and no driving. We were met by loud music, loads of food and drink, and a very diverse bunch of ex-pat teachers; it was like the United Nations of teaching. I immediately got roped into making a very electric blue, very alcoholic jug of Windex Martini (vodka, triple sec, blue curacao, lime juice) - which looks and sounds like some sort of window cleaner but certainly had a punch (See what I did there?). This little beano topped off an excellent day and I write this the following morning with a slight hangover. "But hey!" someone's got to do it!

 

Cheers       

Birthday Bash

On Sunday night we went, with two of Cath's work colleagues, for a meal to celebrate Cath's birthday. It was at a Mediterranean fusion place called The Village, and was very nice in deed. As we have been living on mostly humus and salad for the last couple of weeks we decided that we would push the boat out a little - two courses plus hot chocolates all round.

Rosie, Boyd, the Birthday Girl and Jennie

I had baked aubergines (described as 'gratinated' meaning "with grilled cheese topping"), followed by some fantastic Arab style lamb chops (with four very chunky chips). Cath had lentil soup followed by baked aubergines with more salad. Rosie had a very nice looking starter of prawn salad with a quails egg on a bed of chiffonated lettuce (a poncy way to say "shredded"), followed by mushroom ravioli. Whilst Jennie also had the soup followed by grilled halloumi (a type of cheese), tabbouleh (an Arab minced salad) and brochette (Italian bread). All-in-all a right gastronomic blow out! This was all washed down with mocktails the Qatari take on non-alcoholic cocktails; all very nice but missing a little something "if you know what I mean?". 

Spooky Prawn Salad!

 

Purple Island

Went to the gym early this morning and then, whilst Cath was at the gym with her teacher mate Jennie, I nipped over to The Centre Mall to buy the birthday girl a little something. As my mother always tells me "a present should be something that the recipient wouldn't buy themselves!". So the jug water filter that Cath asked for didn't get bought - as that is something she would buy for herself - and a slightly off-piste present was bought instead. I won't reveal what it is yet as Cath sometimes reads this drivel and I don't want to spoil the surprise.

At Purple Island with the tide out!

This afternoon we took a drive Al Khor, about 40km north of Doha, to visit a rocky outcrop called Purple Island, which is access via an elevated walk-way through a mangrove swamp. It really is a strange and fascinating place; it had such an ancient feel about it - a very parched landscape, that when flooded by the in-coming tide, creates an outcrop that you could imagine our prehistoric ancestors sheltering around. Apparently archaeologists have discovery bronze age settlements there and very ancient fossils of the most simple life-forms so it must have had some special significance throughout the ages. Sadly there was a lot of rubbish discarded about the place which did, sadly, drag us back very quickly into the twenty first century.

Good afternoon out though and well worth another visit later in the year when it is not so hot. Now that we're back I'm just having a cup of tea before I go for a swim.

 

St. Paddy's Night celebration

Last night we went out with a group of my new work mates for an alternative St. Patrick’s Day dinner. It was organised by Jane, from Dublin, who was naffed off by the lack of organisational skills shown by her fellow countrymen*. So Cath and I, along with about twenty others, when to a very nice Italian restaurant, called Cucina's, about ten minutes walk from our apartment.  As the restaurant is located within the very grand Hyatt Hotel we were able to have alcohol with our meal and it really helped the banter to flow. It was a very well organised event, with spot prizes and a bright green pistachio cheese cake for dessert. And I suspect a far more civilised event than the one hundred pounds a ticket ‘real’ St. Paddy’s show. No doubt both events will be compared and contrasted in work on Sunday.

  

*The Doha Irish Club had sold six hundred tickets for a five hundred seat venue and when they had to suddenly drop one hundred punters it left a lot of unhappy people in the lurch (it was a ‘black tie’ event and some of the disappointed had already invested in a tuxedo and/or evening dresses).

First negative.....

Stupidly didn't take Cath's advice to get my teeth checked over before I came. Needless to say on Monday I noticed a 'chunk' of one of my admittedly scabby back teeth came adrift. Not yet having my AXA medical insurance card meant I would need to pay upfront and then reclaim. After asking around for a good dentist I managed to get a 21:00 appointment that night with the British International Dental Centre who were only alittle further along the coast road from where I work. So, at what seemed like the middle of the night and not really the time to be visiting the dentist, I turned up for my appointment at a very modern and bright dental surgery. The dentist, late of Newcastle UK, was very nice and told me that I'd need a sort of ceramic cap rather than a crown, and that he could do the preparitory work there and then to stabilise the tooth. He told me how much it would cost but I didn't really comprehend the exchange rates. So off we go - injections, grinding, suctioning, more grinding, etc. etc. At this point I was feeling very weird with yet another of my out-of-body moments where I'm not really there and it's all happening to some one else - strange! So after about forty five, not too unpleasant, mintues  it was all over and I needed to pay the bill. With consultation, digital x-rays (instantly viewed) and the procedure the total bill was QR4100, which at QR6 = £1.00 equals a slightly eye-watering £680! Thankfully, eventually, I will get eighty percent of that back via my insurance but I still need to pay about £130 - bl**dy hell! Sadly, my teeth are not brilliant so they may end up costing me a fortune in the long run. Again thankfully, my insurance might cover most of that and, with the added compensation of my much better wage, I might even get some cosmetic stuff done if it's not too expensive. Still it came as shock compared with the Good Old NHS; so just watch the Tories don't sneak something in.  

On a more positive note I went out so my first beer last night to a comedy club within one of the big hotels. The large hotels are the only place, other than that bought at the one state run off-licence and then drunk strictly at home, where you can legally buy booze. And again it's not cheap, entrance was QR150 and a pint of lager was QR40, but it was really worth it as the three UK based comedians were brillaint and, for once, were really LOL. The company was good aswell, mostly Brit expats, but also a good smattering of Yanks, Canadians, and Irish. Have to try and forget, within reason, the high prices as it is again off-set by my larger disposible income.

Still enjoying it though as I approach the end of my second week.

Regards
   

Al Wakra sunburn

Went to Al Wakra about 20mins. south of Doha as it has a very large open access beach. The vast open aspect was very popular, even on a Friday morning, and allowed us to dip our toes in the warm Arabian Gulf. Sadly with Qatar being so flat the water was very shallow, even fifty metres out, so I didn't get to try the snorkel kit.

"Charge that solar panel Baby!"

Due to still having two apartments we'd left the suncream at the other one, but the sun didn't seem so intense and the strong on-shore breeze certainly appeared to cool things down. So we decided that 20mins. would be OK for pale featured, pasty skinned, old me - er No! Should have made that 10mins. and not followed it with a 20min. walk around the lovely Marah Land (one of Qatars best parks).

In the surprisingly lush Marah Land gardens

It was a great morning out but now I am suffering slightly and feel like a par boiled lobster. That will teach me! Hopefully my skin will toughen up over the next few weeks but I will definitely need to have a few more bottles of SPF30 handy.

 

We're off out tonight to meet some of Cath's work colleagues for a meal in Souq Wakif, ye olde part of Doha. It has the look and feel of an old Arabic market place but is in fact a fairly recent reconstruction. There are plenty of places to eat there and a rabbit warren of shops and stalls but without any of the usual market place hassle; you get asked to come in and see what the shops have to offer but not the constant "I make you good price!" type stuff.  

 

Onwards and upwards.........

   

Friday - first day of the weekend

Cath is staying at Flat B over the weekend so that we have easier access to the city centre and the beach; neither of which is more than fifteen minutes from Flat C anyway.

Last night we both felt really tired - me as I think the events of the last week caught up with me again, and Cath because she had a long day at work. We had intended to go out for a meal but instead we had a curry and salad at home, all washed down with plenty of tea.

 At about eight o'clock I went over to the City Centre Mall, about ten minutes walk away, in search of some better work shoes. The ones I brought with me have been OK to date but I think they will be far too heavy when the heat arrives. I found some Hush Puppies, that are supposedly engineered to keep your feet cool and dry, so I bought a black and brown pair. I'm sure this engineering will be tested severely over the next few months! During the walk there and back I was quite surprised by the low temperature and high winds; I almost went back to get a fleece!

This morning we both went down to the apartments gym and had a thirty minute workout. As it was around 07:00 there weren't any other users which was fine as we both ended up as very sweaty heaps on the floor.

Now that the sun is rising we will head out to find a beach and hopefully I can try out the snorkel and flipper set I dragged over from the UK. The large hotels on the main Doha waterfront have private beaches that you can pay to access but I only want a bit of open beach to see if I can snorkel without an audience. I'll need to Google 'public beaches in Doha' in order not to swim in industrial or military sensitive areas as contact with either of these would not be a good introduction to swimming in the Arabian Gulf. Wish me luck!  

Fourth day in work 06.03.2013

Writing this feeling very tired at Flat C. An exciting day today as I actually got to visit the new hospital; which is not something that many of the other folks I work with have done. I hope I haven't stepped on any ones toes getting to go there after only having been here four days when some of them have been here months. It really was another mind blowing experience - not only the enormity of the project and the extreme architecture but also the sheer numbers of workers and vehicles that seem to be crawling over every surface.

 

 

The pictures don't really do it justice.

 

After work I went to a slightly manic 'Arabic Evening' at Cath's school. I was expecting there to be maybe fifty to sixty people there when in fact there was more like several hundred. There were displays of Arabic singing and dancing, masses of food and a camel and some hawks. Don't know exactly how Arabic it was but it was a chance to meet some of Cath's workmates and she were she works.

 

Having an early night now as the events of the last few days really seem to have caught up with me!



 

First day at work 3/3/13

Another film set/out-of-body type experience. Stayed at Cath's apartment (now known as Flat C) and this morning caught a taxi from there to my apartment (now known as Flat B). After a quick breakfast and wash'n'brush-up a driver collected me, and several other new SIDRA employees, from the front lobby and dropped us at the temporary SIDRA offices right on the seafront.

The morning was taken up with the neccessary HR, Health & Safety, setting up bank accounts, sorting driving licence, type of stuff. It was all done in a fantastically professional way and the time really shot by. We were then given vouchers to buy lunch in the very nice cafeteria; it had a very varied menu and being very heavily subsidised will be my daily food of choice.

After lunch we were taken to our individual departments and I met several of the people I'll be working with during their weekly Simulation Dept. meeting. A bit nerve wracking having to do the "Hello! My names Boyd and I'm an....." sort of introduction but I think it went OK and hopefully bodes well for the coming months.

I was then shown my office space, which again was very nice and well appointed. I have included below a view from my office window looking out over the sea which is yet another feature that plebs such as me don't normally get. If this sort of thing carries on I might start to get used to it!

This evening Cath and myself are meeting some of the SIDRA residents down by the pool. They were very keen to meet Cath as they all have young children and they will be attending her school. What a small world it really is!

Enough of this drivel - I need to sort my poolside attire. Will post more as and when.   

D-Day + 1

First proper day in Qatar. Because I was arriving so late, and had no idea how long it would take me to get through customs, Cath and I decided it would be easier to wait until this morning to meet-up. How ever good Skype is it cannot replace the touch and feel of the real person; what a blessed relief to finally be here! It really is great to be here after what seems like such a drawn-out process but was in truth only about four months and, given the time I know some people have waited, I realise I have been extremely fortunate in getting here so easily.

The apartment is everything I thought it would be but with knobs on. Very well appointed with all the modern conveniences, a lovely sized sitting/dining room, large kitchen, two bedrooms and three bathrooms. My new employers have certainly not scrimped on the accommodation and the 'welcome pack', that included all manner of food, drinks and household products, was very welcomed.

View from the apartment window.
The sea is just the other side of the tall buildings.

Cath and I have just returned from a four hour shopping trip to the City Centre Mall. It is about ten minutes walk away and is HUGE with every kind of shopping experience available. First off coffee and a cake to give us some energy before sorting passport photos (sixteen with approved blue background and NO smile), buy Pay-As-You-Go sim card for phone (a requirement for work), some better sandels and a new toothbrush.

So after all that tiring work we're now back at home. I've made a pot of tea with biscuits and so now we will put out feet up for an hour prior to catching a taxi over to Cath's place for our evening meal - Thai take-away form a little place that gets very good recommendations. Cath didn't bring the car as she wasn't sure what the parking arrangements might be (I have now been given a transponder to access our own private parking space). Later this evening she has threatened me with a drive out in Cedric, our new car - named after I know not what, to see the site of the hospital where I will eventually be working and Cath's school (which is strangely only a few hundred yards away).

That's it for day one and too much excitement for a boy is not good so I will no doubt sleep well tonight!

Onwards..........