Up and down (literally)

Not the best weekend I've had here. But then again.....

Thursday night got the entry form for the Red Bull Flugtag. We intend to submit a team from the simulation department of Sidra based on the Bloody Red Baron complete with triplane. Quite by chance we have a model aeroplane making in our building who is very keen to help; so who knows it might even get airborne. I'll keep you posted.

Booked a fishing trip for Saturday afternoon that was in doubt due to high winds. As it turned out it wasn't too choppy but still not the almost flat calm we'd had on the previous two trips. There were several first timer amongst us and three of them did suffer with sea sickness. The fact that we caught almost nothing, again in contrast to the previous trips, didn't really salvage the day. But as we had an early start, and were back by 11:00, we at least had the rest of the day to recover.

In the afternoon I collected the 'new' car - 2005 Mitsubushi Nativa. Bit rough around the edges but for the money a pretty good car. Hopefully it will last for a few years as the second car, and back and forth to work will be easier now.

Nicknamed 'Bluey' by the previous owners!

Just waiting to use for the first time in anger in the commute to work. Should be able to hold its own, and not be barged about by all the Land Cruisers.

Wish me luck!  

Bit remiss of me.......

Can't believe it's been so long since I last wrote here. I'm struggling to remember what I did yesterday let alone over the last two weeks. So in no particular order:

• Went night fishing at a very swanky waterfront area called The Pearl - all Armani, Ferrari and Sunseekers. Not entirely sure that we were allowed to fish there, but no sign was in evidence to the contrary so off we went. The guy I went with, Tom, had been before and regaled me with tales of the one that got away and dark shapes looming beneath smaller fish he had previously reeled in. So I had a certain amount of lure envy when he pulled out a lurid orange and yellow thing about six inches long - mine was only about an inch and a half! With his first cast he was straight into a thrashing mad thing that gave his cheap'n'cheerful supermarket rod a right work-out. We eventually managed to hand haul it up onto the quayside and it was a fish that I had caught previously called a Shaari. It's like a freshwater Perch, covering in spiny fins and with sharp looking teeth. I was really surprised to see such a large fish come out of what looked like a small canal. We let that one go and went in search of his brothers and sisters. We each caught one more about the same size and then Tom got into something much bigger that fairly ripped the line off the reel as it shot off. With such a small rod he didn't have much chance of stopping it and after about thirty metres or so it snapped him off. As is so often the case we would have loved to have seen what it was, but then that's fishin'.
•     After a few beers on a Thursday after work got dragged to a beach party. Didn't have a clue who/what/where but thought "What the Hell!". Was surprised to find that it was hosted by one of the DJs that my son like, Paul van Dyck. We got there about ten thirty and the main man was supposed to come on at eleven. By twelve, and still no superstar DJ, decided to call it a day. Just as I was leaving he came onto the stage in a cloud of dry ice and appeared just long enough for me to be able to say "I've seen Paul van Dyck".
• My three month probation period is now over and you'll be please and/or surprised to know that they wanted to keep me. The official day is 28th May but all the paperwork has been signed and sent to HR so I'm as good as in. Will buy a fancy cake - if I remember, all this sun has addled my brian (sic).
• Can you believe it that Cath and I went for a workout at the gym together this morning. I only went to 'show willing' but she used her teacherly ways on me to keep going. She introduced me to some strange positions that her personal trainer had shown her so I suspect I won't be able to walk tomorrow. As is often the case, with lazy sods like me anyway, I was glad that I made the effort and hope to get down there more regularly.
• The new apartment is taking shape and becoming more homely. We now have a lady who comes in weekly to clean the ankle  deep thilth we wallow in - I don't know how we coped before. Even though we are relatively far away from the waterfront (fifteen minutes as opposed to three hours in Derby) I'm glad we moved here as the environment is much less urban and extremely quiet.
• Also, finally, bought a car - a 2005 Mitsubushi Nativa. Well worth the wait and, as is so often the case, bought from a neighbour rather than the far flung districts I have previously travelled to. Just need to transfer the registration tomorrow and then I've got wheels
  

 

 



 

Just a quick update on the last week:

Tuesday 7 May
Started golf lessons at the only golf club in Doha. For QR550 I get six hour long lessons from a pro; it was excellent and well worth the money. I don't think I'll take it much further than the lessons but an occasional blast on the driving range might be useful to relieve any stress that builds up.

Friday 10 May
The first Diamond League Athletics Event of the season took place in Doha to a packed, and enthusiastic, crowd. Unlike the football match I watched there a few weeks ago the stadium, which holds over ten thousand I would guess, was rammed. I got to see a whole load of ex-world champions and Olympic medallists close-up; I even recognised some from the TV.

Thought I'd include a few general shots of where we live just to give you a flavour our new neighbourhood and how it's hotting up:

The entrance to Education City
Community Housing Lot1

Our apartment block - we are on the second floor,
back right

View of the apartment from outside the compound
we are the second floor, right in the middle

 

View looking right from the entrance
of our apartment

View looking directly across from the entrance
of our apartment

Short and sharp blog this time as I need to get ready for work again tomorrow. There may not be much to report from out-and-about as the temperature is really starting to climb; it was registering C42 on the car external thermometer today. We'll very soon be restricted to dashing from the air conditioned apartment, to the air conditioned car, to the air conditioned office, nipping into an air conditioned shopping mall on the way home, and quickly back into the air conditioned apartment again. No wonder so many ex-pats are ghostly pale and have very little suntan to speak of.

So must rush. Cheers for now!

Boyd
 

Finally moved

Time goes by so quickly that if I forget to update the blog another week has passed, and with the old memory not what it was I soon forget what we've been up to.

On Thursday evening we finally moved the last of our stuff from Merzam over to Education City. Cedric, the Ford Explorer, really came into his own as surrogate removal van. It only took us three trips and one of those was because we were worried about damaging the large plant collection we have adopted. The apartment is now looking more homely and is excellent. Hopefully we can now settle down for a bit and make it our home rather than a holiday location. We will be very strict about what we acquire in the way of household stuff as it soon builds-up and at some point we may have to move again or even leave the country when our contracts are up; but that's hopefully a long way off.

For Friday I had arranged to join the Qatar Natural History Group on a visit to an archaeological dig in the north of Qatar. A team from the University of Wales have been excavating a fort and associated buildings that dates from the 1500's. It was a very interesting guided tour of a site not yet open to the public. The fact that the sea level was a few metres higher and the area was lushly cultivated was a bit of a surprise given the arid desert conditions and oppressive heat on the day we visited.


The dig leader looked suitably Indiana Jones like!

Whilst we were there we were told to be careful of the bee nest on one of the walls. Obviously my ears pricked up at this and all thoughts of ancient civilisations and artifacts were soon forgotten. The small bee colony was attached, out in the open, to the rock face and looked like a small secondary swarm. They could also be the size of swarm you might expect to see in this part of the world as they certainly didn't look like any other bees I'd seen before; being black, light brown and white banded.

My first wild bees in Qatar



Later that afternoon Cath and I visited IKEA and bought a few things to brighten the apartment - some tasteful lamps and two of their cheap'n'cheerful meals. We also had a few neighbours round for drinks - hic!

Saturday was literally a washout as we had thunder and lightening plus torrential rain. It meant that I decided not to bother going to see the final football match of the Heir Apparent Cup. I didn't fancy seeing all the players jumping about when the pitch was stuck by lightening.

And then all too soon it's back to work again. But we're still very much enjoying our time here and have another full social calendar for the coming weekend plus mid-week golf lessons and Zumba!