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.
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.
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!
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.
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| 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.
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| 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!
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