Life is starting to settle into a kind of rhythm now. I'm starting to feel a bit more confident about navigating my way around and am getting more of a feel for the place and am recognising some landmarks. The driving is very fast and intuitive. People seem to look out for other drivers in front and to the side but don't seem to use their rearvision mirrors. If you want the driver in front of you to do something (like move forward 2 inches) or warn them that you are going to do something you give them a little bip on the horn. There's lots of little bips going on, as the driving is pretty creative.
The house is slowly getting sorted out and we get floor coverings in the bedrooms on Saturday. This has been organised by a shop called Queens. A chap from Sri Lanka called Mohammed has been helping us. He was supposed to turn up to measure last Tuesday but didn't turn up. When I went to the shop the next day to find out why he was most apologetic and it turned out that there was no vehicle available to bring him around, and that he didn't drive h imself. He hopped into my car, I drove him to the villa, he measured up and I took hime back to the shop....instant service Qatar style. The quote was faxed through to Ian's work (in Arabic) - he got one of the guys at work to translate it, we accepted to quote and they will be around in two days time to do the work.
The furniture is in the country but no word about when it will be released by customs, hopefully in a week or two. Then we can stop sleeping on an airbed on the floor and can eat off something other than a picnic plate! And stop eating out all the time. Life is so hard...
Schools for the boys are getting there. I have the boys names down at two schools, Park House English School (which is near an Arab school, Al Jazeera Academy, an Iranian School and a Pakistani School), and Doha College. Leo can get into both schools but Robbie seems to be born in a year with a glut of children so things are not so sure for him just yet.
Cheers,
Mairi
Thursday, March 15, 2007
Wednesday, March 7, 2007
And so to Qatar
I had a whirlwind weekend in Melbourne with my sisters there before doing the odyssey across to Doha via Singapore and Dubai.
We move into our house today after being in a hotel for a couple of nights to get over the jetlag and to get a survival kit together so that we can camp in the house for a week or two until our furniture is cleared by customs. The house is good. There's a big pool, squash court, billiard room, tennis court and communal outdoors covered area as well as an indoor area. The neighbours look very friendly too, lots of kids around.
I've braved the traffic....and driven for the first time yesterday, it's going to take a bit of getting used to.
We got the electricity connected yesterday which was an interesting experience involving a visit to the Qatar Electricity Authority, providing copies of multitudinous documents to the man behind the counter along with everyone else clustered around. A lot of toing and froing until finally everything was in order, a wee man popped out of the woodwork with a toolbox, we gave him a lift to the house, he turned on a switch outside the house, gratefully received a tip and a lift from us back to where he came from and we were connected!
We have been grocery shopping, have bought an airbed and bedding, an iron and ironing board, mop, glasses and disposable plates, and washing powder so I reckon we will be fine for the next week or two! The inside of the fridge is as big as a ballroom.
We went to a business networking evening last night at a very nice hotel, the Four Seasons, and tonight we go to another similar session. On the whole, people are friendly and welcoming. Ian is well and charging around energetically. I'm feeling good, albeit in a slightly dislocated "Lost in Translation" jetlagged kind of way. Talk with you soon..
We move into our house today after being in a hotel for a couple of nights to get over the jetlag and to get a survival kit together so that we can camp in the house for a week or two until our furniture is cleared by customs. The house is good. There's a big pool, squash court, billiard room, tennis court and communal outdoors covered area as well as an indoor area. The neighbours look very friendly too, lots of kids around.
I've braved the traffic....and driven for the first time yesterday, it's going to take a bit of getting used to.
We got the electricity connected yesterday which was an interesting experience involving a visit to the Qatar Electricity Authority, providing copies of multitudinous documents to the man behind the counter along with everyone else clustered around. A lot of toing and froing until finally everything was in order, a wee man popped out of the woodwork with a toolbox, we gave him a lift to the house, he turned on a switch outside the house, gratefully received a tip and a lift from us back to where he came from and we were connected!
We have been grocery shopping, have bought an airbed and bedding, an iron and ironing board, mop, glasses and disposable plates, and washing powder so I reckon we will be fine for the next week or two! The inside of the fridge is as big as a ballroom.
We went to a business networking evening last night at a very nice hotel, the Four Seasons, and tonight we go to another similar session. On the whole, people are friendly and welcoming. Ian is well and charging around energetically. I'm feeling good, albeit in a slightly dislocated "Lost in Translation" jetlagged kind of way. Talk with you soon..
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