Wednesday, May 16, 2007
Temperatures rising
At last the internet is up and running at our house. We are all just dandy. The weather is getting steadily hotter and is in the early 40s most days. The boys are doing a lot of swimming, I use the airconditioned gym and Ian gets along to the squash court fairly regularly usually with work colleagues. I discovered a couple of weeks ago that most people disappear during the hottest months back home or to Europe. With the prospect of an empty compound and limited activities to choose from to keep ourselves amused for the long holidays (21 June - early September) I have booked a holiday in the UK for three weeks from mid August for Leo, Robbie and myself. We will stay with the Watts, hopefully catch up with the Murus and will go to Cornwall for a week at the end of August.
I'm meeting good people steadily. I've found a new bookclub....with what looks to be great women involved - the Duhail bookclub. The first meeting is at a cafe in the new Movenpick Hotel next Tuesday.
Photos follow - I'm sure I'll get better at this as I go along! I should be able to pop the pics in as I go along but don't quite seem to have the hang of that yet.
I'm meeting good people steadily. I've found a new bookclub....with what looks to be great women involved - the Duhail bookclub. The first meeting is at a cafe in the new Movenpick Hotel next Tuesday.
Photos follow - I'm sure I'll get better at this as I go along! I should be able to pop the pics in as I go along but don't quite seem to have the hang of that yet.
Tuesday, April 24, 2007
Leo and Robbie arrive
The email at home is not yet connected so I'm STILL using internet cafes, hence the lack of photos on the blog site. However we are in the Q-Tel queue now so I am hoping in a couple of weeks we will be posting lots of photos on the site and you will be able to really see what we have been up to.
The boys arrived over safe and sound after their big solo flying adventure. They looked pretty shattered when they arrived - Leo had five hours sleep on the flight and Robbie had two...They have bounced back pretty well.
They have started at a school called Park House English School. The school week, like the working week here is Sunday to Thursday, so they started school on a Sunday. Schooling is very very tight here - I have been quietly and pleasantly very persistent at a number of schools for the last month and even then regard it as a minor miracle that the boys have found a place. They had to sit an entrance test which was mostly English and Maths. The schools here seem to be divided along nationality lines - Park House has a high proportion of English, Aussie, Kiwi and South African kids amongst the 50 odd nationalities that attend. Right beside their school is a Pakistani school, an Iranian school and also Al Jazeera Academy which is attended by a high number of Arab kids as well as other nationalities. Just down the road is an Indian school, a Lebanese school, an American school etc etc. Park House is quite traditional - to their disgust the boys have to wear long trousers, a white shirt and even worse, a tie. Despite these atrocities they have settled in quickly and while they are missing home, are making friends fast and enjoying school. Robbie is at the primary school and Leo the secondary school - no intermediate schools here.
I'm getting used to driving like a maniac on the right hand side of the road, dodging Formula One Qatar Arab drivers, avoiding mad Pakistani drivers in pick ups and keeping a wary eye on the women who drive wearing full veils with very limited vision. No bingles in the car still....
I'm actually enjoying being at home as a medium term thang - I'll start looking for work after the long summer break in September. I am SOOO being the domestic goddess. In between running the kids to school, I go to the gym, visit the malls, visit girlfriends and do wee outings and plot the next adventures.
We've been out in the desert at a place called Mesaaid, where stony desert makes way for huge soft sand dunes. We went last weekend riding quad bikes up and down the sand dunes. There are no concerns at all about erosion. We each hired a quad bike - the boys had 60cc bikes and Ian and I had 180cc - the last of the easy riders. Robbie was a bit cautious to start with so I hung about with him while Leo and Ian hared off up the nearest dune. It didn't take long before we were all hooning around. I am officially the fastest quadbiker - try as they might none of the boys could catch me... he he he
We have also been snorkelling in the same area. No reefs to be seen and the beach is unfortunately covered with pastic but the water itself is clean enough and we saw a few fish. We will definitely try that again.
As well we seem to have been doing a lot of eating out - various birthdays etc etc - Robbie, Ian and I have birthdays within two weeks of each other so there's been a lot to celebrate.
The boys arrived over safe and sound after their big solo flying adventure. They looked pretty shattered when they arrived - Leo had five hours sleep on the flight and Robbie had two...They have bounced back pretty well.
They have started at a school called Park House English School. The school week, like the working week here is Sunday to Thursday, so they started school on a Sunday. Schooling is very very tight here - I have been quietly and pleasantly very persistent at a number of schools for the last month and even then regard it as a minor miracle that the boys have found a place. They had to sit an entrance test which was mostly English and Maths. The schools here seem to be divided along nationality lines - Park House has a high proportion of English, Aussie, Kiwi and South African kids amongst the 50 odd nationalities that attend. Right beside their school is a Pakistani school, an Iranian school and also Al Jazeera Academy which is attended by a high number of Arab kids as well as other nationalities. Just down the road is an Indian school, a Lebanese school, an American school etc etc. Park House is quite traditional - to their disgust the boys have to wear long trousers, a white shirt and even worse, a tie. Despite these atrocities they have settled in quickly and while they are missing home, are making friends fast and enjoying school. Robbie is at the primary school and Leo the secondary school - no intermediate schools here.
I'm getting used to driving like a maniac on the right hand side of the road, dodging Formula One Qatar Arab drivers, avoiding mad Pakistani drivers in pick ups and keeping a wary eye on the women who drive wearing full veils with very limited vision. No bingles in the car still....
I'm actually enjoying being at home as a medium term thang - I'll start looking for work after the long summer break in September. I am SOOO being the domestic goddess. In between running the kids to school, I go to the gym, visit the malls, visit girlfriends and do wee outings and plot the next adventures.
We've been out in the desert at a place called Mesaaid, where stony desert makes way for huge soft sand dunes. We went last weekend riding quad bikes up and down the sand dunes. There are no concerns at all about erosion. We each hired a quad bike - the boys had 60cc bikes and Ian and I had 180cc - the last of the easy riders. Robbie was a bit cautious to start with so I hung about with him while Leo and Ian hared off up the nearest dune. It didn't take long before we were all hooning around. I am officially the fastest quadbiker - try as they might none of the boys could catch me... he he he
We have also been snorkelling in the same area. No reefs to be seen and the beach is unfortunately covered with pastic but the water itself is clean enough and we saw a few fish. We will definitely try that again.
As well we seem to have been doing a lot of eating out - various birthdays etc etc - Robbie, Ian and I have birthdays within two weeks of each other so there's been a lot to celebrate.
Thursday, March 15, 2007
Settling in
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
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
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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