School broke up last week and reflecting back on the term that the boys have had here, they have done well. Leo got 3 A's in his end of year exams, despite only being at school for a term. The other subjects were a bit of a mixed bag, but I'm proud of how he has done. Robbie has been made a prefect for the new school year, so we are all very proud of that.
The temperatures here continue to climb, with it getting to the mid 40s or higher every day now. Yesterday I noticed the outside temperature gauge in my car indicated 50 (faint groan). Apparently it gets worse in August September because it gets humid as well... There really is a mass exodus of everyone at this time of the year. Most of Robbie's and Leo's school friends will be disappearing for the summer, and many of my new friends here have either gone or will be going. People either go back to their home country or have summer holiday homes in Europe or cooler parts of the Middle East. There are a few people around still and we are attacking the question of summer activities with gusto. We have made a list of activities and have promised each other that we will do some kind of physical activity every day, keep up our Arabic and Be Positive! So far, three days in it is going OK. We have been to Jungle Zone, a fun park at one of the malls, started building a flotilla of models, and been swimming as well as the inevitable electronic game time.
And we look forward to our visit to the UK in August. The things we are most looking forward to are being able to be outside a lot and be comfortable, and seeing green.
Ian is working hard as usual. Garrick is well and we are looking forward to catching up with him at the end of the year.
My thoughts have been turning towards work and I have been sowing some seeds, which hopefully will start taking root in September. I have realised that not very much happens fast here and finding a job that will be challenging/in my field/use my skills may take some time. Starting a business from scratch here is a protracted business. So I've decided to look for interim work as well to keep me occupied and stop me from Going Mad From Boredom. I'll keep you posted.
Wednesday, June 27, 2007
Monday, June 18, 2007
Arabic lessons
This is a picture of the boys with Hala. Hala is the most beautiful person and a committed and passionate teacher. She comes every week to our house to teach us classical Arabic. If you learn classical Arabic you can be understood anywhere in the middle east. Hala is from Lebanon and teaches at one of the universities here during the day, and teaches Arabic lessons at night. Tonight was our last lesson for a month or two, while Hala goes away for a summer holiday.So far we are learning spoken conversational Arabic. We are wrestling with masculine and feminine nouns and verbs, past present and future tenses, and trying to get some vocabulary under our belts. It's a different language to learn as both the beginnings and ends of words change depending on which tense you are using, and whether you are talking to a male or female or group of people. You have to think about language and words in a different way. When Hala comes back we will start to learn to read and write in Arabic. That will be good because in English it is spelt totally phonetically and the spelling is liable to change without warning. An example of this is a district we live close to - Al Waab. It can be spelt Al Waab one minute and Al Waeb the next. I have had to loosen up with my spelling when it comes to Arabic written in our alphabet.
We have lots of favourite Arabic words. "Yemkin" means maybe. "Portokalee" is the colour orange. "Mishmash" means apricot. I could go on and on. It's great fun learning Arabic and I practice it every opportunity I can on poor unsuspecting Arabic-speakers I come across.
The boys will both learn Arabic formally next year at school.
Wednesday, June 13, 2007
Park House concert
Robbie's school concert at Park House English School happened yesterday evening. Robbie was chosen to be part of his class's item, which was "America" from West Side Story. The class has been doing an ancient history unit, studying the 1960s. Robbie had lots of fun, and so did we watching.
Monday, June 11, 2007
Studio shots of new cars
Here are some studio shots of the Skateboard of Happiness and Priscilla, Queen of the Desert. My cousin asked me why we feel compelled to give everything a name. I'm not really sure, I think there are so many new things happening all the time, it humanises things and makes everything our own. And gives me a wee grin as my sense of humour is tickled.
Sunday, June 10, 2007
And a business confidence survey for the Gulf
Most Gulf businessmen see ’07 profit over 5pc: Survey Sunday, June 10, 2007
Web posted at: 6/10/2007 0:25:22
Source ::: Reuters
"DUBAI • More than half of business people in the Gulf Arab region polled by HSBC expect profits to grow by more than 5 per cent in 2007, the bank said yesterday.
HSBC said 57 per cent of 1,063 business people from the six Gulf countries said profit growth would exceed five per cent, down slightly from 59 per cent of respondents in the first quarter.
HSBC, which conducted the business confidence survey with polling company YouGov Siraj, said 52 per cent of the respondents were planning to increase investment in their businesses in 2007 and 55 per cent said they will hire more staff in the next 12 months.
HSBC’s Gulf business confidence index eased to 99 from 100 in the first quarter, with Qatar, at 114, reporting the strongest growth in confidence and Kuwait, at 95, the weakest.
A score greater than 100 indicates a positive shift in confidence and below 100 a negative shift.
“We have seen a strong similarity in outlook between Q1 and Q2, indicating that business in the Gulf is in good shape and will continue to prosper,” Keith Bradley, regional head of commercial banking for HSBC Middle East, said in a statement.
Inflation was seen as the most significant risk, with 49 per cent of businesses reporting it as a threat. Real estate costs were cited by 47 per cent of respondents as having a negative impact on their business. "
Web posted at: 6/10/2007 0:25:22
Source ::: Reuters
"DUBAI • More than half of business people in the Gulf Arab region polled by HSBC expect profits to grow by more than 5 per cent in 2007, the bank said yesterday.
HSBC said 57 per cent of 1,063 business people from the six Gulf countries said profit growth would exceed five per cent, down slightly from 59 per cent of respondents in the first quarter.
HSBC, which conducted the business confidence survey with polling company YouGov Siraj, said 52 per cent of the respondents were planning to increase investment in their businesses in 2007 and 55 per cent said they will hire more staff in the next 12 months.
HSBC’s Gulf business confidence index eased to 99 from 100 in the first quarter, with Qatar, at 114, reporting the strongest growth in confidence and Kuwait, at 95, the weakest.
A score greater than 100 indicates a positive shift in confidence and below 100 a negative shift.
“We have seen a strong similarity in outlook between Q1 and Q2, indicating that business in the Gulf is in good shape and will continue to prosper,” Keith Bradley, regional head of commercial banking for HSBC Middle East, said in a statement.
Inflation was seen as the most significant risk, with 49 per cent of businesses reporting it as a threat. Real estate costs were cited by 47 per cent of respondents as having a negative impact on their business. "
A nasty act on hapless labourers
From "The Peninsula" on-line's letters to the editor:
"Commuters driving along the road opposite the City Center witnessed a horrible incident on Thursday at around 8pm. The passenger of a white sports car that was being driven recklessly in between cars, rolled down his window and threw a can of soda and leftover food at the faces of labourers sitting on the pavement waiting for the bus. The driver of the white vehicle, along with his friend, both of whom are of Middle Eastern origin, laughed as they rolled up their window, and as they proceeded to dart in and out of traffic, other drivers who managed to see their degrading act began to shout and beep their horns at them, expressing their disgust at what they had witnessed. The Asian worker that was hit in the face, when asked if this was the first time he was the victim of such foolish and insensitive behaviour, told The Peninsula, “We are used to being treated inhumanely, whilst sitting here on the pavement waiting for our bus service to take us back to the camp. Many of us have had food, half empty soda cans, and other items thrown at us from cars. Especially during the evening when it seems that the youth is out looking for entertainment and use us as their target.”-Adeil A, Doha"
"Commuters driving along the road opposite the City Center witnessed a horrible incident on Thursday at around 8pm. The passenger of a white sports car that was being driven recklessly in between cars, rolled down his window and threw a can of soda and leftover food at the faces of labourers sitting on the pavement waiting for the bus. The driver of the white vehicle, along with his friend, both of whom are of Middle Eastern origin, laughed as they rolled up their window, and as they proceeded to dart in and out of traffic, other drivers who managed to see their degrading act began to shout and beep their horns at them, expressing their disgust at what they had witnessed. The Asian worker that was hit in the face, when asked if this was the first time he was the victim of such foolish and insensitive behaviour, told The Peninsula, “We are used to being treated inhumanely, whilst sitting here on the pavement waiting for our bus service to take us back to the camp. Many of us have had food, half empty soda cans, and other items thrown at us from cars. Especially during the evening when it seems that the youth is out looking for entertainment and use us as their target.”-Adeil A, Doha"
Saturday, June 9, 2007
The great hops forward
The weather has been a bit cooler this week because of a huge cyclone that hit Oman just down the coast. Thankfully there wasn't the terrible weather here that they experienced, just a drop in temperature over the last couple of days from early to mid forties to the late thirties.
There have been a couple of major leaps (or maybe hops) forward this week for the Hendrikse Lauchland Mercers. Firstly we have new cars - yahoo. It costs NZ$35 more per week to buy brand new cars than to rent as we have been doing. My car is a sensible 7-seater people-mover 4 wheel drive Hyundai Santa Fe. Colour: sand (if you ask me); champagne colour if you asked Ian. It is wonderful and I feel very grand sailing along in her. I can now eyeball the Toyota Landcruiser rocket drivers all around me. This eyeballing technique makes for a much easier time on the road, surprisingly enough. A technique that hasn't worked in the new car has unfortunately been my backing technique....I put a scratch on the back bumper on the First Day, which Ian has taken undue delight in telling everyone about.
The other car is Ian's. This is Hyundai coupe - colour vivid blue. Ian calls the car the Bluebird of Happiness, which has been quickly changed by me to the Skateboard of Happiness because it is so low it feels just like we are riding on a skateboard. The boys fit in the back ok. Here are the boys doing a car inspection.
It is a zippy wee thing. Lots of fun to drive. No scratches on it.
The other event has been the purchase of the TV. It is up on the wall of the lounge. It is big. Ian chose. You can watch two different channels in the house at once; there is a second outlet for another TV in the room next to the lounge. This room will be the MTV room. The installation was done over a couple of hours by some very cheerful technicians - one exuberant Syrian ("from Old Damascus") and a quiet Indian guy. It seems geekiness transcends race and continent. We have 6 trillion channels to choose from. Our Syrian technician took us through an exhaustive selection of them but lingered on the BBC Food channel ("this channel is too much perfect").
Ian took the opportunity while the TV guys were on the roof to shinny up the ladder and take some photos of the compound and surrounds, so here is a bird's eye view of our little dusty corner of Doha.
This photo looks down the street along one of the rows of villas Just Like Ours. You can see the Skateboard of Happiness below. Across the road is a little playhouse in front of our neighbour's house, which we call the Committee Room. At dusk every night a collection of small girls gather in and around it like sparrows. They do a lot of running and screaming and occasionally you can see them riding their bikes wearing little dress- up high heels. The bikes are all pink. 
This photo looks in the same direction as the previous photo but from the other side of the house, over the outer perimeter wall of Al Faisaliya Compound. You can see twin minarets of one of the mosques close to us, and the flat expanse of dusty stony land behind us. It has just been levelled off ready to build on.
This photo looks in the opposite direction towards the old part of the city, the sea and the airport. The digger has been resident outside the boy's bedrooms for a couple of weeks now, digging drains. There is no reticulated water supply where we are yet - all the water is trucked in to tanks in our compound...for a 210- house compound it must be a huge amount of water.
There have been a couple of major leaps (or maybe hops) forward this week for the Hendrikse Lauchland Mercers. Firstly we have new cars - yahoo. It costs NZ$35 more per week to buy brand new cars than to rent as we have been doing. My car is a sensible 7-seater people-mover 4 wheel drive Hyundai Santa Fe. Colour: sand (if you ask me); champagne colour if you asked Ian. It is wonderful and I feel very grand sailing along in her. I can now eyeball the Toyota Landcruiser rocket drivers all around me. This eyeballing technique makes for a much easier time on the road, surprisingly enough. A technique that hasn't worked in the new car has unfortunately been my backing technique....I put a scratch on the back bumper on the First Day, which Ian has taken undue delight in telling everyone about.
The other car is Ian's. This is Hyundai coupe - colour vivid blue. Ian calls the car the Bluebird of Happiness, which has been quickly changed by me to the Skateboard of Happiness because it is so low it feels just like we are riding on a skateboard. The boys fit in the back ok. Here are the boys doing a car inspection.It is a zippy wee thing. Lots of fun to drive. No scratches on it.
The other event has been the purchase of the TV. It is up on the wall of the lounge. It is big. Ian chose. You can watch two different channels in the house at once; there is a second outlet for another TV in the room next to the lounge. This room will be the MTV room. The installation was done over a couple of hours by some very cheerful technicians - one exuberant Syrian ("from Old Damascus") and a quiet Indian guy. It seems geekiness transcends race and continent. We have 6 trillion channels to choose from. Our Syrian technician took us through an exhaustive selection of them but lingered on the BBC Food channel ("this channel is too much perfect").
Ian took the opportunity while the TV guys were on the roof to shinny up the ladder and take some photos of the compound and surrounds, so here is a bird's eye view of our little dusty corner of Doha.
This photo looks across the road over our neighbours place towards the Khalifa Stadium. This, and the tower next to it was built for the recent Asia Games which were held in Doha last December. The tower was where the flame was burning for the duration of the games.
This photo looks down the street along one of the rows of villas Just Like Ours. You can see the Skateboard of Happiness below. Across the road is a little playhouse in front of our neighbour's house, which we call the Committee Room. At dusk every night a collection of small girls gather in and around it like sparrows. They do a lot of running and screaming and occasionally you can see them riding their bikes wearing little dress- up high heels. The bikes are all pink. A couple of weeks ago an anonymous letter was left for Robbie by one of the girls.
Quote: "Dear Robbeiy, I love you so much I want to kiss you on the lips. From Britny Spiers xxx ooo". On the other side of the paper there were a lot of red lovehearts, three little pink lipstick kiss marks, "I love you" and a clue, "I live in America". It took the boys quite a while to work out which six year old had written the letter.
This photo looks in the same direction as the previous photo but from the other side of the house, over the outer perimeter wall of Al Faisaliya Compound. You can see twin minarets of one of the mosques close to us, and the flat expanse of dusty stony land behind us. It has just been levelled off ready to build on. 
This photo looks in the opposite direction towards the old part of the city, the sea and the airport. The digger has been resident outside the boy's bedrooms for a couple of weeks now, digging drains. There is no reticulated water supply where we are yet - all the water is trucked in to tanks in our compound...for a 210- house compound it must be a huge amount of water.
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