Qatar diaries. Joys & Struggles in the Land of Sand

Rainy day in Doha

2008-12-07T02:26:00.000-08:00

We are back!

2008-10-11T01:25:00.000-07:00

Well it's been a long time since we last posted anything but we have been very busy. I used to have quite a lot of spare time when I was on my own, but now that Sharon and Jake are here we have been going out and doing things nearly every day. And still no internet at home!! :-(
Anyway, Sharon and Jake arrived to Qatar about two weeks ago. The flight was fine and the biggest shock was the high temperatures and humidity that welcomed them. (they should have come a month early if they wanted to experience the "true" high Qatari temperatures!!).
As I said, we have been quite busy. Done a few things, from shopping in the malls, dinning out, going to the beach, sailing, playing golf, playing football (jake and I have been selected for one of the teams in the Qatari expat league), windsurfing, going on a quad bike in the dunes, desert trip, smoking sisha, eating Iraqui food, going on a traditional boat, watching football, sunbathing (that's Sharon) etc etc etc
So, I'll stop talking and I'll put up some pictures. Enjoy!!
.
Lisa and April Keen at the Golf party.

Alfons pissed?

The award ceremony at Mesaieed Golf club.

Sharon at the Golf club.

Ahmad, Bobby Keen and Alfons at the Golf club.

At the desert quad biking!.

Jake and Ahmad on a quad bike.

Sharon didn't dare....

Speedy Gonzalez.

Camel at the Sea Line beach resort.

On a Dhow trip. Doha's West Bay.

Dhow trip.

City Centre shopping mall.

Jake diving at the Golf Club.

More sand dunes.

Doha's West Bay.

Jake and Sharon on the boat.

Sunset in West Bay.

More sunset.

Alfons sailing at the Beach club.

More sailing.

Ahmad's dancing lessons.

Our new car.

Chevrolet Tahoe. 5.8 litres. The beast.

Sharon and Jake finally in Qatar.

At the beach club.

Souq Wakif. Ahmad and Sharon.

Eid entertainment.

Jake, after a fight with Alfons. :-)

Souq Al Waqif (Old Souq)

2008-09-20T12:41:00.000-07:00

On Thursday I met Ahmad (works with me, he is a british lebanese from london) and we went to the Old Souq. There we met the other Ahmad (british egyptian who works for Shell) and Abdullah (british egyptian who works for Al Jazeera tv) and after wandering around the beautiful narrow streets of the Souq we had some dinner at an Iraqui restaurant. The food was delicious, the service excellent and the price superb! After that we went to a sisha bar and we spent a couple of hours smoking sisha and talking about Islam. It was quite interesting being able to ask controversial questions about Islam and getting in-depth answers from young trendy british muslims who try to combine the amenities of modern life with their religion.
The night finished at a reasonable time...3:30 in the morning!!
.

Iftar at Al Jazeera

2008-09-18T03:56:00.000-07:00

Yesterday I went with my friend Ahmad to the Iftar at Al Jazeera TV. For those of you who don't know, Al Jazeera is the biggest Arabic TV station and provides news and sports in both English and Arabic. Iftar, is the break of the fast, and here in Qatar they put tents up for the workers to break their fast and the food is absolutely delicious.

My friend Ahmad has got a friend working there and he got us two passes for the Iftar. Then we got a tour of the TV station. It looks really good and we even watched them reading the news live.

I also met some of Ahmad's friends and they are really nice people. They are Egyptians but two of them were born or raised in the UK. One of them offered me to play football in the Al Jazeera league and I said yes! Although I'm doing lots of sport here, I haven't yet had time to practise any footie. So I can't wait.

Take care everyone!

Qatar v Uzbekistan

2008-09-07T12:28:00.000-07:00

I am posting a few pics and some videos of the game that we went to watch last night, a qualifier for the 2010 World Cup that Qatar won in style by 3-0. It was quite a bizarre experience, the Qatari fans are quite noisy when compared to other Arab countries and the atmosphere was electric. The tickets, free.

On Wednesday there is a local derby, they are playing Barhain and I will be attending that game aswell. By the way, the game is played at 10pm and we were completely soaked by half time. Imagine how were the players by the end of the 90 minutes....

Getting fit

2008-09-07T12:19:00.000-07:00

Here there are a few pics of the gym in our compound, especially taken for Jake, so he can start planning how he is going to use some of his spare time to build those tiny girly muscles he has.

At the moment, as I have lots of spare time, I'm trying to go to the gym every day apart from the weekend. I do 30 mins running in the treadmill, some push ups, some weights and then 10 lengths (25m) in the swimming pool. Not too much, but at least it's keeping me reasonably fit. Tomorrow I will start playing tennis, we also have a tennis court in the compound, as I just bought a tennis racket today.

Our new villa in Mesaieed.

2008-09-01T09:43:00.000-07:00

Today we were taken to see our new accommodation in Mesaieed a town 30 km away from Doha, where the school is situated and where we will be living in a couple of months time. A have no words to describe the house. It's just something amazing, something that I am sure we will NEVER be able to afford in our live. 4 bedroom villa, open view living room, big kitchen, 3 bathrooms, maid outside living space, covered driveway for 2 cars and an immense outside living area. All you can see in the pictures is one villa. And the pictures, especially the inside ones, don't do it justice.
Anyway, apart from that, everything is fine. Just trying to sort out Sharon and Jake's visas and flights now, so they can come over as soon as possible. Today it was the first day of Ramadan, and most of the shops and restaurants shut until 6 when the fast is broken.
Temperatures have dropped down a bit but the humidity today was horrendous. You get completely soaked just by walking outside for a couple of minutes. But I've been told that the weather will get better, less hotter so we just have to wait a few more weeks to enjoy the best of the weather here in Qatar.
On the previous post I posted some pictures of the Sea line beach resort, which is situated just 5 minutes drive from Mesaieed. It's a very nice resort, with lots of facilities, quads, jet-ski, pools, tennis, badminton, camel rides, horse rides etc etc. So I guess we will be using it quite often, especially during the week as it gets quite busy on the weekends.
We haven't started teaching yet. At the moment we are processing the applications and we are going to start interviewing parents next week. It looks like we won't have any kids for a couple of weeks, so we are doing various tasks every day but nothing too daunting. During Ramadan, our working hours are 8 to 12. After Ramadan, school starts at 7 and finishes at 13:30, with extra curricular activities and clubs running from 13:30 to 14:30.
Take care everyone!

My first school day...

2008-08-31T11:31:00.000-07:00

Ramadan

2008-08-30T11:05:00.000-07:00

It's been a few days since I last posted anything, the reason being that I was moved to the provisional accommodation in Al Bayyan Gardens and I don't have internet there. However, there is a nice cafe next door to our compound called "Al Saad" which is the sports cafe of the club that shares the same name, and it's supposed to be the most important football club in Qatar. Anyway, there is free wireless internet at this cafe, so I can just have a drink or something to eat and spent a few hours on the internet. Still, it is pretty inconvenient having to come here everytime I want to be online.

Right, what's happend to me over the past few days. On Wednesday I left the hotel and was put in a villa in Al Bayyan. The house is amazingly big. Three bedrooms, the master one (probably as big as our living room) ensuite, three bathrooms, a large kitchen a large dinning room and a living room. The furniture as you can probably gather from the pictures is quite dated, but the amount of space is really good. It also has a covered driveway, a little front garden and a bit of back yard.

On Thursday I went to Mesaieed (where the school is located and where we are going to live permanently) and we have some kind of inset day. The days here seemed to start very early. The bus that takes you from Al Bayyan to the school leaves at 6:30 every day. However, because this is the Holy month of Ramadhan, we will be finishing at 12 EVERY SINGLE DAY!!

So ain't too bad, is it?

Here, the weekend is on Friday and Saturday, so today is our last day before the week commences on Sunday. Tomorrow, it will be our proper work day, but we will be spending all week attending several seminars and doing some preparation work. There are very few students this year, and it looks as we will spend most of the time planning and creating resources. Not too bad either.

In Mesaieed, I joined the Golf Club. It is one of the oldest golf clubs in the middle east, and it's a brown golf course. It's made of a mix of sand and oil. I paid 500 Qatar Ryals for a yearly family membership. So both Jake and Sharon can use the golf course, the swimming pool and the gym, for £75 a year!!!

Today, I went to the Hyatt Plaza shopping centre as I needed to buy an iron and a few other things. Then, in the afternoon all the teachers went to the QP beach & sailing club. It is a private club for senior employees of Qatar Petroleum. It is vey nice, it has its own private beach, sailing boats, windsurfs, canoes, a 9 hole pitch & putt golf course and a subsidised cafeteria with lovely and very cheap food. You can join for 50 QR a month for the whole family, this is £7.50. So I will join very soon too.

And that is about it! I am posting several mixed pictures that I hope you like. I am missing you all a lot, especially Sharon. I really don't know what my life would be without her!!! But everything seems to be getting sorted over here, so hopefully her and Jake will be able to join me very very soon.

Take care everybody!!

The ice rink and the villagio shopping mall.

The city centre shopping mall. One of the biggest in the world.

Omanis eating (you can tell they are omanis for the hat they wear).

Arabian fast-food. Yummie!

The hall at the hotel.
Arabian desserts.

The entrance of our villa.

Living room.

Dinning room.

Master bedroom.

Master bedroom's ensuite.

Upstairs' landing.

The compound at night, with the mosque in the background.

The swimming pool.

Al Saad stadium in the back.

Our villa from outside.

The beach club.

Doha skyline at night.

Some of the other teachers.

Some pics

2008-08-25T05:21:00.001-07:00

Some more pics of the hotel and the views from the hotel.

By the way, I forgot to say it's bloody hot out there!!!!! It feels like someone is blowing hot air at you. For my family in Barcelona, "quan surts al carrer tens la sensacio de com quan estas a sobre d'una d'aquelles reixes per on passa el metro i et ve aquella bocanada d'aire calent....el mateix, pero tota l'estona!!".

Will post some more tonight.

Finally here! (part 2)

2008-08-24T14:09:00.000-07:00

At 20:15 I finally arrived at the hotel after a 10 minutes ride along the notorious Doha roundabouts and I checked in without problems.
The hotel is beautiful. Five stars, arabian deco and very modern. The room is so spacious, the bed is massive!! and I've got all facilities (internet, cable tv, minibar etc etc). My employers QP, pay for 3 nights plus 3 meals a day in the buffet restaurant and laundry. Not bad!
So I left my luggage in my room and headed straight for the restaurant. I've got a medical tomorrow morning, they picking me up at 7, and I can't eat or drink anything up to 10 hours prior the medical, so I really had to rush. The buffet was simply superb. I counted 40 different dishes, all sorts veg, fish, meat, rice, salads, sauces etc etc. Many arabic or persian especialities that I had never seen before and some nice chicken or lamb fajitas.

The desserts are mouth watering. Lots of them. Don't even know the names, but they were delicious. I will take some pictures tomorrow so you can see them and get a bit jealous. But believe it or not, I only had a few.

Whilst I was having my dinner I met some other teachers that are going to be working at my school. I met a couple, Justin and Jane Godson with two lovely kids whom I had spoken previously by email, and two other female teachers, one secondary art and the other one, Georgina, primary.

We had a nice chat and I decided to go to my room. I managed to connect to the internet and rang Sharon using the internet phone that we purchased from Tesco. What a great invention!!!

It was very nice to hear her voice and know that she is feeling ok.

Then, after having a bath I am lying in bed writing these lines for you all.

Tomorrow, I await another exhausting day.

So good night!!!

Finally here! (part 1)

2008-08-24T12:48:00.000-07:00

It's now 23:30 in Doha, so 21:30 in England and 22:30 in Barcelona. I am now lying in my bed at the Grand Regency hotel in Doha after an exhausting day that started at 4:30 when we got up.
Donna picked us up at 5 in the morning, dead on time as usual, and we made our way to Manchester Airport.
I was so worried about the weight of my luggage. For some stupid reason, Qatar Airways only allow 20kg for check in luggage and 7kg for hand luggage and they charged £25 for each kg of extra weight. So, if you are not careful you might find yourself having to spend 125 quid for a mere 5 kg of extra weight. Finally, everything went well. My check in luggage was only 20.7 kg and my hand luggage 9.4 but surprisingly they didn't say anything and let me even check my hand luggage. However, I declined very politely....only if they had known that my reason was to be able to put back the 3 or 4 extra kg that were hidden in Sharon's handbag!!!
Anyway, after checking in, Donna, Sharon and I went to the cafeteria and spent a very good hour and a half chatting and enjoying a nice latte.
At 7:30 we decided to make our way to the departures terminal and we had to face the dreaded time of goodbyes. No need to say that a few (a lot) tears were shed.
At 8:30 I boarded on the A340 Qatar Airways flight to Doha. I was very pleased with the aircraft. Lots of leg room! More than when we went to New York with Delta Airlines. The flight went really smooth.
A few minutes after taking off, we were given a drink and a bag of nuts. Then after 30 minutes, lunch was served.
The menu:
Appetizer - leek and goat's cheese terrine served on classic russian salad
Entree - barbecued chicken on vegetable mee goreng sauteed choy sum with onions

Dessert - fresh strawberries with whiped cream, roll, cheese and biscuits and butter.

All complimented with hot and cold beverages.

The in-flight entertainment was quite good. I watched two movies, "the orphanage" and "whatever happens in vegas", and spent sometime playing who wants to be a millionaire.

Half an hour before landing we were served a chicken and mango sauce wrap, chocolate mufffin and more hot and cold beverages.

At 5:45 Qatar time, and after 6 hours and 20 minutes of flight we landed in Doha.

The immigration process was so smooth it only took me 1 minute. No questions, no bad looks. They just checked my passport, confirmed the visa on the computer and stamped it. The airport looks very nice, clean and modern, yet quite small if you compare it to other airports.

Then I waited a few minutes for the luggage and at the exit there was a Qatari man waiting for me, with my name (spelt correctly for once!!) printed in a cardboard.

He took me straight to the mini bus that was waiting for me and unfortunately, and this was the only "but" of my trip so far, I had to wait nearly an hour as they were waiting for some other passengers who were slightly delayed. So I was a bit fed up to have to wait inside the bus as I really wanted to get myself into the hotel, have something to eat and have a hot bath.

Anyway, after 45 minutes the guys arrived and to my surprise (or not) they were all Spaniards!! Can't even get rid of them in the Middle East!!!

The night before

2008-08-23T16:05:00.001-07:00

This is the night before I fly to Qatar. In less than 4 hours I will have to get up to get ready to go to Manchester Airport. The flight is at 9 so we have to be there 3 hours in advance, so roughly at 6. That means getting up at 4:30!!! Donna will take me and Sharon to the airport.
I am going on my own and Sharon and Jake will join me in a few weeks time. I have mixed emotions though. Obviously I am not happy to leave Sharon here, but it's something that I have to do and in part it's better so I can get everything sorted in my end and when she comes she will have everything sorted so she won't have to worry about any little silly thing.
On the other hand this is something we have been waiting for a long long time. It is something that could change our lives and that we both are very much looking forward to.
It's the beginning of a new life.
The beginning of a better life.
But I will miss Sharon a lot. And I will miss Jake and Liam, and Mason and Reece and Rebekah and Chloe, and Donna & Darren, and Leanne & Rick, and Frank & Eileen. And my friend Andy and Quim and Julie, and Xesca and Alex, and my other friends Jamie and Bing and Bryan. And I will miss my family because now I will be even further away from them. I will miss my mum, David and Mariona, my auntie and uncle, Rosa and Quim and Henar and Ozie.

I will miss you all.

Night time now...

Alfons

PS: to all of you, please take good care of my Sharon!!

WELCOME TO OUR BLOG!

2008-08-22T15:24:00.000-07:00

Welcome to our blog!
If you are reading these lines you are probably one of our family members or friends.
This is for you.
This blog will hopefully keep you informed about our life in the Middle East. We will try to update it as often as we can and we will post about our everyday life in Qatar.
We will post pictures, videos, stories so we can stay closer to you all.
And we will make sure you all get excited about our life here. So excited, that you all decide (not at once, please!!) to come and visit us one day...

Sharon, Jake & Alfons