Chestnuts roasting on an open fire (somewhere)

We've just returned from the gym. An innocent enough sentence - I think you'll agree - but in reality this is BIG news. For one - it's unique - we (Jacky, Jade, me) have never been into a gym and exercised at the same time. In fact I think it's the first time I've ever exercised in a gym. Jacky and Jade think it's a mid-life crisis and maybe it is but I always feel better about myself when I'm fit and healthy. I've now been to the gym three times (exercise bike for 10 mins, warm-ups, then 15 mins of treadmill walking and running is the beginning regime) and in the last few months before leaving NZ I cut all chocolate, chips, nuts and cream from my diet. My only vice remains Coca-Cola. And I feel a lot better for ending the fat Elvis period.

Some random thoughts of Doha - this place is a giant construction zone. I've never seen so many cranes in my life. Either a building is being constructed, has recently been constructed or is being demolished to make way for something new to be constructed. Roads are in the same format. The infrastructure of modern technology is being laid all over the city and can be fairly disruptive.

This is an area of the city center with pretty much every building having a crane attached to it.

This was taken just around the corner from where we live - very typical scene this with new building and construction site in the same view.

Finally a picture of where we live - our bedroom window is open on the top right-hand corner of the photo (the 7th floor).

Driving is a pretty fraught business here - it's the reverse of NZ/UK in terms of which side of the road they drive on so that makes even being a pedestrian a challenge. They go fast and change lanes when the whim takes them.

The working week also takes some adjusting to - Friday everything stops as that's the Islamic sabbath. Saturday is also a day off and the working week starts on Sunday. It can be a little disorientating trying to figure out days and dates but after a bit it becomes the norm.

Jacky and I went for a walk to the corniche yesterday (Thursday was a day off because of Qatar national day) - only a thirty minute walk. We had a look around the fishing boats and the people fishing in the gulf (WOOAH - The PERSIAN GULF!!!! Yes it's dawning on me that we're not at the bottom of the world these days). Here are some pics of our outing.

We stopped by this model of a fishing boat and pretty soon a group of Indian tourists came over to take our photo! While they were at it I gave them my camera to capture the moment for us as well (I'm the one in the snazzy Qatari flag cap - cool eh).

Inshallah, in the next posting - some images from Qatar's national day celebrations and our Christmas in Doha. Till then As salam alaykum, alaykum as salam.

Love and peace - Wozza

Well I'm a-cookin in the kitchen of love

Shopping for essentials: I love visiting the food aisles in foreign countries and then experimenting with stuff. Jacky doesn’t. She misses the tried and true and I don’t at all – funny that isn’t it? You’d probably expect the opposite. Like my dad I’m a creature of habit but without his rabid adherence to set routines. When I say ‘experimenting’ I should be more specific – I don’t mean I go hollis bollis for the local cuisine – no way - more that I like to try out the different marmalades say, or different cereals. Not as exciting as you thought huh – I am my father’s son after all.

Imagine my surprise and utter delight when going grocery shopping for the first time in Doha to be confronted by food and produce from all over the globe. Last night we had NZ beef but we could have chosen Aussie meat or Scottish. My marmalade comes from Saudi Arabia (not sure where they get their oranges from though), as does Jacky’s honey, Jade’s Kelloggs Fruit Loops came from Germany and my peanut butter is American made. Very nice it is too.

The biggest delight though is to rediscover all the foods we loved in England – Hobnobs and Galaxy bars, Alpen cereal, McVities digestives and lots more. No Jammy Dodgers spotted as yet though. Or a decent plum jam. All of the cleaning products are of the British variety too. Easy off Bam!

Unfortunately, I’ve yet to find any kind of CD or book store but I dare say there’ll be somewhere I can snaffle a Guardian Weekly and Mojo. There better be! Jacky is on the lookout for a hair salon. There are about 30 men’s cutters in a row about 5 minutes walk away so I should be okay. Jacky may opt for the long hair look.

My sunglasses broke on the first day so we searched in vain for a replacement. There are tons of outlets but they’re all stocking Armani or Ray Bans style expensive brands. And I mean expensive. I wasn’t going to pay around 1,000 Qatari Riyals (QR) for sunglasses. Our local little Tesco Express style vendor had a knock off pair for QR14 (about $NZ7) and that’ll do me for a while.

Okay best go - we have drinkies with the boss and then off to get Showtime (local satelite TV) organised for the apartment to keep up with the football (watched Auckland City tear apart a team from UAE last night on a neighbour's TV!!!).

As salam alaykum and love - Wozza

Ground control to Major Tom

Life in Doha for us at the moment is split into me being at work (try http://baggytrewsers.blogspot.com/ for that stuff) and Jacky and Jade visiting the souqs (markets) and malls (malls). They've also done a bit of sightseeing around the corniche (the walkway by the seashore).

I've snaffled Jade's pictures of what they've been up to - here's a selection. First a view from the corniche looking at downtown Doha.

Jacky and friend at a souq. The guy in the background is wearing a thobe - what all Qatari men wear.
The ice-skating rink at the city centre mall.

We're at the city centre mall looking down on the rink.

I can't get over how much of the city is a construction zone - this includes road works where they are improving the infrastructure of desalinated water and fiber around the place.

and this is a building project next to the hotel I was in, while doing some interviewing of Principals. I watched at times while guys worked on the bricks on the top floor - no safety harnesses of any kind! I got vertigo just watching them!

Till next time - as salam alaykum, alaykum as salam - Wozza

It was good to be out of the rain

As salam alaykum, alaykum as salam (peace be upon you and upon you peace). Alrighty then - catch up time. First - we've safely arrived in Doha, had some exploratory visits around our apartment and made ourselves pretty much at home. All in two days! The picture left is our new front door!

We arrived at 8,30am yesterday (Thursday Dec 3) after a fairly marathon trip. First the 3 hour trip to Sydney, an hour plus wait, then about a 13 hour flight to Dubai, another hour wait and finally an hour flight to Doha. As we travelled through the night and subsequently fell behind NZ time by 10 hours we dozed fitfully. Poor Jade was heavy with a cold and arrived pretty cream crackered yesterday.

We had thousands of films and things to choose from on board. I went for a walkabout and looked back at the passengers in our section (the airbus is huge and feels like separate cities rather than sections) and all video monitors were watching somthing different. I watched the scifi film District 9 (pretty good actually), Angels and Demons (pretty good actually 2 - way better than The Da Vinci Code but then so is the book), and Ice Age 3 - hilarious!!

We didn't see much of Dubai as we landed in the early morning and then saw only the airport - lovely though it was. So our first real look at the middle east was the flight to Qatar and specifically, flying into Doha. I must admit it looked spectacular in the early morning sunshine. The desert gives way to beautiful sand coloured buildings on the outskirts and then amazing modern architecture towards the coast. It was a lovely day yesterday - 20ish degrees and some clear blue skies through the desert shimmer. And a bit of a breeze. It felt like a perfect NZ summer day without the scorching sun with its radiation effects. All a bit of a shock after 9 months of cold and rain in Taranaki. We certainly don't need to consult weather forecasts now. No rain on the immediate plan here. Today it's forecast for a 25 high. Same day after that..

We were met at the airport by Cognition people and my immediate boss - Colin Donald, He's been here for a few years and is a lovely guy - very helpful and very knowledgeable. He took us back to our apartment which turns out to be in a hotel. Its actually called the Legends Hotel Resort and Spa. Our address if anyone is asking (or you need to send a Happy Crimble card) is Apartment 704, Legends Hotel Resort and Spa, Corner of B Ring Road and Najma St., Najma District, Doha, Qatar. If dad was around he would immediately have found us on google earth. Hayden - you'll have to do the honours!

I've taken some photos of our not so humble home for the next 8 months. We have two bedrooms each with ensuite bathrooms, a separate bathroom, lounge, dining area, kitchen and it's lovely. Air conditioned and very comfortable. We have a great view, a gymnasium and pool on the first floor (we're on the 7th) and various other things I haven't discovered yet.

First the views from our bedroom window looking east, then west over Doha:

And here we are settling in:

And the pool/gym areas:

Last night Jacky and I went with Colin to one of the local malls - called Villagio. We were there for about three hours and saw maybe 1/10th of it. It's huge beyond all description. about 10 Westfields. It incorporates an ice-skating rink, a 13 cinema multiplex, a river with gondolas (yes I did the Monty Python routine) and various sections based on country themes (overall the mall has an Italian theme). I'll take my camera next time and try to capture some of it. We waited for our driver (Zabeer) outside and marvelled at the cars and traffic. Qatar has a total population of 1.5 million and half of them live in Doha. It seemed to me that 750,000 people had taken to the roads and motorways. The driving is not for the faint hearted either. Ross would marvel at the Lambourginis and Ferraris (couldn't see a Holden Ross).

Today we ventured out to the city centre and visited another giant mall. Although it's Friday - for Muslims the sacred day of the week, there were plenty of people about. Tomorrow is a day off as well and then I'm into my first work day on Sunday. More on that another post.

That should give you a flavour of our introduction (it's now the next day - Saturday to confuse you slightly). More to come...inshallah (Godwilling).

Love and peace - Wozza

I don't wanna go to Chelsea

Ouch - the mighty Arsenal have stumbled a tad with a heavy loss to Chelski. Suzie wasted no time in sending a txt. Hurts.

Today was the final hurley burley day in Taranaki - getting photos done, final bank visit, stuff into the storage unit - that sort of thing. Bought my last CDs for while and loaded them on the p-pod (Purdy pod). What were they? Jimi's awesome double 'Electric Ladyland', a best of Kiss, the first Phoenix Foundation, and the latest by Air. Usual eclectic bunch. The p-pod currently has about 30 gigs of music on it so that should see me right for a few months.

Tomorrow we're driving to Auckland to see Adam on route, say goodbye to Ross and family, and get ready for our departure on Wednesday.

I've helpfully put the various clocks on the blogsite and the weather in Doha (actually the airport at Abu Dhabi but that's close enough), so that you can know what we're experiencing and when. I dare say the weather pixie won't show a lot of variance.

Love and peace - Wozza

Put your camel to bed

Hey ho. We're in transit (not yet by camel). The last two weeks have been a blur of fevered activity - so many things to do to pack up the house, find tenants, take care of the animals (the emotional affects of that), plan for Qatar and a myriad of other things. The modern life is very complicated - we love forms and protocols and details. Henry David Thoreau told us the life is frittered away by (or in?) details and he was spot on (again). It's also interesting to see how little you actually need (one suitcase each).

We have managed it though. One week to get organised would have been impossible, but two weeks has been merely difficult. We are nearly ready to go. We depart New Zealand at 6.45pm on the 2nd of December (Wednesday) and fly to Sydney (1 hour 40 min wait), then Dubai, then Doha. We expect to arrive there on Thursday morning. We'll see you soon Angela!

We are now in the throes of our final farewells: A few weekends ago we visited Biddy and Sallie in the Hawkes Bay, we had a great dinner with Roger and Deirge, I finished at school on Friday (go to my re branded blog http://baggytrewsers.blogspot.com/ for that stuff), Keegan came down to say bye and pick up a car to use while we're away, we'll see Adam and Ross et al on the journey north to Auckland in the next few days and we'll say our goodbyes to Taranaki as well soon.

We owe lots of thanks to Michelle and Gavin - yesterday we had much needed help from them to clean up the house and pack the last of our gear in the storage unit we've rented and we're currently staying with them for a few days until we depart. They've been terrific!

I probably won't have time to update the blog before we land in the Middle East so - thanks for all the support you've given via emails or Facebook messages. Next posting will be from the third sand dune from the oasis.

Love and peace - Wozza

Red light blinking in the twilight,tracing in a path right out of here and now

Some big news in this week's post - Jacky and I are off to Qatar to work and live in the next few weeks. I've been offered an educational consultancy position there to help train their local Principals and I decided to accept (I can feel those mouths beginning to fall open all over the world).

This, of course, has sent us and Jade into something of a spin as we try to find a house-sitter to join Jade at home until she leaves for Victoria University in February 2010. We have tons to do in the next two weeks - we leave New Zealand at the end of November. We do plan to return at some stage. We intend to keep our fantastic property in Stratford. There is a mixture of excitement and anxiety amid the frantic activity while we get organised.

If you feel so inclined you can keep track of our progress via this blog and the music one. I'll be rebranding the 'From The Principal' blog and deleting 'Shakespeare Society' in due course.

Should make for some interesting posts over the next few months!

Here is a good site to give you some background. http://www.hejleh.com/countries/qatar.html

Love and peace - Wozza