Anyone for tennis, wouldn't that be nice? (Cream)

First up a correction - it's been pointed out to me by Ross and P.J. that the Lamborghini I took pictures of is, in fact, NOT a Lamborghini - it's a Swedish variation - called a Koenigsegg. It did say that on the specs, but being ignorant of cars meant I believed a friend when he told me it was a Lamborghini. Sorry 'bout that chief!

Jacky and Jade are back in NZ as I write (they landed about an hour ago). Jade is getting set to go to Victoria University after a belated new year's celebration with her friends, and Jacky will return to Doha after a few weeks of NZ summer. I miss them already! I hate that empty feeling I get in my stomach whenever things like this happen. I'm not a fan of living alone. That's only happened once in my life - when going to Auckland Secondary Teachers' College in 1982 - and I didn't like it much. Apart from that I've always had people around me in the house so it's strange to be on my own. It's not quiet though! The Purdy Pod (see http://googoogarjoob.blogspot.com/) is working overtime!

Yesterday was action packed = an early hours visit to the airport to see off Jacky/Jade, work and then some tennis. I went with some work colleagues, now friends (Dene and his family visiting from Australia are pictured, and Colin and Di)

to see some of the Qatar Open last night and, as luck would have it, Federer was playing when we arrived. Then straight after him, Nadal had a match!! This cost me 50 Qatari Riyal (about 17 NZ dollars!). Jade won't be impressed that I fluked both of these guys. Sorry 'bout that Jade ("we're living in a society people").


Both won easily but Nadal was more impressive - just amazing power, while Federer is like a Swiss watch. Here are the pics!

Federer's Russian opponent

Federer serving
Federer wins!
Nadal and Italian opponent. Note the camera - swoops all over the place!

Nadal in action
Nadal's Italian opponent
Nadal serves

More soon (Inshallah) - Love and peace - Wozza

I'm sitting here in the sand dunes, asking the ocean what to do (David Crosby)

Wow - what a day! We've spent today close to the Saudi Arabia border, driving around sand dunes and riding camels. An awesome experience!

Jacky and Jade were keen to 1) see the desert and 2) ride a camel before they left to go back to New Zealand this week (so that Jade can get ready for University). I contacted the Qatar International Adventure company last week and arranged our trip for today. Shahid was our driver and, oh boy - could he drive (backwards down a dune at one point - check out the photos).
These ones were taken when we started on the dunes - Shahid was lowering the tyre pressures on his Landcruiser at the time. The flat desert gives way to these little sand mounds about 30 minutes out of Doha.

After driving over sand dunes for about 10 minutes we came to the inland sea - Khor al Adaid (if you glance at the map in the left column you'll see the area on the Saudi border to the southeast of Qatar). The water is crystal clear and quite shallow (you can see the tyre tracks under the water). Shahid told us the dunes change literally overnight. He was surprised a few times to go over a dune to see a new one had arrived since yesterday.

As we were driving we came across a herd of camels being driven towards Saudi. I love the way camels look - contented in such a non-judgemental way, happy just to be, just to exist.

This is the Emir's tent compound - set up on a dune with a spectacular view across to Saudi Arabia (just visible across the sea). This is as close as we could get without raising police interest. While we were viewing this, Shahid did his backwards down the dune trick.




And finally - we are pictured having a ride on our friendly camel whose name will remain a mystery cos none of us could understand what the camel's owner told us. It was a great end (pardon the pun) to a great adventure in the dunes.

More soon (Inshallah) - Love and peace - Wozza

As I was motorvatin' over the hill, saw Maybelline in a coup de ville.

I hope you all had a groovy Christmas. I spoke with Ross, Christine (sorry it was so early - blame Jacky's clock reading skills), Keegan, Adam and Samantha to wish them a happy Christmas. Being a Friday in Doha things are very quiet until the evening when the shops reopen so we had a very laid back day, and then a lovely meal at The Butcher Shop and Grill in Villaggio. No Christmas fare on the menu unfortunately but we did our best to enter into the Christmas spirit.

Being at Villaggio and speaking to Ross reminded me of the Lamborghini photos I took a while ago. The car is in a protective glass case in Villaggio (the mall that has a Venetian theme complete with gondolas and water features).

I've included this photo of the specs. They include the phone number in case any of you have a spare three million Qatari Riyals lying around and need a new motor. Remember they do barter here so you might be able to lower the price a little. I love the fact they say the car takes 3 seconds to get up to 100kph - that's gotta come in handy!!

There is an interesting model shop at one of the other malls too, I asked if I could take some photos and the three guys in the shop all said - no problem! I was thinking of Ross and his two sons who would love to visit the place I'm sure. The scale of the models ísn't really captured in the photos - they all seem huge to me - a lot bigger than the models I remember having as a young bloke. The roof was covered with planes as well. Quite a place.

Love and peace - Wozza

Happy Crimble

First up = happy birthdays to Adam (on the 11th) and Keegan (19th). It was great to hear your voices! Keegan turned 25, and Adam was 23.

Well it's Christmas...again. Now last year you may remember I dissed Christmas and was taken apart by various people for my lack of joyous spirit. So I won't be doing that again!!

Let me paint you a picture of Christmas in an islamic country. It's a different experience, let me tell you. Qatar is a relatively liberal country and so you can buy fake Christmas trees here (we have one to prove it) and they do have a 'meet Santa' opportunity for the ex-pat kids in the larger malls, along with fake snow grottoes and elves. You can also buy Christmas wrapping paper at inflated prices (30 Qatari Riyal which is about $NZ15) and again - only in the malls. I'd have to say that's the extent of festive things though.

For the general population Christmas, of course, does not exist. While Muslims believe in one true God (Allah) and they acknowledge the prophets (one of whom was called Jesus) - they do not acknowledge that God could have a son - no one is an equal to God - therefore Jesus's birth is not a cause for celebration as it is in the west.

For Warren, Jacky and Jade of Qatar though, Christmas surely does exist. December 25 is a Friday - therefore I will have Christmas and boxing day off work. We have bought each other presents that are under the tree and our thoughts naturally turn to our whanau who are spread throughout the world map. A giant gap that I am struggling with this year is, of course, my dad's absence. We are planning our phone calls home and I can't call him. But he is always with me - Happy Christmas dad.

And Eid Milad Majeed (Merry Christmas) to you all too - the near and the far, the old and the young. We hope you have a great time and hope that you can spare a thought for us too, as you tuck into that extra helping of Christmas pudding with lashings of custard and cream.

As salam alaykum, Alaykum as salam (May peace be upon you and upon you peace)

Love and crissie crackers - W

It must be a camel

The national day celebrations have been a big deal here all week. Yesterday Jacky and I went to a mall and enjoyed some Arabic music and dancing from a group of men waving swords about in gay abandon. Eight dummers made a huge racket that was amplified to ear splitting levels:

Not only did we get a special holiday on Thursday but Friday had parades and fireworks and various entertainments. We ventured forth even though the forecast was for rain. Yes...rain. Please let me make this clear - they haven't had rain all year. In fact they haven't had rain worthy of the name for THREE years! That's right - no rain, no rain, no rain! They've been praying for rain... and the Purdys arrived in their country. In our first week here it rained for three days - heavy falls too. Meant surface flooding and much rejoicing and people everywhere talking about the downpour that was on a biblical proportion.

I read the forecast this morning in The Gulf Times and didn't quite believe it. Sun and fair skies coming over from Saudi Arabia meant that even when we saw dark clouds and thunder over downtown Doha we didn't really think it would rain. But rain it did!! And we got caught in it. Of course!

Still we had a pleasant walk around the corniche (before the rain) and even managed to discover a herd of camels (I think a clutch of camels is called a herd) in the middle of the rain. Here is the visual evidence of the rain, some of the military parade, the crowds, the camels and more.

Many of the cars and all terrain vehicles (the local symbol of status) were specially decorated with images of the Emir and Qatar national flags. Petrol is cheap as chips in these parts (about $NZ12 to fill up the 4x4) so they drove around all day tooting horns and waving flags.

We're not sure what this building is - it has a huge water feature going for about a km but a notice saying no training in this facility (!).

A before the heavens opened shot on one of our rest stops to take on fluids. Note the obligitory palm trees.

We watched for ages while all sorts of tanks and things went around this roundabout - by the time I got my camera organised it was the tail end of the line. All of the vehicles tore around the road like they were in the Indy 500. And yes that's real grass - although it's very springy and moss like.

It had only been raining for about 15 minutes when I took this from my vantage point huddled under a tree in the centre aisle that we'd become marooned on. I reminded Jade about One Tree Hill (only Samantha, Adam and Keegan will get that reference).

Finally...it must be a camel.

Love and peace - Wozza