Driving Qatari Style

I have been out and about with work this week and have been visiting with a Qatari colleague. I have written in the past about driving in this country but this was my first chance to be driven around by a Qatari. Any guess to what he drove? Yep, Toyota Landcruiser. So for those of you who are familiar with Qatar.. we headed back down D ring towards the airport. We wanted to turn left at the lights and straight ahead puts you into the airport. The traffic was heavy and the queue at the lights was large. My buddy didn’t worry. He drove down the straight ahead lane looking for a gap to stick his nose in but it was tight. He then spied that the lights for going straight ahead and turning were both green so gunned it down to the lights and did the big sweep left to merge into the turning traffic.
We got onto the corniche and traffic was also heavy. This did not worry my Qatari buddy. He just drove down the carparks on the side of the road. He would foirce his way back into the traffic until the next carpark came along. So after three of these detours we had made fantastic progress. Each time we entered the traffic people would yield. He would acknowledge and so it was all OK. Further into our journey the road stopped and became desert. This didn’t stop us. We just headed out into the sand until we found a track or another road. It was interesting as it felt incredibly safe and I felt confident in his driving ability. Note: after two days of driving around Doha he did actually use his indicators at least four times.

Things I’m not meant to see

I had an unexpected experience this week. I had to visit an organization with an expatriate colleague to view some materials. He had been working with this group for a long time and was in and out of this place regularly. It was a predominantly female organization. The usual process is you arrive. Letsecurity know you’re there. Inside the word goes out that there are men about to enter so everyone covers up. So I was surprised that when I went to visit that the women did not have their abayas on. This was something I had never expected to see. Yeah she had her shayla on but her clothes were Western. That said a lot about the trust my colleague had built up in the 9 months he had been working with her. The irony was that I had to visit the same organisation the following day with a Qatari gentleman. Thank goodness she had the same makeup on as I wouldn’t have recognized her.

Apologies

Apologies for not being as frequent with the stories lately. I’ve sort of become completely absorbed into my job at the moment. It leaves little time for anything else as I get home late afternoon ( not like my first experience here when were able to get to the pool a little earlier) Usually pretty knacked so tend to have a wee moi. I then convince myself it’s too late to walk to the gym (30-35 minutes each way) so go for a quick walk around the block , back for tea and then back into work. The challenge is developing policy, making connections with the stakeholders, establishing and setting up systems and training for a new entity as well as designing an electronic tool which currently doesn’t exist in a form that we can use. This is all being done concurrently. Being male this pushes my multitasking limits to the max. We’ll get there inshallah.

Inside a shopping complex

We went for a tour ( prices for 1brm apartments start at aroudn the $US500k mark and go up a fair bit. Didn't even look atthe price for a villa.) and that let us walk along a section of the water front and through what will become part of a small shopping complex. The marketing guys are very clever as the shops are still yet to be completed so they have put up these large hoardings which from a distance almost make the place look alive,complete. Intertesting to see some of the names of the hoardings of the shops that will be taking up leases. The names are in keeping with the value of housing.

The Pearl

The Pearl is a huge development on the coast to rival some of the other world coastal developments. It is huge, heads out to sea and very high end. Last time we were here it was skeletons of buildings and huge dust clouds. Ithas moved on somewhat and the first section is developing quickly. It is call ed the pearl as it is shaped like a pearl, abit like the palms in Dubai

Night Golf

Got my first chance for a round of golf on Friday night. The 9 hole academy course has floodlight so you can play till about 11pm. The aussies in our buidling go out and I was invited to join them and see if I could find a kiwi partner. Graeme was keen. They even drove us there. The trash talk satted before we hopped in the cars and a small wager was made. Unfortunately for our team we hadn't assessed the conditions. Graeme, who wears glasses struggled with the floodlights so had to take them off, which then meant he struggled to see the ball. We fought well but like most Aussie sports people they just don't take their foot off the throat. In fact I coudl still feel it an hour after the game when we were buyingthe drinks and they were still chipping away. I'll have to come up with a change of the game options for next week. The photo is of the Aussie group playing in front of us.

Another Eid Break

Have just been told I have a holiday coming up, the second Eid break. This could be as long as nine days (a week plus two weekends). It is sometime in early December so will have to come up with a plan. Need to get is sorted soon. There are a lot of places you can visit within six hours from here. You can get as far as Bangkok to the east and Paris to the North West.

Team Cooghan

This is the kiwi team who are here for a month and share AL Hitmi with me. This was on our trip out to the inland sea. We're just waiting for the tyre pressure to be adjusted. They drop the pressure to 15 psi so you don't get stuck in the sand. we come together for a meal every couple of days and this morning Pip made pancakes for the team which was a bonus. I think it had something to do with the very large bottle of maple syrup she had bought and wants to get rid of. Had to go out to work today so was pleased to have a great breakfast

The Financial Crisis

Yep it's having an effct here. We''re paid in NZ dollars for our work and the Riyal is pegged to the US dollars. When we arrived in Qatar in March the figure on the left read $667.00 so basically there was a 3 to 1 difference. Add that do sales and there were some real bargins. Now we are almost at 2 to 1. Our buying power has diminished significantly. So no more suits. A drink at the hotel now costs $15NZ. Thats tough given it is so hot and you do get thirsty

Adaption

I think the photos shows how these dogs (which you do not see many of I may add) adapt to their environment.

technology malfunction

I had a slight tech problem this week. I took a couple of photos of this guy.. what guy you may ask?. The guy cleaning the windows a couple of floors up by standing out on the ledge and holding on to the open window for dear life. I took photos from the other side to show the height but the camera / computer had a fit and while I can see it on my machine the file is corrupt so can't show you. So this guy worked his way along the windows with a squeegy and clothes. We were in a room having a meeting and I had difficult concentraing as I was facing the window and was interested to see if this guy was going to last the distance.

The Singing Waiters

Another Murph farewell dinner. This one was at the Italian at the Ramada. They have singing waiting staff. They have like a kareoke style music machine pumping out in the background and them they just launch into song. They had incredible voices and I wonder if it was more important to be able to sing than to "wait". The guy in the photo did some wonderful "camp" numbers which had peiople in hysterics. I think the kiwis are there in a few weeks for a farewell dinner so will try and grab some video

Chopsticks

The evening / morning ..(the 3.45am flight to Dubai for those of you who have been up here )before Murph flew out we went back to the Grand Regency for a farewell dinner. It was Susan's last week as well (she worked upstairs in the restaurant) Again a token kiwi in a bunch of Aussies. It was great to be back and catch up with Suresh and Mazen. The food was great and then the staff bought out a cake for Murph alomng with the moroccan singers. Fanatastic evening. The staff really had valued his time there and the way that he treated them. we even had the flaming candle, the same as when we were there for Dam's birthday

Me Ozzie Cobbers!

I think I have before about some Aussies whom we met the first time we were here. The GR5 helped them out when they first landed and they really appreciated that and have stayed in touch. Barry and Graeme (Baz and Murph) were the first of the team and they were joined by Keren (Kez) and Rick (Rick) just shortly before we left . They are living in my building and some of them will be around till mid-late December which is cool as the kiwis ship out in a couple of weeks.

Murph has been pretty unhappy with how things are going since he got back for his second stint and to cut a long story short was able to cut his contract short and was able to leave with a weeks notice. So it has been a week of celebrations as the Aussies farewell him. He has a really out their personality. We would describe him as a brash aussie. He's fun to be around and like us has really connected with the workers. So I have been the lone kiwi to several farewell functions so has been tough as work is full on at the moment mixed with late nights and early prayer calls. I'm so pleased it's the weekend

Sand Dunes

The video doesn't quite capture the thrill. Hopefully the sound effects do

My Latest Purchase

I’ve struggled with this purchase for a few days now. 2000 watts of energy. It has a sort of ice to eskimos feel to it. Why you may ask has the wally bought a heater in one of the hottest countries in the world. Why would you buy a heater when the temperature outside is in the high 30s you might ask. Well a friend told me that it can get very cold in January (7 degrees overnight) and that the buildings are designed to keep cool not warm so you freeze. Plus I was told that if you see a heater buy it because when you need one you can’t get one for love or money. I came home after a quiet evening at Rydges dripping wet because the humidity was up as well as the heat. Looked at the heater and started to doubt my purchase..only time will tell

The Prodigal Son

I am currently work on creating an educational organization which is similar to New Zealand’s Teacher’s Council. Here is a photo of my new office which I (will) share with 3 other blokes. Today I needed to go back to the school I helped establish on my last visit here. I was a little nervous walking back in as it had been 8 weeks since I had left and my role was setting up the frameworks for the organization to operate when they opened for business for the new school year. The principal was now operating two schools and then new school is in temporary premises until they move to the new building sat the end of the month. Walked straight in and met up with my old principal. I felt like the prodigal son returning home. He was pleased to see me and as we sat and shared a Turkish several of the old staff wandered in. It felt a bit like a family reunion. What was the most exciting was that the stuff I had set up and planned was being implemented perfectly. The guys who took over from me told me that it had worked a treat from day one. My Jordanian friend was really pleased as he had a critical role in the new school and he was enjoying the success of it starting well. I must admit I felt really excited and would have loved to go back to work there. Even Ahmed the tea boy remembered what I drank and how I liked it.

Leaving your mark

When we were last here we were a regular fixure at Rydges in the afternoons. Pretty much every day for 5 months we'd wander down use the gym, read the paper or book by the pool. The legends bar would open at about 4 oclock inthe afternoon. The bar staff would come and find us at our usual table by the pool. The lads got into a habit of having a lemon lime and bitters before 5pm. I'd usually stick with them as I was the driver. Our group would often expand when Graeme, Alesandro or Repi would turn up and they too would have a LL&B. Now one of these drinks cost 8 riyal which was abotu $NZ3. Fair price for a bar. The week we left the price of a lemon , lime and bitters shot up to 24 riyal. That is the same price as a pint of Heinekin. Graeme who stayed the extra week got stung with the price. Apparently management did a review of bar sales and had this disproportionate increase in LL&Bs over the previous six months so they decided to increase the price to improve their profits. So now with the exchange rate moving to 2 riyals to the dollar compared to 3 when we first arrived, a glass of LL&B now costs close to $12. We wanted to leave our mark on Qatar but this wasn't what we had in mind.

Yep will sort some pics

Sorry folks. The camera has stayed in the bag the whole time I've been here so no new photos. Will get onto it asap

Rydges

I’ve joined up at Rydges and have made the most of it the last three days. Getting to the gym and having a swim every day. Staff from the hotel had their meeting today and the place is halas as at the end of November. It feels a little strange as we have spent a lot of time there over the last 7 months. My first thoughts were what would happen to the staff they we have got to know. It looks like the company will find them work in Qatar. I then thought that the rest of the team will never see it again. John’s chair (where he always sat) remains empty. Julia and Colleen are talking about coming over for a visit in December so that will be too late as well. And Ailish will be here after Christmas with nowhere to swim her 300 lengths. Buggar

The interesting People You Meet.

While we were at the Grand Regency having the seafood buffet Mazen brought a couple of people across to meet us. They were Aussies and had landed in the country about 5 days ago. I didn’t pay too much attention apart from hellos and stuff. Finished our working week so a group of the Al Hitmi crew decided to go for a debrief at Rydges. This couple were there on their own so I invited them to join us. Taffy and Sue are from Cairns in Aussie and he happens to be a vet with expertise in camels of all things. He got head hunted by the heir apparent to set up an animal husbandry centre out in the desert. They’re building a new camel racing track halfway to Dukhan and this new facility for him. I think they was appreciative of the company. Once he’s sorted and up and running he’s going to get us out for a bit of look around. Him and John would get on well as this guys a bit of a camel whisperer.

Another Lost in Translation Moment

Barry’s wife turned up from Paris so the Aussie team (6 of them) decided to go the Grand Regency for the seafood buffet . It was a chance to catch up with Mazen and the staff. There were a few new faces but old ones as well. Gemma shed tears and I got hugs. Susan ionly has a few more weeks before heading home, she isn’t coming back. Dimuth was on the morning shift so I had to get the new guy to make my double expresso after stuffing my face. Yep the chocolate fountain was flowing so I could say no. The new comes round and Barry is having an expresso as well. The guy gives him a cup. I get two cups … two cups of expresso because I asked for a double… lost in translation

Haram and Halal

I was working with a Jordanian Colleague today when one of his friends came in to see him. A short discussion was had where he produced an envelope which he gave to this man with what turned out to be $5000.00 Riyal. Asking him about this he explained that a group of nine friends got together and each month they collect up 5000 riyal and they take turns receiving 40000 riyal. I talked to him about doing same thing but putting it in the bank and paying it out at the end of the month. Simple economics would mean you would always have a 40000 deposit and so you would generate interest . He said this was Haram. Haram is Arabic for that which is forbidden. I’ve written about it before but I thought it covered only things like murder, adultery and the like. As opposed to Halal, that which is good. We tend to think of halal as relating to food only but it covers far more.
I think what he was saying as to why it was haram was that you are taking advantage of an opportunity. So no banks , no interest just a big payout once every nine months. I sort of compulsory savings scheme with no extra benefits. He was just thinking about what he would do when his turn came.

Last days of Al Ain

Totally out of order. I was tidying up images on the camera and came across a few from my last days in Al Ain which I thought I'd share. This is from a special function at the Hilton. The man in the photo produced the ice sculpture.

A Palestinian Wedding

Thought I would add this little video clip of this wedding we saw while in Al Ain. While we were eating I thought I heard bag pipes. Went to have a nosey and met this Palestinian guy in the clip. The pipes were Scottish bagpipes. They even had a tartan bag. He said thatthe palestinians embraced a range of traditons and symbols frommany cultures. Funny him sayig that as the symbols on his little cap looked very similar to his neighbouring country. Oh and another difference to this muslim wedding. It was a function celebrated by men and woman together unlike other weddings we have seen in this part of the world.

The Red Blanket

Our apartments are fitted out by our company. we get sheets, towles, kitchen equipment and so on. This time there was an extra red blanket with the kit. A friend told me a story of how these red blankets were bought when it got really cold here last year. They became prized possessions. It's difficult to think that it could get cold that blankets are needed. However I must say I have had to turn on the hot water as my morning shower is too cold. Last time if you didn't have an early shower the cold water became too hot during the day. I pleased I bought my possum and angora socks my mum and dad bought me.They may come in handy come January.

The Taxi Ride

As soon as I hop in I know this guy is a 265 guy. A 265 guy is a taxi driver who pays 265 riyals to the company who gives him the taxi for an 11 shift. He takes whatever he makes for that 11 hours. So he can win or lose on this given the amount of custom he receives. A ride is obn aavergae worth 10-20 riyals so he has to work hard. This is different to the wage workers who get paid 1500 riyals a month and can get a small commission if they have a good month. So this guy is 265 guy which means he wants to get as many fares as quickly as possible. So how do I know he’s a 265 guy??. Well for those of you who have been to Doha recently you’ll know that the streets around City Centre Mall are all being redeveloped and when you leave the mall half of the right lane is coned up. This didn’t stop 265 guy as he excelerated to overtake four vehicles down the 300 metres stretch after the speed bump. At this time I’m thinking maybe the back seat would have been a better option. I should feel sort of comfortable as he only hit one of the cones. I try to reassure him that this trip is going to involve multiple stops and will be a good trip riyal wise so we can go sway sway. He just smiles at me with his Bluetooth air piece blinking and floors it along the cornice. We stop at Al Hitmi to check for a key and then we need to head off to Bin Mahmoud. Now 265 guy is taking directions from me so I point him in the direction of the road out towards the Sana. Now these roads are not real roads they’re small access roads/ lanes between apartment blocks. No signage re: giving way or stopping. This is negotiated at the intersection when you see another vehicle. So 265 guy can see down the road to where we want to go. He floors it. 265 doesn’t know this area well but I do. I know that halfway to the Sana there is an intersection and that the road running perpendicular is seen as the bigger of the two. The problem is you can’t see traffic coming because of the construction on the corner and the corrugated iron fence. So I yell, not say or speak but yell SWAYA! And give a hand signal. Thankfully he brakes just before we enter the intersection and a split second later the ute comes flying from the right (my door!). Buggar we still have to get along B Ring pick up my lappy and get all the way back. The fact that I’m writing this will tell you that I made it back in one piece. But the best news was that 265 guy was telling me that there is new management working for Karwa and one of the guys is from NZ and one from the states. In about 4 months all of the 265 guys are going to become wage workers…. All I could say to him was Ahumdiallah!

What is that a picture of you might ask?

Yes I asked the same question about 15 minutes after I arrived back in my apartment at Al Hitmi. Yep I’m back in a different apartment but still in an 07. So now I am almost level with the mosque speaker as opposed to looking down on it slightly. So back to this object. Yep you guessed it.. it is part of a door handle. I guessed it too. But which handle you might ask? Well it was the internal front door handle. It had been snapped off. Yep and the door was now closed. So here I am trapped in my apartment. I had no tools I snapped a knife trying to jimmy the lock. Not too good. The boss was on the other side of town but fortunately for me I had banged into Aussie Rick in the foyer earlier on. When I had arrived there wasn’t a key so I organized to leave my bags in Ricks apartment until a key could be sorted. So in the end I was able to ring the boss who luckily had written down Ricks number who was able to come up and open my door. I’ve borrowed a screwdriver and done some creative handiwork so that I can open the door until it gets fixed inshahallah.

Some things stay the same

Some things just don’t change at all. The discomfort of the Melbourne to Dubai leg of the trip. It’s just long and uncomfortable…..plain and simple. With this flight I’ve flown enough now this year to become a silver tier flyer with Emirates which gives you access to the business lounge at Dubai airport. Unfortunately I couldn’t get them to process my latest flight so I could nip in for a shower and a snooze so ended up slumming it on the floor during transit. While I was there I had some dirhams I had left over from Al Ain to change. I get to the front of the queue and there is a Middle Eastern guy behind me. An older Indian woman turns up with a couple of friends and wants to change some money also. She wants to go next and doesn’t quite get the queue notion. I feel this pressure from the left as she pushes up against me so she can get to the teller next. I hold my ground , the guy behind me moves slightly forward which gets the attention of the Indian woman who is now really applying the pressure trying to push me to the right so she can get in next. I’m holding my ground because I’ve handed over my dirhams and am waiting for my riyals. In the end my Middle Eastern friend lets rip and explains in a language neither I nor the Indian woman understands about how people queue. She gets it in the end and retreats to the back of the line and I get my money.
It’s just gone 4 in the morning…yep the time delay means you wake up at 3am for the first week as you get your body in sync. My man in the mosque is just starting his call. It’s a little later than when I left last time.

He's back!

Yep I’m back! Back for another 110 days. At least another 110 blog entries. I know some of you have been missing your regular blog intake. A bit like coffee and ritalin, the days not quite the same without it. This will be a different experience for me as the role I have will see me working in new ways, slightly outside my area of expertise. Plus even though some things are the “same same” as last time ( and I’ll get to sharing some of those in a minute) there are also changes. While it has only been 8 weeks since I was last in Qatar in feels a lot longer.
The biggest change is that I’m here on my own this time not part a group. The GR5 are spread far and wide. Earlier in the week I had a quick nine holes with John and went back to John and Kays for dinner. And what a dinner it was! A wonderful slow roasted meat that I will not see for some time. I caught up with Damian’s blog to see how their trip went to Egypt. I’m the first of the kiwi’s in Al Hitmi. Repi and Deb left last week back to NZ. Phil, Ann and Graeme (different contract) will rock up over the next few days. As will Murph and Baza (Aussie Graeme and Barry who we met on our last adventure)
The next biggest change is the temperature. Lovely….I flew over in my jeans (my Tutti B’s of course Dam / John) and a long sleeve tee shirt. Walked out into 30 degrees at 8.30 in the morning. Went for a walk later out in the sun along C ring to catch a cab and didn’t get all hot and sweaty like when I was here 2 months ago. It also means my walk to the gym won’t have the same effect (could replace the walk with any cardio work I use to do as it was like a half hour work out in a sauna) so will have to get back on the rowing machine.