Bec and I were not looking forward to moving to the village, didn’t think it would be good at all!! So took these stickers off our boxes and labelled ourselves so others would no to tread carefully.
2nd day on and were having a great time. Much more room that at DAGOC 1 and we still have our computers at this stage. Better to be amongst the action of the village construction and we have a lunch room. Plus our favourite tea boy Murelli is here so all is good.

Ummmmmm, click on this for a larger view and dont belive everthing you hear through the DAGOC grape vine!!

They read backwards so does the clock go anti-clockwise?? What the??

Detailed Local Forecast

• Today: Sunny. High 104F. Winds NNW at 10 to 15 mph.
• Tonight: Generally clear skies. Hot. Low 93F. Winds WNW at 5 to 10 mph.
• Tomorrow: Plentiful sunshine. Heat index near 115F. High near 105F. Winds N10 to 15 mph.
• Tomorrow night: Fair to partly cloudy. Low 91F. Winds WNW at 5 to 10 mph.
• Friday: More sun than clouds. Highs 106 to 110F and lows in the low 90s.
• Saturday: A few clouds. Highs 106 to 110F and lows in the low 90s.
• Sunday: Sunshine. Highs 107 to 111F and lows in the low 90s.

UMMMMMM something wrong here. Not sure if our sources were particularly reputable……. Still Sex and The City a great idea.

Ok just received this in my work inbox, a little scary. Bec and I have decided we will live in her room for the day watching Sex and The City and eating popcorn! Bring on the wind!!


Subject: URGENT WARNING
Importance: High

This is an urgent warning on extreme weather conditions expected on Friday and it will last for at least 24 hours!!!

Due to the current weather development very strong winds is expected of Friday, according to the forecast that we have received wind speeds of 60mph and more is expected. This is because of a weather system that is moving down the gulf and it is expected to reach Dubai on Friday!!! Our office in Raslafan Qatar has closed all operations and they are now trying to secure everything as far as possible to prevent fly debris. Waves in excess of 5m are also forecasted.

Please inform everybody about this expected adverse weather condition. According to the forecast the wind speeds are likely to increase as the system moves down the gulf and it is expected wind speeds will be the highest recorded it the region.

The message for the people is to stay in doors on Friday and avoid the beaches.

To hot to go to the beach anyway......

I LOVE MATT KOLECZKO!!!!!!!

Weekend in Dubai

A group of 6 of us organized to go to Dubai for the weekend, Ellen, Aisey, Matt, Rob, Bec and I plus a group of 4 guys, Alberto, Azlan, Steve and Simon. P.K. was flying through Dubai on our flight, on his way to Turkey so there was 11 of us. We took a casual day so we could have 4 days 3 nights. We flew out after work on Thursday (the last day of the week here) and arrived in Dubai about 7pm. We were all standing at the check in counter and Matt turns to P.K and asks "which airline are you flying," "ah that would be the same as you seeing as I'm in this line."

We hired 2 cars from the airport, collected them and navigated our way with no map in the general Dubai direction. We had not been given great directions to get to the place we were staying and as a result spent about an hour driving around trying to find the landmarks we had been given. After a couple of stops, map searching and even looking on foot, we found the massive shopping center we were meant to me looking out for (no one had said was actually round the corner from the main road not ON it) we found Ramee Hotel Apartments and parked the cars. We had booked 3 rooms, found them and before long collected together the 6 bottles of spirits we had brought from Duty Free, the other 4 boys that had traveled with us to Dubai and were staying at the Rush-In and we drank and limboed till the 3:15am prayer call.

I had my alarm set for 8:30am so I could make a booking at the Burj for brunch (that is the 7-star hotel which has the tennis court / golf green on the top floor). I struggled to open my eyes let alone converse with non-English hotel staff about the booking we wanted to make. He suggested I call back at 9:30am so I tried to sleep a little more. Called back at 9:30am and was told I would have to fill out a booking confirmation form which he would fax to the hotel. I was to return it with a copy of my credit card and passport. This was some serious booking!! To cut a long story short their system was down and the hotel fax machine wasn’t working, so, after numerous calls to the Burj and to our Hotels reception desk I called the Burj back and told them we were unable to get the form and as it was 10am and the booking was for 11am he should think of another option. The reservations staff spoke to Matt as he had the credit card, asked for a lot of unnecessary information, said he would call back with a booking confirmation number. You can't get onto the island without one. The hotel can only be used by guests and those with restaurant reservations. The number was huge, 9287856143THG like we need all those numbers, not one you can remember anyway! Lunch was fantastic with all the yummy hob nob foods you could imagine, lobster, prawns, some Japanese special beef, your own chef to cook your shell fish or pancakes, cheese, caviar and the biggest dessert bar I have ever seen. We stayed there for about 3 hours, eating and enjoying the view and each of us at one stage just sitting there, taking it all in and thinking how amazing it was!! The view was spectacular, out into the sea as far as you could see, the Palm and World constructions on either side was a magnificent sight. You could also see a fair bit of Dubai.

Lunch concluded about 3pm and we drove from there to the Mall of the Emirates which is the biggest shopping center I have ever been too and even has a ski slope inside. Can you imagine skiing in the desert! It's right in the middle of the shopping centre and there are cafes and shops all around it with huge glass windows so you can see everyone styling down the slope. There is even a chair lift to get you to the top. The picture here is the outside of the slope that you can see from the car park. Very impressive. Us girls had a ball, Friday we didn’t have much time to shop as we were planning to go out about 10pm (and try and have a sleep from the up late limboing the night before). The plan was for the three of us to buy dresses to wear that night. After 2 hours at the mall racing from shop to shop I'm happy to announce that we not only had dresses, shoes and accessories but a range of other items…….love that place.

We didn’t get much time to sleep as it was into the bathroom with make up and hair straighters for us.

Ellen drove the 6 of us to Buda Bar to start the night off and I wish I had taken my camera (at that stage anyway) as it was the most amazing place. There were little sort of rooms all along the entrance corridor with low lying furniture and heaps of cushions to lounge around on. There was a huge buda statue in the centre and awesome décor, with prices to match. Very smoky though and not really the right kind of music for us in our fancy new dresses. So we headed to Madinat Jumeirah to a place called Trilogy where Prodigy is playing next week! It cost us $35 to get in but it was worth it. We had the best night, the music was a little housey, but we danced and danced till 3am. Seriously thinking of going back to Dubai this week just to go there and see Prodigy.

We agreed to meet at 10am the next morning to go to Wild Wadi which is a water park in Jumeriah which is the same area as the Burj, Souks and the night club we went to. 10 got pushed to 11 and then it was meeting at 12 in the lobby. We ended up going for lunch so by 1pm we decided to go to the mall instead as didn’t know what time the water park closed and we still had to go and collect the car we parked at Buda bar the night before.

So we once again hit the Mall of the Emirates, very dangerous place for my credit card!! Spent about 3 hours looking around and a couple of us went skiing. I decided the money could be better spent in Channel, Debenhams and a range of other classy shops where the sales were on, and when Dubai says sale its not just a rack of crap that no one else wants with 12% off!! We had some dinner at the Mall and then headed to Madinat to the Souks. These were not the traditional souks like the ones you find in Doha but castle like mazes complete with hotel and a moat with traditional boats to take guests to their rooms and around the maze of restaurants and shops. You can see the souks in the picture, it’s the brown block of buildings with water around the outside.

There was some amazing artwork, traditional clothing, statues, ornaments and jewelry. We went into one store for Bec to look at a necklace. The lady in the shop asked her if she wanted to try it on, Bec was like "oh, ummm," I was like "yes she does" and they asked me if I wanted to try anything on and I pointed to the $20,000 blue topaz encrusted with diamonds! Love the titanic!! It was ridiculously huge and there was an even larger one, they let me take a picture to show Matt, heehee.

The souks have some bars and restaurants on the water and we chose one to sit down at and have a bottle of wine. It was just beautiful, very fake, but beautiful and the boats looked lovely floating around on the calm water. I asked the waitress how we get to go on the boats and she suggested that they were only for hotel guests. Ah yes, room 703….. Bec, Rob and I boarded a little boat with Abdul the driver and floated off into the maze of Madinat. We had a great driver who insisted there were sharks in the man made moat! He took us for a tour all around and we had a spectacular view of the Burj all lit up. Abdul pointed out places in the hotel and he was like, there is the spa, which you know! Ha we were like, yes, went there today actually….. naughty!

When we got back from the tour we tried to get into trilogy, where we went the first night, alas our dress wasn’t up to standard so it was back to the Hotel to start on the 5 bottles of spirits we brought in duty free on the way through Dubai airport. Unfortunately we couldn’t bring it back to Doha so we had to drink it all.

Once again waking up in the morning was a slight challenge and times were pushed to the limits once again. Bec, Ellen and I went back to the trusty Mall of the Emirates so Ellen could buy the key board she wanted to bring back to Doha. Yes key board, and I'm not talking one you sit on your lap. This puppy was 16.5kg, 2m long and had a stand as well. Bec and I "popped" into Mossimo Dutti, our new favorite store, for 15 minutes….. we had walked by a couple of times the day before but hadn't dared enter, thinking the prices would be way out of our price range. But to our delight, there was a sale and as I described before they have awesome sales here.

Well you can buy a lot in 15 minutes. Bec brought a great leather jacket which was 60% off. It had a small surface stain on it so she asked the manager to give her a better deal. The manager called head office and tried to get 70% off but was unable to so she offered Bec any accessory, jewelry or bottle of perfume from the store.

From there we went to Wild Wadi water park and hung out in the boiling sun until it was time to drive out to the airport. That was a mission as there are three in Dubai and the little aeroplane signs don’t actually have the name of the airport on them in English. We only had a tourist map which was not very useful as we were going to an airport outside Dubai and the journey wasn’t even halfway on the map. Bec did a great job of driving; the person we were following however!!! Don’t think they have been educated in the etiquette of following. After being pushed off the road by a huge truck and trying to get back on with 10 others speeding along in our lane, screeching to a stop from 100km when at the last second and with no indicator Matt decides to take an exit, and 50 lane changes, we made it to the airport.

Aisey obviously wanted to stay longer in Dubai and booked his flight home a month later! He was coming back on the 23^rd August. Matt almost wasn’t coming back at all as he left his boarding pass at the check in counter…… yes they are logistics and we are organizing the 2^nd largest Games in the world……. Yikes…..

Dinner on the roof of the guest house.

There are 15 apartments at the guest house and most of us have been living there for at least a month. I decided it was time for us all to have a social evening so sent out an email to everyone I could remember from the bus in the mornings and said bring a plate of food to the roof at 7pm on Wednesday night. I send out a list with all the room numbers and got everyone to put what they were bringing against their room numbers so we could plan some variety.
It was a fantastic night, there must have been at least 50 of us and there was enough food to feed the American troops in the neighbouring countries! There are a lot of Italians here that have worked in Torino, and they were 2 hours late as they were preparing food! And you should have seen it! The top floor of the guest house is like a massive apartment which has been converted into a gym. There is also a kitchen and lounge area with a television and two large balconies. We set all the food out on the bench and walked around like it was a buffet. It’s actually quite pleasant in the evenings, about 30 degrees and there was nice breeze, coming from the open door and the air conditioning. It was a great night and we tried to come up with a name for it, some of the options were, dune bar, sand bar, desert, mirage-a-twa, cush bar, camel hump, and many other desert related names. We are thinking of going and purchasing a number of cushions from the Souqs and going up there more often to lounge around.

What an interesting night I had last night!

Bec and I went out to a friends place for some drinks. At about 12 we decided to head off to a party one our friends was having on the roof of their villa. While waiting on the road for taxis two cars stopped and asked us if they could drive us somewhere. Now I have to explain what it’s like in this country before you start going, you got into a car with random strangers???!!! The locals genuinely want to help and have nothing else to do on a Thursday night so the thought of driving some foreigners around in their car and talking to them about their life and where they come from is appealing to them. There was 10 of us, 4 went of into one car and 6 of us piled into the back seat of the other and off we went in search of this party with Britney and Beyonce busting out a tune on the stereo. Our driver and co driver were, surprise surprise, Mohammed and Mohammed. They are all called Mohammed or Ali!! He was great and didn’t go over 80km the whole time, which trust me is something pretty unusual for the local drivers of this country.
After driving around with little idea of where to go and trying to get directions of people who didn’t even know where they were in the first place, it was getting stuffy, squishy and hot in the back seat and we were over driving around not knowing where to go. The other car in the convoy had already dropped our friends of at a nightclub in the Intercontinental Hotel and had come back to join their friends. We were stopped trying to make a decision as to where to go next and I simply suggested two of us get out into the other car to make it roomier and one of the guys packed a stink got out and walked off into the desert with a bottle of tequila under his arm. We spent the next 45mins trying to look for him and driving all over the large desert patch between the villas and the road. He had left his phone in the car so there was no way to reach him, what a dumb ass!

After scouring the whole area like a search party and calling out for him with little luck we decided that he must have got a taxi back so we bailed on the going out idea and Mohammed and Mohammed drove us back to our friends place, teaching us a little Arabic on the way. They were concerned about our friend and gave us their number incase we needed to go back if he wasn’t home.

Bec and I then found a taxi to take us back to the guest house and tried to stop and get something to eat. We left the cab and walked around to where a couple of fast food outlets are to find that they were all closed. By now it was 4am and we were hanging out for some food. We walked down the road towards a place called turkey central which is our local favorite, and found one food outlet open, shining like a beacon in the darkish dusty morning. We went in an ordered chicken burgers and fries and tried to avoid the stares from two local guys that came in, which the guy working there told us were gay! Ha, that is totally illegal here, imagine that. While we were eating we were talking to the guy who worked there and telling him all the Arabic words we know, crazy, hello, how are you, go. He was getting a little into the conversation so we thought that’s our cue to go. We asked how much and he said, you no pay, no, no you no pay. Bec tried to give him money a number of times and he wouldn’t take it. He followed us out and was asking us our names and where we were going. We said, thank you we bring our friends next time, we come back. He said you give me your number… no we come back tomorrow we bring our friends, and we waved good bye thinking, note to self, one place we are never allowed to go again!!!

Worked out to be a pretty cheap night, drove 3 times around Doha and chowed down on local fast food and only paid for a $2 taxi. Bec and I just had to laugh as we wandered home trough the dusty, lightning morning and listened to the roosters crowing. That’s right roosters, this place never ceases to amaze me and gets stranger everyday. By the time we walked from where we ate to the guest house it was 5am and the sun was up!
What a night.

Think I might be changing my travel plans!! Lucky we havent actually got around to booking anything yet. Bring on Greece.......

Lebanon

This advice has been reviewed and reissued. It contains new information in the Summary and on Safety and Security: Civil Unrest/Political Tension (deteriorating security environment and closure of Beirut International airport). The overall level of advice for Lebanon has increased.

Summary

• We strongly advise you not to travel to Lebanon at this time because of the deteriorating security environment. Beirut International Airport is closed.
• If you are in Lebanon you should remain in a secure location indoors and monitor the media and follow the instructions of local authorities.
• Commercial and public areas known to be frequented by foreigners are possible terrorist targets.
• The Australian Embassy in Beirut has closed until further notice.
• Political assassinations continue to occur in Lebanon, including through the use of car bombs. Such incidents can lead to retaliatory attacks or other violence. Bystanders can be caught up in these attacks.
• You should avoid any large gatherings and demonstrations as these may turn violent. You should pay close attention to your personal security and monitor the media for updates.

Bec and I hard at work at the Athletes Village

It’s been so hot out there and there is no air con at the moment. Our job has been to walk around all the apartments laying out stickers of room and apartment numbers. Drinking about 3 liters of water a day and having trouble with the workers walking round after us collecting up the stickers for ‘safety reasons’ and putting them away in a draw! We weren’t there to actually put the stickers on the wall just lay them out for someone else to come around and put them on the wall, talk about time management and double handling. I have seen some interesting stuff since I have been here. They certainly have a different way of doing things. My computer wasn’t connected to the company network system which meant my internet, email and phone was not working. I called ‘helpdesk’ which should be called ‘un-helpful desk’ to tell them the problem. After navigating the language barrier and spelling my name three times they said they would issue me a ticket number… then hung up. The ticket number is so that when you call to follow up the problem they can track it. Not only did they not give it to me over the phone, but three days latter when I was finally back on the network I found 2 emails form ‘helpdesk’

Dear Ms. / Mr. Cushla

This is in regards to the ticket number HD---2777 about ‘Unable to access network’ on 6/28/2006
Please respond to this email to provide us with any updates on the above ticket so we may follow up or close it.
If you have any technical and related inquiries, please do not hesitate to contact us.

Regards,

Well now how am I going to reply to an email about a problem with my email?? After calling using Bec’s phone 3 times and having to speak to three different people and spell my name about 10 times while explaining I was not Rebecca Healy and the reason I was using her phone is the whole reason I was calling in the first place, they sent 3 different people up and one more after they had fixed the problem. You get no help for days and then 4 people rock up none of whom seemed to know anything about the problem and I had to explain it to them again. Oh the fun and games of living in Doha

I have now been in Qatar for 4 weeks! 1 month out of 6, it has gone so fast and I have done quite a lot already, with more adventures to come.

This weekend we headed out to Sealine Resort which is about a 40 minute drive from Doha. After navigating the crazy Doha traffic we reached the long outstretching roads into the desert. We sped along Al Matar Street in our 2 car convoy, listening to the call to prayer, Islamic readings and philosophies on the local radio station. As usual the roads were not particularly well sign posted and there were lots of diversions due to all the road works. We cleared Al Wakra and Mesaieed, took a wrong turn and ended up at North Camp and a dead end. Started see what the desert really had to offer, not much more than a whole lot of amazing sand dunes. We pulled over to take photos with a group of camels strolling by the side of the road!

Once we reached Sealine we headed straight to the pools to check out the scenery. One of them was strictly for women and families and the other was open to everyone. Needless to say the later was full of all the non-family men and they seemed to have a small problem with their eyes! There was a temperature board by one of the pools, it was 47 degrees at 12pm and the pool temperature was a cool 33 degrees, it actually felt a cooling relief from the heat of the air. We took up a spot under the palm trees and ventured out onto the hot sand and into the sea. The water temperature was actually cooler than the air for a change, usually it’s like a spa bath and not very refreshing. I’d only been in there about 10 minutes and was stung by a jellyfish, I sprung out of the water and onto the beach rather quickly, unfortunately have nothing to show for my brutal attack.

We lounged by the pool and under the trees till about 2pm and then went in search for lunch. After that it was back to the pool for a little more lounging and then out to the front of the resort to book quad bikes. The only condition we had to sign for was not to take the bikes across the border to Saudi Arabia…. as if! The 6 of us then let lose, cutting up the sand dunes and showing the locals a thing or two. Well not really they are mad little buggers!! This place has little regard for safety as the quad bikes race around the dunes and have to dodge the massive 4WD sharing their turf!

We buggied out into the middle of the desert, must have been going about 60km at top speed. Had to get a good run up to make it up the side of the dunes and not get your bike stuck in the sand. After a while made the most of the 5 gears and were huning around and racing each other over the sand. KT managed to flip her quad bike and we rushed over to catch it all on camera while she posed distressed! Ended up having to leave her bike in the middle of the desert and she had to double up with Steve as we couldn’t get it to start!

We left Sea Line at 7pm and drove back to Doha, hot, tied and sunburnt, nick naming our selves the white stripes thanks to the red and white bikinis we were now fashioning.

That evening we had nachos, pizza and drinks on the roof of our apartments and took all the lounge chairs outside to sit under the star (could only see one) and chat.
Saturday we were taken on a tour of 2 local mosques in Doha by Kiser from our office. He talked about the religion of Islam and gave us the opportunity to go inside a mosque and ask all our burning questions. The rest of the Saturday was pretty cursie and that brings us to the beginning of the working week once again. Next weekend we are off to Dubai for a look around, cant wait!

Pictures from Doha


This is the fruit and vegie market that we went to on our city tour. Heaps of fresh yummy produce and so cheap. I brought a big bag of vegies and fruit for about $5!!


Right - a local guy with Shisha below the Emir. Shisha is that big pipe on the ground, kinda like a big bong with a long hose. They lie around at a cafe or have it the table after dinner. Mostly they smoke flavored tobacco, cinnamon or apple. The picture behind him is a common site in banks, hotels, resturants, almost everywhere, he is the head of the state.

Souq Waqif. An amazing local market selling dried fuit and nuts as well as lots of local perfume, material, cooking stuff and heaps more!! Love this place.

A very Mexican weekend

Had a great weekend! Thursday night Bec and I went to our friends place and had some drinks then went out to Paloma’s which is a Mexican restaurant in the Intercontinental hotel that turns into a sort of night club. A little dodge though and didn’t want to look at anyone as they totally get the wrong idea!
Spent Friday doing a little recovering and went out to collect supplies for the house warming party that night, also Mexican themed. We drank tequila and Coronas and ate tacos and corn chips. Sing Star was out and featured many a talented voice, thank god (or should I say Allah) for the alcohol and therefore a slightly dulled sense of hearing. Saturday Ellen and I spent most of the afternoon lazing buy the pool and ordering cold ice tea from the comfort of our sunny lounges, tough life. Continuing with the Mexican theme, and the inability to do anything for ourselves this weekend, went back to Paloma’s for Fajitas, more corn chips and an evening of soccer on the big screen.

We went out for dinner with a whole group of people. I ordered something I can’t even pronounce let alone spell so I won’t bother, but basically I was told meat with some yogurt. Some being the operative word here. However on receipt of my meal I discovered in fact that it was yogurt with meat (little chucks).
Eating is interesting here, no need to order starters, the portions are large and there is so much food brought out complimentary it’s not funny.

The pic is of Mary and Jess eating their yogurt and meat along with all the other accompaniments. Most restaurants bring out a selection of olives, pickled vegetables, a plate with whole lettuce, tomato, cucumber, capsicum and radishes, then, large baskets of hot flat bread which they exchange for new ones before you have a chance to finish the first. It’s crazy, cheap too.