Passport-run to Dubai

Next up: My trip to Dubai!

The logistics of living and working in Doha can be… how do we say… “challenging” at times. There are rules and procedures to follow to be able to live and work here legally. Basically, when we arrive, we need to have a sponsor. Bristol is Kelly’s sponsor. Among other things, this means that anytime Kelly wants to leave the country, Bristol has to give a written “ok”. Along with a lot of guidance from Osama – Bristol’s in-house “government relations” person, whose sole-job is to make sure everyone is legal for working here – Kelly went through the process of getting his residency permit. This involved blood tests (2 – one to determine blood-type and one to check for AIDS?!?), x-rays, and fingerprinting.

Bristol will not be my sponsor tho. KELLY will be my sponsor… which – among other things – means that he has to give written permission (!) that I can work outside of the home. Yeah. You’re right – I scoffed at that little detail a bit. Anyway, before we can start MY process of getting blood tests, x-rays, fingerprints, etc Kelly has to produce 3-months of bank statements. Which means it will be January before we can do that. Seems almost straight-forward, right? Wrong!

My visitor’s visa (which I came into the country with) is only good for 1 month. Osama gets a 1-month extension, but then I have to leave the country and come back to start the process all over again before 2 months is up. So – the solution: a “passport run” to Dubai for the day on Nov 4th! We picked the cheapest flights which meant : 10 hours in Dubai. And what is a girl to do in Dubai for 10 hours OTHER than shop!? I mean, seriously!

Here are some pics and video from the Dubai Mall (located at the base of the Burj Dubai – the tallest free-standing structure in the world now):

An ice skating rink in the mall. This is nothing new for me now - at least 2 of the malls in Doha also have rinks. HOWEVER, this one has stands and a huge screen at the end.

3-story waterfall, with sculptures of silver divers. There is a second waterfall area behind the balconys at the right of the pic.

In another area of the mall, there is a giant aquarium. There were all kinds of schools of fish, including these manta/sting rays doing laps, a couple of sharks and more stuff that Im sure you can see better if you pay to go inside/under the aquarium. Maybe I'll do that next time... (ignore the reflections from the shops behind me in the glass)

Yet another open area... 4 stories high... with hundreds of gold and silver stars. Those of you who know me well might realize how much I loved this area. I stood, captivated, for a good 20 minutes. Then went to the bottom and took some video.

Another uber-cool area with video screens... on the floor.

And, for those who want to know what SHOPS this mall has, I took a little video in the fashion avenue area. This is just one of at least 6 hallways/areas on each floor!

Whereas other parts of the mall had 3 or 4 levels, the high-end fashion area only had 2. It certainly added something to the grandeur!

Just for fun, the storefront for Agent Provacateur. I didn't go in.

Finally, I tried to get a shot of the city as we were taking off. This is the best I got. You can see the wing of the plane in the top-right corner of the pic.

Un-related to residency permit nonsense: Kelly and I are going to Dubai together at the end of the month for 3-days, 2-nights during the second Eid. I’ve negotiated 2 half-days of shopping and 1 full day of pool/beach-lounging with him.

Life is rough….!

One week with the world's best female tennis players

This is the first of 2 or 3 posts I’ll put up today… I’m really trying to get caught up.

First on the docket: Sony Ericsson Tennis in Doha.

The season-ending Women’s Tennis Association (WTA) championships were in Doha again this year. They do 3-year stints per city and then move on to the next place. This was year number 2 here. The top 8 Singles tennis players and the top 4 Doubles teams on the WTA tour compete for an insane amount of $; the Singles winner (if she is undefeated throughout the week) receives US $ 1.55 million!! Just for playing (even if they lose all of their games) Singles players receive US $100,000!

Last year, a crew of Bristolites went every night and loved it. So Kelly and I joined in on the action this year. For 6 days in a row, we basically left work, drove to the Khalifa Tennis & Squash Complex, parked illegally (like everyone else), ate food from the concession stands on our lap, and watched the best female tennis players in the world compete. At one point between games, I turned to Kelly and said “so, I'm sitting here, eating my chicken biryani, watching Venus and Serena Williams play each other, like 10 rows away, thinking I might like to have a frozen yogurt before the next match like it’s no big deal. What is wrong with me!?” The accessibility to these sorts of events here is unbelievable.

The tourney wasn’t without its share of drama; lots of injuries, and some big upsets. The top player – Safina from Russia – withdrew due to injury. So the 9th-place player (Zvonarea, also from Russia) came in to play. SHE got injured and was replaced with the 10th-place player (Radwanska, from Poland) who won her only game of the week so she took home US$200,000! Other Singles players were: Kzunetsova (she was so tuff she scared the be-jeezus outta me!), Wozniacki (who withdrew in the semi-finals vs Serena due to injury), Dementieva, Azarenka, Jankovic and, of course, Venus and Serena Williams.

Venus and Serena competed in both Singles and Doubles. The played each other in the Singles finals, and Serena won. Given that they had emphasized their Doubles play this year, and were ranked #2 in the world, we hoped/assumed they’d be in the Doubles finals too. But it wasn’t so. They were upset by the Spanish doubles players in the semi-finals – maybe in-part due to the insane fan support for the Spanish players?

This is the better video (too large to up-load to blogger, so I tried embedding it. If you can't view it, you'll have to click on this link to view: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mXaDitRaGB4)

… these guys were playing between the 1st and 2nd sets, and the camera caught Mrs Williams (V & S’s mom) on the big screen dancing and clapping along to the band. She was MORTIFIED and tried to hide! The camera quickly showed V&S who were getting a kick out of it. Then the camera went back to the mom – still mortified and hiding. It was awesome. Perhaps one of the best non-game highlights.

Another highlight: earlier in the week, during a marathon-of-a-game and at a tie-break at the end of the 3rd set, the chair judge had to pause the play while a stray cat ran across the court! Kelly caught the end of it on video. Not surprising, this kitty cat made the “highlight reel” and into the game summaries the next day. This was his 15 seconds of fame.

(ignore the last 10 seconds or so - we forgot to turn off the camera)





Finally, here are a few more pics from the week. Looking forward to doing it again next year!

The first night. Melting from the heat already.:

The stadium from our seats for most of the week:

The royal box:

Venus and Serena's mom. She was obviously very excited to be there!:

Purple trees:

Crazy above-court "spider-cam" (as we affectionately called it):

Awwww (and, yes, still melting in the heat...):

The Bristol tennis gang:

Kelly asked why I hadn't given him the memo about color-coordinating with the court:

And, finally, VIVA L'ESPANA!!!

How I managed to lose my wedding ring in the Arabian Gulf

So basically, here’s how the story goes...we go jet skiing and, on the way, Miranda says, “I think I’ll take my rings off.” I say, “Good idea, I won’t bother taking mine off because it’ll never come off.” You have to understand that I deliberately got it made slightly smaller so that it REALLY takes some twisting to get it off. It can be done but it takes a lot of effort. Never in a million years did it cross my mind that there might even be a slight chance that it would come off, there was just no way. I was wrong. After coming out of a spin, I hit a wave that catches me offguard and I go flying off the jet ski. Hitting the water sideways, but no worse than diving off into a pool, I’m jolted into the water. I’m now haunted by visions of my wedding ring slowly floating downward to the bottom of the Arabian Gulf (yes, it’s in slo motion and there’s dramatic orchestra music). Needless to say, I was pissed when I looked at my hand later after we got home and, lo and behold, there's no ring on my finger. I was heartbroken. Miranda made me feel better with comforting words, saying that it is, indeed, something that can be replaced. But still, this was something very sentimental to me and now it's gone. So we’ve left a piece of us here in the Gulf that’s sure to remain for some time. Miranda gave me an interim ring that’ll do until I get a replacement, one that will have to be special in its own way. At least I lost it in a jet skiing accident in the Arabian Gulf instead of just accidentally dropping it down the toilet. Still, I really wish I’d taken it off. Lesson learned. Luckily, I have an understanding wife that refrained from saying the four words that came to her mind and I'm still have the most important thing in my marriage: my wonderful wife. But the ring will be missed. The end.

Helllloooo strangers!

It's come to light that we've been particularly "slack" in the blog-update department over the past couple of weeks. I'll skip the excuses and instead tell you what we've been up to lately...

Much of our time seems to be related to settling into our new home... discovering what things we don't have (usually at an inconvenient time!), and then going out and finding them. For example, we bought a few Food Made Fast cookbooks (for inspiration and to mix up our regular dinner stand-bys - they are wonderful, btw!), made a grocery list based on a couple recipes we wanted to try, and went about finding the items we needed at the grocery store. Who knew that something as simple as spinach or fresh basil would be so hard to find! And red wine vinegar? I've given up on that one! I suspect that - because it has "wine" in the name - we'll never find that one on grocery store shelves. However, I DID find red grape vinegar. Hmm. Maybe the same thing? Not sure. So, we get (most of) our ingredients home and begin making a meal... then we realize we have no measuring cups or spoons. We "guess-timated" for a couple weeks. I have yet to find measuring cups! It makes cooking interesting, to say in the least!

Also, Kelly now has a liquor permit (a requirement if you want to buy booze here in Qatar). It helps with dealing with the above-described situations. To acquire a permit, you need your residence/work visa, a letter from your employer with your monthly salary (they give you a monthly quota based on your income!), you have to state your marital status, nationality and religion! Then you get an id card with a photo on it. And only those people with ids can go into the store. So I just have to give Kelly a vague list and hope he picks out some good wines. So far, so good!

Thanksgiving also happened in the time between our last post and this one. While I was sad to be missing the beautiful Maritime autumn weather and fantastic harvest food (Honey Crisps, oh, how I miss you... *sigh*), we were lucky enough to be invited to, not one, but TWO Canadian Thanksgiving dinners here in Doha. We had real, honest-to-goodness roasted turkey, stuffing (well... Kelly did), gravy (our hosts even made gluten-free gravy for me - it was the awesome-est!), carrots, mashed potatoes, corn.... all the good stuff! Among other things, I was especially thankful for the kindness and generosity of Canadian friends this Thanksgiving.

More recently (as in, this weekend), we had a housewarming (or is it villawarming??) get-together with some current and past Bristolites from the Gulf office... or is it Bristol Gulf-ites? ...or Bristol Gulfies? Regardless of the term, we had a chance to visit with the peeps outside the office, share some laughs and a few drinks, and infuse our home with some positive energy. And we also got to talk to some friends and family this weekend on Skype. We even did a walking tour of our home for a couple people. It was fun!! It looks like we'll make Saturdays our day for connecting on Skype. So, if you want to chat, log on in the morning or early afternoon (which will be afternoon or evening for us) and hopefully we'll be around! Our skype names are miranda.devoe and kelly.devoe, and our iChat name is DevoesInDoha (I think its an AOL or .aim profile, if that makes any sense?).

What else???

Stella and Hendrix (the fur-kids) are settling very well now. They have found favourite perches to look out the windows at birds and visiting stray cats (!) and also have regular cozy spots on the sofas. And - FINALLY - they're back to cuddling with me in the evenings. I was worried that they had grown out of cuddle-time, but it's BACK! (P.S. sorry to be one of those people with no kids who turn their pets into their kids... I do recognize that its a tad bit ridiculous. But it is what it is, and I love the little munchkins). They have new food that they seem to like, but we still haven't got them a litterbox as nice as the one they had in Canada. Hey - don't judge - having a decent place to do your business is important!

This post is digressing quickly so I'll sign off now.

Cheers!

More quirks about living in Doha...

• You flick the light switch DOWN to turn it ON (...usually)
• It’s normal to see a car in a parking lot with its lights on and engine running with no sign of the owner anywhere. After seeing this a few times I finally realized that the person has gone into the grocery store or mall to do their shopping and wants to come out to a cool car when they’re finished. Gas is cheap. And the consequences of stealing someone’s property would be stiff. So why not!? I mean, global warming is just something Al Gore made up to sell some DVDs, right??
• When talking on cell phones, it is only the person making the call who is charged for the minutes talked. So people “miss call” each other (they call and hang up before the other person answers) which means that THAT person will have to call them back and incur the costs.
• Multi-level malls have escalator ramps – imagine a moving sidewalk and an escalator got married and had a baby – so you can take your cart (aka trolley) from floor to floor.
• It’s common not to get napkins with your meal at a restaurant. Instead, there is a box of Kleenex (pardon me: facial tissue) on the table. Yeah, it’s just as much fun as it sounds.

2 things that made me happy today at work...

1) Having a major client agree to the necessity for primary market research for their project! (btw - this is the reason I'm here) Next stage: formal proposal and working out the details.

2) Deciding to go in on a VIP box (read: court-side) tickets with some other Doha Bristolites to the Sony Ericsson WTA Tennis Championships here in Doha at the end of October!

http://www.sonyericsson-championships.com/
(The below picture is from last year)



That means we'll get to watch the best female tennis players in the world (including Serena and probably Venus Williams) play for 6 days. For, like, $200 CAD. That's NUTS! If I wasn't a big tennis fan before, I suspect I will be after this!

Quick pics of our villa!

We've been busy moving into our villa and don't have internet there yet, but here are a few quick pics that we took on our way out the door this morning.

This is where we are on the map (location=fantastic!):


The view of the front door from outside the gate (pretty much all villas and componds have walls around the property; they're private folks here):

Inside the gate, from a slightly different angle


Some greenery to the right of the front door:


The living and diningrooms, taken from the front foyer:


The giant dining table that seats 10 frickin' people:

Looking back at the front door from the livingroom:

Outside the large windows, there is more garden (it actually wraps all the way around the house). I hope to plant a few flowers or some ground-cover type of thing in the sandy area at the bottom-left of the pic:

Looking back at the living/diningroom windows from the back garden. We hope to get a small patio set so we can enjoy the weather. It's finally getting "cool" enough to be tolerable to be outside for more than 30 seconds!

We'll add pics of the rest of the house - the giant kitchen, 3 bedrooms, and 2 1/2 baths - once they are picture-ready.

Also found at the grocery store...

(Click on the pic to enlarge it; you need to see the detail and names/labels on each of them to fully appreciate it)









And the best one of all so far....

Name That Logo - Arabic Edition - Round 1

Some are easy. Some might be a little more difficult. All are well-known North American brands. Leave a comment with your guesses!

1)

2)

3)

4)

5)

6)

7)

8)

9)

10)

Ramadan is Over!

I'll attempt to describe what this all means.

Ramadan is the Islamic holy month. It involves fasting during day light hours, among other things. This which means that Arabs (and most are of Muslim religion) are not to eat, drink, smoke, even chew gum (and probably a few other enjoyments) during Ramadan. Eid al Fitr, is a 3 day Muslim holiday that marks the end of Ramadan. And currently, at the time of this post, we are enjoying Eid which means we have a few extra days of work.. and the restaurants are now open again during the day.

Why am I so happy about this? Well, for starters - because the Arabs are not eating during the day - none of the restaurants are open until after the sun goes down. And it's actually against the law for anyone (including those who are not Muslim, like us) to eat or drink in public (even if you're driving in your car). The only exception to this are those working outside in the heat (after all, we can't have people dropping dead of dehydration out there). So it's a bit of an effort if you wanna sneak some kind of food or drink, but you can take it behind closed doors out of respect for your Arab friends.

Let me go back to my question, Why am I so happy about this? Well now we can eat, drink and be merry once again during daylight hours without any worries. (Because I did feel like I was tiptoeing around a bit and looking over my shoulder). So it's all good.

I'll attempt to describe Eid. It's kinda a little bit like Christmas for Muslims. Everyone dresses in new clothes, exchanges gifts, visits with family, and people wish each other a Happy Eid (actually the proper terminology is "Eid Mubarak"). And here's the quirky thing: The beginning of Eid is marked by seeing the new crescent moon and it has to be just right or Eid does not begin. You with me here? So around 7 o'clock pm (or so) last night, the powers-that-be saw the crescent moon. Imagine everyone saying, "It's evening already and we don't know for sure if we're working tomorrow or not....yet". While science predicts the phases of the moon, the committee responsible for these sorts of things must see it with their own eyes. So Eid was announced, everyone rejoiced. We heard the honking of horns, fireworks went off in a few places, the streets were all traffic jams as everyone headed out to the malls to do their last minute Eid shopping (I am NOT kidding here) and we said, "well I guess we can sleep in tomorrow and then go get a coffee at a decent hour!". Pretty crazy, huh?

So this is my expat view of Ramadan and the first Eid. Hopefully I'm accurate here. I'm still learning but it's all very fascinating. And apparently there is a second Eid (and more days off work, hopefully) in two months.

Things I've noticed here ...

Seat belts are an option, it seems. I've seen kids climbing all over the inside of some vehicles which I wouldn't allow in any kind of traffic, especially this kind.

Jet skiing in the Persian Gulf

We went jet skiing today in the Persian Gulf. We took off from the shore just behind Miranda's left shoulder and stopped at an island where we saw flamingos just further along from where we stopped here. Of course, that's the city of Doha in the background.

The salt water kept splashing up into our eyes, especially when the water was choppy. Yes, today was slightly windy and the water was not warm, it was hot. A swim in it, you could say, would probably not be as refreshing as I would've liked it.

Zigzagging in front of the Zig Zag Towers.

Some videos - what a blast, we'll definitely be going again.

P.S. - Here's a map so you can see our route (red is our path out, and blue is the path we took back).

More quirks about living in Doha

• There are two sets of taps in the shower. One turns on the water. The other set has no faucet. No idea what those taps control.
• I find myself wearing cardigans and blazers regularly. I've heard/read that it's more respectable for a woman to cover her shoulders. Makes sense, right? Except its over 40 degrees (celsius) many days. Seems a bit crazy to me.
• Gas (supreme) is 80 dirhams per litre. There are 100 dirhams in 1 riyal. 1 riyal = about 33 cents Canadian. So 80 dirhams is about 24 cents. Yes, 24 cents per litre. And every gas station is full service.
• When you go to the mall or store, you can get your car washed (right there, in whatever parking spot you choose) for 7 or 8 riyals. Or less than $2.50.
• I still haven't cooked. The appliances are too unpredictable/unreliable. Kelly decided to make omelettes for breakfast. It took 15 minutes for the butter to melt in the pan. An hour later we had a delicious meal. But then the burner wouldn't turn off.  (Yes, we turned off the knob!) We had to turn off the power at the fuse box (the stove is hard wired, not plugged into the wall). That worked.
• Sometimes its so humid that our sunglasses/glasses steam up when we get out of our car/leave a restaurant/office/store.
• We have mobile phones here, drink soda, and cannot buy coffee cream. 
• Milk is full fat or low fat. No 2%, 1%, skim crap. All or nothing here. And most of the time, it's "all".
• It's normal to do u-turns. They are actually expected. You often have to drive several kms past a place you want to go, pull a u-turn and go back. Most roads have medians. It's actually safer for everyone.
• Lane markings are suggestions.
• I do a little happy dance every time we drive somewhere and do not have an accident along the way. So far, so good!
• Street names and numbers are irrelevant. You give/get directions by referencing landmarks, roundabouts (which are named by nearby buildings or sculptures), and hotel/store/restaurant names.

Things I've noticed here...

During the summer months here there is no need to turn on anything other than cold water in the shower. Wherever that tank is, it must be getting enough natural heat out of the atmosphere. In fact, it's almost too warm for me.

Doha: a mis-spoken Homer Simpson-ism??

As promised… some answers to questions you may (....or may not) have about our little adventure.

"First of all... where the heck are you?”

In a little country called Qatar, which sticks off Saudi Arabia into the Persian Gulf like a thumb, next to the United Arab Emirates (most well-known in North America for the city of Dubai).

We are 3 hours ahead of Greenwich Mean Time, and do not have “daylight savings” here. Right now, we’re 6 hours ahead of Nova Scotia. When you “fall back”, it will be 7 hrs.

In land size, Qatar is about twice the size of Prince Edward Island. It is an Islamic country. The predominant language is Arabic, but most people also speak English. And most business is conducted in English. (I sometimes have to interpret for Kelly’s – his Caper accent can apparently be difficult for some people to understand!)

There are over 1.5 million people living in Qatar, and the majority of them are in and around the city of Doha. The per-capita GDP in Qatar is the highest in the world.

Which leads to….

“WHY the heck are you THERE?!”

1: Re-read the last sentence of the last paragraph.
2: 6-month-long winters suck!

3: Change and challenges can be fulfilling.
4: There are some exciting things happening here!
5: Why the heck not!?

“But… you’re in the MIDDLE EAST! Are you NUTS?!”

Maybe. But it has nothing to do with where we are.

Do we feel unsafe here? Absolutely not! The city (and country) is very modern and relatively progressive (though sometimes a bit backwards compared to what we might view as “normal”). People here are friendly and helpful. They believe in providing supreme customer service – almost to a fault. For example, I don’t bother confirming that a food dish I’m considering does not contains wheat. The answer (assuming they understand my query) will certainly be “No ma’am. No wheat”, yet it could be a pasta dish(!). But I feel safer here leaving a car unlocked, a house unlocked, or being out and about after dark - for example - than I did in Halifax.

“Ok. Ok. I don't have to worry. ...So, what are you doing there again?”

Mostly, the same things we did back in Canada. We’re working for Bristol Gulf, which is kind of like Bristol’s dusty, dry, younger cousin. Kelly is still an Art Director. And I’m working towards setting up Marketing Research here. While our jobs are the same in general, the work and clients we have are obviously different.

“Do you have any frickin’ pictures!? All I've seen so far are words. Give me pictures already!”

Here are a few that we've taken this time around. (There are also pictures from our visit in March/April on our Facebook pages.)

This was taken somewhere between Frankfurt and Doha:

This is the house beside ours (well, the one we're staying in temporarily while we work out permanent accommodations). No joke. This is someone's home! (This is the front)

This is the side of the house we look at out our back windows. Apparently the "vision" for it came to him in a dream.


Back yard. Yeah. Weird. I know. (But also kinda cool, eh?)


The street signs are different here. Some of them are pretty comical (I'll try to get some of those ones over time - they're hard to catch on camera). Almost missed this one. Their crosswalk signs are even different!


Sculpture along the Corniche (kinda like the waterfront in Halifax)


The city skyline, taken from the opposite end of the Corniche, which is a large semi circle.


Until next time... keep fit and have fun!