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!!!