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.