Colleens' birthday bash!

Well it seems another year has rolled on by, Colleen says she has turned 29 this year no wonder she looks so good. We went all out with the celebrations with a fancy dinner at Sbarro's a local pizza place and back to the Al Hitmi Hilton for a couple of night caps, you will of course notice that we also splashed out on a rather impressive two teared cake and candle. Colleen was real impressed and enjoyed her evening of light frivolity. She didn't even get a hang over must be the maturity that comes with being 29 I guess.

Muscat (Oman)

Well the weekend saw us take to the skies and off to Muscat (Oman) for a bit of R & R our first weekend out of Qatar since we arrived. Oman is a great place to visit, friendly and just as warm as Doha. The biggest difference is the mountains and abundance of greenery in contrast to Qatars' flat landscape and complete lack of trees and anything much green. The people of Oman are very relaxed and this is most evident in the way they drive, sedate and obeying the road rules not like Qatar where everybody seems to have a death wish, or think they are racing at Le Mans. One of the biggest attractions to Oman is the abundance of forts and castles which are dotted all over the country some dating from the 17th century and many still in a wonderful state of preservation. The girls found the corniche and the Souqs up to the usual high standard and spent quite a few hours shopping and buying nicknacks and souvenirs and bits of junk.

The N.Z. - PGA - Doha Style

Doha International Golf Tournament, John and Martin challenged Repi and Chris to a wee golf match. Now apart from the expert sledging and some careful adjustments in the way of handicaps John and Martin were thrashed 9 and 2, a rematch is being fitted into the busy tour schedule. However the boys were gracious in defeat, well sort off, at least Chris still owes for two air shots, the single malt should taste real good, even if the beer tasted a bit sour. To the victors the spoils.

Who is this Guy???

Martin has changed sides so to speak we have renamed him the Sultan Al Bin James the 3rd of Al Hitmi. It was quite something seeing how the turban was tied and neatly fitted to his head, we decided that he looks very stylish in his disdash and turban.

Flying the Flag

Al Zubara Fort, Damian was asked by the curator to give him hand to change the tattered flag on the fort. This is about four stories up on the battlements, he had to take the pole down as there was no pulley or running rope system. It was a bit scary and a bit of a problem but he did manage to get it done without falling off. The curator an old Qatary guy was really pleased, thanked us and then opened up the whole fort for us to have a look around as it had been closed on our arrival, another sucess for team G.R. five.

Prayer Time

Prayer time at the Mosque next door to our apartment building, good luck finding your shoes, first call to prayers as at the 16th of June is 3.45am lucky our apartment is on the other side so we hardly get disturbed by the noise.

Golf Qatar style.

This is golfing real desert style, playing on browns not greens, using a small piece of artifical turf to play your shot and avoiding the rough at all costs. The browns are made from compacted sand with diesel added and then brushed with a fine layer of sand on top, challenging to say the least.

Fishing Gulf Style

Aussie Dave organised an afternoon's fishing. There was not enough fishing gear (no rods) only handlines and no bait. The lines that the skipper had were rigged for jig fishing, welcome to RSI.

The boat was even less well equiped no water, no life jackets, no flares, no radio at least we had fuel. After 4 hrs we had five fish that would have made sardinnes look big. It was good for a laugh and the Kiwi contingent caught the most fish.

We have moved

Al Hitmi. 04.06.08

Well it’s finally happened, the famed Team GR 5 have been moved from their five star accommodation at the Grand Regency to the more than famous Al Hitmi Apartments. Rest assured there is nothing five star about this place. Although reasonably comfortable, our biggest complaint is the lack of air conditioning. We are all on the top floor (7) and with the outside temperatures in the high 40’s and these places being devoid of insulation and double glazing, room temperatures soar and are therefore not much cooler than outside. Our bedroom hovers around 34 degrees constantly, real good for a good nights sleep, not!. The living area is usually 32 degrees, a fun place to live.

However, on a better note we have been assured that the air conditioning technicians will be here later today, yeah right, it’s now 5.40pm as I am writing this and as it is Thursday evening, the end of the working week here. There will be a fat chance that something will be done about it until Sunday at the earliest. But you can be assured something will happen, just when will be the 64 thousand dollar question. I may need to get angry with somebody very soon, Colleen may not be happy about it but tough I say.

On a lighter note John has found out the workings of the Public Service (Police) after he had a small fender bender in Julia’s car. Unfortunately it was his fault, he clipped the rear of a parked Mitsy Ute when he got forced to take evasive action on behalf of an errant bus that refused to give him any leeway. Never mind, it wasn’t too bad and has all been sorted now, even down to a replacement car for Julia.

One thing about the apartments it at least makes it easier for some social interaction with the rest of our crew and the last couple of nights have been spent quietly enjoying a couple of quiet ones to wash away the working day and incessant dust

A couple of views from inside our apartment, lounge and bedroom which is more like a sauna at 34 degrees all day, the air con unit spends more time pushing in hot air than anything else. Last night the AC techs arrived and removed the air con unit from our bedroom, that’s some progress as now there is a big hole in the wall and still lots of hot air but at least it’s not being blown into the room. Hopefully it will be repaired by tonight, fingers crossed.

Our apartment we are on the seventh floor at the back, the second photo is the roof area, there no need for hot water as all the water comes from these tanks so when it’s 40 plus so is the water.

Anyway catch you again soon. 705.

Sports roundabout a feature of most of the major roundabouts in Doha is that they are named to allow easy identification of different parts of town, Taxi drivers navigate by them as most streets and roads are unnamed. This one was driectly outside our Hotel.

Our Introduction to Qatar

03:04:08

Thought it was about time for an up date from Doha, Qatar, I can’t do much outside today as we have a dust storm, visibility is down to about half a K, and that’s not the major problem as I was out for awhile and it felt like you were chewing on sand, it’s in your eyes, hair what I’ve got left and everywhere else. It’s supposed to blow itself out by tomorrow afternoon.

We were going to play golf today on the Doha International Course, but we have postponed that because of the dust and plus one of the guys as got Doha belly, something he ate. We are now playing next week, hope to have photos then.

Colleen’s job is going along well, and her Partner seems to be very nice, I have not met her and are unlikely to, but Colleen is happy. She does however get phone calls at all hours with last minute changes and questions, but that’s not a big deal. The rest of the team are also progressing well with no real problems or issues, language can get in the way some times but generally everything gets sorted eventually.

We have now all got our Qatar driving licences, a bit of a rigmarole, photo’s eye tests etc, but we all passed and are now able to drive here, our licences are also endorsed to drive not only cars but also motorbikes, heavy truck and trailers and diggers on tracks, cool, let me lose.

We are still in the Hotel although Sue and Stu were moved out today to an apartment and we are expecting to be all gone by the 7th of April so just a few more days of the high life. The apartments are in an area called Al Hitmi and close to the Souq’s in the old part of town and the Corniche, so we will have plenty to do in the evenings.

Now that we have our licences we are able to lease a car so that is next on the agenda as the drivers we have had supplied will no longer be available from next week. So we are now busy trying to locate a good deal. Colleen’s company is trying to broker a bit of a deal with a couple of car outfits so hopefully we will be mobile by the weekend. We are planning to share with a couple of the guys and I will be the driver. Lease prices are in the region of 1900 Riyals ($650) for a Nissan Tida (2008) up to 2700 Riyals ($950) for a Toyota Camary four cylinder model (2008). Petrol costs 75 Dirams (25 cents) a litre so that is not to bad.

Work does not look promising at this time. I have spoken to a couple of Kiwi guys in the Construction Industry and they are keeping their eyes open for me, so will just have to wait and see. In the mean time driving the others around will keep me busy.

Tonight we plan to go to the Corniche and take a Dhow ride across the harbour to the Sheraton to experience the hospitality, it takes about 20 minutes and the harbour and city by night should look rather nice. I think we are then going to walk back around the Corniche to Ridges Hotel and the Aussie bar for a couple of quite Heinies.