Crazy Rain

Over the last few days it has been raining. Becuase this is a rare occurence the drainage systems on the roads are not quite up to the task and the streets flood leaving water sitting in puddles until it evapourates.

One particular stretch of road that i use to commute to and from work is unpaved so it is actually rather muddy and has pools of water almost the size of Loch Ness on it. This leads to people driving at about 2km/h through the puddles because they don’t understand that cars can actually go through puddles above this speed. So i went through this puddle overtaking all the other cars (as i usually do). This time one gentleman was for reasons unknown to me very upset about this, chased after me and pulled me over. He got out his car and opened my passenger door (at this point i was a little worried) and shouted something in indian (not sure which language). It turned out he had unfortunately had his window open as i had driven by and had been sprayed with water. I apologised and he walked sheepish away, perhaps realising that it may have been a good idea to close his window before going through this large puddle. I couldn’t stop laughing for the rest of the journey home.

Sandy in Qatar

There is a sandstorm going on here today.  I saw it come in and to be honest it looked like either there was a huge fire in Doha or someone  had let off a bomb.  But no it was the dust rolling in.  And seriously within about 30 seconds you couldn’t see 20m ahead.  The sand gets everywhere including in your mouth with is a very strange sensation.

India

I managed to escape Doha again to visit India. Unfortunately i was due to leave a few days after the Mumbai attack. However i was travelling to the south so i wasn’t too worried about getting caught up in the following mess.

We flew into Kochi airport after an hour and a half of cruising in a holding pattern due to fog over the runway. Tense times onboard but after an aborted landing and the captain informing us that 2 other planes had redirected to another airport we landed safely.

After 2 hours in line at customs ( i think because 4 flights landed shortly before and after us) i was hit by India. A great clamour of faces and colour awaited us at the exit to the airport. The presence of Indian army commandoes carrying large machine guns was also a very stark reminder of what had happened in Mumbai. It was into a taxi for a terror ride into Fort Cochin (Fort Kochi). Drivers here have no qualms on overtaking. Even if there is a large truck coming the opposite direction and the 1.0 litre engine seemed incapable of powering our car past we somehow made it. I thought driving in Qatar was bad!

Walking on the Corniche

Earlier this week I went for a walk along the Corniche.  This is a promenade along the sea shore of Doha.  It’s only recently been comfortable to do this.  On my walk I can across 3 indian men wading in the sea.  They were brandishing spears which they had poised to stike in one hand and a torch in the other which they were shining in the sea.  Clearly they were fishing.

However what struck me as odd was not this primeval display of mans hunting skill but the fact they were doing it next to a 6 lane highway and ultra modern 50 storey tower blocks.  Where else in the world would you see this?

Car Parking Chaos

Today i left the flat in my car from the basement car park.  I noticed that the building maintenance men were up to something but didn’t investigate further.  After a good work out in the gym to try and remove the flab that has built up there since moving to Doha i find that somebody is in my parking space.  This is actually the first time this has happened but i did what any miffed parking space owner would do and blocked them in with my car.  I was about to get into the lift when the security gaurd tried to tell me that i shouldn’t do that because it wasn’t my space.  I was completely baffled by this as this has been my space for the past 8 months and even has a sign saying flat 22.  But wait, when i look at the sign the guard was indeed correct.  This space is now flat 17’s space.  I look at the next space.  This is now flat 21’s instead of 23’s as it was before i left the building.  The maintenance guys had changed everyones parking spaces around with seemingly no logical order, at nobodys request and for as far as i could see no reason.  Very strange.

After grumbling a bit about how stupid this all was i parked in my new space. Which is now inbetween flat 26 and 15s parking space.  Go figure…

Back in Town

So, it took leaving Doha and returning to London to get my juices going so here goes!

Yesterday i returned to London to catch my plane to Doha.  I flew from Dundee to London and then struggled across London on the DLR and tube to get to Heathrow.  It was while compacted into the Picadilly line it occured to me that i was completely “out of my element”.  This came as a surprise because during my time in London i considered myself to be a seasoned tube user and would regularly curse(not literally people blocking my way with a suitcase.  There i was getting in the way with my big suitcase.  Darn.

The whole experience just highlighted to me how much i actually miss the city.  Sure there are downsides to living in London – the tube, muggings, pollution, high cost of living, but the upsides (friends, meeting new people, culture, clubbing, pubs, being in the centre of world) more than accomodate these pitfalls.  So it was on this tube journey that i vowed to return!  watch this space!

Meh…

My creative juices have gone for now.  Hopefully I can write something interesting at a later date.

The Return to Doha

I have just come back from an excellent holiday in the UK.  This is one of the benefits of being in Doha- more annual leave.  So i made full use of this by going home and catching up with all my friends and family.  This has been very therapuetic.  However i fear the feeling of contentedness will wear off soon and it will be business as usual in Doha. 

The journey back was uneventful exept that the plane was delayed because the bridge to the aircraft was stuck and couldn’t be moved.  Getting back at 1am i was anscious to get home as soon a possible as i had workat 7am that day and hadn’t really slept on the plane.  On the way to the terminal the bus passed some cargo on the tarmac notably an aircraft pallette with a Lambourghni on it!  Probably some Sheihk who didn’t want to hire a car when he went on holiday for the summer… 

The other funny thing was that from a full aircraft of capacity around 300 only about 15 people actually went to customs at Doha.  The rest went to the transfers desk.  Obviously Doha is not the tourist destination it would like to be just yet.  At least i didn’t have to wait long in the passport queue.

SO i’m back.

Land Cruiser fightback

Anyone who lives in Doha will recognize the sight of a Toyota Land Cruiser bearing down on you at high speed flashing its headlights to get you to move over.  When you don’t move over the man in white driving the LC gets somewhat upset because this is his road and you should get the hell out of his way.

Have had several near accidents in this fashion my friend from LA came up with an ingenious way of ‘detering’ such behaviour.  Yes, he purchased a 15,000,000 candle power floodlight which can be flashed as a polite warning to the Land Cruiser slow down.

HEHEHEHE

Humbled

Today I went to work early to attend a safety talk given by one of the contractors onsite.  I arrived at 6.15am to see a group of workers standing in a circle listening intently to the words of a short Indian man standing before them.  There were all kinds of nationalities here and these guys were all drivers of the big tipper trucks that trundle around site at about 20kph.

The most striking thing about this talk was one guy was giving the talk in Hindi and our indian friend was giving it in English at the same time very clearly and precisely.  Infact it was one of the best safety talks i’ve been to.  And i’ve been to a lot and presented a lot myself!

After i congratulated the man who introduced himself as Sav, for conducting such an eloquent talk.  It turned out he was a preacher for a baptist church in Doha.  We talked about the work he was doing which was interesting (if you are an engineer!) and Cliff (my boss) asked him where he was from.  Hyderabad in the south of India.  He then went on to say that the only reason he was working was to fund an entire Orpanage back in India.  I found this utterly humbling.  I have never heard of anyone working in a job like this to send nearly their entire salary to a cause like this.  This guy was truly an amazing man.  I felt very inadequate after talking to him!