United Colours of Benetton

Just a quick breakdown of the nationalities in my office:

We have 2 Canadians, 2 South Africans, a Belgian, 3 Filipinos, 2 Indians, 3 Lebanese, a Chinese, a Pakistani, 2 Moroccans, 1 Algerian and an Egyptian.

How cool is that!

Routines

So I'm on week 2 and have already settled back into a routine. I start work (pics of office attached) at 9am so my alarm goes of at 7.30am. If I am not already awake thanks to construction (weekends only it seems), or to Oscar (the brown bird that sits on my windowsill and sings merrily, then I hit snooze twice.

7.50am downstairs to turn on the TV - Skynews, and the kettle - English Breakfast tea. Then, 15 minute shower, with the windows open - ok, let me explain, my shower in Dubai ran out of hot water in 5 minutes flat, and my bathroom had no windows, so this is a novelty!

Get dressed, made up, deodorised and downstairs to make lunch (tuna or turkey and cheese wrap with salad), and then sit down for 8.30am news round up with my yoghurt - Activia Laban, and my fruit of the day - usually banana.

8.40am Rashid arrives. Or any other fella he has convinced to come 'all the way to our villa, which is miles out of town'. 9am I arrive at work, having battled traffic, so you can tell 'we are miles out of town'. NOT!

6pm (officially, although last night was 8.30pm) someone fetches me and take me home, or to the Family Food Centre for groceries, and then home. Then lots of gossip with Richard, Liam and Angelo (Eva is away all the time!). Dinner (meat and veggies) and then movies or football if it's on and bed.

What fun!

No news on my shipping, damnit, am already bored of the clothes I packed, and my one pillow and sheet ;-(

Another desert, same construction

I was woken up at 6am by jackhammers outside my window. Some things never change in the Middle East!

So I have some pics of my night last night - the Dohaians are mad ;-) Went down to the rugby club and there was some sort of horse racing event going on. Not actual horse racing, apparently drinking games!

Anyway, obviously they had to dress up for these, so we got some shots of them! The others in the pic are Fergal (Richard's mate) and Richard, one of my housemates.

Everyone here is very friendly and it seems a lot more community minded than Dubai. Probably because it's a lot smaller! My landlord is excruciatingly painful. Possibly just because he's lonely, but his heart is in the right placer so we tolerate him ;-) He keeps 'popping in' because he's in he area, and then sits around for ages expecting us to entertain him!

I won't put up pics of the villa until my things arrive. It just looks a little sad and empty, and I don't want people feeling sorry for me ;-)

I miss my wonderful friends. All the time. But I am making new ones at a rapid rate, which is fun!

More next week, I promise.

94 days later

I'm back. I have had a crappy 3 months and while it's no excuse not to be blogging, it really got to a point where I was boring myself, so I'm kinda glad I didn't put you through it! And if I did anyway, through various other cyber mediums, thanks for putting up with me!

I started a(nother) new job on Sunday. Creative Services Director for DDB Doha. Super exciting position, and good money considering we are in a credit crunch! Moved here on Saturday and have not had time to do photos etc so will get onto that this weekend, and post another post as soon as Friday - don't fall over!

I am staying with 4 other expats in an enormous villa, which is affordable and I pay month to month so it will do for now. I think I'm over living with more than one other person, but it's a good way to meet people in a new country... I am going home for Easter, which is fab as I haven't been for 18 months!

More about the office, villa, new friends on the weekend when I have pics!

P