Teaching English

Well this is the school where I will be teaching English - I have had two days of intensive training and today I have to give a presentation and then tomorrow (July 01) I will be starting my classes!!!

I have three groups to teach so far - first is a group of kids (12yrs+) not sure how many yet but no more than 7 - they will be Level One English, they will come along everyday for the month of July to learn for 1.5hrs daily.

Second group is 7 ladies from a local bank learning Level One English - their level is barely any English at all, so they are being sent along by their employer- a level usually takes 3mths to complete - they will attend three times a week for 1.5hrs each session.

And the third group is another group of women who will be Level Two and they will attend for three days a week for 1.5hrs each session.

So these classes are just to get me started I have been told, as the summer will be really busy so there will be alot of work -  so my boredom with Oprah is about to come to an end.....yipee!!!!

 

The Beach

This will be the main entrance to "The Pearl" which is the equivilent to Palm Island in Dubai - you can't drive in any further but it looks like it is going to be quite amazing, there will be residential homes, shops and restaurants.

We also found the public beach which is ok - but it was full of men sunbathing.  No western people at all.

This photo does not do the water justice - the colour is amazing - and it was so warm - very tempting to go for a swim, but I imagine if I had taken off my clothes I would have been arrested - mind you there was one women there in a bikini - but I did not fancy being leered at by Arab men!!!!

If you are  a local this is what you wear for a day at the beach. If you want to go in the water you just roll up your trouser legs.

Losail International Circuit

Today we drove out to find out where the Losail Circuit is - for MotoGP and  World Super Bikes.

It was only 35kms away - this is in preparation for March (long way away I know) but good to know where these things are.

I imagine that it would look pretty amazing at night as there are hundreds of lights around.

Hummer For Josh

Took these for you Josh - the picture does not do it justice - it really is much much bigger!!

Stretch Limo or Stretch Hummer

We went out for dinner the other night (no not in the hummer) but this was parked over the road when we returned to the car -  quite cool if you like hummer.  They are everywhere here - they love them - but they look like they belong here in the desert.

Anyone Hungry & F##@@**!!! Taxi Drivers

Well to ease my boredom today I decided to go to the shops and have coffee and lunch - as I am not working yet - this has become a habit of mine.

Googling and facebooking can become a bit tedious after a while - as can Oprah!!!

On the way there - I was in the taxi sitting in traffic when out of god knows where up the inside lane - well not even a lane ( a space to drive) came this little black porsche (thought it was Doug McLeod for a minute then I realised where I was!!) it was going so fast it was incredible - if you had pulled over you would gave been wiped out for sure - or he would have. 

Had a gingerbread caramel latte (straight to the hips) - devine, and a turkey sandwich - which took an hour to come - not sure if this was due to the colour of my hair or my sex (as other locals got their food rather quickly).

Two ladies next to me must have been really hungry - they had four dishes between them - salad (huge), pizza, pasta, and some sandwich - mind you they do eat alot here, and they demolished the lot along with 2 drinks each.

Then I did a bit of grocery shopping which included a piece of salmon and a bottle of milk - now the job is to find a taxi real quick so you can get the food home as quick as possible.  No problem found one.  Only thing is he did not speak very good english and he took the wrong turning to take me home and where he took me there were roadworks everywhere so I told him he had taken me the wrong way - he could not understand me so I got out - god knows where I was. Stupid I know but the meter was ticking and I have in the past been taken for a ride in the middle of nowhere and ended up costing me a fortune - at least I sort of knew where I was.

The temperature outside was 47 at 1630hrs.  I could see our apartment block in the distance so I just had to make my way towards it.  Only problem was no footpath - no room for traffic and pedestrian - so I had to make a run for it in between traffic (there are more pedestrian deaths here than MVA)

Anyway finally made it home after 20 minutes walk  - along with a half cooked piece of salmon and curdled milk - nice!!!!!

The above pic is just a huge shopping cart outside another mall.

Supermarket Shopping

As I was doing a bit of shopping this morning I snapped a few pics in the shop - I will add more later as you have to see the size of the shrimps/prawns here they are HUGE!!!!  (Have not taken a picture of these yet)

And cheese I have never seen so much cheese 

I felt a stupid taking photos in the supermarket - I got some strange looks - hence only these pictures!!!

Spices anyone - this is how they are displayed in the shop. There is just about any sort of spice that one could want.

More spices - the smell is divine.

Dried Fruit Galore.

And the vast selection of nuts and seeds

The barrels of spices in the background.

There really is the most amazing selection of food available.

If you want a bunch of herbs - this is the size.

Some of the cheese- they love cheese.

Socceroos Vs Qatar June 14, 2008 - Doha, Qatar

We went along to Al Saad Stadium on Saturday night to watch the Socceroos play Qatar - it was a great atmosphere and there were heaps of Aussies there - it was great.

Al Saad Stadium

Big Band prior to the game - they must have been so hot in all that gear

The Qatari fans - the whole game they play hand drums and use a loud speaker to sing - they really get into the spirit of the game

The Qatari fans released thousands of pieces of white paper into the air - not sure what for but it must have been quite off putting for the players as they were flying everywhere!

The Qatari cheerleaders!!!

The Qatari fans in full swing

Once the Aussies scored the second goal the Qatari's started to get up in droves and leave

Good sports or what!!!

The outside of the stadium

Driving In A Sand Storm

We decided to drive out to the Sealine Beach Resort.  This is a place that you can go to in the weekends and use the hotel facilities for the day - pool, diving, wind surfing, sand dune buggies etc..  It is 45 minutes from Doha.  As we got further out of Doha the wind got stronger and stronger - and we eventually ended up driving in a real sand storm - not pleasant, and not good for the paintwork on the car I am sure.

We stopped for petrol on the way - this is approx $7.00 AUD worth .

Here is a video I took on the camera while we were driving - in some parts of the road you could not see a foot in front of you - it was quite incredible.  

The sound is the sand hitting the car - excuse Nicks bad language at the start!!!

Good Ole English Breakfast

Thursday night we went out with a couple of Nicks work mates to an Irish bar in the Sheraton Hotel - it was just like being in the valley on a Friday night.  It was quite amazing to see all the expats in one place - and to think that in this country there are places where you can go out and enjoy a drink.  The only thing was there is no such thing as 'No Smoking' Laws here.  So we went home smelling like ash trays - there was probably 95% of the bar smoking.  We also checked out the Aussie Legends Bar in the Rydges Hotel this was a little better.  

But we were both in need of a post night out greasy breakfast and we found this little place - by the looks of it from the outside and its surrounds not the sort of place that one would stop if you were just passing by - but we had the best breakfast since leaving Australia.  Bacon (beef of course - no pig here) hash brown, tomato, eggs and sausage and toast -  it was so good. They also serve traditional roast beef and yorkshire pudding so we will go back one day for that. Good Ole English food - fab!!!

Demolishing a building  

A Dust Free Day

Today was the first day since we have been here - which has now been three weeks (three very long weeks for me) that the wind died down and there was no dust flying around.  For once we can actually see the buildings down at the Corniche from our apartment window.

Video of Buildings in Qatar

Here is a video montage that I found on YouTube which shows some of the new buildings in Doha - the building that we are living on is also shown on here. Some of the buildings have already been built others are either being constructed or still in the planning process.

Our Apartment

Well after two long weeks we finally have found somewhere to live - who would have thought that it would be so hard.  You ring up about something in the morning and in a few hours it is gone - so we were lucky to find this. 

Its a brand new building one tower is commercial and the other residential.  We are on the 7th floor - we have always wanted to live in an apartment so this is the ideal opportunity to decide if an apartment is for us or not.

This is the real estate brochure of the two towers - I need to go across the road to take a picture - and believe me thats not an easy task. We are in the right hand tower.  In the middle there will be a shopping mall which will be real handy.  Due to open in three weeks.

The lounge room with a great view and a nice big TV - I did notice that the first thing Nick did when we walked in was remove the packaging from the TV.

The kitchen....and laundry. The whole place is open plan which is great as most that we looked at had the kitchen tucked away in a poky little room - not what we are used to.

The bedroom... complete with my beautiful Temari ball (L.B xx)  on the dressing table.

The hardest bed in the world.... we may as well be sleeping on the marble floor...its healthy they say....not in my world its not!!!!

Dining Room

The view from the lounge room...the big white building across the road is Toys R Us and the car park is full from the time it opens to the time it closes and the parcels they come out with is incredible....they just love to shop!

The view from the dining room - on a clear day you can see all the construction down by the corniche and the zig zag buildings at West Bay - but today is just another windy windy day - so lots of dust.

Night time traffic - its like this all day usually bumper to bumper

View of the city at night time from the lounge room.

So there you have it ... our home for the next little while - its so nice to have an apartment with nice big windows especially when thats what you are used to - most here have tiny little windows so as to keep out the heat - but I like to open up the curtains and let in the sun, and I also like to have a little nosey at whats going on so this is perfect.

There will be a mini market and a gym shortly on the 1st floor so I have no excuse not to get fit!!