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Just in time for Ramadan the new clock tower built in Islam's holiest city - Mecca begun to tick.

The clock has four faces which are each 151ft in diameter.

The clock will run on Arabia Standard Time which is 3hrs ahead of GMT - but Islamic scholars hope the clocks influence will spread further than Saudi Arabia as the plan is for Mecca to eclipse the Greenwich Observatory as the true centre of the earth!!!!

The clock faces will be illuminated by 2 million LED lights along with a arabic script which reads "In the Name Of Allah"

When the spire is added and topped with the crescent which symbolises Islam it will stand 2000ft, which will make it the world's second tallest building.

Five times a day 21,000 green and white lights will flash to remind residents of Mecca when it is time to pray. These lights will be visible at a distance of 28kms.

The clocks four faces will each be covered with 98million pieces of glass mosaics.

2022

Qatar is one of the countries bidding for the 2022 FIFA World Cup (Australia is one of the other contenders) FIFA have been here over the last few days checking out the place.

They have alot of work to do to get this country ready for the huge influx of people that FIFA would bring. There are many many new hotels being built and they promise a metro system for Qatar - public transport is a huge issue here, that they would seriously need to fix before any such event.

As the world cup is held during the hottest months of the year here in Doha - they are promising that the inside of the stadiums will be a nice cool 27c whilst outside it will be 50c++.

And we all know that football and drinking go hand in hand - and they have said that drinking will be allowed in designated areas - this is a huge step forward for a muslim country.

The winning countries will be named for 2018 and 2022 in December - so lets see if this Islamic country of Qatar can come from the underdog to the hosting country.

Below is a video showing the first five stadiums (five of 22) that are to be built for the World Cup if the win the bid. They are all to be environmentally friendly.

My Crystal Growing

This is a crystal that my mum bought me when I was home in Australia that you grow yourself - it is called a 'Miss You" crystal.

Day One

Day Two

The crystal has grown- there is a little LED light in the jar so it keeps changing colour.

Thanks Mum - I love it

I will think of you whenever I look at it.

Our New Villa

Just recently we moved into a new villa - its in the same compound as before but we have gone from two bedroom to three bedroom.

Our villa

The compound

Our bedroom

Our bedroom

The spare room

A compound behind us - named Beverley Hills...

The kitchen

The Lounge Room

Dining Room

Lounge Room

My Saudi Treasures

My daily hangout...the pool

All Lit up for Eid

This is the Aspire Tower which is 300m tall and was built for the Asian Games that were held in Doha in 2006. Here it is all lit up for Eid. This is just around the corner from our house and can be seen from our kitchen window.

Langkawi Holiday

At the end of our month long holiday we stayed in Langkawi for 10 nights - it was a return visit for us to the island - it is just magical...

Our room

Our room

The resort where we stayed - we loved it so much the first time we had to come back.

During low tide you could walk out to the lime stone rocks along this sand bar

Looking back at the resort from out at the rock

Sand crabs

Set up for our private beach BBQ

On the beach for our romantic private Beach BBQ

Our room

Looking towards the lobby

Beautiful sunsets every night - they were quite amazing

The adults only pool - looking out towards the sea

Nick getting some sunshine

Sunset looking out towards the limestone rocks from the resort

Nick

The family pool

This monkey was outside the restaurant where we had breakfast every morning

Jack the resident monitor lizard

Jack

Visit with Matt and Kirsty

On our month long holiday we also went to Sydney to visit my brother and his partner Kirsty and to meet our little neice Gracie...

Gracie

Kirsty with Jack, Matt, Dad, Me and Nick

Nick and I

Kirsty, Matt and Gracie - taken at Hardy Bay - Cental Coast Sydney

Matt and I with Dad

Gracie, Nick with Jack, me, dad and Matt

This cheeky Lorikeet came and landed on our table and starting eating the sugar from the side of the coffee cup

Here he is eating the sugar

My Dad and my neice Gracie

My neice Gracie - blowing a raspberry

Jack the mad one eyed dog....