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Here’s something that won’t fit the timeline at all, yet serves as some sort of milestone.
There’re so many people to whom compliments are due, and since I’m no prolific blogger what better way to be fair than to start off with a non-human friend 🙂
In my last two weeks or so in Malaysia, my wife and I were priviledged enough to have a visitor who came to play with us on a rather regular basis. She was a domestic shorthair cat otherwise known as a moggy to the Brits, but what a fine specimen she is! Not only was she a pretty cat but a sociable one as well. Judging from her behaviour she couldn’t have been a stray, but since we couldn’t have known her actual name we just called her Mimi after my wife’s Pet Soc pet name.
A relaxed Mimi sprawled on rug.
A few days before we said adieu to the country, Mimi popped by for just a few minutes as if to say goodbye, as if she somehow sensed that we were about to leave.
Alas, there aren’t many pictures to share. I wish her well and hope that she will… er… keep the local rat population in check.
Thanks for your companionship, Mimi (or whatever your real name is). It sure was great having your around while we were stressing about tying loose ends.
On to the next house after having fun time at ours
Mimi in a lovely pose
Blog author is no longer in Qatar.
Who said that cheap must not be good and good must not be cheap?
Catching up with real life has caused me to totally abstain from blogging for this past year. Before I go on to under things, here’s a little compliment to Habeeb Turkish Restaurant along Al-Matar Al-Qadeem (Old Airport Road). Yeah, it’s not as if yours truly were too busy scrutinizing the injustices of the world to savour good food wherever it appears!
Habeeb's Grilled Chicken Wings
Grilled Lamb Chops, known here as 'Lamp Chops' 😛
Too bad I don’t have a shot of the facade of the restaurant – one might be stubbornly hiding in my archives. It is located in a dingy area of the city, and so doesn’t offer much in terms of decor and ambience. However, the grilled meats are as good as any expensive restaurant that charges a lot more than this place! There is one thing that it really does best, though, and that is the quality of its freshly baked breads. I’ve been to expensive places that still give you pre-packed breads that come in plastic bags, but here they bake the bread each time you order.
Directions
Approximate GPS coordinates 25.251333, 51.554310.
Or go to D-ring road and get to the same side of the road as Lulu Hypermarket. Just after Lulu, turn right into Jaber bin Hayyan Street. Go on till you meet a traffic light. At traffic light, turn left into Al Matar Al Qadeem Street then look out for the RIGHT side of the street. Habeeb should be halfway, say about 200m, down. The shop sign is a nice big bright red/maroon one – can’t be missed unless one’s dreaming in 45C summer evening heat. Bon appetit!
I am into the second last week of my second year in Qatar. Like many (non-oil & gas) professionals in this region, life here has been nothing but work and sleep. It would not be far fetched to say that doing anything besides work and sleep raises the risk of something adverse happening! Most postings will be done AFTER the end of this Qatar stint, but here are some personal impressions on the Land of Sand that I have gained after spending nearly 24 months. I write these now rather than in retrospect. These jottings come through my current Malaysian urban lower-middle-class lenses, and although each point warrants an article of its own time is not currently on my side:
The Good
Security – With money being literally not an issue with the locals, and all foreign workers getting at least twice what they would have gotten at their home countries, crime literally doesn’t pay! You can leave your car or house doors unlocked overnight and chances are, no one would have even bothered to open them and anything away.
Kebabs – Of course, like any ethnic cuisine Middle Eastern fare is better here than what we get in Malaysia. I think that it is the breads that make the difference. Nice, freshly baked breads rather than mass produced, plastic wrapped ones differentiate between run-of-the-mill stuff and joints worthy of note. On fresh breads, none beat my favourite – Habeeb Turkish Restaurant on Al-Matar Al-Qadeem
The Bad
Driving – Accident fatalities are 5x the world average. Just spend half an hour on Qatari roads and you’ll know why. Trust me, Malaysian drivers are like angels in comparison with these demons. For example, in KL, you could drive for at least ten minutes on the fast lane AT the stipulated speed limit before you get some idiot tailgating you, aggressively flashing his headlamps. In Doha, you’d be lucky if you get thirty seconds. The scene of many vehicles at a junction, refusing to give way to each other, honking and drivers shouting at each other in Arabic, is not too uncommon.
Discrimination – The world’s pecking order at its ugliest. I used to whinge about the country I grew up in, but this place sure ups the ante.
Third World Mentality – The phrase ‘First World Infrastructure, Third World Mentality’ must come easily to most Malaysians who are either critical of themselves or the Government. For an extreme case of this phrase, please do visit Doha.
Dust – The country is 100% desert. Deserts equal sand. Hot deserts equal winds. Winds + desert = sandstorms. I love and hate the type of sandstorm where the sand blown up is the very fine type, whereby they get suspended in the air, filtering out some of the blistering sun. I love them because they soften the glare and effects of the excessive sun, and hate them because that just means breathing in more silicon! You’ll take a piece of this country for you to the very end, I might add.
The list above is certainly not exhaustive, and I’m just mulling over whether to (1) make a bigger list or (2) write more in-depth over the points above. If I have the time to write more, that is.
sandstorm
· n. a strong wind in a desert carrying clouds of sand.
Beginnings have to occur at some point. This, coming from one who contends for the post of King of Procrastination, is certainly no small statement.
Ever remember those cheesy attempts at story telling by unimaginative teens at sleepovers or scout camps that begin with “On a dark, stormy night…”? Such a phrase needs not be repeated here, but it may be apt to note that “Sandstorm” describes the weather of the night on which the cybernetic existence of this experimental web log was brought forth.
Be forewarned; there shall be no attempt to convey things in a logical fashion, or at least not in chronological order. If the blurb to come is to make much sense in times to come, it would most probably be a fortuitous rather than delibrate occurence.
There is really nothing much to shout about a sandstorm, except that it makes the surrounding atmosphere look like a misty mountainous area… only that what you’d be seeing is not mist, but sand! Just imagine the fine sand percolating through your lungs… and staying there forever. Simply refreshing. That’s why a piece of this land will stay with me till the tenure of my existence on this plane is up.
Gavin Leng 