Long time no write

Well actually it's not been that long, but still.
I'm actually getting busier as time goes by here. Evenings are filling in. Went for wine and cheese diner two days ago, little house party yesterday, going at the opening ceremony tomorrow, reception at the French embassy on saturday... So it's nice.
We also had a thanksgiving diner last week. Life in Doha can be far from boring.
I put up a lot of pictures in 'Life in Doha' and 'Work in Doha' these last few days, but not writting that much.
Maybe tomorrow.
Quiet evening tonight, rest before the start of the Asian Games tomorrow !!!!!
Let's get it started !!!

Thank God It's Monday !

I love Mondays. They're usually good days.
Bien dormi.
Account MSN/Hotmail qui semble remarcher.
Plein de boulot bien avancé.
Soleil, chaleur !
Des nouvelles photos dans Doha, et dans DAGBS.

Tschuss!

Quick news

Quick news for sunday readers.
My Hotmail/MSN account is either under attack or broken. I sometimes hate technologies...
Today is another rainy day in Doha, who said it only rained every two years ????
Slept bad again. Migraines back. If there is one thing I look forward to when I'll be back in Europe is the calm, the nights, and no headache.
Loads to think about and so much I want to write but don't know where to start.
Yesterday was our last golf lesson as the Golf Club is closing to be a Doha Asian Games venue. My swing IS improving ! ;-)
My search for a trip for New Year's eve is not going anywhere.
I've got a few things to do before some meetings tomorrow but I'll try to upload the pictures I made over the last few days. There are quite a lot.
Strange Sunday.

Listening to music at work (Chasing Cars...).

Working for the Asian Games

 
Yesterday I had the opportunity to visit some venues of the Asian Games. It was amazing. I didn't have my camera but I got some pictures from Sandrine so you'll find some pics in the new DAGBS folder.
It was exciting to imagine that in just a few days athletes will be competing here and that we're actually participating to this major event. I can't wait to go see some competition !!!

PS: Picture of Sandrine's English/Arab keyboard. 

Cinema in Doha

So I did go to the movies yesterday evening. It was nice to go out. We went to see the last 007. It was a good movie, impressive special effects, interesting plot and a different way to see James Bond as it's one of the first of Flemming's serie and a less experienced 007. La clim était assez forte dans la salle, comme prévu. Et les scènes chaudes coupées, parfois un peu brutalement, ce qui gene un peu les dialogues... mais c'est marrant de voir ça d'un point de vue étranger. Les scènes de nu de Bond ne sont pas coupées, sinon on ne comprendrai plus rien à l'histoire. Ce qui est choquant ici ce sont les attouchements entre hommes et femmes, donc toutes les scènes de sex. Les baisers sont tolérés au cinéma, pas dans la rue !
Ici les personnes mariées peuvent se tenir par la main, mais pas plus. Il est bien précisé aux étrangers de respecter une certaine distance entre les personnes, et que des comportements trop amicaux peuvent etre réprimandés par la loi. On va quand meme évité d'aller en prison ici pour si peu je crois...

Qatar general information

So what's this country, where is it ???...
Let's answer of few of these questions.

Qatar (Arabic: قطر), officially the State of Qatar (Arabic: دولة قطر , Dawlat Qatar), is an emirate in the Middle East and Western Asia, occupying the small Qatar Peninsula on the northeasterly coast of the larger Arabian Peninsula. It is bordered by Saudi Arabia to the south; otherwise the Persian Gulf surrounds the state.

Capital City
Doha

Area
11,400 sq km
4,402 sq miles

Population
800,000

Time Zone
GMT/UTC +3 ()

Languages
Arabic (official)
English (other)
Urdu (other)

Religion
Islam

Currency
Qatari Riyal (QR)

Country Dialing Code
974

Government Type
traditional monarchy

Government Leaders
- Abdullah bin Khalifa al-Thani
Prime Minister (head of government)
- Hamad bin Khalifa al-Thani
Emir (head of state)

That's for the basic information.
You can read more about the history of Qatar from the link in this post's title.

Rainy Day in Doha !!!

Yes, it happens. Rain in Doha !!! amazing. Actually, unlike in some poor dry country, Qatary don't seem to care the least about the benefits of the rain. It is an inconvenient for going outside, but nothing more. For us it means not being able to go to work by foot as it would mean crossing the works in mud and dirt.. nice, uh ?
Sorry, for not being very motivated today, it's cold in the IBC. So just dropping a few lines and a few pictures.
Tonight movies, the latest James Bond, Casino Royal ! with all 'adult scenes' cut out... I love the freedom of this country.
Cheers !

Day off at the beach

link to photo album of Sealine Beach Resort

Hey ! I had a day off yesterday and took the opportunity to go with 2 colleagues to a beach resort, one hour drive to the South of Doha. It was a great day. Some pictures in above link.
Which brings me to the next subject : Life in Qatar and women's conditions.
Next episode on monday.

Is my swing improving ???

Ta daa !!! I'm feeling better ! Yesterday was an almost no headache day and today seems to be heading the same way. Finally ! Yesterday evening was my second Golf lesson. We were still 4, but this time Chris managed to join us for his second lesson too , while Kerstin didn't come. This time, as planned,Graham filmed us. We arrived earlier to do some practice before the lesson. I was quite happy as it seemed I was hitting more balls than last time and some were heading a better way and for longer distances. But when I got filmed it showed that my posture wasn't that right and the way I'm supposed to stand and swing is like impossible to me. How are you supposed to move your shoulders 90° but keeping your head in the exact same place and your weight on your right leg and then move your weight to your left leg, swinging the club down and still keeping the same angles and the head in the same place ????? My body is one, if I move something, the rest pretty much follows... isn't that normal ? Anyway, by the end of the lesson I had got a bit more hope watching Chris do the swing. He amazingly hits the ball quite far but always ends up in such positions, it's really funny.
Yesterday the security sweep went quite fast actually. It was over by 11am I think. So I just had time to sleep in, count some meal vouchers with David and head back to work after lunch. Nonetheless it was really good to have the morning off. The Bookies and some other departments went for a venue tour yesterday morning, it seemed quite interesting, but I couldn't come round to getting up early to leave at 8h30 for the tour. Imagine 8h30 or sleep in ??? It didn't take me long to choose. Ok, that's also because I'm pretty sure I'll get another opportunity to visit the venues. The venues are the stadiums and other places were the sports events are taking place. In Munich we had been taken to visit the Munich Stadium and it was very impressive. It was huge! I'll put up some pictures some of these days.

Quite a few days later...

Bon, je sais, j'avais dit que j'écrirai le lendemain, et puis le lendemain est passé, avec surement plein de taf... et puis je suis tombée malade. ça c'est moins cool. J'me suis réveillée avec un terrible mal de tête, puis plein de symptômes pas très sympa, donc je vous passerai les détails. Vu que je devenai de plus en plus pale au bureau, ils m'ont envoyés à l'hopital Américain. Là on se dit, ça doit etre pas mal, genre comme en Europe. Un truc clean , bien organisé avec des médecins qui parlent au moins super bien l'Anglais... et ben, non. Bon, c'est pas mal. Apparement c'est mieux que la Doha Clinic, mais comme clinic privée ça pourrait être mieux. La femme médecin indienne qui m'a reçut semblait comprendre l'anglais, et sans m'osculter a supposé que j'avais juste une migraine. Alors, je sais qu'il y'a constament du bruit dans les bureaux et dehors, qu'il y a la fatigue, le stress, le décalage solaire, le changement de température, mais ça m'étonnerai, que ce ne soit que ça. Mais c'était marrant, je sais désormais que je ne dois pas dire que je prends la pillule et que je ne suis pas marriée, sinon le médecin me regarde comme si je venais d'avouer le plus grand crime du monde... En tout cas rentrée chez moi, j'ai commencé à avoir de la fièvre, et donc ce n'était pas la joie. J'ai passée 3 jours à la maison avec de très courtes sorties pour essayer de respirer autre chose que la clim, puisque les fenetres ne s'ouvrent pas. Et j'ai repris le boulot hier doucement. Le mal de tête est encore en grande partie là, mais plus de fièvre c'est déjà ça. Plein de personnes tombent malades en ce moment, nourriture différente, trop de clim, virus, ... c'est sympa. On se soutient les uns les autres !!! En tout cas j'espère que ça va continuer à s'améliorer et que je vais retrouver la grande forme pour pouvoir commencer tous les trucs que je veux faire ici : Quad, dormir dans le désert, ...
Hier soir j'ai essayé la machine à laver après avoir découvert qu'elle faisait aussi séchoir. Comme je n'ai pas envie de retrouver mes vetements en taille 12 ans, j'ai pas trop insisté, mais ça à l'air de marcher même si la marque c'est frigidaire.
Demain on commence plus tard car il y a vérification de sécurité de tout l'IBC (International Broadcast Center, nos bureaux), donc ça prends du temps. Demain matin risque donc d'etre piscine et soleil :)
Désolée, je n'ai pas plus de photos. je vais essayer d'en prendre du batiment, de l'appart et de Doha. Aussi pour se rendre compte que la ville n'est que en construction, qu'il y a donc 24h/24H du bruit partout, et que c'est vraiment fatigant. La vie semble pareil chaque jour. Il fait beau tout les jours. il fait chaud (une vingtaine de degrés ces jours ci). Il y a de la poussière partout. Il y a du bruit. Vu que les weekends sont décalés, on ne sait plus quel jour on est. Bref, c'est un peu bizarre. Et c'est intéressant.

Doha, some days later

  Gosh, I've been wanting to write for a few days, but the connection was so bad, or even not working that it was not an easy task. I've got so much to write down before I forget.
Ok, where shall i start ? That's a picture of the Corniche in Doha. It's like one of the only places outside where you can go for an enjoyable walk. The rest is sand, construction and malls. BTW, I put a link on the right to the pictures I took the week I came end of September.

Thursday we went golfing. That was my first golfing lesson ever. Considering my first real golf try was end of September with David trying to teach me... Actually when we arrived at the Golf Course there was a check at the entrance (like in most places you want to enter in Doha, altough they actually let any white people in, it's amazing) and we told the guard we were going to the beginner's course, but he made a strange face and asked 'You play Golf ?' to which we clearly replied 'Yes' and he let us in. But that made us laugh for a while cuz either that was the only phrase he knew in English, either we're wondering what other activities you can do in a Golf Club other than playing golf... So Thursday we were 4: Kerstin, Paolo (Kerstin's boyfriend), David and I. Our teacher is called Graham and I believe he is Scottish. I guess it was quite a good try as I managed to do a few good shots (I'm not really sure this is the right term... anyway), and quite a few good swings. I honestly think the position is not really comfortable and I had some muscle aches afterwards... but I guess with time it can only get better. Graham said we'd get filmed next lesson so we can better see by ourselves what are our mistakes. I really liked it 'though because I was so much concentrated on all the basic details that I really wouldn't worry about anything else in the world. That felt really good.

I was supposed to be off on friday as in Qatar fridays are like sundays and everything is closed. Weekends are usually friday and saturday. But I still had to prepare a few things for the database migration of sunday so after a morning at home, mostly sleeping, i went to spend a few hours at the IBC. It felt good sleeping in the morning as the first nights were not so restful, and I didn't get used to the heat and airconditioning. I actually ended up staying late on friday as the network was down most of the time and it was difficult to get going with the work.

Saturday I was really off. With Fritz and Chantal we went to Sheikh Faisal's Museum, about half an hour drive from Doha, in the desert. It was really interesting. I put pictures in the Doha AG folder. In the afternoon I had a rest and a dive at the swimming pool. Sunday was hard work and many people arrived at the IBC. The atmosphere is nice, and it's good to see people from the World cup with us again !
I'll write more about it all tomorrow, as I'm looking forward to a little rest before heading to our welcome party at the Sheraton tonight ;)
 

Quelques mots en Français

Désolée pour ceux qui parlent moins bien anglais, j'essaierai d'écrire en français de temps en temps et aussi en italien parfois.
Mon arrivée à Doha s'est bien passée. Bon vol, jolie vue de Doha la nuit avec ses éclairages qui se reflettent dans la baie. L'appart est super. c'est vraiment une très agréable surprise. beaucoup de place et meme une cusine et une machine à laver, meme si on est pas censés les utiliser...
Il faisait 29°C en arrivant hier soir, donc plutot bon ! :p et dans les bureaux il fait moins froid que à Munich.
Bref, que du bonheur pour le moment !

Arrived in Doha

 
Woaw! I had forgotten how hot it was here. It's great !
I just arrived yesterday evening, after a good 6 hours flight slightly delayed but with such good service I'd almost have stayed on the plane.
I'd been to Doha one month ago, the last week of September, and seeing the town again by night on arrival was a beautiful sight. The road by the Cornice (right spelling ?) is really nice; a bit like the waterfront in Singapore for those who know; a huge bay with sky scrappers, nice lights... well...
The great surprise was to see the appartment. It's fantastic from what I've seen, and of course i didn't check what's working or not, but there's so much space. Two bedrooms, one's mine, one's David's, each with bathroom and huge storage space, living room and we even have a kitchen and washing machine, but we're not supposed to use that. For the check in I actually had to sign a paper with the rules for the appartment: non smoking (fine by me!), no alcool (well, mmm...), no using the kitchen and big equipment, guest allowed to visit but not to stay over (so sorry people, can't host you :p ), ... This morning the view on the other skyscrappers and the water (the bay, or the sea ?) from the 15th floor was amazing despite having to wake up at 6h50 for a security check of the whole towers. I'm dead tired but so looking forward to seeing more and getting around. The IBC (International Broadcast Center, our offices) is much smaller than in Munich, but also for the moment quite hotter, no 15°C around here! just perfect temperature to work in shirt and trousers and not shock anyone. Today I have to prepare our database move and getting things settled. Not worried at all, and taking it easy. Just happy to be here ! I couldn't wish for more.