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Published: August 31st 2013
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This weekend was to be a kind of "team building" weekend. Starting with brunch on Friday at the Grand Hyatt hotel. A bit more expensive than I'm used to in Dubai, but it was a very very nice hotel and the brunch itself was pretty good. The weird part was seeing a Fashion Show going on at the same time, which I guess they plan to do for the next few months. It was distracting and loud, but I guess some people liked it. I know some of the guys at my table reeeeally liked it. It was good seeing some of my coworkers and even colleagues from other countries who happened to be in town, discussing other things besides work, though work mostly came up anyway. I left after about two and a half glasses of wine, waited for valet to bring my car and had a bottle of ice cold water in the nice lounge. I like valet here - it doesn't cost anything, so you just give the guy a good tip (and hope he gets to keep it - these places often confiscate tips).
Saturday, we woke up super early and headed out for a morning
of dune bashing with rented quads (see July 4th post). Same rental place: 150 QAR for an hour and there were five of us this time. Indiana and Conan got the big quads, while Sheikh, Jeroen and I were on the automatic wussy quads - hey, ok by me! Jeroen really took to the experience. Sheikh and I enjoyed ourselves immensely, but also enjoyed watching those boys being boys on their toys. Thankfully, no injuries. When we were done and washing up at the stand, Sheikh started laughing and said, "Your faces are all pink!" The burden of white people!
After quads, we went to the beach and took a dip in. I had to put up some towels in the truck so I could change without pervy guys getting a free show. The water was quite warm, but felt good, even though it was not overly refreshing. It was extremely, extremely salty! It burned the hell out of your eyes and was almost pure salt in your mouth if you were unfortunate enough to get a taste of it. We waded around for about a half hour, chatting, until I got stung by something, probably a mini jellyfish.
Hurt like hell, but was not as bad as one I'd had on my foot on the beach in Ventura or the one that I saw wrap around my sister's leg in South Carolina (still have nightmares about that one - her screaming, my dad carrying her out, and the imprint of the tentacles on her thigh - EEEEKKKK!). A small rash for most of the day, but by the night I can only feel it if i really think about it.
This afternoon, I had a site visit in the West Bay and then had a beer and a light dinner with the engineer I've been working with on this project for the past 8 months. It was good to get out and chat beyond our few minutes at work. I got to hear lots about Ethiopia and I really want to go there now! We had a beer at the Irish pub in the Sheraton Hotel, which is a pretty iconic landmark in Doha, shaped as a pyramid. The furnishings are a bit dated, but it is still pretty impressive.
Now, off to bed to prepare for what appears to be a looooong week...
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I want to go dune bashing! If I ever make it to visit we must do this! :) And I love the inside of the pyramid hotel, very cool! Miss you! We should FT soon! xoxox