Blogs from Qatar, Middle East - page 7

We spent our second day in Doha dodging the rain drops as it rained all day which is very unusual apparently. We visited the Museum of Islamic Arts which was interesting for the exhibits , the architecture and the view from the cafe where the menu was presented on an i-pad but the order then taken with a note pad and pen!!! Then we visited the Damien Hirst Exhibition which David summed up with 'I'm glad I did not have to pay'. We just did not get 'it' and some of the exhibits were plain disturbing eg a severed cow's buzzing with live blue bottle flies! A visit to the souke topped off the day with a wander through the stalls and a light meal and snack.... read more

My brother David and his wife have been living in Doha for 2 years on a development called The Pearl which has a harbour full of magnificent boats and great views to the city. It is very peaceful as not many of the apartments in the 31 blocks seem to be occupied and therefore neither are the shops but those that are are very up market, including a Steinway piano shop. David took Sian and I on a walk around The Pearl and then a driving tour of Doha (at 15p a litre no one worries about fuel consumption here and David has a huge 4 litre Toyota). Big and expensive cars are the order of the day seen cruising and racing about. Doha is one massive building site of both residential, retail and office accommodation. ... read more

The last few weeks have been extremely difficult at work. I've been engineering manager for less than a month and I've already let two people go from my group. Am I a tyrant? These guys have a 3-month probation period - pretty hard to screw up in a company and a region where we really need people. Somehow they still managed to do it! While I'm still short on geologists and engineers, I think those that remain are incredible. I really like our team and I hope to expand it in the coming weeks. The first guy was a geologist who apparently could not be trained and did nothing from as far as I could tell. So, when his visa run came up I said we needed to have a talk when he returned to discuss ... read more

Well, I successfully made my first full Thanksgiving dinner all on my own and it went pretty well. And it was here in Qatar! I invited some coworkers to share my most favorite holiday with me - I wish I could have invited more, but I have a small apartment. I'd been shopping for the past two weeks in preparation, including a table that would work for the dinner. I wound up finding one at IKEA that was perfect - a long table with two leaves. It said it sat eight, but we wound up seating 13 pretty comfortably... It only took me two and a half hours to put together and I was so proud of myself! Until I realized that I didn't know how to flip it. It weighed over a hundred pounds and ... read more

It seems realistic to judge that GDP per capita is the most accurate and indicative measure of wealth, and on that score, the Qataris top the world leader board, soaring high above its nearest competitors. This has translated into Qatar's financial showcase, which is the nation's capital city Doha, once a sleepy backwater, now dynamic and prominent enough to demand anyone's attention. The nation's enormous wealth is reflected in its standards, and the hotel of choice, Doha Downtown Hotel Apartments, has all the trappings which you might come to expect from a luxury city break, and then some. Doha's skyline is perhaps the city's most prominent feature, and the row of skyscrapers, best viewed from the area of the Corniche further south, is one of the Middle East's finest displays of modernity, which interestingly contrasts with ... read more