Today was a busy day! I woke early, took a relaxing shower, and went to the roof for a nee breakfast of eggs, olives, cucumbers and cheese. In the reviews for the hotel, some people complained about the breakfast, but this is typical arabic breakfast - a lot of light options. There were meats, bread, cereal, yogurt, fried potatoes as well. We then walked to my friends hotel nearby and waited for our personal tour to arrive. Sibel was our guide and she was fantastic! She seemed a little shy to start but soon she just became a wealth of valuable information. We started at the area of the Hippodrome and she explained the previous chariot races and the extent of it. She knew not to go to the Blue Mosque at the moment because it ... read more

Thursday afternoon, I flew into Dubai for the first time in three months. Man, I miss this city! Even the traffic made me feel happy. Today, Jamie and I went for a full spa day and it was FANTASTIC. Jamie had booked the day before at the only place available, so we were not quite sure what to expect. As soon as we walked into the Dubai Marine Beach Resort, we gave each other a high five because we knew it was going to be a great day. Our day started with an hour long massage. I've probably only had about 5 massages in my life; including today, the best one i ever had was at this massage school in Ojai and I'm still looking for a similar experience, but it was not today. The woman ... read more

21 days later, and I'm still here working! That's a long time to go without a break - there are no holidays or weekends here. My coworkers have been here longer than I so I can't complain too much. Instead, I spend my days dreaming about what I will finally do when I DO have time off! Since I last wrote, we had not moved a centimeter from that spot where we had troubles. We had weather, then a small fire on board (which needed to be investigated for protocol and parts replaced), more weather, and then trying to pull out our casing which was stuck. Day 1 was not successful in using a tool that was supposed to be our solution. Day 2 was even worse as we tried to modify the solution which worked ... read more

I know - it's been weeks since I've written and now I'm going on yet another driving rampage... but there are some good photos at least, right? This morning was just difficult. I can't stand when people call the type of driving in Qatar Aggressive Driving. It is not Aggressive Driving, which is driving so that you can get where you need to be without standing aside and letting people (literally) run all over you. No. Here in Qatar, I call this driving Complete Disregard For The Lives of Others. Harsh? Maybe. But oh so true. People here use their land cruisers or lexus SUV's to shovel you aside into a guardrail, tailgate you at 100kph while flashing their lights, speed up when you try to pull out of side road, and straddle lanes until they ... read more

I flew late (midnight) the night of 8th March. I first flew into Amsterdam, where we landed at about 5am. I had more than 4 hours until my next flight, so I decided to explore a little bit. I had checked both my bags, so all I had were my kindle, laptop and purse with me. I actually managed to sleep pretty well on the flight, but I was feeling gross because I had worked right up to the last minute before leaving on my flight, having had no time to shower and change. When (YAY!) I see signs for a shower. And look - it was at the Mercure as well! I walked in, not sure what to expect and a nice lady was working the desk. She set me up for my 15 euro ... read more