Doha Diaries

Today, in fact. Let me remind you (Blog #1) that Glenn and I live within 3 kilometres of, not just 3 as I reported in that first blog, but 7 large shopping malls! Well, maybe a couple of them are outside that 3 k radius, but they’re all a walkable distance away, except for one thing. Skill testing question to see if you’re keeping up. Glenn and I cannot walk to the malls because: A) It is 101 degrees Fahrenheit outside right now, and it was not much cooler at 10 AM today; B) We are both old and decrepit C) All of the malls (except North Gate Mall, which may open in the next milennium at this rate) are located across a major 6 to 8 lane highway and there are no crosswalks or overpasses and no traffic lights (just a crazy traffic circle) and so much fast-moving traffic that you are taking your life in your hands if you even contemplate crossing the highway, 100 degrees or not! If you guessed C), then you really have been paying attention!  Glenn has, in f...

So, you all thought I was the ambitious one. Not so. Glenn had one burning ambition when we decided to come to Doha: he wanted to become a beach bum and learn how to kite board. Well, it’s taken a while for Glenn to find his groove, but it all came together this past week when he received an invitation to do some dry land kite-board training with a colleague of mine. When Mike came to pick Glenn up on Friday morning (remember, Friday is now the new Saturday, in our reality—I will blog about that some day), he asked us if we wanted to come to the beach with him and his wife later on in the day. That was a no-brainer! You see, Qatar is essentially a peninsula—we’re literally surrounded by water, except for a strip of land where we’re connected to Saudi Arabia. But getting to a really nice swimming beach is a bit tricky—most of them are about 45 minutes away, and that typically requires a car (or hiring one), and we haven’t done that yet. Yes, there’s Katara beach, where I go dragon bo...

Before I go any further, I thought you may want a quick refresher on Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs  https://www.simplypsychology.org/maslow-5.jpg . Some of you (well, one of you) noted that my first blogs were a little focused on the very mundane topic of food. Crossing roads to get food, finding Tim Horton’s outlets at work, food pictures, etc. Well, Maslow had it right. But now that Glenn and I have got that figured out, it’s time to move on to...water! Both fresh and salty, but especially the salty kind! It must be the Aquarian birth sign: any time I can get out on the water (lake, river, ocean), I’m in my happy zone. Katara Beach has become my oasis in this desert, for many reasons, not least of which is ... dragon boating! I’ve now gone out with the Wireless Warriors 6 times, and I’m still loving it. The Warriors (don’t know where the name came from) paddle on Monday and Wednesday evenings and Friday and Saturday mornings. They’re a wonderful, diverse group of people, led...