Yeah that is one pink bunny rabbit!

So this last week has been pretty busy, 6am starts and 12 hour days just what you want in 40+ degree heat! But it has been fun non the less. Been giving presentations to all the local schools and telling them about how they can come sailing and all the fun stuff they can do with us at RSA. It was a bit daunting at first talking to a whole school but when 90+ pupils say good morning Mr Alex you just cant help but smile!

Souq Waqif

In terms of everything else its going great I feel like I have finally settled down fully, and am really getting into the way of Doha life (ordering everything for delivery at your door!) Although that is getting slightly on the boring side, so this evening I went to the souq waqif with Justin for a wonder round and that is where my title comes from. We wondered around the maze of buildings and corridors before coming across this:

Pet Ailse

A whole section of the Souq handed over to pets of all types and sizes, (for those of you easily offended by stuff with animals skip this section) We were looking for some monster fish (preferably meat eating) to go in the guys flat and we did come across some monsters but non with big enough teeth to scare Simon, However we did come across alot of other cool things like:

Fish in a wine glass

Teenage Ninja Terapins...on a beach

Some amazingly well trained birds!

And getting back to the whole title rabbit thing:

Yes you are seeing right those are pink and purple bunny rabbits, and rabbits in dress's not exactly the nicest thing I've ever seen but I bet they sell better than the plain ones sitting next to the them! I was pretty shocked but then again people get away with worse things here than dying a rabbit pink! There were so many cool parrots and other birds but they are just far to noisy to be worth having in a house. After not finding a killer fish we headed back through the maze and to a place called Tanjine which is a Moroccan restaurant and was really really nice! sitting outside in the lovely warm evening was just exactly how you want to eat food! Unfortunately they didn't have any camel left so I will just have to leave that for another day, I did have an amazing mountain of couscous and lamb! So now feeling stuffed to the brim and content with not sitting at home eating in all evening I'm ready for bed! Without further rambling I will leave you with some more pictures of the Souq and a really cool building that I think is the Qatar Cultural Centre (really amazing building) Goodnight.

Dinner on the roof sir?

Dunkin Doughnut lovely touch.

Cool  set of stairs

Nice building.

Qatar Cultural centre

P.S. sorry for such a massive post didn't realise how big it was getting until too late!

9 till 5.

Hey as promised some photo's of our little bit of beach, hope you like.

Regatta Sailing Academy

View from our pontoon (yes you heard me)

Some of our boats and the view along our breakwater/pontoon

The Laser fleet

View from our beach looking towards the rest of west bay.

View when we leave work every night!

Anyway I talked loads yesterday and nothing new happened today so I will leave it with the pictures enjoy.

My First Week in Doha بلدي الأسبوع الأول في الدوحة

So I've been in Doha for a week now, well a few hours under a week but close enough. I thought I would give everybody a bit of chat about how it has been and what I have been up to. But in short good and hot!

The average temperature since being here has been in the 40's and thankfully the humidity has stayed low although one day it was really high and I did find it pretty bad. Apart from that day I'm getting used to it more and more every day. The winds here have been no more than 17knots on any day which is new to me and you can predict the sea breeze almost to the second! One problem is choosing the right clothing, as its so hot outside shorts and t-shirt seems fine however you then go inside and freeze as everywhere is air conditioned, but then again its only as cold as a hot summers day in North Berwick, so you just man up.

Doha is one of the most impressive places I have been to ever, it has the amazing cross over between developing and developed, middle east and west. What I mean is you can go into a mall and right next to each other will be a massive Armani shop right next to one selling little gold trinkets. Its that mix of old and new that makes this place really cool. I love this place from an architectural view as well as some of the building designs are just amazing, especially the newer builds that have to have a stone front too them a really impressive mix of stone and glass that really works!

Sky Scrapers and Flat Top Roofs

The people are all really nice as well, if a touch impatient, sitting in a cue of traffic last night one guy sat and flashed his lights for the best part of 5 minutes with no response surely after the first few flashes you would give up but no! This seems to pass into every aspect of life not just driving which is totally crazy btw! There is no waiting for anything out at a meal last night and Liam (one of the guys I work with) had drunk maybe 3/4 of his drink and before he even put it down it was out his hand and a full one was in its place AMAZING!!!

As for work its been pretty quiet but as of tomorrow things are supposed to get really busy as Friday and Saturday are the weekend here, and then we start working with the schools on Monday and with 50+ kids in some groups its going to be busy on our little patch of the beach! We have a small building on the beach with a office, a couple of teaching area's and a workshop all of which are not air conditioned which can really test you! (I will try and get some photo's of tomorrow and get them up on my Flickr or here when I get a chance) Everybody in the team is great and the first week has flown by, with most of the time spent in fits of laughter. We have been out pretty much every night visiting the major places in Doha, City Centre, Villagio, and the Rugby club.

Sky Scrapers by night

So at the moment all is really good, and as the heat goes down things should get even better. I hope that everybody at home is well and that this hasnt been to boring, until then Goodbye and Goodnight.

p.s you read the arabic bit left to right

Goodbye UK.

You all can blame matthew if this post is terrible as I mentioned to him that I hate my writing when I get rambley and he suggested to just carry on and not worry so here you go. (a post over 2 nights)

Last night:
So its 2am what better to do than add to your blog eh? Well I was watching paranormal activity but it was getting a little intense so decided to take a break!

Its the day before I leave for my new job and all in all things are going well, I've got all my stuff ready, my tickets, and a little time to spare (or that's what I hope...) As far as good byes go I've had a few, the Friday before Kenneth left the yacht club hosted a wee party for us but as I wasn't leaving for another couple of weeks it didn't really feel like I was going anywhere as I saw most of the people the next day. This feeling of not really going anywhere has kind of stayed with me and even today the day before I leave I still feel the same. Good byes are odd, you can never really say what you have been thinking about and personally always get stuck between the okward (yet manly hug), the cool guy hand shake, and the lame guy wave. So to anybody that I didn't really have a proper goodbye with I apologize and wish you good luck and health for the next year when I will try and at least say hello if not goodbye again.

Just for a little bit of fun and to break up the writing check out these two nutters playing about over the rocks in yesterdays waves!

This evening:

No paranormal activity tonight but one heck of a load of packing! got a years supply of clothing and kit into one 90ltr bag not bad in my opinion! however I am now really awake and bored of looking at clothing so once again looking at ways to distract myself and once again the blog is the distraction. It still hasnt really hit me that I'm going away, got stopped on the street like 5 times today with people asking when I was going and then looking totally shocked when I said tomorrow and dont look panicked or excited. It really feels like tomorrow is just another day, but I do know im going its really odd feeling, a little detached from the whole thing.

So I think I will leave it there for now I will try and keep this relitavly up to date with how things are going and what amazing experiences ive been up to, I will also try and get some cool photo's of stuff, anyway good night and chat soon.

p.s. blame matt if its crap!