Beer Can Throne

Couple of video's simon and me worked on.

https://vimeo.com/35577030

https://vimeo.com/37201318

Project Doha,

Me and simon over the last few months we have been filming and taking photo's all over Doha and this video put together by simon is the end result!

http://vimeo.com/33785649

On another note we had our annual Christmas/national day/end of year regatta today and it was pretty good fun lots of tinsel and Santa's sailing around! Was a really fun race even though there was literately no wind, it was a tough fight but I managed to win by 23 seconds on handicap! pretty close all the way till the last lap!

Its been a long time!

Its been a long time, and I thought I would change things up a little and upload a video i put together taken over the last few weeks, its mostly sailing and a couple of timelapse shots from around Doha! hope you enjoy.

http://vimeo.com/33352905

hopefully if you follow the link it will work.

Help a Friend.

Hi all,

I haven't posted in along time but I feel this is worth posting, two of my close friends are doing a sponsored cycle from John O'Groats to Lands End for male cancer. Its a really good cause and I would love for them to exceed their target, so please support them in their efforts.

there website is:

http://cycle4everyman.posterous.com/

and if you wish to sponsor them, no matter how much this is the link to their just giving page:

http://www.justgiving.com/cycle4everyman

Ill try and post a bit more about what's going on in doha soon.

You know you've been in the Middle East too long when...

You know you've been in the Middle East too long when...

1.You're not surprised to see a goat in the passenger seat

2.You think the uncut version of 'Little House on the Prairie' is provocative

3.You think every one's first name is Al

4.You need a sweater when it's 80 degrees Fahrenheit

5.You expect everyone to own a mobile phone

6.Your idea of housework is leaving a list for the houseboy /babysitter/maid/helper


7.You believe that speed limits are only advisory 


8.You expect all police to drive BMWs or Merc's

9.You know whether you are within missile range of Iraq

10.You believe that the definition of a nanosecond is the time interval between the time the light turns green and the time that the guy behind you begins to blow his horn

11.You can't buy anything without asking for a discount

12.You expect all stores to stay open till midnight

13.You understand that 'wadi bashing' isn't a criminal act

14.You make left turns from the far right lane

15.You send friends a map instead of your address

16.You understand why huge 4x4s must slow down to a snail's pace whilst crossing a speed bump yet hurtle through a wadi at 100kph

17.You think that 'Howareyoufine' is one word. So is 'Mamsir' You think it perfectly normal to have a picnic in the middle of a roundabout at 11pm

18.You know exactly how much alcohol allowance you have left for the month

19.You have a moon phase predictor on your computer

20.You never say Saturday instead of Friday or Sunday instead of Saturday anymore

21.You accept that there is no point in asking why you are not allowed to do something

22.You expect queues to be 1 person deep and 40 people wide

23.You realise that the black and white stripes in the road are not a zebra crossing, just bait to get tourists into the firing line

24.Seeing guys welcome each other with a kiss and hold hands while walking no longer distracts you

25.You carry 12 passport size photos around with you just in case

26.You can tell the time by listening to the local mosque

27.You think its a good night if there are fewer than 10 men for every woman in a bar

28.Phrases like 'potato peeler', 'dish washer', 'coffee maker' and 'fly swatter' are no longer household items but are actually job titles

29.Habibi isn't just the ex-president of Indonesia

30.Problem with your car AC or horn is more serious to you than a problem with the brakes.

Easter Sunday

For the 1st time in 2011 the whole RSA team had the day off on the same day, so what better to do than get addicted to Quad bikes!

So leaving late afternoon we headed down towards Sealine beach resort (40 mins down the coast from Doha) and had a look at all the different quads on offer. After a quick chat we decided to take 2 big quads and 1 polaris buggy style thing.

So we got off to a pretty interesting start those on the quads hadn't used bike gears before so got a 20 minute lecture on that while me and liam blasted up and down the first due we could find in the buggy. We headed off with the goal of reaching the inland sea in an hour, which was unfortunately never to happen!

Caution Sign in middle of nowhere

Finding the harder sand road we opened up the throttle to see what our new toys could do, the buggy for up to 55 mph with the quads keeping up when all of a sudden the bonnet came off the buggy and almost took out henry on the quad behind! After re attaching the bonnet we headed of back up to speed, play around on a couple of dunes on the way.

Justin Gets Stuck up a dune

Then again the bonnet came flying off only this time henry wasn't behind the quad so all was good, we took this opportunity to stop and store the bonnet somewhere it wouldn't fly off. During this little break me and Liam discussed whether the buggy would be able to do donuts, which we quickly decided no and sped off after the other two. At the next stop we decided it may actually be able to do a donut and of course had to test out whether it would. Short answer no! turning into the bend the buggy lifted onto two wheels  landed on one side rolled onto its roof and down onto the other! needless to say the damage was pretty bad! the whole roll cage was bent over to one side! and the engine wouldnt start.

Shortly after flipping the buggy

So stuck in the middle of the desert no engine whats a guy to do but send for help! And of course when helped arrived they got the buggy started 1st time making us all look like fools! Anyway we were left with the new buggy and blasted around the desert for the next hour, it was a lot of fun even if i was a bit sore the next day!

Sailing Photo's

Just thought you might like to see some sailing photo's from qatar.

The first few are from a photo shoot we did for one of our sponsors Apollo,

Me

Me

Me, Justin, Bek

Bek, Justin, Me

Coastguard boat.

These next few ones are from when Bek and Justin went out for a sail one windy day, 

Anyway just a few photo's for you all.

My new car

So last month I decided to bite the bullet and buy myself a car. For those of you who havent visited an arab/indian style country you may not know that driving is like wakey races, whoever has the biggest car rules, and nobody knows how to use roundabouts! So as you might have guessed starting to drive here was a little daunting.

It was a little hard to decide what to get here as there was so much choice in my price range as driving is really cheap here (just to annoy all of you its around 20p a litre ha ha ha) and cars are very cheap as well. I couldn't decide whether to go for a small sporty car that could fly around in and out of traffic or to get a big car that i could just cruise in and people would have to get out of my way! So here you are my new car!

Its a Ford F150 pick up and its huge!

So as you can see i decided to go for the big cruisy option instead of the racy one! and it has worked out great, as its pretty much the biggest car out here so getting pushed around isnt really an option, and all the smaller cars tend to look out for you and stay out the way which makes driving easier! only problem is when i come home now everything will seem tiny! 

Anyway probably post again soon.

A

Doha Motor Show

So its been quite a while since i have posted so i am going to have to catch up on everything that has happened over the last few months.

Doha hosted its first ever car show during January, which of was in the exhibition centre just next to work so only seemed sensible that i should go and have a look. It had a range of activities from off road driving and formula 1 simulating to drifting. Anyway I am sure that all you really want to see is the pictures so here they are.

Masaratti.

Really amazing Alfa concept.

Bugatti Veron.

Porsche race car.

Audi's new roadster!

Aston Martin Rapide.

Nissan Skyline GTR.

Toyota Concept.

Jeep Wrangler with a BBQ.

Replica Formula 1 car.

Subaru Drifting.

The show seemed to go down quite well with the Arabs and workers, but it didn't really have the wow factor of going to one of these shows in the UK as here on the way to work each day I probably see at least 2 Porsche's, a Ferrari, loads of Range rover sports and many other super/hyper and just ridiculously expensive cars. It was nice however to see them up close and not at 70mph flying past you!

National Day

The 18^th of December in Qatar is national day, a day devoted to celebrating the country and the Amir. During the build up to the big day there have been bands playing in the Souq and just general partying. The culture here seems to be to ride around on your car and generally make loads of noise, however during the days before it is illegal to ride outside your car or on roof or anything like that so the police were having a field day handing out fines! It also makes getting anywhere near impossible with traffic grinding to a halt and police closing down all the roads. However it is the most amazing event of the year, so far… On national day itself there is a massive parade in the morning which Penny, Simon and me headed down to here follows the adventures of national day!

National Day

As we left the flat and wondered down to the corniche the traffic was at a standstill and the parade was already underway, getting closer and closer we could hear the music the cheers, of what must have been well over 100,000 people. The amount of love they have for their country is amazing and tops Scotland by miles in fact I bet it would top most of the world. The first thing we came across was a mass camel parade, which seemed to last forever!

How many camels

So many.... Too many

Attack Dogs

And Attack Horses!

Really cool police officer

Penny watching the world go by

How amazing are their Dish Dashes!

It took us ages to fight our way to somewhere that we could actually see the parade and even then we were struggling to see what was really going on! There was amazing fly overs by jets at what seemed like tree height and then a massive jumbo flew over with Qatar printed on the bottom.

Planes

The parade ended with the Amir driving down the corniche and waving out the car window at all the people standing by, the cheers at this point were on the side of totally ridiculous, and the security around him was at the same level!  The ISF which are the second most serious cops in Qatar were leading the way with there really obvious bright red cars followed closely by the CID (the big bad cops) in there swish black mercs, and then there in the middle the Amir! At this point Simon was going crazy with excitement and swore that the Amir had looked and waved at him and only him! So much so that there was some crazy dancing on the way back from the parade!

The Amir

ISF BMW

ISF Patrol (Sweeet)

Simons Crazy Dancing

The day ends with what must be the most amazing fireworks display I have ever seen only spoiled by a building in the way from our flat. These fireworks literally blew Sydney bridge, Edinburgh castle and any others off the face of the earth and were a sight to be seen! If you ever get a chance to spend some time in Qatar over the 18^th of December do it! Its not my video so sorry its maybe not showing them the best, Blogger doesnt like my video!

The Desert.

So a few weeks ago now James came to visit and spend some time making himself look like a local again. (more on that to follow) So seeing as me and Henry had not been to the desert yet we decided that it would be a fun experience for all of us to have. Qatar International Adventures here we come! Getting picked up from the flat we spent roughly 40 mins driving south from Doha towards the Saudi border. Our driver Imad had some goo chat on the way telling us about how he had only flipped one car which then turned in to two but one only went upside down! Sweet ha ha.

Our Patrol

We drove to Sealine a large beach resort on the edge of the desert and lowered the pressure in the tires, instantly we were in the dunes, driving at what seemed like flat out around, up and down massive banks of sand! The only thing we could do was smile as Imad launched this patrol down a near vertical wall of sand the sand flowing over the bonnet of the car. As we continued to drive down towards Saudi the desert flattened off and the speed instantly doubled we got to the border and looked out over the inland sea and into Saudi. 

 James and Henry by a desert fjord.

Henry jumping into Saudi

Lawrence takes a stroll!

So as we left the Saudi border we headed back for a BBQ and evening relaxing by the sea in the QIA camp. We just happened to spend the whole evening there on our own, it was amazing to have this whole place all to ourselves although playing volley ball with 3 people proved challenging. We played about on the sand boards (snowboards) and got ok on them before we starting trying silly things. Henry decided he would try and ride a board through the human sized gap in the tents, which after several attempts and a few near misses he eventually slid through only to come flying off! The food was excellent and the chat for the rest of the evening only got better and better. Sunset over the desert was the most amazing experience of it just dropping out the sky in just a few minutes. The best thing about the whole trip was driving through the desert in the pitch black, just the headlights and the moon lighting the way forwards! Amazing.

Sunset in the desert

Me sand boarding

The QIA camp.

And as promised James looking like a Local