Mac Moments

Gran, my hero! Who now at last is with the man she loved so very much her whole life.... God did not forget you my wonderful Grandmother. He loaned you to us for just a little bit longer so that our children could get to know you too. May you rest in peace with Grandad, who you have wanted to be with for so very very long. Your love for him never waivered and never died. Gran, who was a Great Gran too. Oldest daughter of 70, oldest great grandchild of 24, youngest great grandchild of 3. How amazing is that. Few people get to see their Grandchildren grow up and have children of their own. She was the most amazing woman, one that will not be forgotten. The one who told me to hug the corners when she taught me to drive, who drove like a bat out of hell with her 70s dresses and glasses that were so very very cool. Who smelt of baby powder, that all you wanted to do was snuggle into her neck just to get another Granny smell. Our trips to Durban, Gran working in Game, the fun on the b...

My question today is, when do you realise that the things you do on a day to day basis are familiar? When the familiar becomes familiar? When I first started driving here, my concentration levels were so incredibly intense and i could never imagine getting to my destination and saying, how the hell did I get here. Well in the last week, I have become so comfortable with driving here, knowing where I am going and just becoming familiar with everything, that I am now waking up when I reach school, taekwando or the shops and think.....shit how did I get here, how easy was that, and can I now comfortably say I am a local....? Life is becoming settled, and comfortable. Even getting up in the morning, making beds, tidying up, putting the washing into the washer, hanging it up, are all just routine and part of the day.....I would never have done that in the past! mmmmmmm........... To end off here is a video from my little sony digital toy!

What a weekend so far, last night Steve, Leonie and Cesar (and Rasgas, essentially) had a work function on, so Traci and I sat outside on the balcony sipping wine and chatting, what a lovely evening! This morning I had a lie in, yay, and Steve tidied the apartment, then off to kerk we went and afterwards drove around to find an open ice-cream shop, to no avail.....nothing opens here in Doha until after 1pm on a Friday, if you are lucky. So 2nd best, we phoned the restaurant on the Corniche and booked a table for lunch. We were all starving and settled in for a 3 hour marathon. Watched people stroll by, the motor boats race and the dhows wait patiently for 5pm to go out on the water. After our lovely lunch, we took a cruise in the bay and watched the sun set....... Getting home, we decided on a quiet evening at home, watching videos, only to be rudely awakened by Steve's - omg it is 7pm and we are expected for Dinner upstairs. We waddled up to Farrah's birthday party and ate...

I am sure I have written about the over zealous driving habits of all those who live in Qatar. You arrive here and are so very very careful and stick to the rules and eventually after being cut off 100s of times and merely trying to avoid being hit, you start driving like everyone else here. Yesterday, however I saw the most funny of my driving experiences here. As I was coming along the Corniche, there is this woman in the parking lot and her car is balancing on the side walk.....you have to understand when you park here, there is the curb and then there is this concrete step that they put in front of all the parkings which is as big as two steps on a staircase. Somehow, she had managed to go forward with her little car, not a 4x4, but a little dinky car and get it balanced on top of the step in front of the parking. Regardless to say I had a good chuckle all the way home and noticed everyone else around me doing the same....a good laugh had by all, just not the poor woman who had man...

Well let me tell you otherwise! The bigger the better here..... Here I am driving along in my little 4x4 and this shadow casts itself across the open skylight in the roof, looking up I expect to see a plane over head, but alas there is nothing, then I look in my rearview mirror and this gigantic enormous monsterous Hummer is behind me. No, people of us who have little Rextons, Prados, CRV's, Pajeros, Nissans, MRVs, Freelanders, Jeeps, etc etc.....no people when the shadows of those Hummers, GMC's and Land Cruisers cast themselves across your car, you cower, seriously cower in fear, for not only are they enormous but they have teeth that snap at your backside as you try desparately to get out of there way before you are trundled underfoot never to be seen again....... .......hoisting myself into my car daily is like arm exercises for me, with them I would probably need a pulley........monsters be gone I say!

So having worked on getting all my applications to talk to each other, this is the 2nd last of the tests....having worked this out I need to figure out how to get blog to update my twitter account....the exciting life of technology!!! So pretty people, having seen the littlee on the locals lap a few days ago, I have now seen many of them prancing around the cars and sitting on drivers laps.....slap slap slap some more people please. Unbelievable that there is just no concern at all about there safety. But it just shows the lawless nature that presides here. Our weekend was really fun, we went out to a beach along the Ras Laffan side of the country where the gas plant is. Other than the smell and fumes (:-)))) from the gas the beach was rather fun..... beautiful blue sea and the kids had a ball. On Saturday we had a work fun day.... :-( for us, but the kids once again had a ball. Loads of games, fun and dressing up. Steve did a quick gym session (as it was held at our club) and I went f...

Ok, so today is a quickie!!! lol.... Two things 1. I have a wonderful new running partner, she is American and runs my pace which is just fantastic....yes that is about 7 min/km, just right. We did 11km's last night and 10 on Monday, so things are looking up for my running career. 2. I could have b*"$ch slapped someone today (sorry folks), so I am sitting in the car on the way to fetch Jessica and this local woman next to me is sitting in the front seat with her child on her lap, let me rephrase that.....driving in the front seat with her littlee on her lap....slap slap!!! As the traffic light changes, she puts the kid (probably 12 months old) back into the passenger seat (no seat belt, no baby chair) and carries on driving...... there are so many accidents here and so many deaths....it is like "stupid" should be tatoo'ed on her forehead!!! good luck to that kid! Our dust storm thank goodness blew away, so we are hoping for a fab day down at the beach, workin...

Hi to my family and friends that I have added as email friends whenever I update my blog.....you are all really guinea pigs for me.....sorry!!! I am setting up a blog for the website and am trying to figure out how it all works! I have chosen you all though with the knowledge that you may in some small part of your day, want to know what we are doing when I get a chance to actually update my blog and also you may just give me some feedback! We have had a busy couple of weeks, going out into the desert to explore and driving across the country (90km we have found out) to visit the beach on the other side which is beautiful. Also Sean has now started at the new school and it is soooooo much better. I have got back into the homework slog, which is a nightmare and very stressful for me. But we will prevail. Yesterday I managed to get a lady that lives downstairs from us and who is a teacher to help out twice a week. More of an OT type of help but including the homework, she will make it mu...