Mall Fun

We started our afternoon off at Nando's for some Portugese Peri Chicken. It was delicious, from the lentil soup and rolls to the main course espetada. After that, Kayla and I dropped Dustin and Ryan at City Center Mall's ice skating rink while we shopped. Shopping for us mostly consisted of stopping at Eli France for tiramisu and coffee. The dessert and the girl talk were superb. We met up with the boys, again, and stopped at an art exhibit where a Turkish gentleman named Achmet Ali Cochtan was performing an ancient water art technique. We had watched him a few days earlier and were amazed at his skills. He graciously gave me and Kayla a painting each, after we watched him create them. We headed home for what ended up to be a short break and headed back to the mall sans Dustin for a little friendly competition with other local Doha residents sponsored by Fanar. Kayla joined in for a little game of "sit, stand" which was simply following the commands of the emcee. She couldn't quite hang with the abaya clad winner, but I give her big kudos for joining in. Ryan then entered the competition for what turned out to be a mall scavenger hunt. The first request by the host was for a tissue. Most of the contestants came up with the tissue immediately from their own pockets or from friends in the audience, but Ryan flew off the stage running to a local cafe grabbing one off the table, forgetting that he had tissue in his jean pocket. Next, a bag from KFC was the request. I sent Kayla running ahead of time to help out (which was legal), but Ryan thought better of it and sprinted to the KFC at the opposite end of the mall. He was back in a flash beating out Kayla and the other contestants by minutes. During one leg of the competition they actually had to run to Carrefour two floors down to purchase a Chinese pomelo, whatever the heck that is. Sadly, Ryan fell short in the final round by not being the first in retrieving the hula hoop that was tucked away two floors down in the mall. We were proud, however, of his gallant second place effort. Kayla then volunteered herself and ME for the next competition, which format was yet to be announced. After learning our role in the game, I knew it couldn't get any worse. For those that know me and my "zone" ways, know that bananas are a no no. Six bananas were placed in front of each of us to eat. Now, put a tiramisu, or cheese cake in front of me at any given moment and I will forgo the zone, but bananas, what a waste! After eating three and a half bananas and knowing that there was no way I was going to win, thankfully they finally declared a winner. The emcee said that the day before in the competitions, they had donuts and chili...now that, I would have enjoyed! On to the final competition of the evening. Ryan volunteered again, as the emcee was mouthing to him "You don't want to do this one". That seemed to egg Ryan on even more, so the emcee invited him to the stage along with nine other participants. When the object of the game was announced, Ryan looked over to us with a smile and a big thumbs up. Water guzzling was the job on hand. Ryan is known for carrying around a one gallon container of water for constant replenishing, so this had to be fate. As you can see in the picture, Ryan was declared the winner and can now tell you the time with his newly won Westar watch that he proudly displayed for the paparazzi. The video below is Ryan chugging his way to victory :)



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