Our five year adventure in Doha, Qatar ended June 1, 2012, but the memories will always remain. It's back to Texas where I have decided...Qatar isn't cornering the market on "quirky", as I once believed. Thanks for opening my eyes to the world, Doha!

Thursday, June 30, 2011

Molly vs Saudi

While I've always made time to talk about our cats in Doha, whether it be the welfare kittens, Sykes (RIP) or Princess, I rarely speak of our Texas cats Saudi and Molly. Kristi captured their love/hate (ok, mostly hate) relationship in this short video...


Hang in there ~ the action is not until the minute mark


Side note: I forgot that Molly is actually Wally since we found out "she" is a "he" during our last Christmas visit. Poor thing is going to have an identity crisis.
To read or leave comments, please click on the comments link below. Thanks!

Tuesday, June 28, 2011

Yummy for the Tummy...


but not so much the waistline


Hot Fudge Cake Sundae ~ Cheddar's Casual Cafe

It's true what they say 'round these parts...

Everything's BIG in Texas


And if I continue eating like I am on my Doha hiatus...
I, too will be in that category.


To read or leave comments, please click on the comments link below. Thanks!

Thursday, June 23, 2011

... and I Will Go To Texas



“You may all go to hell…

and I will go to Texas”

~ Davy Crockett

Shea (son) and friend, Tonya

There's nothing like a visit to the Alamo to bring out the "Texan" in me.


Another thing it brings out is the Photoshop. Would all you "extras" please remove yourselves from my pics?!
Thank you, very much.
original photo-->

Moral of the story: Seeing is NOT believing
To read or leave comments, please click on the comments link below. Thanks!

Monday, June 20, 2011

I Might Be InTexas If...




Folks, we're not in Kansas Doha anymore
(now don't get excited...we will be going back)



Boudin Balls are as common as Land Cruisers...

Crawfish season is up and running...

Family is all around...

(me, my mom, and my sis, Regina)
Trahan Family Crawfish Boil ~ June 19, 2011



To read or leave comments, please click on the comments link below. Thanks!

Monday, June 13, 2011

Homecoming

Sitting in the Doha airport lounge waiting for our flight to Austin. It's a bit of a bitter sweet moment as my dad and Kristi's "Paw Paw" passed away late Saturday night. So here I am on a planned eighteen our flight home that I would have been on even if I had not planned it. A bit ironic. Dad's moving on is not exactly a sad moment for me. Yes, I've spilled a few tears, but at the same time I know what a wonderful life he had. After all, he lived to the ripe old age of 85 and brought six children into the world with (just a little) help from my mom. Dad was always so proud of us. You know, embarrassingly proud. He introduced us to anyone and everyone he knew beaming from ear to ear like we were celebrities. God, he loved us. So, here we are, both heading home. Hope to see you one day on the flip side, Dad. I can hear you saying it now...

"If the good Lord is willin' and the creek don't rise."

I love you, Dad

...Syb

To read or leave comments, please click on the comments link below. Thanks!

Saturday, June 11, 2011

Translate the Punch Line

Living in Qatar, we found out pretty fast where the punctury is. We have a tendency to off road a bit around here due to traffic situations, well, and just for the heck of it. Problem is when when we do that, we take the chance of "puncturing" our tires with errant nails and wire from the ever present construction. You're so smart. I see you've figured out what a "punctury" is all by your lonesome. I've Googled the word punctury, and I do believe the term is truly an "Only in Doha" one.

Yesterday, we ran across a spin off of the tire repair shop...

Hmm...figure this one out.

To read or leave comments, please click on the comments link below. Thanks!

Wednesday, June 8, 2011

Today's News ~ Al Jazeera


Have I mentioned that I was lucky enough to score a tour of the world famous Al Jazeera News while the kids were in town? Yes, I said Al Jazeera, the one put on the map by Bin Laden himself, but has since been a force to be reckoned with by keeping the Middle East (and the world) abreast of the Arab Spring. No, it's not been the most popular news source in the States, but it's gaining steam. Even Hillary recently gave it the "real news" stamp of approval*. Visiting Al Jazeera is something I've secretly wanted to do since moving to Doha four years ago, so I mercilessly used my kids as pawns and contacted the powers that be to fulfill my dream. Voila, before I knew it, I had a parking pass in hand and an appointed hostess with the mostess to show us the way. She informed me that usually only journalists and news related outlets are afforded tours of the facilities. Wow, my friends really do have "wasta". Impressive. Ok, she may have winked when she said that, but if she did, I missed it. Anyway we made our way around the English and Arabic buildings, whizzing in and out of busy news rooms with monitors everywhere imaginable. I was shocked when our guide told me I could take pictures anywhere I wanted, but just no flash in certain areas. Transparency in action...impressed, again. The kids were glad that I used them as bait as we really felt like we were part of history and the future by visiting the origin of Al Jazeera. Oh, and the goody bags were the icing on the cupcake.

Code of Ethics
*“viewership of Al Jazeera is going up in the United States because it’s real news… You may not agree with it, but you feel like you’re getting real news around the clock instead of a million commercials and, you know, arguments between talking heads and the kind of stuff that we do on our news which, you know, is not particularly informative to us, let alone foreigners.”

...Hillary R Clinton
Special thanks to the parties
involved in making this happen.
We truly enjoyed your hospitality and kindness.

...Sybil, Shea, Dustin & Kristi

To read or leave comments, please click on the comments link below. Thanks!

Saturday, June 4, 2011

Undercover Cover Up

At first glance, you may not notice anything unusual or out of place in this storefront window poster at H & M (Landmark Mall),

but look, again...

There's just something about leggings underneath a bikini bottom that's downright unflattering. Someone's editor needs to go back to the drawing board.

Follow Up: Received a tweet from @ibn_adem explaining the H&M censorship...

Gisele Censored! Supermodel Photoshoppedfor H&M ads in Dubai



To read or leave comments, please click on the comments link below. Thanks!

Friday, June 3, 2011

Sand, Dust, Smog, Fog?



Remember yesterday's beautiful weather?


What a difference a day makes...

West Bay area ~ Doha, Qatar ~ June 3, 2011

To read or leave comments, please click on the comments link below. Thanks!

Thursday, June 2, 2011

Desert and Airport Runs

I loaded up the kids this morning for an early morning airport run. It's not just real often that I see Doha in all its glory at 5:30am with the sun bouncing off the bay. It was a beautiful site, not unlike the beautiful Qatari deserts that we trekked through yesterday on our last day with Shea, Dustin, and Kristi.

Shooting pics through the window of the Land Cruiser

Since it was Shea's first visit to the desert, we treated him to dune bashing* and camel riding that every new visitor to the area must experience.








The only thing missing was Kayla :(








Our resident pirate ~ doesn't every family have one?

Great family, great fun~See you on the flip side kids!

*We use Arabian Adventures for dune bashing
(974) 4436 1461

Related posts:
Dune Bashing or Sand Blasting?
A True Desert Experience

(The above posts have more in depth coverage of the experience)

To read or leave comments, please click on the comments link below. Thanks!