Ask and You Shall Receive

It seems I'm in repeat mode these days. I had a 370QR ($110) voucher to redeem at Lulu Hypermarket, compliments of The Qatar Tribune for subscribing. It's across town and not convenient for me, but I made the effort a month or so ago to use the certificate. I got to the checkout and only had 80QR worth of groceries thinking they would just give me a credit, but that wasn't their plan. You had to use the entire amount at one visit. I wasn't in the mood to start my shopping all over so I headed home. I realized a couple of days ago that I hadn't used the voucher and it was due to expire 3/31/09. Today, being 3/31/09, I headed back to LuLu for the second time, but this time I was better armed. I didn't know the first time around that there was a huge upstairs area packed with electronics, appliances, and everything you can imagine under the Qatari sun. This time I was on a mission to purchase an IPod for a gift. I picked it out, got to the checkout, and was very politely informed that my voucher expired on 3/21/09! I'm so stubborn about those reading glasses. I must give in. I pleaded with the checker to let me use it, so she called her manager who in turn told me that he couldn't help me, but sent me on to the "accounts" building for possible assistance. Great. He gave me directions and sent me on my way. I surprisingly found the building and entered this office with twenty men staring back at me as all work stopped while summing me up. No one is exempt...not even ladies past their prime. Let's just say, had Kristi been here, she would have died and I would have heard about it all the way home. Usually I don't mind, but Lulu itself was already a little intimidating with all it's "bachelors" and this just added to it. Thankfully, I was sent to the accounts manager who had an office all to himself without forty eyeballs looking on. Bottom line: He called the Tribune and explained to whomever in Hindi, that he had this stupid little broad in his shop that can't read ENGLISH that wants her voucher extended. And honestly, I couldn't blame him. He got out a post it note, validated the voucher, and made me one happy customer and and one happy giftee (unbeknowst to them!). Woohoo!


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Mission Nearly Impossible

After operation muffin drop yesterday, I was sent on a mission to the dreaded "Tower" to start the process of David renewing his residence permit. Salam Tower houses CPChem's administrative offices, but it's not the offices that are dreaded. It's the parking, or non parking, I should say. Add on top of that a heap of construction and it's just about impossible without the buddy system rule in play. That would be have a friend drop you, they circle the corniche for however long your business takes and then they pick you up. Well, stubborn,dumb me, tried to go it alone...for the second time. As I approached the Tower, I saw what little congested parking they had was totally blocked off by a huge crane. A crane in Doha? I was determined that I would not let this defeat me because my last trip to the office resulted in failure and my usually passive hubby wasn't so happy. So, if I had to walk a mile down the corniche, so be it. Unbelievably, all parking up and down the corniche was roped off due to the Arab League Summit being held in Doha this week. It wouldn't be a mile that I had to walk. We're talking miles now and it wasn't gonna happen. Plan B: Head to Landmark Mall and relieve my stress with a new shirt. Oh, the Tower business? Well David was off this morning due to a meeting this afternoon and we tried out the buddy system. Duh. Mission accomplished.


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Pass It On

I couldn't get one song without the other...it was a twofer. Sorry! The under 50 crowd won't get it anyway :)


It's Doha Service Project Day here in the neighborhood and my kitchen didn't burn down! Progress in the making. Local CPChem wife, Kaylene, is always volunteering her services (and ours!) to our military men and women stationed here in Qatar, as well as those here on R&R weekends getting away from less desirable areas of the Middle East in which they are serving. We bake up a few treats, she delivers the "drop" and our American troops gobble up the goodies. It's a great service and we appreciate Kaylene heading it up and all those that battle the Doha oven blues* to create their masterpieces. My masterpiece came in a box, but that's probably a good thing. You will be happy to know that I didn't get my dates wrong this time, nor did my smoke alarm go off. Move over, June Cleaver (you know who you are!). My part is done, for now, as I have made my delivery to Kaylene who is tossing all the treats in nice bags before sending them to their final destination. Don't forget to pass on your random act of kindness today. You just never know how you might impact someone's life.

*the ovens are a mystery here...crash and burn is their mantra.



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Right Place, Wrong Time

I know, I've used this song before, but I like it and it fits :)


This weekend was a bust for David and me. It started yesterday afternoon when we went out in search of the motorcycle/car races that were to be going on at Losail International Circuit. First off the weather wasn't good and by that I just mean blustery and dusty. Just general yucky desert weather. When we get to the circuit which is just outside of Doha, there were about ten cars in the parking lot with nothing much going on. We figured the weather was to blame and decided we'd just head back out there today for the finals, but first we'd stop at Doha's Golf Club to witness Qatar's quest to break into the Guinness Book of World Records. After some intense scrutiny from the guard at the gate questioning our sponsorship, where we lived, and our reason for being there, he finally waved us through (it must have been my shiny new camera sitting in my lap that got us in). There were banners everywhere announcing the ensuing fete, crews furiously setting up tables and lighting, and hordes of workers from the restaurant chain that was hell bent on setting the new record of the world's longest sandwich and largest bowl of pasta. The only thing missing was any hint of the sandwich being constructed or the pasta being prepared. The word from the "tweet" that I got was that the event was to start at 10:00am. We gave them a head start and didn't mosey on out to the greens until 1:00pm. I snapped a few pics and it was off to the races. Upon arriving at Losail, we found only five cars today compared to the ten that were there yesterday. We must work on this timing thing. So much for our outings. Bennigan's wins, again.

This looks like serious business...hopefully the record is in the bag for Doha!


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Almost Margaritaville

It's the weekend, so I'm taking it easy today folks, today and everyday this past week. There wasn't a day this week that I rolled out of bed before 8:45am. It's sort of my vacation after vacation week. Oh, never mind, I forgot I am on permanent vacation. As I said yesterday, I am blessed! Don't get mad at me for that. I paid my dues at more soccer games, softball games, basketball games, baseball games, and school functions than you can imagine while slaving away at Jan Girouard & Associates (wink), and being a subservient wife (double wink!) for over a quarter of a century. So don't begrudge me my laziness, celebrate it with me. In the meantime, I will sit here and anticipate your arrival to the wonderful world of retirement.

Retirement in Doha is sort of like Margaritaville... without the Margaritas, that is.


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Reflections

It was our third day home after our vacation run and we decided it was time to "get back into" working out. Not that I ever stopped. I've never walked so much in my life as I did in Paris. I didn't exactly slouch in Stuttgart or Lucerne, either. David brought his lifeline "tens unit" and hooked me up a few times to bring my aching back to life again. He missed his calling. He was lining us up and curing all our ails. So yesterday evening he headed to the gym as I donned his iPod that he loaded with country music for me and hit the pavement in the "hood". The evening was cool and windy with the smell of rain wafting through the air. It was invigorating, almost electric, transferring me back to summer squalls in southeast Texas. Then a song come on entitled, "Life Ain't Always Beautiful" by Gary Allan, Jr. I was lost in the lyrics with this unbelievable sense of uplifting as I was keeping pace. I was thinking about all the "not so good" things that have happened to us and those around us, but marveled at how the grace of God has always presented itself to bring us through those times. Our blessings have way outnumbered the struggles. No, life ain't always beautiful, but it is a beautiful ride.




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Back in Business

I met up with my brand new working camera in Paris. It's a Nikon D90 that Kayla lovingly hand delivered to me from the States. It was so exciting to take our vacation pictures without having to power down and then power up the camera to take the next shot. Besides that little problem, I didn't realize how slow my previous Nikon was until I got this baby in my hands. Click, click, click...no delays in snapping or saving the pictures. It's so much faster on the draw, which the kids greatly appreciated. Now, I have no excuses to miss a shot. All I've done so far is point and shoot in auto mode, which is probably where I need to stay. I haven't had a chance to read up on it to know what to do otherwise. It is a little bigger than my previous camera, so inconspicuous, I will not be. What the heck, I've decided that most people here absolutely love to have their picture made. Though, I must get a little more bold and not hold back. Believe it or not, I am a bit reserved in that respect and need to take a more commanding role when taking pictures. Maybe I should make myself a photographer pass, laminate it, and hang it around my neck. Hmm, that is a thought. Keep in mind that my pictures probably won't be any better. It's just that my frustration level will be a little lower. Say cheese :)



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It's Over Rover...The Final Pics

As I am still in post vacation mode, don't expect my creative genius to be oozing. I'm in the middle of ditching photos to create much needed space on my hard drive. You know, twenty pics of the Eiffel tower pretty much all look the same. But then, again, it's so hard for me to push that permanent "delete" button. Do we have a pattern here? Is there a pill for that? You're talking to a person who has every note passed in junior high still packed away in a box that has moved from Groves, to Port Arthur, to Port Neches, to Mobile, to Port Neches, and tucked away in Kyle, Texas at this very moment. So, that should give you a glimpse of my hard drive. Ok, I'm back...didn't even know I was gone, did ya? I felt a need to finish up with my vacation pictures and put them in a slide show for posterity, or at least until Photobucket crashes, heaven forbid. Don't get too excited. I didn't do music or anything fancy. So without any further adieu, here's our vacation in pics. You know the drill, the X is at the top right hand corner for those that can't escape fast enough from those dreaded home movies. For you die hards, click the pic. Ciao!




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Eleven Days Later

The sun sets on our family vacation




Our European reunion is over and everyone, hopefully, is back in their corner of the world. We rolled into the pink villas this morning about 5:30a.m. to the screaming welfare cats. David said, I'll get rid of them and poured them all up a serving of dog food, which sent two out of three of them running. Was there any doubt? Freakin' freeloaders, we really should stop enabling them. Anyway, I have confirmation that Dustin, Kayla, and Kristi made it back to Austin. We walked them to the train station yesterday morning at 7:30 am to catch their train to the airport. It was just David, Shea and myself to spend a last quiet day on our eleven day run. We took it easy and strolled along the river and had a leisurely two hour lunch to get our last bit of visiting in before heading to the train station to make our final connections. We rode the same train with Shea to Zurich, where he was to make a connection to Stuttgart. He had to get off a couple of stops before us, so we hope he made it. His train skills didn't prove to be so good as he got off at the wrong train station in his route to Lucerne on Friday night. After erroneously getting off at a "ghost town" train stop, he had to take a cab to get to another station to catch another train to Lucerne. Hopefully, he was a little more "astute" this time. The getaway with the family was wonderful and I think Lucerne was the winner hands down. Thanks to everyone that joined us for the ride. We'll do it again, some time :)




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Winding Down in Lucerne

We Came,

We Saw,

We Conquered!











But, we're not quite done. One last evening to enjoy the six of us together. Over lunch today at the top of Mount Pilatus, we rehashed some forgotten and some not so forgotten childhood memories of the kids'. There were some that were shared that David and I never knew about to begin with. Some things are just better left unsaid! The stories were bringing tears of laughter to everyone at the table, probably something that would not have happened if they would have told it "back in the day". Anyway, the cable car and gondola ride up to the mountain was unbelievable. If I would have known what I was getting myself into, I'm sure I would not have gone. I was petrified on the way up, but by the time the return trip came around I had settled down. Heights have never been my forte. David, Shea, Dustin and Kristi opted to sled down the mountain for a little thrill seeking. Kayla and myself weren't feeling quite so adventurous. When we heard the stories after the four got back, we realized that we were indeed the only ones with any sense in the bunch. Bottom line: They survived, conquered and lived to tell about it. Lucerne is beautiful and is on my list to come back to if the opportunity ever arises.





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