doha daily 11/27/06

I hope your Thanksgiving went really well! Ours seemed so traditional and normal it was GREAT! We started at Rob and Patti’s for cocktails and hors doerves, then on to Warren and Ann’s for turkey, stuffing, et al, and back to our place for pumpkin pie and football, all within the neighborhood/compound. I was in charge of sweet potatoes, which when I went to the store to buy them, I quickly realized a sweet potato here in Doha at Thanksgiving should be considered a commodity and sold on the market. (60 riyals or $16.50 for 6 large sp’s) In an unrelated yet interesting incident, Patti went to the same store for green beans. It seems that when shopping here in Doha, you walk into the store, have a quick scan of the produce to see how your grocery trip is going to go, because what is in stock one day, will most likely not be for the next 10 days. So Patti walked in, conducted her scan and saw they had a mess of green beans, so she didn’t worry. Understandably, she moved on worry-free to get the bread, milk, etc - any of YOU would have done the same. As it stands, however, her judgment was deceived, for when she finished her shopping and rounded the produce corner, a man (possibly a small grocer store owner?) was filling his cart with the entire lot of green beans….hence, we ate snow peas for dinner. This is just one of hundreds of Doha grocery stories circulating.

tristan megan lauren matthew and tessa on thankgiving

The weather has cooled down considerably, so Fall is definitely here. The temperature ranges from 18C (64F) to 27C (80F) now. And all books I’ve read on Qatar have stated the country receives 10 days of rain per year, yet we seem to have hit that quota already as it has rained several times within the last 10 days. I wouldn’t call any of it a knockdown, drag-out Midwest summer’s day rain, though. This seems more like a drizzle; just enough to make your car look as if it has been 4-wheeling in the desert, covered in streaks of sand. The guys in the compound came by yesterday and finally mortared a marble piece onto our front entryway to keep any rain from coming in underneath the door. That was an interesting experience when we received our final downpour in April - I was squeegee-ing the water out of our living room before it hit any of the furniture. Remember when I called the office back in June to give them a heads-up that rain enters our villa and they may want to be proactive in fixing it and then he laughed at me saying it never rains here in Doha, blah blah blah? I DO! The point is, it’s fixed and no more water in the house.

The Asian Games are only 4 days away! Colorful banners are still hurriedly being hung up to detract one’s attention away from what lay behind them. They also bring well-needed décor to the wall of white landscape. We are all going to miss them after the games are over, I’m sure. Wednesday morning is the big Harley torch ride - - - a definite once-in-a-lifetime event. And for 10QR’s ($3), you can get tickets to the events.

Thierry and I have been told to meet the principal of the American School to get Tristan’s name on the list and that just because he is American does not guarantee him a slot. Doesn’t that stink?

See you after Wednesday!

'tristan in bath,' by kelcey liebowitz