Exploring Doha with Nana and Papa

We are very fortunate to have Doug's parents here for Christmas this year. Here are some photos from our sight seeing yesterday - Christmas Eve in Doha!

Checking out the views of West Bay from the Corniche

Next stop the St. Regis Hotel to see their giant Christmas tree and life size real gingerbread house.

Then we visited Katara, a cultural village of restaurants and art and music venues.

Our last stop was at the open air fruit and vegetable market to pick up our Christmas dinner veggies and breakfast fruits.

Walking to The Mall

Yesterday with the evening temperatures so nice and cool we decided to take a walk across the street (across the six lane expressway!) to pick up our ceramics we painted at The Mall. Funny I capitalize The Mall since the name of the mall is actually 'The Mall' haha.

The last time we took this walk I realized was when we first moved here and I had no car. I ventured out during Ramadan in 40+ degrees in July. I had to sneak water as we walked to ensure, well...that I didn't die! 

Things have changed for sure, we all wore sweatshirts and I wore socks and shoes for the first time since we moved here. It was windy last night and about 15 degrees, which now feels quite chilly!

We're lucky that we can actually walk somewhere outside our compound. Sidewalks are very rare and being too close to any traffic is pretty scary here. There is one stretch on a slip road (so not directly next to main traffic) that has that 'rubble' look that I use to describe so much of Doha.

The girls had a blast though running along the sidewalk on our walk! Guess we'll have to get out more often for a walk. Missing our regular walks Roslyn ;)

Vanilla Extract Experiment 3 Weeks In

The vanilla seems to be coming along nicely. Smells really good! This is an after 3 weeks photo.

Not something you see everyday on the Buy & Sell Facebook pages back home!

Truthfully this is the first time I've seen guns posted on Facebook here. Usually it's just an abundance of fancy handbags, watches, jewelry and gold iPods! Oh ya and weird products like skin whitener

s ;)

Pretty creepy. Expecting to see lots of guns tomorrow for the National Day Parade. We've already been warned that we'll most likely see kids with guns. This is when you know you're living on the other side of the planet!

Vanilla Extract Experiment

Guess I never really thought about it, but call me stupid if you want...I had no idea real vanilla extract was made with alcohol. Would explain why I haven't been able to find it in stores here! And good thing I figured it out before I asked my mother-in-law to bring some into the country at Christmas. 

So we've decided to experiment with making our own. Following a fellow Canadian living in Qatar and also some research on the Internet, we've add four vanilla beans to a small bottle of vodka. Should be about 2 months till we have our finished product.

Will keep you posted on its progress and final result. Figure it's a win win situation though, worst case we're left with vanilla infused vodka for drinking if not baking!

Just in case you were worried that Root Beer may actually contain real Beer!

'All the flavor of Baileys without the alcohol'

...what's the point!? Haha Some products here make me chuckle. I still bought it though ;)

Birthday Brunch takes a turn for the worse.

Last weekend we decided to try a smaller hotel brunch for a change. We invited some friends along to help celebrate my birthday too. The morning started out great. The girls looked really sweet in their new matching dresses.

The buffet looked delicious.

I only got to try a small plateful before the kids got restless and I offered to take them over the the special play area set up for the brunch. The kids were having a great time jumping on the trampoline and going down the small slide when unfortunately Neko slipped going up the slide steps and fell backwards into the wall.

The fall was not far but the slide was too close to the wall and the back of her head hit the sharp edge on the granite baseboard. I knew right away from her cry it was more than just a simple fall. I was a little taken aback picking her up to find bright red blood gushing out!

It was hard to get a close look - she was not happy, and not letting anyone get close to it! I could barely hold a napkin to the back of her to get pressure on it. I figured it should get looked at in case stitches were needed.

The next flow of events was quite crazy and included getting in a car with a complete stranger, having to drive to 3 different medical centres all closed because of it being Friday/Holy day, ending up at the Hospital, getting dropped at the wrong place, getting in another car with a stranger to get dropped at Emergency. Long story short, Neko was great through it all, ended getting 'glued' back together, and her spirits were high for the rest of the day. Apparently unaffected because she was back to jumping on the couch that night!

These picture make it look way worse than it was.

Neko thought it was funny that she looked like a Mummy after getting treated.

A scary stressful day, but so glad she was okay. Thankfully even if a scar you'll never see it...and they didn't have to shave any of the precious few hairs she has now in the back!!

Walking the Corniche at night

Last weekend we had fun meeting up with a friend and her kids for a play and picnic dinner at the Museum of Islamic Arts Park. It was fun to see the lights come on across the water in the West Bay on all the tall towers. We discovered a great cafe at the end of the corniche with comfy chairs looking out on the view. Can't wait to go back on a Mom's night out or date night!

Not something...

...you see everyday back home beside the Spongebob stickers!

Hair clips anyone?

I went to check out this store last week that I had heard had things like beads and craft supplies, but what I wasn't expecting to find was rows and rows, and rows and rows of hair clips, bows, and elastics. It was an overwhelming insane amount of them.

These pictures only show about 2 of the 20 isles of them.

The crazy part is I only found about 2 that fit my aesthetic for the girls and really none for myself. Apparently there is a great demand for tacky hair things though here is Doha!

Night out in the Souq

After a long work week for Doug, meaning a lot of time on my own with the kids (including my birthday) we decided to get a babysitter to take a night off together. We enjoyed a really nice night in the Souq Waqif. It literally translates to "the standing market" and sells things like traditional garments, spices, souvenirs, handicrafts and art.

The last time we visited was in the summer and it ended in red blotchy faces and the girls in tears....too hot! Last evening was lovely and I won't dare say almost chilly. In the past people have asked "where are all the people in your photos", well this is apparently where everybody is on a Thursday night (like Friday night back home).

We spent some time just walking a checking out the crazy sights like neon coloured chicks anyone?

You can find pretty much any kind of bird here including baby ducklings. Or perhaps you'd like a kitten, bunny, or a pet eel!

We enjoyed a delicious dinner of Syrian food on an outdoor upper patio looking over the Souq. I'm now so anxious to try more of the restaurants in this area.

We then walked through an arts area with people doing live work at their crafts. I really enjoyed this and saw some beautiful things.

This picture doesn't quite show how pretty these lights were.

Handmade pulled glass T-Rex ornament, awesome!!

And shouldn't all good date nights end with some disturbing taxidermy?

Best part perhaps...coming home to two kids sleeping peaceful, 2 loads laundry done - folded and ironed and my kitchen floor washed :)

Dubai Vacation

So far we're having a wonderful time on vacation in Dubai. We are very fortunate to have the use of a Stantec apartment while here and a rental car. It is a beautiful development called the Green Community. There is a large park and walkways that link all the homes together. A short walk from our apartment and there is a small

Mall, grocery store and lots of restaurants.

We started our first day with a trip to the Mall of the Emirates so Doug could see Ski Dubai, the indoor ski hill. It's quite amusing to see this winter wonderland not only indoors but in a mall! I'll insert some video here later.

We then took a drive out on The Palm to check out the scenery and views. We attempted to visit the sail looking hotel, the Burj Al Arab but got turned around at the gate by security.

We did however discover that this is also the location for Wild Wadi Waterpark, so decided to hatch a waterpark plan for the next day.

We ended our day being invited over to Doug's boss' home for a Eid holiday celebration party. Enjoyed a lovely spread of homemade Indian food. So delicious.

Started day two today with our trip to the Waterpark.

Maëlle was so excited on the car ride there and announced that she was going to go down the slides 'all by herself' and she did! She absolutely loved it. Each time trying the next larger slide till she had tried them all. Her favourite was the orange slide that was actually a pitch black tunnel for half of it!

It was so fun for us to see her enjoy it so much that we didn't care so much about getting to try all the big slides. Or as they are called here 'rides', what is what they really are. You go on them riding a tube and they shoot you up the slide before going down.

It was such a great day. We ended it with a walk after dinner for ice cream, balloon animals, and a run through the sprinklers. Best day ever in Maelle's mind I'm sure!