Officially living in Doha

It was heartbreaking saying good bye to our family at the airport but exciting at the same time to be starting our big family move to Qatar. Decked out in matching I <heart> Canada T-shirts, the girls were giddy to get on the plane. Oh to be a kid and not care about traveling for almost 24 hours. All in all it actually went pretty smooth. A couple freak outs by Neko in the middle of night leg, and one by Maëlle at the very end of the trip over her seatbelt as we were landing (of course)! On the flight from Toronto to Dubai they upgraded the plane to the huge 2 level one. The seats were super nice, wide and reclined far. Plus being in the bulkhead gave us lots of room. Emirates is my favourite airline so far. Maëlle got a special tour of the upstairs first class area. They even get showers up there!

After landing we collected our 7 giant suitcases (and forgot the stroller by accident) and loaded into two taxis to arrive at our new home. Thrilled to see our stuff here, even if most was still in boxes. Walked the kids to see the pool and burn some last energy before trying for sleep in our new house. Maëlle was so happy to see the pool and toy fox we've been showing her in photos of 'the new house'.

Amazing how you can adjust to a 10 hour time difference almost easier than 4 or 5. I could happily sleep in but unfortunately the only residual has been very early mornings from the girls. Amazing how much can be accomplished by 7am!

Will try my best to keep this updated as we go through life 'on the other side of the planet'!!!

Hope you enjoy the adventure with us.

Muscat, Oman

Traveled this weekend to Oman. Very beautiful country with amazing clear blue ocean water.  Unfortunately I did not get to go swimming in the ocean. I did, however, go down in the late afternoon to the Souq area. If you want gold or silver this is the place to go.  Amazing undercover market with so many stores you could not imagine.  I also got to experience my first 41oC day outside!

I spent the afternoon walking around experiencing the wonderful gulf culture.  

Here are some photos:

Yummy fresh lemon juice.  So good!

Silver 

And gold

Fantastic roof enclosure. 

More silver...

And lots of gold!!!

Side trip to Muscat, Oman

Heading for a quick trip on Qatar Airlines to Muscat, Oman.   Will have to take lots of photos of this little side trip.   View from the airport terminal out towards Doha.  

Doha to Frankfurt

Had a lovely flight actually from Doha to Frankfurt. The plane was practically empty. Had a nice window seat to myself, 2 blankets and 3 pillows, so snuggled up for some sleep on the plane.

The first photo is over Austria and the others Frankfurt.

Now hanging out waiting for next flight. One down, two to go! Can't wait to see my babies :)

Doha Mums & Schools

Spent my last day in Doha busy trying to make connections and see schools...and making myself car sick in the process!

I started out at the Hyatt Plaza (no shortage of malls or giant grocery stores here!) at the 'New Arrivals Coffee' for a networking group called Doha Mums.

I met about 9 other Moms (most without their kids because in school or nursery) from all over - UK, South Africa, Poland, Lebanon. Everyone really friendly and happy to share information on everything from schools to the best place to buy diapers. By attending the event I can now sign up to get an official membership and post any query to their online forum which I think will be very helpful.

I then had to pull out my map to help the driver narrow down the location of some pre-schools and kindergartens. It seems school starts young here for kids. There are many full time (Sun-Thur, 7a-1p) schools starting at 3 years. Haven't completely decided what to do with Maëlle but did find some great options. Might opt for a nursery which still is teaching the kids (music, PE, art, abc's/numbers etc) but you can opt for 2-5 days per week. Think it's great that they teach a little Arabic too. There is one close to our new house, I think walking distance no problem but so funny when you ask. "Oh no! Too far, car is better."

Relaxed in evening, one last swim and a nap before off to the airport for my 1:30am flight.

Blizzards on Doug's way home from work...

...yes please! This DQ is nice and close to Doug's work with drive thru ease ;)

Slowly discovering all the comforts of home here in Doha.

Pretty much anything we have at home we should be able to find here...except Costco and Old Navy maybe!

Our new home.

21 Lavender Road, Al Farden Gardens

We are so excited to have found a new home in Doha that checks off pretty much all of our boxes, as the real estate agent put it!

It's green and lush, large enough to meet other people and be able to walk/bike on the property, great pool and facilities, close to shopping, can actually walk somewhere, close to Doug's work, nice back yard, and just a great relaxing feel to it.

We got to go in and see that actual Villa yesterday and confirm we'll be renting it. It's a 3 bedroom villa with a large entrance way, two opens rooms, dining room, and kitchen on ground floor - oh and maids living area / or storage! Upstairs is a bonus room type area and three massive bedrooms. The master bedroom is probably the size of all three of our bedrooms from home!

Nice that they'll completely paint and clean the place before we move in. We"re going to ask for a couple things too like new toilet seats and appliances. There is quite a bit of property owned furniture in there too that we can keep if we want. Might be nice to have some extra tables etc to fill our giant rooms! Should be a fantastic new place to call home during our adventure.

Museum of Islamic Art

Took advantage of no kids and visited the museum. Beautiful building with interesting artifacts. The views from outside the museum are fantastic too.

Lots of people out at sunset on the Corniche walking and relaxing on the grass. Very nice evening.

Should this be our new bedroom set?!

Friday Brunch

Weekends are Friday / Saturday here, and Friday is the big brunch day. Most hotels host a giant brunch buffet. Was reading about the top brunches in town when I realized one of the top ones was at the hotel just across the street! Very convenient since no driver for us on the weekend.

Enjoyed a really nice meal with a live piano player right behind us and a variety of every delicious type of food around us. Brunch was more like Linner (Lunch-Dinner) since it doesn't start till 12pm and didn't have any breakfast food on it. The highlight for me was the made to order tempura, mmmm delicious all you can eat prawns.

I was so excited to try the ice cream, they make themselves, to find the chocolate just like favourite from Baskin Robins (that they no longer make), chocolate mouse royale. This actually better. Planning to see if I can go back just for an ice cream cone before I go.