Hello, first real text post after the weekend, that was a mad one, i moved into the lovley house/bungalow, 3 bedroom, 4 bathrooms 2 baths 1 shower and 4 w/c, kitchen etc, furnished etc. see photos below. its a nice compound of about 30 people/familys all of whom work for AJI - starting to get to know the neighbours theyre lovley. i live about 5 mins (across a building site - the whole of qatar seems to be one big building site) from Guys house
pool is nice and so is the cold jacussi, (yes you need it cold in this climate, its a strange sensation i know) spent a couple of hours soaking off the hangover and reading lord of light, recovery was from my work colleague's birthday party on saturday night, of which was a real blast, first 'session' ive had for a while.

the flats well furnished, nice sofas etc, large tv 3 satelite dishes (why?)

anyway moved in saturday lunchtime then hit the gigantic mega mall thats being built next to the stadium, across the road from my house(across 3 building sites and two freeways). and spent a shade under 1000 rials for everything the modern man could need for a house, except the things that dont exist in qatar 1) a culinder - they dont seem to exist here at all??? 2) a cafitier - ended up having to buy one in starbucks at some super inflated price (something like 100rials or 12quid!!!!!!) but as i concider it an essential to life 3) a large amount of beeding/douvets/blankets/towels - i dont feel like i need them yet (would rather save the money/cash advance for things i need to spend it on like taxis & customs fees. etc - hoping i dont run out befor i get paid)

however i bought the essentials like saute pan & small pan in 18/10 stainless, and the same for knives - no point in buying cheep. a multi region dvd player, food essentials like frozen french mushrooms & white gold basmati rice! frozen veg, canned essentials, and 2 min noodles.
enjoying the drive in in the morning from the compound altho saw 3 crashes this morning all looked quite serious - seriously if there are road rules here no one obeys them - ive seen people drive over roundabouts forcibly cut through 3 lanes of traffic, do u-turns over the median strip on the highways- inshort its nuts.

M