well let me apologies for not posting for 4 days, its clearly not that i have died or been abducted into the white slave trade, but simply that im not at work and they havnt wired my villa up for a phone line/broadband yet.

let me give you a brief rundown on the last few days, left work on Friday with alex and another fellow colleague at 10.30pm, and met 7 or so colleagues for iftah at the hotel intercontinental at the north end of the cornice, its next to Aladdin land (think an Arabic themed Disneyland and youve got it), the intercontintal had a massive tent setup on the beach to seat what must have been 500 people, with a truly epic buffet, lots of locals in formal dress (white headdress rather than the red), and acts performing to entertain the crowd, some interesting musical acts, however they had whirling dervishes (or is that dervi?) which were truly magnificent, i suggest if you ever get the chance to see some of them, do. Food was great, very kebab and rice heavy but the sweets were excelent, everything from baklavah to crem brule, the table was truly heaving with sweet delights. shisha pipes were evident, every table must have had at least one, there were 3 at our table of 10. seems to be a regular thing - the photo of the shisha & beverages menu i find amusing.

Saturday: quiet day had a swim and a work out, chatted to jonno for a while, trying to kick start this compound party into a happening. we had cloud for the first time, (not dark grey london cloud) a few whisps of white fluffy stuff, so i decided to hike to the hyatt mall (the second closest to the compound but still a 20min walk) to scope it out. its a lot more finished than the velaggio which is being built as we speak (the one with the care four), nice walk down the middle of the unfinished highway (that is quite strange one side of the road has traffic driving at 60/70 and im walking down the middle of the other side of the freeway) which is being finished by indian and philipino engineers with heavy grading equipment. the mall is far more mallish than villagio, lots of glass. the thing that surprised me is the number of shops i recognised - they have a early learning center, a body shop and a clares accessories. pretty much home from home, also the first time ive seen merchandise for the asian games, as much as i need a 7foot stuffed orrix branded with asian games logos i felt i can do without for the timebeing. anyway back to the mall, there is a Japanese pounds shop where everything is 6rials - needless to say i spent 100rials on cool Japanese stuff like a broom, and dustpan, and 4 Japanese stoneware mugs, and bathroom cleaner, a dissapointing apron and now my washing powder looks like its from 10mins into the future and it only cost 6rials and it says (and its the only thing on the box) easy simple life since 1997 (which seems to sum up my lifes ambitions completely since the age of 17) i also hit the Giant stores, which is a cross between asda and happy shopper, slightly disappointing layout but the vegetables are indeed better than at carre four, it does however seem to have a better selection of household goods (think pans and plates, tvs and computing accessories) and frozen veg (when i found it) than carre four, however dried, fresh and canned goods were dissapointing, i still cant find good cheese, its all plastic shrink rapped processed and pasteurized crap, not quite as bad as cheeze in a can but close. got a new blue cab for 3.75 rials home (about 55p) then watched the latest series 3 episodes of battle star courtesy of a friend whom i lent firefly to.

Sunday: quiet day, went for a run and did a 10k cycle on the exercise machine, wached a few 'evaluation only' movies including the sentinel (Kifer southerland & Michael douglas) - passable presidential assination movie, think a cross between all the presidents men and 24 and youve got the plot. Stick it, which i dont know what to think about it, its a movie about gymnastics, with a touch of strictly ballroom about it, not the greatest film ever made but easy on the eyes, implausible beginning, disappointed by the ending, quite good middle. and watched some shit adam sandler movie with a remote control in it, fell asleep during it.

Monday; discovered that i can get the bbc world service via satelite tv so im a happy bunny, nowhere near as good as radio4 but is better than anything else i have. its got a strange, a bit to corporate for me, not 'English' enough - think bbc world/international vs bbc4 similar content radically different presentation.

Tuesday: quiet day but went to doha’s premier new nightclub- if you can call a bad Pilipino coverband playing eagles covers, and a student union atmosphere, with ¾ of the punters philipino men. Still they had beer!