typical doha.
i wake up with a streaming cold this morning to the ringing of my mobile phone at 7.30am (to most people this seems like a reasnoble time to wake up but for me - no i work till 1am which means that i really have to wake up at 11am). its HSBC ringing me to inform me that i have not been paid this month. so im now awake having been

a) woken up by the bank at 7.30am which im not happy with to tell me bad news that AJI have cocked up paying me. so i get into work at 1pm ring finance, who tell me that they havent paid me, because surprise surprise HR havent given them my bank details, they concequentley have to write me a cheque, which inturn presents me with a problem as the bank only opens till 1pm

b) go to see external affairs who have told me that my RP would be done and dusted today (as they have had all my details (fingerprints, blood tests, blood type, health check x-rays etc)) only to be informed that my fingerprints have not been received, but the will be received soon, as the entire RP process that is inshalla supposed to take ten days its been over a month and a half i currentley have no faith that it will happen anytime soon.

c) add to that i booked a car today to come and pick me up at 11.30 and it didnt arrive at 12.30, when it did arrive the driver was new and didnt know where tv roundabout was, which is frankley unaccaptable, given its one of doha's major landmarks. so my planned side trip to aramex was shelved due to lateness.

i have now come to the conclusion that anything that requires me to intersect with doha beaurocuracy on any level its better for me to chase it personaly as there is a level of incompetance around the HR/External affairs that is truley awe inspiring.

and i seem to have become the statistics dept here at work as well.
working out the percentages of iraqi doctors having left iraq since 2003.

53% apparently

its rainy here in doha starting to get cool about 20 degrees, well thaughts of what im going to do in the next two days i have off spring to mind probably sleeping late tomorow, go shopping, and there is a bit of a half baked plan to go drinking tomorow night but i dont know howfar thats planned, also i need to ring gulf agencey about my missing box. also i may watch a few programmes that arrived with my shipping, also need to head out to aramex to pick up a shipment.

plans for a rooftop party for the asian games are simmering too!


thaughts of the gothic also spring to mind, how much im missing the london burlesque and caberet scene, stories of the shunt vaults in london bridge get back to me here too, punchdrunk and more, and of course rabbit!

there is a strange smell in the foyer area here at work - im told they have painted/waxed something

however it very much smells of an ungodly combination of old socks, cheese & vomit.