Dear Doha Diary

With my Dad's 70th birthday half way through my contract in Doha, I decided to take a few days to fly back to the UK to surprise him.  However, what I didn't realise is that my efforts to surprise my Dad, would turn into a nice surprise weekend break in Bahrain for me!... here is what unfolded ...  After leaving Doha last night on what should be a 9 hour flight, I am sitting in a hotel in Bahrain, waiting for our BA crew to get enough sleep so that we can continue on to London.... yes that does sound a bit bizarre but true!  After a smooth enough take-off from Doha at 11.25pm, we landed in Bahrain last night at 1200 midnight - we'd had terrible turbulence and a dreadful landing with lots of bangs and things falling out of overhead cabins, it was so rough!  I'm usually a very relaxed flyer but even my feathers were a little ruffled when I saw the cabin crew hurrying up and down the isles looking very stressed and concerned. The plane was stopping ...

Ive been in Doha now for two months and I feel myself falling under its spell, largely down to my weekly trips to Souk Waqif, a place so full of atmosphere and life, where tourists and locals stroll the cobbled alleyways, and maze of tunnels to buy anything from camel key rings to carpets, slippers to swords ....in fact pretty much anything you can think of...... even, sadly, live animals and birds.  It's not just a tourist attraction, locals too buy all sorts here.... cooking pots, spices, nuts, dates, fabric, clothing, blankets etc etc..... I could go on! Despite what the photos suggest, this incarnation of the Souk has only been in existence for a few years.  It was the site of the original Souk when Doha was a small village and the Bedouin would bring their products such as camel's milk and dates to trade.  In 2004, the Sheik decided to restore the area to its former glory and they did such a good job, it really does feel like stepping back in time. The ...

I'm just back from my weekly recycling trip to one of the only recycling facilities in Doha, or so it seems.   The lack of recycling facilities here was one of the first things I noticed and it instantly made me very uncomfortable.  In the UK we are so used to being able to recycle everything from paper to plastics, cardboard to cans, even compost our waste and I've been doing that since I can remember.  Recycling is as natural as breathing and not to be able to do it is psychological suffocation...... impossible to tolerate. So, rather than throw my plastic bottles in the bin, I kept them until I could find a way of recycling them.  And do they use alot of them?  Oh my goodness......particularly at work - they buy bulk loads of little bottles of mineral water and the kitchen guys hand them around to the offices all day - they must get through hundreds every day.  And there are no facilities for paper recycling.  An American colleague of...

As you might expect, rain in the desert is rare, so as a committed 'bad' weather enthusiast, it was in my top 5 sacrifices when deciding to come and live in Doha for a while.  In fact, my sister in law asked me that very question at a family dinner to celebrate my departure..... "What will you miss the most?...other than family and friends of course?"....... "Rain and cycling" I replied,  rather assuming I'd have to wait until my return to the UK for any significant precipitation! This was confirmed by all my early conversations with anyone I could find - taxi drivers, hotel receptionists, shop assistants and work colleagues..... "does it rain here.... at all..... ever?".  The response was pretty universal.... "not really, its more like mist than rain", or "can't remember" and then this week, I mentioned to a colleague that it was forecast to rain heavily the next day.  She said "oh reeeaaaally?" as if I...

To say that finding myself in an Al Jazeera Media Network board room in Doha, experiencing an earthquake was a surreal feeling, would be quite an understatement.  But that is exactly where I was today.  At first, I thought someone with very heavy feet had entered the room, but when it went on for quite a few seconds and then the heated debate gave way to looks of slight concern, people feeling the table and looking at each other....somehow afraid to ask.... and then the shaking got a little more vigorous..... a few of us started to say.... "is this an earthquake?".  One colleague even said, its probably an earthquake in Iran.....should we leave the building?   But the consensus was that we were OK and should stay put.  Which we did...... and it was...... So I went on to twitter immediately and within 2 mins people had started to post about feeling the tremors and within 5 mins a report appeared that a 7.8 magnitude earthquake had hit Iran but had been felt...