Dear Doha Diary

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 across the mi