Football in Qatar

Posted on November 20, 2010 by Sonya

Driving around the city of Doha, it’s hard not to notice that Qatar have a bid for the 2022 World Cup. The last few months, almost all Qatari associations have demonstrated their support for the bid and the biggest event by far, to illustrate Qatar’s dedication to the game, was the friendly match between South American teams Brazil and Argentina. While football friendlies are not uncommon in Qatar (last year Brazil played against England), there was a lot of anticipation and excitement around town regarding this particular match, especially since the well-loved Messi and infamous Ronaldino were featuring in each of the teams. Also, the game marks the last two weeks before FIFA announce the 2022 World Cup locations.

Anyway, given we were not sure of our plans during Eid Al Adha, we purchased tickets online two days before the game in a frantic rush. Neither of us had been to a football game before and funnily enough a few weeks earlier we’d only just attended our first tennis matches – Sam Stosur vs Caroline Wozniacki and also Kim Clisters vs Jelena Jankovic.

On Wednesday night we headed to Khalifa Stadium. Traffic was a bit of a nightmare, as it is in Doha, but we eventually decided to take a back route and arrived with 45 minutes before kickoff. Khalifa Stadium has a capacity of about fifty-thousand, and this game was a sell-out, so and upon entering it felt huge and excitement was in the air! It was a colourful scene with gold and green shirts littering the stadium and Argentinean blues also featuring (somewhat to a lesser extent).. and of course the Qataris in their handsome white Thawbs were there to watch as well.

The game was a good one to watch, however by half time neither had scored (despite some close shots) and the crowd was getting frustrated. A bit of entertainment came in the form of a spectator who ran loose on the grounds during the match followed closely by a group of about six policeman. This caused the crowds to grow wild, cheering, clapping and laughing. The guy looked quite pleased with himself whilst being handcuffed and escorted away by said policeman. Being neither a Brazil or Argentina supporter I didn’t barrack for either team but Messi was a bit of a highlight and favourite for me and when he scored a goal at the first last minute (in injury time), with four Brazilian defenders against him I was impressed.. so was the rest of the stadium which roared in appreciation for his skills. So, Argentina won 1-0 and the players swapped shirts as they left the field… and all the fans left giddy with excitement over Messi’s first goal in a match against Brazil. Overall, a fun night of football!

Royal Arabic High Tea, Doha, Qatar

Posted on November 17, 2010 by Sonya

Life in Doha seems to revolve around eating. We have visited a few restaurants around town (particular when we first arrived and were staying at a hotel), but recently we have generally been enjoying cooking and eating in. Afternoon high teas are numerous and populous across Doha. I was intrigued about the Royal Arabic High Tea at Al Jalsa lounge, located at the Sharq hotel, an Arabic-style hotel which I had heard was famed for it’s opulent decor and lavish restaurants. Below are the photos of our decadent afternoon of canapés, scones, pastries and of course, Arabic sweets. I particularly enjoyed the fruity, fragrant Oolong tea blend.. almost challenges my love for the Earl Grey, but not quite!

Doha Tribeca Film Festival 2010

Posted on November 2, 2010 by Travis

For the second year, the Doha Film Institute and Tribeca Enterprises have partnered to create the Doha Tribeca Film Festival bringing local and international movies to Qatar.

We initially planned to see a movie at the local shopping centre movie theatre, but fortunately due to the crowded car parks and sold-out tickets we had to revert to Doha’s new Cultural Village known as Katara. Recently completed, Katara hosts an amphitheatre, opera hall, restaurants and mosque. For the festival an open air cinema was created.

About halfway through the pre-movie entertainment of Troupe Cirque Apeiron we realised it was Family Day, a common occurrence in Qatar where only ‘families’ are allowed into certain places (which does helps with the male to female ratio). The movie was Secretariat a movie about the legendary American racehorse who won the ‘Triple Crown’.

The number of kids in the audience and the number of times the host mentioned ‘made by Disney’, I was convinced there was going to be a talking horse. Fortunately, there wasn’t and the movie was extremely enjoyable and provided an unseen insight into thoroughbred horse racing. Malkovich who played Secretariat’s trainer was also an unexpectedly pleasant surprise.

After the movie the director Randall Wallace (famous for Braveheart and Pearl Harbor) and producer were even present to answer questions.

Buying a house and making a home

Posted on October 12, 2010 by Sonya

This is a post I’ve been meaning to write for a while. Travis and I purchased a house earlier this year. Unsure whether we would live in it or rent it out or other, we figured either way it would be a good opportunity to get into the housing market and also a good learning experience. We had been looking around at houses for a while, perhaps a year, maybe even longer.

During this time we were very unsure what we wanted. Did we want to buy a house together, did we want to buy individual houses, how much could we afford, where should we buy. Near our parents? Did we want to buy a house with land, a unit or an apartment? Before buying our house we put three offers – one was two blocks of land next to each other with one piece of land having a small 3×1 house (this was more of a longer term investment as the property was far away from the city), one was a piece of land with two houses, one was a two bedroom apartment which was half way being renovated. Looking back, it was an interesting experience and the diversity in our choices really demonstrated that we didn’t have any specific, particular desires in a house. The apartment was a bit of an anomaly – there was another apartment we were very interested in. Great location, close to the river – what a life it could have been, but unfortunately someone put an offer in on the first day of inspection! The market was extremely heated during this time and our offers were often beaten by people offering more than the selling price!

Anyway, my dear mother brought us to the attention to the house we finally purchased. I remember we went to visit the place on a Saturday morning. It has just been listed on realestate.com.au and the agent didn’t even have brochures. My first thought upon entering the property was “no way”. It was a complete mess, even compared to many other places we’d seen. The entrance to the house was by no means safe (no steps leading up to the front door), the house was hardly lived in, there was a bed in the living room, a top 20 songlist pencilled on the wall in the lounge and a billy can in the kitchen! A billy can! I’m not sure what changed our minds but eventually we discussed the benefits of the property, the reasonable sized block, the wooden floors under the carpets, the solid double brick veneer of the house, the joys and experiences of renovation (little did we know!). Anyway, we made our offer and the rest is history.

Here are some before photos of the house:

So, after buying the house I was left thinking “goodness what on Earth have we done?”. Travis was off course, at the time, gallivanting to the Middle East for work, six weeks at a time. However, on his two weeks off he worked super hard to paint the house and sand the floors. I exercised my DIY skills polishing the floorboards with some polyurethane varnish (probably killed a few brain cells whilst I was at it). Many late nights, lots of trips to Bunnings, and we got it to a liveable, somewhat homely state.
Here are some after photos: