Small Day Trip, Step 1: SustenanceNo, I didn't say "nutrition."

When heading out on an adventure of unknown proportion, the first step is to bribe your three children into submission by pumping them full of donuts.  Luckily, there's a Krispy Kreme not five minutes from our house.  Even luckier, we've only stopped there twice in the past 11 weeks.

What you see above is just ONE  of the TWO boxes of donuts we purchased.  I think Hank ended up, over the course of the morning, eating seven donuts all by himself.

What do you get when you (1) purchase two dozen donuts and (2) take Hannah and Jack--still cute and fresh from the morning time--into the shop with you?  Well, of course, you get HATS.

RPH: From a Circular in a Major Newspaper

Habib Update: Scratchin' Action

Taken during my Friday morning blogging session as I was writing the happy dance post.

The Noodle Pizza Happy Dance

Only 14 Seconds, with almost no sound.  What's important is the movement.
Significant blackmail and trickery were involved in the capturing and sharing of this video.
[Sidenote:  When we watched this on the blog from our house, it was playing in double time with no sound.  You can still see the dance, and watching it in double time is pretty dang funny.]

Food here is still a little bit of an issue, mostly due to my lack of inspiration and ability to blame that on everything else but myself.  That is a whole whining post unto itself, so you gentle readers will be spared that for the moment.

Suffice it to say that we have an easy and inexpensive supply of pasta noodles and homemade pizza stuff (the Arabic flatbread makes quick and fantastic pizza.  Yea!).  So maybe a month ago, Hank started rewarding me for a meal-well-provided (a.k.a., something he was happy to eat in large quantity) by spontaneously breaking out in this dance.

The dance is aided by slippery tile floors, coated with a very fine (almost invisible) layer of powdery sand dust.  Although he starts out in flat-handed formation, at about 8 seconds, he breaks into the finger-snapping option.  Plaid pajama pants are not required.

The Pink Mennonite-Twirling-Dress Reformative-Scooter Queen

We've been trying to get each child something wheeled that goes on a road outside. Jack was first, with a traditional skateboard. We want to get Hank a bicycle, but bikes here are incredibly expensive (a new bike for Hannah, which would cost about $50 at Walmart in the US costs about $200 here...I haven't been brave enough to look for a Hank-sized bike yet). So for Hannah, we started off with a scooter.

Scooters are very popular in our compound, as they get you somewhere quick and are light and more affordable (if you buy the cheap kind) or more portable (if you bring one back from the US).

This scooter came from a large grocery store called "Family Foods." Family Foods reminds me of the Brookshire Brothers in Hearne, TX. It's large and stocked but not as fancy as other stores you'd find in a large city. I don't need any more fancy than is necessary for basic provisions, so FF is excellent.

They have a small toys area, and we bought this scooter for about $20. One of the bonus features was the packaging.



We are guessing that it's called a "REFORMATIVE" scooter because it collapses--the handle folds down for storage or carrying.  The "Plentiful colour and special personality character" on the box is obviously Bart Simpson, but once we opened the scooter, we were even more excited to find Barbie princess stickers.  I will bet you a dollar that none of these characters was "officially licensed" from their copyright-holding parent companies...

Thankfully, the little disposable wrench required to do some minor adult assembly was included in the package, so once we got home from the grocery store trip, John had it all assembled in under five minutes.  That's saying a lot, since the whole time, a certain four year old was jumping and dancing around the kitchen asking "when can I ride it? when can I ride it? when can I ride it?"

Watching her ride the scooter provides great entertainment, both in the level of joy it produces for its rider and in seeing that little body move with such powerful determination.  She doesn't center her body of the footplate.  Instead, she sort of hangs over to one side, as she is pushing furiously (and moving rather quickly as s result).  The first trip couldn't wait for shoes or appropriate clothing.  Off she went down the street, bangs in her eyes, flithy little feet pumping, and dress ribbons flying behind.

A musician named William Ackerman put out an album in the 1976 called In Search of the Turtle's Navel. It is an accoustic guitar album that, according to Wikipedia, some consider as marking the start of New Age Music.  Whatever it's historical importance, it is a great collection of songs.  One is called "The Pink Chiffon Tricycle Queen."  That is what we have here, only wearing her Mennonite Twirling Dress and perched upon her Reformative Scooter.

Did I mention that the wheels light up in the dark?

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Just for fun, here's one of Ackerman's other songs, from that same album:

RPH: Regional Flavors

Life in DOH!-ha: The Faucet and هاري بوتر

Both of the following stories are offered as illustrations of a general problem in Doha.  Stuff is available and gets done but is never quite right.  Sigh.

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The water here is "hard," which makes the sink and other fixtures degrade quickly. Our kitchen faucet had started leaking at the base due to this corrosion, and so John asked the compound manager if we could get a replacement.

Our previous faucet had not included a spray handle, so I passed along the message that I would love a unit that had a sprayer, even just an old-fashioned, black-handled sprayer off to the side.

News came that yes, I could have a sprayer, and that it would be one of the new-fangled types where you where the sprayer is part of the main faucet unit and you can pull the faucet out of its neck bar.  How cool is that? I was thankful and excited.

Just a few days later, the very nice compound plumber installed the new faucet.  You can see the black ring about 1/2 way back where the sprayer handle attaches to the neck.  You can even unseat the spray handle and pull it out about an inch.

But that's where it stops.  Indeed, it is a removable spray handle.  But the plumber did not understand how to make the spray handle fully functional.  When I asked him about pulling it out via the four feet of hose that is ready, hanging out underneath the sink, his answer was: "no pull, only twist" (as in rotate side-to-side).

So now I have a sprayer handle that doesn't function as a sprayer.

A while back, the boys had a set of Tops Trumps cards--I can't remember the theme--and occasionally they would get into a battle with these that was pretty fun.  Somehow that deck got lost/mutilated, and since that time, I've kept my eyes open for a Top Trumps set they would like.  These sets come in all sorts of themes: cats, dogs, Lord of the Rings, Star Wars, baseball, football, soccer, Webkinz, etc.

Low and behold, at the Doha entertainment superstore (Virgin Mega, which is sort of like a Best Buy), we found Harry Potter (هاري بوتر) Top Trumps! Thinking that I could/would play this with the boys, I spent the $10 on a set.

Look closely at the two photos below.

The front of the package was totally in English, but once you open the cards, all the important info is only in Arabic...meaning we can't read them and, therefore, can't use them.

The View

Inside the walls: 

fresh paint, 

fresh road surface, 

new green grass full of automatic sprinkler system, 

trees and some flowers, 

lots of air conditioning, 

huge pool, 

cold bottled water, 

comfort, 

quiet.

Outside the walls:  

big empty field, 

powdery dust, 

rows of buses and machinery, 

a worker's camp: warren of shanties with questionable water, sewage, and electricity, 

traffic 24/7, 

Khaliji sunset, 

Indian, Pakistani, Nepalese, Sri Lankan laborers, 

the crack of the cricket bat.

RPH: Street Sign.

Nighttime at the 'pound

Hannah is all about the bounce, as described in Hank's post below.  First thing in the morning, as she goes down the stairs, she looks out the front window to see whose on the trampoline.  Then she proceeds to ask me once every 15 minutes for the rest of the day when she can go jump.  She monitors who is on the trampoline--they're approximate ages and relative sizes and how long they've been at work...because she wants to be out there all day long. 

The weather here is still warm (currently, at 1 PM, the temp is 102 with a heat index of 112), so we wait until after the sun has gone down to spend much time outside.

I took these photos while Hannah was bouncing the other night.  My Canon Rebel has the magical ability to take photos in very low light without things getting too blurry. 

Only our little ball of energy could not be wholly captured.

Sweaty girl, in front of the new fountain.

Date palm looking greyish from the dust but still pretty in the uplighting.

Bark o' the date palm.

Changes-By Hank

Recently the compound manager has been making some changes to the front of the compound, for example new grass, a path to the club house, and a fountain. One of the coolest additions, besides everything getting a new coat of paint, is the trampoline. After the grass was put in, the path and the fountain were finished they brought it in.


I think it's a great addition to the compound because it's something else to play on besides a small fort-thing, swings, and the pool. It's also in a great spot because it's right next to the entrance to the club house. That way its easy to go swimming, dry off and go have fun jumping around.

But this might not be the only pleasant surprise is store for Al Fardan Gardens II. My mom saw the manager, Eslam, and he said there was more to come.

A View From Our Front Porch

Bird's Eye View: Habib Update

Habib says hello.

The past week or so has seen some incredible progress with our friend, Habib!  It started when I was changing out a toy on his cage.  His Mum, Veronica, had spent a couple of weeks in her native South Africa and had returned with these wonderful parrot toys--something that we cannot get in Doha.  He had succeeded in tearing one to shreds, so it was time for me to hang another one.

The cage design is such that switching out the toys is a trick.  There's no good, easy opening from which to hang them to the top part of the cage.  And these toys are large and heavy, so you don't want to go terrorizing Habib--who is unsure about the whole thing--by dropping them in the midst of the operation.   So I had my fingers sort of entwined around cage bars as I struggled to connect the new toy...and he walks very purposefully over to my hand.  He wasn't attacking me but he had a mission.  If I could have quickly extricated myself, I probably would have...but that would have meant dropping the big toy and scaring him.  So I just froze.  He proceeded to very gently use his beak and tongue to examine all my fingers--no biting or pinching, just touching.  Then he bent his head down for a scratch!  Wow!  Can you understand how excited I was?  He came to me as if to say, "Hey Lady, don't be so afraid.  I'm really a nice guy."

Then yesterday, he was doing this same little "nervous dance" that our sweet El Jefe would do when El Jefe wanted attention.  Habib was on his stand and nothing was going on that should have otherwise made him nervous.  I was alone in the kitchen, and it was quiet, so I put my shoulder next to his perch and he immediately stepped up and made himself comfortable!  We walked around the house, talked about what all was going on, did some of the dishes together, and took a picture. (My hair is wet.) 

Today, he got on my shoulder again and then preened my hair a little (a sign of affection).  More wows!

He's also been more accepting of the kids.  He's touched Jack's hand from outside of the cage, he's interacting with Hank, and he was taking sweet peas off of Hannah's spoon last night during dinner.

He and John are doing fine, too, which is a good thing, as Habib had a love/attack relationship with his original Dad, Collin.  I think the relationship was more love, as Habib still talks in Collin's voice quite often and still talks about Collin a lot (in Vee's voice)...Now, before I end this post with the last piece of news, I have to say that I attribute Habib's wonderful nature to two things: (1) he is, in the words of the breeder that helped us with El Jefe and whose life of bird experience I value immensely, a "great bird."  Regardless of his original lot in life, which must have included a lot of fear, he is gentle and sweet and trusting and smart, smart, smart.  And (2) Veronica has a special gift.  She is kind and patient and just enough "fearless" to let her be the leader, even when being the leader means letting the bird accept things on his own time. I am the lucky beneficiary of her extraordinary work.

 Habib's Mum and Dad at a recent visit.

And the crowning achievement in mimickry.  Habib now yells, "COWBOY. YEEEEE-HAW!" Those who knew Cosmo, you will have special appreciation for this.

The Ponderosa

Last weekend, we were in our normal predicament: hungry, with nothing that sounded good in the house, and tired of being trapped indoors.  So rather than turning once again to noodles, homemade pizza, or PB&J sandwiches, we went out on adventure.  Ramadan is still in full-swing here, meaning that (1) nothing opens until 7 PM and (2) about 15 minutes after opening, everything is full.  Therefore, (1) we wait until after the kids should have eaten (they usually eat around 6 PM) and (2) the traffic is insane and (3) good restaurants are busy.

Now, let's take a little side tangent to discuss the concept of "good restaurants" and how the definition of such varies based on your age and interests.  "Good" to me and John would currently include Lebanese or Vegetarian Indian. "Good" to Hank means noodles or fried chicken.  But here I also have to praise the kids for being excellent sports--they are trying news things with no complaint, and some of those new things are very foreign looking and smelling as well as rather spicy.  The kids have exceeded all my expectations in terms of culinary adventure.

However, this does nothing to simplify an answer to this simple question:
Where should we go eat?

Add in the fact that we are all starving and that this city is FULL of restaurants, and we have a significant decision-making impairment.

So here is where we ended up.  Yes, the Ponderosa Steak House.  Here, I would like you to picture all the mediocre chain "steak houses" lining the main streets of all larger Texas towns.  Bonanza.  The Sizzler.  Denny's.  The Kettle.  Don't think of places like Outback or Texas Roadhouse, because those are upscale in comparison.  The first thing I thought of was the Golden Corral.

To give you any further indication, the one in Doha is located at "Cholesterol Intersection,"  a major city intersection crowded with such American favorites as Arby's and DQ and Pizza Hut.  These and MTV and E-TV are our "cultural ambassadors" in the Middle East--they are the businesses and faces that represent America to these folks.  Is it any wonder that we have an image problem?  It's like gastrointestinal terrorism.

Speaking of gastrointestinal...I had to find some bridge to cross...One thing you cannot find here is good broccoli.  The broccoli in the grocery stores is frozen and relatively expensive.  Since good fresh broccoli is common year-round in the US, this is something I miss.  I could always go to Sam's and get a big ol' bag (3 pounds?) of fresh broccoli crown pieces for something like $5.  Often, I would just steam or roast the whole bag.  Like a good apple (which are plentiful here), good broccoli can improve any dinner.

The Ponderosa did not have broccoli.  Or green beans.  Or spinach.  Or anything freshly steamed for that matter.

But it did have fried cauliflower. Yes, the primary way you see cauliflower here is deep fried.  It's actually quite tasty, but can't you just see that sheen of grease on the photo?

Along with the fried cauliflower, which Festus and Doc assure me is NOT a staple at old-west ponderosas in Dodge City, we had veggie samosa, which you can see on the left.  Again, these were tasty but...well...to be consumed only in small quantity.

The dinner was as you would imagine in a smaller-scale Golden Corral in the Middle East.  Some small spotting of vegetables (see the cucumbers on Hannah's plate) along with copious amounts of cafeteria-style spaghetti, lasagna, mac and cheese, chicken wings, chicken nuggets, and other rather horrifying things.  I wanted to take a picture of the buffet but couldn't because any pictures in public are a little risky in terms of offending someone.

And they had a soft-serve ice cream machine, which swirled together chocolate and vanilla. It, of course, was a big hit.  On a good note, the place was bustling, full of families from many different cultures.  There were lots of precious little kiddos, with wide, open faces and smiles.  An odd juxtaposition of the world's people gathered around the grease trough.

I'm still on the lookout for good fresh steamed broccoli.

Walking with Ravi

Lately, I have been going on walks with our family's friend, Ravi. We have been walking in a big area of dessert, and a gated-in area (which is where we are walking in the picture). Ravi is also known as Thibideaux. His dog's name is Negrita (also in the picture). We started walking a couple weeks ago, when Ravi came to our door and asked if I'd like to go with him, so I said yes. He said he walks Negrita every day (because it is pretty much the highlight of Negrita's day). Negrita is sick, so she has no teeth or pads on her feet. I really enjoy walking with Ravi and Negrita because Ravi and I love to talk a lot about many things.

A Garangao present from Umm Khalid

Garangao occurs on the 14th (middle) day of Ramadan, and is a little like Halloween. It's specific to the Khalij (gulf region) and is a celebration for children. The kids go around their neighborhoods, door to door, with pretty bags around their shoulders to collect sweets and trinquets. Here's a link with a brief description from 2005:

http://www.qatarliving.com/node/6

Our friend Khalid's mother (Umm Khalid - Nancy wrote about Umm and Bu), who we've not yet met, has been very lovely to us, and this is her latest thoughtfulness.

Hannah, of course, loves a present anytime.

The 2 Month Ordeal, or, It's Finlly Here!

This, my friends, is my new 9' Velzy longboard. It's a beautiful thing, especially because it made it through shipping and customs, and etc with no damage after 2 full months of sitting in a series of shipping offices in Florida, Texas, Saudi Arabia, the UAE, and Qatar. I don't really want to discuss what the grease for the various palms cost. I haven't added it up, actually. I don't intend to.

But it's here, in all it's glory. Nancy paused in her eye rolling long enough to acknowledge that it is, indeed, beautiful.

Dale Velzy, one of the iconic/classic California shapers, is second only to Renny Yater in my heart of hearts.

Picture, Just Because

I was flipping through our photo collection and saw this. She's probably around 3 years old.  I just had to share it, just because it is what it is.

And Then a Hello.

Well, now here I am still crying over Shady but I want to show you what showed up in our garage a couple of nights ago.  I have promised that this friend must stay outside.  No name yet, for fear of getting attached.  This guy just comes around and yowls loudly for his dinner around sundown each evening.  He's in good shape, so he most likely has a route and has just added us (a new family of suckers who promptly dropped everything to run to a neighborhood grocery and buy the only bag of cat food they had) as a nightly stop.  I've put the food and water in my kitchen window, over my sink.

Another Goodbye.

So we may have read that we found homes for the dog, the bird, and two of the cats.  John's amazingly wonderful parents consented to keep the one remaining cat, because they have huge hearts and because they could tell that it was just too much for me to say goodbye to all of them.

We got Shadow (we called her Shady) from a shelter in Carrollton, Texas about six years ago.  Shortly after adopting the first cat, I decided the first one needed a friend.  I wanted a Siamese-looking cat but one with a round head, not all pointy and over-bred looking.  So I lurked around Petfinder.com for several weeks and finally found one in a rescue shelter about 4 hours from our house.  Did I mention how much I love John, who will--without gripe or guilt--indulge my need to drive hundreds of miles in order to adopt a cat?

Shadow earned her name by being very elusive--she came from a home where I think some human abuse was going on, and she was known for hiding under beds.  She was sick with a cold when we got her, but they let us bring her home with us as long as we kept her separated until her antibiotics took effect.

Shady was a sweet wonderful cat, who would talk in little mews and beeps and who would come out after the kids had gone to bed to rub on my legs and play.  I could call her by saying "meewwwm" and she would answer. She had huge, gorgeous blue eyes and really thick fur--more like a seal skin.  She was hard to get in a photo, so I only have maybe 4 or 5 shots of her.

When we transferred her to her new home, she had seemed fine...her normal chubby, fluffy self.  She stuck close to us as we spent our last Texas nights in Pat and Bob's guest room.  Then over the course of the last couple of weeks, Pat noticed that Shady was not looking well.  She hadn't seemed to have been eating or drinking much, and Pat had been in consultation with our vet, thinking maybe she was still mourning the big life change.  Earlier this week, the cat went in for an official check, and her kidneys had totally shut down.  She was in such a state of renal failure that this must have been coming on for quite a while--months--but because she was so quiet and private, we did not notice.  The only choice was to prevent her from further suffering.

I can't tell you how much I love and appreciate what Pat and Bob have done for me by agreeing to hang on to Shady and then going through this with her.  Shady left behind some great memories and quite a few tears.

Shady exuded cattitude and frequently hissed at the dog. 
That plus big blue eyes and soft soft fur equals high rating on my kitty love scale.

What's Behind the Green Door?

This is the Green Door. No, I have not cropped the picture to hide any signs or other indication that something interesting might be contained here. Just a green door.

To find the Green Door, you pretty much have to get instructions from someone "in the know." A wonderful couple who had been here for seven years told us about it. I wish they were still here, because they were so wonderful and because they knew about this kind of cool stuff, but they are now back in Texas enjoying their grand kids and the blue sky and the occasional rain storm.

This is the street in front of the Green Door. That wet looking stuff in the middle? That's raw sewage. It's not supposed to be trickling down the street, but the last two times we've been in the area, the sewage has been leaking out from around a manhole cover.

Expat workers from places like India, Nepal, and Sri Lanka live in multi-story apartment buildings in this area. About 95% of them are men, but we did see a few kiddos coming to the small car across the street as we arrived. Just a taste of one of the many "non-Western" (read non-shiny, non-new, non-fancy, non-functioning, non-clean, etc.) parts of town. All workers are not treated equally...and no one with any power wants to talk about it. The workers are ignored (as long at they do their jobs and stay out of trouble...).

When you walk beyond the green door, here is what you see. It's all furniture and decorations, mostly from India. This stuff arrives by container, so sometimes the outside area (shown here) is empty and sometimes it's very full (like now). The stuff ranges from dark stained to decorated with brass-colored metal work to painted. It is really beautiful!

From what we've been told, nothing "antique" in Qatar can be sold or exported. You can take an old "thing" (gate, door, chair) and make it into something new (turn a door into a table, for example) by adding it to something else or taking it apart. But this stuff, all being from India, is not an issue. Inside, the building is crammed full of the coolest stuff ever. We've bought a few pieces, like bar stools to use at our kitchen counter instead of having a kitchen table, a book shelf, and a small table.

And all of these treasures are guarded by a clan of fantastic cats. Notice the "long" face on the one above under the red table--most cats here look that way, like Egyptian tomb cats that have stowed away on a camel caravan to the Gulf.