Party On

Nothing like a Lebanese engagement party to welcome visiting friends to Doha.  Nope! Nothing like it. Milt Mary and Rachel got to experience the full deal last night at our compound.  Cars parked everywhere. Arabic music blasting away for all to hear.  Pool closed from 4pm on to set everything up..light show, tables, chairs... food... food... music... And more!  The Lebanese know how to have a party.

The memo said the party would be over at closing. 11pm.  Ha ha hah.!  At 10pm they were delivering more chairs to the deck.  At 11pm Mike, who was about done with this party thing, walked to the desk and informed the manager of the recent memo.  Yes sir. 15 min. more. Ha ha. Uh huh. No, 11pm.  See this is what the memo says.  I paid my rent. My friend Melissa(whose two girls are 7 and 9) paid her rent.  This memo says 11pm. The music needs to be turned off.  This is our home too and the party planners agreed to the terms of the reservation. The manager approached the father of the future bride and some serious "discussion" followed.

A few minutes later the music was turned down.  At least our air conditioners could drown it out mostly. We hope that we will not be labeled as the bad neighbors. Hard line to walk. We shall see.  As a side note, this does not happen often and it was not near as bad as 3 years of building constuction running 24 hours a day in Abu Dhabi. Not even close. :)

Here is what I found this morning. Thought I would share. 

                                         

Windows and Doors

November...Doha..Qatar.  

Pattie and Barry came to see us over the Eid holiday. We showed them the town.  The Souk, the Museum of Islamic Arts and a couple of good restaurants. Mostly we put them to work.  Bought some furniture from some good friends who we knew from Abu Dhabi and are now leaving. Barry and Mike made two big trips with stuff and hauled it all in.  I bet Ryan and Russell are real sorry they weren't here for that.  Barry and Pattie were our first guests to use the upstairs guest room.  It worked out well. We hope to use that room a lot!

Yesterday we had lunch with some other friends from Abu Dhabi.  Had dinner at this great Italian place in the Souk with them and another couple from church.  We had a great time and loved the restaurant. Will definitely be returning there.  And hopefully with our new friends, too!

This couple lives on the Pearl.  A residential development of reclaimed land. Kind of Qatar's answer to The Palm in Dubai.  Very nice. Very empty.  The men shared about working here and the challenges and frustrations.  It is always good to commiserate together. It eases the pain sometimes. We women laughed about Audie's apt...  She showed us her nice balcony. That doesn't have a door. That's ok. The windows are big enough to crawl thru. If you turn sideways. And the view is nice.

You know what they say...if you don't laugh, you'll cry.

Doha, Abu Dhabi, the Gulf Region..Same, same but different.