QA: The Ghetto..

Last entry, I spoke about my neighbourhood. Now let's go a bit deeper inside (??). Let's explore my apartment. Currently, the building that I am staying is near the end of its lease term. The company lease the buiding for a period of two-year. And, next month suppose to be the last month. Unless, the lease is continued. Personally, I want to move out. Dont' know why -> maybe just for a change.



{Above left}
This is the building I am staying. My apartment is on the ground floor, Apartment #1. It is the right hand side unit next to the garage.Below are the photos of the inside my apartment. There are three units per floor, 2 units with 3-bedroom and one smaller unit with 2-bedroom. Mine is the 3-bedroom unit.

{Above middle and right}
These two photos show the hallway in my apartment. The first one (middle) is form the main door towards the inside and another one (right) is towards the master bedroom.

{First row left}

This is my living room. A bit messy and empty. I purposely do not decorate my apartment for one reason - I don't want to feel at home here. I don't plan to stay in Doha forever (although it has been nearly two years, one and half year more than I am supposed to be here).

{First row middle}

The living area shares the same room as the dining area. I put my study table adjacent to the dining table. I always switch the TV on while doing some work. Just a little bit of noise to accompany me. Well, in fact, my dining table is a multipurpose table. Every thing is dumped on the table!

To free up some space for my study table, I transferred one sofa to another room. At least this makes my living and dining room bigger.

{First row right & Second row left}

The kitchen is not too big nor too small. Just nice for me. However, I think the kitchen has been designed badly. Tak de saluran untuk air keluar! Apa punye architect le!

{Second row middle}
This is my room with big bed. I have the king size bed at home in Malaysia, but this one seems bigger. I guess this is the US standard size. The bedsheet is changed twice every week. However, the blue one seems synonym to my apartment. I always get this one!

{Second row right}

Another view of my bedroom. The dresser. The Nepalese cleaners love to re-arrange my stuff on the dresser. One day you'll find everything on the left of the dresser, and the next day, everything on the other side.

{First row left}

This is the second room. Suppose to be another bedroom. Since I stay alone (yup...am staying alone, anybody coming for a weekend?), I transfered this room to be the prayer room. I use the wardrobe in this room for my casual clothes and store for domestic appliances and related stuff. Sort of a store-room for me (albeit having a dedicated store room just in front of this room).

{First row right}

The third room has a nice view. I use it for hanging my laundry and ironig. I called this room "Busybody Room" :-) If you were in this room, you can see who's going out, who's bringing "guests" etc... Don't get me wrong... I am not busybody, but my room is. Hiks....

Now, let's explore the bathrooms. There are three bathrooms in the apartment.

{Second row left}

This is the ensuite bathroom in the master bedroom. I don't shower here since I do not like the shower head. Tak grand langsung... Moreover, I feel trapped showering behind the shower curtain. I want space..yup...space! Lagipun, kalau ada orang kat atas using the bathroom, it will "impact" me as well... you know... kena letak beribu-ribu lemon nanti.. Kalau tak, bernafas dalam lumpur le jawabnya.

{Second row middle}

The second bathroom a.k.a. as the shower room. The shower head is dual mode - spray and shower. Bigger space (READ: wet the whole floor). This is where I take my twice-daily shower.

{Second row right}

And lastly, the third bathroom. Never use for shower. This guest bathroom doubles as my laundry room. I need to fix the hot water to the washing machine myself. Well, not me exactly, my Chilean friend helped me with this. Imported somebody from Chile just nak sambung air panas kat mesin basuh.. hebat siot!

That's all folks! Sorry for the boring entry. Am waiting to go for a meeting in half an hour. Saje nak kill time!

Ciao!!!!

~ MT @ Qatar
~~ Dafna, Doha

~ To Travel Is To Discover Oneself ~

QA: Neighbourhood

Two days ago, after coming back from the gym, I decided to go up to the roof of my apartment building for a breathtaking (?) view of my neighbourhood... Ibn Mahmoud is the area name.

The above is the north of my apartment. Towards Lusail and further more Bahrain. The building under construction is a new hotel in Doha. One of those hotels been built to cater for expected higher demand during the Asian Games this year. Heard that the interior design is supplied by a Malaysian company.

This is also the direction of the Al-Jazeera Broadcasting company headquarter - a very heavily guarded area.

The low rise area in the photo is known as mechanics street. Or rather workshops street. That is the street I always use to go to my client office every day. On that street also is the laundry place that I always used.

{First row first from left}
West of my apartment. The direction of Mecca (qiblat). Those twin towers are Al-Mana Trading Center. The twin towers are situated along the C-Ring (Suhaim bin Hamad Street), one of the busiest streets in Doha.

{First row second from left}
South west of my apartment. That is not a pond, it is actually being dug for a new building. However, I don't know how the water get into it. It has been for nearly a month and never dries up in the heat. This is the direction of Ramada Junction - an intersection between C-Ring and Salwa Road. Salwa Road streches from the old town until Abu Samra, border with Saudi Arabia. The junction is also known for its food heaven. This is the only area in Doha where you can get all kind of food (well, most of it). Lenotre Cafe, Starbucks, Pizza Hut, TCBY, Caravan, Mint, Crepeaway, Johnny Rockets, Nando's, etc..etc..

I used to hang up around this place before. However, most of friends now are busy with their personal life... Am waiting for new friends to come to Doha so I can hang out here again...

{First row third from left}
South of my apartment. The apartment building seen here is rented by Schlumberger. Saw some Asians there and were told they are Malaysians and Indonesians. The place is more like a hotel since they don't stay for long time. On and off. I call it Schlumberger Hotel.

{Second row first from left}
South East, towards the down town Doha (traditional souqs area). The brown building (is it brown?) is rented by the Qatar Airways for the female cabin crew..Hmmm...every night you will see few nice and big cars park outside the building. Visiting katanya... (hikss..apa-apa je lah)

{Second row second from left}
East of my apartment. Towards the Corniche and Arabian Gulf. The white building with big empty area is the newly opened school. Doesn't look like a goverment school. Probably an independent school. Just opened couple of weeks ago.

{Second row third from left}
North east towards the high rise in Doha. It seems that all the high rise in Doha are concentrated in the West Bay. Unfortunately the photo is not that clear - so unable to see clearly the buildings there. My client building is also over there. About 15 minutes driving from my apartment.....

Well, that's all folks...

~ MT @ Qatar
~~ Ibn Mahmoud, Doha

~ To Travel Is To Discover Oneself ~

QA: Home Sweet Marriott ...

It has been nearly two years since I first arrived here. First two months I enjoyed the luxury of five-star hotel treatment by staying in the Marriott Doha. Love it sooo much when there is somebody to clean your toilet everyday, make your bed, change the sheets, serve you during breakfast, have access to the exclusive Executive Lounge.... it was wonderful - now, I have to let go... gone with the wind... I miss Marriott hospitality soo much until every where I go, I must find a Marriott or its affiliate (Renaissance, Courtyard...). It has been a part of my life now....

So much of day dreaming. In the desparate move to be in the five-star treatment again, I even asked and persuaded my management to put me back in the Marriott and give my apartment to someone else.. As expected, who am I.. just a "ciku"... (betul ke penggunaan perkataan ciku kat sini? hmm...).. They just brushed it off..

The management tried to make staying in the apartment as good as in the hotel. Provide us with daily cleaning team - a bunch of Nepalese who not even know what the word "clean" means!, 24-hour security guards.. yes..our apartment in under constant watch of the Nepalese and Sri Lankan guards who speaks little English and keep on asking the stuff they see in the apartment.

Staying alone in the 3-bedroom apartment in Doha can be boring. Luckily there is a 24-hour internet connection paid by the company. Else, I have been long history in Doha. Limited channels on Orbit. Funny thing is that there are thousands channels on my TV with the higher number channels showing those numbers *** calls overseas. Hmm... so much on censorship!

The other extra thing is that I can cook on my own. As if I cook everyday. I wish there is somebody to cook for me too.. I miss nasi lemak sambal sotong... nasi kerabu daging goreng... Normally, I sill so excited if my friend is coming to visit means. That can only means one thing - I can eat Malaysian food. He normally cook for me if he is here. And he is cumming (READ: both meaning, whoever understand it) again in two weeks time for the weekend. Yippee!!!

After all, I have another two months to go before I go back for raya. Need to see my dentist and my "crown" consultant....

Have a nice day...

~ MT @ Qatar
~~ Ibn Mahmoud, Doha

~ To Travel Is To Discover Oneself ~

QA: Hand(y)

Couple of days ago, I went to the Chinese Health Center on the D-Ring Road. I wanted to try their massage. It burned QAR120 from my pocket (no credit card accepted) for the first time and after that, you will be considered as a member and the massage will cost QAR100.

This is not the hanky-panky massage parlour - so get that "thing" out of your mind.

The masseur is Xu, from Nanjing China. Speaks very limited English but at least understand what I asked him to do. Burp a lot during that one hour session. I didn't know that my body was full of air. Nowonder I have been feeling tired easily these days. According to Xu, squeezing my right hand near the thumb is the best way yo treat my tiredness and get rid of the air in the body. Xu did just that! He squeezed my right hand and it was really hurt. Until today, I can see the reddish mark (macam darah beku / lebam je) on my hand. Hmmm.... I could not think of any correlation between squeezing my hand and the air in my body. But what the heck... it works.

I took my hands photo - the zoom is not that good so that reddish thing is not that visible on my right hand. Yes, these are my hands.....

My left hand

My right hand

~ MT @ Qatar
~~ Ibn Mahmoud, Doha

~ To Travel Is To Discover Oneself ~

QA: That Long Distance Thingy...

I know that I have not been updating my blog for sometimes. Not that I don't have any idea, but I was busy with work and reading somebody else blogs... :-))

My colleague is leaving for Istanbul tomorrow. He has been in jovial mood since the beginning of the week. His wife is in her hometown, the beautiful Turkish city, Izmir. He has been alone in Doha for more nearly two months. Poor him.. you can see and feel his loneliness (although I prefer this way, else, it is so difficult to use the shared car - since he always keep the car key to himself). What a bad guy I am :-) He is away from his family, just like me.

My dear good friend, whose age is same as my dad (I can call him dad, hehehe) is staying with his lovely wife above my apartment. His two sons are in Denmark together with his daughter from his first marriage. Last month, all of them (minus the daughter) gathered in Athens for family summer vacation. I looked at the photos... wonderful family. But now, he is back in Doha with his wife. And the kids back in Copenhagen. He is away from his kids, just like me away from my dad.

Long distance relation does work... be it with your other half, or your family. Have faith.. trust.. and continue keeping in touch. I call my loved ones every other day.. thanks to cheap Skype call.

Be like me...

~ MT @ Qatar
~~ Ibn Mahmoud, Doha

~ To Travel Is To Discover Oneself ~

QA: The Smell of That Burning Thing...

Yesterday, I stopped by the rental company to change the puntured tyre. Wait a minute.. is it 'tyre'or 'tire'.. lemme check ...

According to dictionary.com, both can be used for the same meaning, a covering on the wheel. "Tyre" is chiefly British. So, since I am a British educated, let's use "tyre". :-))

Our company rented few cars from sole-distributer of Toyota in Qatar, Abdullah Abdul Ghani, or widely known as "AAA". Myself and JS went to the Rent A Car section around 7.30am.




We met a representative and told him we wanted to change three tyres, not just the one punctured. The two front tyres were bald...no trace of thread at all. Quite dangerous to drive.

He wrote somthing on a sticky note and ask us to go to the workshop down the airport road. Now we knew that no wonder everytimewe asked them tochange the tyres, they didn't want to do it. They don't want to bring the car to the workshop, they want us to do it!! Duuuhhhh!!! Lazy punye orang!

We were greeted by a worker of an Indian origin. From Kerala. Picture below showing him balancing the new tyre for the car. He is very nice. Never get his name though. He toldme that he has been in Doha for the last seven years if I am not mistaken. Left wife and kids in Kerala. Every two years, he will go back fro six months. This is the case with majority of blue collar workers in Doha. They signed a two-year contract with their sponsors, normally unable to change sponsors during this time. Meaning that if they find a better job in Doha, they cannot go and work there. Come to think about, I feel sad for them. But what to do, that's life.

This Keralite kept on asking me to get him a visa to Malaysia to work. :-))



Detaching the tyre from the rim...very easy with that machine!


The sand tyre.. Now I know this is the tyre used by those 4WD on sand dune expedition. And guess what, this particular sand tyreis made in Indonesia....




Since we were at the workshop, I asked the Keralite worker to tighten up the plastic covering under the engine. This loose plastic has been making a noise everytime we drove the car past the road-hump.


One mission accomplished. Get to the office an hour late, but then, who cares. Reached office with sweat all over me - what a hot and very humid day!!! Worse than Malaysia!!!! Lucky Thursday is the last day of the week! Weekend's here...yiippppeeee......

~ MT @ Qatar
~~ Ibn Mahmoud, Doha

~ ToTravel Is To Discover Oneself ~

QA: Deja..vu..

Pagi ni rasa letih je.. tak tau lak kenapa. Air-cond in my bedroom tak berapa sejuk. So bila tido, tak de guna blanket, tapi dalam jam 3 - 4 pagi, sejuk lak. Terus terjaga pulling the blanket. Tu yang tak berapa nyenyak tu...

Sampai ofis, seperti biasa, check email dulu. Official email, then my internet email. Baca e-paper and baru start kerje. Prepare sikit-sikit for the meeting today (yang dipostpone semalam tu).

Dalam jam 10 pagi, terasa lapar lak. Nasib baik ada bawa Milo Fuze with Cereal dari Malaysia. Boleh makan around this time. Kalau nak tunggu lunch, lambat lagi le especially kalau ada meeting.


Client ni suka meeting tengahari, sebab lepas meeting terus balik umah. Client je le, aku kena sambung kerja sampai jam 5 ptg. Client kat sini kerje dari jam 7.30 pagi sampai 1.30 tgh. Best kan?

Lepas meeting, dalam kul 2 ptg, gi lunch kat Fuddrucker. Just seberang traffic light belakang client office je. Panas memang panas le sekarang ni. Humidity kekadang tinggi, kekadang okay.. Tak sabar nak tunggu last quarter of the year. Sejuk sikit. Kat Fuddrucker, food protion besar sangat. Last time tak larat nak habis kan one burger. So this time, lesson learnt.. Order salad je. Tu pun tak leh nak habiskan..

Petangnya sepatutnya aku join this WebEx with our vendor kat New York. Planned time, according to admin is at 4ptg our time here. Last-last, the organizer lupa yang ourdifferences are 7hrs ahead, so the WebEx supposed to be at 5 ptg. Aku continue review minutes yang baru siap tu and bila jam 5 ptg, aku ciao je. Malas nak join WebEx tu, lagipun apa yg vendor nak tunjuk aku dah tengok before this. This current one is with minimal modification.

Anyway, balik umah, connect internet and call my parents via Skype.. every two days I called them. Sebelum download Skype, sekali call RM4.50 per minute. Ni, very cheap, dalam 1 sen seminit je.

Tak tahu lagi nak gi gym ke idak. Perut rasa tak selesa je... Banyak banyak lak gas dalam badan ni.. Nak gi urut, mahal gak kat sini, double the price from KL. Kalau kat hotel-hotel tu, tak yah tanya le...

Tu le kehidupan seharian.... kalau tak de apa-apa, especially weekend, lagi dull.. but what to do.. nak cari makan...

deja..vu..deja..vu..

~ MT @ Qatar
~~ Ibn Mahmoud, Doha

~ To Travel Is To Discover Oneself ~

QA: Mengira Burberry..

Pagi-pagi dapat SMS from JR. Katanya, if I want to ride with him to the office, I can join him now. What??? baru 7 pagi dah nak gi ofis. Pelik. Masa tu aku sedang gosok gigi lagi. "Bare" minimum :-)) Memang le hari Ahad selalunya ada status meeting ngan client, tapi tak de le gi seawal 7 pagi. Aku terus balas suruh gi dulu. Nanti, aku ride ngan BI and AS in their "Proud Mary".

Seperti biasa, aku sampai ofis dalam jam 7.40 pagi. Aku ada plan meeting ngan client jam 12tgh. So prepare le apa yang patut. Aku lead "Finance Committee" for our project. Mak datuk... client side dalam Finance Committee ni memang "tough" le... ada je yang dia orang nak comment. Three of them altogeher, 2 Qataris and another Palestinian Jordanian. Yang Palestinian ni, okay sikit sebab dia faham apa yang cakap - he used to work as system analyst before, so easy to grasp what I said. Tapi yang Qataris ni, memang keras kepala.. memang dah dasar Arab kot.. perasan dia tu hebat. Apa-apa hal pun, terpaksa le aku layan kerenah client aku ni..

Jam 11.15 pagi, aku call one of them to remind abt the meeting. Tak jawab. Dalam jam 11.55 pagi, baru jawab.Cakap,in 5 minutes, they will come. Tunggu punya tunggu, taknampak kelibat langsung. Tea-boy dah prepare some cookies. Jam 12.35 tgh, call aku mintak cancel meeting.. Aarrgghhh.... tak de otak ke... kalau nak cancel, cakap le awal-awal...

Terus aku cakap kat colleagues aku and we went our for lunch. Makan half grilled chicken.. kononya low fat :-) memang betul pun kan? Itu kata my Fitness Trainer kat gym le..

Lepas lunch, balik office, staff meeting and terus aku tak de mood nak kerje.. surf internet sikit2 (sikit2 je tau) and now writing my blog. Aku tahu tak de orang baca, tapi puaskan hati aku je.. hehehe

So, after staff meeting and sembahyang asar, terus le aku mengira burberry.... sampai lah ke jam 5 ptg... pah tu, apa lagi chow cin chow le...

Adios....

p/s: Aku tukar font size to small Verdana.. okay tak? Senang baca?

~ MT @ Qatar
~~ Dafna, Doha

~ To Travel Is To Discover Oneself ~

QA: Commuting...

Dah lama tak tulis blog. Idea tu ada, tapi yang malasnya nak upload gambar-gambar. It takes sometime to do it. Kalau kat rumah, walaupun ADSL connection 1.2Mbps, still slow. Terpaksa le buat kat office.

Kat sini, we share cars for commuting to work and personal life. Kalau those yang baca earliest entry to this blog, this sharing car thingy that ticked me to be a jerk!! (Hiks.. at least one person said that!).

We have three cars for 6 persons to share (although the number of people using the cars might increase sebab yang ada kereta sendiri nak save minyak! - ingat kan melayu je suka buat macam ni, rupanya Arab pun sama hahahahaha). So, once a while we need to send the car to the rental company to get it service. When we send for service, we normally get the replacement car. The best car I like is Toyota XA (see picture kat bawah ni). It small, 1.5l and easy nak bawa. Disadvantage is the air-cond, tak berapa efficient. I drove this early last year before we changed to Corolla.



Compare to Corolla, of course Corolla is better, but onlyif it is 1.8l. We have one 1.8l and another 1.3l. Yang 1.3l ni very under power.


Sharing car ni is good kalau everybody adhere to the 'policies'. Masalahnya kat sini, everybodyhas own stuff and priorities. Kalau gi kerja, ada yang susah bangun lambat and only want to go at 8am, ada yang terlebih awal sikit and also yang betul sakit hati is those yang selfish! Ada le sorang mamat nABC* ni, suka sangat keep the car key with him. Other people always leave the car keys with Security Guard. Mamat ni, berkepala besar sikit. Bila komplen, dia selamba je cakap "Just ask".. but bila call or press his apartment bell, langsung tak jawab. So macam mana nak dapat kunci.

Personally, I tak suka to ask since it is my right to use the car. Why should I ask if it is crystal clear that I have the right to use it and it is his responsibility to leave the car key with security?? Memang tak faham le mamat ni. Tapi nasib baik le sebab he is leaving the company by August 25 this year. Hip..hip.. hooray!! Memang patut pun blah dari project ni sebab in my opinion, he failed to steer the project very well. Macam president Bush, jadi puppet!!!!

Tu je lah for this entry.. nanti aku tulis pasal my gym and the neighbourhood...

~ MT @ Qatar
~~ Dafna, Doha

~ To Travel Is To Discover Oneself ~

QA: Pumping...

Lama tak update blog. Bila mula-mula start blogging ni, niat dihati nak update daily, tapi apa kan daya, courage tu tak de. Tambah pulak project sekarang not in good condition. Very delicate situation with the client and I blame totally on the management.

Hari ni jugak aku buat another resolution. No more spending time at home after office hour. I just joined the gym in the neighbourhood, Al Massa Active. Here are photos of my 'membership' card.





Mula-mula nak join balik kat Cabana Club, Ramada Hotel. Tapi they no longer offer short term membership ("short term" = 3 or 6 months). They only offer yearly membership and now, they follow other hotels practice i.e., limited number of members at one time. Masa aku nak register tu, need to wait list and at that time, they have 84 people over their limit. No other hotels in the neighbourhood, so the only option is Al-Massa Active.

So, I just signed up for a 3-month membership with Al-Massa Active for a whooping QAR2000. Mahal kan? Kalau kat Malaysia, it will be a lot cheaper than this. Tambahan lak, this is just for gym only, no pool, no steam room, no sauna, no sport courts. Apa nak buat... just utilize the gym to the fullest!

Nanti bila badan dah berketul-ketul tu, akumasukkan few photos... till then... ciao!

~ MT @ Qatar
~~ Ibn Mahmoud, Doha

~ To Travel Is To Discover Oneself ~