Qatar Sizzles: Record High
I’m not saying my temperature gauge is correct. It’s made by Sharper Image, and the little measuring thing is in the shade on my windowsill. But while the Qatari weather station measured a high of 50°C (122°F), mine shows 62°C (144°F). Two of our air conditioning units stopped functioning yesterday. I cannot begin to imagine what it must be like for those who have to work outdoors. The air conditioning men don’t come until after sunset, because they have to go on the roofs, and they can’t touch anything without getting burned until after the sun goes down.
Qatar sizzles in record high temperature
Web posted at: 8/11/2009 2:38:39
Source ::: THE PENINSULA
The temperature outdoors as recorded by instruments in many cars in Doha yesterday. QASSIM RAHMATULLAH
DOHA: The mercury touched a record high for the season during the past two days in Qatar, with the temperature reaching 48 degrees Celsius on Sunday and yesterday. The thermometers in vehicles posted the temperature still higher, at 50 degrees Celsius.
The country has been experiencing a steady increase in temperature for the past few days. The maximum temperature had been hovering around 45 degrees Celsius for the past couple of weeks before it shot up to 48 degrees on Sunday. The minimum temperature has also gone up substantially, reaching 35 degrees Celsius yesterday.
Labourers working outdoors and families alike complained that the dry and extremely hot weather had been unbearable during the last two days. Doctors have advised people to take precautions against the weather.
The labourers who used to spend their day break in the shade in open areas have been missing from the Corniche these days. Many of them are spending the time inside nearby air-conditioned shopping malls. “The heat wave was so intense that we could not stand it”, an Asian worker said.
Compared to the same period last year, the maximum temperature is high this time. The country recorded a maximum temperature of 40 degrees and 43 degrees Celsius on August 9 and 10, 2008, respectively, against the 48 degrees Celsius recorded this year. The minimum temperature is also higher this year.
The daily weather chart issued by the meteorological department yesterday forecast a maximum temperature of 46 degrees Celsius today. The minimum temperature is expected to be 34 degrees Celsius.
The Met department forecast hot conditions with dust blowing during the daytime today and moderate temperatures at night. North-westerly winds may blow at a speed of 15-20 knots, reaching 25 knots at mid-day and 15-25 knots offshore.
According to some weather portals, the temperature of Qatar’s territorial waters touched a high of 34 degrees Celsius these past days. Last year, when Qatar’s maximum temperature reached 48 degrees Celsius, the temperature of the sea water stood at 37 degrees Celsius.
Experts point out that any increase in the temperature of sea water above 35 degrees Celsius is “abnormal.”
The year 2006 also saw the temperature of Qatar’s territorial waters cross the 35 degrees mark (36.5 degrees Celsius), and massive quantities of fish and invertebrates, including endangered species of turtle, had washed up on Qatar’s shores.
Ramadan starts August 22
From today’s Gulf Times
Ramadan likely from August 22
Ramadan is expected to start on August 22, says Doha’s Arrayah daily quoting a statement issued by Abu Dhabi-based Islamic Project for Moon Sighting. Arrayah says that people in Central Asia and North Africa and in the northern parts of the US would be able to sight the moon with their naked eyes on August 21.
You might wonder why non-Muslim expats living in Qatar would care when Ramadan starts. There are multiple reasons, like not wanting to get arrested for drinking water in public, or eating, or chewing gum, or touching your mate, all of which could get you a fine or even arrested.
Another reason is that the Qatar Distribution Center (otherwise known as The Liquor Store, yes, there is only one in all of Qatar) closes for the entire month, so in the next few days, things are going to get mighty crowded at the Liquor Store, lol)
Written Communication, Plusses and Minuses
I was e-mailing back and forth this morning with a dear friend who is traveling. She was about to visit an old school friend, and before visiting, dug out all the letters she had received from the friend – an enormous collection – and read through them all. She said it was a very moving experience, and I could tell that even before visiting her friend, she was feeling close from having read all those letters.
When was the last time you got a letter?
I have some letters my husband has written, saved away. 🙂 Most of my written communications these days are done by e-mail, instant-message, or texting. I used to have files of e-mails, but as they grew bigger and bigger, I sort of stopped saving them, except for important ones, or business-related ones.
These blogs are also written communication, but more like books, less personal and you never really know who is reading on any given day, and who isn’t, so like it is not the most reliable way to communicate something important, especially to one person or a small group of people; e-mail just makes more sense. Or picking up the telephone, which I don’t do all that often as I am not so much of a telephone person and many people I would call are in different time zones.
But it makes me wonder what record we will have of these times? I told my friend when I was in college, I worked part time in the university xerox department, and most things in the Northwest Collection came to me. I could read them as I copied them – diaries, letters, to-do lists, shopping lists – ephemeral things, but written on paper, and they give us a tiny peephole into the daily lives of people who lived a couple hundred years ago.
Think of your life, and how things have changed, even if you are in your twenties. Two hundred years from now, people will have so many questions about our lives, how we lived, why we did the things we did. With fewer lasting pieces of paper, will the record be so complete?
Think of our electronic storage devices – remember floppy disks? My computer wouldn’t even be able to read a floppy disk! Think of the tiny little USB devices we are saving onto now – how long will that technology last? In another generation, it will be as opaque and accessible as the ancient inscribes stones buried in the deserts.
As we go more and more paperless, how are we saving the ephemera?
As I upload a couple years worth of photos to be printed, I think of the scrap booking craze, how you take a few photos and decorate all around them, but do the resulting albums give you truth, or do they give you a fantasy of the truth?
I think of the photographs from a hundred years ago – people with somber faces. Serious faces. No one ever smiled for the photos. There are photos of my earliest relatives in Seattle, they are truly a grim looking bunch, I think it was the style then, and I have a feeling that they didn’t look like that most of the time; our family culture is pretty jokey. So I am also wondering about family lore, family history and realities. Like most of us expunge the photos of us that are unflattering – and destroy letters we would never want anyone to read. In so doing, we don’t change the real history, but we do change the transmission of history! Much of what gets transmitted ends up being censored, by us!
(This is not my family, just a photo from the early 1900’s from rootsweb.ancestry.com)
For years, I have taken my photos and put them in books – and they are heavy. But we actually take them out and look at the photos from time to time, whereas now, most of my photos are stored on the computer, and rarely do I take the time to upload them to be printed. I wonder what the photographic record will be, if there will be a downturn in photos showing what was going on because so few are printed in a relatively lasting format.
I have so much on the internet – photos, writing, etc. What is something happens to the internet. I haven’t even been saving back ups of the blogs. I used to, like the first six months, but, frankly, so much of it is trivial that I stopped backing it up. And if I lost everything, would it be a tragedy – or a huge relief? I think of friends who have lived through terrible events and who live their lives more lightly now – fewer purchases, fewer emotional turmoils – going through something horrible can truly streamline your life.
I guess I am just babbling.
Whoda Thunk? People Get Happier as they Age
I never dreamed it when I was younger. Who would want to be OLD? Having nice tight little bodies is fun, right? Even if you have to pay the price of worrying all the time about maintainence, LOL!
As it turns out, people get happier as they get older. Whoda thunk it?
People ‘get happier as they age’
From BBC Health News
Older people appear better able to control their emotions
Most people get happier as they grow older, studies on people aged up to their mid-90s suggest.
Despite worries about ill health, income, changes in social status and bereavements, later life tends to be a golden age, according to psychologists.
They found older adults generally make the best of the time they have left and have learned to avoid situations that make them feel sad or stressed.
The young should do the same, they told the American Psychological Association.
Ageing society
The UK is an ageing nation – in less than 25 years, one in four people in the UK will be over 65 and the number of over-85s will have doubled.
And it is expected there will be 30,000 people aged over 100 by the year 2030.
According to University of California psychologist Dr Susan Turk Charles, this should make the UK a happier society.
By reviewing the available studies on emotions and ageing she found that mental wellbeing generally improved with age, except for people with dementia-related ill health.
Work carried out by Dr Laura Carstensen, a psychology professor at Stanford University, suggested why this might be the case.
Dr Carstensen asked volunteers ranging in age from 18 to mid-90s to take part in various experiments and keep diaries of their emotional state.
She found the older people were far less likely than the younger to experience persistent negative moods and were more resilient to hearing personal criticism.
They were also much better at controlling and balancing their emotions – a skill that appeared to improve the older they became.
TIPS FOR A HAPPY OLD AGE
Envisage ways to thoroughly enjoy the years ahead and imagine living to a healthy and happy 100
Design your life and daily routines to reinforce this goal
Don’t put all your “social” eggs in one basket – invest time outside of your family and career too
Dr Charles explained: “Based on work by Carstensen and her colleagues, we know that older people are increasingly aware that the time they have left in life is growing shorter.
“They want to make the best of it so they avoid engaging in situations that will make them unhappy.
“They have also had more time to learn and understand the intentions of others which helps them to avoid these stressful situations.”
Dr Carstensen said the young would do well to start preparing for their old age now.
This includes adopting a healthy daily routine and ensuring some social investment is spent outside of the workplace and family home.
Andrew Harrop, head of public policy at Age Concern and Help the Aged, said the findings were encouraging.
“For many people, older age and later life is often looked upon with dread and worry.
“Far too many younger people assume that getting older is a process that will inevitably mean sickness, frailty and lack of mobility and greater dependence. However, this is far from the truth in very many cases.
“Many older people lead active, healthy lives enriched by experience and learning.
“This positive advantage can be brought to bear across so many aspects of daily life which – in turn – hugely benefits our ageing society.
“It’s vital that there is growing acceptance that just because someone is getting older, it doesn’t mean they no longer have a significant contribution to make.
“This study is one of many which shows that later life can be a enormously positive experience.”
Overbuilding Leads to Lower Rents in Doha
Rents to tank in two years, says expert
Web posted at: 8/10/2009 1:43:47
Source ::: The Peninsula / By MOBIN PANDIT
DOHA: One of Qatar’s most trusted real estate investment experts says he sees the rental market taking a massive beating over the next two years due to excessive housing supplies.
Currently, there are no less than 15,000 apartments ready for occupancy across Doha literally with no takers, says Nasser Mohamed Al Mansoory, CEO of Qatar Oman Investment Company, a listed entity.
And there are many housing projects in and around the city which are coming up and expected to be ready for uptake by next year, he told The Peninsula yesterday.
The population of the country, according to him, is already down from 1.9 million at the peak of the housing shortage recently, to around 1.6 million. “These are the latest figures. So, with so many people having left, where do you think the demand is going to come from,” wondered Al Mansoory.
Not only apartments, there are villas as well which are lying vacant all around. Little thinking has gone into these projects and that explains why there is suddenly a dearth of takers.
These are the units which are difficult to attract tenants on high rentals given the fact that supplies are excessive while the demand is limited. “We, therefore, expect the rents to come down,” said the CEO whose company actively invests in the real estate sectors in Qatar and Oman.
He said thoughtfully: “I wouldn’t be surprised if over the next two years (by 2010-11) you see the rents in Doha back to their previous levels to QR1,200 and QR1,400 monthly.” Already, two-bedroom apartments whose going rates were QR8,000 not too long ago, are now available for QR5,000.
“See the newspapers. Their classifieds are full of ads for all categories of vacant houses day in and day out, clearly signaling that supplies far exceed demand.”
Similar is the situation with office space, he said. Supplies are now abundant. The rates per square metre are sliding by the day. In the Old Airport area, next to a building where office space is available for QR250 per square metre, the going rate, for example, is QR160 per sq metre.
Finding the new Ponderosa Steakhouse in Doha
“Are you sure you know where it is?” AdventureMan asked.
“Well, pretty sure.” I answered, and God bless him, as hungry as he is and as tired as he is after a long day at work, he just sighs and trusts me.
“If this doesn’t work, we can always eat at Villagio,” he says, and I marvel at his equilibrium.
“The man at the other Ponderosa said you go three roundabouts from Ramada junction and it is on your right, and then he said something else but I didn’t understand.” I added.
We went three roundabouts, and then started taking the slip roads, an adventure in itself. We saw a lot of car repair places, some smaller Lebanese restaurants with all guys eating inside, and had to go back and forth, because sometimes the slip road ended, sometimes the shop roads ended. After another roundabout, and a long row of very modern, empty glass office-looking buildings on the right, there it was, clearly visible from the road, and I realize what the man had been telling me was that it was above the Pizza Hut.
This is what it looks like from Salwa:
This is what it looks like from the side road – “Ponderosa “steakhouse” in Arabic
Maybe about once every three months or so, when I really felt a need for some meat, we would brave the horrible road-trek at Cholesterol Corner, otherwise known as the Ramada Junction, to eat at Ponderosa. It isn’t fancy, but it truly is popular, with its buffet and inexpensive steaks. I really like their filet, just a little 6 oz. steak but they do it better than many of the big expensive hotel restaurants.
If this works, we have said to ourselves, it would be a real blessing for us, not to have to hassle with the traffic patterns of entrance and exits, not to mention the congestion.
When we get inside, the blessings just continue to pour forth – we learn that this is their first night open to the public (we didn’t know!) and that they had promotions going – the buffet was 29 QR – which is what the price was six years ago, before it started creeping up – and that every main entree on the menu included the buffet and tonight only was only 40 QR (around $11).
So for $11 each, AdventureMan ordered the fried fish, and I ordered the filet mignon. Taking a risk, I even ordered it MEDIUM RARE.
The Ponderosa Buffet is the Ponderosa Buffet. It has some American salads, some Arabic salads, and a taco bar, and a dessert bar and a soft ice-cream machine. It was all very very clean and well presented.
When my steak came and I bit into it – it was truly amazing – medium rare! AdventureMan said his fish was very lightly battered and very hot and fresh tasting.
I didn’t remember to take photos until about halfway through. I must be the absolute worst restaurant reviewer in the world. That’s where my filet steak used to be, LOL:
Yes. I used some A-1 Sauce. I love it on steak. But I tasted the steak first, and it was a great steak.
There used to be four pieces of this hot, delicious fried fish.
The dessert bar:
I had watermelon, AdventureMan had a lot of the fruits, but I could see most people were going for the chocolate pudding and the soft ice cream. 🙂
The Ponderosa is upstairs, over the Pizza Hut. You enter from the side road. Paved parking is limited – maybe 12 spots – but there is that hard rocky surface, lots and lots of it. This is supposed to be the biggest Ponderosa in Doha, and it may be – it is full of booths, all very private, several different areas.
We won’t go that often – we have other favorites – but we are really really glad this Ponderosa has gone in, and we don’t have to go down to C-ring anymore in that maze of mad motorists. We also think that with all the housing going farther and farther out of Doha, they chose a very smart location to attract those moving away from the center. And – I am impressed – my steak really was medium rare!
Think Pink Walk October 30th
This is what I love – advance planning and advance notification so I can mark my calendar now and look forward to the walk on October 30th. Not only that, I can tell all my friends, so they will be there, too. This is a grand event, a great way to exercise and show support for a worthy cause at the same time.
Women all over the world die because they are afraid to talk about breast cancer, afraid they will be shunned, afraid they will be treated as damaged or inferior. Fear can kill us. Silence can kill us. Supporting one another and encouraging one another can be part of the coping process and the healing process.
Please – mark your calendars, too. I want to see you there.
Breast cancer support group gears up for annual event
Web posted at: 8/9/2009 2:57:6
Source ::: THE PENINSULA
DOHA: Think Pink Qatar, a Doha-based support group for breast cancer patients and survivors, has set the ball rolling for upcoming events it will be organising.
Drawing approximately 30 volunteers to an organisational meeting yesterday, the group initiated the process for one of its major annual events, the Think Pink Breast Cancer Walk of Life. Due to take place on the evening of October 30 at the Corniche, volunteers have been mobilised to make the event as much of a success as last year’s event.
The recent meet will lead up to other events the support group will be undertaking in September and October include a Pink-Out Day at schools, the Think Pink Benefit Gala, a Pink Hijab Day, and Proctor and Gamble sponsorship. There will also be a Harley Davidson Women’s Ride for Life, organised by Margarita Zuniga, courtesy of the Harley Davidson’s Women’s club.
Due to growing interest from community members, Think Pink Qatar is organising its 1,000 plus volunteers and members into a coherent line-up in time for event. “Today’s meeting is to start organising for this event, as many have volunteered, and we have now found it necessary to devise teams, covering sponsorship, music, event planning,” said Karen Al Kharouf, Founder of Think Pink Qatar. “Because the group has grown from 200 to 1,000 members, there is the need for consistency and a centralized system.”
More volunteers are hoped for, to take the currently part-time organisation full–time, and to add to numerous out-reach programmes the group currently runs. This includes adding more to the survivors groups, and the Pink Candies, a group of older teenagers who provide morale support for breast cancer sufferers. Al Kharouf underlined the need to create greater awareness in Qatar, as many women dislike talking about the disease, hence its high death rate.
PS: I see Peninsula says the walk is on the 30th, Gulf Times says it is on the 31st. Hmmm. . . .
Beijing Restaurant near Ramada Hotel, Doha
When we were in Doha the last time, our favorite Chinese restaurant was the Gulf Royal, a quirky second floor restaurant that delivered, but first, you had to visit the restaurant and get in their book. The book was names and addresses of all the families in Doha who liked Chinese food – and maps to their houses. Total hoot! We drew our map, and then looked through, laughing at how many of the names we knew.
Gulf Royal disappeared during a huge street re-do back behind Al Saad, and now, a new building is there, maybe the fencing club, and the Gulf Royal is no longer.
Never mind. After searching through The Qaterliving.com website I knew that the place to go was the Beijing, a restaurant we had tried once or twice before, but somehow, had drifted on to others.
Get there before 7 is the first rule. If you get there after 7:30, all the tables are packed, all the parking spots taken. The restaurant if full and people are waiting to be seated.
We had an excellent chicken Kung Pao, and a good shrimps with black bean sauce. The shrimp were plentiful and perfectly cooked, we just prefer a little more black bean taste, but next time we will know to ask. And the Beijing DELIVERS!
This is how you get there:
Here are the hours:
And here is part of the menu – there is more!
The waiters and waitresses speak good English. One of our dishes, we got the wrong dish, and sent it back. The waitress came back and asked if we still wanted our original dish (the kitchen had gotten very busy) or if we wanted it taken off our order. By that point we were full, and asked to have it taken off our order.
We saw lots of delicious and sizzling dinners go by as we were waiting and as we were eating. We will be going back to try some of them, too.
John Lockerbie, Catnaps and Islamic / Arabic Design
One of the reasons I love going to museums over and over again is because I can only absorb so much at one time. Every time I see an exhibit, I learn something new. The next time I go to the Doha Islamic Museum I am going to go by myself, get the headsets, and get an overview. It will be my seventh trip to the museum. I am ready to go a little deeper.
You know you have read a good book – even if you didn’t like it when you read it – when your mind keeps going back there, time after time, mulling over questions, thinking of alternative endings, thinking even about what you didn’t like – a book that troubles you enough to make you THINK is a good book.
John Lockerbie’s website, Catnaps does the same thing for me. As I drive around Kuwait and Doha, I see things and get the great “aha” because I have read articles he writes about Islamic / Arabic houses, their origins, how the earliest houses were constructed, problems with modern constructions. I can’t absorb it all at once, so I visit again and again. I look for window shadings, and I look for air conditioning. Because of his website, I am more aware when I take in the architecture.
Here, for example, is a relatively new building, but look what they did for air conditioning. I was in the building next door; the offices are air conditioned but the hall is hot and breathless.
As I went to the site today to get the reference, I got lost once again in the boat section. Now, I do know my shuw’i from my booms! I’m still working on the others. The very cool thing is John Lockerbie is always learning new stuff, too, and often updates what he has written, so there is always something new to learn on this site.
Don’t try to take it in all at once. Go often to visit and peruse. There is so much there that will enrich your stay in the Gulf if you understand a little more about what you are seeing.
Mr. Lockerbie used one of my photos to show a shaded garden. I haven’t the heart to tell him that the very next week they came and took off the tops of all my trees so the lawn would grow, but now my garden has harsh sunlight like the rest of Doha. The trees grow really fast – several feet per year – so it won’t be long before I have some shade once again.
Amjad Thai Snack on Merqab al Jedeed
AdventueMan and I have different preferences dining out. Actually, I don’t even care that much to go out, I totally loved Kuwait’s system, everything and anything can be delivered. That worked for me! AdventureMan likes to go out, sit, enjoy his dinner, have a relaxing experience.
He doesn’t like Amjad Thai Snack, but he does agree with me that the food is outstanding. Our agreement is this – If I go get the food, he will gladly eat it, but he doesn’t want to go there.
The food is amazing. The place is a dive.
Six years ago, Thai Snack was just that – a few tables and chairs outside a Thai Massage Parlor on Merqab, closer to the C Ring Circle than the D Ring. It used to be you always knew where it was because they had these neon signs of massages. One of the massage signs started out slow and got faster and faster and then when WOW! POP! Sparkles-all-over! We would take people down to watch the signs at night, they were so funny. Finally, I am guessing someone else figured out that they had ambiguous sexual overtones, and the neon signs are no longer there.
I think the massage parlor is still there, but the success of Amjad Thai Snack has just grown and grown. It grew to one inside serving room, then two, then three. It’s nothing fancy. No tablecloths, you get your own flatware from bins on the table. Your waiter takes your order and then you take a chit that has your table number on it to the cashier to pay before you leave. They really have an efficient, high tech system for a very low tech kinda joint.
Did I mention the food is amazing?
The first night AdventureMan agreed to take me there, we had to wait about 45 minutes to get in, on a hot, steamy night in Doha, crowded in with all the other people waiting to get in, crowded more by those coming in to pick up their orders. Amjad Thai Snack does BIG business.
The noodle soups are easily enough for a meal for two people, and enough for a first course for four.
Shrimp Noodle soup:
Fish with Spicy Basil:
Fish with Spicy Basil served over rice:
Other dishes can be split and shared. It’s part of my family tradition – growing up on the West Coast of the USA, great and authentic Chinese / Japanese / Vietnamese /Korean cuisines available everywhere, it was the fast-food I grew up on. Our extended family would get together in a restaurant and everyone would order one dish – maybe 26 – 30 dishes coming around the table, and you were encouraged to try anything. One of my joker cousins would order something gross and we would all try it.
It’s not AdventureMan’s thing, although he likes it well enough. His preference would be to eat Chinese in a nice hotel where he can get a beer with his dinner, but most of the hotel Chinese food is too dumbed-down for me.
Amjad Thai Snack is not dumbed down. The Fish (or Chicken, or beef, or seafood, if you prefer) in spicy basil sauce is delicious. Their curries are delicious. They have wonderful appetizers, wontons and buns. They do hot pots that serve a table of four to eight. Their noodle soups are divine. They are so well packed that not a drop gets spilled on the trip home.
You can call your order ahead and it will be waiting for you when you get there. Parking can be a problem, but if you get there before 7:30 pm, you should be OK. You can often find parking across the street, too.
Last , but not least, if you can read the menu, and I apologize that it is small, you will notice it is all correctly spelled and grammatically correct. This is an amazing advancement in six years. We used to find things on menus in Doha that totally mystified us, and when we would ask, the answers would also mystify us. Not anymore. 🙂
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