Ya Gotta Love the Qatar Press
OK, bear with me. I am picky about language. I dance with joy to see that the Qatar press no longer uses “flay” on a daily basis; it is a strong word, a word that literally means ‘to skin’, and it was often used when one team triumphed over another, like Arsenal Flays Manchester, or some such, even if the victory was just points.
“No! No!” I would shake my head in horror, “please stop! Use some restraint! Choose the right word!”
But when it comes to rain, the press vocabulary seems stunted, and once again, predictably, we were treated to a ‘lashing’.
Think about it. It’s a strong word. What does lashing rain look like?
A lashing rain is blowing in bursts, coming at you sometimes at almost a 90° angle, an umbrella is useless. A lashing rain can hurt your face, it hits so hard, a lashing rain is heavily wind blown. A lashing rain has FORCE behind it.
What we had in Doha was a steady, drenching rain. At no time did it exceed an angle of maybe 15%; almost 100% of the time the rain came steadily down. Maybe it streamed. Maybe it soaked. Maybe it even flooded. But lashing? No. No. It was never lashing. There was no great wind behind it, no great force. It gently, steadily dripped. It accumulated. It never never lashed.
Qatar National Day Fireworks Finale
One year, for my birthday, we were having dinner at Le Mer, at the Ritz Carleton, when all of a sudden, the best fireworks display I have ever seen took place on the Corniche. Qatar spares no expense when it comes to fireworks, and this upcoming display sounds like it is not to be missed. 🙂
I am such a kid when it comes to fireworks. We’ll buy some felafel sandwiches and head for a good viewing spot, us and thousands like us, on Friday night. See you there. 🙂
From today’s Gulf Times
Fireworks: a fitting finale to festivities
By Sarmad Qazi
The Corniche will be turned into a grand open theatre with spectators looking heavenwards as spectacular fireworks, a fitting finale to Qatar’s National Day celebrations, will take on a journey through the desert for about 17 minutes.
“This is arguably one of the best fireworks site in the world. From the Museum (of Islamic Arts) to Sheraton, you’ve got a naturally-arched theatre to show a story to crowds of thousands,” said a spokesman for Howard & Sons Pyrotechnics, the company behind the grand finale that caps festivities across the country.
Speaking to Gulf Times from the base camp in the Palm Tree Island, Andrew Howard said the “extremely choreographed” show would begin with scenes of desert, gradually transforming the sky over the Corniche into a colourful canvas, and ending with maroon and white, the Qatari national colours.
“The pyrotechnics will go off from over 18 different points across the bay. People will be able to see the show from all directions,” Howard said aboard a motorboat as his crew started taking out the pontoons to the sea.
According to him, there will be shooting stars, where as they are called in the industry “UFOs”, spin, cascade down, and then shoot back up again, giant pearls; this is where the sky turns silver, and rainbow colours that trail each other from one end of the Corniche to another.
“The whole show will perfectly synchronise with a specially-produced music soundtrack for the National Day,” Howard said.
The Australian company also conducted fireworks for last year’s National Day show as well as the Doha Tribeca Film Festival in November. According to Howard, Friday’s show will be “by far the biggest in Qatar.”
Since the beginning of December, a crew of 24 has been fixing mortar tubes, handling thousands of shells, and sorting out other logistics at the firing site at Palm Island.
The mortar tube is where the firework shells are loaded inside a cylinder with a black powder lifting charge at the base; the largest shells are the size of a basketball while the smallest ones are about a tennis ball. Inside the shells are various pyrotechnic compositions to produce different colours.
“The shells came from Australia, China and Spain. A good 20% of the budget goes towards marine resources,” he said.
Peppermint Candy Ice Cream
Do not use your candy canes for this! Well, you CAN, but you can get plain old peppermint candies, the round kind in Doha, relatively easily, and crust them. Use your Candy Canes for Christmas!
You will not believe how easy this is, and how delicious.
The ingredients for peppermint candy ice cream are wonderfully simple:
Peppermint Candy Ice Cream
3 cups cream
2 cups crushed peppermint candy
You add one cup of the crushed peppermint candy to the cream, put it in the refrigerator overnight. The next day, you stir it, and put it in the ice cream making machine to process. (It will be pink, from the red coloring in the candy)
When it is nearly finished (it is thickened and the machine starts to labor) you put the remaining one cup of crushed peppermint candy in through the tube where you can make additions, allow it to process maybe 30 seconds, then – it is finished.
No, there was no added sugar, there is enough in the candy to make it sweet enough. Because it is pure cream and no additives, it is very very fattening and very very delicious.
In my little ice cream maker, this doesn’t make so much – maybe three cups. Serve in small ramekins, or in the beautiful tea glasses you can find selling in Doha – a little of this ice cream goes a long way, especially if you have other desserts, cookies, sweets along with it. 🙂
Peppermint Meringues
Last week, at the MegaMart, I saw some boxes of true peppermint candy canes. I grabbed three, did not even look at the price. There have been candy canes around, but weird – fruit flavored, even chocolate flavored. At Christmas, I am a purist when it comes to a candy cane. It has to be peppermint!
And then I look for recipes to make a little peppermint candy cane go a long way. This is one of them, from allrecipes.com:
Peppermint Meringues
Ingredients
• 2 egg whites
• 1/8 teaspoon salt
• 1/8 teaspoon cream of tartar
• 1/2 cup white sugar
• 2 peppermint candy canes, crushed
Directions
1. Preheat oven to 225 degrees F (110 degrees C). Line 2 cookie sheets with foil.
2. In a large glass or metal mixing bowl, beat egg whites, salt, and cream of tartar to soft peaks. Gradually add sugar, continuing to beat until whites form stiff peaks. Drop by spoonfuls 1 inch apart on the prepared cookie sheets. Sprinkle crushed peppermint candy over the cookies.
3. Bake for 1 1/2 hours in preheated oven. Meringues should be completely dry on the inside. Do not allow them to brown. Turn off oven. Keep oven door ajar, and let meringues sit in the oven until completely cool. Loosen from foil with metal spatula. Store loosely covered in cool dry place for up to 2 months.
A warning – meringues work a whole lot better if you DO NOT make them on a rainy day. The humidity in the air interferes with making a good dry meringue. You can make these and keep them a short while in an airtight container, but in humidity, they lose their crispness.
We are having our third full day of intermittent, drenching rain in Doha. Thanks be to God.
Most Complete Information on Qatar National Day 2009
Khalifa, a commenter on a recent post, has his own website, iloveqatar.net where he blogs as Mr. Q.
He has also created the hands-down all-time BEST website for the upcoming week celebrating National Day, photos, explanations and all at NationalDay2009. You will find anything and everything you want to attend there – and more!
Great work, Khalifa!
Qatar National Day (Week) Schedules!
Found this in today’s Peninsula. Could not find a copy online, nor on the official website, so pardon the poor quality of the photograph of the schedule directly from today’s Peninsula:
Doha Gets a Drenching
A wonderful day, a day that started with a downpour, and never cleared up the whole day, with intermittent showers continuing to give the soil the moisture it so desperately needs. I love the thought of Doha getting a good wash with Qatar National Day being celebrated this entire week. 🙂
Some Rainy Day photos from Doha:
For my Kuwait friends – you are WELCOME, see! There is even an Al Kout coffee shop!
Snug and warm having breakfast at Tagine:
Rain Drenches Doha
No, rain is not lashing Doha, but we woke up this morning to a God-bless drenching of Doha. I know my friends in the great Pacific Northwest will not get it – but rain here is rare, and wonderful. Just seeing the rain dropping heavily on the streets, the children running around screeching for joy – oh, what fun!
The laborers are all bundled up as if it is the middle of a snowstorm in Chicago – two sit shivering under an umbrella while one brave man continues sweeping:
I have to run around checking all the windows. Fortunately, today the rain is coming straight down, but when the rain is truly “lashing” Doha, our windows are not so good at being watertight, and I have a supply of old towels I use to sop up the excess which burbles inside:
A wonderful, wet Friday, a great day for a drenching when people don’t have to get to work and can stay safely inside. Because Doha doesn’t often get drenched, the drainage systems don’t work well, and parts of streets are flooded.
Qatar National Day Locations
I am guessing that this map from the National Day Event Organizing Committee shows the locations of events which will take place on the actual National Day, December 18. I found it on their website.
The weather is great, and this is a cultural spectacle. Go, take your camera, for a day you will never forget.
By the way, if you look closely, it appears that a good part of the Corniche will be exclusively a pedestrian zone on Saturday, December 18. You might want to plan your travels accordingly. 🙂
Qatar Horse Race and Camel Dressage
This is one of the coolest times of the year, with totally amazing heritage events – why is it so hard to find this information?
There is a Qatar National Day website you can get to by clicking on the blue type. It is beautiful, and it tells the history of Qatar / national day and it is in both Arabic and English.
When you click on events . . . it says “coming soon”
I found the below by clicking on “news” . . . stay tuned! At least we know it will happen on December 12th!
THE STATE NATIONAL DAY CELEBRATIONS ORGANIZING COMMITTEE (SNDCOC) ANNOUNCES MASSEELA HORSE RACE & CAMEL DRESSAGE COMPETITIONS AT DARB-A-SAAI
Doha, Qatar – 6 December 2009: Two traditional Qatari sports events – the Masseela Horse Race and Purebred Arabian Camel Races – are being run on Sunday 12th December as part of Qatar National Day 2009 celebrations, race organizer the State
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