Life on the Spot! Life and Leisure in Doha, Qatar

Oliver! Playdates

2010-03-02T06:54:37Z

A month and a half since the first rehearsal, all the cast's hard work will soon reap its rewards. I am truly proud that my daughter Xianelle has taken part in this endeavor and I can't wait to be awed in the audience as she and the entire Oliver cast perform and sing the songs that I have memorized and loved to sing myself. All the best to Oliver! production.

The following are Oliver's playdates. I sincerely hope you could come and watch it.

1. Saturday April 10th at 3pm

2. Sunday April 11th at 3pm

3. Monday April 12th at 4pm

4. Tuesday April 13th at 4pm

5. Wednesday April 14th at 4pm
6. Wednesday April 14th at 8pm

7. Thursday April 15th at 7:30 pm

Tickets for Oliver (50Qrs each) will be on sale from March 18th from the Senior School Reception deskduring the school day (8am-2pm) and from the dedicated Oliver Box Office situated in the QF Recreation Center from 3pm to 6pm each weekday.

Qatar population put at 1,580,050

2009-12-02T19:57:44Z

The population of Qatar till Monday is 1,580,050, according to statistics released by Qatar Statistics Authority (QSA) yesterday. These data represent the number of individuals of all ages (Qataris and non-Qataris) within the state on Monday, excluding Qataris and residents who were outside the borders of the State at the time of the statement monitoring. The total number of males according to these data, is 1, 225,487 compared to 354,563 females.

These figures indicate a decline in population within the state with 86,803 people compared to last October, which recorded the highest rise in population during the year. It is noteworthy that QSA started presenting data on its website showing total population at the end of each month since October last year.

Celebrating Eid Al-Adha at Souq Waqif

2009-11-28T19:48:22Z

We had some friends come over yesterday and decided that we go to Souq Waqif to see what Qatar has prepared to celebrate Eid Al Adha. We got to Souq Waqif at about 5:30 in the evening. I've heard that they already implemented pay parking but it was the first time for us to go there since they implemented it. Parking is now 3 rials for the first hour plus a rial for each succeeding hour.

Anyway, the plan was to go show the guys around the Souq and have some Shisha after. I read from the newspaper that they'd have entertainers from 4 p.m. till evening. There was a large stage on both ends of the Souq where entertainers performed. Along the main street, you'll find other entertainers roaming and performing their own thing. We saw some clowns, a Robo character, people on stilts, jugglers, and more. Xiane even got a free Fairy Face paint! There was also an interview being held in one of the Cafes but we don't know who the presenter was but still took a photo of her. Mavis commented that it's the first time that she saw the most number of Qataris in one place. It was jam-packed but the atmosphere was great. The weather helped too as it was cool rather than being hot and humid.

After getting tired walking, it was time for Shisha! We got apple flavored ones, mint and strawberry. After 30 minutes of inhaling the stuff, I felt "drunk". My tolerance to alcohol is close to zero but taking Shisha for 30 minutes made me feel more drunk than having half a glass of wine. I was glad though that the feeling of being "drunk" passed after 15 minutes of staying away from Shisha.

There was traffic when we left. We probably spent 20 minutes to get past 2 stoplights. Still, it was a great night and if you want to get some night out this Eid, Souq Waqif is one of the places we can recommend you visit.

Here comes the Monsters and Aliens!

2009-11-25T14:43:16Z

Look at what we got today courtesy of Qatar Airways! It's "The Art of Monsters and Aliens" hardbound book. I entered an online contest last July, I think, through the Qatar Airways website. I was hoping to get the specially selected gift box containing the entire set of Dreamworks Animation’s movies on DVD but winning this is good enough. Xianelle is already on the bed, reading the 192-page book and giggling as she reads. Honestly, I haven't watched the movie yet but will do in the long holiday. I do hope Qatar Airways do more of these contests!

Christmas in Doha Qatar

2009-11-25T14:23:49Z

If you're looking into buying decorative stuff for Christmas, you can head out to Carrefour in City Centre. Of course, they don't tell you that it's for Christmas but it's for the "Magical Season". Still, it's good to have easy access to this stuff. It might not be like Christmas in your own country but a Christmas tree and some decorations here and there might make up (in some way) to whatever we're missing in our own countries.

Chowking Opens in Doha

2009-11-21T18:38:41Z

Chowking in Doha

At last, Chowing opens in Doha! After months of speculation and rumors, the Philippine fast food chained opened its doors to Qatari residents on Wednesday. From Facebook friends, we found out that lines to sample the dishes are so long that you have to wait at least 30 minutes to get your food. So much for "fast food". Still, Filipinos are expected to flock the fast food chain located near Ramada on Salwa Road. I'm we'll try it out one of these days when all the hoopla has subsided.

Here is more news from Gulf Times:

Former Philippine president Fidel V Ramos and prominent Qatari businessman Hussein Alfardan formally opened the first Doha outlet of Philippine food chain Chowking on Salwa road on Wednesday.

Hundreds of Filipinos, led by the Philippine Ambassador Crescente Relacion attended the opening ceremony which was addressed by Ahmed Hassan Bilal, chairman of the Ahmed Hassan Bilal Enterprise, the local partner of Chowking in Qatar.

Bilal promised the gathering a great dining experience at the newly-opened restaurant which has two function halls which can accommodate up to 144 people. The Doha restaurant is the 427th Chowking outlet worldwide. The restaurant is open from 12noon until 10pm.

Erwin Elechion, president of Chowking Food Corp and Relacion also spoke.

Wear the Batch!

2009-11-21T15:37:51Z

What's wrong with this photo?

A new blog...

2009-11-19T15:12:40Z

Yeah, I know that we've been taking this blog for granted. Haven't been posting much for the past months. But hopefully, things are going to change. I've been procrastinating upgrading the blog for so long. Currently, the blog is on Yahoo servers and I'm using Movable Type. When I applied for Yahoo hosting, I was expecting that Yahoo would update Movable Type to it's most current version as it comes out as they have an automatic update option on the control panel. After 4 years, and many releases of Movable Type, Yahoo still hasn't updated my installation and would be stuck with MT 3.2 forever if I don't do something about it. Updating to the latest version of MT might also be a hassle as I've personally modified the theme and it might not be compatible to the latest MT. In other words, MT is not really my option at the moment plus if I'm to really upgrade it, I'd rather upgrade it to Wordpress since it's being developed more and is now more robust than MT. I've been tinkering with it for a while and tested it on my PC. I've done some import/export tests and though I'm going to lose some of images and links, I can live with it.

So that's it, if all works out well, the blog would have a new look and feel after the holidays. And more so, I am hoping that I'd be able to post more than what I've been posting the past few months.

Appulous Questions and Answers

2009-11-15T18:04:26Z

For those with Jailbroken iPhones and want to access Appulous, here are the answers to the questions to enter their pages. Hopefully, we won't be needing these once they get their new servers.

Q. I work for Apple’s law firm and have been trying to get Appulous shut down since the beginning. I wish I was better at my job . What’s my first and last name?
A. Ian Ramage

Q: Who started endlessapps.net?
A: Siddhow

Q: aside from siddhow, who adminned endlessapps.net?
A: Siddhow meknowsnobody

Q: TDDebug made AppScene.org what it is today. Who runs it now?
A: Pondeuce

Winter in Qatar

2009-11-07T14:06:37Z

Ahhhh, winter is near. If you've noticed, mid day mornings have been much cooler than the previous month. It's actually nice to feel the warmth of the sun instead of its scorching heat in Qatar. I'm sure everybody welcomes this change.

Doha Tribeca Film Festival

2009-11-01T19:39:04Z

Cebu Pacific Seat Sale in Asia

2009-10-30T20:54:20Z

CEB allots 100,000 seats for our sought-after P1 seat sale to all destinations!

Travel June 15 to September 30, 2010

The Philippines’ leading airline Cebu Pacific (CEB) offers a ‘Go Lite’ P1 seat sale to all international and domestic destinations starting now until November 2, 2009, or until the allotted 100,000 seats are sold out. Travel period is June 15 to September 30, 2010.

It is our early Christmas present, and our way of saying thank you for your overwhelming support.

We fly the most routes and destinations in the Philippines, including Siargao, Laoag, Roxas, Virac (Catanduanes), Naga (Camarines Sur), Busuanga (Palawan), Cauayan (Isabela) and Kalibo (Boracay).

Our trademark P1 seat sale also covers all of CEB’s 14 international destinations namely: Kota Kinabalu, Taipei, Bangkok, Hong Kong, Macau, Singapore, Guangzhou, Ho Chi Minh, Jakarta, Kuala Lumpur, Busan, Shanghai, Incheon and Osaka.

CEB flies to Hong Kong and Singapore direct from Manila, Cebu and Clark.

Passengers with check-in luggage will just add P100 upon booking. The P1 fare is exclusive of government taxes and administration fees.

Free Google Wave Preview Invites

2009-10-29T02:27:22Z

I have been given a Google Wave account by Google as I probably was one of the first to apply for one when they announced it. When I mean one of the first, that's probably the first 200,000 or 300,000!
Anyway, I am giving away Google Wave invites to those interested. I have a more than a dozen. Just reply to this post and tell me what you're going to do with Wave if you get invited and hopefully, you're reason is enough to get you that invite.

Tennis or Films. A Busy Week in Doha

2009-10-28T11:56:37Z

This week is a busy week for events here in Doha. They've already started the WTA Sony Ericsson Year-ending tennis event yesterday at Khalifa Stadium and would last till Sundays' Finals. However, it seems that the organizers of the Doha Tribeca Film Festival also wanted a share of the limelight so they decided that their event should coincide with the WTA event. I don't think that this is a good move on their part as from previous experience, the Khalifa Stadium get filled to the brim when they have these events. Instead of getting more people to watch the films, they tend to get divided. In our case, we've decided to watch Tennis on Thursday instead of attending the Opening of the Doha Tribeca Film Festival.

We actually got our tickets 3 days after they announced that they were already tickets available for the tournament. We were supposed to get the Lower Box Seats but we were told that on the same day that it was announced, the tickets for the lower box were already sold out. Bummer! We were left with the middle section instead. Even if I have a 200mm lens, it would not capture the tennis stars that close. So I've decided, well, forced, to watch and enjoy the game more than taking photos.

We are still going to the Tribeca Film Festival Though. We bought tickets to the documentary "Turtle" for Sunday. I hope Xiane likes the film. But other than that, the films we wanted to watch were playing on the same time as "Turtle" or they were meant to be viewed by adults. I wish they would have scheduled this Film Festival when there were no other major events in Doha. Doha would basically be quiet again next week so why did they not schedule it for next week? I really don't get it.

Anyway, I'm sure you're either going to the WTA event or the Film Festival this week. If you're not going to any, that's one car less on the road!

My Chill Out Day

2009-10-21T05:23:02Z

I'm here at The Coffee Bean chilling out. I thought, since I finished my chores, why don't I spend the day just relaxing. So here I am! Just had my breakfast: bread with butter and jam, scrambled eggs, sausages and a big cup of brewed coffee. I guess that's enough to last me the whole morning. The guy told me that the coffee is refillable but I have no plans of getting another cup lest I want my vertigo to act up again. Haven't had an attack for more than a year and I want it to stay that way. It's nice that I am able to have this time for myself. Last year had been a pretty crazy year as I was working. I enjoyed working though. But this a good time to be a stay-at-home mom once again. Xianelle being new in school needs all the support and reassurance she can get and it is quite difficult when you are working. Somehow you have divided attention. Now at least I can do the chores in the morning and spend more time with her in the afternoon. I can tell that my husband is also very pleased to have me at home the whole day as well. I must say that having worked before entailed a lot of adjustments in our daily routine. Now, he loves that there is always freshly-cooked food on the table. On a personal note, I'm also pleased with it. It makes me smile seeing our place really neat and tidy which was totally the opposite when I was working. I love that the clothes for ironing don't pile up. But most of all, I am happy that I have control of my time. Sure the chores never end and being a wife and mother is a 24/7 thing but I can always choose what and when to do it. Being a stay-at-home mom allows me to do just that. I am just thankful for this chance again and I will enjoy every moment of it.