Finding ground

I have been in Doha for two weeks now. Work has become more manageable as I get myself more femiliar with the systems and procedures of the company. I was more visible at work now and people started talking to me. It was a good change from being invisible in my first week. I was also given advice and coaching from my contracts advisor. But it is still as stressfull.

I have now moved to a new place at Bin Omran. This place feels more homey than the massive apartment at Ezdan. Its smaller (and off course alot cheaper) and more manageable. Its fully furnished, but to transfer a house into a home, I did some personalisation job to it. I spent almost QAR 800 for towels, pillows and other soft furnishing from Home Centre. They have some nice stuffs there at Home Centre but most of them are very ornamented and gaudy. Surely not my taste.

Thanks Rizal for volunteered to provide the free delivery

Living Room

Bedroom

Bathroom

Shower

Kitchen

I have make few new friends this weekend. Rizal, invited me to join him and his group for Friday picnic at the Corniche. It was nice to meet some fellow countrymen and I can see that they are really close with each other. I felt rather awkward crashing into their party. At a moment like this, I suddenly miss all my friends back at home.

Picnic at Corniche

On Friday night I went to Ryan's birthday party. He is our cost engineer at work. We barely speak to each other. So it was such a surprise when he came to my office on Thursday afternoon and extend the invitation. The party was held onboard a dhow (Traditional Arabian boat). It was a great night. I met some really cool people there. It was also a good networking as some of them work for a recruitment agency, Air Energy. So at least I have more channel to pass my cv at the expiration of my contract.

Ryan, the birthday boy

With James and Graham

With Danny, Anna and Robyn

One thing that I miss the most is to be able to drive. Doha is not a particularly commuter friendly city. They have a very limited number of taxis and bus service. If you call for a cab at 6pm the next available taxi most probably will be at 9pm. So people (people like me who doesn't own a car) rely heavily on private taxis who charge 300% more than metered taxis.

On Friday afternoon, I was hungry, there was nothing in the fridge, so I decided to walk to Lulu Centre, expecting that the have supermarket. But the shopping centre just sells household items. I then continued my quest to find a decent restaurant or grocery stores in the neighbourhood. I must have took a wrong direction. I ended up walking from one neighbourhood to another for hours without finding what I was looking for. I was tired, angry and frustrated, and suddenly a private taxi pulled over. The driver Roshan is now acts as my personal driver. He is very reliable and ever ready to take me any where I want to, with costs off course.

Being away from home, in a strange city without having real friends and family around (well I have couple of friends but I cant expect them to babysit me all the time) making me feel a little bit homesick. I try as much as I can to occupy myself with something. I spend most afternoon after work at shopping centres, or watching movies or simply walking around the neighbourhood before heading home. Go to bed at 9 wake up at 4.30 and everything starts all over again.

More pics here