Adventures with Isoms: February 2013

One of the pleasant things about the life of an expat teacher is deciding what to do during a holiday, there are so many things to do and places to see. Of course there are also things like credit ratings, debt, and future child university bills- so one must balance the wanderlust with the reality. Luckily the reality is that it is quite fun to stay in Doha in February and we packed a fair bit into the week, including:

One of the days before break was come to school as a famous person and Luca was a paleontologist. When asked who our neighbor and his friend Ollie was luca stated "Ibrahim Lincoln"! Ahh what a multi cultural boy.

The neighbors busted out some sidewalk chalk so Daniel and Luca decided to go braveheart. Tala points and laughs.

I am a smurf- give me your smurfberries.

Still the days before break- Luca had a field day with his classmates and I just happened to be walking by- so great to see him smiling.

National Sports day- this could be a post all unto itself- but I'll lump it in- the government gives the nation the day off to celebrate sport- they had all kinds of things happening including a bike race/ride. I wasn't going to join in- just watch Wilder but they had an extra bike and an ill-fitting helmet- so I would be crazy to pass up a ride with my daughter (she beat me).

You're a long way from Tennessee Pass sweatheart.

From a risk management point of view this was great- someone had the bright idea of having the Harleys next to the bouncy castles- I think the idea was just to have them parked for people to look at- but the owners couldn't resist firing them up and giving the little kids rides- absolute mayhem- it was fantastic! They wouldn't let me go for a ride though- they said my helmet was lame.

Luca and Josh on the scene.

And then there were the kittens. So we have these cats that slink around our neighborhood. Tough Qatari street cats. We have put out some food to help them and 2 in particular hang around our backyard- we even tried to take them inside but Luca's allergies made that a no go. But they were happy outside and all was good until one got knocked up (I think it was the rough looking orange tabby that did it). Mama had kittens then very unromantically died on Valentines day- c'mon hallmark help me out here. So we became the parents- they live in our downstairs shower, we feed them from bottles, and alright I'll admit it this once...they are so darn cute- I can totally see why people post kitten photos on facebook.

Wilder and her friend Mia

We even had fog one day... yeah I know but it seemed like a big deal at the time.

The racing scene is a bit different over here than at home- most races are flat, but this one wasn't. It was a race up the Aspire tower, 1,304 stairs to the top, 52 floors. Sounds perfect... for Lisa.

Luca was excited to have a tower climb of his own- this race had a bouncy castle and a balloon animal guy at the base-sweet!

Lisa's warm-up run for the race was 20 minutes- race length: 9:25.

They had a jumbo-tron at the base showing the finish line- I told Lisa she better be smiling.

So who knew? There are actually professional stairclimb racer guys. The fellow on the left has won the empire state building race more than once and the guy on the right... well I just wanted you to see what a real professional stairclimb racer guy wears.

Why yes I do play for Al Rayan soccer club.

look at the bank of cameras! This was huge!

Lisa wins by 5 seconds- proving that you can take a mountain girl out of the mountains but you can't teach her to ride an escalator. or something like that.

"Well I just put one foot in front of the other and then did it over and over and over...

...and over and over.

Just because we weren't in school doesn't mean Luca wasn't working on his mad spelling skillz.

We tried to drive to the inland sea which is at the southern part of the country- the first stretch of loose sand turned us back. No worries though we had water to paddle in and a sand dune to climb.

If you squint you can see Saudi in the background.

Lisa and I finally made it to the Shephard's Crook- best darts pub in Doha- thanks Steve for having us.

What would you collect if you had a bundle of cash? There is a man named Sheik Faisal who has that bundle as well as a big building to display it- the best part is the pure randomness of the things he has. We had a great day as the neighborhood went on a tour.