2 years & many happen returns.. Part II

I 1st wrote about it in on our 1st anniversary last year. If you recall, Alisha made a statement about the heat while we were resting by the pool at Ramada Hotel on our 1st day in Doha. Till now I could still remember her words… But today, she never utters the words again. My guess she has been acclimatized to the heat in Doha.

Let me summarize our personal experiences for the last two years…

1. The Challenges
I would rate the experience to get a driving licence as the most challenging thing in Qatar. It is now a breeze for newcomers. They can easily convert their Malaysian licences to Qatari licences. I still remembered all Malaysians complained about it. In fact, I wrote quite a long article on my driving licence’s experience…

The 2nd challenge came in the form of house hunting. Two years before, it was landlords’ market. You either take it or leave it. If you want the house, put your money as deposit immediately. The real issue was that the houses/apartment here do not come standard. Back home, if you pay RM1,000, you can almost certain what you get. In Doha, you really need to see to appreciate it. Standard varies not in line with the prices. Today, it is more of tenants’ market. House rental has come down and we can see a lot of empty apartments around. I suppose the economics slow down has some impact in Qatar.

2. The Achievement
Achievement? It is rather difficult to say.. I will not go into monetary. It will be too controversial..hehe

What I knew I lost 10kg from the peak of my ‘prosperous time’. It was rather difficult task. It required sheer persistent and moral support. Criticism from Alisha was really a push factor. I still remember her first few word commenting “Daddy gemuk” or “Daddy is fat” whenever she saw me lay down with my belly up. How I managed to shed 10kg? 1st of all, thanks to RLC Football team especially the coach, Ali Musa, for allowing me to join the trainings. From there on, I kept losing the weight with the help of reduced food intake. The challenge now is to maintain the size! It was hard to get there, it is even harder to stay slim..hehe.

The only drawback when you lose so much weight is that you need new wardrobe which can be costly.. Most of my t-shirts & jeans are now 1 or 2 sizes too big..

On my wife's achievement, she passed her exam for her specialist programme, Alhamdulillah... Mabrouk to her..

3. The Great Loss
My wife lost her grandmother in our 1st month in Doha. May her soul rest in peace, amin.

4. The People’s Movement
The last two years witnessed the movement of our friends. There were few of our Malaysian friends who left Doha for Malaysia. Two prominent figures were Abe Zu & Deen. Both left us for Malaysia. Both of them were the 1st few friends we met when we 1st arrived in Doha.

Deen happened to my junior at school, way way my junior but we knew through our alumni. He was the one who helped us with our search for house/apartment together with Rizal ‘Cupcake’ Hamdan. Deen was also responsible to make it customary for us to take our newly arrived close friends in Doha to have dinner at Turkish Central. The restaurant was the 1st restaurant outside Ramada Hotel we went to have dinner. That was the restaurant we met Aizal & Yeen (Myra was still in her mum’s tummy then), Zu & Diba (we actually 1st met Diba on our flight from KUL-DOH). Through Deen also we knew Shah & family, Nije & Sha and Khizmie. The rest was history. Those are people who stick around with us during bad & good times.

Abe Zu was also the person who came up with his company’s pick up truck to help us move from Al Bayyan.

May be we should also mention about Aizal, Yeen and Baby Myra who had left us for London but returned to Doha in less than 1 year. Surely, Doha is so tempting..hehe

We also welcomed few of my ex-colleagues from Vietnam Operation here in Doha. 5 of them are now in Doha. That made Vietnam Operation as having the most casualties due to oil price boom.

5. The regret
After two years on this land, I have not been able to speak Arabic, the language of Quran. I have failed somehow.. I consider it as my deepest regret.. It may change now. Having the ‘Qatari Twins’ whom I consider like brothers may help me to speed up my Arabic learning... Ali & Jassim, you better help me to learn Arabic.. Wish me luck..

6. The Common Encounters
For the last two years, people keep mistaken us with Filipinos. I don’t blame them. This is especially true when we go to the restaurants where most waiters/waitresses are Filipinos. They tend to greet us with “Kabayan” or “How are you, Pok”. We normally responded to the greeting in English with a smile. After all, we don’t understand what they are talking about anyway…hehe. At the same time, we do not want to offend them..

7. The wish
We continue to stay in this blessed land unless suddenly an irresistible offer lands on my table. This is a country where we feel safety & security are essential part of life. In some parts of the world, safety & security have become luxury items.

2 years & many happen returns!!! Mabrouk...