I feel like home!!!!

What a feeling today... Got up in the morning ( was it really morning? hmmm..) to the sound of rainfall!! At first I could not believe it. The exact same thing happenned like last weekend. RAIN!!!

Indeed, it was raining again today. For Qatar standard, I would consider it as heavy rain. For Malaysian standard, it was probably nothing.... However, it was slightly heavier around solat Jumaat time..

In fact, there were deep pool of water everywhere especially near Al Bayyan Gardens where I normally go for solat Jumaat.. It was quite deep really. I was lucky. I did not get stucked in the pool of water. Else I would have spoiled my car engine..

Thanks to the rain... I also realised that my Skoda's windscreen was not fitted properly when they replaced the windscreen long time ago. Traces of water & wet interior clearly visible near the driver's side..At 1st I thought I forgot to wind up the driver's window last night. Then I realised that all windows were properly wound up.. A good reason for me to send the car to my Transport Department for service..The rain did make me felt like home today. It would be perfect if the flash flood was also there, just like in Kuala Lumpur... hehe..

One weekend, two birthdays

Finally, the weekend is here... Time for birthday celebration!!!

Somehow the celebration started yesterday. The celebration started off with lunch at Bennigan's yesterday. The only reason we celebrated it a day earlier was because someone had to earn a living today.. My wife is on call today on my birthday! It is not that bad considering I already received my birthday present 1 month in advance..hehe.

During the lunch at Bennigan's we asked Alisha what she had for me for my birthday... She spontaneously presented me with a bottle of root beer. It was so cute. She realised she did not have any money to buy me present. What she did was to give me the unopened bottle of root beer drink in front of us! How lovely... Thank you so much sweetie for being so thoughtful... It was at that point I realised the true meaning of the "Thought That Counts".. hehe. Alisha also presented to me a lovely birthday card... Thank you so much sweetie for being so thoughtful...
The mood was already also in the air yesterday because little Abdullah, Ali's son, celebrated his 1st birthday yesterday, 27 March 2009. For that, we presented him with a little present. It was only appropriate for me to continue with my own birthday celebration.. I always created reasons to celebrate anyway..heheHappy 1st Birthday, Abdullah. May you grow & become the proud of your parents. May you take care of your parents as much as they take care of you now.

And today? Early in the morning I received fews sms wishing me Happy Birthday... It was as early as 6.54am! Thanks guys.. So thoughtful.. You people must be dying to wish me happy birthday.. muahaha.. It is also good to note that people do use technology nowadays to wish happy birthday. Gone are the days people send you card for birthdays. Now, Facebook replaces cards! With Facebook, many of our friends are forced to remember our birthdays.. hehe. Good or bad? Bad when they keep reminding us about our age..

Happy Birthday to me...Here are the presents that I received for my birthday on top of the doas from all of you. One of them, I actually bought for myself as my birthday present. I let you guess which one.. hehe. Thank you so much for the presents!! Thank you so much for the birthday lunch. I shall remember to return the favours when the times come, InsyaAllah.During the birthday weekend, Allah The Almighty poured Qatar with rain. We seriously felt at home. It was heavy rain in the afternoon & at night... It must be the present from Allah for Abdullah, the people of Qatar and me... The rain actually started from Thusday morning till afternoon and continued over the weekend...

A Wedding Reception of A Qatari

It was not in my original weekend plan last weekend. The original plan was to have coffee with my good Qatari friend. Unfortunately, it did not materialise.

What happened instead? Ali invited me to join him at his friend's wedding on Saturday night. One tricky issue was that we were supposed to attend football training on the same night! It was not really a football training for me. It was more of an exercise to stay fit. Ali was actually the coach for the team. It was mandatory for him to attend the the training session.

In order for me to attend both, I had to prepare for both occasions ie sports gear for training & dinner suit for the wedding reception.

We stopped in the middle of the training, quickly got changed and rushed to the wedding reception. Luckily the reception was held at The Diplomatic Club not far away from the training ground. It took us around less than 10min to get there. I was a bit embarassed when we reached inside the tent as I was the ONLY one wearing suit. The rest of the people were in dishdash. I was so stand out for the wrong reason.. hehe. It was really an experience... Imagine, hundreds of eyes were watching you... What you have to do? You act normally & try to stay cool.. haha.

It was rather unfortunate I missed the traditional swords dance that night... It would be a great experience, otherwise.. I did not miss the opportunity to have photos taken with the groom though.. For the precious memory..

Circus Night in Doha

We took Alisha to the circus last night at Hyatt Plaza. We wanted to go earlier but we could not find the time. We made it a point to go last night as we realised that the last day of the show was 21 March 2009 ie 2 more days to go. Before the show, they announced that the circus would be extended until 28 March 2009. So if you have no chance so far to take your kids, you have 1 more week to do so...

We left home around 6.30 to catch the 1st show of the night at 7pm. Had a quick dinner at Hyatt Plaza foodcourt & off to the show..

This time around the circus was different from last year. It did not have animal at all. Last year they had snakes & crocodiles. This year? Nothing! However, I reckon the overall show was better compared to last year.

Beach day out..

Thanks to Shahrin for inviting us to have fun in the sun at The Beach Club. The kids loved it. We too loved it. The bbq was great. The companies were even greater..

We must organise such an outing again before the weather gets too hot. It is a race against time. With today's temperature around 27C, it is a matter of time before it reaches 40C... Then all outdoor activities will be on hold....

Latest Malaysian in Doha...

Congratulation to Azer Dood & Dills for the new born.

Congratulation also to Aidil for having a little brother to play with... Amir Ashraf was born last weekend while I was having fun in the dune..

Now we have to think what to give this cute little Amir Ashraf for his present.. Any idea?

We already presented to his parents a basket of chocolate last week. That was very Qatari, I would say..hehe. Unfortunately, baby Amir Ashraf will never get the chance to taste it..

It has been a very long time....

It has been a very long time since I wrote in this blog.. So many things happened for the past 30 days...

We went to Muscat for 3 days in early February 2009. Yes, it was almost a month ago. No posting made to that effect. Only pix uploaded to the FaceBook (FB). With the existence of FB, I find it more convenience to upload the pix in FB. No story telling to do, just upload the pix. After all, pix can tell millions stories which can not be described with words... Unfortunately, not all of my friends out there join FB.. sigh...

In Muscat we visited all the places recommended by my Omani friend, Harbi, on top of our own agenda.. Places we visited included Mutrah Souq, the palace, The Grand Mosque ( this was really a grand mosque!!), Qantab beach, the forts etc. When we were there, Oman was organising Muscat Festival. We joined the crowd to experience festival in Muscat. We found out that Omani were really different people. They were more fun type of Arabs....

We also managed to watch dolphin in the open sea. It was really a memorable trip. Alisha was screaming all the way. She was panicking when the boat started to move as it was tilted to the left & to the right. She only calmed down when she started to see the dolphins..

Harbi also introduced me to his cousin, Ziyad, who was back in Muscat for his summer holiday. On our last day in Muscat, Ziyad and his 2 brothers organised bbq at Wadi Al Khoud for us.. It was rather unexpected. They went all the way to prepare the bbq complete with Omani style salad & humus.. It was a nice bbq. Alisha enjoyed playing in the water at the wadi... I enjoyed the bbq.. hehe.

On the way back to airport, Ziyad stopped over to show us the reservoir used to collect the water from wadis to prevent Muscat from flood. That was when the adventure begins.. When we wanted to leave after nice coffee, he could not start his Pajero. The battery was flat! We tried to push but it did not work. It brought back my Zikreet memory.. hehe. Fortunately, Salah was also there with his car. We decided to transfer our stuffs to Salah's car & headed for airport. We had just over an hour to reach the airport..

A week after we came back from Muscat, Alisha's mak tok left for Malaysia. She spent good 5 weeks with us in Doha.

On Monday, 17 Feb 2009, our good friend also left Doha for good for job re-assignment in Kuala Lumpur. We went to bid farewell to Imran and family at the airport.Last weekend, MAQ organised a desert safari... That kept me occupied from a long time.. Lots of thing we did to ensure the trip ran smoothly... There will be special posting for the Desert Safari itself later...

We also organised farewell for Ramzi & family. They decided to leave all the fun people in Doha for a more happening life in Port Dickson..