Melbourne Music Fests...

Possibly my best favourite thing about Summer in Oz would have to be Music Festivals. After a couple of weeks back I headed to Kiss My Grass at Sydney Myer Music Bowl, all aussie djs and a great chance to catch up with my old mate Kate for a boogie! Having the freedom to drink, wear whatever I wanted (short shorts!) and hug my friends in public was just a few things that made me appreciate what a great country we live in! Have managed to squeeze Good Vibes and Snow Patrol into my busy schedule too, not much else planned now until Sydney!

Something New for 2007

Returned to Melbourne mid Jan and spent the first couple of weeks catching up with friends and looking for jobs! Had heard there was jobs going up in Sydney with the APEC Taskforce so applied and was lucky enough to land a job no problem! Will be moving up in a couple of weeks so very excited! Looking forward to being close to some old London mates and living in a new city! Will be working with APEC until September and if I enjoy Sydney I may decide to settle in OZ for a while but who knows! Very excited!

Egypt

Finished off 2006 in Egypt, spending only 8 days there. Spent the first few days in Luxor where we spent most our time walking through the city and souks being hassled by the locals. The going rate it seems a western girl can be traded for was around 10 chickens! Our Hotel, the Nefertiti had a great feel to it and we were right in the middle of everything! Our first full day started at the crack of dawn with a hot airballoon ride (unreal!) and then a tour of the Valley of the Queens and followed by the Valley of the Kings. None of us really wanted to leave Luxor but we couldn't miss the Pyramids. We headed up to Cario on New Years Eve and drove around for a good couple of hours looking for a bar or niteclub to celebrate. Eventually we ended up at the Hard Rock Cafe, negotiated our way in and had a great night. We were definately the only ones drinking though! We took a trip to Giza and road camels out into the Desert for some amazing views of the Pyramids. Never thought I would have been seeing them in the freezing cold though! Inside was a little disappointing, very tiny corridors with way too many people only to get to the end and find a big empty room with Italian graffitied on the walls! Amazing experience though. Headed back to Luxor for our last couple of days and enjoyed a relaxing cruise on the Nile to finish our trip.

The Games of our Lives

Going out during the Games was nothing like in Melbourne. There was no official niteclub, no parties and no alcohol at venues. The atmosphere was a little duller than would be found at any event in Melbourbourne. At the Diving the only cheers that could be heard were from the Athlete stands! Some sports provided some crowd entertainment. At the Handball Final between Iraq and Qatar a VIP guest from Iraq gave a fellow VIP guest from Qatar the finger. What followed you could never imagine would be done anywhere else in the world! The Iraqi Gentleman was then escorted into the walkway, and The Ministry of Interior for the Government of Qatar proceeded to bash the living hell out of him!! In front of the entire stadium! That sort of behaviour would not be tolerated in Qatar!! Iraq was winning and went on the take the Gold, poor losers!

Anyway as it got closer to the end of the Games we hit Rydges most nights, a Hotel with an Aussie Bar! It was full mostly with DAGOC staff, some Media and a few lucky Athletes that heard about the place!

It was a great experience to watch Sports I'd never heard of before like Kabaddi and Sepaktakraw and also to watch the Fencing, Beach Volleyball and Diving. The Emir even showed face at the Sepaktakraw final, just a casual appearance.

Watched the Closing on TV at Garveys and then headed out to the Doha Rubgy Club for a big thank-god-its-over night with friends! Haven't had to work since the last day of the Games so its been great. Leaving for Egypt in a couple of days, back here for a week and then finishing up on the 15th Jan. Will head to Oman and then Thailand before reaching AUS! Can't wait!

Melbourne Cup in Doha

Last month the Doha Golf Club ran a Melbourne Cup function for all Aussies in Doha. DAGOC Aussies making up most of the crowd.

It was a fantastic night, they set up a bar and had a huge marquee on the grass which was so lovely. We all frocked up and the entire night really didn't feel like we were in Doha which was great!

Would have prefered of course to be at home for the Spring Carnival, probably my favourite time of the year in Melbourne.

Clown Suits

Our Games Workforce Uniform looks so much like a Clown Suit that I feel I should be hoping on my unicyle to get to work(the Circus) everyday!

Definately glad I'm not working in Uniforms here. Our Accreditation Team Above...

Kabaddi Kabaddi Kabaddi...

It's been a great games so far, although a far cry from the "Games of Your Life" - the official games slogan! I've been able to see the Beach Volleyball, Fencing and my favourite Kabaddi! It was a mad rush to get in and get seats as it's been one of the most popular sports here. Me & Andy sat with the underdogs Pakistan and were warmly welcomed with plastic Pakistani flags! It was a little hard to know what was going on at first, I still don't really understand the games. Something along the lines of tagging and pouncing on the oposition like a game of "Stacks-On"! Anyway it was hilarious to watch. The Indians won for the 5th Asian Games in a row, they were by far the better team.

It was my first time at Sport City, a massive sporting presinct with 2 massive venues and the huge torch, a Hotel they had hoped would be ready in time for the Games. It's probably the best thing going for Qatar although lacking the atmosphere alcohol and live music would bring!

Let the Games Begin!!

I have been here for 5 months now and can't believe how fast the Games have crept up on me! Haven't had a day off in over two months but its kind of been worth it!

The Opening Ceremony was something else. Rumor has it the Budget was over $US200mil!!! Unfortunately money really can't buy everything and it bucketed down for most of the night. I haven't seen a single drop of rain in 5 months and the first 2 days of the Games it rained constantly.

Tomorrow we're all headed to watch the Finals of the Men's Kabaddi! A sport originating from India its much the same as British Bulldog! Pakistan and India are in the finals and the fans are meant to be crazy! Really looking forward to it!

EID MUBARK - SRI LANKA!

Last Sunday was the end of Ramadan. A month of drinking our coffees in a small little kitchen with many others, eating lunch in crowded room upstairs with smokers hanging out of windows. Drinking, Eating, Smoking or anything else was forbidden from entering the mouth or body of Muslims from Sunrise until Sunset. It was all a bit daunting for us all but it went by suprisingly fast for me. We could start later and finish earlier each day at work and to celebrate the end of it all - a national paid-holiday for a week! None of us expected to get it off but they did which was great so we all got the hell out of here!!

Andy, Andy and I decided to escape to greener pastures- Sri Lanka! Its so cheap to fly there from here probably due to the large majority of the workers here that are SriLankan (Earning pennies for hard labour but thats for another story!!!). We flew out late on the Monday night, staying only for 3 nights. The first day we attempted to walk around the city of Colombo in the early afternoon but had to retreat to the hotel after getting so drenched I was having trouble lifts my legs because my jeans were so heavy! Plus the fact that i had huge streaks of black mascara running from my eyes all the way down my neck! We jumped in our first TokTok a 3 wheller open door taxi and headed back to the hotel for the afternoon! This was about all of Colombo we ended up seeing.

We decided to head into Kandy, a 4 hours drive inland to see the Elephants in Pinnawalla and the Temple of the Tooth in Kandy itself. The drive was a little long, we took one main road into Kandy. The road was lined with shops practically the whole way there! A very interesting drive, we stopped at one point along the road to have pictures taken with a lady whos "job"it was to tie porky pines up in chains and poke them with sticks. We nonetheless had our pictures taken and paid her for her services! Very prickly little things!

The Elephant Orphanage at Pinnawala was amazing. We were able to walk freely with the Elephants and have pictures taken(for a price of course). One little fella was only 2 weeks old! We stopped for a Sri Lanka beer before heading into the centre of Kandy for the night.

Sealine

A group of us decided to head away for the weekend to Sealine. A beautiful resort down the coast of Qatar. We only get one day off so we try to make the most of it! Alex & Kim organized 3 villas for 20 of us and straight from work we headed down. I think we were all surprised to see how amazing the villas were when we got there. Each had dividing concrete walls that ran almost all the way down to the beach, 3 large rooms a dinning area, kitchen area, 3 bathrooms!! Very plush! We had a BBQ and relaxed on our private beach with a few drinks, dancing and good times! It was quite a surreal setting with huge sand dunes in the distance and camels walking along the beach!! Spent Friday by the pool in the resort before heading back to Doha to relax on our Roof. We all had a fantastic time and will probably head back again after the Games!