Happy Valentine's Day!

This was in today's paper...

The Pearl and The Doha Golf Club

Lindsay and I had lunch with a few of our colleagues at a nice Italian restaurant right along the water.  It felt like we were in Florida and not in Doha.  The condo that you see in the background are all empty!  Apparently, I have been told that the developer ran out of money, so they had to go to the government and local investors to get more funding.  Since they follow Islamic Law, alcohol is no longer served in The Pearl.

BACKGROUND:

The Pearl-Qatar (TPQ) in Doha, Qatar, is an artificial island spanning nearly four million square metres. It is the first land in Qatar to be available for freehold ownership by foreign nationals.  As of spring 2012, there are more than 5,000 residents, compared to more than 3,000 residents in spring of 2011.

Once fully completed, The Pearl will create over 32 kilometers of new coastline, for use as a residential estate with an expected 15,000 dwellings and 45,000 residents by 2015. Developed by United Development Company and planned byarchitecture and design firm Callison, the island is located 350 metres offshore of Doha’sWest Bay Lagoon area.

In 2004, when the project was first revealed, the initial cost of constructing the island stood at $2.5 billion. It is now believed the project will cost $15 billion upon completion.

After lunch, we headed over to the Doha Gold Course.  Same same, but different.

BACKGROUND:

The Doha Golf Club in Doha, Qatar, is an 18-hole, 7,374-yard, par 72 championship course that was designed by Peter Harradine. The Doha Golf Club is also one of the first grass golf course ever built in the Middle East. Open to nonmembers, it has a 2 808 yards long floodlit nine-hole academy course, and a clubhouse with three restaurants and a golf shop.

The club hosts the Qatar Masters golf tournament.

National Sports Day

The logo contains six colors which are maroon (the color of Qatar’s flag), light red (energy, happiness and sun rise), green (life, nature and growth), black (energy and power), yellow (creativity) and Blue (Peace and Confidence). 

This is the official web site:  http://www.sportday.qa

The holiday is a way of combating rising rates of obesity and diabetes here in the Middle East.  I believe that it is also to showcase the "sporting" life of the country in advance of the 2022 World Cup and the Olympic Bid that the country is making.

Apparently, the traffic was so bad, several members of our staff tried to attend the events but were stuck in traffic at three different locations.  They ended up driving for three hours and heading home.

We just stayed in the compound.  Linds worked out and I cleaned up the gm that no one in our compound takes care of or cleans up.  I cleaned up the weights, dusted and mopped the floors.  Someone has got to do the dirty work!

The highlight of my day was my trip to the gas station.  I saw an East Indian driver hand his phone over to an employee at Burger King.  He barely spoke any English.  Since I am nosey and and need to know, I asked him what he was doing.  He was picking up BK combos for his Qatari employee who stayed home on National Sports Day to order take out!!!  No wonder there is a problem here, no one does anything for themselves, not even get off the couch and out of the house to order fast food.

The future is looking...

The second "R"

Check out the ammunitions box that I found on our desert excursion the other day.  It has now been repurposed as a strawberry planter!  Not bad eh.

Losail International Circuit

There are a few perks to living in Qatar...this is one of them.  

I can see the Losail International Circuit Moto GP track from our place and I can hear the super bikes storming around the track.  I have been itching to get out there and I finally pulled the trigger today.  I took Aislyn and Nate to watch the local riders practice.  They had never watched motorcycles race like this before, so I was very excited for them.  The racers were going 300kph on the straight past the grandstand and they were "just practicing".  

The cool thing is that we ran into a lady on the way in.  I played the dumb card and asked where we should go.  She said, go to paddock #7 and let them know that I sent you.  So, Aislyn, Nate and I poked our heads into paddock #7 and made our acquaintances.  Too funny!  Before we knew, we were trackside and meeting the riders.  We ended up looking around the track and snuck into the VIP area and had a seat in the grandstands to scout out seats for the Moto GP event in April.  

The Moto GP event is a night event because of the heat and the only night event on the Moto GP schedule.  Just in case you were wondering, Moto GP bikes are essentially prototypes worth millions of dollars.  They produce 220 - 240 HP and only weight 300 lbs.  They are faster than Formula One cars and the riders are absolutely skilled and/or nuts.  Valentine Rossi is the King of the sport.  A great documentary that highlights his career is "Fastest" narrated by Ewan MacGregor.

Background:

The fabulous Losail International Circuit lies on the outskirts of Doha, the capital city of Qatar. Built in little over a year, the track cost $58 million USD and required round-the-clock dedication from almost 1,000 workers in order to get it ready for the inaugural event - the Marlboro Grand Prix of Qatar on the 2nd October 2004.

The track itself is a flowing layout of 5.4 kilometres, surrounded by artificial grass designed to prevent sand from the neighbouring desert from blowing onto the circuit. The main straight is over a kilometre in length and there is a good mix of medium and high-speed corners, including a couple of quick left-handers which has proved particularly popular with the riders.

In 2008 Qatar celebrated the first night time Grand Prix in history, following the construction of permanent outdoor lighting. The switch to night time racing was a success and has continued to be so, with the Qatar event now established as one of the most spectacular on the MotoGP calendar.

Camels, Sewage Lake, Manatee fossils.

If you go ahead a couple of more posts, you will see the beginning of this post.  Sorry for messing the order up, but it is all part of the same trip and I wasn't about to re-post because the internet is at a snails pace here!!!

Camels...

This is one of a number of sewage lakes.  There is a congo line
of trucks that dump the raw sewage round the clock!

Poo-pee!

Everyone is standing around ancient Manatee fossils.

The Manatee fossilized ribs.

Nate has a Manatee rib between his knees here.

Cute kids.

On our way to the "petrol" station.  I still call it the gas station.