New Year Cleanup

January 1 was a bank holiday here in Qatar so I had the day off to sleep in and get some things organized.

1) Went through the medicine cabinet and threw out all expired medications

2) Went through the fridge and cupboards and threw out all expired food (I'm looking at you there, condiments)

3) Do a general decluttering, my New Year’s Resolution. I’m about a third of the way through that. When I moved to Qatar over 10 years ago I moved here with five suitcases full of clothes and things. That’s it. Now I probably have enough stuff to fill 25 suitcases. Drawers and cupboards full of things that I probably haven't looked at in years. So I’m slowly going through my apartment and getting rid of stuff. Some of it is throw-away (such as a half used bottle of car wax from six years ago), some of it I'm putting in a pile to see if my cleaning man wants any of it before I throw it out (or, if clothing, give it to charity).

4) Finally I turned in my liquor permit today to get the deposit back. What? Why would I do that? In the past a liquor permit required a QR 1000 deposit, there was no fee to use. Now they have implemented a fee, roughly QR 150-400 depending on how many years your residence permit lasts. I think for me it would be QR 250 every two years. I pretty much never use my permit, I think I only used it once in the last two years and that was only because I had to go to the liquor store to renew my permit, so while I was there I picked something up. I don’t really drink at home, and almost all my friends here are Muslims, so alcohol is just not a big factor for me here. I didn't see the need to pay money for the permit so I gave it up. I can still go to the bar if I ever want to drink something.

Maybe I’ll join a gym as well? How many people have done that and only gone a few times?