flu

Man, last week really sucked. I came down with some kind of flu/cold that had me in bed for days. By Tuesday I was feeling a little better but by the next day it'd come back again so I had to take Thursday off as well to recover. Mom came down from Canada on Tuesday evening and she got off the plane sick with a nasty cold, which meant that for the next few days we just sat at home being miserable and going through dozens of tissues. I am sure by the end of this week I will have mom's cold and she will have come down with mine. Joy.

Stupid internet connections

I'm trying to change my profile picture but the connection is so bad it can't upload - stupid compound internet connections.

Upcoming Critical Thinking conferences

Now it has been a while since I have done a "critical thinking" post, which is funny because originally that was the whole point of the blog! So now would be a good time to mention some upcoming conventions on critical thinking:

The Amazing Meeting 7 in Las Vegas, July 9-12, otherwise known as TAM7. They used to hold this convention in January which suited me fine because it was when I would go to Canada to visit the family so I would pop down to Las Vegas for the convention, which was how I got to TAM 3, 4 & 5 (I believe a detailed summary my TAM5 experience is available on this blog). Unfortunately the timing of the convention was bad for teachers and educators so they shifted it to the summer which means I can no longer go. Maybe that won't stop you though -- check out the list of speakers and sign up.

The location in Las Vegas, while convenient for North Americans, was a little more difficult for Europeans to get to so someone is organising the first TAM UK this October 3rd-4th in London. That is a bit closer to home for me so I'm seriously considering going to it. I'll know my schedule better in a few months time. Meanwhile if you live in the UK or Europe you should consider attending. TAMs are great fun and you meet a lot of people. Details are still being worked out so check JREF for updates.

There is another convention organised by UK Skeptics this September 18-20. So there is another possibility for those of you who can't make TAM UK.

And finally the JREF forum has a section where people post upcoming skeptic events. Many cities have skeptic groups that do periodic events or even once a month pub meetings. I know that people regularly post about upcoming events in places like Vancouver, Houston, Calgary, Seattle and Toronto so if you're interested in meeting other skeptics check out the forum and see if there is an event near you.

Qatar Natural History Group

So the other day I went to a dinner to celebrate the 30th anniversary of the Qatar Natural History Group (QNHG), of which I've been a member pretty much since I've been here. I appreciate the QNHG because thanks to the organisation I've done all sorts of things I would never have even known about. They organise once a month lectures, small half-day "rambles" around the city or the countryside, and longer field trips to interesting sites in Qatar. It was through them that I went digging for desert roses, scratching for fossilised shark teeth, swimming in the Inland Sea, exploring rock carvings, archaeological digs, and abandoned villages.

Anyway the entertainment for the dinner was a group of young Qatari men performing traditional sword dancing. Apparently they were part of a club at the University they attended where they learn, and thus preserve, Qatari traditions and culture. They performed a couple of dances for us, which consisted of them forming two lines facing each other and chanting in rhythm to the music while one person from each side would go into the middle. The two men in the middle would circle one another and twirl their swords at each other in rhythm to the music. As far as I could tell the swords were real but their movements were slow so there was no worry that they were going to hurt one another. It was a great and appropriate entertainment to the dinner, and it was something I'd only seen live once before.

Men standing in lines and dancing to a rhythm, usually with swords or canes, is a common traditional dance in the Middle East and I occasionally see them on TV as I'm flipping past Arabic channels. Kuwaitis, Qataris, Saudis, Omanis, all cultures in the Arabian Peninsula appear to have a version of this type of dance. As far as I can tell it is for men only, women in the region may have their own dances but I doubt they are displayed in general public. Maybe in women-only gatherings such as weddings are the traditional dances performed?

Anyway if you're interested in seeing traditional Arabic dancing try searching YouTube, I am sure someone has posted some video clips of this type of dancing.

Soccer

Doha is a very unusual place, a city of less than a million people in the Middle East yet I sometimes cannot get over the high-quality sporting events that occur here. I have already mentioned tennis and how I've seen both the top men's and women's players here. There was also the Asian Games where the top athletes from all over Asia competed. There was also the Motor GP event last year I went to.

So this Wednesday there was an event at the local soccer stadium, a 15-minute walk away. The captain of the local soccer club, Al-Sadd, was retiring so in his honour they arranged for a friendly match with...


... AC Milan !!

Yep, AC Milan was playing 15 minute walk away from my apartment. No, not their junior team, the star team. Caca, Ronalhino, Beckham, they were all there. Bizarre, huh? Who would have thought you could see one of the top soccer teams in the world in Doha.

Now due to injury Caca and Ronalhino did not play but they were still there and gave a small award to the retiring captain at half time. Beckham and the others did play. Because it was a friendly I can't say that the game was very exciting, for the most part AC Milan took it easy and did not make many exciting plays. I guess they did not want to embarrass the Qatari team too much which was unfortunate because the crowd would have loved to have seen a lot of world-class play. They did score two great goals but generally just passed the ball around taking care not to wear themselves out too much. Al-Sadd of course were playing their hearts out and they did score a goal (and I think it was legit, I don't think AC Milan were being nice and letting them have a goal) but the score ended 2-1 for AC Milan.

Anyway it was neat to have been able to see AC Milan, it's unlikely that I will ever get the chance to see them play again.


p.s.: anyone who watched the game find it odd that Al-Sadd only did short corner-kicks? You would think if ever there was a chance of scoring against a much better team it would be on firing a corner straight into the crowd in front of the goal. At first I thought that Al-Sadd were deliberately doing it, to prevent heads knocking together going for the corner kick and potentially injuring an AC Milan player, but AC Milan had no issue with firing their corner kicks into the group. Weird.

Medical & Tennis

Well I went to the clinic today to get my stitches taken out and get the results of the biopsy. Turns out everything is okay, it was a non-malignant nevus. Hooray! I now have a small scar above my left eyebrow but that's okay, better safe than sorry. Overall that was a quick and painless experience. It is good to get the stitches out though. Because the stiches were just above my eyebrow everyone whose saw it thought at first I had been in a fight. One Arab guy even asked if I was married because he wondered if my wife had hit me! (Maybe things like that happen all the time in this part of the world??)


I've now started playing tennis again after almost 3 years. I used to play all the time in Bermuda, sometimes up to three times a week, but I arrived in Doha in May so it was too hot to play tennis here. I played squash instead, messed my elbow up, didn't play any racket sports for months, then it got hot again, then I got repetitive strain injury, then my knees, etc etc. So now a small group of us are playing every Saturday afternoon and my knees don't seem to mind.

But wow -- does my technique ever suck now.

That first time playing I literally could not sustain a rally, or even get most of my returns in the court. Didn't get a single first serve in, and probably missed about half of my second serves. If all the people I used to play tennis with in Bermuda could have seen me play they would have been horrified. Thankfully when I played again this past weekend I started getting my groove and things greatly improved from the previous week. Still nowhere near the level I was at back in Bermuda but I was just grateful for just the quick improvement. At least now I won't be embarrassed to play tennis. Which is good because I always enjoyed playing, it is my favourite sport and probably the only one I am reasonable at.

National Day

Today is Kuwait's National Day, which happens to tie in well with tomorrow -- Kuwait's Liberation Day. The Liberation Day celebrates the liberation of Kuwait from Iraq after the first Gulf War in the 90s. I remember being in Kuwait a couple of years ago and many of the buildings we visited had pictures of what they looked like after the Iraqis left. For the most part the Iraqis really laid waste to the city, many of Kuwait City's large buildings were ruined or burnt, and the iconic Kuwait Towers was apparently used as target practice. There is probably still a bit of resentment in Kuwait over what happened.

When I was there all of the ruins had been cleaned up and there was no sign of the war damage except for one building. In a suburban neighbourhood was a house that was used as a base by resistance forces but the Iraqis had discovered it, which led to a 24+ hour siege/battle between the resistance forces and the Iraqi military. I think by the end of it the Iraqis even used a tank to shell the house. The resistance fighters inside were eventually killed or captured, with any captured ones being executed within two days.

Four days after the battle the liberation forces entered Kuwait. Shame they were not just a bit earlier.

In memory of the resistance fighters who died in the battle the Kuwaiti government kept the house preserved, bullet holes and all, as a memorial/museum. It is a must-see if you are ever in Kuwait. There are massive gaping holes in the walls from who-knows-what, bullet holes everywhere, and half the roof blown off. They even kept a few wrecked cars from the battle and there is an old Iraqi tank across the street.

We also visited the museum in the suburbs of Kuwait City that had been left untouched by the Iraqi forces so still had all its exhibits. The museum consists of a number of large rooms that you reach through the basement of a non-descript house. The story I've heard is that when the Iraqis invaded the owners of the museum immediately took down any signs identifying the house as a museum, removed road signs pointing to it, then spread rubble around the front of the house to make it look derelict. The ruse worked and the Iraqis never discovered the museum. I could see why as it took my friends and I a long time to find it, to the point where we were knocking on doors in the neighbourhood to ask people where it was. But it was worth it as the collection of Arabic weapons and artefacts was huge and it took us a couple of hours to go through it all.


So why am I talking about Kuwait? Well I have a Kuwaiti friend who invited me and a couple of other guys from work to a function hosted by the Kuwaiti government for National/Liberation day. It was at the Ritz Carlton and since the invitation said it was two hours long I expected a room with maybe a hundred people, some speeches, and waiters wandering around with a few nibbles. What I wasn't expecting was a red carpet with Kuwaiti dignitaries wearing bishts or military uniforms greeting all the guests, followed by a full sit-down buffet dinner! Many of the guests were ambassadors, US military leaders, elite Qataris, and a few hundred others. The Kuwaitis had really splashed out for the function, and when dinner was over more Kuwaiti dignitaries lined up to thank the guests as they left.

After a function like that I felt that the least I could do is tell the wider internet world that today is Kuwait National Day.

Happy National Day to all you Kuwaitis out there!

Arabic

I'm back taking Arabic lessons again, been about a year since I last took lessons. This will make the third time I have taken an Arabic course.

The first time was sponsored by work and was from the Qatar Centre for the Presentation of Islam. The teacher was a very nice Iraqi gentleman by the name of Mr Kamal. The courses were free and, not surprisingly, consisted of 50% learning Arabic and 50% learning about Islam. In the end most of us found that talks about Islam more interesting than the Arabic but there was the occasional heated debate since there were a few devout Christians in the class and at least one Hindu. Once the class ended I had a reasonable knowledge of the script, numbers, how do tell time and a few basic sentences but unfortunately there was no intermediate class so I couldn't really progress.

The next year I took classes at CHN Institute, taught by a Jordanian lady. Learned a bit more on the speaking side but we did not focus on reading/writing Arabic. After the classes ended there were plans to offer an intermediate class but for some reason I couldn't make it, and that was that.

Thankfully due to demand at the office we now have lessons twice a week during lunch, this time from Qatar University. They offered both a beginners and intermediate class so after taking a placement test I was allowed to take the intermediate class. It is taught by a Lebanese gentleman and has so far been the hardest of the three courses that I have taken. It is immersion, the teacher speaks no English during class, and we are expected to write our homework in Arabic script, which I did not have to do in the previous courses. We also received DVDs so that we could practice lessons at home. So far so good, as long as I keep working at it I should get through the class without being completely lost. Luckily a few people in the class are excellent at understanding Arabic (just not good at reading and writing it), so if you're not understanding what the teacher is saying at least there is someone to ask. There are also people in the class who are near-fluent in writing Arabic but cannot really speak the language so there are people you can check your writing with.

I know what you are probably thinking, why are there some people who can read/write it but can't speak it and others who can speak it but weak at writing? Well it generally depends on where you are from. There are countries where the majority of the population is Muslim but the spoken language is not Arabic (Pakistan for example, Turkey is another). As most Islamic schools emphasise being able to read the Qur'an in Arabic Muslims in these countries are taught Arabic script in school so that they can read the Qur'an but since they do not speak the language in everyday life they do not really learn to converse in it. Plus the Qur'an is written in what is called Classical Arabic, which is not the verbal Arabic used in day-to-day life. I will assume an analogy is Middle (Shakespearean) English, English speakers can understand his works but nobody speaks in Shakespearean English anymore.

[Update: I was off the mark about Pakistanis learning Arabic from Qur'an study, Urdu uses Arabic script -- see the comments section]

On the flipside I have just learned from a Kenyan colleague that Swahili is very similar to Arabic and share about 70% of the words. A speaker of Swahili can generally understand spoken Arabic though Swahili is not written anymore using Arabic characters -- about a hundred years ago Swahili switched from being written in Arabic script to Latin script. So if a Swahili speaker has no training in Arabic script they would roughly understand the language but not know how to read/write it. Turkish went through a similar change, switching from Arabic to Latin script in the 1920s, although Turkish only shares about 25% of words with Arabic.

Time to finish my homework. Ma'assalam.

Connections

I had coffee with Karen C the other evening and it was nice to meet her and her daughter before she left to go back to Canada.
Next time Karen be sure to visit the Museum of Islamic Art, okay?

It is kind of odd how many people I have met through Internet connections, I guess it really is the 21st century way of socialising. Aside from three work colleagues who found my blog independently I have also run into two other people in Qatar who knew my blog. But speaking of internet connections it was especially strange when I went to my first Amazing Meeting (skeptics convention sponsored by the James Randi Educational Foundation) and I "knew" so many people from my interactions with them on the JREF forum despite having never met them in person until then. I used to do a lot of postings in various forums but with the repetitive strain injury I don't do it much anymore. And I absolutely do not want to get started on Facebook, Myspace, Classmates, Twitter and other assorted social websites, I just don't have the time and with the strain injury I don't wanna risk getting hooked on it like some people are. Nope, I'm content enough to just have my blog as my main connection to the Internet world so that family and friends know how I'm doing.

Nice meeting you Karen, have a safe journey home.

Surgery

This week I had a mole removed that was just above my left eyebrow. A few months ago it had grown and slightly changed colour, which is a warning sign for a potential cancer. So I went to a dermatologist at a local clinic and once he looked at it through a magnifying glass decided it would be better to have it surgically removed and biopsied.

Now while I have had some grumblings about medical care here ("assembly line" mentality by clinics, language issues) I can certainly never complain about the speed at which things get done. Here is what happened:

Saturday -- see dermatologist (no need to book an appointment, no referral from a GP, just walk in and take a number)
-- go to the surgeon in the same clinic for consultation and filling out the insurance pre-approval forms
Monday -- received a call that the insurance company approved the procedure, consultation with surgeon scheduled for Thursday
Thursday -- consultation with surgeon about the procedure, says I will receive a call later about when the surgery will be held
-- consultation with anaesthesiologist, as the surgeon wants this to be under general anaesthetic. (!!)
Sunday -- receive call about the surgery, scheduled for Tuesday morning.
Tuesday -- go to clinic for the surgery

So that was what, 10 days? I wonder how long it would have taken to get through all of that in Canada. Could have been months.

As to the surgery I was a bit concerned that the surgeon wanted to use general anaesthetic -- the mole wasn't that big I thought. So the anaesthesiologist agreed to ask the surgeon to see if it could be done under local. And I agreed that if the surgeon felt that general anaesthetic was necessary then general anaesthetic it is. I wasn't going to argue the point.

So on Tuesday morning at 8am I arrived at the clinic, and was shown to a private patient room where I could change. It was a pretty nice room with a cabinet to lock your stuff up in, a TV, private bathroom, a bed of course, and a couch for visitors. So I changed into the hospital gown and then a nurse gave me a sedative. 20 minutes later I was wheeled into surgery.

The decision was for general anaesthetic. Now I have never been under a general anaesthetic so I was more intrigued than nervous (or maybe that was the sedative). A mask was put over my mouth so that I could start inhaling some kind of gas and I was told to breathe deeply. I remember thinking, " I wonder how long the anaesthetic will . . ."


And then I woke up back in my room at the clinic!!


Man, that stuff works fast! Apparently I was out for about two hours and I do not remember any of it.

Was served a nice lunch of roasted herb chicken on rice with vegetables and salad. Watched TV for a bit, was given my prescription for antibiotics, and discharged at 3pm. All in all I can't complain.

The wound was sore for the first day but not really painful and I have not taken any painkillers for it. It is now day four and in a few more days and I should be able to take the bandage off and see how it looks. The surgeon already warned me that there will be a scar but that's a small price to pay for removing a potentially cancerous mole, a price I will pay any day. As for the mole I'll call in a couple weeks to see what the results were.

Financial issues in Canada, Dubai and Qatar

Well it would appear that the financial crisis has finally hit Canada. Reports are out that unemployment rose 129,000 in January. That is a heck of a lot of jobs! While the jobless figures in the US got more headlines because 598,000 jobs were lost people forget that Canada only has one-ninth the population of the US, so Canada's job losses would be the equivalent of the US losing more than a million jobs in one month.

Now a recession in Canada was expected. Despite the Canadian banking system weathering the sub-prime crisis better than almost any other Western country Canada exports more than 80 per cent of its goods to the United States. With that kind of trade dependency there is no way Canada can buffer itself against the US recession and it is highly unlikely that Canada will recover until the US does. And not surprisingly the Canadian job losses were mostly in the Manufacturing and Commodities sectors. Here's hoping Canada's stimulus package helps all the newly unemployed.



Qatar appears to be weathering the financial storm much better than most. With its huge capital reserves, small population, and a limited retail property sector, the local banks as well as the government have been cautiously optimistic. There has been a bit of belt-tightening here and there, and anecdotal reports of some job losses, but most of the construction projects are still going and the government remains committed to its current spending budget. I have noticed a slight improvement in the traffic on the morning commute but it is so small I can't really say that it is due to there being less people commuting to work. Sometimes the opening/closing of a road somewhere else in the city can affect traffic patterns, and a co-worker told me two new schools have opened in another part of town so that probably means less parents driving to my neighbourhood to drop off their kids at the nearby schools.

I have heard estimates that the Qatari government could meet its expenditures for the year if oil was $35-$40 a barrel so even if oil stays steady in the mid $40 range the country should be okay. With the current oil prices that does not leave a lot of wriggle room though. I feel more sorry for other oil exporting nations -- countries like Iran and Oman need oil at around $80+ to break even.



As for Dubai things seem are really heading downward. Local reports say that hotel occupancy is down 30 to 40%, and there were rumours that up to 1500 work and residence visas were being cancelled every day. Considering the population of Dubai is maybe 2 million that would be the equivalent of losing around 2% of your population every month! A government minister countered the rumours by making a statement that the net number of visas being issued and cancelled was a 1000 increase a day. Um, that would mean a population of Dubai is increasing by 30,000 a month? Any internet commentary that I have read says that can't be true and that maybe the minister was including tourist visas. But the proof is in the pudding, everyone I spoke to who has either been to Dubai recently or knows people who are in Dubai has said the same thing over and over -- the traffic there has gotten remarkably better. In some cases commute times in the morning have been reduced by 50%. Bars that were once standing-room-only-packed you can now get a table at. Taxi drivers are complaining that there is not enough business. Many hotels have dropped rates by half to try to get guests. And the real estate market continues to drop with no end in sight. Numbers like a 60% drop in real estate prices in 2009 have been bantered around but in reality I don't think anyone really knows where it will settle. A friend of mine is going there this weekend, let's see what he has to say.

Am I surprised? Yes and no. I had been predicting a crash in Dubai on this blog for a while now but I thought it would happen a bit sooner and I certainly didn't think it would be due to a global financial crisis, I just figured the local property bubble in Dubai would burst on its own.

I will keep monitoring what happens there over the next few months, hopefully cash-rich Abu Dhabi or other Gulf state will help bail it out (but that will definitely come at a price) otherwise Dubai is looking at a long, long financial crisis.

Books

As part of my Christmas holidays I also picked up a lot of books, one of my favourite gifts. Because I'm mostly a non-fiction reader my family just gives me a gift card to a nearby bookstore so that I can buy the books I want. So now I have a huge backlog of books to read, even a couple that I had picked up from the book exhibition in Doha a month or so ago. So what is on the reading list for the next couple of months?

The Cloudspotter's Guide -- Gavin Pretor-Pinney, because I have always wondered what the different cloud types were

The Crusades through Arab Eyes -- Amin Maalouf, history class always showed this from the western point of view

The Story of Islamic Spain -- Syed Azizur Rahman, maybe I will go there one day
The Ancestor's Tale -- Richard Dawkins, I owned this book once but left it behind in Bermuda because it is a big book but I missed it and look forward to reading it again

The Book of Contemplation, Islam and the Crusades -- Usama ibn Munqidh, an actual historical account of the Crusades which should tie in to the other Crusades book mentioned above

This Is Your Brain on Music - The Science of a Human Obsession -- Daniel J. Levitin, because I like music

The Brain That Changes Itself - Stories of Personal Triumph from the Frontiers of Brain Science -- Norman Doidge, M.D., because I find tales of psychology and neurology interesting

Good Germs, Bad Germs -- Jessica Snyder Sachs, another area I do not know much about, maybe after reading this I'll know what to do next time I get a stomach bug when travelling

Secrets of Mental Math -- Arthur Benjamin and Michael Shermer, math & science, what else needs to be said?

And finally a re-read, A History of Ancient Egypt -- Nicholas Grimal. Read this book about a year ago but my mother is coming to visit in late March and we are going to Luxor for 4 days so I need to brush up on my ancient Egypt.

Spring cleaning

For Christmas I received a number of shirts, socks, underwear etc so I figured it was about time to do a spring cleaning of my closet and dresser to throw out old clothes. I knew there would be stuff to throw away because I am one of those guys who never throws old clothes away. If I opened my sock drawer and see an old pair of socks I'll just grab a newer pair to wear, I'll never actually throw out the old socks. The last time I did a "spring cleaning" was when I moved to Qatar almost 3 years ago so it was high time for one.

Man, did I have a lot of old clothes. The old socks and underwear alone filled a small shopping bag. The shirts, work shirts, old trousers, and even an old robe filled up an entire black garbage bag! The socks and undies I threw out, the garbage bag of shirts I'm holding onto until I find a charity or a group of needy labourers to give it to. A lady in the office thinks she knows of a group who could use the clothes so I will wait and see if she has found someone.

Cleaning out the closet also allowed me to take an inventory of the remaining clothing. Even after getting rid of the old stuff I still have 40 T-shirts and 13 casual collared-shirts, yet I only have one pair of shorts. 40 T-shirts!! Geez, where did all these T-shirts come from? Looking at them I can tell that at least a dozen of them are souvenir shirts from my various travels, the rest are just T-shirts I picked up while shopping or gifts from family and friends.

Y'know, I have always considered myself a bit of a anti-materialist, someone who doesn't go off the deep-end shopping for stuff or spending hundreds of dollars for high-end brands. Given the amount of clothes I had I guess I should reconsider my views about myself, and be a little more careful about shopping for unnecessary things. I have now made a promise to myself not to buy any more shirts. Who needs 40 t-shirts? I'm now set for t-shirts for the next 3-5 years.

I do need to go shopping for a pair of shorts though.

Canada

It was great to be in Canada again (or more specifically, Alberta) to visit the family, despite the economic gloom. Economically things seem to be getting pretty bad. Housing prices are going down, unemployment is going up, and people are generally nervous about the future. All in all Canada made it through the sub-prime mortgage fiasco quite well, federal banking regulators did not allow sub-prime mortgages in Canada and the banking system was better leveraged than in the US, but that in-and-of-itself is not enough to protect Canada from the spill over in the US economy. When you export over 80% of your goods to the United States any economic decline in the US will affect you greatly. Until the US can turn itself around Canada is in for bleak times. Apparently the government is budgeting for a deficit this year -- the first one in over a decade.

Despite previously mentioning that housing prices were going down the prices in Calgary and surrounding area were still absurdly high. I saw real estate ads in Canmore advertising condos for $800,000+, which for a town of maybe 15,000 people seemed really ridiculous to me. You could get a decent place in Vancouver for that price.

I spent the holiday going tobogganing, swimming, shopping, doing a day trip to Canmore, waffle breakfast at a family friend's, and enjoying a Chinese New Year dinner with my brother's in-laws. I also received as a Christmas gift a facial and massage from a men-only spa. It was a surprise, I was only told one morning to be ready to go somewhere at 9:30 and it was not until I was ready that my sister-in-law told me where I was going. My brother Mark had a facial and massage done at the same time as well. Liked the massage, the facial was so-so but my face did feel smoother so I guess it did work.

My niece Karis is now 4-years old and had developed a bit of attitude from when I saw her last year. It was so funny, whenever she would get upset (which sometimes was over the most minor things) she would give you this look of utter indignation then run to her room sobbing. It was so primadonna/drama queen you couldn't help but laugh. She would even open the door of her bedroom occasionally to make sure that you could hear she was crying. It was so cute. My nephew Aiden is on the verge of walking and was overall a happier baby than last year, which my sister-in-law credits mostly to him moving to solid foods. He was also able to shake his head "no" which was handy during meals as when he was finished eating he would just shake his head when you put the food to his mouth. Mostly though he liked to grab whatever item was handy and hand it to you, usually with a "Da!". He really liked to do this and I'm sure if you let him he would hand you every toy and loose piece of paper in the room. He also drools a lot so I liked referring to him as "drool monster". He could soak through a bib in under a half-hour.

That reminds me my first night in Calgary I was given another surprise gift -- babysitting duty! My brother and his wife had to visit a potential school for Karis that evening so they left me with the kids. Now I have been a lifelong bachelor but to perhaps your surprise I was well versed in how to take care of a four-year-old and a one-year-old.

Yeah right ... I'm a bachelor! I had no idea what I was doing! Thankfully the kids were good and we spent the evening playing. I was glad that Aiden's diaper didn't need changing because I had no idea how to do it and my brother didn't leave any instructions anyway. Well it turns out that Aiden's diaper actually did need changing, I just didn't realise it. That, and he didn't cry either. Whoops, sorry about that Aiden. Despite the red butt I still say you we're better off waiting for your parents to come home anyway.

One thing I should not have done during the holiday was eat as much as I did. My diet went out the window for the holidays (as usual) as I generously ate nice meals, wonderful deserts, and excellent Christmas baking. *sigh* I seem to really lack of self-control when it comes to food, especially sweets. Anyway I am back in Doha and getting back on track. Today's dinner was steamed vegetables with a bit of pasta. I just have to make sure I do not dip into the treats at work. I do miss Tim Horton's coffee though, we were having it every day.

As for my knees my right knee is doing okay. Not great, but okay. I was inconsistant with exercising during the holidays so I am getting that back on track as well. Left knee has not had problems for well over a month which makes me a happy camper. Just gotta lose some weight.

Christmas in January

Looking back through my blog I realise that it just briefly touched on why I go to Canada in January (and that blog post was 2 years ago). Well about five years ago when I was working in Bermuda I was unable to get time off for the Christmas holidays -- it was my turn to be at the office while everyone else went away for the holidays. When I informed my mother that I was not going to be able to make it for Christmas she said "Well then we will just have Christmas when you can make it." And so arrangements were made for the family to meet in mid-January for Christmas. And you know what -- we liked it so much we've done it every year since!

Why was Christmas in January such a big hit?

• Airfares were cheaper
• airports aren't the crowded zoo they are during the holidays
• it was easy for everyone in the family to get time off work
• the malls are not crowded and have tons of sales
• my brother and his wife no longer had to worry about whose family they would spend Christmas day with. (hers on Dec 25th, his in mid-January)

And when I mean we have Christmas in January I mean we do the whole holiday tradition: tree, presents, turkey dinner, the whole 9 yards. It's nice, I really enjoy it. That we do not have Christmas on December 25 doesn't really phaze me at all. I think this year it was on January 22.

Merry belated Christmas everyone!

London

I always love visiting London but most times I am there in January so it is usually gray, miserable and cold. This time I was a bit better, the occasional bit of sunshine and temperatures around 7 or 8. I was also in better spirits because prices in London were a bit cheaper thanks to the pound plummeting against the US dollar in recent months, something like 30%. So things went from being stupidly expensive to "kind of expensive".

One surprise came the first morning I was there and I went to the nearby post office to mail a package. At 11:00am there was a long queue and after I waited in line for a while there was a bit of commotion behind me. It appeared that one lady jumped the queue a bit and went in front of another lady. Here's an approximation of how the conversation went:

"Hey, I was in the queue you know!"
"F*** you".
"WHAT! F*** you, you #^$&%@ !!"
" $^%$^# !!"
" *%#^& !!"

etc, etc. a few other people got involved as well shouting insults and stuff. Needless to say I was quite taken aback by the whole thing and couldn't wait to get out of there. I have never experienced such instantaneous swearing for queue-jumping in Canada.

Usually when us North Americans think of the English we tend to view them as polite and mannerly. Most of them are, but the English seem to have it at both ends of the spectrum. For every polite one there are downright crude ones. Cruder than I would usually see in North America. Who knows why that is, I'll leave it to the English to figure out.

Otherwise things went great during my brief stay. My friends and I went to the pub one evening and had dinner at a Brazilian restaurant the next. I did find some decent deals on Oxford Street so I picked up a few things. I also looked around a few stories in Kensington but the huge sales there were not enough to put things in my price range. And my friend Mary came up from Bournesmuth (sp?) so that we could tour the National Gallery and have lunch at a nice restaurant at the top floor of the Portrait Gallery with a view of Nelson's Column and the skyline of London.

The Return

Okay, I'm back! Actually I got back a couple of days ago but it takes a while to recover from 25 hours of travel over 10 time zones. I also had to go to the office straight from the airport so needless to say that work day was not particularly fun. I have recovered now.

Amusingly enough the weather was colder in London than most days I was in Calgary. The weather in Calgary was mostly sunny with temperatures around -3 to +6 although one day it reached +10. Since it was the dry cold, as opposed to the wet cold in London, it was a lot more pleasant. The family and I went for a walk in a town near the Rockies, went tobogganing, shopping for presents, and generally had a relaxing time. There were a few days when it got a lot colder, around -13 to -20, but on days like that you just stayed inside.

I was only in London for a couple of days but that was long enough to visit friends, do a bit of shopping, and see the National Gallery. I like London a lot, great city.

What I do not like is dealing with overcrowded airports (i.e Heathrow). And for the second year in a row I have had to surrender something at Heathrow. Last year it was the maple butter that I bought at duty-free in Canada (paste over 100ml in carry-on, no it does not matter that it was purchased at the duty-free in North America), this year it was two small jars of honey. I didn't realise that you are not allowed to import honey into the UK from the Middle East so Customs seized it. *sigh*, my fault are not looking it up beforehand I guess. I am still a little miffed about it because it was expensive Yememi honey that I was bringing for a gift.

Anyway I'll blog a bit more about my vacation over the next few days, I've still got to unpack.

Vacation

Vacation time again, this time for my annual trip back home to Canada. I fly to London where I am staying with my friend David and his fiancee for a couple of days before flying on to my brother's place in Calgary for 2 weeks. Blog posts will be sporadic I'm afraid but I will see if I can make one or two during my trip.

Back in Doha on the 28th.

More tennis!

Once again there is more a great tennis in Doha! The Qatar Open has as its big draws Federer, Nadal, Murray and Roddick, and I was fortunate to go to three of the days.

Much of the downsides of tennis in Doha were still there: school groups, people bringing in babies etc, and the first two days I attended it was dang cold. I was prepared this year -- I had four layers on and gloves. Last year I went straight from work wearing just a suit and froze my butt off. This year I was cozy.

Two of the days I went with Kamahl and his in-laws. Now his in-laws are Scottish so you know we had to go watch Andy Murray. We had purchased tickets over a week ago, gambling that Murray was going to be playing on the first day since he was champion last year. We were half-right, he was playing but it was doubles not singles. The only 'big' player playing singles that evening was Andy Roddick. So we watched the Roddick game before moving to Court 2 to watch Murray. Turns out seating at Court 2 was small (~150 seats in a total of 5 rows) so we were really close to the game. Kamahl's in-laws enjoyed the fact that they got to watch Andy Murray from about 30 feet away. We were sitting in seats by the baseline and during one game a long ball was called in by the umpire and Murray disputed it while we were all shouting "out" from our seats. The call stood, then Murray turned to us and said "How far was it out, this much?" while holding his hands about a foot apart. I don't think it was out by that much but we all laughed.

The best night was the quarter finals. While Roddick had an easy time with his game, the next game featuring Nadal and Gael Monfils was a different story. I had heard of Monfils (ATP rank #13) but had never seen him play. Turns out he has a very aggressive style and a bit of entertaining cockiness, like doing little moves after he scores a big point. By the middle of the first set the crowd was supporting him, and after he won the first set 6-4 with some excellent tennis the crowd was fully behind him to beat Nadal. The second set saw more excellent play by him and the wound up beating Nadal 6-4 6-4, probably the biggest win of his career.

I was hoping that he would win the semifinals against Roddick but alas he lost in three sets.

As for the other quarters Murray and Federer won their matches in straight sets. Federer's match was interesting as he was playing against Kohlschriber (ATP rank #28) so everyone was expecting a cakewalk. After winning the first set 6-2 Federer was up 4-1 when suddenly his game really started getting mediocre and he was missing a lot of shots. Kohlschriber came back from a 4-1 deficit to take it to a tie-breaker game! And in the tie-breaker game Kohlschriber went up 6-3, thus had triple-set point, but blew it and Federer managed to take the second set and the match 6-2, 7-6 (8). People were a little surprised that Federer had to scramble for that set and questioned whether he was fully in form.

Federer played Murray in the semis and lost in three sets so that appeared to answer that.

Murray and Roddick are playing in the finals right now. Sadly I did not have tickets but c'est la vie. I'm rooting for Murray.

Blog Spring Cleaning

As part of the new year I have decided to do a bit of spring cleaning on the blog. I'm going to start going back through the old postings and start adding some keyword references to them to make it easier for people to find certain categories of posts. It will not be like some blogs that wind up with 35 different categories of stuff, I figure four or five categories will do, even if one of them has to be "miscellaneous", "other" or something like that. As you can see I've started already.

I have also updated the links section to add some other interesting sites that I like:

Quackwatch.org: an extensive website that investigates and discusses medical scams, dubious "alt-med" cures, and other forms of quackery. I always go here first whenever I hear about some unusual medical procedure or practice. As part of its work the website will also list of things that you should be looking for when seeking treatment for various conditions.

Another web site that I occasionally browse is SkyscraperCity, a set of forums where people post pictures and discuss various skyscrapers that are going up around the world. I have found it to be a gold mine of information on the skyscrapers that are being built in Doha as enthusiasts post all sorts of information: name, planned height, completion dates, what the tower will be used for etc.

Why pay money for some classic novels when you can download for free any books whose copyright has expired at The Gutenburg Project. This website has thousands and thousands of books and other materials with expired copyrights. Here is where you can get works by Charles Dickens, Voltaire, Mark Twain, Shakespeare and so forth -- absolutely free. I think the main website has materials up to 1923, but there are offshoot websites based in other countries where you can get more recent stuff due to the differences in copyright laws. For example, Gutenburg Australia has the complete works of H.P Lovecraft (d. 1932) because the copyright on his works has expired in Australia. You could spend hours just browsing the titles available!

And finally the forums used by expats in Qatar to discuss what is going on locally (and maybe vent some frustrations) Qatarliving.com. Great source for up-to-date info and rumours about Qatar.