DOHA DIARIES: MY WEEK IN THE DESERT #17

Sunday 29 March 2015



I must confess the past week has left me exhausted, and I've been a little un-enthused about blogging. I'm sure all other bloggers know exactly what I mean by this - as much as I love my blog, sometimes life just takes over and writing has to take a backseat.

Despite my 6-day week at the office, I have still had a few lovely evenings and one lovely day off.

Monday night was this weeks date night, and Matt and I set off to La Spiga at the W hotel on my request.


Clearly somebody couldn't wait to get stuck in to the bread basket! Whilst this in no way compares to the bread basket at the Anvil Rooms, they do have this amazing bread that is almost pastry-like, and tastes just like sausage rolls from the bakery.

I had been craving their gnocchi for weeks, so I was hugely disappointed when it arrived and was absolutely tasteless. I had asked for it with a white sauce instead of as it comes on the menu (I had this when we came to La Spiga to celebrate Jemma's birthday and it was incredible), which they prepared with absolutely no problem, but it just didn't taste of anything at all. The gnocchi was, as always, cooked to perfection but I just wish the sauce had had some flavour.

On Tuesday night I woke up with the makings of a cold. Luckily I had the day off, so Matt and I headed down to the pool for a few hours of sunshine. I had my first swim of 2015, and I'm looking forward to starting swimming regularly now that the weather has warmed up again!


When Matt went off to work, I popped upstairs to grab my laptop and brought it back down to the pool to work from home in the sun, before getting my head stuck in the new book I'm reading.

That evening, we took a walk down to Katara to check out the bazar that has popped up out of nowhere this week. It reminded me of the Ideal Home exhibition in the UK, filled with stalls selling various items - ornaments, Arabic coffee pots ('dallah'), honey, nuts, hair accessories, abayas, jewellery etc.

We only walked down one aisle of stalls and already I couldn't cope with all of the sellers calling out at us so we made a quick exit and headed next door to the temporary stadium playing host to the FIFA Beach Soccer World Cup 2015.


This is one thing that I love about Doha - there are so many sporting events on, particularly at the start of the year, and so many are free to attend (although absolutely chaotic to get to by car - the road to Katara has been absolutely gridlocked all week due to the bizarre bazar and the beach football.) Luckily my apartment is in walking distance, so it would have been rude not to go and check out the event for ourselves.


The Iraq team arrived just ahead of us, and we all made our way up into the stands to get a view of the action.


The evenings match was Lebanon vs Thailand, and the teams took their positions on the pitch and sang their respective National anthems.



Despite the stadium being nowhere near full, there was a good atmosphere as fans cheered and children blew into horns that the stadium attendants were handing out.


The whistle blew, and the action started!



There was a lot of overhead kicking and rolling around in the sand. We left after half an hour or so, and took a wander to Chac'late at Katara as I had a craving for their hot chocolate (I will say this again, the Swiss hot chocolate is the best hot chocolate I have ever had. FACT!)

Such a pretty route to walk for a hot chocolate fix.




I had it to take away, and we wandered back towards home, stopping en-route for Matt to have a Nutella crepe, which didn't last long enough for a photo! I did however take a snap of my beautiful home - it looks amazing at night. I was recently contacted by one of my readers and asked why I chose to live where I live over anywhere else in Doha, and this could possibly be one of the reasons. It really is a stunning property.


On Thursday night, Marion and I took a trip to the Pearl for some food and chats at Shakespeare & Co. I had only been here once before with my mum when she came to stay with me, and it's such a lovely casual dining spot. The inside of the restaurant is gorgeous, with Parisian decor, however it was a lovely warm evening so we sat outside overlooking the beautiful marina.

The Pearl is such a lovely, informal location for lunching and dining, and somewhere that I would love to explore a little more as it's only a short drive from my apartment. With it's abundance of cafes, restaurants and waterways, and not to mention the marina, home to so many stunning yachts, it is a definite 'must-see' for any Doha visitor.

I stayed in on Friday night after work and made soup to ward off my cold, and Saturday night was a very early night in bed with a book due to a 7:30am start in the office today. Rock and roll weekend!! I must say I actually loved being awake at 6:30 this morning, standing on my balcony and watching the sun light up the city. Such a beautiful view to start the new week!


I hope you had a great week, wherever in the world you are reading from, and here's to another!

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