Over here it is not only the Qataris that drive as if rules are there to be disobeyed. As well one big cause of problems are the masses of Indian workers that got a driving licence. Wherever from I wonder.

Don't be surprised when you are driving along one of the major 3-lane-roads within Doha, approaching a junction with a traffic light and 2 additional lanes for the traffic going left when, suddenly and out of the blue, an old pick-up truck without rear lamps crosses over from the very right to the very left, not checking if there's a car coming from behind. You will most probably see an Indian guy driving the car, ignoring your horn signals and steadily crossing the road. His face most times is showing an expression of heavy surprise, as if he never drove a car before and he wonders why this steel boz around him is moving.

Stopping without indicating it on a straight road, just in front of you? No problem, maybe there was something interesting to see on the pavement, maybe one of the passengers wanted to get out of the car. As well a very likely place to stop the car for a mobile call or just to wait for someone else is within a roundabout, just inches before the next entrance. So that all visibility is taken for those who approach the roundabout. So you have to stop, carefully creep forward and look if the roundabout is empty to enter. Most times during the moment you start to accelerate, the guy also will start moving, of course without indicating anything. Maybe it is a must to deposit the brain before entering the car.

Another thing I dslike over here is the disability to take care of the own brake light bulbs. Once gone in a cars life time, they will never ever be replaced. Breaking and stopping becomes a challenge for the following cars. Especially at night, when some of those specialists save energy by not turning on any light. Or all lights, including front and rear foglamps.

Then safety belts. The majority of Qataris I saw rather trust their airbags, probably made by "Insh'allah", than wearing safety belts. Ok, when you hit a small saloon car with your 3-ton-V8-4-wheeler, you probably don't care about the little crash and this scratching noise somewhere in the front. You just drive through, that's it. But as well, they don't think about their kisds. Very often they jump through the car, not belted, no kids seat, standing in front with their heads just inches from the windscreen. Some even are standing on the passenger seat, looking out of the sun roof. One hard braking maneouvre, one slight crash: that was it. But nobody thinks of that. Well, maybe it is a quick death, when you go 120 within the city...

Others belt themselves, but maybe not quite appropriate.

At several locations within the city you can see these lollipops:



Either in red or green they are overtopping the surrounding buildings. They are indications for hospitals. Green for adults, red for children. Easily to see already in the distance, they function as landmarks in emergencies.

A good idea which could have been adapted in Europe. If the buildings were not as high.

James Bond.



Unfortunately he wasn't sitting in this car. But it is a nice co-incidence after I saw Jesus last week.

Let's see who is next.

and, adapting to the modern world, using a car instead of a donkey.

I missed it yesterday, as I did not have access to the blog. The celebration of 1000 days being online here. After a lot more days on the other blog.

So as a short info: over here everything is fine, Ramadan is over, so are the eid al fitr holidays now. Back in the office to continue working, some important events in the queue to come within the next days.

I hope there will be time to write again.

Fortunately now it is almost over, but a few days ago, on Friday, September 22nd, it was almost not to stand for me.

The evening before we met with several other Germans at the Qatar Bowling Centre to play a few games as a small competition. Four of each company formed a team, some companies started with two teams each.

After a short round to warm up the competition started. 3 rounds to filter out the best team, as well the best single player of all teams was awarded a small cup, too.

As our team was just set up the day before, we did not win, but reached a good 3rd place. As well one of our players was third best of the single competition. But exactly this fact that we just started this night playing the game, it caused big pain afterwards. I think Churchill was right when he said:

No sports!

For the last few weeks it started now. And regarding what the colleagues say, it will become worse.

Humidity.

During the day temperatures now rise above 40 centigrades, last week the papers wrote it hit almost 47 during daytime. But this is not bad, as it is quite dry heat and you can stand it. For a short time, of course.

It is after sunset when it starts. All those wearing spectacles and having gone to a club in wintertime know it. You enter the club from the freezing cold outside and immediately you cannot see anything anymore. Because of the glasses getting steamed up. This is what happens over here when you leave the climatised office for entering your car in the evening. Immediately outside you are out of sight.

You can feel it as well on the palms. It feels like a film of oil is covering them immediately, you start feeling wet and sweaty, even breathing feels strange. But we were told that this will only last for two months so that at the end of the year it might stop.

Lucky us.

Now we are entering the hot time of the year over here in Qatar and besides the roads you can see that summer is coming.

All date palms are now carrying big bushes of ripe dates, all having turned from green to an orange brown within the last days. Here and there already they start dropping onto the floor, but sometimes you also can see that people started pulling nets around the bushes to easily harvest the fruit.

Qatar is one of the countries that I've been to which has quite strict rules regarding traffic violations. This is no surprise when you've been here driving around with your car. Although there are roundabouts at almost every junction, the rules there are mostly ignored by the Qataris themselves. It already happened to me several times that I was stopping at the entrance of such roundabout because from the left hand side there were cars coming. The same moment I stopped a Qatari passed me full speed on the left hand side into the roundabout, disregarding the other cars.

Well, I think one of the proverbs I heard from a colleague is quite right. You can take a man out of the desert, but you can't take the desert out of a man.

Some of the roundabouts are now being equipped with traffic lights as there are always traffic jams there. And of course at the big junctions. It seems that the obeying of regulations is not that common, when you have a look at the warning signs also shown in the big malls.



As a rough estimation, 10.000 Riyals equals the amount of 1700 Euros or almost 2750 US-Dollars.

Things you should avoid over here in Doha (at least in the summer) is getting up late on Fridays and having a shower.

Of course you can get up late and smell like a skunk for the rest of the day, but for those with hygienic attitudes I'd recommend not to take your shower later than 7 in the morning.

As usual over here most houses have got an outside reservoir for water, mainly installed on the roof. Automatically filled by the local water pressure this reservoir keeps some pressure even when the water supply should accidentally stop. But it is exposed to the sun throughout the day.

Sunrise over here is around 5 in the morning, from then on the natural heater does its best to increase the temperature of the water tanks on house roofs.

My experience today, gotten up very late and trying to have a shower around noon, was that for a short moment the shower was still refreshing, using the cold water which was still stored within the pipes, but suddenly the temperature went up to hot. And the tab was opened in "icecold" position only.

I knew about it from earlier experiences, but I hope that I learn quickly. And remember the next time.