The Chess Game 25th Feb

I've been on spring break for two weeks and have been able to stitch quite a bit. Hopefully I'll get the 4th page finished this year!

Day Trip to Dubai

On Wednesday I took a day trip to Dubai. Two months ago there was a sale on tickets at Flydubai.com and I bought my ticket for the incredible price of QR182( approx $50) and as I knew I would be on Spring Break this week I decided to treat myself.
The flight from Doha to Dubai is less than one hour and I arrived there by 11am. I had a great day, I used the new Dubai Metro to go mall-hopping and managed to visit 3 malls altogether, The first, Mall of the Emirates, has an indoor ski run and is one of the largest malls in the world. After that I went by Metro to the Dubai Mall which is located next to the Burj Dubai( now known as Burj Khalifa).It was there that I bumped into a good friend from Doha and we had lunch together. I bought some Arabic bukhour (incense) that's not available in Doha which I was really pleased with. I also treated myself to some shirts for work. I left the Dubai Mall and headed to Festival City, another mall located near to the airport which also has an Ikea store. By this time I was starting to get tired as by now I was carrying a large shopping bag and my feet and legs were starting to ache.Nevertheless I managed to walk around the whole place and treated myself to a Swavoski pendant and a couple more shirts. At the end I decided to walk around Ikea, but by then every step felt like my feet were made of lead and Ikea is a big shop to walk around as you can't go in a straight line, the walkways meander all through the store.
By 6pm I had had enough and got a taxi to the airport where I met up with my friend and her family for the flight back to Doha.
All in all it was a great day out and I will definitely do it again but next time I'll take a trolley bag to carry my shopping!

I WILL finish this one day!

I haven't stitched for months and I finally got around to picking The Chess Game up at the weekend.I managed approx 300 stitches but they were mostly black but it's a start. I figured out one of the reasons I haven't been able to stitch for a while and it's because my sofa is so uncomfortable.The back cushions seem to have lost their support so I don't feel comfy for long and as any stitcher will tell you , you need to be comfortable in order for the hours of stitching to pass.I decided I need an armchair but that means probably having to buy a whole new sofa set, we need one anyway so I'll be looking for one with separate armchairs.

Cheshire countryside

Same view of my title picture but taken in the summer time.

The school year is over!

It's been more than 6 months since I updated my blog.Time has just flown. The boys have already finished school for the summer and I will be done by June 30th.
It was my birthday last week and once again husband and boys forgot apart from Yusef, he texted me to wish me a happy birthday. The day wasn't totally without joy as some of my oldest friends organised dinner for me at a Thai restaurant. We had a lovely evening and I received loads of lovely gifts from them.There was a Tiramisu cake waiting for me when I got home from my boys. I guess I should tell them well in advance next year!
Stitching- I have hardly stitched in the last few months- I seem to have lost my enthusiasm. I tried picking it up a coupe of weeks ago but it seems progress is so slow, I can stitch for a few hours and maybe only accomplish 100 stitches due to all the colour changes.I have been working on this for 3 years now- I reckon at this rate it will take another 10 years to complete.

December Update

It has been a busy month. At the beginning of December I took advantage of the Eid holiday to spend a few days in the UK visiting family and shopping. We had a great trip although Nasser was slightly disappointed that he didn't see any snow. I had a great time shopping as the pound was cheap and there were bargains to be had in the pre Christmas sales.
After the Eid holiday I was back at work for only 4 days and then it was a national holiday here in Qatar for National Day.There were many activities, a parade, laser show and a fabulous fireworks display on the Corniche. Many people had decorated their cars with flags and stickers and the whole of Doha was festooned with flags.

November 8th update

I am now on page 4 despite not fully completing page 3. It is nice to be able to work on a different part of the pattern and see faster progress. At the moment I am only able to stitch on Friday afternoons as I am so busy in the week with work.
The weather is beautiful now and the extreme heat and humidity of summer is starting to be a distant memory. We still haven't had any rain in our part of Qatar but hopefully we'll be blessed with some soon.
The boys are all well and looking forward to a month off school in December for Eid, Christmas and New Year combined but I only have a week off for Eid as my winter holiday will be at the end of January. I can't believe that we are in the third month of the school year already- time just seems to fly.

The Groves ,Chester

A few people have commented on the black and white picture above of the Groves in Chester so I decided to post another view of the place.The picture was taken in July 2007 and shows the River Dee swollen by the heavy rains of June/July 2007.

Below is an Autumn view of the Old Dee Bridge from the Groves.

A quick update

September has been a busy month. I started back at work on August 31st and Ramadan started on September 1st. Working hours are shorter in Ramadan but it seems the Doha roads have got much, much busier in the last few months so it now takes me 50 minutes to drive 20km to work and at least an hour to drive back.
I was hoping to have the third page of the Chess Game finished by Sept 1st but it hasn't happened.I am slowly but surely getting there and hopefully I will finish it this week now we are on holiday for Eid.

A wonderful trip to Paris

Paris was wonderful. We arrived on Monday late in the evening after a good flight from Doha although the descent into CDG airport was very long and gave me considerable pain in my ears.We took the Air France bus from CDG straight to the Arc de Triomphe and from there it was a 5 minute walk to our hotel.
Our hotel was 2 minutes from the Champs de Elysses and we were soon walking down that beautiful avenue.We bought bus tickets for the hop on/hop off tour bus service and really made good use of them for the first 2 days there.We were hoping to escape from the heat of Doha but the temperature was above 30C for the first 2 days although it did cool off on the 3rd day.That morning we were woken at 4am by a severe thunderstorm but it soon cleared and we decided to go to the Louvre.
Later that afternoon we made our way to the Arc de Triomphe to go to the top and take some photos.On the way up it started to rain, by the time we had climbed the 285 steps to the top the rain had got heavier.We were only at the top of the building for 2 minutes when there was an enormous flash and bang-it had been hit by lightning! The sirens went off and the security personnel evacuated everyone from the top of the Arc.
On the last evening we sat near the Arc de Triomphe and watched the light and laser show coming from the Eiffel Tower.

Progress as of Aug 1st

I thought I would be well on the way to finishing this third page but I hardly seem to have been home the past 2 or 3 weeks. I decided to take a trip to Paris and the UK and I have been running around sorting out passports,visas and travel arrangements.Getting the Schengen visas was frustrating-everytime I went to the French Embassy there was some problem,either the visa allocation numbers were finished for that day, or I didn't have enough photocopies of my trip details and then to be told that Hussain's passport had to be renewed because it only had 3 months validity. Just physically getting into the embassy was arduous,you have to park your car on some rough ground and walk across and through piles of rubble and dust in 40+ C heat, dodging construction workers flaking out on the lawn in front of the building or taking shade under the trees.
I am so looking forward to seeing Paris in summertime,I just hope it won't be too warm. The last time I went to Paris was in 1983 and it was wintertime and bitterly cold. I am also looking forward to going on Eurostar from Paris to London- I wrote my college dissertation on the Channel Tunnel and the effects on the economy of Kent way back when the tunnel was in the planning stages!
I will be leaving for Paris on Monday 4th August,then to London by Eurostar on Friday 8th August for a few days up north to see my family before flying back to Doha on August 14th.

My goal for the summer.

I have made a resolution to finish the third page of The Chess Game by the end of the summer vacation.I go back to work on September 1st so I have just over 7 weeks to finish the approximately 1,400 stitches remaining on page 3.
I have stitched approximately 150 stitches this week, most of them single colours so I am constantly rethreading my needle and progress is very slow.

Progress from June 20th until July 9th

It's my birthday!

It was my birthday on Wednesday. I waited all day for my husband or boys to say something- nothing! They had all forgotten!
One of my best friends called around 7pm and asked what I was doing. Thirty minutes later we were having dinner at Bateel! We had a great time and it really cheered me up.I came home and went to bed.Only Hussain remembered at 10.30pm and sent me a text message.
It wasn't till the next day that they all realised and I came home from work to find a cake,flowers and chocolates and a sincere apology from them all.

The Chess Game June 2008

This has been a work in progress for 2 years this week.It will probably take me another 2 years to finish! Hopefully once I finish work for the summer on July 3rd I'll have more time to stitch and will be able to get the third page finished.

Wind and dust galore!

It seems like these windy conditions will never end.It has been windy and dusty for nearly two weeks now. Just when it seems the wind has died down and the skies are clear once more, the wind starts again. It's really blustery today and in some places visibilty is down to a few metres with the sand and dust blowing everywhere.Our house is right on the edge of the desert to the north of Doha so we are exposed to the strong north winds. Everything in my house is covered in fine,creamy coloured dust and we're fighting a losing battle to keep it clean!
We shouldn't complain too much as the wind is keeping the temperature down to around 37-38 C instead of around 40-44 C and the humidity levels are low which makes the heat more bearable.
To the right of my house is The Lagoon and the green area is Doha Golf Club.Qatar University is in the centre of the picture and The College of the North Atlantic is in the central,bottom area of the picture.