Thursday, May 24, 2007
Photogenic or what?
A few weeks ago I had some publicity shots taken for Al Jazeera. It's not something I'm very comfortable with: turn here, move there, drop your chin a bit, smile a bit less, raise your left eyebrow, that kind of thing. Then there's the inevitable, "You don't look very relaxed..."
Anyway, I asked to see the finished pictures and was given a disk with them all on. There was also a folder entitled "best shots", which contained about 5 photos. One of them was of the back of my head.
On a scale of 1 to 10, how offended do you think I should be that my best photos don't include my face?
Anyway, I asked to see the finished pictures and was given a disk with them all on. There was also a folder entitled "best shots", which contained about 5 photos. One of them was of the back of my head.
On a scale of 1 to 10, how offended do you think I should be that my best photos don't include my face?
Monday, May 14, 2007
The Adventures of Jimmy Jumper
Let me introduce you to a friend of mine:
This is Jimmy Jumper who appeared in my house a few months ago. I don't know how he got there, or exactly when he appeared, I just noticed him sitting on a hanger one day.
I assumed he must be my friend Lorna's who'd come to stay, so I emailed her to see if she had a FatFace jumper. She said yes.
Quinny was going to the UK, so he took it with him, and gave it to Dani who works with Lorna. All was good, until I got an email from Dani:
"Guess what? That jumper you thought was Lorna’s isn’t Lorna’s."
I started laughing...but I was in the office at work, so I had to explain why I'd suddenly burst out laughing to Nick, who was sitting next to me.
He said, "I've got a FatFace jumper that I've not seen for a while."
Opps.
So Jimmy Jumper had to come back to Doha. Fortunately Dani was coming out to visit, so she brought him back with her, and I gave it to Nick who said, "Nope. Mine's Blue."
Aaarrgghhhhhh!
So...the long and the short of it is, I have no idea whose this jumper is! Obviously if it's yours and you live in Doha, you won't be missing it because it's 40C outside, but do you recognise it? Is it yours? It's not mine!
This is Jimmy Jumper who appeared in my house a few months ago. I don't know how he got there, or exactly when he appeared, I just noticed him sitting on a hanger one day.
I assumed he must be my friend Lorna's who'd come to stay, so I emailed her to see if she had a FatFace jumper. She said yes.
Quinny was going to the UK, so he took it with him, and gave it to Dani who works with Lorna. All was good, until I got an email from Dani:
"Guess what? That jumper you thought was Lorna’s isn’t Lorna’s."
I started laughing...but I was in the office at work, so I had to explain why I'd suddenly burst out laughing to Nick, who was sitting next to me.
He said, "I've got a FatFace jumper that I've not seen for a while."
Opps.
So Jimmy Jumper had to come back to Doha. Fortunately Dani was coming out to visit, so she brought him back with her, and I gave it to Nick who said, "Nope. Mine's Blue."
Aaarrgghhhhhh!
So...the long and the short of it is, I have no idea whose this jumper is! Obviously if it's yours and you live in Doha, you won't be missing it because it's 40C outside, but do you recognise it? Is it yours? It's not mine!
Saturday, May 12, 2007
Doha is growing...
The background noise in Doha isn't the relaxing sound of birds singing or crickets chirping, it's drilling, digging and pile-driving. Day or night, the gentle chugging of machinary is never far away.
Houses, hotels and shopping centres are springing up all the time. In the last 6 months another shopping centre has opened just round the corner from my house, called Villagio.
Have you ever been to the Venitian in Las Vegas? Well, the architect of the Villagio certainly has!
...after all, what shopping centre would be complete without a gondala?
Not all the shops are open yet, but there's quite a few familiar names, including Virgin Megastore, Next, Topshop, Zara, Monsoon, Karen Millen, Wallis...and there's soon to be a Boots too.
As well as shops, there's also plenty of restaurants, including Pizza Express, TGI Friday's, as well as the to-be-expected McDonalds and Burger King...and in Doha, Burger King even do home delivery!
And if you eat too much, then you can always work it off with a quick skate around the ice rink.
Ice skating...what else would you do in a desert?
Houses, hotels and shopping centres are springing up all the time. In the last 6 months another shopping centre has opened just round the corner from my house, called Villagio.
Have you ever been to the Venitian in Las Vegas? Well, the architect of the Villagio certainly has!
...after all, what shopping centre would be complete without a gondala?
Not all the shops are open yet, but there's quite a few familiar names, including Virgin Megastore, Next, Topshop, Zara, Monsoon, Karen Millen, Wallis...and there's soon to be a Boots too.
As well as shops, there's also plenty of restaurants, including Pizza Express, TGI Friday's, as well as the to-be-expected McDonalds and Burger King...and in Doha, Burger King even do home delivery!
And if you eat too much, then you can always work it off with a quick skate around the ice rink.
Ice skating...what else would you do in a desert?
Wednesday, May 09, 2007
Weather Plagues
Holidays should be banned in the Weather Department. It’s for our own good! We can’t seem to go away without returning with some kind of facial deformity.
I may have ‘forgotten’ to tell you about a small infection that I got in the Seychelles, all thanks to just 2 hours sunbathing. I had factor 30 slapped on everywhere. Everywhere, that is, except on my lips, and of course they burnt. Badly.
They swelled up to a size that even Leslie Ash would have been proud of…and then started blistering. That was bad enough, but then they got what the doctor called a ‘secondary infection’. Yep, they went septic.
Obviously this wouldn’t only scare women and small children, but it also caused grown men to weep, so I had to have an extra few days off work to recover.
…and before you ask, no, there are no photos.
Anyway, then the other Weather Bod, Everton, went on holiday to the Caribbean to see the end of the World Cup, and came back with an extra special friend. Cyril Cyst had attached itself to his face. Sexy!
Everton went to see the doctor to ask him to evict Cyril, and the doctor told him to make an appointment with the surgeon at his earliest convenience. Everton forgot that he was no longer in the UK and expected this to be in a week or so’s time - it came as quite a surprise when he found himself under the knife at 9.30am the next morning!
With Cyril disposed of, the wound had to heal from the inside out, to make sure the infection was gone. This meant that there was a large crater on his face and poor Everton had to have a huge white bandage stuck to his chops for about a week and a half whilst it healed!
You’ll be pleased to know that the Weather Department is now facial-injury free. However, I am going wakeboarding again tomorrow. I think I'm going to wear a helmet.
I may have ‘forgotten’ to tell you about a small infection that I got in the Seychelles, all thanks to just 2 hours sunbathing. I had factor 30 slapped on everywhere. Everywhere, that is, except on my lips, and of course they burnt. Badly.
They swelled up to a size that even Leslie Ash would have been proud of…and then started blistering. That was bad enough, but then they got what the doctor called a ‘secondary infection’. Yep, they went septic.
Obviously this wouldn’t only scare women and small children, but it also caused grown men to weep, so I had to have an extra few days off work to recover.
…and before you ask, no, there are no photos.
Anyway, then the other Weather Bod, Everton, went on holiday to the Caribbean to see the end of the World Cup, and came back with an extra special friend. Cyril Cyst had attached itself to his face. Sexy!
Everton went to see the doctor to ask him to evict Cyril, and the doctor told him to make an appointment with the surgeon at his earliest convenience. Everton forgot that he was no longer in the UK and expected this to be in a week or so’s time - it came as quite a surprise when he found himself under the knife at 9.30am the next morning!
With Cyril disposed of, the wound had to heal from the inside out, to make sure the infection was gone. This meant that there was a large crater on his face and poor Everton had to have a huge white bandage stuck to his chops for about a week and a half whilst it healed!
You’ll be pleased to know that the Weather Department is now facial-injury free. However, I am going wakeboarding again tomorrow. I think I'm going to wear a helmet.
