Ankur and Genny’s Meandering Tour

I have an interesting relationship with my barber. We don't talk. Well, usually.

Yesterday I was in Doha for 10 hours or so settling a lease, paying bills, etc. Just basically running errands. My hair has been a little out of control as it tends to do when Genny isn't around. Ask her about my beard situation. At noon, on my way to the office to pick up my mail, I stopped in at the barber shop.

My usual procedure is quite simple:

• Wake up barber.  He's usually asleep and I have an odd feeling that he doesn't have more than a few customers.  I've never seen any.
• Sit in chair
• Allow him to cut as he sees fit.
• Pay the 10 riyal ($3)
• Leave

Now the middle part of that list is the one where most people have long conversations about daytime events, gossip, and other non-important discussions.  As my barber only speaks Malayalam (language of Kerala, India), and I don't understand a word of it, I don't even bother.  I don't think he knows I speak English as I usually am completely silent.  He probably assumes that I'm this weird Indian guy who can't speak to him. 

Anyhow, he does a good job (ok for me) and basically trims each hair shorter.  There's no changing my haircut or trying something new as we haven't crossed the language barrier or known enough similar words to make it happen.

But yesterday I decided to say my first word to him: "Gel"

I had a flight later that day and don't have a place to shower before catching my flight.  So hair-goop it is. I took a smudgeon and put it on and was walking out the door.  He ran over to me and sat me down in the chair.

It was then that he applied what must have been half of the tub of gel into my head.  He then decided that the "Ditka" look was the one for me and combed my hair straight back. 

I should stick to not talking to my barber.

If anyone is still reading this blog, we’re sorry we’ve ignored the site for SO long!!!

Hmm…not sure that I can recall what all happened since June 4th. Ankur was working in Oman for a month around when the cyclone hit.  Unfortunately I didn’t get to see Oman until after the damage was done.  They really did an amazing job patching things up in a short period of time though (photo).  We had a great long weekend hanging out w/Ankur’s co-workers and spent a lot of time at Trader Vic’s, Rock Bottom and Darcy’s! 

After that we had another long weekend in Dubai to celebrate our friend’s birthday.  We like to go in groups of people from Qatar and party outside of Qatar.  It was my first time to the water park, Wild Wadi.  The design is great because one ride is actually a series of rides connected by lazy rivers.  So you rarely have to get out of the water to stand in another queue.  Most of the rides are pretty harmless except for the one huge steep one.  I never knew my swimsuit could go so far up my …  As scary as it seemed at the time it was hilarious.  And even more hilarious to see people’s faces as they got to the bottom.  It was a great way to spend a hot summer day (we’re talking 45 C / 115 F).

How could I forget…before Dubai we got evicted from our house.  That’s right…eviction take 2.  The original owner of the compound had a dispute with our landlord and took them to court.  The owner won and kicked out our landlord and therefore us.  We’ve been living in limbo because had a week to move out but the new place is not ready yet.  It’s brand new and lovely but still needs some government approvals.  We also had a huge ordeal with the landlord and getting the rest of our money back.  I won’t get into the gruesome details.

Back to our travels…we were in Bahrain the weekend after Dubai.  A relaxing weekend of sleeping in, eating in, and visiting friends.  I also had a heavenly spa treatment…a surprise from Ank!!!  It was exactly what I needed after a stressful battle with the landlord and court.

This weekend I’m off to the US for 2 weeks.  I absolutely cannot wait to be home and see everyone.  Poor Ank will stay behind and sort out the new house (inshallah).    

-Gen