First of all, there was a huge thunderstorm on Thursday. I thought that was the end of our weekend. Too bad we'd already caught up on watching episodes of "Lost" the previous weekend.
Thursday we were invited to the Alternative Energy Masked Ball. The event was in the newspapers as the "social event of 2007." I can't say that it was the social event of the year or not, but seeing as we dont go to many of the ritzy events, this was pretty spectacular. The location of the event was the Oyster - part of The Pearl. This is Doha's version of Dubai's Palm projects involving land reclamation. It was supposed to be outside, but had to be brought indoors due to the aforementioned thunderstorm. Anyhow, it really was an amazing venue with everyone decked out in suits and gowns. The center of the room had a huge architecture model of the entire development. The event was a masked ball, so we were given male or female masks when we entered.
I, however, came prepared. Instead of the usual Phantom of the Opera masks that I was expecting, I tried to create my own T.M.N.T mask. That's Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles (yes the cartoon/cheesy movie). It was sweet. After people had started leaving towards the end of the night, I put it on and started posing in karate chop poses. I'm sure I made Genny really proud :)
Yesterday we went to Rima's birthday party (Rima is a coworker friend of Genny's). She decided to have a last minute party at her house because on Thursday everyone threw her a tiny office party. So in the space of a few hours she put together a guest list, had caterers lined up and was ready. The party was split between people watching the India-Sri Lanka World Cup cricket match and the dance party and the BBQ outside. Sri Lanka won, the dance party was dancin, but the real interesting piece was about this one-man restaurant who catered Kabobs, Indian food, the whole works by himself. He even had a portable Tandoor that he made fresh naan with. The Tandoor is made with a half barrel that has concrete (or clay if you're really into it) poured inside to make a hollow bowl on the inside. It is heated with a fire or coals and bread is stuck to the inside and pulled off when it is done. I've never had fresh naan like this before. Amazing.
Today we went on a boat with some friends and went wakeboarding. This was our second time - the first with Chris Smith in Charlotte. It was a bit of Deja Vu - except the water was salty. I fell over 8 times trying to get out of the water. Genny popped up on her first attempt and boarded back and forth in the channel. Pretty sweet. I've got a video of her on the water. Afterwards, we went to Safliya island. It is more of a sand bar than an island, but I guess it doesn't completely go underwater. There were amazing oyster shells on the ground and a few people and dogs (Genny played with a 3 month old puppy named Fuzz). One guy got stuck because the water had receded in low tide, so he just hung out a few hours until it rose again. Didn't bother him one bit. His kids were going to go see Mamma Mia, but one of the other boats would take them back. People just trust each other here. Much more than in the US.
We're both really sore right now. I need to get water for our water cooler, but I can't quite make a fist because of the wakeboarding.
Owner login
