Now that I have been here a few days, I have a bit more to tell. I started work on Sunday morning at 7.30 am when all of you were probably tucked up in bed enjoying a lie in. That was very strange to begin with and on Sunday evening, I had great fun with a group Skype video call with various members of my family. Three and a half thousand miles away and it was as if they were in the next room. We had a few teething problems with the technology at first but got there in the end and it made me feel a lot less lonely.
I have been mega busy every evening because people are constantly calling me on skype so that I keep having to juggle the calls, not that I'm complaining - its great to keep in touch and hear what everyone is doing - it's not much fun on your own in a hotel room. We sometimes lose the sound and then the video but that's part of the fun - even my Mum at 85 is doing it, so if she can, anyone can.
I took a wander tonight down the back streets behind the hotel to find somewhere to have some passport size photos taken (it was only 5pm our time but it gets dark at 6pm). Apparently I will need lots of them and it was something on my to do list which I never got round to doing before I left England. After a few wrong turns past many strange looking shops with arab signs, I had to resort to asking in the Centrepoint mall and a kind young lady directed me "up the road, over the roundabout and then straight on - look for Konika". As it turned out it was called Hilab but they did the job very efficiently and in about ten minutes, charging me £10 for 16 photos in colour. Not bad. Note to Gillian, they had posters up in this tiny shop for Fujifilm.
Walking there itself was an adventure - since the roads are quite dangerous for pedestrians - we think our pavements are bad but theirs are far worse and drivers definitely have no respect for people on foot - not to mention that you need to remember to look the other way as well. Everyone drives everywhere at top speed, as if their life depended on it - they take no prisoners.
So far I'm managing well with the food, I have breakfast in the hotel, which is quite a normal continental one, if I have time before the driver comes to pick me up but his arrival time is a bit unpredictable and I will just get a text which says "I reached" meaning he is here.
I have lunch in the work canteen - which is great, very generous portions of rice, potatoes, cooked chicken, fish or meat, spicy but lovely and well cooked and only costs about £3 with a drink. However, the canteen is in the building next to us and to get to it we have to go through the car park and climb over some very large kerbstones, where my well known lack of spatial awareness skills comes into play frequently.
I had a completely empty desk and office on Sunday morning because until I am on the payrolll properly, I am not allowed a computer, stationery, etc. I am having to beg, borrow and steal things at the moment and use my own laptop. I now have a few piles of paper accumulating. Today they gave me a temporary pass for the building so at least I can get in now.
Meetings are beginning to fill up my diary - same old, same old. Tomorrow someone is coming from the Qatari National Bank to see about opening a local bank account for me.More in a few days.
I have been mega busy every evening because people are constantly calling me on skype so that I keep having to juggle the calls, not that I'm complaining - its great to keep in touch and hear what everyone is doing - it's not much fun on your own in a hotel room. We sometimes lose the sound and then the video but that's part of the fun - even my Mum at 85 is doing it, so if she can, anyone can.
I took a wander tonight down the back streets behind the hotel to find somewhere to have some passport size photos taken (it was only 5pm our time but it gets dark at 6pm). Apparently I will need lots of them and it was something on my to do list which I never got round to doing before I left England. After a few wrong turns past many strange looking shops with arab signs, I had to resort to asking in the Centrepoint mall and a kind young lady directed me "up the road, over the roundabout and then straight on - look for Konika". As it turned out it was called Hilab but they did the job very efficiently and in about ten minutes, charging me £10 for 16 photos in colour. Not bad. Note to Gillian, they had posters up in this tiny shop for Fujifilm.
Walking there itself was an adventure - since the roads are quite dangerous for pedestrians - we think our pavements are bad but theirs are far worse and drivers definitely have no respect for people on foot - not to mention that you need to remember to look the other way as well. Everyone drives everywhere at top speed, as if their life depended on it - they take no prisoners.
So far I'm managing well with the food, I have breakfast in the hotel, which is quite a normal continental one, if I have time before the driver comes to pick me up but his arrival time is a bit unpredictable and I will just get a text which says "I reached" meaning he is here.
I have lunch in the work canteen - which is great, very generous portions of rice, potatoes, cooked chicken, fish or meat, spicy but lovely and well cooked and only costs about £3 with a drink. However, the canteen is in the building next to us and to get to it we have to go through the car park and climb over some very large kerbstones, where my well known lack of spatial awareness skills comes into play frequently.
I had a completely empty desk and office on Sunday morning because until I am on the payrolll properly, I am not allowed a computer, stationery, etc. I am having to beg, borrow and steal things at the moment and use my own laptop. I now have a few piles of paper accumulating. Today they gave me a temporary pass for the building so at least I can get in now.
Meetings are beginning to fill up my diary - same old, same old. Tomorrow someone is coming from the Qatari National Bank to see about opening a local bank account for me.More in a few days.
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