Car crime

I have decided to take a break from filling in my Lulu Hypermarket raffle coupons to write this blog. I'm competing for a Mercedes Benz - a slightly better incentive than the 'set squares for schools' coupons you get at Tesco.

They do like cars here - but you never hear of anyone stealing a car, in fact, people leave their keys in the ignition and the engine running when they go into shopping malls. Rather than turn their aircon off, they just leave them going - car parks full of
empty cars, unlocked, keys in ignitions, churning out fumes, for hours. It's a weird by-product of being able to fill your tank with petrol for less than a tenner - and temperatures of nearly 50 degrees. Mother nature is tough on Qataris, and they give as good as they get.

But I still can't quite shake off the effects of growing up in and around London, surrounded by tacky urchins who'll steal anything not nailed down.

I met some friends for dinner at Carluccios on Saturday night, and thought i'd make the most of the free valet parking. I pulled up in my car and was met by a sweaty looking youth in nondescript clothing, asking for my car keys. I had a sudden moment of doubt - he had no uniform, no name badge, no receipt for me - it was like a really basic scam that only a total idiot would fall for. So I challenged him - "where's my receipt? How will you know which is my car when I come back?" He looked at me like I was mad and pulled out a battered old 'pay as you go' phone so we could exchange numbers - he told me to call him when I was 10 minutes away. I didn't really want to make a fuss, so I took his number, gave him my car keys and wandered off for dinner. Image explaining that to a police officer in Kilburn... Anyway, two hours later I called him and told him I was coming - a handy tip off for the scally to scarper you might think?  On the contrary, I arrived back to find my car waiting, lights on, air con blasting, engine running, sweaty youth holding the door open for me...

I will NEVER get used to it.