Beauty therapy and hypnotherapy.

Today I cashed in my beauty salon voucher and had a half day of pampering. I bought the half day as a treat to myself, shortly before N and I had a 'chat' about our household budget. Unfortunate timing - but I'd already paid in full, so there was nothing for it but to go and enjoy myself - we can live without food for a couple of weeks...

So I had a mani/pedi, facial, neck and shoulder massage and a set of eyelash extensions. I didn't really know what the eyelash extensions entailed, but it sounded interesting. Turns out it involves sticking individual fake eyelashes to your existing eyelashes - one by one - for two hours - while a woman tells you to stop flinching. I had no idea - I hadn't

Abu Dhabi

I'm back home after a weekend in Abu Dhabi. We liked Abu Dhabi, it's a bit like a cross between Dubai and Doha. At least we think it is, we didn't actually see very much of it, for the first 40 hours we didn't leave the hotel. But we did manage to see some interesting stuff during a six hour sightseeing spree this afternoon. We started the day at the mosque, where I had the opportunity to wear an abaya (well, you have to or you're not allowed in). I won't lie, I enjoyed wearing it, it was basically dressing up, which I like.

Here I am:

 Posing with my husband - no touching.

It was seriously hot in that courtyard - hottest part of the day, hottest part of the year, hottest part of the world.  Grim.

I was hoping N would have to wear a thobe (traditional floor length white shirt worn by men in the Gulf) - but they only gave those to men wearing shorts - and my husband is far too culturally sensitive to make such a faux pas.

Later we went to the

Photos of Doha

Thanks to clever friends with cameras, I now have some photos of Doha to share with you. 

Thanks J&J.

 This is a bit of Doha. Skyscrapers? Check. Palm trees? Check. Building site? Check.

 A camel, some desert and a Toyota Landcruiser.

Now you have a real sense of Doha. The rest are just for fun.

Days out. Days in.

The house move went just fine I'm thrilled to report. I'm now two weeks in my new pad and very nice it is too. Still no Internet access unfortunately, so I'm writing this from the W cafe.

An hour with Internet access after two weeks without is a glorious thing. I checked my bank balance, caught up with Facebook, read the news, cleared my emails, checked my ex boyfriend's blog for defamatory comments. Now I'm ready to blog.

We were lucky enough to receive visitors last week, My good friends J&J came for a

Friday brunch - royals on the box

Well, wasn't that lovely. We had a proper Brit style brunch to celebrate the Royal Wedding, with roast beef, yorkshire pudding, cucumber sandwiches, tomato soup, fish and chips, scones, apple pie and Pimms. Not to mention the food less likely to inspire cliched nostalgia: eggs benedict, waffles, pancakes, sushi,

Beach Tower

Next month I will be moving into Beach Tower. Here it is:

You can see more pictures here.

We're getting this one on a long term lease, plus it's only semi furnished, so i'm going to have to fit out the whole place from scratch: crockery,

Dust and rubble

Today we decided to hunt for some adventure.

We found our first dose of adventure driving on the road south out of Doha. Close to the industrial area, the long road that winds through the rocky wasteland is choc-a-bloc with

Off roading and high flying

So, we've been getting to grips with the Chevy, driving to and from work every day. N's taken to swerving across four lanes of traffic without signalling, just like a local, and yesterday we went on a road trip and set the beast free over some rough terrain. We've got some

Ladies and gentlemen - Chevy Blazer

We've just had our hire car delivered and it's HUGE. After hours of staring at different options online, we ended up going for a Chevy Blazer because it sounds cool - and when your knowledge of vee-hee-carls is as limited as ours, you might as well make your

Come on South Korea!

Well – we’ve just returned from watching Iran v South Korea in the quarter finals of the Asian Cup at Qatar Sports Club stadium. If you were watching it on TV, you might have seen me – I was the one sitting in amongst a load of South Koreans, chanting sounds that resembled Korean songs at the top of my voice. It was