Qatar - Our last day in Doha

Joining Tom for his SIGNS meme. Check out other signs from around the world.

Thursday 9th January 

After the visit to the Souq, we caught an uber to the City Center Doha Mall, so we could go buy the Arabian sweets.

City Center Mall on the right

Inside the shopping centre, kids area on ground floor

We bought 2 boxes of the very expensive but delicious sweets and walked out again, to go and have a very expensive coffee at "Zengo Doha" a 10 minute walk away.

Just around the corner I found a sign at the Pret a Manger restaurant :)  

A modern building reflecting the sun a massive silver ball in the middle

On the way to Zengo Doha at the Kempinski Residences & Suites, I came across another gorilla from French sculptor Richard Orlinski.  You can read about his other statues I saw in Qatar here. 

Kempinski Residences & Suites Doha

We took the lift to the 61st floor ...

Inside blue pottery birds hung from the ceiling

The glass windows all around us 

photo from Zengo's website

Jose and Karina ordered a coffee and I ordered a mint tea. We were just staying a short while as we had a dinner later on. The visit was mainly to get a view of Doha from the 61st floor. The views were a bit hazy, but it was still amazing. Might be a better place to view the night lights of Doha.

The Pearl

The city beach and you can see a big screen to the left

Coffee break over we descended and went home by Uber, to get changed for dinner.

One of the fancy huge houses across from the villas where Karina lives

A last photo from the villa's backyard - next to the beach, the houses across and the tall buildings on the right are in the Pearl Island

Dinner was at Roberto's Restaurant at Pearl Island, where we plus Thomas's group of colleagues spent New Year's Eve.

That dinner had been a bit of a letdown, and Thomas and his colleagues had written a complaint email. They were given an option to come back for a free buffet dinner on a day of their choice.  Since Friday is the start of their weekend, they chose to go to dinner on the night of Thursday the 9th.

It was our last dinner, as we would be going to the airport at 11,30pm for our 3am flight to Denpasar - Bali.

The buffet dinner was fantastic, delicious, far too much food actually... so they really redeemed themselves.

One of the couple were celebrating their 16th wedding anniversary

After dinner we went home for a short while to change into our travel clothes and finish packing our bags. Karina insisted on taking us to the airport, did our check-in in the machines and saw us off to the passport control area.

Friday 10th January

At the Hamad International Airport - we had a few hours to spare, and while Jose settled for a coffee, I walked around discovering all the amazing sculptures at the airport.

Lamp Bear - Celebrating HIA 10th anniversary

Our departure gate - 3,05AM flight to Denpasar

My tv screen - trip time 9,17h - photo of the Islamic Art Museum

Movies I watched - 

"Playing for keeps" - a romantic comedy from 2012 with Gerard Butler and Jessica Biel.

A charming former soccer star returns home to put his life back together, trying ton rebuild a relationship with his son and ex-wife, while coaching the boy's soccer team.

Rating: A bit of a fluffy movie, poor story line...

"Ezra" - a drama, comedy from 2023 with Bobby Cannavale, Rose Byrne, Robert de Niro and William Fitzgerald as Ezra, a young boy who is autistic in real life. 

A divorced stand-up comedian struggles to raise his autistic son, Ezra. Forced to confront difficult decisions about the boy's future, Max and Ezra embark on a cross-country road trip that has a transcendent impact on both of their lives.

Rating: loved it, great story line, great acting.

"Back to Black"  - a 2024 biographical drama based on the life of English singer-songwriter Amy Winehouse.  Centred around her turbulent on-off relationship with Blake, which led to the creation of the album and its hit single - Back to black.

Played by Marisa Abela, Jack O'Connell, Eddie Marsan and Lesley Manville.

Rating: loved it, and if you are a fan of her music it's a must! Sad to see how drugs and alcohol led to her early death.

"Thelma"  - a 2024 action, comedy inspired by a real-life experience of director Josh Margolin's own grandmother. The film shines the spotlight on a 93 year old grandmother as an unlikely action hero -Thelma Post loses $10,000 to a con artist on the phone, and with help from a friend and his motorized scooter, she soon embarks on a treacherous journey across Los Angeles to reclaim what was taken from her. 

Played by June Squibb, Fred Hechinger, Richard Roundtree.

Rating: A great feel-good movie and a very contemporary topic.  You might be able to watch it on Netflix (it's on in Australia).

As you gather I didn't get much sleep after watching all these movies...

We  landed in Bali at 12,30pm local time. As happened before when on our way to Doha, a bit of chaos at the airport... we paid our entry tax, completed another useless online form about luggage, picked our luggage, exited the airport (there is no Transit area at Denpasar), then took the lift to the top floor where the Departures are, long queues, told it was wrong queue when we got to the security guard, another long queue..... luckily we had time!

All in all it took about 2 to 2 1/2 hours.

Some of the art at Denpasar airport:

At our Departure desk, no queue this time, we showed our tickets and were allocated seats. A few minutes later when I looked at the boarding passes, I noticed that Jose and I weren't allocated side by side seats. I returned to the Jetstar counter and pointed that to the young lady. She called her supervisor who told me that there weren't any other seats available and I would have to pay extra, so we could both sit at the front of economy class. 

It wasn't much money but I refused to pay, it was ridiculous, we were there hours and hours before our flight, we had sat side by side in the 3 previous flights on this trip, and we had presented to the counter together, have the same surnames...

It was only a 3,30h flight anyway!

We had a long wait time as our flight to Perth was only at 21,55h, so we sat down at one of the eateries to have a burger and juice. 

Before we left we bought a bottle of water, walked to our departure lounge, 10 minutes away....another security control at our gate and we had to give up our still unopened water bottle! Bummer! I think the airline just wanted to sell you water, food, etc onboard!

When we boarded  Jose sat right at the end and I was in the middle of the plane....and what do I notice?  Three rows of seats across the aisle from where I was sitting, all had just one person. After take-off I walked to the end of the plane to ask Jose to buy me some water (he had Indonesian money with him) and he's sitting all by himself, with 2 vacants seats beside him!  

No available seats together I had been told, unless I paid!! 

We landed back in Perth at 1,40AM Saturday 11th January (same time as Bali, 5h ahead of Doha). About 1 hour later we were out of the airport with our suitcases and in a taxi on our way home. We just fell into bed a short while later.

On Monday 13h we both returned to work. The next morning I woke up with a sore throat, but as I would be the only receptionist at work, I decided I would just put a mask on and work....I felt increasingly worse and called one of my colleagues that was coming to work in the afternoon to come earlier so I could go home.

The nurse did a respiratory swab test to be sent to the lab and I went home to sleep.

The next day I was informed I had Influenza A - a contagious and viral infection, that caused me to cough to the point of vomiting, lack of appetite and extreme tiredness (that lasted for about 2 or 3 weeks more).

I stayed home for almost 2 weeks, as I could hardly walk from the bedroom to the lounge, slept most of the day, hardly ate anything, managed to lose 3kgs in 2 weeks!

Poor Jose would come at lunch-time to force me to eat and drink something.

Sunday 26th - Australia Day

We had been invited to go to Dr S's house to spend Australia day.

Monday 27th - Public holiday

Another beautiful day, and Jose and I went for a drive around the Swan River near Fremantle and had a pub lunch at the "Left Bank".

Tuesday 28th - Back to work after my sick leave.

Thursday 30th - After my hand operation at the end of September 2024, and dozens of Occupational therapy/Physiotherapy appointments, there has not been much/any? improvement to my hand, which continues to be swollen and fingers which still don't fold into the palm. The Hand specialist had suggested he should operate the original offending finger, that started this all!  I was not convinced that would help at all, it would just add another problem...

I decided to seek a second opinion with another well regarded Perth specialist. He read the reports of the operation, the scan, mri, etc I had taken with me, looked at my hands and said the reason it wasn't healing was most probably because I had an autoimmune condition. Yes, I have psoriasis, very mild I should say, that never bothered me, only getting an itchy scalp once in a while which I would remedy with Tar or MooGoo shampoo.  He suggested I see a Rheumatologist.

With just 5 weeks to go till my trip to Portugal, a visit to a Rheumatologist was looking difficult as the wait was long. 

I called a few of them to see who would be able to see me soonest, but they all wanted the referral first so the they could triage who had more priority... 

More to follow next week - but I was lucky enough to get in the week before leaving!

Part 1 - The Msheireb Museums