Anne's blog travel 06-07

Sunday, November 26th 2006 - 5 days to go.

Well I've talked about him enough, Orry the giant Oryx on the Corniche with behind him the countdown clock. So here he is.

The Flame did arrive yesterday back in Qatar somewhere up north. I believe it's called Al-Rowes or at least pronounced that way. Many people went up to see it arrive and it was shown on Al Jazzera Sports channel. A few buses took about 50 journalists up to see it arrive and it was a comedy of errors as at least one bus got stuck in the desert. I'm happy we had nothing to do with that.

More and more journalists are arriving at the Accommodation and each morning when I return from running it seems a new lot of arrivals are checking in. A lot of overseas flights arrive very early in the morning. As I run this morning it seems the ground is just drying from some overnight rain. And indeed the sky is dark as I walk to work and the air is thick with humidity. As soon as I get to work it start raining fairly hard but for a short period of time. It's such an event here that everyone marvels in it. Saad arrives at work with a wet cap and says: "Beautiful weather" with a large smile. But the sewage and drainage systems are not good and rarely have to deal with rain and so, the roads in a very short time have flooded in areas.

Saad asks me whether I've been down south or north and I tell him I have been nowhere. He tells me that if I get a day off he'll organise for someone to take me to the beaches down south. He tells me I won't believe the contrast with Doha. Huge sand dunes. He says his brother will take me and we can ride the beach buggies. I've seen photos of the inland desert and some pictures are just breathtaking. I really do hope I get a chance to go but this won't happen until at least the 18th of December.

This morning the Emir's palace is back to it's old self in off white. The play of light yesterday was for the arrival of the Torch. This is the last week of school. Normally tests finish around December 12th and Schools are on holidays/vacation until January 15th but this year exceptionnally for the Games the Holidays have been brought forward. This also happened in Sydney for the Sydney Olympics. Traffic being what it is in Sydney and also in Doha, trying to limit the use of the roads is probably a wise move.

Because school starts at 7am and also work for most people, traffic starts early. Especially since school buses don't seem to be used here either. So today marks the start of the last week of school for most students.

Bye for now