Activity

Since I've gone back to work, we have done almost nothing in Doha. Errol and Dave have been walking farther and farther, but I have been in a bit of a rut ... working, working, working. It takes a bit of adjustment at the start of a semester .. trying to get used to new students and assess class levels and figure the best way to approach things. But with Errol leaving soon, we have started trying to see a few more things in Doha and vicinity ...
Yesterday we went to the Sheraton for brunch. New UC-Q August hires stayed at the Sheraton for the first two days, before moving to our villas, but Errol came later, so he missed the 5-star welcome. It was a very nice brunch and I particularly enjoyed the lox and sushi ... and the Umm Ali, a type of bread pudding. OMG, it was delicious and I know I gained about 2 kg just by the amount I consumed. We walked along the Corniche in the beautiful sunshine and were so happy to see so many families out enjoying the beautiful day. So many beautiful children ... with their bikes, skateboards, strollers .... many of them were on a roll:-)
Today we went on a ramble with the Qatar Natural History Group ... to Sheikh Faisal bin Qassim Al-Thani's Museum. It's an amazing private museum that people can arrange to visit ... well today there was quite a crowd of visitors ... from the QNHG and individual families as well. It's a huge fortress of a place filled with an eclectic collection of whatever caught his and his father's fancies. I think staff members were a bit overwhelmed at the number of visitors, so they didn't open all the wings ... we got to see weapons, furniture, ceramics, textiles and some jewellery. Unfortunately the manuscripts and miniatures, fossils, and automobiles were not on view. Still we had a nice time. It would have been nice to know a bit more about some of the exhibits, but it was very interesting and how nice that he lets people come and view his collection!

After we had absorbed all we could of the artifacts, we strolled through the gardens. The gardens consist mostly of palm groves and thickets of small trees on either side of several wide paths lined with some sort of large willow tree with a beautiful white bark ... sort of like a cottonwood. The gardens are largely unkempt, although irrigated regularly and there looked to be lots of construction going on. The gardens are inhabited by lots of doves, pigeons, bulbuls and many wary peacocks. They looked pretty amidst the foliage, but too far away for any good pictures. It was a lovely and educational morning. Shukran, Sheikh Faisal:-)