Shops, shops and more shops!

One of the things we worried about when we decided to move out to Qatar was whether we would be able to get all the brands that we do at home. Thankfully we can indeed, in fact, literally the only thing I haven't been able to find is Maryland Cookies. Kerry, your offer of food packages will be gratefully accepted!

Clothes shopping on the other hand, we knew we did not have to worry about at all! One of the largest shopping centres, Villaggio, is styled on Venice. Think the Venetian in Vegas, and a little like the Trafford Centre. I took some photos to show you the shopping centre and to demonstrate that you really can get just about anything here!

First of all, here is some photo's of the avenues within Villaggio:

Yes that is a canal, and yes there are gondolas - see:

They have almost every shop you can think of, here are a few of our high street staples:

And for those who are looking for something special:

There is literally nothing you can't buy here! Personally I love love love these:

Hmmmm, better get saving the pennies! Why is everything I love so so so expensive!

Lora xxx

Education City Community Housing

We have finally finish unpacking and although the villa looks a little bare without all of our personal items it is finally full of all of the things we brought with us.

So this post is to give you the grand tour!

This is the front gates and our new street:

The villa is stunning, and we even have our own palm tree in the front garden:

The villa is open plan and the front door opens right onto the living and dining area:

We cannot wait to get our own cushions and rug into the living room and our brand new tableware into the dining room.


Here is our kitchen, we've already been cooking up a storm:

We have gone from a apartment with no stairs to literally the biggest set of stairs you can imagine, three sets just to get upstairs:

Here is the spare room (Kerry, you will note it is not pink.... not yet anyway!):

And here is our bedroom:

And we actually have a walk in wardrobe and en suite bathroom, anyone who knows me will know how much I have longed for proper wardrobe space given we filled up ours in Manchester years ago:

I hope you liked the tour of our new home. We're enjoying living here, especially with all of the space! It feels like such a luxury at the moment. 

Lora xx

First Day in Doha

Blogs will get longer .........but here's a starter for ten.....................So we made it to Doha no problem despite being 37 kilos over our weight allowance, I'm not sure we needed to pack the washing machine.

The flight was only six and a half hours which was a nice surprise and it was relatively cool 25 degrees.

 The driver was at the airport and scooted us through the wacky races roads. Straight into the villa which is great (more on that later) and we were out at a Chinese restaurant at The Pearl before we knew it.

 Another exciting taxi ride convinced us to hire a car today so we got a great set of wheels - photos to follow tomorrow.

Overall so far so good, we have wireless, wheels and a fully fitted house - just work to go on Sunday!