I have a mouse house!

We have started learning arabic....

I don't think I have ever been so confused in my entire life! Languages are generally difficult, but at least if you learn French or German, you at least understand the alphabet and can soon out the words.

Learning a new alphabet is tough. We have just finished learning the alphabet (it took about 10 hours - not kidding), and I still am not entirely sure I know what they all mean.

Not only is the alphabet itself tough, but in order for arabic to look at beautiful as it does, the letters take on different shapes depending on where they come in the word, whether that's the beginning, middle or end. So I might be able to recognise the majority of the 28 letters of the alphabet, but I'm still struggling to read arabic, as we are only just beginning to learn how they are written in the real world.

Although I can now say "I have a mouse house" and "I have a beautiful camel" - which incidentally, if you are interested sounds like "In Di Fah-er Daaar" and "In Di Jamel Jameel". I can't work out how to write in arabic on the blog, or i'd be all fancy and type it out!

Next lesson we are going to have a test, which I am pretty scared about. We have to write all the letters of the alphabet and then write two words for each letter of the alphabet, in arabic... hmmm looks like I have a lot of work to do before then!

We are also in the middle of unpacking as our shipping has finally arrived. I had no idea we had this much stuff, or that it originally fitted into a one bedroomed flat. The house still looks like a bomb has hit it!

Just in case you wanted to see what we were up against, here is the arabic alphabet:

Born to be wild....

So when we came to Doha we knew we were going to buy a 4x4. We knew we wanted a 4x4 that wasn't incredibly slow.

What we didn't know was that we were going to by a Jeep Grand Cherokee SRT8, a 6.1ltr beast that measures your speed in G-force. Gary got a little giddy on the test drive!

Huge isn't it. It's scary fast. Like slam you into your seats like you are going into outer space fast, and that's only on the main roads with people around.

Here's the interior:

So when you come to visit us in Doha, this is the chariot that will carry you home!

Qatar National Day - 18 December 2011

Qatar has a national holiday on the 18th December, which was the date when unification was achieved in Qatar.

To say that the Qatari's are patriotic would be an understatement. They take National Day extremely seriously and go all our to celebrate. Absolutely everyone goes out in their cars and they decorate theirs cars to the nines!

People sit on the roof of the car, and lean out of the windows. We even saw two people, each stood on a car, holding a Qatar flag between them, with both cars driving down the road. I was so terrified that they were going to fall off that I couldn't get a picture.

Here are some pictures of the day:

Yes, that is a £60,000 Land Rover that someone has spray painted "Qatar" down the side of it. And yes, they are stickers that cover the ENTIRE windscreen and all the windows. (In actual fact, you can see through them, but I wasn't going to tell you that at the start!)

It was a crazy and amazing day! We've never seen anything like it, you have to see it to believe it. The Qatari's certainly know how to celebrate!

Arab Games 2011 - Doha

London may have the Olympics in 2012 but Doha hosted the Arab Games in 2011.

We were looking to go to the Dressage and the Show Jumping and we were just about to purchase tickets when the Arab Games Organising Committee bought up all of the remaining tickets so that the events would be free to anyone who wanted to spectate.

So, we headed out for the Dressage Final. The Equestrian events, took place at Al Shaqab. Al Shaqab was opened by the Emir in 1992 as an Arabian Breeding Farm. Al Shaqab was located at the battle site where the bedouins fought a battle that would eventually lead to Qatar's independence.

Al Shaqab developed into an world class equestrian centre in 2006 and on the site is a new arena:

This is just the outdoor arena. There is also an indoor arena which is at least as big, if not bigger.

The Dressage Final began, and it was quickly clear who the likely winners were. The Qatar team were so impressive, the horses perfectly in sync with the well chosen music.

In the end Qatar took first and second place, with Lebanon taking third.

It was amazing to be able to get front row seats to an Arab Games final, for free. Fingers crossed that when the Arab Games comes back to Qatar, that we get the opportunity to get to more events!