Doha is heating up, with temperatures well above 40 degrees, and if we are really unlucky, even pushing 50 degrees. To make things worse, the humidity of summer has started recently as well. Stepping outside an air-conditioned building or car is like standing in front of a hot oven and suddenly opening the oven door. Even late at night it is more pleasant to be indoors than outside. So what does my street look like in this heat? Here is the view when I stand in front of my building.
The architecture of the building opposite has an interesting big space in the middle. Lots of buildings in my neighbourhood (called West Bay) have very interesting and unusual shapes and designs.
More than a year ago I stayed in a different neighbourhood and 'lived' in a hotel suite for almost 3 months. It looked great, plus there was someone every day (!) to clean my bathroom and kitchen. However, however,.... in spite of the comfortable furniture and modern style, the apartment looked too 'proper and beautiful' for someone like me.
So what does it look like inside my current apartment? When I moved into the Umm Bab building about one year ago, it quickly became clear to me: the apartments in this 28-floor high building looked wonderful, except that the furniture - which we here refer to as "Arab chic" - had too much gold paint and flowery upholstery, plus almost everything was heavy and dark in an ugly way. I decided to make my place less generic - in fact, all my colleagues in Umm Bab have the same type of furniture - and to give my apartment a much more casual look. It got spiced up with lots of colourful scarves, bright sheets from Sri Lanka, sarongs from Bali, and batiks from Java. A few of my souvenirs from Ethiopia, Iran and Sri Lanka are scattered through the living room. From old calendars I salvaged a bunch of reproductions of famous paintings by Vincent Van Gogh, Salvador Dali, Frida Kahlo and Gustav Klimt to brighten up my walls and kitchen cupboards. Admittedly, the apartment now has a flower-power feel to it, but hey! once a hippie, always a hippie.
The view from my windows shows lots of other high constructions, whether they are hotels, business buildings or apartments. In the distance I can just about see a turqoise-coloured bit of the Arabian Gulf - a.k.a. the Persian Gulf on the other side of the water.
Anyone who can recognize some items from IKEA, such as the self-adhesive poppies on the wall? Or the pink hanging net?
Early Saturday mornings I organise "chick coffee" for some female colleagues from the University of Calgary in Qatar, a great chance to chat and laugh together while we sit around my coffee table - and they only live a few floors away, so it is easy to pop by even for a short while.
Next to my building a new construction is going up very rapidly. One of the cranes is so high that it looks as if it might swing right into my living room, but no; it always seems just to stay clear.
The nicest view is what I get while standing in the shower. My bathroom has a huge, wide window (no; nobody can look in, but I can look out with no problem), with a view of the big, beautiful mosque-with-its-unpronouncable-name. At night its lit-up image looks like a fairy tale, but in fact I prefer the early morning view when the sun has just risen. Fist I look out from my bedroom, and then fully enjoy the scenery when I stand under the shower.... and then I see it again while passing it on my way to work.
Drop by, next time you are in my neck of the woods!
The architecture of the building opposite has an interesting big space in the middle. Lots of buildings in my neighbourhood (called West Bay) have very interesting and unusual shapes and designs.
More than a year ago I stayed in a different neighbourhood and 'lived' in a hotel suite for almost 3 months. It looked great, plus there was someone every day (!) to clean my bathroom and kitchen. However, however,.... in spite of the comfortable furniture and modern style, the apartment looked too 'proper and beautiful' for someone like me.
So what does it look like inside my current apartment? When I moved into the Umm Bab building about one year ago, it quickly became clear to me: the apartments in this 28-floor high building looked wonderful, except that the furniture - which we here refer to as "Arab chic" - had too much gold paint and flowery upholstery, plus almost everything was heavy and dark in an ugly way. I decided to make my place less generic - in fact, all my colleagues in Umm Bab have the same type of furniture - and to give my apartment a much more casual look. It got spiced up with lots of colourful scarves, bright sheets from Sri Lanka, sarongs from Bali, and batiks from Java. A few of my souvenirs from Ethiopia, Iran and Sri Lanka are scattered through the living room. From old calendars I salvaged a bunch of reproductions of famous paintings by Vincent Van Gogh, Salvador Dali, Frida Kahlo and Gustav Klimt to brighten up my walls and kitchen cupboards. Admittedly, the apartment now has a flower-power feel to it, but hey! once a hippie, always a hippie.
The view from my windows shows lots of other high constructions, whether they are hotels, business buildings or apartments. In the distance I can just about see a turqoise-coloured bit of the Arabian Gulf - a.k.a. the Persian Gulf on the other side of the water.
Anyone who can recognize some items from IKEA, such as the self-adhesive poppies on the wall? Or the pink hanging net?
Early Saturday mornings I organise "chick coffee" for some female colleagues from the University of Calgary in Qatar, a great chance to chat and laugh together while we sit around my coffee table - and they only live a few floors away, so it is easy to pop by even for a short while.
Next to my building a new construction is going up very rapidly. One of the cranes is so high that it looks as if it might swing right into my living room, but no; it always seems just to stay clear.
The nicest view is what I get while standing in the shower. My bathroom has a huge, wide window (no; nobody can look in, but I can look out with no problem), with a view of the big, beautiful mosque-with-its-unpronouncable-name. At night its lit-up image looks like a fairy tale, but in fact I prefer the early morning view when the sun has just risen. Fist I look out from my bedroom, and then fully enjoy the scenery when I stand under the shower.... and then I see it again while passing it on my way to work.
Drop by, next time you are in my neck of the woods!
