October & November all rolled into one!

Hello!

Wow, what a busy two months we've had! Actually, looking back, I have no idea what we did in October, just that we were busy!

Of course, we had a HUGE Halloween Party for the kids in the compound (imagine 100 kids in scary costumes and face paint, fueled by fruit juice, candy, cake, chocolate and more candy!). We decorated the club room with spiderwebs, flashing skeletons, ghosts, and pumpkins. It was awesome... and LOUD! I have put some photos on our blog... Halloween fun continued the next night with endless trick-or-treaters. Matilda and I sat at the front gate happily chatting to all the witches and vampires, showering them in candy!

Brendan had another trip to Scandinavia (lucky bugger), and was spellbound by the fjords of Norway. He can't remember what the meetings were about, because he just kept staring out the window at the amazing view! (This is what he tells me, but I'm sure it may also have been due to the Akvavit!) He had 8 flights in as many days and saw bits of Denmark, Sweden and Norway. Was there in time for the first snowfall of the season, and grabbed snow gear for the girls for our upcoming White Christmas. He thinks Scandinavia is a really beautiful place, but could probably live the rest of his life without touching Lutfisk (local delicacy - jellied fish) again. Little does he know, we'll be sampling that again at Christmastime!

We went to The Qatar Caledonian's St Andrew's Ball, which was great fun. I think Brendan was the only person there without a skirt (sorry, kilt) and we definitely looked out of place when we got up for a jig, not realising that you needed a third person to join in! Oh well! They had flown in a true Scottish band, and I got a tear in my eye when the pipers entered the room (from PLC days). We left at 1am, but I hear that there was jiggin' tae the wee sma' hours.

Of course, I have been studying (ie. procrastinating) hard and have handed in all assignments and journals, and sat my exam. So, I am officially on summer break. I'm finally getting out and about in Doha, experiencing what all the other expat ladies have been up to. Brendan is getting worried, and is strongly encouraging me to look into summer school, because I have booked the painters, started sketching a mural for the garden wall, buying and planting potplants (I know! Me doing the garden?!), and eyeing more furniture for our home. I've just discovered some great shops with local and gorgeous amazing I-gotta-have-it furniture, very hard to resist. Also, went to the markets and found some treasures. Off to the gold souk (market) this week, which apparently is super cheap, because you're paying for gold by the weight and no labour costs, and you can get any design you want. I'm getting excited just telling you about it!

Anyway, change the topic. The weather has cooled down a lot, and we're all complaining about how cold we are. The airconditioners have slowly been shut off, and we're running on 2 out of 10 now. Today was especially 'cold' at a max of 27 degrees. Brrrrr.

Doha is now really gearing up for the Asian Games (of course, there has been major construction for about 2 years), with only a fortnight to go to the opening ceremony. We have tickets to the sellout show, Jose Carreras is performing, and a heap of other international stars who we are not familiar with, but are huge celebrities in Asia - think Hong Kong popstars, Bollywood actor/singers, Lebanese songstress etc. Apparently the budget for the opening ceremony (choreographed by aussie David Atkins) is 5 times the opening ceremony at Sydney Olympics. The Qatar airspace will be closed to all aircraft during the show, even emergency medical helicopters - so Brendan's work has been notified that they may not rescue anyone offshore during 6pm and midnight!

The girls are doing well. Matilda chats to anyone, including her reflection in the oven door, all day long. She is not saying anything we understand yet, but hey, maybe it's Arabic? Or Danish? French? Whow knows, she could have picked up anything in this compound! We don't see much of Isabelle... she comes home from school, eats a huge bowl of pasta, changes into her bikeriding clothes, and is gone... until she is hungry again. She sure is her father's daughter! She spends her time cycling around the whole compound, which is fairly large (101 villas), with so many friends. It is really fantastic living like this, there is always someone to play with. Plus, we always seem to have more (than our 2) kids at our house - the other day we had 6 kids in our kitchen, all thirsty for juice! And whenever I am baking, which is several times a week, I always have a couple of helpers to crack eggs, mix dough, or lick spoons! Matilda loves it, but sometimes I think she wonders if we have swapped Isabelle for a new sibling for her.

So, things are great. We're counting down the weeks now until we go to Sweden.
Hope y'all have a great lead up to the festive season.
Love, Samantha, Brendan, Isabelle & Matilda xxxx