About Me

A family of five that has amazing opportunities to travel the world. Having lived in Beijing, China, Hong Kong,Budapest, Hungary, and Doha, Qatar, the journeys continue to unfold before us.

Saturday, January 19, 2013

Celebrating a birthday

When you're 12 and thinking about celebrating a birthday, there are a few requests.  The first is to have a special meal out.  Then of course it's important to have some friends over.  When asked about what she'd like to do with these friends, the response was to just 'hang out'.  No more pass the parcel, treasure hunts, pin the tail on the donkey or crafts for our parties.


The day started with looking at the presents.... and being excited about getting a beanbag chair!

Then it was off for a dim sum buffet.  This is definitely a place that will be a favorite for special occasions.
It just doesn't get better than this.
Then it was time for presents.
This cake was made by a colleague at school.  As you can see, it was gorgeous and inside it was even better..... chocolate cake with peanut butter frosting.
A few friends came over for a sleepover party.






Monday, January 14, 2013

Hydroplanes in Qatar

Stuart spent last Friday filming the races and interviewing the drivers for a video project.

Friday, January 11, 2013

A little help for crafts

This activity was posted in the local paper. It all seems to be perfectly normal until you read step one.   This is a telltale sign that you are in a foreign land....


The Hydro Races are Back

The pits are very close for the viewing audience.

The hydro races are down on the Corniche.  The trucks and boats all seem to be from Seattle.



Saturday, January 5, 2013

January Candids


For Christmas the children got a basketball hoop with a backboard.  In typical fashion, all we have to do is call up the maintenance staff to get it installed.  Of course we'd love to do it ourselves, but we just don't have the tools.



Our vegetable garden is really taking off.  We really enjoy our small grape tomatoes.  


A few days ago we decided to go to the beach for a sunset bbq.  As we were driving we felt a strong vibration.  We pulled over to check the tires, but everything seemed fine.  As we continued driving, the vibration turned to an unalignment.  It felt like something was wrong with an axle.  The next thing we know, there is a thump, thump, thump. As we pull over, Rob looked in the rearview mirror to see a strip of tire tread in the road.  He thought that perhaps he had hit it.  As you can see in the picture, the tires look fine.  But, as we looked closer, the front right tire had lost its tread.



Now the work had to begin to change the tire, but our jack wouldn't raise the car high enough.  We then had to look for some scrap wood to put beneath the jack.


Once the tire was changed, we were back on the road, headed for the beach.  We didn't make it in time for sunset, but we managed a bbq in the dark.


Each year, Qatar hosts the ExxonMobil Tennis Open.  This year we got tickets to see the singles semi-finals and the doubles final.





We soon figured out that tennis players have their own interesting routines.  Before serving, this player would take 3 balls, bounce them and then get rid of one, then sniff the final two balls before selecting which one he would serve with.  This happened every single time and provided quite a few laughs for us.