Gifs not working, top two pictures, why?

Very soon now I will be leaving the humdrum working life for a few days as a holiday maker. This is particularly nice since Alice (and Alistair) flew ahead of me and I have naturally been missing them a great deal.
So in about forty eight hours I will be heading for the airport and the paraffin budgie to get me away from here and back with my wonderful extended family. It seems that I have been doing this sort of thing for centuries but, of course, in reality it is only decades.
Not quite the same life as many people I suppose but on the whole I have enjoyed it and I do tend to agree with the blob person's sentiments on the right. And passing through so many different countries and cultures I have grown to realise that the world would be a much less interesting place if we did not have so many differences. So I do not recommend trying to change places by invading them.
However if our differences were all as obvious as this army type then perhaps there would be less invasions!

Youngest Arrives

Alistair has recently arrived for the summer holidays, although in fact much of the time will be spent in the Phils and not here in Doha. Naturally we went straight into tourist mode and headed out into the desert, where he proved to have out grown his mother but not, quite yet, his father.

We visited the Corniche, to see the dhows seen in front of the tall buildings around City Centre Mall across the bay. A nice split between the old and the new here in Doha. And talking of the new, we visited an outside upstairs Chinese restaurant with a fine view of the gondolas inside Villagio, there are times when the exotica of Arabia really comes to the fore, don't you think?
As this photo, to the below left, records both Alice and Alistair (and I though not portrayed) are having an absolutely splendid time. They went ice skating yesterday and generally are rushing around almost like genuine tourists rather than expats!
But of course there is always the minor niggling concern that more demanding tourists may arrive at any moment, even without the support of Blair. Because we all know that there are those with certain demands that they want to be met at all costs.

Choices

As I labour away I sometimes think of the many choices in life that I have taken. My charming wife having recently put me back on a diet by banning beer and cider and limiting my wine except at weekends when we eat out has made me consider deeply about which is the greater pleasure; food or drink. But I think that drink wins by a nose.

The pleasures in that line are so self evident that I am quite sure I could get as mixed up as this fellow, for whom I have the greatest sympathy. An easy mistake to make, surely?
And there are so many ways to mitigate against the affects of excessive food that one has to feel that this is a lesser worry, let's concentrate on the one hobby that genuinely gives pleasure and cannot be as easily overcome by a simple "sanitized" product as eating prodigiously.
Of course one should perhaps consider hobbies generally, and food and drink far outweigh most other for me, except perhaps reading or listening to audiobooks. There is a whole lot of time happily consumed by listening to the Pickwick Papers for instance.
But, cutting through the convoluted though processes, I cannot but feel that this gentleman has really brought his hobby into the realms of an art form.

Evenings?

Following a big breakfast, missing my usual bacon, of course, I struggle to get through the day, trapped at a desk without even the useful glasses that this young lady has to disguise my languor, I dream of the coming evening and the pleasures to be had at that time.
Mind you since at least one of the bowling alleys is "ladies only" I suspect that even should I get that energetic it is virtually guaranteed that the best dressed ladies would not be about for my viewing but hidden away where no male eye can sully their perfections.
So I guess I need to turn to that most helpful item, the computer, now perfectly set up to provide my evening needs speedily and efficiently.
But even these thrills can pall and so one has to investigate the internet to track down something that could perhaps give a jaded mind something to enthuse over. And it can be found (although I did need to go back to my regular keyboard to speed the search). How can be interested in beer or even wine when there are so much better things available for those in need of a little extra excitement after work.

It's nice

We rather like Doha, which has a certain amount of charm. Not a vast amount of excitement perhaps but nevertheless a very pleasant place.

The corniche is very well kept and swings round the bay, so that from the Pearl fountain one can see all the way across to the buildings around the City Centre mall, that is when the airborne sand permits!
The dhows are always of interest and I really love the minaret close to the souq area. I pass it every day on the way to work and back and I find it quite fascinating for some reason.
And now that I have installed Skype Alice can phone home regularly without breaking the bank. A major advantage! I will be installing it on the family computer at home next time I am there and we will be using it even more, and even more cheaply from then on.
Much as I like it here I am looking forward to seeing my dear pig's smile. They are such charmers and are missed a great deal; as is bacon and pork chops! The receipt of my Liquor Permit means that I am not deprived of a relaxant in the house but I am sorry to say that although I have searched the souqs and the Malls I have failed to find the one shop that could cheer an exiled Scotsman.

A Quiet Glass of Wine

Reading through my last I thought I should show what I sometimes mean.

Tourists maybe

After what seems like an eternity of being locked in the office at last a two day weekend came round for me again, by needing to adjust by a week I have had three one day weekends in a row and believe me it seems like a long sentence!

We made the best of it, having a visit to the old souq, where Alice found some of her spices. Indeed she found some that we had no idea how to use. But Alice is nothing of not adventurous so I expect I will be having some exotic meals in the near future.
And we also decided to go all touristy and headed out to Al Khor to join the other happy snappers enjoying getting records of their holiday breaks. Mind you getting out of the car was a bit of a pain when one considers the rapidly rising temperatures, recorded in the top right of the data screen in the Pajero, we are temporarily using while the CRV is repaired. But we had to get a record of the desert, did we not? So we braved the amazing amount of sand in the air, although not a sandstorm due to the wind being merely moderate, and got our driver to take that record.
But soon we were heading back home to Doha, along the corniche where we could see the record of the well-known pearl diving that was once the mainstay of Qatar, before the oil and, even more importantly, the gas made such wealth changes to the country. And how nice it was to get back to a modern hotel restaurant and have the opportunity for a feed. A feed that gives the opportunity to have a quiet glass of wine with a beautiful woman and without any concerns that you might inadvertently upset someone and be subject to an extremely unfortunate: -