Inshallah

I do apologize for my lack of correspondence but I was hoping to announce that I too was coming home but I still have not gotten an answer from my lovely work. After two months of trying to get time off , I guess these things here take time ..... a lot of time. I will hopefully know within the next few days what is going on. So as they say here we can hope and Inshallah.....

On the bright side of things , Mr P will be home on the 10th until the 22nd ish. Boy got some extra time off that they owed him , and looks like he will be home to witness the once in lifetime Leaf's playoff appearance. I am sorry to say but I really don't see them getting through the first round , or the first 4 games. But to support my husband I hope they do , so he is able to sip a cold beer , munch on some chicken waangs and watch the leafs ~~get crushed~~ , I mean win. If I do come home I will be there from the 8th until 15th. We don't have any plans except for the following : 1*) (This is the most important) Cuddle babies and the small children we love YOU KNOW WHO YOU ARE 1b) Roll San 2) Chicken Wings 3) Pizzaiolio 4) Get our teeth cleaned 5) Mama's cooking 6) have a "few " drinks with family and friends and 7) grab some poutine and St Hubert at the YUL airport. Please note these are not in an specific order. Please also note that Mike and I do enjoy being piggies and we miss a lot of things but these things are mostly food.

So what have we been doing?? Well I have been working and that's pretty much it. Went to Ikea again, but I swear it was just for the meatballs. Mike is training still , just went to the Sudan yesterday and heading to Cairo tomorrow. He is liking it but mostly loving the crew meals. To all our Porter friends I shouldn't even tell you because I feel like it is bragging. This is our typical post flight conversation

Meg " So how was your flight?"
PDP " Good ."
Meg " Did you get a lot of things done ?"
PDP " Yes"
Meg " Cool , did you see anything really nice that you flew over ?"
PDP " Mountains "
Meg" How was the food?"
PDP" Well I started with a salad with shrimp on it with a lovely balsamic dressing on the side . Then I had choice of mixed grill , steak , fish or chicken. I took the mixed grill , it was sooo good. The meat was tender , it's hard to believe it is airplane food. For desert there was some ice cream and cheesecake but I was full from the other food."
* Side note for you guys wondering PDP stands for Pimp Daddy Pados . Mike drove 4 girls to lunch the other and the name has stayed*

Just because my blog wouldn't be complete without a pic of something I ate

So needless to say the food is great , he actually prefers eating at work for a change.

Remember that list I passed along with some points about the driving here in Doha , well I came across a list of how people change/what they come to expect after living in Doha for a while. Again just my favs :

1) When you no longer find the names of roundabouts amusing. Qatar operates on an exaggerated one-way system, with all roads being connected to all other roads by a series of roundabouts. These are often named after whatever happens to be on them or near them. TV roundabout sits next to Al Jazeera TV station while Slope Roundabout is built on a slight incline and Burger King Roundabout is, well, let’s say it isn’t near a McDonald’s. I cannot find this elusive Burger King roundabout , but that is because every roundabout has a Burger King. It will be a whopper of a day when I do though

2) When this is a totally normal thing to see.

No I have no seen this yet but I swear to you when I do I will follow it so I get some great pics

My pretty lunch dates : Prit , Angie and Erica xo

3) When speed limits and red lights are just gentle suggestions...

...and when it is no longer shocking for someone to make a left turn from the far right lane while navigating one of the 50 roundabouts you have found yourself on in the space of your five mile journey.

You have also developed a tendency to change lanes whenever a Land Cruiser comes anywhere near you for fear of being run off the road. Fo real though. You know how on smoking packs they show disgusting pics of cancerous lungs to scare you , when you get your driving license here they should have a picture of a Land Cruiser

4) When you get unnaturally excited about Ikea opening. I am not ashamed to admit that I went twice in a fortnight, although potentially I should be . I think you can tell from past posts my feelings about this

5) When rain is a cause for a) excitement and b) everyone forgetting how to drive. Or you curse because you just washed your car. It actually rains dirt here , not men , dirty dusty sand. Mike is the king at doing the ol' car wash and then rain in the next 5 hrs.

We have a new roommate , he arrived on Saturday after a very long and stressful day. Meet Oscar !!

Day of capture

12 weeks old , Doha speciality . As cute as he is we are trying to get him a new home because we have two other kitties we might rescue and that would bring us to 5 cats. I know we will likely have 20 by the end of the year. Oscar made quite the entrance into out lives. Prit and I were on our way to get our nails did on Sat when Prit , with her eagle eyes and lovely British accent ( had to add that for the affect), yelled " There's a kitten running between those cars , he is going to die !!!" With our adrenaline pumping and eyes on the prize we did a stunt man moved and parked the car on the shoulder. I would also like to add for affect that this was Saturday morning in front of a very busy mosque where Prit and I were the only expat women around , so we didn't go unnoticed. Oscar was still running like a made man through the traffic. I ran in front of a car that was on the road and yelled stop with my hand out ( finally all those Spice Girls videos came into use) , and found the little guy had crawled up into his wheel well in about .3 seconds. We ripped him , literally , off the tire. Now in the mean time the driver with an extremely bewildered look on his face was out to inspect wtf was going on. With Oscar squirming and crying in my hand Prit and I made a be-line to our car and put him in. All very dramatic but I hope you can see the humor in it all now. So end result he's in our bathroom until we find a home for him. He is the size of Winston and Bailey's head.