It's been a long time old friend

The Amazing Fahlman Gang!

Soooooo it's been a little over 6 months since I've managed to find anytime to sit down and write an update.... I am kidding I have just been a little too lazy! Well holy cow where do I start with what has been going on with us, since it's been such a long time.  We are both doing really good and just living the Doha dream really. Mike has been getting busier with work, trying to go to Budapest a minimum or 2 times a month :), while I have been pretty busy with work myself. When we are not working we have been playing hockey this year as the dynamic Pados duo. We are one the same team and I like to imagine we look as cool as the Mighty Ducks out there, but I don't think we are at that level yet. Mike is obviously one of the best players in our league, all the skills I have taught him over the years. We have the championship game tomorrow night against the dreaded  Qatari Oryx, do or die situation really.

South Italy Coast Line

Two Italian Cuties

Now into Summer. All of my dear friends and family on who are to the West of us are probably nostalgically thinking back to the warm weather and sunshine of summer while looking out the window to either a) snow,  b) grey skies, c) wind/rain, or d) all of the above. Do not worry and if the weather gets you down just know that right now I would trade the sunshine of Doha for a little taste of seasonal change. As many of you know I managed to get home in May/June/July for a little over 6 weeks and it was just marvellous. The whole point of my trip was to be there for my Grandpa's surprise 80th birthday at the end of  May, and I figured I may as well stay to at least Canada Day. My trip was awesome to say the least, I really managed to feel back at home and got in all the Canadian summer activities I could. Blue Jays games, cottages, wine tasting in Niagara, baseball games in the backyard, BBQ's, and lots of time spent with my family and friends. At the end of my trip I was about ready to come back to Doha to see my furry family, Mike included. I was very lucky as I was able to work from Canada as well, another benefit to working for an awesome company. When I got back I spent a few weeks in Doha, sweating obviously since it was a million degrees, before I HAD to get out and spent 3 weeks in Italy. Now 3 weeks in Italy alone is an amazing and fattening experience in itself, but being able to spend one week with some amazingly beautiful Italians, well it just can't be beat. We got to spend a week with the Mungo's at their family house in the South of Italy and were treated to the real Italian "Mama Mia" deal. Meal after meal of delicious food, followed by wine and the best company. Nights were spent listening to Italian opera singers while getting very nostalgic, and many many laughs, while days were spent at the beach enjoying the crystal clear beaches and endless view of men in speedos. It really couldn't have been any better!!! Summer 2014 was a very good summer to us, however with everything that is good there is always the bad. We lost one of our kitties this summer, our sweet and lovable Bailey. Bailey had a blood clot that was in his heart and blocking the blood flow to his lower body, causing him to become immobile and in a lot of pain. Thankfully he didn't have to suffer very long and it was with very heavy hearts that Mike and I decided that the best thing for him would be if we put him down. We miss him everyday, and so does his brother Winston. But being that this is Mike and I, we now have 5 cats again having adopted a little foster kitten named Florence. This little girl is about 60% blind, but helps to fill the 5th cat void with her endless energy and crazy antics.

All my beautiful Guelph girls

In October we had a very special guest come and visit us for a few days, Mike's 94 year old granny aka Mama. Now Mama is not your average 94 year old women, she lives by herself still, is constantly cooking up and storm, and is very much aware of everything and everyone around her (some may say a little too much). Mama travelled to Hungary for a few weeks to visit family and decided that since she is already in Eastern Europe why not jump on a plane to the Middle East?! Riding in business class Mama made her way to spend a few days in the hot Doha fall to see what life is like here. We are so happy that she came, like honestly who's 94 year old Grandma can travel from Toronto-Budapest-Doha-Budapest-Toronto by herself , and at the same time teach the flight attendants what a Mimosa is. She is an impressive lady!

Florence saying "Feed me!!"

Compulsory visit to Cat  

Mike loving Ramen

At the end of October Mike and I made our first trek to the Far East, aka Japan for some of you who may be as confused as I was about this the first time I heard it. Well what can I say about Tokyo other than how much I loved it!!! It is a huge and crazy but amazing city which so much to see and do and eat and drink that being there for a week barely scratched the surface. Now we did have an incredible tour guide with this who knew some in's and out's as he has been to Japan about a million times. Our friend Eric flew in from Toronto to spend the week with us, while our other friend Mark made the trip from Vienna (only in business class I might add). We managed to hit up quite a few American chain restaurants which was on the top of my "To-See" list, (I hope you are picking up on the sarcasm here), specially Hooters which I think we managed to visit 2 or 3 times?! We also visited some very classy venues such as a maid's cafe to celebrate Mark's 26th birthday. I will let you google maid's cafe it is something best done at home. The highlight was definitely Halloween where it was the definition of sensory overload. To be fair Japan is a country that does enjoy dressing up a little fancier than the normal North American on a regular basis, so I think a lot of Japanese really look forward to Halloween. Our friend and his amazing fiancee, Brendon and Robyn, live in Tokyo so we were able to meet up and spend some quality with them as well. Basically it was just a huge Porter reunion in Japan. From Japan Mike and I made the 7 hr flight, in economy blahhh, to Bangkok, Thailand. Talk about day and night, I'll go out on a  limb and say the cleanliness standards in Bangkok are not as high as those in Japan. Once I managed to express my dislike of the smell to Eric he managed to knock some sense into me. Our conversation went like this:

Ain't no thing like a G thang

"Bangkok is disgusting!!"
"It's a third world country what do you expect?"

Oh well, touché..... ermmm I guess I hadn't thought about that before. If you like cheap beer (I do), cheap and good food (Yup), and an abundance of places where you can get into a lot of trouble, then book the next flight to Bangkok. We didn't spend the whole time in Bangkok and flew South to Kho Phangan for 5 days which was stunning, minus the rain. So all in all we had a successful vacation, different, but successful. I am not saying I didn't like Thailand, because I did, but maybe I won't rush back there straight away. As my friend Prit would say "I'am just too posh".

Happy Birthday young man!

Well other than that Mike and I have just been chillin' like villians'. Everything in Doha remains the same, construction everywhere, but the weather is cooling down and I have had to put the heat on in the car once or twice when it's gone down to 17 degrees. Qatar Airways has finally gotten some A380's and will become the launch customer of the brand new A350 this month. Mike and I will fly on it before Eric, it is our New Years resolution.

San Merino 

Signing off and wishing everyone the Merriest of Christmas's and the Happiest of New Years. If you have a white Christmas this year think of me whilst you sip your eggnog.

Missing and loving everyone

Mike, Megan, and the kitty gang xxxxx

Hold on , I'm coming home...

Mike's trip to Myanmar/Burma

Judge me all you want but I am a proud Drake fan and love telling people that he is from Toronto, what I am not so proud of is the crack-smoking ,michelin man of a mayor that runs the city. As my dear friend Angie would say "what a bozo".

Monks in front of Shwedagon Pagoda

Looking over to Saudi Arabia

 I just googled "Toronto weather" and all I can say is I am sorry. Mother Nature sure seems to be have it out for Canada this year .Side note it's 37 here today but with the humidity it's 41 , and what I like to call the beginning of bad hair and sweat season. For your sake and mine ( yes it is all about me ) , I hope she gets over it asap because baby I am coming home!I will be spending half of June and July in Toronto and I can't wipe this smile off of my mug!!! That's right ladies and gentlemen I am coming home for a good month or more.  I can not wait to be back in Toronto for part of the summer , no matter how warm it is. I am going to be spending the majority of the time in my amazing , beautiful , generous friend Naz's place while she is back in Iran!دختر شما بهترین دوست یک دختر می تواند برای درخواست ( according to google translate that is secret message to Naz) If it makes no sense at all , blame it on google. All I can think about is seeing my friends and family , food , jays games , cottages , food , steam whistle and mill street , greenery , food ,and just the beauty of Ontario. This is the stuff sweet dreams are made of. So please let me know when you are free because I will actually have time to see everyone and not be rushing around!

Myanmar

So what is new with us.... well I have hung up the lady of leisure lifestyle and am now a working woman again. I pretty much have the best job in the world ( I am not just saying this because there is a chance my boss will read this ), but I get to work from home. This means that I don't have to dress up for work and can literally stay in my sweat pants for an entire day. I do however fear that I will become a recluse with only my 5 cats to keep me company. If you don't hear from me for a few days or more it might be a good idea to send help. I work for a company called World Air Ops which is a flight support company , similar to what I was doing back in Canada . If you have time look it up , it's an amazing company. Not too many people can say they get up 5 mins before work and get to sit around wearing coffee stained shirts ( not that I do) . So besides now hanging out with my cats almost the entire day and looking amazing, things have been pretty quite around here.

At night

Mike on a recent trip to Budapest

Mike's sister managed to get here for a week after a hellish standby adventure which took her from YYZ-DXB-DOH. She also got to fly on the 380 which made Mike and I super jealous. We showed her the sights and sounds of Doha , which took about 4 hrs , and then pretty much just ate for the remainder of the week. The weather was perfect for her trip and it was so nice to be able to show our family our new life. Mike's dad was next to visit for a few days on his way home from Hungary. Finally our friend Adam came for 10 days. Like I just said showing people around Doha only takes a few hours , we decided on a 3 day trip to Dubai. It is a very nice break to go to Dubai and see what a finished city looks like, kinda gives us a little glance into the future of Doha.

Beautiful Budapest

I managed to get away with Mike on an overnight to the Maldives , and what I can remember between the Pina Coladas was that this place is absolutely stunning. Definitely a place I would say to add to anyones bucket list , but make sure you start savings your nickels now because it is expensive. You can literally wade out into the clear blue waters and see so many tropical fish and baby sharks it is beautiful and terrifying at the same time. We are heading to Baku , Azerbaijan next week to enjoy a few days along the Caspian sea and to celebrate Mike's 33rd birthday on the 13th!

My new friends and I at the pool bar in the Maldives , the water was 3 feet deep

Beach in Male

Niki and I enjoying some Tandoori

Mike has been good working away and heading to and from Russia twice this month , Georgia , Muscat , Iran and other exotic places in the Gulf. He has been flying around 50 hours so we have had a lot of quality time together and to watch the playoffs. And that is pretty much all that is happening with us. Hopefully I will get to see everyone when I come home!!!



Sorry for the lacklustre update , but we are getting old and things just aren't as excited as they used to be

Male

Lots of Love,

Mike , Megan and 5 cats xo

Startin' to feel like summer

The most beautiful birthday girl , with the coolest cake

Mike and Dario Cute-in' it up

First of all I want to start of by telling you how truly sorry I really am to all of my sweet Canadians that are stuck in the coldest and shittiest of winters in recent history. I just felt like I had to say that so you wouldn't hate me for what I have to say next..... SUMMER IS HERE. The weather is getting hot, hot, hot , and nights are getting to be the perfect combination of a cool breeze and warm temps. Mind you I have had to air con all winter , but people are just starting to need it on. It is moments like these that I think back to our visit in Jan and am so damn grateful that I live where I live during these months.One of my fondest memories of Mike was in Ottawa when the car said it was -39 and he turns to me and says " I don't know how people deal with this shit , it is too cold " . Babes you did it for 32 years , ohhh how easily we forget. I do miss winter  , but the pretty winter that comes with -5 temps and some snow. The kind of winter you hope to get on Christmas Day but is gone by the end of Jan. Not the winter that has been there for 5 months , dumped enough snow that you realistically could build a snow replica of the CN Tower , and has been so cold that meteorologists have had to come up with a new word "Polar Vortex". Back in my day we just called that a Canadian Winter , but hey I don't make the big bucks and this comes from highly educated people...... even though I am pretty sure that guy on channel 18 weather used to be in Student Bodies on YTV...........

God she loves me

Anywho let's get over the depressing things in life and move forward. Listen I am always under the impression that when life gives you a Polar Vortex , you are due for the best summer in years. If it is any consolation the summer's here are just as bad as the winters there. Did you know that last summer a man cooked chocolate chip cookies on his dashboard, all the way through in something crazy like 2 hours. They probs weren't as good as PC Decadent but it is impressive none the less. Sidenote what the heck is with PC trying to flavor infuse everything with decadent chocolate chip cookies. When I was home they had pop that apparently tastes like cookies , if you haven't tried it don't , save your taste buds the pain it is not worth it.

It was amazing to see you all xo

Can't you feel the love

So what has been going on with us. Well we have had two amazing visitors in the month of Feb. My dear friend Eric graced us with his presence for 5 days while on his way to his fav continent of Asia. We made sure he was well rested and fed for the continuation of his journey. This guy is such a plane geek that he bought a ticket to go via Russia just so he could flight on two dilapidated , Russian death traps of airplanes before they retire. I say this all with love and deep admiration that you follow your dreams and passions Eric ;) It really only takes about 6 hours to show people what Doha has to offer , 2 if there was no traffic , so Eric taught Mike and I his favorite form of art expression - " The Art of Couch". It worked out for us because the Olympics were in full force and we had some Stella's that were about to expire and needed to be drank. Next came Mike's sister Niki , who unfortunately had a hellish time getting here. Poor girl had to fly Emirates from Toronto to Dubai and then proceeded to get offloaded and delayed , and then ran through the airport to another terminal and barely made the flight to Doha 6 hours later then planned. Again because the tour time is not long in Doha , we wined and dined and plumped her up. Not really , but we did eat a lot. We have this great coupon book that gives you hundreds of buy one get one free , so we are using and abusing that bad boy. It is almost at the point that I can audition for extreme couponers on TLC.  We went to one of Gordon Ramsay's restaurants where it was so fancy you weren't allowed to pour your own water. I had to mentally remind myself to keep my elbows off the table and eat like a woman.  I find that so ironic that he would have such a fancy place , when all he does on TV is be a loud arrogant a-hole , who is always yelling and making people cry.

Best jumping shot ever - Ali just started river dancing ;)

Post sand face plant pic , took me 3 days to get rid of all the sand

Christmas 2013 - Spent with some of the most amazing people xo

Pretty much some of the best looking girls from GCVI

Wild Wangs with some wild thangs

Mike and I were also playing the 2014 Desert Cup here in Doha while Niki was here. She got to see our sick hockey skills up close and personal , well actually Mike is a really good hockey player while I just float around. It works in my favour that I am the only girl because people tend to take it easy on me so I get the puck for an extra 3 seconds which helps me build my ice cred , ( which is similar to street cred). The Desert Cup was pretty cool , we played teams from Kuwait , Oman, Saudi Arabia , Bahrain , and the UAE. Some teams were solely nationals , while others were comprised of expats , 90% of them being Canadians. I played in the B league and we won silver , it was totally deja vu to the woman's gold medal game. We had 2-0 lead with like 5 mins in the 3rd and then lost in OT ...... we didn't cry though. Mike's team got the bronze in the A league , so he gets an A for effort. If you check out the Toronto Star there is an article written by a Canadian here called " Hockey Night in Qatar" , it's pretty cool. I beat those guys in the picture , whats up!!!! The tournament was really good and they played so many songs that remind me of all the nights I spent watching hockey. It's funny because there are tons of people watching , I would say about 1/16th of them actually know what's going on , and "The Good Old Hockey Game" is blasting. Oh and the tourney was held on the rink in the food court in the mall ..... I have never played hockey where to smell of KFC and McD's overpower the smell of sweaty equipment.

So yeah that's us , we are heading to Hungary on Friday to spend a few days with our amazing family there. We always get so excited to head to Gyula , and we always make sure we bring an extra big pair of pants that will fit us when we leave :)

Keep it real my friends and stay positive , WINTER WILL END!!! Just think of Game of Thrones winter lasts for years ..... months isn't that bad in comparison.

Hugs and Kisses The Padiis