Monday, August 30, 2010

Ramadan in Qatar

Art Collage by Alma Wad(aka me)



Ramadan in Qatar print
Ramadan in Qatar by almawad
See other ""poster designs on zazzle.com

  This art poster features an intricate Islamic lamp with the view of the modern city in the background at sunset .It shows the modern and traditional side of this country in the Middle East . The poster is available in five different sizes .
 
How was it made ?

Picasa is a free image editor - that you can download at google.com . It can make collages .I chose multiple exposure option  and played with transparency untilI got the desired image.Orignally the photos were taken  on the Corniche and in the Pearl Island .
 
If you are interested in art and photos  you can read in my next post about the posibilites in Qatar .


Sunday, August 29, 2010

Petrol Dollars Blessing or Curse ?
Aljazeera tv channel


Giving Birth in Qatar

 The other day there was simply no bed available in the delivery room for mothers in labour ....
 here is what the peninsula qatar writes 

A couple of days ago, procedures at Women’s Hospital, which sees more than 50 births each day, came to a standstill. The emergency services were stuck, the labour room was jammed and the inpatient beds were all occupied.
The reason was that some of the inpatients who had been discharged and were fit to go home were waiting in their beds until their families felt it necessary to move them. Due to lack of inpatient beds, post-natal women had to wait in their delivery beds in the labour room. Since all the delivery beds were thus occupied, women with labour pains could not be admitted and hence delivered in the Emergency Unit.
“Who has to be blamed here? When doctors say patients are fit to go home, we are responsible for them. We are not pushing them; we just need to make space for an equally important patient. Is it not unfair to leave a woman in labour spasm to deliver in the emergency,” asks Dr Halima Al Tamimi, Chairperson, Gynaecology & Obstetrics Department, Women’s Hospital.



I am really worried .One of my friend is expecting a baby ...Will she get a bed for delivery and after ?

Sunday, August 22, 2010

Museum of Islamic Art print

Programs for kids during Ramadan :

 It seems to me that at the Islamic Art Museum there is  a program called Treasure Trail for kids between the age 6 -16 ..

You can visit the museum after iftar on Thursdays and on Saturday  between 8 - 11 pm

 Here is more detail about their timing

The Children Treasure Trail Competition will be running during the holy month of Ramadan.

Museum of Islamic Art Ramadan Timings:
Sunday – Wednesday: 10:00 a.m. till 2:00 p.m.
Tuesday: CLOSED
Thursday: 10:00 a.m. till 2:00 p.m. and 8:00 p.m. till 11:00 p.m.
Friday: CLOSED
Sat: 10:00 am – 2:00 p.m. and 8:00 p.m. till 11:00 p.m.

Please note that Museum of Islamic Art will be closed on the first day of EID.

Saturday, August 21, 2010

  Tribeca Film Festival

Volunteer Recruitment and Orientation: September 15 - October 14.
Mandatory Department Training Days: October 9 & October 16
Doha Tribeca Film Festival: October 26 – 30

One of my child was working there last year . The festival itself was great and we plan to visit it again . But this volunteer recruitment and orientation was rather time consuming  and without giving much useful information .
Come here go there  -but it was not understood well what for . So she refuses to volunteer again as she can not  spend so much time on all those  trainings ..However if you do not mind the time then  give it a try ...They distribute promotional stuffs like tees etc . you will be invited to exclusive movie shows and to a party  and the work  itself can be interesting  and emotionally rewarding .I think it is a great adventure after all .

Friday, August 20, 2010



I can’t believe it ! Zazzle sent me the e-mail yesterday that Alma Wad is a pro seller at Zazzle . I am very happy . A thing that I did not hope at all when I started to set up my shop at Zazzle .

For this occasion Zazzle sent me a $30 coupon gift and I can read and discuss at the proseller’s forum .I can use the icon of prosellers . That is all the changes that I noticed for the time being .

I think this blog helped me a lot with the promotion and I hope that it will help in the future !

Saturday, August 14, 2010




Ramadan Karim

 the fasting month has started on 11th August in 2010

timing at many places change  at this period 

most of the big supermarkets open at 9 am and they close only at 1 am - so they are open all the day - they  have one hour break only  on Fridays
( Family Food Centre  closing at 4 30 pm and reopens only at 7 pm)


Health Centers open at 8 am   and  there is no service in the afternoons   they reopen at 7 pm to close at 11 pm

 boutiques - if you feel like shopping in the plazas during ramadan then you can do it from 10 am till 12 /12 30 am  all the afternoon they remain closed only to reopen  at 7or 8 pm 


post office : from 8 am till 12  in the mornings
 in the afternoons there is no service
 they reopen at 8 pm  to close at midnight


Qtel : from 10 am to 3 pm
          from 8 pm 11:30 pm





P.S. if you need a stock photo for your ramadan posts you can find a lot around here :www.fotonium.com

Friday, August 13, 2010

AQUAPARK IN QATAR

  It is going to open soon  - at least for Eid  . It is a bit far from Doha .  16 km from the Ain Khalid roundabout driving along the Salwa road .What to expect there ? Lazy river ,1,500 square -metre activity area for kids ,giant wave pool where you can surf  ,food court to have lunch .  It costs 100 rial per person .For kids under five it is free .Tuesday is ladies only day   - Friday is for families.

Sounds like  great fun ! :) We have expected  it for so  long .
Update Finally the park opened only after Eid .Friday, 24 September 2010 .Nobody spoke about Ladies only days anymore ...


water abstraction profilecard
Can you believe that a taxi drives away with all your shopping bags in the back of the taxi then  after one hour he comes back then he wants you to pay for  that ?
Well , that is what exactly happened to  us . I had just left the  taxi and wanted to open the back of the car when he drove away and left me in  the middle of the road . He forgot the bags obviously . Then I called the karwa supervisors  - they wanted to know all sorts of things about me and my bags  - that had nothing to see with the matter .But finally they found the forgetful driver .

I expected him to apologize but at my greatest shock he wanted me to pay for his coming back .I was furious  I told  him my mind . But he would not get hurt  and would not go away . He was just standing there  in front of our house .


Finally my husband gave him some money .You can laugh at us -but it was so disturbing to see that he was ready to camp in front of our house for the want of 25 riyals . ...


Things like that happen only in Qatar I think .

Monday, August 09, 2010

While I was away from Qatar two important things happened in July .

1. There was an earthquake with the epicenter around 300 km from Doha .It was 5.8 .
It seems to me that very few people noticed that at all .

2 .All telephone numbers changed into 8 digit numbers in a way that you have to add the first digit one more time ... for example if you call karwa then in stead of 458 8888 you have to use 4458 8888 .
  Both landline and mobile phones changed this way .

Perhaps you need a new business card then with this change !:) Here is one of my bestseller:


 




Modern Cityscape profilecard

Sunday, August 01, 2010

I have not been able to write for a while . There was a bug and I had not been able to post .

I was back to Hungary and I compared the two countries all the time .  
 

It was rather hot there as well and  no AC at most homes . The days were longer even at 9 30 it was daylight . I think  this is the thing I miss the most when  it is  summer  in Qatar . It is early   and it is totally dark at 6 .Mcdonald's in Hungary is selling all kinds of healthy food :  fruit , cheese bars ,grilled chicken breast with salad ,muesli with yoghurt . 
Health service in Hungary is still not very well organized . It is still better in Qatar . It was not a surprise .Just I was shocked when at emergency  my adult child was asked to pay around  $50 for the treatment . I had always thought that emergency is something free everywhere  .

Summer entertainments are numerous in Hungary festivals all the time .
Here I saw no clue having something like that.

Hungarian Vacations bag
Hungarian Vacations by almawad
Create a customizable bags using zazzle.com

It is nice in Qatar that dogs and there owners right is not above humans'. In Hungary you can see so many big ,dangerous dogs  without the prescribed protections .Nobody cares though there have been so many tragedies .
My kids enjoyed seeing frogs , spiders  , fruit on  trees / and my preschoolers noticed that women outnumber men in Hungary while in Qatar just the opposite .












All in all it was a nice holiday and a nice return .I have a nice spacious home  here and  I have  some friends  and we  can work and have a comfortable life .





expat Qatar