LEGO Build Event at Ezdan Mall until 5 January

أخيرا إنتهى الإنتظار! إنضموا إلينا في فعالية بناء مجسمات الليغو في #ازدان_مول بداية من اليوم من الساعة 12 ظهراً إلى 8 مس...
Posted by ‎Ezdan Mall - إزدان مول‎ on Monday, December 7, 2015

I was there with two kids last weekend . There was a moderate length line in front of the registration desk . There is one place for little kids 5 years and bellow / other place for 5-12 years . The play time is very short - only 20 minutes .It is enough for nothing for the big ones .Wonderful lego built towers are on display but the time is not enough to build something complicated .I would rather pay than getting this free 20 minutes !

Fish prices came down

Fish prices were in the sky during the last two months . Local fishes were as expensive as salmon !
 It was due to the ban on catching some species to protect them from extinct .
 But as this ban ended now  we can expect  to buy  king fish at  QR15-16/kg - as large stock arrived to the Central Market recently . It was  QR65-70/kg before !
The  tuna and Sherie  stocks are still not satisfying but  fishermen  hope that it will improve soon !

source

 How do you prepare the kingfish ? I  like it fried with pepper and lemon or I cook the traditional Hungarian  soup  with a lots of paprika and onion !

Hungarian Fisherman's Soup Double-Sided Standard Business Cards (Pack Of 100) by almawad

scenes from our life in Qatar

Living in the center of Doha there is always a construction  very close to us .Behind us ,next to us buildings were completed .It was not a dream  to hear  from so close how a building is made .  But they were made and for some years there was silence . Then in front of us the old villas were destroyed  and a six-story  building   was erected  ....nearly completed when the local  authorities caught them . At least I think that is why they stopped . I was always afraid to go out  when they were working . No one worker was wearing safety ropes - I was simply afraid that they would fall on us  a day .
 Since that time  when I try to feed my picky eater at lunch time and I am sitting near the window I see Faza Police  passing by and  checking out the building  from their  car . My little child who refused the lunch one day got scared from the word "police' - he was hiding under the table in fear they would catch him :)

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 Going to the Al-Sadd emergency with a sick child is not  fun  but I am always grateful to see how much child centered they are .Nowadays they employ  someone whose  job is just to guide the new-comers around  . This is very nice . Yet there was  one thing I found very strange . CCTV - the Chinese news channel was on at the waiting lounge .In the country of Baraem , Jim channel why on the earth we must watch Chinese news ?

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During the recent diplomatic tensions the big and powerful neighbour allegedly threatened Qatar with closing the borders and not supplying  the country  with their food products anymore .I was thinking about it . No more Al-marai  labneh ,laban and cheap custards ?No more Sunbullah paratha ?  How can we make do without  them ? Will there be shortage of  dairy products and poultry ?And if so then which country will happily bring its products here ? Turkey ?France ? Any other idea ?

Karwa taxi booking service is worse and worse

Last week I  did not have access to  our family's car -so I was forced to book a Karwa taxi twice . I had to go with my kids to a shopping center where there is no taxi station at all .I needed a car both times to come home .The first time the taxi that I booked came 15 minutes later than it should have .So the next time I booked it  for an early time . It came then 40 minutes after the booking time . At the same time one of my child suddenly became sick in the shopping center. There are no seats at all inside for the customers .We were forced to sit outside in the stuffy air with a child who was already so weak . Daddy is in the other side of the city . I felt miserable .I called five times the taxi center .Every time they said " Madame your car is there in the parking " when it was nowhere . Then when he came forty minutes later he said " Sorry -but the traffic jam was too bad " I know the traffic jam is not something new in Qatar .How it comes that they do not calculate it when arranging the booking? Half year ago the booked taxis used to be there 10 minutes before the booking .Now  they are too much late . Forty minutes would have been enough for us to walk home .
Another time I had to go to our embassy .
The limousine service of Karwa also astonished me . The car was nice and came with five minutes delay only -well it was not in the peak hours .But even the call center lady warned me  "madam , you have to know the location "  - I knew the location and told exact address but they meant that I should have guided the driver from street to street .In the past they used to send experienced drivers  with their limo service who knew the city well .After all it is 50 rial per hour and one expects more than from a usual cab .
I have no idea how the strangers in this city can get from one place to the other in this city when the drivers do not know the place .
For those who do not know . A decade ago Qatar had a well working taxi system which was established as the private business of every driver . They  rented the car from a Qatari company and were interested to work well as the money they made was theirs . They knew very well the city .Though booking did not exist at all and they were wearing traditional Asian clothes . Now many of those drivers  went illegal  . I warn ladies never take those cars . You may never know who is inside .  Even I read it shocked that some legally working drivers locked lady passengers and asking for more money at night . It is something that had been unimaginable here so far .