The real estate market

To own land in Qatar you have to be a citizen. If you're not a citizen, you can own up to 49% of any given parcel and the rest must belong to a Qatari. There is one exception: You can buy "reclaimed" land, manmade land in the ocean. Such land is scarce, and quite expensive.

People who buy this land also buy nice boats. Speaking of boats, here's a shout out to what some believe to be an acceptable youtube video. Anyway, back on topic, the fake island sports a torch in the middle of a nondescript and senseless wall of concrete, as if it were not already hot and bright enough around here.

2011: An Amphitheater Odyssey

A stone stadium with no evident lighting or amplification system. Bored guards guard for guarding's sake.

There is enough space on the back half of the stage for hundreds of backup dancers.

A computer chip is tossed to the setting sun, and when it falls next mankind will be something different.

Prime real estate

These are apartment buildings, so said the tour guide:

In Qatar they have trouble affording architects that know how to draw straight lines.

Al Souq Waqif

Translated literally, the standing market. They have hundreds of miniature shops. Some sell candy:

Some sell pets:

Some sell camel dishes on the rooftop to customers smoking hukas on hot rooftops overlooking the market. Find the huka pipes in this photo hanging in the top right:

The customers get to watch soccer and sappy MTV.

Carpet mecca carpet

While on the topic of carpet meccas, we must discuss the Mecca carpet. The sewn-in compass helps you to improve your aim. A prayer that is not precisely calibrated is liable to be wasted, passing by the holy city with no more effect than a neutrino through a banana.

A carpet culture

In the desert, it never rains on the outdoor carpets.

Family values

The jet skier is only a boy, maybe 14. He does figure eights, sending ocean spray all the way to where I stand.

There's an Amish-like emphasis on family around here. Certain large public parks are reserved for families only. Not even couples are allowed in these parks.

City of dreams

There are rumors.

We think we know where the money is coming from, but we don't know where the people will come from.

A little trip to the mall

Here is my survival kit for venturing out for even a 10-minute walk:

Something like Walmart, and a good source of groceries, is nestled deep within the mall.

You can buy most any kind of junk you like at the mall. Notably absent is the REI equivalent. People here don't even try to pretend like they like nature.

If I had to take care of a doll, this would be the one.

Ice.

Office space

The window blind is a soft translucent roll that appears at the touch of a button. I like my chair:


There is this in case anyone wants to relax by my door:

My bathtub

The water in this pool does not sting my eyes much or make me stink much. I like to swim there at night.

Drag racer crane tractor

Worknook

Good stuff on the financial crisis

After watching Inside Job and listening (on tape) to The Big Short, I highly recommend both as good fodder for igniting your confused interest in the financial world.

The Big Short is about 8 hours to listen to and it kept my attention all rapt up during much of my trip. Like most any great documentary, the official topic of the book is not much more that a pretext for a running subtext of insight into psychology. Throughout, the authors tantalizingly characterize the investor heros as quirky and more hardworking than brilliant, as if I could follow in their footsteps if I really wanted to. Most poignantly, a market man comes to terms with his Aspergers after watching his son get diagnosed. And here is one of my favorite character descriptions:

He was short, with a wall street belly; not the bleacher-bums boiler, but the discrete necessary pouch of a squirrel just before winter.

From the 14th floor: Part 2

The two main bathrooms each include some sort of wash basin next to the toilet. I assume it's for washing clothes. That will be fun.

The shower next to the bathtub is doubly overkill considering that the swimming pool out back will easily meet all of my bathing needs.

I guess they have to find something to spend all those natural gas dollars on.

Hot gray

The ocean blends into the sky. The heat is thick and hazy.


Of all the buildings I can see, nothing was here before 1982, said my Sri-Lankan taxi driver this morning. It seems like a third of the skyscrapers are still under construction.

From the 14th floor: Part 0

The school rep and I looked around my apartment when he delivered me there.

I think I'll fit.

True to rumor, the fridge had enough food in it for at least a couple days, if you're me, or at least a week for a normal person.


I was perplexed at the small size of the bedroom compared to the main living area, but quickly decided that small bedrooms must be just one more aspect of Arab culture I had not heard about.

After returning from a quick excursion to the mall with the school rep, I explored the premises a bit more and found two more bedrooms that neither of us had noticed. One has two twin beds set up like a hotel room. For myself I claimed the the master bedroom with the king bed with clean sheets.

In it's original unadulterated state the master bed had a towel and washcloth on top. It's the only towel and washcloth I've found after extensive searching, suggesting that I'm currently the only person assigned to this flat. I'm not sure what to do with this side room:

So in summary, this place has 2 decks, 3 full bathrooms (a special bathroom feature coming soon!), and 3 bedrooms plus spacious living areas. It's about twice the size of my house back home. I have to walk so far to get anywhere, like from the couch to the refrigerator.

I am not alone

This bird hiding in the corner gave me a startle when I first stepped out onto deck #2.

I suppose she thinks she's incubating that egg, although it's hard to imagine that this is necessary during the 100 degree heat.

Should I set up a video camera for real-time footage of the majestic pigeon and young?

From the 14th floor: Part I

First class

I start my day scooping up water from the mysterious hilltop-burp stream running behind my house to water my young plants and contemplating how best to attack the groundhog I saw run into the bushes. I end my day sitting in the first class lounge in Dulles airport chatting over wi-fi as I await the beef ribs from a menu with no prices and snack on bits of cantaloupe from the self-serve fruit bar, occasionally glancing up to sip from a tall narrow glass of ice water and taking in the view of jets taxiing on the side of the glass wall. Ah, here are my ribs now, a dainty portion with no bone, unfamiliar to one used to a large plate of groundhog.

Qatar etiquette

This seems like a good cultural training. Darn, I have to stop turning down offers of food, give up my habit of comparing people to dogs, and be forgiving of people who don't seem to follow a schedule.

An irregular diet

I'm already on day 3 of my eat-every-other-day super fad diet plan. Advantages of this diet include wasting less time preparing food and washing dishes on the day off, and getting to eat as much as you like on the day on. The day off was easier than I expected, with noticeable hunger setting in not until after 3pm. I functioned normally right up until bed time, when it was not so easy to go to sleep.