You Can't Make This Stuff Up.

Okay, someone should tell them what words mean in english. Don't ya' think? Look in the windows. They are selling toilets.

The pronunciation of this is literally... I'll Fuck-ya.

Fakhme? Fakhme!?.......NO! Fukhroo!!!

New Year's Eve, 5:45 PM

My baby and I chillin' at the lounge.

We went to the Four Seasons Hotel to sit in the bar on New Year's Eve and this was our cocktail waitress. Her name is pronounced "Dooey". Interestingly enough it is spelled DWI. I thought that was worth mentioning.

Eating With My Hand.

Okay, here goes. That is my right hand reaching into an 18 inch community plate to share this meal of rice, soup, fish and chicken (I avoided the chicken, of course). You can only use your right hand as your left is considered to be very unclean because it is reserved for wiping of the back-side. Toilet paper is not widely used here (pardon the pun).

As a "Westerner" they offered me utensils but I wanted to be one of the "Arab-guys" just this one time. It reminds me of my kid's first birthday parties when they were given the cake and told to "go at it" The lieutenant took me to wash my hands after lunch. There is a whole system of cleanliness over here that we just take for granted.

Last New Year's Eve @ Yelton Manor

Elaine, I miss your trays of brownies. But, obviously, they are not that good for me. Love you!!

Hanging Out With Doha's Bravest

Ya know, it's not like me to do the "visit the local fire department" while
I'm in another city (or country), but I decided to just drop in and say "Hi"
from a brother from America. WOW!! I was overwhelmed with hospitality.
I was there for about 3 hours. I had tea with them. I had lunch with them.
Then more tea. Then Arabian coffee. Then more tea. They were all Arabs.
Some from Pakastan. Some from Egypt and Lebanon. None of them were Qatari.

This is the Lieutenant on this shift. His name is John. Wierd.
He has been on the Doha Civil Defence Dept for 19 years.
If you didn't notice, spelling isn't always the same in other countries.

It was Tea and Cigarette time. (I miss Malcolm). They have a tent set
up outside in the back parking lot and we hung out in it most of the time I
was there. There was a big screen TV in the corner and they showed me
videos of some of their fires and car accidents.

I can't remember the firefighters name. I think it was muhammed.
It is the single most common name on the planet. I think he looks like
Mike Tavolacci.

The Defence Department has 4 crews. They work 8 hour shifts.
They work 3 morning shifts, then 3 afternoon, then 3 night shifts.
Then they take 3 days off. It sounds like they work more than
us. However, we work 72 hours every 9 days and they work
75 hours every 12 days. They also have (drum roll please) 20 men
on each crew. I gave away all of my Nulli Secundis patches.
You should have made me more patches, Gustavo DLX.

Tammi & I Go For A Race Around The Track.

This may take a while to load. But, it's worth it.

Jassim took us back to the track for the time
trials. He even let Tammi control one of the
robot jockeys. We are going back to the track
to watch him race next Saturday. Tammi said
she's really excited to be a camel groupie. She
said she loves the humps. I swear, that was
even too easy for me to say something.

Jazzing It Up With Jassim.

While we were leaving the camel race track the other day,
Tammi wanted to see where all the camels go at night.
We ended up in "Camel City". No kidding. It was like "Dodge City"
for Arabs. We met a genuine Camelboy. His name is Jassim.
He is a cousin to the Sheik Al Thani. So, he is Qatari. And, by far, the
coolest Qatari I've met so far.

He took us to his camel ranch and let us ride his awesome animals.
Riding was a snap. The mount and dismount were more tricky.

Tammi was having the time of her life. She said our honeymoon paled
by comparison. I'm not too hurt. She has to take half the blame, right?

This was his prize winning camel. It's worth about a quarter of a million
bucks and also won the international camel beauty contest.
10,000 camels from all over the Middle East competed.
It was the grand race champion and the prize was a new Land Cruiser.

At night, Jassim and his brothers and friends sit around this tent and smoke
their hookas and discuss, well, guy stuff. He took us to the Sheik's camel ranch.
300 camels! Jassim only had 50 camels. We got to see all of them. If we had more
time in Doha, I'll bet we could have met the big guy. We are becoming quite the
little networkers.