Al Admadiyah Iraqi Restaurant at Souq Waqif, Doha Qatar

    At Souq Waqif

The most famous Souq or market in Doha is the Souq Waqif, it is by the promenade and just opposite the Islamic Religious Center of Doha. As Qatar was once an English colony, and was once poor, it pays homage to its colonial past by putting up a Pearl structure at the start of the Corniche or old fort.  See below.

Currently it exports a large amount of Natural Gas (or LNG) worldwide and the GDP per capita income, Qatar is the highest in the world, meaning, that the gross domestic product per citizen is an astounding US$ 98,000 per citizen or how much it makes per citizen is equivalent to US$ 98,000.  

  

                       Downtown Doha (Banks mainly) with gleaming shiny Buildings 

There are only about 0.5 million Qataris in the kingdom of Qatar. Ruled by an emir or king and his prince. The remainder of the 3 million population are made up of foreign workers and expatriates. There is a developed 'downtown' of banks with Islamic banking at the forefront. Industry is centered mainly in the traditional Oil and Gas, Liquified Natural Gas, and now Sports Medicine.

2 years ago, Qatar secured a coup in the sporting world by winning the bid for the 2022 World Cup. Hence at least 24 world class teams and their supporters will come to this modern kingdom in the desert and watch the only winter time World Cup held in December of 2022. 

The Restaurant is at one end of the Souq. Watch out for the flies while dining outside though

The Souq Waqif is meant for the tourists like myself. After 2 days of work at the Aspire Hospital, I had some time to myself and ventured to walk and look for souvenirs and knick-knacks to bring back home. My stomach was rumbling and I decided to try something I had never eaten before. Iraqi food. Boy I was so pleasantly surprised. I ordered the lamb Kulwa which is something very much to our Mutton Briyani back home. The lamb is grilled on a stainless steel stake over a coalpit and the end product of the lamb with 3 types of Basmati rice was served to me.

Iraqi Tea 

Best Tasting Lamb Kulwa I have eaten 

I took one bite of the lamb and was in Briyani heaven. The meat was tender, practically falling off the bone, and 'sweet'. After removing the fat, I thoroughly enjoyed the meal served with some dalcha or vegetable soup and topped off with some Naan like Leaventhine bread.

The tea to top off the lunch was also something else, the Swedish couple at the next table were exclaiming it was the best tasting tea they had tasted, and coming from Sweden, I think they do not know their teas !

However, the tea was exceptional, strong to the taste with cinnamon flavour and sugarred accordingly.

This meal will go down as the best meal in the Middle East for me since I have bee coming to Qatar since 2016 !

Watching My Goldfish Swim is Therapeutic

These are the 6 teenage (I think they are young in terms of goldfish age) goldfish. Fantail breed, they are either fully orange in colour, some mix of white and orange colour and somewhat fat. I have taken care of these 6 ; starting from 2 just before the Chinese New Year for 2 months now and watching them swim happily and playing with each other without a care in the world is in a word, therapeutic.

The golden rules of rearing goldfish :

a) Never overfeed them. I only feed them once a day, approximately 6 pellets of speical fish food

b) Chlorine is the killer ; hence, I put in at least 0.2 litres of anti-chlorine formula into the water every time I change water in the water feature outside my home. The frequency of water change varies depending on how murky the water has become. There is a preponderance of algae growth along the walls of the water feature or pong, and algae being plant like, give out oxygen during the  daytime and hence oxygenates the water.

c) Pump must be kept on to provide filtration as well as oxygen to the water.

So far, they have survived 2 odd months. I will try to maintain keeping 8 happy goldfish for as long as possible as watching them swim gives me some tranquility in the soul.   

The Man HImself speaking to reporters after the most famous victory Wolves have secured in recent memory

This is Nuno Esperito Santo, 46 year old maestro manager at Wolves for barely 2 seasons. Last season, he not only secured the promotion to Premier League but also secured the Championship Title. This season, he is managing a new team with exciting, young, talented and phenomenally loyal players who have beaten all of the top teams, with the exception of Man City.

They had just beaten Manchester United who barely 1 week ago beat the Paris St Germain boasting of world class players like French teenage star Kylian Mbappe and Brazilian legend Neymar.

If you can fathom, just 3 years ago, they were playing in the 3rd division or League 1, you will find their rise to the Premier League just incredible.

The team now boasts 10 senior internationals from a myriad of countries :

a) Portugal - Rui Patricio, Reuben Neves, Joao Mouthino, Helder Costa, Diogo Jota
b) Mexico   - Raul Jiminez
c) Spain     - Jonny Otto
d) Morocco - Romain Saiss
e) Ireland   - Matt Doherty
f)  Belgium - Leander Dendonker

There are many who are knocking on their national team's doors, in particular 

a) Conor Coady and Ryan Bennett - England ; Gibbs White - England U 21.  
b) Wily Boly - France
c) Ivan Cavaleiro - Portugal 

The man is a master manipulator, motivator, whip cracker, coach, mentor and inspiration to so many - the players, the staff, the loyal fans and the global new fans who are being romanced by the story of Wolverhampton Wanderers thus far.

So it continues. 

What a time to be in the Wolves Pack !!  

Focus on your Tasks, with the end Objective in Mind ; Success comes Next

Plenty of Time - Ray ; Epidemic Pop

This is a get up and go song. Like a bubblegum pop which basically is brain numbing and I like my songs like that, choruses which go "Ooh, ooh, ahh, ahh.. thats all I want to say to you and all that "

I remember many years ago, when I was in my mid 30s and when they still had CDs on sale in the shopping centre. I was browsing casually and this eager beaver sales guy came bounding up to me wanting to impress me with his wide range of CDs ranging from classical, rock, New Age (now that has gone where ?), Pop, Hot 100, Buddha Bar and all the latest and the greatest in all the genres of music.

Sir, how can I help you ? His demeanor was so enthusiastic. Bright smile.

I'm looking for M2M (the bubblegum duo who had the song Close to You with meaningless).

His smile evaporated, and he grabbed the copy and quite disappointedly shoved it right under my face like I was a cheap fanboy (well I am actually !)

Funny story but true. 

Arguably the Best Car I've Driven So Far

                  The E 250 is really the best car I have driven in recent memory. 

I acquired this car in Jan 2018 and I have had the pleasure of driving it 15 months to date. I can safely say that the Mercedes Benz E 250 7 G Tronics is the best car I have driven in recent memory. This is the 2014 model, but apart from the Park Assist, there is nothing new from this model to the 2019 model. (I may be wrong here). I paid S$ 136,000 or US$ 100,000 in Jan 2018 for a then 3 and a half year old car which had its servicing maintained by Cycle and Carriage or the authorised Merecedes Benz agent. The brand new price in 2014 on the road (including the Certificate of Entitlement) would have been S$ 270,000 or US$ 198,000.

Singapore, as readers from foreign countries who are not aware and will be shocked to find out, is the easily world's most expensive place to own a car. The cost of ownership goes far beyond the price of the car. This similar car in USA brand new will cost no more US$ 70, 000 on the road. 

Petrol (top end) like Shell V98 (with zinc added) costs S$ 2.50 per litre (US$ 1.82) easily 3 times what you would pay in the US$ or in many parts of the Middle East. In addition, there are things called Gantries (constructs over many congested roads)  and a system using Electronic Road Pricing will charge each car (regardless of size or engine capacity) anything from $0.50 to $3.00 depending on time of day - during the morning rush hour there will be literally thousands of cars heading into town so most roads leading into the Central Business District CBD - hence there will be a deduction from the cash card (similar to a stored debit card) mounted on the In Vehicle Unit (IVU) each and every time that car passes under the ERP gantry. Hence a daily 'tax' will be imposed for cars using heavily frequented roads and on average, a daily commute back and forth to office can cost anything from $3 to $6.00 in ERP charges. 

I have stuck to driving cars, out of necessity to ferry family members as well as for business activities.

Back to my Merc E 250, since my acquisition of the car, it has given me (apart from the backup battery for Engine cut-off) zero (nil) problems. One real pleasing aspect is that servicing of the car is pretty inexpensive and there are numerous Mercedes Benz ex-staff providing routine quarterly servicing (if nothing exceptional except oil change  

The 2.0 litre Turbo V6 engine with 207 bhp power is really a speedster on the road, with massive acceleration and only the sports coupes and the likes of the Merc E 63 with 500 bhp in a totally different class.

With the 'low' Certificate of Entitlements or COEs this car 2019 model on the road is about S$ 245,000 or US$ 180, 000. Road Tax for 1 year is S$ 1,200 and Comprehensive Insurance is S$ 1,300 (US$ 1,000).

Features of the car include, electronic adjustable seats, stored preferred seat orientations, climate control airconditioning, predictive control for vehicles or objects which are deemed too close to the front and the on board computer can take over, smooth automatic changeover of gears and 207 bhp turbo acceleration, Man this baby is powerful !!! 

  

Will this be the end for the Army Half Marathon ?

I read with some disbelief that the SAF is calling time on the Army half Marathon in the wake of the recent training related deaths of several NS Men in the space of 16 months.

While each death is truly regrettable, I think, in my opinion hosting an event like the Half Marathon is an 'event' for many an NS Men's life and for many civilians like myself and my friends, it is a goal which for the better part, makes me want to wake up every morning to run and put in the km to train for that goal.

While I fully understand the rationale of standing down and relooking events in the light of safety and occurences, I think, that as an event, the Army Half Marathon is pretty well established in the common psyche of many of us 'middle aged weekend warriors'.

here are some pictures from last year's half marathon, and I am hopefully that this event will be restaged in the coming years.