Al Shahmi Restaurant in Doha Qatar 25 Feb 2019

Hummus (right with cucumber and pomegranate) 

Located along the ring road near Al Najada towards the Corniche is a lovely restaurant serving Arab food. I have been there 3 times, and I rave about their grilled lamb, beef and chicken chops which are tender, tasty with minmum garnishing allowing the flavour of the meat come out and the wonderful hummus which is a side dish.

The hummus dish is made from chickpeas and made into a paste. With a garnishing of pomegranate, some cucumber and raspberry topping, it is an excellent starter dish which goes well with their Naan type of bread and other pickles native to the region. Olives, green and black in colour, some gherkin and pickled cucumber complete the starters.  

After a nice meal on 25th Feb 2019 

While people criticise Arab meals as being too meaty and salty, if eaten sparingly, the food is really tasty and it is another one off my bucket list of must trys.  

Snacking should not be used to 'Fill" in between tasks

Outside a House in Canberra 2017 

This post is self explainatory. I have the bad habit of snacking on food, especially at the end of the day, to eat some snack, or drink some wine when in actual fact I am neither hungry or thirsty.

I have managed to curb this bad habit for most of the day, as I have stocked in the office, 24 bottles of mineral water and wafer biscuits with oat. As they are both the lowest calorie foods I can find, during the day at the office, I can manage to keep the hunger pangs down by only eating 1 sachet and 1 bottle to drink after a long task (say several quotations or replies to numerous emails).

The work at the office is never ending, so it is up to me to decide when exactly to stop the tasks and head either to the gym at the club or back home. There are days when I visit customers in Singapore and again, I try to minimise eating out in the malls as best as I can.

I have decided to only eat as and when I am hungry, so I have utilised intermittent fasting (up to 16 hours at 1 stretch) to some good effect. The next step is to count calories and reduce the total amount of carbohydrate into my body while at the same time increase the energy expensed each and every day.

My goal (this has been an almost unreachable target) is to weigh 72 kg by June. It is only 1 kg per month from my current 74 to 75 kg.

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.