[Day 71] Sunday, January 8th, High Wire Act
After getting some stuff sorted out with the apartment, I headed over to the mall to get some lunch. As I was walking there, I was dumbfounded to find that it was raining on a particular stretch of the path; a section about 30-40 meters long. I was pretty sure it wasn't natural. I looked up and saw the following:
If you're not sure, yes, those are people...hanging from cables, cleaning the building. Here's a close-up (click on it to see a bigger version).
As far as I can tell, they are all being suspended from that one pulley system and there are no backups. Foolhardy? Desperate? Probably a bit of both. Either way...damn there's got to be better ways to make a living. Perhaps by inventing a contraption for window cleaning... :-P
Later that day, I finally tried out a local McDonald's the one in the City Center Mall.
I had a Big Mac and fries. They were...similar to what you get in the USA. As I have in other posts, I would describe the flavor as "adjacent" to what you expect. It's like it, definitely reminiscent of it, but slightly out of phase...
After such a healthy meal, I decided to pick up some ice cream at Carrefour, since I now have an apartment and can store such things. Hooray!
My colleagues and friends here have complained that their perishable groceries seem to perish faster here, especially the dairy. I think I found the problem...they have made the (apparently) unreasonable assumption that the freezers in Carrefour approach anything resembling freezing. Case in point, I bought my ice cream, walked the ten minutes home (it was about 60-65 F, 15-18 C) and the ice cream was pretty much like soup...
[Day 72] Monday, January 9th, RunKeeper Win!
So, with the crappy gym here, my options are more limited and I am inspired to run more frequently for my cardio days. Well, this was run #3 here in Doha, and this time I didn't screw up using RunKeeper, so I had some pace data. I managed to chop 33 seconds off of my average pace from run #1, which was pretty nice. I am not sure how much more I can reduce that, but at least I will have a beautiful view while I try (well, for about 60% of the run).
[Day 73] Tuesday, January 10th, You Know That Humidity They Mentioned...
So, today, I once again walked to work and, as normal, I tossed some snacks in my bag. Does this egg look nervous to you?
Wow, that egg is sweating like a <insert offensive joke here>. Nah, it's just the crazy humidity and the fact that the egg was in the refrigerator before I left. Still...this egg was *inside* my bag and the walk only take 20 minutes. Not to mention, my shirt was a bit damper than usual.
My colleagues and friends here tell me that the humidity gets pretty crazy here because it's a coastal town. For me, that was surprising since this is a desert and, even though I comprehend the rational argument that sea + heat = moist air, on an emotional level the idea of a humid place in a desert is hard to fathom. It's not anymore. So, I have a better sense of what folks mean when they describe steam bath conditions here. Yikes!
After getting some stuff sorted out with the apartment, I headed over to the mall to get some lunch. As I was walking there, I was dumbfounded to find that it was raining on a particular stretch of the path; a section about 30-40 meters long. I was pretty sure it wasn't natural. I looked up and saw the following:
If you're not sure, yes, those are people...hanging from cables, cleaning the building. Here's a close-up (click on it to see a bigger version).
As far as I can tell, they are all being suspended from that one pulley system and there are no backups. Foolhardy? Desperate? Probably a bit of both. Either way...damn there's got to be better ways to make a living. Perhaps by inventing a contraption for window cleaning... :-P
Later that day, I finally tried out a local McDonald's the one in the City Center Mall.
I had a Big Mac and fries. They were...similar to what you get in the USA. As I have in other posts, I would describe the flavor as "adjacent" to what you expect. It's like it, definitely reminiscent of it, but slightly out of phase...
After such a healthy meal, I decided to pick up some ice cream at Carrefour, since I now have an apartment and can store such things. Hooray!
My colleagues and friends here have complained that their perishable groceries seem to perish faster here, especially the dairy. I think I found the problem...they have made the (apparently) unreasonable assumption that the freezers in Carrefour approach anything resembling freezing. Case in point, I bought my ice cream, walked the ten minutes home (it was about 60-65 F, 15-18 C) and the ice cream was pretty much like soup...
[Day 72] Monday, January 9th, RunKeeper Win!
So, with the crappy gym here, my options are more limited and I am inspired to run more frequently for my cardio days. Well, this was run #3 here in Doha, and this time I didn't screw up using RunKeeper, so I had some pace data. I managed to chop 33 seconds off of my average pace from run #1, which was pretty nice. I am not sure how much more I can reduce that, but at least I will have a beautiful view while I try (well, for about 60% of the run).
[Day 73] Tuesday, January 10th, You Know That Humidity They Mentioned...
So, today, I once again walked to work and, as normal, I tossed some snacks in my bag. Does this egg look nervous to you?
Wow, that egg is sweating like a <insert offensive joke here>. Nah, it's just the crazy humidity and the fact that the egg was in the refrigerator before I left. Still...this egg was *inside* my bag and the walk only take 20 minutes. Not to mention, my shirt was a bit damper than usual.
My colleagues and friends here tell me that the humidity gets pretty crazy here because it's a coastal town. For me, that was surprising since this is a desert and, even though I comprehend the rational argument that sea + heat = moist air, on an emotional level the idea of a humid place in a desert is hard to fathom. It's not anymore. So, I have a better sense of what folks mean when they describe steam bath conditions here. Yikes!
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