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Tuesday, December 28, 2010

Another Christmas Gone...

Another Christmas, another year and soon 2010 will be no more. We spent the holidays eating and drinking while managing Z's sleep routines rather successfully. He's so young and so slept through everything. I was able to chill out and enjoy the odd glass of wine or five.

Doha has become so cool even during the day temperatures are never higher than 25 degrees. Perfect weather, as I said to a friend, for slim leather jackets and peep toe stilettos. On Christmas morning, we joined some friends for brunch at La Cigale Traiteur which also boasts an impressive deli.



The cafe offered the usual breakfast options but the deli was in a class of its own. There were miles desserts, cheeses, breads, ice creams and sweets on offer. 



As it is Christmas, the range of log cakes was mind numbing. How does one choose ? Luckily I had dinner invitations tonight, so was "forced"to buy a cake.
 

I finally decided on the cake featured on the left bottom of the photo above. It was a chocolate mousse cake with a rice crispies base. Delish and at QR 180 which was not cheap but totally worth the pennies.

I was tempted with this log cake with the face but changed my mind.






We will be back soon to sample the rest.

Monday, December 20, 2010

Simply wonderful

Mountain biking is not my passion, neither are bike stunts but I enjoyed this bit of film so much.


FRAMED-Andi Wittmann Rider profile from Felix Urbauer on Vimeo.

Happy National Day

2 days ago was Qatar's national day and people were out in throngs celebrating. Road blocks were set up around the corniche where the parade started mid day.

Days before the national day, flags were flown from all the lamp posts lining the streets, people stuck on decals of the emir on their cars and large corporations compete with each other on who could put up the biggest qatari flags.


Ritz Carlton had a massive flag strung up from their hotel. It could be seen from miles away.


The parade along the Corniche featured the military forces, men on horses and camels.



(pics from qatarliving.)


I guess the nationalistic feeling amongst those who live here must have grown since Qatar won the 2022 world cup host bid.

Thursday, December 9, 2010

Fantastical Furniture


Smarin  calls these livingstones. Giant foam cushions posing as pebbles. I love the idea, though not quite sure how practical they are as outdoor furniture. Are they waterproof? If so, how comfortable can they be?

What about this fantasty bed frame? The Shawn Lowell Metalworks Tree Bed as seen on ThisNext. It looked like a prop from a fairy tale set.

Stuff that little girls dream of having in their rooms?

My eyes popped out when I saw these creations from Dedon, called nestrests. How absolutely dreamlike. This is what a hammock wants to be when it grows up.


Utterly gorgeous and I want one.


Question - How did he get into it without getting wet ?

Tuesday, December 7, 2010

Latest Lunch Spot in Doha

Last night we hosted a cocktail party to celebrate Little Z's 30 day since birth and even though I only had 3 glasses of wine, I was slightly hungover. T had seen better days too and we both decided to go for a walk to clear our heads and treat ourselves to lunch at the newest restaurant to open at The Pearl - Carluccio's.

Carluccio's Caffe is an Italian deli with branches all over the UK and also in Dubai. This Carluccio's is different from Dubai insofar as it is licensed to serve alcohol woohoo!!



The deli section had a small but mouthwatering selection of cheeses, salads, cakes, deli meats. On the shelves were their signature cookies, pasta and olive oils. A small packet of porcini mushrooms about 20 grams were QR 45 and a small jar of red pepperoncino pesto was QR 55. Prices were much higher compared to the UK, the same jar of pesto was only 4 quid there. Still, beggars can't be choosers, this is the second decent deli in  Doha, after Dean & Deluca in Villagio.







We quickly ordered lunch of mozzarella and tomato salad and a penne giardiniera which was made with a feather light white sauce of courgette and mild chilli with deep fried spinach balls with parmesan and garlic. I was pleasantly surprised at how tasty the crispy balls of vegetable were. The sauce was a little too light for me and needed a fair amount of salt to enhance the dish but perhaps that was just me.


I will have to come back again to try all the other pasta dishes and they are homemade and fresh. That night, I had some of the peperoncino pesto on my dinner and it was extremely spicy! Brillant stuff!