Shopping sites of note

I can't find anything decent in Doha when I shop, and often resort to looking online. My recent purchases on Swimspot were delivered and fitted me perfectly. I am really pleased and relieved since getting sizes right can be tricky.

Some other websites however is purely evil. I can smell plastic burning even before the pages load. 

JossandMain had these gorgeous bags from Halsea.

I adore the last one, the envelope clutch. The sales on JossandMain are usually only for a few days and their blog is full of pretty images.

If you haven't seen Fab, don't say I didn't warn you. The site is very addictive. I find myself going to it fairly often to see their deals. Sometimes they have designer collections at really low prices but the stuff gets snapped up pretty fast.

Cobone is a travel related site that feature deals from the Middle East. It works like Groupon. They are running some really attractive deals for travelling in the ME or from it. The hotel Jumeirah Zabeel is offering a night stay at 50% off their rack rates.

Pretty swanky eh? I am waiting for them to offer something similar in the Sharq Hotel in Doha which boasts the Six Senses Spa. I am keen to do a chilled out weekend away without baby Z.

Which sites do you recommend for some quality retail therapy?

Cafe with a wow factor

I am sick. Runny nose, itchy throat, overall yuckiness. T is also sick and we are both slouching around like a bunch of sorry asses. It's not nice. So we went out. Unplugged ourselves from the couch where we have been wilting for hours, and went out for some fresh air. Doha, at this time, is lovely. Cool breezes with sunny skies, just like being back home. So we headed to the Murakami exhibition at MIA ( Museum of Islamic Art)

The exhibition was interesting, quite spectacular though not exactly my kind of thing. The artist is um, how should we say it.... on an acid trip when he created these characters? Anyway, still worth it. Added some colour to the desertscape we are surrounded by. 

Afterwards, we tried to take a sneak peek in the Alain Ducasse's new restaurant within the top floor of MIA, but it was not opened yet. 

The walk to the other cafe - The Garden Cafe took us by this playground. Bouncing trapeze for kids how cool!

Here we are approaching the cafe, it is right next to the water and you can see the city skyline beyond.

I always coveted these chairs by Patricia Urquiola when I see them in online mags. To see them up close and sit in them made me very happy. The colours are so cheerful don't you think?

Chilled out Thurs

I am having a wonderful Thursday. Took my son to his gym play class, made spinach ricotta cannelloni and now am enjoying a cuppa java with T on the couch while Z is taking his nap. It has been one of those days that everything seem perfect and it's just half done! Oh and it rained in Doha. Just a short drizzle but what a blessing!

Came across a couple of images online that made me smile and here you go.

How cute and genius!

This house design by A21 via Archdaily, featured this amazing bathroom with a collage of gorgeous tiles.

The rest of the house photos were amazing too.

On the same note, these concrete tiles by Ivanka is in a different league altogether. I likey.

Hope you guys have a fab day ahead. 

Summer Loving

We are not quite into summer yet in Doha but spring doesn't last long here. It is already about 33-35 C during the day and people are still firing up barbies in the evening but it will hit 40 pretty soon.

I say the window for lying by the beach will be small but I am going to try and get as much beach action as I can before it starts to scorch. The last time I bought a swimsuit was in Sri lanka, a one-piece halter from Arugambay .

It was cheapish, USD 32 but the stitching was terrible and it started to fray at the most inconvenient spot just after one wear. The material was also very thin spandex and I don't think it will last more than a few more wears. The other swimsuit I own was purchased in Bangkok and that was more than 5 years ago. Time to start shopping !

None of the stores here have anything worth looking at. Most beaches here don't allow two piece suits anyway so I had to go online. After having a baby, instead of gaining weight, I lost and now weigh just over 46 kg. I am skinny and have a muffin top , the worst of all body shapes. Finding a suit is going to be tricky.

These days, swimwear is becoming complex. Do you know a maillot is??? It's swimwear designer jargon for a one piece suit! Anyway, what I want was a tankini, a tank top thing with bottoms, preferably boy short ones.

After days of searching, I came across some new swimsuits that look nothing like swimmers. Add some pants or a flirty skirt and you got the perfect party/loungewear.

See what I mean? I love the coral one in the middle of the bottom row. That top has a white bandeau under and I don't have to worry about showing the muffin and it looks really comfy too.

These designs are being sold here and the one that I liked is a brand called Luxe by Lisa Vogel.

Looking elsewhere, I found, the australian brand, Seafolly tempting as well.

Besides the swimsuits, I was hunting for coverups and think a pair of lightweight pants or even a skirt/dress would be great. I picked these out on Swimspot.

Although the military ones look great, think the grey ones are more versatile.

What are you doing this summer?

The Walatta House

For 14 blissful days, we moved into our very own - The Walatta House, in Tangalle, Sri Lanka. Weeks before the trip, I was close to melt down mode. Trying to get things done like power and curtains is not easy while one's thousands of miles away. Still, we knew that we had a roof, floors, doors and working toilets and the Amanwella next door so if things did fall apart, it would not be a complete disaster.

We have been here before, just two months ago. When we invited friends from the UK including their 3 kids, to stay with us at the house. The contractors had promised us a finished product on 20th December, but it never happened. S, an UK based interior designer, who is T's old flatmate in HK back in the 90s, was braving the trip again. This time sans kids and husband. She has seen the house in December and was coming back this time to help us with decorating the house. She lugged 15 metres of upholstery fabric for us and some lights, bless her.

I had bought these for some of the bathrooms. Kartell's E Wall Sconce.

We looked on Designers Guild website and swooned over the infinite gorgeous fabrics but finally decided on  Glenville's distressed velvet in Sea mist and Zinc.

We had brought along 140kg of luggage. From Doha, we bought outdoor lights, feather pillows, audio equipment and even a coffee machine. Luckily customs didn't blink.

After being in the air for 5 hours, we got to Colombo at 3.30am and by the time we got out of the airport it was 5am. Baby Z was too excited to sleep on the plane so I had a sleepless night. I hoped that the long car trip ahead would lull him to sleep. The van came to pick us up with a baby seat for Z thankfully, and we were on the road! J, the architect who had been there for 2 days was just waking up and plans were made to meet for breakfast at Moonstone Villas.

R who runs Moonstone Villas, was a lovely Canadian who moved to SL about 4 years ago. She was working for a non profit group in the early days, and now runs her own B&B with a few locals as well.

After scoffing down some Srilankan omelettes and fresh coffee, we jumped back into the van to see our house. R came along too as she had heard so much from J that she wanted a peek.

The first approach didn't reveal much difference from what I saw a few months back but on closer inspection, we saw that the garden has been tended to. The indoor garden spaces now have some plants, not many but some.

 The doors had been installed and were rather impressive. The doors in the master bedroom were 3.5 metres tall and opened up to the ocean view. The pool was empty but being filled so that the pool guy could come and chlorinate it end of the week.

Once after we sniffed around the rooms, we had to get cracking. We still have no furniture, no beds only mattresses, no mirrors in bathrooms, no lights except bulbs hanging from exposed wires. No kitchen, no utensils, no refridgeration. Z was starting to yawn, the cot was nowhere in sight. Panic was starting to set in.

Everything was in boxes, stuffed in the worker's quarters. Some of these boxes came from KL where I got V to pack on my behalf and rest were things we have been bringing over ourselves in past trips. None of these boxes were labelled so all had to be opened. This room is dark, dank and I could see cobwebs and holes where rats had burrowed. Yikes! I did however managed to find some bedsheets yay.

T hunted the fridge down to a warehouse off site. It was to be delivered in few hours. Meanwhile T found the gas stove and gas cylinder that they had used to cook last month. He also showed me where he kept a cheap pan and some plastic cups and plates. I brought along some pre-packed Gerber toddler meals with me and heated those up for baby Z.

The cot was still nowhere in sight and after some frantic calls, found out that it was in the contractor's house! Someone promised to send that to us by the evening.

Z was hot and full and luckily was happy to fall asleep on N's lap. S, our tuk tuk driver came over and we hopped into to get into town for supplies. Town was 6 km away and there we would find a wet market, a single supermarket, several hardware shops and few more essential shops. The fridge had arrived by this time and I had to think about cooking for the next few days.I got some meat from the supermarket and bought the fresh produce from the local market. Local curd were sold in clay pots and I knew Z love them so bought one for breakfast the next day.

While I shopped, T went to the electricity board. We didn't have our own supply and were siphoning power from our neighbours because our guys were unable to get the power into the land.. I don't know how he did it but he got them to promise to come onto the land the next day to install electricity. With the little power, we could only run the fans and not the aircon which normally didn't matter but the hot Indian summer had set in and it was 90% humidity.

At the end of Day One, we managed to scrap together enough to make meals, sleep and shower.

It was a good day.

The Big Four O

One of my best friends is turning 40 this year and so shall the rest of my contemporaries in the coming year. I recall being a naive child with thoughts of how one's life should probably end at 40 because it simply was too old.

These days, the people I count as my closest friends are all around my age in fact, my oldest friend is my own husband. I don't have friends who are younger than 30. Actually I have very few friends and making new friends at this age, is extremely tedious and hard work.

Anyway to me, it is an important milestone in life and it should be celebrated. How I am going to is not clear to me yet but I have a notion that it is to done in several fold. One, to celebrate my mid life crisis, I want to do something on my own. I shall contemplate the how, what and where.

Following that, I would like to, as much as possible, to throw a party and involve my buddies.

G, a friend, is turning 40 in April and has gone down the same path. He is going to Istanbul for the party. A week in a villa on the coast of Kas and then a week in Istanbul city. I first said we would go but we might not have the time to join him now.

It does look tempting though and I love Istanbul. Here's the house.

It sleeps up to 18 but I don't think there will be much sleeping with this lot.

Write Stuff designed a Maimi themed party for some 40 year olds a few months back. I went to that party with a mini skirt and very very bad make up. Tons of blue eye shadow. The party guests went to town with their costumes. The host's husband turned up as Kiss with the black leotards and hair! There were mullets, pink leotards, side burns, headbands everywhere I looked ! I was completely underdressed.

These were some of the party decor.

So Z, what are you going to do for yours?

Chair lust

There are chairs and there are chairs. Those you have in your office for sitting at the desk. The low slung types where you sit curled up with a cup of coffee while on the phone. The plushy deep seat ones where you snuggle with a good book and nap. There are so many and each unique in their own design.

I have been sharing dining chair photos with my friends and even though we have different tastes, it's fun to see what other people like or dislike.

Here are some more of my favourites. The Gus rocker from here.

John Luff's low rocker from here.

Patricia Urquiola's Tropicalia range that includes this low lounger that also comes in black.

And the ultimate hanging chair. I love this.

As a child, I remember sitting on similar looking chairs insofar as they were made of plastic tubing. It is hard to describe it but it looks like this basket chair. This seems more sturdy than the one I had as a kid. Mine was more springy but essentially it looked the same.

It is quite hard to find those chairs now, if anyone knows where please let me know.

This

Doha rocks!

We may live in the desert where not much happens, but when it rains it pours. Last week I went and saw two outdoor concerts. James Blunt was on Valentine's Day and Cat Stevens a couple of days later.

J.Blunt played in a tiny stage set on the beach of the Intercon hotel. Tickets were 250 each, so not cheap but we were standing 10 metres aways from the guy!

There were booze kiosks dotted on the beach so the men especially appreciated that. I went with two girlfriends but was surprised to see so many men there. I guess since it was V Day, most either were forced to or thought it was a romantic gesture.

It was a great night out.

Taken on my camera phone so quality sucked.

The Cat Stevens concert was also outdoors but the stage was massive and there must have been close to 3,000 spectators. We bought tickets early so had really good seats, just 2 rows behind the VIPS.

He sang alot of new songs but kept the crowd happy with the oldies and at 60, the man still has it. Even the emir gave him a standing ovation at the end of the performance.

Rumour has it that Elton will be gracing the Doha scene within weeks. Fingers crossed.

Please forgive me

My absence was due to having too many accounts, with too many user names and passwords. Compounded by the fact that I got lazy and uninspired and so lost interest in writing in my blog. It may not look it, but keeping regular updates is a rather time-consuming affair.

But I finally sorted my crap out and am back online again.

For my first post in 6 months, I am going to start slow.

We are trying to put the soft furnishings into the house and one of the things to decide, is a headboard for the bedrooms.

S suggested that we have a headboard that goes all the way to the ceiling, giving height to the room. A luscious velveteen headboard is what we are after. I do like the button tufted look like this.

The choice of fabric above is not my favourite, something more colourful from Designer Guild collections is what I prefer. Which colour goes best with a brick wall you think?

Here is a snapshot of the house with the door frames installed. The glass has not been delivered yet but you get a sense of the space. In this photo, the bedroom has a cement rendered headboard as the back of the headboard is a wardrobe. For the other bedrooms, the bed is set right against the wall and so a headboard is necessary.

Over the past week, T had been to the island for a boys' trip. His closest university mates came all the way from the UK to see the build and even camped out there for a night.

Here is a shot of them making dinner on a makeshift kitchen. I bought the stove for USD 30 on my last trip, this would be for the kitchen that we have yet to build. The boys bought a gas canister and some pots and cutlery. For dinner, they fried up some tuna and had it with some pasta.

At night, they laid out the mattresses and bless them, slept with some cheap sheets and without taking the plastic sheeting off the mattresses either! They made do with very little but wanted to, just to experience staying at the house.

A snapshot at 6am, when the sun was just peeking from the trees beyond the pool.

As for me, I cannot wait for the whole house to have doors and proper furniture. I do not fancy camping so hopefully by April when we visit, the rest of the house will be done!