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The Story of how we ended up buying Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows (Book 7)…

As Saturdays’ of the Rafael’s starts with the church Sat. mass, we planned last night to go to Jungle Zone in Hyatt Plaza to treat Ate Andrea and Sean with some rides and to watch some stage plays performed by international artists as I read from the newspaper for the Color Ur Summer Event from 4:30 in the afternoon until 9:30 in the evening.

But there were some changes in our plan after the mass instead of going there at 4 pm we went straight to some of our friends to give them Sean’s birthday invitation so as to lessen the load of distributing them. Then after we headed to Hyatt Plaza, discarding the idea of watching some stage plays since it would be late by then if we would pursue and Dad N has work tomorrow.

Upon entering the mall we were surprised that there was a show and indeed it was the launching of Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows. This is the last tale of the boy’s wizard adventure so just imagine the excitement of people all around the world-waiting to have the first grab of the most awaited book for the Harry Potter-mania by JK Rowling.

People are gladly watching the performers from Jungle Zone Plaza, the same performers during Ate Andrea and Sean’s 1^st birthdays, there was the juggler who can juggle almost everything from balls to hats to batons and there’s an additional in the team a “unano” a small man, below the average size and height who acts as the laughing stock and minus, Aldrin the magician.

They asked some questions regarding some characters in the book and in between those questions there were some games. And they were giving some DVDs’ of the Harry Potter if you’ll win. There was this one game wherein they asked for 3 girls and I was asking Ate Andrea to go there on the stage and join the game, maybe, she’ll win and we’ll have a DVD but she was not in the mood. And the game was very easy; the three girls should put the pen with a string hooked on one ear and then the first one who’ll put the pen inside the bottle will win. And three of them got a DVD.

Another game was played by 5 moms and 5 dads, the Japanese walk, wherein 5 paper plates were inserted in the armpits, in between the legs, in the neck and one is used as a fan and the contestant will walk around the chair and then back to her/his teammates and then pass on the plates and the first team to finish wins the game. I wanted to stand up and go to the stage but I hesitated for sure Sean would go with me and there surely we’ll spoil the chance of winning so I told my hubby to join them. But the mom team won so that DVD was not really meant for us.

The last part was the purchasing of the book. It was like every people sitting there jumped off their sits and the long qeue started. Perplexed of what we should do, we were caught in confusion since we did not intend to buy the book and i just wanted to borrow from a friend but they announced that if you’ll purchase a book there’ll be a free ticket for the Jungle Zone rides so there to late we didn’t know that the first one to purchase the book will receive 4 DVDs of Harry Potter.The book costs Qr. 99.00 and the ticket in Jungle Zone is Qr. 45 so we decided to just buy the book and have a free ticket so there that’s how we were able to buy and be in the Harry Potter fever.

It was then followed by pictorials. Everyone who purchased the book was on the stage. Unluckily, my camera’s battery was nearly dead so I was able to take small shots.

Now, I’ve got another book to read and an additional backlog. The Zahir, I’m not yet finished and my sweet hubby just bought another interesting book, The World is Flat by Thomas Friedman and the question now is on how I could be able to read those books without eye bags. See, I’ve got only free time when the kids are in deep slumber or they have their afternoon naps.

Here are the pictures taken during the HP launching:

Last night we had a party for our landlord since they’ll be returning to Pakistan so we arranged a small party for them. The temperature was not so hot and it’s not also humid so we were able to set a table outside and had a chance to know the other two new neighbors. The party started from 8 pm until nearly 2 in the morning.

Ate Liza cooked lamb chops, barbequed prawns, puto and arabic vegetables with bread  from a restaurant. I made leche flan, fruit salad but the original plan was buko salad unluckily my hubby was late so minus the buko it became fruit salad, yema and baked macaroni.

Subi cooked biryani rice alongside with it came the yogurt with some chopped vegies and Sameer made a cake topped with slices of mangoes and bananas.

The kids had a blast running around and playing with kuya Tahir, Kuya Hassan and Apa Mishal.

The men gathered around for some beers after the dinner and their long chit-chats are never-ending and  the moms had to go home ahead of them since the kids are already sleepy.

It’s good to have caring and friendly neighbors. Cheers to a life-long friendship!

Here are some photos taken during the get together:

I’m the photographer so don’t try to look for me heheheh:)

So how it would be like there in Qatar during summer? This is a common question by my friends who wants to know about Qatar living.  During summer, temperature sometimes reaches 50 degrees Celcius. The humidity reaches over 80%. The months of July and August are the hottest and the most humid too.

One thing to look forward to during summer here in qatar is the Qatar Summer Wonders Festival. It’s like Dubai Festival in which almost all of the malls and shops are on sale and there are family-friendly events and activities. The purpose of this festival is to encourage the people in Qatar to stay during this hottest season rather than to travel abroad for mostly of the residents fly abroad just to escape the boiling hot summer.

It is advisable to bring always a bottle of water and not to stay outside for longer period of time. There are lots of cases of heat stroke during the peak of summer in Hamad Hospital as reported to the daily newspaper– The Gulftimes. And most of the victims of this heat stroke are those working in construction sites but now there’s a ministerial decision, a mandate of restricting the construction companies not to deploy the construction workers from 11:30 am until 3 pm in the sites. This directive is valid until August 31, 2007.

You can also beat the heat by going to beaches, before when we were still a  member of the Intercon health club we frequent there. It’s located in West Bay and it’s known for its longest beach and largest pool. There’s also the Sealine beach resort and Al qhariya beach resort.

Yesterday at 9:30 in the evening as we are about to go out the Villagio Mall parking area we were cut by a Landcruiser car and good N was able to hit on the brakes fastly and only the bumper got smashed and some scratches on the front of Paj. N saw that car coming and he’s driving slowly since he’s goin’ up to the main road and it was just a fraction of seconds the car hit us. I don’t know if that Indian driver saw us or he’s just driving so fast. His recklessness was the cause of this minor collision. The parking area is well lighted and he should see us because we were already on the middle of the road. Good that Ate P is wearing a seatbelt but my poor Sean was being thrown down. And thanks God that we’re all okay except that Sean got scared.

Another thing is that we didn’t have cellphones last night, mine i left it in the house because it has no battery and my hubby left also his so we can’t contact a police to report the accident. Here in Qatar if you are facing a car accident you should not leave, you should not re-position your car so that the police can investigate what really happened. But I was thinking last night while waiting there that for sure, since we don’t speak their language the police report would be distorted as what other expatriates had experienced.

The Indian guy, his name is Mustafa, he wanted to leave but my hubby was very firm that he should stay and call a police. He was afraid we can see it from his face but he didn’t call a police instead he called his madam.

N told me to go back to the mall and tell the guard to call 999 to report the incident. I went their quickly and then 2 guards accompanied me back to were the accident happened and they called the police. The madam came with other 2 women, she talked to her driver and called for another car. when they left my hubby asked the driver the family name of his employer and he found out that the family belongs to the wealthy families here. They have 20 luxury cars and 10 drivers.

It was 2 long hours before the police came, my kids were getting impatient, they want to sleep and they are exhausted. Two policemen came and they asked first the drivng license of my hubby and then when he asked the Indian guy, he said he doesn’t have one. So there, that’s the reason that he wanted to escape us because he has no driving license but it was not our concern we wanted to finish the police report since when you go to Mitsubushi for the repair they won’t repair it if you don’t have a police report.

My hubby told the policemen what happened, and he told them that it’s the guy’s mistake and not ours and then Mustafa told also his side of story and then my hubby was being told by the policeman to go to their office the next day for the police report copy.

Today my hubby went to the police station and he’s not shocked at all when the policeman there told him that it was our fault. But then he reasoned and explained to the police in duty and his only reply, “khalas! (finish or stop!).

That’s the downside here of not knowing, of not being able to understand and speak their laguage in case of car accidents just be ready for the “khalas” term.

And i’m just sure of this, accidents can happen anytime and anywhere and i’m always praying for our safety, for my hubby’s safety especially that he’s always driving Paj in going to his work. Even if you are a responsible driver, even if you follow rules in driving, and even you want to be safe but there are those kind of drivers who are too aggressive not minding the other cars around them then just be cautious and alert.

Lesson learned, I always have to charge my cellephone and bring it with me everytime that we go outside.

Note: Here in Qatar, it has the topmost cases of car accidents.

See this video that I found in Qatar Living forums:

We celebrated the Noche Buena with our friends and we had a blast playing charade and the party ended up nearly 5 am. It was one happy Christmas night. Santa Claus dropped by to give his gifts for Ate Princess and Sean. He gave to Ate Princess her dream gift, a bike and a car for Sean. But he (Daddy Santa) almost blew his cover. Princess recognized that it was not Santa but her Daddy so we have to do a lot of convincing that it was indeed Santa. And she was saying, “No, it’s Daddy!” And together with her friend Xianne they were saying that it was not Santa again and again. Lesson learned that never invite Santa if his voice is not well modulated enough or else Santa’s real identity will be revealed. We should have turned off the lights and used candles while Santa Claus is giving his gifts to these smart kids.

Food, glorious foods!!! I baked 2 pans of chocolate moist cakes and ordered an ube macapuno cake, cooked baked macaroni, gelatin (with peach, langka and fruit cocktail), kare-kare. Our friends who came to have Noche Buena with us brought chicken, pasta, fruit salad and tuna crochets.

My old high school friend e-mailed me a day before Christmas and he told me that he’ll be working here in Qatar and there we had quite a reunion. I was so happy upon seeing him and so we chatted and reminisced old high school memories of our other friends. The world is really small!
And after 10 hours of sleep Princess went to some of her Ninong and Ninangs. It was her first time to go around her Godparents and she was so happy to kiss and hug them and receive her gifts. She played with ate Janah while she was in her Ninay Jinky’s house then after more than an hour we went up to her Ninay Yang. Princess enjoyed playing with ate Yani and she had a beautiful butterfly tattoo in her face. We greeted another friend, Tita Nova and Ninong Obin (they are also living in the same building) and wished that we had ample time because Jeb was asking li’l Sean to play with him.Good that her Ninangs were staying in one building and as promised we went to her Ninay Marichris. She played again with her friends; Jerome, Jeroen, Michael, Angel and Marky.

And it was already late, 9pm and Princess was asking her daddy if we can go to big Anjela’s house. So we agreed that it would be the last house that we should go because it was already late but still she’s telling daddy N that we should go to her Mom May’s house after ate Jelay’s.

So there, we arrived at home past 11 pm and still they got the energy to open their gifts and play for awhile then all was so exhausted that we slept almost all day long the following day.

It’s so nice to be a kid …

Again, Merry Christmas Everyone!

Sean Linus

Tomorrow is the last day for the historical event here in Doha, Qatar, as what David Atkins told the Gulf News that there’ll be a 1 hour program with the theme of Middle Eastern tale, the Arabian Nights and they promise another astonishing event that would go in parallel with the Opening Ceremony’s grandness though in simpler tone.

Watch out for the Broadway singer actress Lea Salonga-Chien, she’ll be performing in the closing ceremony.

Enjoy watching!!!

Yesterday after sending our daughter to school we decided to watch tennis at Khalifa International tennis and Squash Complex together with our friend Mavis. As we thought that it would be nicer to go there than have the very long walk in Aspire, Sports City but to my dismay almost all of the spectators were Indians cheering for their Queen Sania Mirza. If you’ll notice, the Indian nationality topnotch the highest number of population of expats here in Qatar.So what can I expect?

Just a wishful thinking that there are many Pinoy supporters and cheerers there too! As for Indians, they have this full support for there players. When we watched the games at Aspire the week ago, it was the finals for kabaddi and it was I think the day that Aspire met its capacity limit for spectators that they have to close the gates for kabaddi at 2 pm even the game would start at 7 pm. And from the entrance of Aspire there are other Indian nationalities talking and begging to the security guards and volunteers to let them enter because of kabaddi. And while we were watching badminton we could hear the chantings and cheerings for the kabaddi players.
So back to tennis at Khalifa, we had to head back to the school after more than an hour of watching and cheering for the Chinese tennis player. Thanks Mavis for the breakfast… We want to stay more but our kids would be waiting for us already.

And as for today, we should have watched there again but there was no ticket available The queue was very long and my husband went home without a single ticket so we don’t have any option but to stay at home and watch again the events on TV.

Last week, we had lots of unused tickets for synchronized swimming, diving and athletics but what’s more important is the health of my kids than watching in Sports City with a coughing toddler and a kiddo with a runny nose. We just watched every event in our 54″ TV all the sports shown in English Al Jazeera and QTV.

For all the mommy’s out there who want to tag their kids along in watching the games be it indoor or outdoor be sure to bring jackets, sweaters, mittens, and any winter clothes for your kids. The weather is unpredictable, just be always ready.

Our li’l boy blue with his flag and li’l oryx, the spirit and the happiness of the Asian Games is with him…
Every time we watch the games, Sean claps and cheers too!!!

I got an aluminum chest, a book — the souveneir book of the 15th Opening Ceremony of Asian Games 2006 and another book about Qatar by Rik Van Lent ( a collection of pictures and an insight to the desert, sea and land life of Qatar).

Thanks to the Pinoy volunteer who gave this to us…