London Trip - Day 3, Part 1

A day of sightseeing!

Starting out with Westminsters, houses of parliament, Big Ben...

Susannah and "baby" on the London Eye...

Johnathan scooters past Downing Street.

Johnathan meets a member of the Queen's Horse Guard.

London Trip - Day 2, Part 2

After lunch it was back to Hyde Park with Jobey and Jho


Enjoying icecreams...

The almost married couple having fun on the peddle boats.

More fun on the peddle boats...

David and Johnathan kick back and relax enjoying the peddling!


After the fun in Hyde Park, it was time to head home for the evening. On the way back, we passed a skating shop and bought Johnathan a scooter which was to become a regular feature of our holiday after that!

London Trip - Day 2, Part 1

Day two was again nice and sunny (a feature of the whole week), it started out with Susannah checking out the street view from our apartment window. She spent a lot of time during the week calling down to people walking past, "Hi people, how are you!", only to be repeated louder if there was no response.

We went to Hyde park where Susannah (and Johnathan) spent a lot of time chasing pidgeons...

Then back to the Diana memorial playground

After that, we met Jobey and Jho again, this time for Yum Cha.

London Trip - Day 1

For the Eid Al Fitr (celebration at end of Ramadan) long weekend - which is a total of four days off work - we went to London. On our first full day, we caught the tube to the Borough markets in the morning to pick up some of the delicious food for our week in London. It was fantastic - nothing like it in Doha so we made the most of it buying some yummy snacks for the week. In the afternoon, David caught the train to Twickenam to watch the rugby with Jobey and some of his mates from work. It was Jobey's new "home" team, the Harlequins, vs the Saracens. The Harlequins lost but is was a great sunny afternoon, kicked off with beers and "pig sandwiches" on the banks of the Thames at the Barmy Arms, then beers at the rugby. Meanwhile, Mon took the kids to the Princess Diana memorial playground in Hyde Park. That night, it was dinner in Putney with Jobey and Jho at a Tapas restaurant followed by more beer at the Bricklayers arms.

Mon and Johnathan on the tube...

David and Susannah on the tube, smile Susie!

Mmmm, pork sausages at the Borough markets - a special treat!

Near London Bridge.

Sports Day

We had a compound sports day yesterday, the events were squash, table tennis, eight ball, table football and Wii boxing. Johnathan gained the best result progressing to the second round of the boxing. As for his mum and dad, they were eliminated from all their chosen events in the first round!

Susannah playing, getting more enjoyment from the lego box than the lego itself!

Johnathan shows off his Wii boxing style.

More of Johnathan on his bike!

Johnathan on his bike.

As mentioned in the previous post, Johnathan has mastered riding his bike without training wheels.

Back to routine (mostly)

It has been a long time since the last update. The weeks have flown since we got back from our trip home - even though it has been summer and supposedly the "quiet" time in Doha, somehow we managed to stay very busy.

Last week Johnathan went back to school (Year One now!) and this week Susannah started up again at nursery (see the pictures below, she is settling in well). The only thing left before the full normal routine kicks in is for Ramadan to finish at the end of next week. Then we anticipate the traffic picking up and everything being back to normal (well, as normal as it can be in Doha!)

Exciting news from this week is that Johnathan has mastered riding his bike without training wheels. He is incredibly proud of and excited by this development. Now we can mix it with the bigger kids in the compound! Next blog entry will hopefully have some photos of this, and maybe even a video!

We are looking forward to a trip to London during the first Eid break (starting at the end of Ramadan) with the primary goal of catching up with Jobey and Jho prior to their wedding back in Australia and also giving us the chance to catch up with some other friends and having fun with the kids in the big city.