Thank you my dear Qatar for offering me a loan of around 1.2m QR to build a house on my land. Thank you for that land as well! However I’m disappointed at the moment. While my father entered the necessary municpality to get the document to get this loan, he was told that a new law was in place and that I had to be married to get this loan. Dum DUM DUM. Married?
For a moment I thought, “Hmmm, do I have any friends that would marry me for a week?”. I shrugged the thought off. Now the government gives us this land to build a home to raise our family. So let’s try to play a game called “What happens?”.
I go to Mr. LandCruiser.
“Sir, I really love your daughter and I would like you to give me permission to marry her.”

“What can you offer her? Do you have a home to take care of her in?”

“No I don’t, but I thought we could live in a flat while I got a loan.”

“So you’re going to put my precious daughter in some flat and get into debt from day 1?”

No no, that’ll never work out. In our culture Read the rest of this entry »

A bit of discrimination is normal, but imagine being discriminated against in your own country because you wear a thobe.
It happens sadly. However no matter who it happens to, it’s not a nice feeling at all to be turned away at a door because you’re wearing
a thobe.
After a very lengthy meeting, it was decided that all the parties would head off to the Cigar Lounge to chat and get to know each other better. I thought it would be a great opportunity to meet people and to improve ties.

As everyone walked in I followed naturally but was stopped by a manager/security man who said “I’m sorry sir but you can’t come in because you’re wearing a thobe. It’s the law.”. “What law?” I asked. “We received a letter from the Tourism Authority which states that we’re not allowed to let anyone wearing a thobe in. It hurts my heart to turn away a Qatari in Qatar, but I have to”.
I felt sorry for the guy. I was ready to make a big fuss but I couldn’t. I asked if I could enter for two minutes to say good bye and he repied with “Absolutely, please”.

My mind kept thinking about this stupid law. There is no purpose for this law except to fool people into thinking that Arabs don’t drink and are only religious. It’s true, if you saw more people in thobes in a bar or a club, you’d think that Arabs did that too and would probably break away from the stereotype they have that we all think, act and ‘dress’ the same.
However, it seems the law is in place to ensure that the image of the thobe is not ‘tainted’. Why is it ok for a Bahraini in a suit to enter but not in a thobe? Is the thobe religious? No. Is the thobe a symbol? No. The thobe is cultural. It’s as simple as that. You can’t hide the truth and sadly there are those that drink.

I personally don’t. If I entered a venue like the Cigar Lounge at the Four Seasons, I’d probably have a coke or a redbull, but I guess it doesn’t matter what my intentions are. In fact, I probably wouldn’t have gone to the Cigar Lounge if the other parties hadn’t suggested it. Oh well, we all have to get used to the rules that don’t make sense, but we don’t have to like it.

Freedom?

I’ve heard quite a few foreigners come to Qatar and then complain that Qatari’s don’t speak English.

To be honest, most Qataris have at least a basic level of English and more and more people are studying the language in order to communicate with different people, but at the end of the day people seem to act slightly arrogant.

Believe it or not, Qatar is an ARABIC country. The national language is… wait for it… Arabic!

I know it’s shocker, I was shocked too at first. We all know that in France they speak German, in Italy they speak Russian and in the US they speak Farsi.

So here we are, in the country of Qatar where the people who come into the country ask why people don’t speak English. When I went to Tokyo, it was so amazingly hard to find a SIGN in English, let alone someone to speak the language. Even the Underground, which is a public transport system, was IMPOSSIBLE to navigate since there was hardly anything in English.

In Japan, Read the rest of this entry »

I’m actualy quite suprised at the amount of emails that I’ve received. I’m very sorry for not updating my blog as much, however I’ve now returned from Tokyo and everything should be back to normal

I got up and it was time to do something on the first day. I just wanted to lay in the bed because I was extremely tired to be honest.

Where shall I go? Akihabara! It was a bit scary because there were some idiots killing some people there the other day.

I saw a nice little ice cream shop took a picture of it. While walking through the tunnel and I started to cough and sneeze. It seems that the old guy who was sitting next to me on the plane coughing gave me what he had. I ignored it.

I spotted a mobile phone shop; I enjoy looking at the latest technology so went in. Their phones are quite large. I think that Qatari’s wouldn’t like them that much because they like thin and small mobiles. These ones all had swively screens and television built it. Did you guys know that Qatar is the first country in the middle east to support Digital Television on mobiles? Yep. Read the rest of this entry »

After passing through the gate, I’m now slightly relieved. I finally was able to arrive. It was time for me to have a bit of fun.

After getting to the train and sitting down I saw a can on the ground in front of me. I had the paper from gum and I turned it into a ball. “Let’s play”. I spent some time trying to get it into the hole but it’s amazingly hard getting a tiny ball into a can hole!

After finally getting to the hotel. (Oak hotel). I checked in and immediately noticed that the room was quite small. I didn’t care. I saved alot of money so at least

As I layed down on the bed I let my head sink into the pillow. Tomorrow I planned to go to Akihabara. My eye’s closed and I faded into sleep.

So I’m sitting here right now, in front of my gate with two and a half hours to go (Osaka to Tokyo) while watching a stewardess bow at the passengers coming off. It’s robotic. Bow, wait two seconds, bow, wait two seconds. 

The flight was alright, however two stewardesses on Qatar Airways, “Andrea and Rea” didn’t seem to know airport ettiquette. Doesn’t really matter to me however what did annoy me is the guy who sat next to me. The economy was quite full and just as I had laid back and thought to myself “oh I’m lucky, I’ve got two seats”. A Pakistani guy sits next to me. Now he starts to chat on an on about something so I smile and be friendly, however after a while I notice that he’s one of “them”. Yep those annoying passengers that constantly move, kick chairs and smell. He annoyed the passengers in front of me by kicking their chairs, annoyed me by getting up every now and then to do squats, opened the window while everone was trying to sleep and basically wouldn’t shut the hell up.

The irony is, he kept asking me to have a drink with him. I kept telling him, I don’t drink sorry. He tried to explain how whiskey was tastey and I should try it and I kept refusing. The thing is, he was praying before the flight and kept using words like Inshallah and Bismillah… yet he drinks… This day and age, Muslims do whatever they want, and in a way, it’s kind of cool for people to have that freedom. It does bring up the subject of hypocracy though.

When I arrived at the airport. I smiled. Qued. Handed in my documents whereby the guy simply looked at it, gave a little smirk and called over security. They lead me to a small tiny room which I noticed was full of Arabs.

“So it seems this is the Arab room, they should at least have a VIP sign on the door”, I joke while coming in. I sit down and realize that everyone who’s Muslim and/or Arabic has been brought in. The room’s hot. Hot enough to make us uncomfortable. After an hour of waiting I’m finally let out after they check all my documents.

Don’t get me wrong, they were nice. They had that “Super cute kawaii Nippon” attitude, it just didn’t feel good being discriminated against, and I LOOK a bit European! While I was walking out the security guy says with a smile, “Can I touch?” he’s pointing at my croch. By now I’ve had enough, so I thrust forward and say “Go head”. He smiles and says thank you. Obviously either impressed by my baby factory or satisfied that guns don’t come in extra large size. (I’m joking!)

So I sit here typing. While waiting a good few hours for my next flight. Am I going to have to do this all over again at Tokyo -_-;

Brazilian Jiu Jitsu. It’s the ultimate art. No other method of self defence or combat will aid you more than BJJ. While in the UK, I coached a great bunch of BJJ enthusiasts along with a friend of mine named Omar. We were both destined to go places but after a very stupid accident, I twisted my final vertebrae and Omar dislocated his shoulder. Never-the-less, I can say without a doubt that it’s a great form of exercise. Not only do you release tension and spar with some great people but you also tighten up your body and it’s a great way to lose weight in a short period of time.

One student lost 5 kilos in a month and his abs were starting to show underneath.

I’ve probably got your attention now, but I’m yet to sell you. The Gracie brothers created this great art and challenged the best of martial arts experts from around the world. BJJ is un-defeated. So I’ve been looking for a proper venue to open up a BJJ school in Doha. The logo’s done, the insurance issues have been sorted and legally everything is all fine. Now all that’s left is to find the proper partners and we’re sorted. I’m quite adamant that only experienced teachers will be allowed to instruct the class. None of that ‘join our school and do laps around the gym’.

Let’s see if it’s a success, I’ll be using a similar branding from my BJJ school in England.