Tales from our hotel stay (Part 2)

Image: by samer daboul, from Pexels

We have a week left in Doha. Thanks to all who read part 1 of these hotel-stay tales.  I find blogging to be therapeutic at this time; it gives me a chance to reflect on the providence and protection that was ours over the last two months. To continue with our tales while waiting, I think the most liberating event was returning our paid-up credit cards to the bank! Yes, definitely liberating! 😅

Clear as mud

One morning while working on my PC I heard a bump, thump, bump, on one of the windows where we seldom have the curtain open. I thought, poor bird, he has a headache. There it was again... thump, bump. Since we're on the 12th floor this was the last thing one expected – a knocking at the window. Pulling the curtain aside, I gasped. Feet were dangling in front of my face! :D Then I realised, they were washing the windows. 

It was approaching 40 degrees outside as they completed one side of the building. Later that afternoon they were back, to do the front. Goodness! Watching them was enough to make one's stomach churn. 

It was so good to have clean windows, though. We had cleaned a small circle that we could reach through the open window, just to be able to take clear photos of the view. Finally, things were not as clear as mud.

A few days later it rained! 

Rain in Qatar

For as long as I can remember, whenever I washed windows it would rain soon after.  When the hotel windows were being washed, I remarked that at least there was zero chance of rain to undo all that hard work. I mean, it just DOES NOT rain in July in Qatar! And when it does, it’s usually a muddy dusty rain that clings to the windows. 

It rained! It rained so much, that the entire city was almost washed out. It was also washed thoroughly clean, but also practically traumatised. 😆If you have lived in the Middle East, you’ll know what it means when people say 'rain fever' hits. Folks go crazy with excitement. 😄 It's true! Most people take the day off. The rest only work half day. Well, this time, people were forced to go home early as many places were rained out. It would appear that there is either bad drainage or zero drainage in this city. But a huge mess is guaranteed. Andries' workplace was one of those inundated. 

It went into their classrooms and offices, flooding the floors. 

And here in the hotel room, I had my very own waterfall! 😖🥴 The window that can open has lost its seal over the years of being baked in the heat and sun. 

Watching the roadworks happen on the Corniche from the hotel window was fun. Progress was slow. During the week-long Eid break, the Corniche was closed completely so that the work could be completed. It took a week longer. Traffic was a mess everywhere else as people compensated. But folk were very patient – the population as a whole has resigned itself to permanent road chaos until the World Cup in November.

Eventually, the road was re-opened, and the Corniche was once again the main artery into the city, pulsing with its never-ending flow of cars, trucks and buses. Then the downpour. 

Once the rain subsided and I could see through the window, I noticed the disaster as one section of the new road was completely underwater. No drainage? Malfunctioning drainage? Contractor scam? One wouldn't know, but it was chaos for the rest of the day. The following day the road was semi-closed as all the hard-hats gathered to inspect what had gone wrong. Forgetting, we chose that route home after an outing that afternoon. As we passed, we noticed deep holes had been dug into the newly laid blacktop. Yep, I smell a rat. The following week a large chunk of the road had been cut out, reworked and re-surfaced. Let’s hope that the next rains find the drainage working as it should.

The nasty C!

Covid! Many of you have experienced it's awful reality. We had been so grateful that we had not been afflicted, but it finally got us! Andries's colleague seated opposite him in the office, arrived one morning saying his family members had Covid, but that he was fine. He had requested permission to stay home but was told that he should report for work. 🙄 Two days later he was sick and had to stay home. The following day Andries took over his training. A day later Andries began to feel body aches. Day 0, according to one info site. That night it hit him full on. The next morning we were at the clinic promptly, where he tested positive. They put him on a drip for pain and fever and told us both to stay in isolation for 7 days. He should isolate in a separate room, they said. Well, that wasn’t going to happen, was it? So, there we were, holed up together 24/7. His covid App turned red. It had a horribly adverse psychological effect on us, seeing that red. But mine stayed green, although I was not allowed to step out. We informed the hotel, and no one was allowed to come near us. He slept for most of the first 2 days with a severely sore throat, a cough, and body pains. By Day 4 he was coughing less and began to feel better. Hallelujah.

Hi son!

Gustav took the above image of us waving at him from our window when he dropped a few groceries off for us. 😊 The Hamad Medical Corporation was amazing in its support. From Day 2 they phoned to check on Andries's condition. On day 3 they asked why I hadn't been tested. We said we were in isolation. Oh, said they, tomorrow someone will come to the hotel to test you. How do you feel? they asked. I had just, that day, begun to feel a scratchy throat, I replied. Day 0 for me. 😒 By the time the nurse arrived the next day to test me I knew I was ill. Day 1 – a new 7 days began for me. My App turned red. Positive. Ugh!

Image by Matthias Groenewald, on Pexels

It hit me differently than it had Andries – all in my head, struggling to breathe. Paracetamol was not relieving the pain and I was coughing badly. I began to feel raw fear. Had I remembered the promises from the Lord, I would not have panicked. But there you are ... our memories are short at best. It’s amazing how one’s imagination can run amok once you open the door to fear.

That afternoon when they phoned to ask how I was doing, they immediately booked a doctor to call me, who then asked us to head out to the Communicable Disease Centre. I reminded her that we were isolating. It’s fine, says she, you can visit a doctor. They were expecting me. A chest x-ray, an ECG, blood samples and a visit with the doctor, all within an hour. Back at the hotel room, I flopped into bed after taking all the meds, thankful for Qatar’s health system. From the next day we both began to improve steadily.

Because of the National Covid App, we are required to retest on day 8, whereupon, if we are negative, the App would turn green. Poor Andries was found to still be positive and was booked off for a further 7 days. Gut-wrenching! Talk about a bear with a sore head! "What are you teaching us, Lord?" "Are another 7 days necessary?". Once again, we realised that He is God. He will use whatever method he sees fit to slow you down, make you think and hopefully listen to His voice. The key is to have a teachable spirit. If not, you open yourself to the voices of doubt and misbelief, with bitterness following hot on their heels.

Since Andries clearly was better and didn’t want yet another test, he phoned the helpline and his App was reset to green, after another 4 days in iso. I waited 9 days before I re-tested, not wanting another 7 days as well. Ugh! Covid! It was so good to get out, to be free ... we immediately walked over to the Box Port for Karak!

HOT 1027

When we arrived at the hotel on the first day, there was this glaring message for us on the television – “Welcome Mr and Mrs Brandt” with a longer bit about all the how-tos and what-nots. We switched it off, and it has remained off. My lively imagination was triggered, and I imagined someone watching us through that screen … checking on whether we behaved. 😆

Image from Pixabay

So, for entertainment, we tuned into our favourite channel online – HOT102.7  And before you get worried (the name does sound a little racy 😄), it's a South African radio station. They have an off-shoot station called HOT CLASSIC. Aaaah, the feelgood channel! A radio station for "old school R&B and classic". All day, every day. Think Mantovani and his orchestra, Peggy Lee, Norah Jones, Ella Fitzgerald, and the crooners from the 70s, with a sprinkling of classics in between. 😁 It kept us calm and grounded in a lovely way. No ads! Yes, you heard right ... no ads (apart from theirs for the station). 😀 Only music. And if you don't mind a repetitive playlist throughout the week, it's the one for you if you're trying to stay calm, work, or just have pleasant background music. No presenters. No news broadcasts. Our kind of station.

As an aside, we have chosen for several years now not to give mainstream media the privilege of intruding into our living space with all their doom and gloom propaganda. We had been miffed by the end of 2019 with the choices on our cable TV, and, before our trip to Australia at the time, we decided to switch off and end our contract. Local TV wasn’t an option. So, we settled into life sans TV. It was hard at first as we had to get into a routine of finding news online to keep up to date. Andries had watched movies now and then and I missed my detective series, the antique shows, and the cooking channels. But soon TV was no longer missed. We were in a new, more peaceable routine. It also happened to be the peak of the Covid-19 outbreak in early 2020 – how relieved we were not to be bombarded with all the panic-stricken coverage. We found ourselves much stronger mentally during the lockdown without TV. 

No signal from Pixabay

Car for sale 

We’ve had 2 cars over the last 5 years. One, an old 2006 sedan in a good condition, which Andries used for work. Anyone who knows Andries, knows his cars are well cared for. The other was an SUV, almost as old but with low mileage for its age. (If you live in this part of the world, driving an SUV is prudent, to say the least. 😅) In a city with a large population turnover, there is a constant stream of second-hand cars for sale on basically only one platform, which everyone uses. Some seemingly just don’t sell.

Image by Pete Linforth, Pixabay

Time was running out, so Andries put the sedan up for sale (just before Covid hit us). It sold within 4 hours! And he got his price in a culture that loves to bargain. In fact, 2 people who were viewing the car at the same time, were bargaining with each other, driving the price up a little each time, for the winning bid. 😆 
The SUV’s advert went up as soon as Andries was free from isolation and it was up for all of one hour before it was sold! The first person to look at it bought it. We shouldn't have been surprised, it had brand new desert essentials – a new battery and new tyres (we had been forced to replace both just a month ago). 😅
We were amazed! But our Father undertook for us. Yes ... His word says: 

“Every good thing given and every perfect gift is from above; it comes down from the Father of lights [the Creator and Sustainer of the heavens], in whom there is no variation [no rising or setting] or shadow cast by His turning [for He is perfect and never changes].” James 1 v 17 (AMP)

Those quick sales were a gift indeed. 

But having no vehicle is daunting. 😖 Suddenly you realise just how much you need one. We were grateful for special friends and our kids who all went the extra mile to help us. An amazing person even insisted that we use his 2^nd vehicle for the last two weeks. What a lifeline and yet another gift! 

Celebrating a birthday

Our new daughter-in-law celebrated a milestone birthday on 19 August. They invited us along for a one-night stay in a desert beach camp at the southern end of Qatar. It was also our penultimate weekend in Doha so a perfect ‘farewell’ gathering too. What a stunning stay it was. So special. 

Image:© G Brandt 

The couple also celebrated 5 months of married life. 

So much fun to spend time with them. We are going to miss them like crazy! 😕😪 We look forward to the day they can come over for a visit. But their 2023 holiday is already reserved for the Philippines, for our son to meet his new family. 💕

It's time

It's almost time to pack our bags and get them on the scale to see if we're within the permissible weight. We head to the airport on the 1st of September at 14:00 Doha, time. We land in Brisbane on the 2nd, at roughly 16:00. Considering it’s a 2-hour drive each way to Gympie, we feel sorry for any person who comes to fetch us. Since most Covid restrictions in Queensland have been dismantled, we are now able to book into a local hotel so that our kids can pick us up at a decent hour on the following day. Best news of all, the requirement for a PCR test on arrival has also been removed! Yay!

Andries has taken leave for the last 4 days in Doha, as we have a ton of things to do – telephones to cancel, police reports to collect, medical reports to organise. We have a few household items to get rid of that we kept for convenience in the hotel, and we have freight to drop off at the airline … 🤦‍♀️

As soon as jet lag is shaken off, we'll be in touch via the blog. 
Thanks for stopping by dear friends and family. 

Blessings from us both. 🌼