Mon 20th – When Dust & Rain Collide….! D’oh In Doha!

(Me The Strongman with Jules & Prem to a shoulder each & Sarah & Jules after the pool incident on THAT Sunday!)

Well, woke up this morning to the familiar sound of rain hitting against my window. Took a few seconds and then realised that IT’S THE DESSERT! Very weird. The second thought was that the Stadium would be in lots of trouble! All very much open air, no roofs and with set, lights & just all round general stuff everywhere! We were informed that rehearsals were still going ahead and in we went. By late arvo, the rain had stopped but with the amount of dust that floats around Doha – desert sand and also due to the amount of construction going on – there was a nice, decent layer of grime everywhere! The Dust of Doha gets in everywhere – my spot is covered in it and it’s quite thick inside the lamp housing.

We’re at the point where they’ve pretty much doing full dresses each night – sometimes it’s without full costume or the volunteer but the show is now basically taking shape. New bits get added each time. We do stop & start but it now looks like we’ll make it for the 1st Dec, whereas a week ago….!

Unfortunately, one of the Asia trucks broke, like really broke tonight! There’s 6 of these trucks that roll on in and they have motorised lifts/winches in them that raise a screen with Asian decorations on them. They’re pretty cool but tonight, the truck I dome had it’s screen raised and I watched the screen wobble a little (or at least I thought I did) and then had that confirmed when one end just went “nope, see ya!” and collapsed! Nobody was hurt – luckily as there are hidden features in the truck when the sides open and the screen raises! It was a wee bit of a showstopper and it’s better that it happens now than next Fri! A couple of forklifts and EWP’s came on to secure it and make it better and then off it was dragged, looking very sorry for itself.

There’s been a few hiccups of late – which is understandable when you start putting all the very large pieces of quite a hard puzzle together. A Smurf was rolled over by a piece of ‘The City Of The Future” – not badly, even though he was stretchered off as a precaution. He was given a clean bill of health and just basically got bruised shins. I bet you’re all now having these horror visions – it wasn’t bad, he tripped over backwards and the piece was pushed onto him. A few of the Arab riders have also fallen off – one got a twisted ankle. They’ve slowly been adding more and more to the Desert Horsemen section each time we rehearse it – lights, music, costume etc. but it’s not helping the local riders. The Cowboys find it all highly entertaining and regularly update us. They were actually shocked to learn that it was us, “not you bunch of lads?”, chasing them around with “them big ol’ searchlights?” I think they amuse us just as much as we amuse them!

Got home from rehearsals to find that the washing I’d put in at 1330 just before we left for work was STILL going round & round! Since the first episode I’ve done a few more loads, just this time it decided to take me for a ride again! Everyone was very amused and kept coming up with advice – if I hear, “Cycle 6 – Quickwash” one more time I’ll kill someone as I put it on frickin’ Cycle 6! Or as Paul was taunting (cause we have the instructions in about 12 languages), “rapido, rapido!”

Stoop was a quiet one tonight. There were literally a few beers and then it was bed! Now, I’m going to go all macho for a second and show off! (You’ve already seen the attached photo). Tonight, Julia & Prem were being silly and probably talking about “rapido, rapido” so I managed to pick one of them up over each shoulder from where they sat on the stoop and then run down the road! It wasn’t until I was running down the road that I realised that I’m not supposed to be that butch! Very impressed with myself I was!

Doha a la Fat Camp seems to be working!