Tues 14th – A Varied 24hrs or (The Start Of A 2 Day Job On Doha Time!)

Only really had the chance to grab about 3.5hrs sleep before our alarms went off to watch the sunrise at 0500! Woke up frickin’ freezing – yes, the dessert can get cold at night! Despite being cold, it was grand waking up, seeing the view, remembering yesterday and then just going “Wow!”

Sunrise was pretty spectacular, very similar to the one seen previous on the roof! Sky was already quite bright and all of a sudden this orb just appeared and kept on rising really quickly! We got some good shots and played around - as you can see from the attached pic! Most of us then went for a walk in the opposite direction to the one taken last night. Was nice and peaceful – one of those nice moments in life where the four of us (Kev, Sarah, Jules & I) just kept our mouths shut and just wondered in and out of the water, up into the Dunes and back again without really uttering a word! Each of us probably taking something different back with us and just wanting to share it but not necessarily ‘share’ whilst it was happening. Very touchy feely I know but hey, that was the vibe man!

Had time for a quick dip before breakfast – some people weren’t going to but with a bit of prompting as to “When will you ever get to swim in the Gulf of Arabia before breakfast again?” soon sorted that out! Brekkie consisted of spicy sausages, omelets, weird juice and bread. Was pretty good food. We didn’t leave til about 0930, so I went for a bit of an explore up and over the dunes away from camp. Saw these weird little lizards that live/hide just below the surface of the sand! They dive out as you get closer and then appear to run along the sand before diving in and you can see tyem moving just under the sand! Very strange – I chased them around for a bit in a vain attempt to capture them on video but not to be! Bet I looked like a right fool!

On the drive back, once again I hung out the window and howled at the dunes and the wind – if you ever do it, THEN you’ll understand (especially if you’re a man!) There was one ‘funny’ moment to remember when the driver handed up the option of driving! Jules took up the offer and I can now say that I have hung out the window of a 4WD @ 80kmph whilst my friend Jules bashed over dunes in the Arabian Dessert to the sounds of “Full petrol”, “You must choose way” & “Relax, relax (pause) To fast, to fast!” from the driver! GOLD! You can’t buy that kind of shit!

Got home at 1200 and got the call that me & Kev were needed onsite to start work on the LED Screen from 1400! We were both kinda hoping that we’d start on Wed and be able to have a nap in the arvo! Wrong! Had a shower, a quick feed and then it was onto the 1330 bus to start another chapter in the crazy world that is the 15th Asian Games!

We got bumped around to a few different people to start off with until we got slotted in with the right group of people who needed our help! Kinda like a game of pinball for awhile but hey, that’s what happens when there’s all sorts of different bosses at all different levels and on different radio channels! Finally hooked up with the Procon boys from Germany. Procon – for you theatre nerds out there - are the German equivalent of Bytecraft but they have their shit together in the hire dept! From my understanding of the wider world, Procon actually own part of Bytecraft! Andreas (Andy), Maurittes, Ollie, Olaf & Johannes became our new work colleagues! Pretty good English spoken by them – a lot of German but it was all good. With many smiles, hand guestures & “um..er…how do you say..?” off me & Kevie went for another chapter in our Doha adventure!

It was a pretty quick afternoon – we got all suited up in our harnesses, prepped some gear and then made the vertical climb up to the very top of the LED Screen to start laying out power for the lights rigged on the top of the structure – some 80 odd meters up! This is a whole lot different to the 70m where our spots are. This is climbing through steel work, along girders, holding on for dear life whereas the spot possies are a bi-at-ch of a stair workout but (and don’t panic Mum & Dad when I say this) far safer! Please understand that I wasn’t in any danger, felt completely safe and felt the last of the 9-5 office worker drain from my body! (A good feeling I must admit – more on THAT at a later date!) On the climb up some ladders were missing rungs, some were made out of two halves, as in half was welded from the bottom and then another section lowered from the top and then welded – leaving about a one & a half rung gap in between! Some ladders were bent, some didn’t extended over the platform high enough and you had to haul yourself onto the next platform to start the next ascent! All very funny with many ‘colourful’ phrases uttered!

We got to the very top of the ladder system and found that the 45deg angles ladder/steps that connected the ladders to the catwalks was welded at the top end and at the bottom end (where we were) – tied off with rope to a beam…! Andy put a foot on it, it, well, lets just say it moved (!) and then there was much back & forth of German, some on the radio before we pulled the plug and climbed all the way back down! Ollie did gesture and suggest that myself & Kev should continue, “Make it safe for German ja?”. Please note that it was said with a huge grin on his face! Ollie is a very funny man!

Andy also noted that there were no safety line (lines that follow the path’s where we would be working and could clip our harnesses to) in sight. Big report back to Philby (in charge of LED Screen) and he cracked it..! The steel company doing it (CS Steel from memory) are shonky – guess it’s kinda like the lowest bidder wins! They’ve been leaving bolts, shackles & just stuff ALL over the structure – something you just don’t do! Nobody has been hit by anything yet but there has been ‘showers’ of stuff each day.

We then de-harnessed & went on coffee…. until we started Spot! That pretty much sums up the mood & work onsite. There’s still a chunk to be done everywhere but it is literally waiting for that guy to do that thing before they can come in with the stuff to make it OK for you to even think about starting your gig! Lots of standing by to stand by with many a false start in the mix! Oh well, onwards and upwards…!

At this point I must admit that I’m writing the next few entries nigh on a week after the fact as it’s been a long '2' days – read on and you’ll see why!