Wed 8th – Thare She Blows!

I had a huge sleep! Went to bed at midnight and when I woke and turned on the phone it was 9.40 – which was fine but we’d all decided to meet at 10 and head out to the main city mall! I’d gone to bed assuming that I’d be up between 6-7 as I’d been doing and didn’t bother to set an alarm! After much cussing & a quick shower, made it out in time for our taxis.

We went to Central City Mall – which has an ice skating rink in it – and it’s probably bigger than Chadstone. It’s definitely higher at 5 stories and there was basically nobody there! Most people we saw were foreigners. 9 of us went and we all just scattered and split up.

I’ve set myself a challenge – at the Mall there were 3 different Orry’s. Orry is the mascot of the Games & is a mountain goat type creature that’s native only to Qatar. We think the species of the animal is also an Orry but it’s very hard to translate what the people are telling us! Anyway, around the Mall I found life sized Orry’s in various sporting poses and wearing different uniforms & have decided to have my photo taken with as many different Orry’s as I possibly can and in the photo I’ll attempt to interact with him! So far we have Karate, Boxing and one where it looks like he’s using a mobile phone….?!?! That maybe it although I have seen one down at our little shopping centre, more MUST exist and I must find them.

The Mall was passable, pretty much like any other shopping centre that we have back home. Found some decent coffee & bought some trinket stuff and some sandles. Then we all headed back towards the taxis. The guy we got was similar to the Company guys we’ve been using. More of a limo service than a metered taxi. We’ve been told to use limos but the metered taxis are far cheaper – approx 1/3 to ½ cheaper and the drivers are great – really chatty and points out this and that and laughs at us stoopid westerners! For the company guys you ring either Mr Remmy or Mr G and they’ll send out one of their boys and they literally just say a price when you arrive – standard answer when you try to negotiate a price before leaving is – “Traffic bad, take for ever, I can’t say!” Getting to the Mall cost the 3 x limos 30, 35 & 40 riyal (have learnt to spell it!) and we all followed each other! Most trips are usually 30-35 riyal.

We thought we’d catch a taxi taxi home and came out, stood there, looked at these guys hanging around. I did the standard thing and yelled ‘Taxi!” and they all came scurrying forward! They all said they had meters in their taxi but this guy takes us back to his Very Shiny Black Mercedes and said the same things as written above! He heads into traffic and immediately starts going at 120kmph, the highest we hit was 140kmh & this was at 2pm in the afternoon and the traffic was busy! We needed to turn right at a roundabout and the queue was quite long and this guy obviously doesn’t like standing still as he goes 3 lanes over to the right to a lane that was moving freely and then get’s to the roundabout entrance (at speed) and rams his horn and swerves back to the let turn section (remember, Qatar drives on the other side of the road so it’s not as bad as it sounds but…!)! All I heard was brakes (not ours), the standard “beep beep” but they were much longer and I said a quick final word to you all, opened my eyes & we were back careening down the highway! Right! Never again! The drive home from Rydges was nothing compared to this ride! From now on, if it has to be a limo service, I’m calling Mr G or Mr Remmy!

Got to work around 1600 and we were al told to keep making adjustments etc. as required to our spots. Me & Kev decided to help Bernie and to get a perspective of the stadium from the other side. There was a bit of a breeze blowing around that proceeded to get a little stronger. By the time me & Kevie started to head up the Arch it was quite strong. At the top – woah! Sitting up on my platform for 3hrs in this very strong wind. I’ve walked against strong wind before but never had to operate a dome/followspot in what I would describe as gale force winds! The wind would literally push the dome away & you have to fight against it. A very strange experience! The platform would also vibrate slightly as the wind whipped around! As we’re on a platform high up, the wind is stronger but there’s not as much scaff to wobble. Adam & Paul are on about 15m high towers at the top of the stadium under Kev & I – they had a little bit of a sway going on. I did manage to write a few postcards by lying flat on the round and using the lip of my safety rail as a shield! Postcards have never been written in a more sillier situation before – well maybe space but you can’t get them delivered from up there! HA! It was surreal!

At the end we were told to come on down, we checked if we had to lash our domes down or do anything extra due to the wind factor and were told to come on down as we had to attend a meeting. We get down to the Canteen area and whilst there the Scaff guys talk to us about the Arch & wind factor, thank us for lashing down the domes and doing a couple of extra jobs that they’d requested we do when we were done! Me & Kev cracked it, nearly punched out the Boss (we used to in Melb cause he’s a F*CKING twit!) and went back up the Arch in the wind! Hoorah!

Upon getting home it was definitely beer time before shower time as it was also quite muggy – this was at 2200. At 0430 we went to bed! Last night was the night where most of the street came out, sat on their stoop and chatted and drank. We ended up with a chunk of people floating past as Adam had bought a dodgy guitar at the Mall. Many songs & sing alongs – especially when Kev got hold of it! Wondered up the street and chatted to a few more people. Too many names to remember! Met up with the guys riding the horses – a bunch of top blokes. Now they have some very funny stories. When you think of an Arab, one of the stereotypical things you would assume is that they can ride horses, right? WRONG! He’s got guys falling off mid gallop and refusing to get back on! As Ian put it, “Me bloody 8 year old takes harder tumbles onto rocks out on the land, gets back up and bloody rides on. These guys are falling onto soft sand & coming up lame!” He reckons the horse section is going to be a hoot. “They’ll bloody come in, fall off, chase their mount or run off & hide. Formations going to be difficult.”

As were knocking off last night, myself & Kev were asked if we would consider doing extra work in and around the truss when we weren’t doming. It saves them flying extra people across and they’ve said that throw some extra $$ our way! Which is better than the fate approaching the other domes – they may have to work on Set LX but with no extra $$ as it does state in our contract that they can move us around, make us work, change our hours at the drop of a hat! They have to give me & Kev more $$ cause we’re working at height and their using our rigging and truss skills! Nothings confirmed yet but they said it’d be about a weeks work of 8ish to when ever we had to go push a dome!

Well, I’m off to nurse my hangover a little more. Might see if I can perfect my tea making skills – still haven’t found the right balance here! Oh yeah, Strawberry Big M shits all over their ‘Genuine Pink Flavour, 100% Authentic Cows Milk’!