Making Brands Happen Webinar

As I embark on starting my own business, I have found endless inspiration in Lara Casey and Emily Ley and the businesses(!) they have founded. While their daily motivation from Making Things Happens keeps me motivated, it's their amazing brand transformations happening at Making Brands Happen that keep my wheels turning with inspiration when forming my own brand. As my luck would have it, they're offering a three part webinar (read more about it here!) which I would love to attend? watch? what's the right word here? lol anyways, I. need. to. be. a. part. of. it. And so that's why I'm blogging again so that maybe I'll be the lucky winner of a seat! Fingers and toes crossed on this one :)

Qatar Exxon Mobil Open

at the entrance

Last week, I went to the Qatar ExxonMobil Open with Rudy and TP. We had VIP passes to the event because Groop 8 (really Rudy) did all the design work for the event.

with Federer

excited as we made our way to the VIP Village

We had access to the outdoor VIP Lounge area where we hung out near the "bar" sipping on fruity drinks and sampling some Nando's chicken.

We tried going into the tent, but got denied because we didn't have the special wristband that the people who bought VIP tickets had. I tried another door and the doorman told me I only had access to the Players Tent (!!!) which was on the other side. I grabbed the guys and we went in. Unfortunately there weren't any players there at the time, but we did enjoy the buffet put on by the Ritz. I think I forgot to take pics - I was distracted by all the yummy food!

Once we were thoroughly stuffed, we headed into the stadium in time to catch the doubles finals. Nadal is ranked #1 in the world and he was playing with his bff representing Spain against the Italians. We weren't quite sure where we going to be allowed to sit, but were definitely happy when we ended up here:

Front row box seats!!! We had a great view of Nadal... and the other guys too!

AND as if this wasn't enough excitement for one night, I caught the game winning ball!!! You can imagine how upset I was when I was forced to give it back :( Still a fun night though!

our trip to the desert - part 1

mike and i took advantage of me having new years day off and headed out to the desert towards a place called sealine where there is a beach and lots of sand dunes.

along the way, we saw a field of camels. we pulled over to take pictures and one even came close to the car!

after a while, we started to see the dunes. along the side of the road, there were lots of places that rented four wheelers and private camps where locals like to go on the weekends with their land cruisers.

we drove until the road ended and then some on the packed sand and arrived at the beach, with the sand dunes on the other side.

notice my "appropriate" beach attire

see that dune over my shoulder? well mike is crazy and decided we should climb it...

i complained on the way up, but the view from the top was worth it!

i made it!

the coast looking towards doha

view into the desert

(unfortunately this is where my pictures from the desert end as we started using the other camera which has since gone back to canada) we stayed up there for a while watching the four wheelers and land cruisers drive over the dunes. a qatari offered us a ride in his land cruiser and took us for a wild one! he laughed at mike when he put on his seatbelt, but as we raced over the dunes we were definitely glad we had them.

later we went for a short camel ride which was bumpy, but fun! mike took the car off the packed sand road to park for the camels and on our way out we got stuck - rookie mistake! luckily some qataris racing by on their four wheeler stopped to help push us out and we were on our way!

merry christmas & happy new year!

it was definitely different celebrating the holidays away from my family and friends AND in the desert. on christmas eve, i worked late and then rushed to midnight mass. there is a compound on the edge of the city, almost in the desert that houses the only 3 not islamic places of worship in qatar. one of them is a catholic church and so i went with friends to see the church in the desert and for mass. there was a large wall around the compound with security on site. the places of worship are not allowed to have any signs or crosses on display.

a nativity scene set up within the compound

i wish i could have filmed inside the church. they played christmas carols that sounded like the preprogramed tracks on keyboards from the 80s and had lots and lots of flashing lights.

skating!

my funny rubber skates

on christmas morning, i had brunch with a bunch of coworkers and then went to the mall with my girlfriends. we went ice skating and to the amusement park where we went a few rides, including a roller coaster that banged our heads so bad decided to leave.

a coin operated camel ride that i sat on for fun

mike arrived in time for new years celebrations! it turned out to be a random night... we started out with dinner on the patio at applebees

where we listened to various versions of happy birthday being played through the speakers. (maybe that was a sign of things to come?) and then moved on to the orion at the ramada for some drinks and more of my coworkers joined.

the bar had put out paper horns to blow at midnight, but the crowd seemed to have never seen them before and blowed them all.night.long. the singer was back from my previous visit, but this night she was singing all love songs, especially lionel richie. the crowd loved her and blew their horns in appreciation. getting closer to midnight she said she would sing a medley of traditional songs for this time of year. apparently children's songs like "you are my sunshine" and "she'll be coming around the mountain" are traditional new years songs??? i guess she finished her medley a bit ahead of schedule because she did her 10 second count down at 5 minutes to midnight.... happy new years! :) did i miss anything exciting in toronto?

drinks at the ramada

last thursday (has it been a week already?!?) i went with some coworkers for drinks at the ramada to kick off our weekend. qatar has really strict liquor laws and only expats are allowed to drink. the only places that can serve alcohol is hotels. to get in we had to show our passport with a valid visa, which they scanned and kept our photo in their file. when we arrived caitlin, jocelyn and i were pretty much the only females there. more came later and we noticed the trend of younger filipino ladies with older men. we all grabbed a corner booth and enjoyed the cover band. and the mojitos.

jocelyn, me & caitlyn

marcus, arthur & tp

we also had a good laugh over this lady's t-shirt:

unfortunately i couldn't get a picture (and not from a lack of trying!) but it said "who's your baghdaddy?" :)

shots from around doha

it has surprised me how my surroundings have never really felt foriegn to me, especially considering that i really had no clue what it would look like. when i stop to really take in what's around me it really does look a lot different than home. there is so much construction going on throughout the city and sections of vacant land that is just sand. in some parts there is some grass however when i saw workers rolling it up, i realized that some is actually astroturf! to give you an idea of what it's like here, here are some pictures i have taken from the car, mostly between my office and villagio.

my new house...

a much better view from the roof because at street level it's partially obstructed by the surrounding wall

 i wish! there is a door from the studio out onto part of the roof of our office building, which gives you a fantastic view of this house which is being built across the street. here are some other shots of the area i work in from the roof:

if you look closely, you can see the downtown skyline

we back onto a residential area