The Blonde: August 2014

Tuesday, 26 August 2014

I've been back in the desert for about a month now, and I have to say it's taken a little while to settle back in after a week at home and a week in sunny Spain, all with people I care about enormously.

I've spent a lot of time with PW since iv been back which has helped hugely - lots of pool days and date nights - and now maybe even a little mini break in the region to look forward to (although il try not to get my hopes up!)

A week or so ago we had dinner at Spice Market in the W Hotel.

Followed by tea and cakes at the W Cafe

Clearly only needed one pot of tea...they were huge!

We couldn't leave without a cheeky persusal of the chocolate counter...

The next day we were both off so a beach and pool day was on the agenda

It's things like this that I will make the most of this year. I need to remind myself that when things get frustrating here, I need to take a step back and appreciate the good things, because my time here is only temporary. I won't always have a beach for a back garden, that's for sure!

In a bid to make new friends outside of work, I ventured back to the W hotel for lunch on my next day off to meet an Australian girl called Brooke for a business lunch at Market.

The food, as usual, didn't disappoint. The W hotel is the absolute best for restaurants in Doha. Out of the three of them (Spice Market, Market and La Spiga) La Spiga is my favourite, but Market is a close second.

I opted for the cheese burger for my main course (after a tomato a cheddar cheese soup starter that I demolished before remembering to snap it) I think the wine had hit me by the point I snapped my cheese burger, what a terrible photo!

Dessert was phenomenal. I mean, just look at it. Mmmm. Salted caramel ice cream with popcorn. Heaven in a bowl!

Spending time with non work people reminded me how important it is for me to form friendships outside of the office this year. Not that I can ever replace my friends from home :)

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Sunday, 17 August 2014

It seems like a lifetime ago that I was sitting in Orange Square, tipsy on Sangria served by cute Spanish waiters with Vicky, but the reality is it was only a few weeks ago.

Since then, my tan has faded (best tan of my life, by the way) but my love for Sangria has grown even stronger and my desire to save to get back to Europe has intensified tenfold.

There is nothing quite like walking along the beach with the sun shining down on you (yes I can do that here, but for about 5 minutes as it's 40+ degrees!) and stopping for a salad and a glass of Sangria at one of many sea front cafés. Which is pretty much how Vicky and I spent every day of our holiday (and the rest spent horizontal on a beach lounger, snoozing and reading..bliss!)

We jetted off to Malaga early one morning to begin our girls holiday in 'Marbs'. I used to work with Vicky in London and she fast became one of my very best friends, so it was brilliant to finally get away with her, which we've been threatening to do for years!

We had both just worked across the whole month for the World Cup (Vicks in the slightly more glamorous location of Rio, Brazil!) so we were both in need of a holiday that didn't involve much more than sunbathing, eating, and drinking cocktails. We were staying midway between Peurto Banus and Marbella old town (the former we went to one night and hated it, the latter we tried to go to as many times as possible because it was beautiful!)

Day one started as we meant to go on - sunbathing on our hotels roof top pool, followed by a stroll along the beach, and afternoon (evening) tea (less tea, more Sangria) in a gorgeous cafe called The Boardwalk, to which we became regular visitors during the week.