The Blonde: CHAC'LATE

Sunday, 29 March 2015

I must confess the past week has left me exhausted, and I've been a little un-enthused about blogging. I'm sure all other bloggers know exactly what I mean by this - as much as I love my blog, sometimes life just takes over and writing has to take a backseat.

Despite my 6-day week at the office, I have still had a few lovely evenings and one lovely day off.

Monday night was this weeks date night, and Matt and I set off to La Spiga at the W hotel on my request.

Clearly somebody couldn't wait to get stuck in to the bread basket! Whilst this in no way compares to the bread basket at the Anvil Rooms, they do have this amazing bread that is almost pastry-like, and tastes just like sausage rolls from the bakery.

I had been craving their gnocchi for weeks, so I was hugely disappointed when it arrived and was absolutely tasteless. I had asked for it with a white sauce instead of as it comes on the menu (I had this when we came to La Spiga to celebrate Jemma's birthday and it was incredible), which they prepared with absolutely no problem, but it just didn't taste of anything at all. The gnocchi was, as always, cooked to perfection but I just wish the sauce had had some flavour.

On Tuesday night I woke up with the makings of a cold. Luckily I had the day off, so Matt and I headed down to the pool for a few hours of sunshine. I had my first swim of 2015, and I'm looking forward to starting swimming regularly now that the weather has warmed up again!

When Matt went off to work, I popped upstairs to grab my laptop and brought it back down to the pool to work from home in the sun, before getting my head stuck in the new book I'm reading.

That evening, we took a walk down to Katara to check out the bazar that has popped up out of nowhere this week. It reminded me of the Ideal Home exhibition in the UK, filled with stalls selling various items - ornaments, Arabic coffee pots ('dallah'), honey, nuts, hair accessories, abayas, jewellery etc.

We only walked down one aisle of stalls and already I couldn't cope with all of the sellers calling out at us so we made a quick exit and headed next door to the temporary stadium playing host to the FIFA Beach Soccer World Cup 2015.

This is one thing that I love about Doha - there are so many sporting events on, particularly at the start of the year, and so many are free to attend (although absolutely chaotic to get to by car - the road to Katara has been absolutely gridlocked all week due to the bizarre bazar and the beach football.) Luckily my apartment is in walking distance, so it would have been rude not to go and check out the event for ourselves.

The Iraq team arrived just ahead of us, and we all made our way up into the stands to get a view of the action.

The evenings match was Lebanon vs Thailand, and the teams took their positions on the pitch and sang their respective National anthems.

Despite the stadium being nowhere near full, there was a good atmosphere as fans cheered and children blew into horns that the stadium attendants were handing out.

The whistle blew, and the action started!

There was a lot of overhead kicking and rolling around in the sand. We left after half an hour or so, and took a wander to Chac'late at Katara as I had a craving for their hot chocolate (I will say this again, the Swiss hot chocolate is the best hot chocolate I have ever had. FACT!)

Such a pretty route to walk for a hot chocolate fix.

I had it to take away, and we wandered back towards home, stopping en-route for Matt to have a Nutella crepe, which didn't last long enough for a photo! I did however take a snap of my beautiful home - it looks amazing at night. I was recently contacted by one of my readers and asked why I chose to live where I live over anywhere else in Doha, and this could possibly be one of the reasons. It really is a stunning property.

On Thursday night, Marion and I took a trip to the Pearl for some food and chats at Shakespeare & Co. I had only been here once before with my mum when she came to stay with me, and it's such a lovely casual dining spot. The inside of the restaurant is gorgeous, with Parisian decor, however it was a lovely warm evening so we sat outside overlooking the beautiful marina.

The Pearl is such a lovely, informal location for lunching and dining, and somewhere that I would love to explore a little more as it's only a short drive from my apartment. With it's abundance of cafes, restaurants and waterways, and not to mention the marina, home to so many stunning yachts, it is a definite 'must-see' for any Doha visitor.

I stayed in on Friday night after work and made soup to ward off my cold, and Saturday night was a very early night in bed with a book due to a 7:30am start in the office today. Rock and roll weekend!! I must say I actually loved being awake at 6:30 this morning, standing on my balcony and watching the sun light up the city. Such a beautiful view to start the new week!

I hope you had a great week, wherever in the world you are reading from, and here's to another!

Saturday, 7 March 2015

This week has flown by - I feel like it was only a couple of days ago that I sat down to write last weeks Doha Diaries post. I swear time goes by so much more quickly living out here!

The week kicked off in one of my favourite ways, playing tennis with Marion at the St Regis. This week we had a spectator - a guy came right up to the fence of the courts and stood watching us for a good 25 minutes before Marion shoo'd him away - it was very distracting, and kind of creepy to be honest. I could understand if we were awesome (we will be, one day!!) but it was weird for him to stay watching two complete beginners for as long as he did...but anyway..Ferrari guys last week and staring guy this week, whatever will next week bring!?

I was off work on Monday, so I spent the morning by the pool with Matt before he went to work, and I came back to my place to have a 'getting things done' kind of day (laundry, tidying, you know the drill). I called home and my mum informed me of more bad news regarding my aunt, and I fell to pieces.

When Matt suggested we go to the cinema after he finished work, I was so grateful for the distraction. We went to the Novo Cinema at the Pearl, to the IMAX screening of Focus. It was a really light hearted, easy watch, and I have the biggest girl-crush on Margot Robbie! She's so beautiful.

Afterwards we took a walk around Spinneys whilst we waited for our driver to pick us up - I always find shopping in Spinneys so funny as there are Tesco products everywhere, it's almost like being back in the UK!

Tuesday night was a night that I have been looking forward to for so long. Jemma had managed to track down tickets earlier in the month, and then the day before the concert the very lovely Christoph offered us VIP tickets, to see the amazing Ed Sheeran in the sandpit!

He was incredible. Amazingly talented, not only with the guitar but vocally too. He put on an absolutely phenomenal performance...it's just such a shame that for the best part of the concert we had three of the rudest and tallest people in Doha push their way front of us and block our view. Towards the end of the show we moved to the back of the VIP area which was so much better. I've been listening to his album 'X' non stop since!

On Thursday night, Jemma very kindly took me as her plus one to the new members night St Tropez at the Hilton hotel. Marion was away on a business trip, so we got ourselves dressed up and headed out as a duo. I had no idea what to wear, and ended up throwing together a mix of clothes I have had in my wardrobe for ages, and I think they have become one of my new favourite outfits!

It is still way too cold to really enjoy the beach parties (I know people from back home might find that hard to believe when it's 25 degrees in Doha, but you'll just have to trust me on that!) but when it warms up I think St Tropez will become a real nightlife hot spot here in Doha.

It was another one of those nights where we ran into many familiar faces - Doha really is the smallest little bubble.

After a very cold day in the A/C at work on Friday, I hopped straight into my warm pyjamas and crawled in to bed to finish listening to Serial, that really addictive podcast I talked about in my February Favourites post. It's amazing, and I was left with a very strange feeling, almost deflated at the lack of resolution (not a spoiler, as we already know that the accused is currently in prison for allegedly murdering his ex girlfriend). Nothing about the whole thing adds up, from the inconsistent witness stories, to the trial itself, to the fact that the accused has no recollection of his whereabouts on the day. I literally don't know what to think, but it's very interesting that (probably wholly to do with the success of the Serial podcast) the accused has recently been granted a rare hearing in June which may completely change his life. I strongly advise giving the Podcast a listen, you'll be hooked in no time.

Today was a rare day where Marion, Jemma and I were all off work together, so we headed over to Katara for lunch. It was a beautiful, hot day so it was lovely to walk along the sea front.

We decided to eat at Mamig, a beautiful Armenian/Lebanese restaurant, with an exterior bursting with beautiful, vibrant flowers.

This patio was heaving with customers by the time we left, but we sat on the upper terrace, and ordered about half of the menu to share...

Beautiful light salads, delicious grilled halloumi, stuffed vine leaves, cheese and spinach-filled dough, and light Arabic bread.

If you don't fancy eating out on the terrace (it's way too hot unless you are completely in the shade, and come the height of summer it will probably be too hot altogether!), then there is plenty of space indoors where it was equally busy, and where you can spot some very cool decor.

Something sweet was next on the agenda, so we hopped in a golf cart to Chac'late.

I have never eaten at Chac'late before (I've only been inside to gaze longingly at all of the amazing handmade chocolates in the display cabinets) but this could well be my new favourite place.

The cafe was full, but they opened their additional outdoor seating area half an hour early to accommodate for us and the other waiting customers, which was lovely of them.

Chac'late is situated right behind the amphitheatre, which is an absolutely stunning piece of architecture to look out onto over coffee - or waffles!