In Memory of...

Our summer has been just about everything you can imagine. Difficult, adventurous, traumatic, sad and unfortunately only relaxing for a few days. On August 28, after spending three weeks by her hospital bed, we lost Erik's mother Eila to a series of strokes preceded by a battle with cancer. She was an amazing woman and a fighter to the end and we are very grateful to have been there as she went to be with the angels.

Getting Out, Part I, a.k.a. "Plan G"

I'm so exhausted, I can hardly think, but I thought I'd at least share some information and photos with you.

Plan G - actually we don't even know for sure if it is Plan G, but sooner or later, when things have actually started to work and there is some peace, we'll write a list of our different plans to get out of Qatar. Be that as it may, Plan G is the following:

July 23: Karen flies to Amman, Jordan and is driven to a hotel in Petra. Why? No time to get her Saudi Visa.
At the same time, Erik drives to Petra through Saudi Arabia

July 24: Erik arrives in Petra in the wee hours of the morning, gets some sleep and we go see the sights.

July 25: Travel to Egypt by ferry over the Red Sea from Aqaba to Nuweiba. The reason for this is to avoid two border crossings because there is a tiny strip of land on the Red Sea between Jordan and Egypt belonging to Israel. Drive towards Alexandria and overnight where possible.

July 26: Drive the rest of the way to Alexandria and check the car in at the ferry in the afternoon for the 8pm launch towards Venice.

July 29: Arrive in Venice at 8am. Drive immediately to Munich to start import procedures.

July 30: Endless paperwork in Munich, all of which has to be done by closing time at noon.

July 31 or August 1: Drive to Cologne

August 2: Drive to Kristiansand, catching ferry from Hirtshals at 10:45pm.

August 3: Arrival

So, we received our export license on Tuesday...

It's only good for 10 days, so we've got to hurry!

We went through weeks of planning to try to find people who would issue us insurance. We were told that we would get 10 days of insurance for the Middle East from our Qatar company along with our plates, but that turned out to be false. All we got from them is insurance to the border and the certificate was under the name of "Earek Wer". "Wer" did they get that??? Apparently it's the car's insurance, not ours, so as long as the car data is correct, it's fine. We have to buy liability anyway at the borders, but that means we're running around without comprehensive for several days. From the US we were able to get comprehensive for once we get into Europe. From Luxembourg, we were able to get 3rd party liability. When we get to Germany, we have insurance ready to go, but first we have to go to customs (probably), have the car inspected, register the car and get plates and Erik has to register in Germany again. There's an order to this, but I can't remember what it is. You'll have to ask my husband. The one troublesome point in the import procedure is that the Germans say they want a certain form, EU0600 "Unbedenklichkeitsbescheinigung" (yes that's one of those endless German compound words), from the Italians and the Italians claim they have no clue what it is and that we can come into the country without any trouble at all. It took my dear harpsichordist Sergio two days of calling around to figure this out and even he isn't satisfied with the answer.

So, last night we packed up, behind schedule, and of course determined that it wouldn't all fit. Erik comes back in September anyway. He will have to bring his road bike back to Europe then. He has another bike in Cologne. We also have the Qatar apartment until September, because after tons of rigmarole, we will get paid what they owe us, but Erik just has to come back for the expatriation procedure which he can do without me, but with one of my passports - another story for another time.

Erik took me to the airport this morning. Everything went smoothly for me, but not at all for him. He spent probably 6+ hours at the Saudi border going back and forth between the Saudis and Qataris dealing with paperwork and just when he got the last paper from the Qataris, the Saudi office that needed it closed for the day. The result? He is in no-mans land sleeping on an air mattress between the two countries waiting for the office to open at 8am tomorrow morning. So much for Petra. Gentleman that he is, he made me promise to see it for us both and try to enjoy myself and have a nice evening with a nice meal and enjoy the sunset. VERY HARD. I won't really be able to relax until we are on that ferry. Egypt is still a big nightmare because we don't know what they are going to demand at the border. We think something called a "Carnet de Passage" which, of course, the Qataris don't know anything about. So, we don't have it. We just have export papers and whatever Arabic papers Erik got today.

So, I attempted to enjoy the evening. Hard but, that's how it is.

Here's the sun over Petra.

Going...

going,

gone.

4 Blogs in 4 Days?

Unheard of. Not since the beginning of the blog have I blogged so much. Today I spent the afternoon with a dear friend who humored me and took photos of my most recent creations.

I love to knit.

Knitting is relaxation for me. Without it, I'd probably be in the loony bin by now. I always have to have a project going, even if I don't know who it's for. Someday it will tell me.

Knitting is a good companion activity for a musician - especially a traveling one. I spend a lot of my time on planes, trains and buses. If it's a plane with movies, I turn one on and knit away. If it's not, I turn toward an audio book on my iPod.

Knitting makes it possible for me to actually sit down and watch a movie or television series without feeling guilty for not being productive.

Knitting is addictive. If I haven't done it for a few days, I start to get restless. In spite of my enormous collection of yarn, I always seem to need more. There's not always just the perfect skein for the project I want to make. So, the collection of yarn grows.

Knitting is a social activity. Months before we moved to Doha, I already had e-friends there through Ravelry - it's way better than Facebook. Unless it's extremely complicated, one can talk and knit. In fact, I often have two projects going simultaneously - the semi-mindless one that can be accomplished while talking and the complicated, don't-talk-to-me-while-I'm-counting one.

Knitting fosters friendship. Through knitting I met one of my dearest friends.

And above all...

Knitting is tangible. One can feel the needles and the yarn in one's hands. When the project is finished, one has something useful and lasting that will bring joy to me and the recipient. Being a musician is great, but when the concert is over, the most one can expect (and hope for) is to have a nice memory.

So, the proud knitting mama just has to show off some of her most recent babies. Many thanks to Maschenkunst for the photos.

 

Zauberschall

Lace-edged Corset

Featherweight Green Sweater

Happily surrounded by yarn.

Any requests?

On the Positive Side...

On the Positive Side...one of the most enjoyable parts about being in Qatar was the weekly Doha Knitters gathering. This was a combination Quatsch-ing, idea-sharing, show-off, yarn-untangling, moaning (about the lack of yarn shops), drooling (about what so-and-so brought back from wherever) and pure knitting session. Each Monday we met (and they still meet) at a different knitters' house. The hostess provides a simple meal and we eat whenever we're hungry and can drag ourselves away from our stitching. This was a life-saver for me and something I really looked forward to each week.

 

Here is a photo of our last session before I left a few weeks ago. Sadly, there won't be any more Mondays when I go back  next week shortly to do the last packing and expatriation. The menu for the evening was lasagna and a fantastic red velvet cake. On the coffee table you see the knitting night essentials - a plate with cake on it, balls and skeins of yarn, knitting needles and empty wine glasses. Some of the ladies had left before it occurred to me to take a photo, but most are still there. On the left and in the process of winding a skein of yarn, is Kelly, hostess of the evening and American mother of four boys, the youngest of which is on the lap of Tracy, another American. In the freshly-finished green shawl (Clapotis pattern for those of you who are interested) is Kirsty, a Brit, standing next to Kiwi-Kirsty. The newest member, just working in Doha for the summer is Jordan. Sarah is standing behind her (could that be a scarf made of Noro yarn around her neck?). To the right is our untangler, Berta. She's a Canadian who has been in Doha for ages - I think something like 11 years. Or was that 7? Doesn't matter - seems like forever to be in a place like that.

I'll miss these ladies, my only non-musician friends in Doha. I'll just have to gather another such group in Kristiansand. Watch out Norskies!

Boxing Day(s)

Well, we have lots of boxing up and moving to do. Ten days ago we flew from Doha back to Germany bringing as much as we could possibly fit in our luggage, while still trying to keep under our combined weight allowance of 70 kilos - not an easy task without a scale. Although we had to do some reorganizing at the airport because the bike case we filled with paintings was too heavy, we managed to get all our art work, all DVDs, several questionable books (in terms of the Saudi border crossing, at least) and some things we just don't want to risk losing should we have border problems or be broken into along the way.

Along the way...

What do we mean by that? Well, our plan is to drive all the way from Qatar to Norway in Tigger (which we paid off two weeks ago, by the way). But that is for another blog...

Anyway, my mother has been asking for pictures of our Doha apartment building from the outside. I finally got one!!! 

Our apartment is directly ahead on the fifth floor. We have half the larger windows to the left in our living room and the guest room is window to the right. Our bedroom has an even smaller window even farther to the right, but you can't see that in the picture. Tigger is the blue car parked in the lower right-hand corner of the picture.

Unfortunately, we never got any pictures of the living room painted and with our paintings. It looked fabulous. Here is a photo nonetheless.

And here's the kitchen - with packing mess, bicycle case, open dishwasher and the hand of Erik. Notice the dishwasher BETWEEN the clothes washer and dryer. Brilliant idea! I'm being sarcastic in case you were wondering.

It should be pretty easy to pack the last bit. We just have the clavinova, a few kitches things, clothes, books, CDs and music left. Oh, and a bike and sports equipment. I guess the car will be pretty full, but we plan to pack at least one or two work days in advance in case we end up having to make a trip to the post office.

So, for the past 10 days, I've been back in Cologne and Erik spent a week here as well, having realized that we won't have much time to pack up the Cologne apartment later. So, it's been boxing, tossing, dismantling furniture, tossing, going through clothes, toiletries and sewing stuff, tossing, trying to breathe in the heat of an attic apartment, tossing. You get the picture.

The lovely hallway...

Thank goodness it's pretty wide. There used to be an enormous bookcase to the right. Now it's in pieces to the left.

And the kitchen, which now houses the wardrobe boxes instead of the kitchen table.

We even found another use for the packing tape...

 

A Blog a Day...

For those of you who long since went into withdrawal since life distracted us from keeping up with our blog, I vow to write a blog a day for the next three days. It may be short. It may be old news for some of you. It may be boring. But, I'm going to do it.

In honor of the FIFA World Championship game tonight, I just wanted to tell you about our football (soccer for Americans) fixation of the past month. Now, I have NEVER in my ENTIRE life watched a game from beginning to end. Erik enjoys it, but he certainly doesn't HAVE to watch it. Perhaps it has been a much needed way to ignore our complicated lives for a few hours at a time, but I would have to estimate that we have watched at least 40-50% of the 63 games played thus far. I must say, now that I understand it a bit better, I get more out of it.

Now, in the beginning we were popping back and forth between Vienna and Munich. Erik was getting treatment from his own well-trusted doctors for his knee problem and working off the part that the insurance doesn't cover by playing with MCO in Vienna. That was fine. In Vienna we could go to the cafe below our apartment hotel if we wanted to see a game on a big screen. Then there was the quieter option of the TV in our room. We saw Germany totally cream Australia in an enormous hall in Munich. We had to stand the whole time, but it was worth it. Otherwise we watched huddled up in Erik's aunt's guest room while it poured down rain outside. The last night in Munich happened to be the year-end party of the Munich Philharmonic. At the end of the dinner, we watched with a bunch of Erik's colleagues who are all thrilled that he is coming back (even at 50%) next season.

Then it was off to Doha. Now, annoyingly enough, in a ploy to get people to buy cable or satellite dishes, Qatar blocked one or two of the few TV stations worth watching that we actually get in Doha. Of course, they were the ones broadcasting the games. We had three methods of seeing games there. One was the expensive method - the Spanish restaurant at the Hilton Hotel - one of the few places in Doha where one can actually get a glass of wine to drink to go along with some tapas. The second was a little corner bar at the Sheraton hotel. Erik had to "join" up to see that one and I managed to talk my way in part-way through the game because I had just been playing a wedding there. That was pretty weird. It was full of single men, I assume mostly hotel guests, and what we finally figured out must have been prostitutes looking for work. Talk about double standards... ANYWAY, the free option was an enormous air-conditioned tent in the souk (the market center/"old town" of Doha). That was a very interesting experience. We went there to see Germany absolutely clobber England. We were with a German colleague. In the front of the hall were low beach chairs. That turned out to be the family area. Even without kids, we profit from the system. Just looking around for seats attracted the attention of the guys working there and they made a couple single men move for us. Our single friend (a.k.a. "brother") was able to sit with us, albeit on the astro-turf-covered floor. It was a bit embarrassing the trouble they went to, but we weren't the only ones treated that way. It was a very comfortable way to watch. The only people in front of us were single guys laying on gigantic pillows and a few Qatari kids on the floor. If you look carefully, you can see them in their white thawbs in this picture:

The place was packed and, for me, it was somehow the most exciting game of the whole tournament.

This past week, we have been together in Cologne. We attempted to watch a game down at the cafe on the corner, but they had organized it badly and only the people right in front could see. We were even there 45 minutes early, but those tables had been reserved, so being early didn't help. We got frustrated and left right at the beginning. The consequence? We missed the German goal that happened within the first three minutes. Bummer! Of course they played it back again and again, but that's still not the same thing as real time. The rest of the games we also watched at home.

Now Erik is back in Doha doing his last "youth orchestra" concerts and running around organizing paperwork for us to leave and let me tell you, it's VERY complicated to leave that country. Thankfully, I think it will all work out. It's just a matter of exactly which day they'll have it done. We hope to drive out of there at 4am on the 23rd of July. We shall see...

In the meantime, I'll be blogging for the next few days. I promise.

Empty Promises

Sorry about my empty promise way back in (ehem) April of imminently writing more installments. Life took over with full force and it just didn't happen (obviously). You're not going to get a lot out of me right now either except the very good news that we are moving to...

...(drum roll, please)...

the land of elk and reindeer, 

home to trolls and nisse, 

 

the country of Grieg, Munch and Ibsen,

the homeland of my father, 

the most gorgeous country in the world,

NORWAY!

Ta-da!

Visitors

Once again, my apologies. It's been a long time. Our lives are absolutely crazy right now. I can't even begin to explain everything. However, I have indeed been thinking about things I'd like to write about. Most likely I'll go backwards for the next few blogs which I promise to write this week.

Visitors...we just had visitors from Germany. For much of their visit I wasn't even here. I was off on a strenuous tour in Europe (next blog topic). Erik was here most of the time, but on the same day I arrived back in Doha last week, he had to go to London. By the last day of their visit, all five of us were finally in house.

The theme that kept going through our heads was, "Yeah, but we actually have to live here." Of course when one is on vacation, one wants to have a great time - a good memory. Totally understandable. On the surface it looks great. Big apartment with no expenses (don't forget, we still have the expense of renting an apartment in Cologne), nice car, good pay with no taxes (which is going straight to the bank to pay off debts), warm weather (but seldom blue sky because the air is so full of pollution) and low work hours (but no way of planning the future because the schedules aren't known more than a few weeks in advance). Six months of living here gives one a very different impression from that of ten days of visiting.

As Western Europeans, it's simply a fact that we can't live the way we are accustomed. We knew that going into it. However, we see plenty of Arabs in Europe who, for instance, cover themselves. I am not being racist here. Rather, I am simply pointing out a double standard. Either we all accept each other or we all don't. This is even affecting our love life. Although once in a while we just throw up our hands and do it anyway if we are pretty sure nobody is looking on, we technically aren't allowed to hold hands or kiss in public. We tend to take our chances in the arrivals and departure areas at the airport.

The lack of basic human rights here is a real struggle for us. One of the hardest things is the lack of mobility. For me (Karen), it is in some respects easier. Since I'm not formally employed, I can leave by plane anytime. However, should I wish to drive out, the only way is through Saudi Arabia. I would not only need a visa, but must also be in the company of my husband, father or brother. Plus, I must cover myself from head to toe and I can't be the one driving the car. Since Erik is employed here, anytime he wants to leave, even if it's just for the day, he must have an exit permit which takes four days to process. We often ask ourselves what would happen if there were to be sickness or a death in the family and we need to leave immediately. For the first two months, Erik was completely without a passport. Thankfully, mine was only gone a few weeks. In a place like this, that feels like being naked.

This is a country in which you are lucky to accomplish one important thing a day. That is due to any number of reasons from bureaucracy to traffic to general attitude. The stock phrase here is "insha'Allah" (literally, "if God wills it"). That basically means anything from "it will happen" to "forget it". When you have to live with that everyday, it's not so "geil" after all (our German guests' favorite expression literally meaning "cool").

Our guests were waxing poetically about how nice they found the Qataris they've met here. It seemed to be based on just two things. Once, while crazily trying to walk in the heat along a road with no pedestrian pathway (mostly the case here), a Qatari picked them up and drove them home. That's because locals can't imagine going anywhere by foot. The other event was a ride through the dunes in the desert. Well, the guy was getting paid to do one of the few things they actually seem to like to do here - drive like a crazy person at a 45-degree angle. Of course he was nice. They paid him. Wracking our brains, it seems we have only really met one nice Qatari, and still, he is actually half Indian.

Yes, they look exotic and very graceful in their abayas and thawbs, but we just don't have a chance to get to know them. I'm sure there are many nice people somewhere in there but we have very little contact. When we came here we had such high hopes of becoming a part of their community, but it has proven to be impossible.

Our guests seemed to be surprised that we don't listen to local music in the car. First of all, there pretty much isn't any. Secondly, do we listen to schlager music in Germany just because it's German? No. We don't like it, so we listen to what we do like. Aside from Al Jazeera (the local and very good, internationally known news station), we listen to Alison Krauss and Handel in our car - no matter where we are.

Right now, we are just at the end of probably the best time of year weather-wise and I'm certainly glad our guests chose this particular time to visit. There is some green left from the cooler winter days and flowers are still blooming. It's warm enough to go to the beach to swim, but not so warm that stepping on the sand and being under the sun's rays is intolerable. But, when Erik arrived back in September, it was 45 degrees at night and if there was any vegetation to be seen, it was dry as a bone. Very soon, it will be back to that kind of weather and everything will dry up. That is what it is like 8-9 months of the year.

I don't want to go into detail on this blog about the professional nightmare we are experiencing here, but we are suffering immensely. Even if one knows one is right and is far above the level of the people who are doing the judging, it is #$*^ hard to keep one's integrity intact. Nobody here is being helped by pity, but we had hoped that we would receive some empathy from our guests - Erik's friends for some three decades. That was hardly the case. How could we possibly be so unhappy when everything here is so geil?

Suffice it to say, that in any real orchestra what is taking place right now simply could not happen. The very small, insecure people who have taken upon themselves to hold our future in the palms of their hands would simply be fired. The rest of the orchestra would stand up and say that the whole thing is completely unethical and there would be a strike. The administration would actually do something about it. Instead they are sticking their heads in the sand (and there's certainly lots of sand here). I repeat here my status on Facebook from last week:

Ethics, people! Think about the impact of your actions or even inaction! Other peoples' lives are not toys for you to play with. 

I leave you with something fun - a few pics from my gig last week playing for the opening of a Lotus showroom:

Two Loti in the Intercontinental Hotel parking lot.

Awfully small to compete with the Land Cruisers...

  The make-up job they did on me

Here and there

My apologies to everyone. It's been ages since we've posted anything. We have a very good excuse. Lots of traveling.

My time in Salzburg ended with playing a fantastic Mozart mass in the Mozarteum. So far it's one of the musical highlights of the year, but the year is still young...

After Salzburg came concerts in Lyon and Grenoble and then Erik escaped the desert so we could both spend a few weeks in Norway. It was -10 degrees Celsius and there was lots of snow on the ground - sometimes even to blizzard proportions, but somehow that was a lot easier to take than +5 degrees Celsius and the rain that met us on our return to Cologne.

View of the bay

The frozen harbor

The view from my practice room

Bass buddies

Skiing with the maestro

We had a fantastic time with incredibly nice, welcoming and friendly people. The town is lovely.

But alas, Erik is back in Qatar now and I am on the road with Mahler Chamber Orchestra. It's been a bit stressful because I've had a few writing deadlines, but I've met them and from here on out it's smooth sailing. We're in Italy now, Ferrara to be precise. 

 The cathedral

 

Its tower

Small shops built against the cathedral wall

Tomorrow it's off to Sandland again, but not the Sandland you're thinnking of. This time I'm going to El Ain which is near Dubai and Abu Dhabi. That will put me near Doha and on Saturday I'll take off from Dubai at 9:10am and land in Doha at the same time. How's that for a quick flight?

The hills are alive...

OK, it's pretty corny, but it's true. The hills are alive...with the sound of music.

I've forsaken the desert for a few weeks in Salzburg. We're doing a revival of last summer's production in Aix-en-Provence of Mozart's Idomeneo. The orchestra is being housed in some out-of-the-way hotel near the airport. That didn't sound terribly tempting to me, so I found a little guest house. It's also out of the way, but there's a direct bus into town and I have a nice view.

My view of the Zeppezauerhaus on the Untersberg.

It's been a bit boring to re-rehearse, but there's one new cast member and a different hall to get used to, so it's necessary. We will also do concert performances in France at the beginning of February and some of the singers will change.

The production is very modern. The set is an enormous scaffolding-like contraption with stairs and bleachers and enormous horses. It spins around and is reformed in endless ways.

The set behind a sheer screen.

 We have fabulous singers. My favorite is, of course, Richard Croft.

Richard Croft (with the knife) flanked by Luca Tittoto, Yann Beuron, Colin Balzar

I've been doing productions with Richard since 2002 and he calls me "forest-dwelling mushroom girl." Must be something about the hair. His fiance is an old friend of mine from summer festival days in Oregon. It's a nice coincidence and means we get to see each other just about every year. If you haven't heard Richard sing, you need to!!

 Another view of the stage from the pit with Richard below and Mireille Delunsch in the middle. 

Sorry for the photo quality. It's not so easy to take photos without flash from the pit without being too obtrusive, not to mention while trying to avoid missing any entrances at the same time. :-)

A Wedding and a Match

A few days ago, I had a gig. A wedding gig. I probably haven't played a wedding gig since 1995 and while I was in university, weddings were my bread and butter. Yes, there have been weddings to play for since, but only as a favor for personal friends and/or family.

I had only been called a few days earlier and I was given the violin part of Rachmaninov's Vocalise by a colleague who couldn't play because there was a QPO concert that night. I was to play along with a CD.

Earlier in the day, the bride's cousin called me to tell me I should come directly to the bride's suite. I arrived at the Sheraton Hotel quite early. One never knows what the traffic will be like here in Doha. I knocked on the door and entered a small suite with half a dozen Qatari girls having their make-up and hair done. I thought I would die of hairspray inhalation.

This is the first time I've actually seen a Qatari woman without an abaya. Here in Qatar, the native women usually wear a black cloak with a black head scarf. The young ones often don't cover their faces, but many woman either wear a veil over their head covering, thus covering their faces, or they cover everything but their eyes.

I assume the girls who were being made up were sisters and cousins of the bride. I was told to sit down on a couch and wait. I pulled out a magazine and settled in. A while later, one of the girls put a CD in the player and I was told I could practice. It turned out I would be "bow-sinking". At the end of the piece there was even a radio-like fade-out to other music which meant I couldn't even play to the last note of the piece.

My little rehearsal done, I saw back down to wait it out. One by one, the girls left to go down to the party in one of the large hotel banquet rooms. Most of them were wearing elegant evening gowns. One was even wearing a short gown with a long stiff polka-dot train.

Eventually it was just me, the bride, the photographer and the videographer. The bride was getting more and more nervous by the second, but she was still able to pose beautifully for the photographer. Sadly, I wasn't allowed to take photos. Then the photographer began to talk about marriage. She switched from speaking Arabic to speaking English and we must have scared the poor bride to death when we both agreed that no matter what you think about marriage, it will be different from what you expect. The photographer was telling her all about how she would lose her privacy and freedom.

Apparently the family was fairly open-minded, because the bride told me she actually knows her groom, who is her cousin. Normally the bride has only seen pictures. I asked how the family decides. She said it is always a cousin. Scary.

The bride was wearing a normal western white wedding dress, but they covered her with a black shawl so she could make her way down to the banquet room without being seen by any men. I noticed with horror that the price tag was still on the shawl. I called it to the attention of one of her relatives following behind who asked with a twinkle in her eye, "How much does she cost?"

I entered the banquet room where the music was blaring so loud that it was no problem to warm up. I could hardly hear myself. When it was nearing time to play, I set up my stand on a cat-walk and tried to look around without being too obvious. I was suprised to see lots of cleavage, chubby little girls in evening gowns as well as some older woman in burqas (at least I think they were older - it was hard to tell). I waited for my cue which consisted of a short period of yelling that sounded like yodeling on fast forward and then came the Rachmaninov. I played my heart out, but the music was so loud, I could hardly hear myself. The poor bride had to enter the room through a white velvet curtain and walk slowly towards the catwalk on camera and followed by a spotlight. She stopped next to me and waited for the Rachmaninov to end. Poor girl. The piece is more than seven minutes long. Both repeats!! She tried her best to remain poised, but there was terror behind that smile. I tried to calm her by smiling encouragingly as she walked towards me.

When I was finished, I tried to leave gracefully and as I packed, I watched the corner screen. It looked as if the women of the family were showering her with papers and screaming and dancing around her. I'm not sure what happened after that, but I think I will send the bride a text message one of these days to see how she is. It was only after I left the room that I realized there wasn't a single man in there. I guess they had their own party.


-----


Two days ago we had a chance to go see the Federer play Davydenko in the men's semi-finals of the Qatar Open. I've never been to a tennis tournament, but it seemed to me that it was a pretty exciting game.We were high up, but almost in the center and it was no problem to see well. It's a great stadium.

This is Federer.

And here are the VIPs, including the Emir of Qatar.

Federer lost. Poor guy!

Tigger is here!!

Several weeks ago, I wrote about our quest for a car. You're probably wondering if there was ever an end to that story.

We spent several days looking at a number of new and used vehicles.The antepenultimate (my new word) test drive was a slightly used VW Tiguan which we liked lots. The penultimate was an older Jeep Grand Cherokee. It was SO bad that we immediately went back and put down a deposit on the Tiguan.

THEN, just for fun (that's what they all say) we decided to go over to the VW dealership with new cars. There we drove a fully loaded floor model of a 2010 Tiguan - panoramic sun-roof, leather seats, seat heaters, integrated GPS. It turned out that a whole shipment was on a boat and would arrive in Doha in early January. We could have our choice of colors and upholstery and, if we didn't go for the fully loaded version, it would almost be the same price as the used one once we factored in a special subsidy provided by the Qatar Foundation. Couple that with the very low price of cars here (probably mostly because there's no sales tax) and this will probably be the only time in our lives we will ever be able to afford a new car of this extraordinary quality. One of the deal-making elements was that extra year of warranty. The 2009 used model, of course, was already more than a year into its warranty. Plus, it had various minor blemishes! In a flurry, we ran back to the used car dealership, got our deposit back and brought it to the new car dealership.

The result of our decision is a gorgeous blue Tiguan we've named Tigger.

We've been having such a lousy time, that at least this is one bright spot. Erik commented that it is the first time he has ever seen me truly smile about something here.

Now for the specs...

• 2.0 liters, 200 hp, 4 cylinders
  
• 4MOTION four-wheel drive
• 17-inch alloy wheels
• 2.5 ton towing capacity
• 18-degree angle off road
  
• 470 to 1510 liters of loading volume

And of course, the most important features... ;-)

• Biscay Blue Pearl Effect
• Blue/black interior
• Lots of cup-holders
• Touch-screen stereo with parking sensor diagram and 6 CD changer
  

This thing even parallel parks all by itself!! Seriously!!!

Look at that clean engine...

And we're off!

What we miss, Part I: Sweden

Being expatriates most of our lives, we are often asked the question, "What do you most miss from home?" It's not always easy to answer. First of all, we have both lived in so many places that we are often confused about where home actually is. Secondly, we are not even sure what people actually mean by home. Current home? Birthplace? Where we've lived the most? It's all very complicated.

I'm going to try to answer one very small part of that question. Erik's Heimat (we'll talk about that concept another time) is Sweden. In 2009, I actually spent more time there than he did, having had a concert tour there in April. I was there a grand total of 5 times. So, what do we - mostly Erik, but more and more me as well - miss from (not about) Sweden?

Food! We came home with half a suitcase full of favorite items. Back row, left to right: Lingonberry preserves, 2 organic cheeses from the Alps which Erik's sister imports to Sweden, organic Dinkelmehl (spelt flour), marzipan cake topper and mandelmassa (almond mass, more or less like marzipan), Swedish coffee, flat bread (which actually comes from Norway), powdered blueberry and cloudberry soup, pearl sugar for baking. Front row: two types of Knäckebrot, reindeer meat and three jars of organic preserves, including one with cloudberries.

Erik is very allergic to wheat and I don't tolerate lactose very well. Swedish grocery stores have so many alternatives for us both. I wish I had taken a picture of the dairy section alone. There is lactose-free milk, yogurt, butter, whipping cream, sour cream, buttermilk and probably lots of other items I'm forgetting. For Erik, although it is still hard to find bread that is wheat-free, there are plenty of dry bread alternatives. We like that stuff better anyway. Crunchy.

Here's hoping we land back in Sweden one of these days. The eatin' is good!

Godt Nytt År!!

First of all, we'd like to wish all our family and dear friends a HAPPY NEW YEAR!

We spent New Year's Eve in Malmö with Erik's sister and her family. Erik cooked a wonderful pork roast - our last chance to eat pork for a while. I made blueberry pie. Five minutes before midnight found us out on the street watching the fireworks. Since Malmö is on the ocean, there were lots of glowing emergency boat flares floating down from the sky on parachutes. At the stroke of midnight, the cork popped and we enjoyed a nice bottle of champagne.


It would have been so nice to sleep in on New Year's Day, but we had to board a cramped Turkish Airlines flight to Doha. We stopped in Istanbul where we ran into several more orchestra members who were on the next flight with us. We weren't aware that our second flight was going to stop in Bahrain to let some people off and even more on. When we landed in Doha, many people stayed on the airplane. I'm guessing that the plane was returning to Istanbul with the Bahrain passengers and probably some from Doha as well. T.A. is so uncomfortable and inconvenient that we have vowed to try to avoid it in future if at all possible. However, all of the bother was almost worth it when we came across this sign in Istanbul...

I'm pretty sure I had a few "Antigue Hems" on my person, but they didn't originate in Turkey, so I don't think there was any danger of arrest.

And now, a beautiful last look at Sweden. We already miss being there.