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.