Floor replacement

Back in Sweden now, after some time abroad. Time for some more Sweden-related posts, starting with the white house.

Now the cement is dry, the floor has been laid on top - over 3 days last week. Looks great, but there's some finishing touches to go - like tiles in the doorway and cement and more tiles in front of the fireplace. It's almost time to move in.

I've started on the furniture, as well...

Swedish comedy: the snabbmat nation

Swedish comedian Henrik Schyffert on fast food.

There's enough english to follow, but it's subtitled as well.

Strålkastare

Got some second-hand headlights on the weekend. Because I'm driving my British right-hand-drive Saab on the right hand side of the road, the headlights are aimed slightly towards the oncoming traffic - so by law I have to have covers glued to the lights. This doesn't work so well on modern headlights, because the reflectors consist of many parabolas. In any case, it's only a temporary measure. Thankfully the replacement lights just slot straight into the car and now my lights aim slightly to the kerb side.

The postage & payment system works well, too. When buying second-hand car parts by post, the wrecker's yard or parts dealer sends the parts to the post office. Instead of paying for the parts when you order them (running the risk that they'll never turn up) you pay for the parts and postage when you pick them up from the local post office. You get an SMS when the parts arrive. Good system.

More photos from Doha

Greetings all.

I'm back in London now - it's warm for January, 14C. It's back to Sweden tomorrow and there's some snow predicted there this week. In the meantime, here's some more photos from Doha.


Fountain on the Corniche


Fishing boats on the Corniche, with the skyline of new Doha in the background - note the number of cranes: there's an enormous amount of construction going on.


Doha's new museum


Crazy high-rise. This one's got a ball between the two buildings. There are offices inside the ball. Mad!

There's more on the flickr site.

Dust n' traffic: Postcard from Qatar

Greetings all. Been working the last 10 days in the State of Qatar. It's a strange place - very wealthy thanks to oil and gas, but flooded with migrant workers from all over. The traffic is terrible, mostly due to impatient people and an abundance of roundabouts. In Doha there are accidents all the time.

Managed to catch the Doha Open tennis, the tickets were free to everybody and it was no problem getting a seat - the population here is roughly only 800,000 but they have the cash to host world class events like this. Doha is bidding for the 2016 olympics.

The weather here's been sunny but cold - for the gulf - so cold it's been in the news. The daytime temperatures have been a max of 10-14C, getting down to 4 at night. The locals are wearing winter jackets. There was a sandstorm one night, too.

My work here is something of a paradox - moving from the extravagant Four Seasons Hotel in Doha to the dry and dusty industrial area and the rig camp in the desert in the north of Qatar.

Looking forward to finishing up and getting back to Sweden, in most aspects except filling up the car with petrol. I filled up the SUV here the other day for €7. It's cheaper by volume than bottled water.