Civil Defiance

When I took the photo of this, I thought it was a lot funnier than it is. When I took the photo, I thought it said “Civil Defiance” and thought it was a great entry for the Fail Blog. Once I uploaded the photo and saw that it was just a mis-spelling, it was much less interesting.

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Qatar Murals

You know how I love public art. I especially loved, in Kuwait, how all the power stations had scenes of dhows, and majaalis, and lanterns – Kuwait things. In Doha, there is a long wall – I think it might be around a power station, but I am not sure.

Yesterday AdventureMan had to take a phone call and – probably because I was in the car – pulled over to take it. We were right across from the wall, which I have been dying to photograph but never could because we were always zipping right by and there was a lot of traffic.

Fridays are quiet. It was during Friday prayers, perfect. Here are some photos:

This one is my favorite. I know the boat is carrying gas, but don’t they look like huge, giant pearls? And then look to the left, to the reference to the giant oyster on the Corniche with the gigantic pearl:

We Look, But We Don’t See

It was a long phone conversation. As I sat there, I saw this house/compound straight ahead, right on this very busy road, but all walled off, with a big gate in front. I saw the lattice-work around the top – this is not the oldest stuff, but this, I would guess, is from the fifty’s or sixty’s, pre-gas wealth. There are villas like this all over poorer areas of town, now, many have been converted for commercial uses.

I lived in a villa a lot like this in Tunisia. It was long and low. Inside, the ceilings were high, I think it helped keep the place cool in the long hot summers. It was all white. All the bedrooms were off in one area, and the public areas off in another – a very handy way of living, I have found.

It also has that nice big tree growing inside, providing a shaded place for a picnic. I wonder if they also have some little gardens inside? It looks to me like maybe there are still people living here – there are a lot of vehicles parked in front.