Nins' Travelog

Exactly five years ago today, I started my new job in the Middle East. I landed in Doha just the night before. At that time I was excited to work in Doha, not only because the new job or because the salary they offered me, but as I wrote earlier in my blog: it is because of the adventure! It is the idea and the opportunity to see the transformation of Doha.

My big boss, Peter was kind enough to give me an introduction tour around the City. Well, it was not rally “around” the city, but just enough to give me some ideas of landmark of the city. With my little baby camera with capacity only 3 MB, I snapped-happy on places where ever I found it interesting.

Five years later, I did the same trip, and try to capture the same buildings with my husband driving and this time with bigger camera…. Doha had changed tremendously…

Below is a comparison of my small collection of my day 1 in Doha:

Yet there are some new buildings that was no sign of it then…

As I wrote earlier in my photography category, I don’t really take a good photograph, as a matter of fact I don’t really know how to get a good quality picture. Regardless that, I still like to take photograph, my aim is not necessarily to get a beautiful result, but more or less to capture the moment, and maybe later on it could create it’s own story.

It is for the above-mentioned purposes as well that I like to take animal picture, either it’s a domesticated animals like dogs or wild life that I found on my travel. To me it’s a challenge to get their picture in action, but it’s also intriguing to watch their behavior

One example is the Duck, yes the bird, which according to the research,  ducks are generally monogamous, although these bonds generally last a single year only. Larger species and the more sedentary species (like fast river specialists) tend to have pair-bonds that last numerous years. Most duck species breed once a year, choosing to do so in favourable conditions (spring/summer or wet seasons).

Thus they were almost always found walking as a couple, male and female, like what I’ve capture along my travel:

4 couple of ducs in Doha Club, Doha Qatar

Now the question is how do I know that they are 4 couples? One thing for sure is that in the picture there are 8 ducks. The one with green head or dark head is the male duck and the one in brownish head is always the female duck like the images below:

Male duck on the the front ground with green/dark head, always more colourful than the female duck

Female duck with with similar colour of feather from head to tail.

I found them in The Hague, Holland, enjoying the sun….

another couple of ducks that I found in Grantown-on-Spey, Scotland

these couple of ducks I found in The Hague, Holland, sunbathing enjoying the spring

But hey, as well as human, the trend to go gay is also applicable to modern ducks. These two ducks I found one rainy afternoon in Arden, Scotland.

Afternoon stroll together... with no other duck/couple to go with....

Being monogamous does not means they have to be male and female….

Gear up for the National Day

The first time I moved to Qatar, in 2005 I learnt that the country’s celebrate has a one day holiday for it’s Independence day on the 3 of September. However, the odd thing was that there was no celebration at all, no festive atmosphere at all, either approaching that day or on that particular day. Even certain banks are still doing their business.

Suddenly, two years ago, they moved the day, to the 18^th of December; the funny thing was they announce it only a week before September 3^rd. As usual nothing happens during the day itself.

This year, while I was not expecting anything, Qatar had something different. A few days before the D day, they started building tents and gear up with a lot of Qatar flags along almost every main road and small road. Finally I got a notification on my mobile to come and celebrate their “National Day” parade along the Corniche.

School boys with their teacher

and school girs are parading

the parade are not only about school children but also the “animal” brigade…

the "white" horsemen

"the dark horse"men

the camel brigade as part of the oldtime military force

the camel show....

the k-9 brigade

Well, not all are animal force, there are also the real military force:

the army

and off course the most cheered brigade: the girls….

the girls in the Qatar army

Another pretty village in England, Lacock

Smelly shoes?