That's what happened on Monday. I'd gone to meet Sarah on the beach at her hotel, and having not seen her since circa 2008, we had a lot to talk about!
Suddenly, the beach looked like this:
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And we realised we were really, bloody cold!
I met Sarah back at Uni through mutual friends. Rich and her did the same course and were pretty close, and when Rich and I started going out and I realised she was now working with him as a presenter for Al Jazeera Sport, we all vowed to meet up. Now, over a year later we finally managed it, in Doha of all places!
We continued our gossip on Wednesday afternoon, when Sarah came to visit the flat. We settled on the balcony with a drink, fully intending to wander down to the beach, but suddenly Rich was calling to say he was on his way home, the lights had come on across the marina, and once again it was dark.
Just too much to talk about and too little time to do it in...
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(This was not posed at all).
Nor were these.
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When Sar had to run (to meet a photographer for a drink, as you do), Rich and I decided to head into the city for a night out. We'd heard good things about the Malaysian tasting menu at Spice Market in the W Hotel and thought we'd check it out.
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Continuing the theme of the past few days, this is just about the darkest restaurant I have ever eaten in.
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See what I mean?!
It was so dark in fact that I almost tripped right over the pianist on the way to find the ladies.
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Despite the fact we struggled to see what was being placed in front of us, the tasting menu was sensational, and LARGE. Who knew that Malaysia was famous for so many different dishes?!
We started with a Hibiscus Bellini.
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Followed by some Papads with spicy chilli dip.
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Followed by dish after dish that went something like this:
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Washed down with a few glasses of this:
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And finished off with some of this:
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When we had finished our meal, overfed and happy, we rolled ourselves across to the Kempinski hotel, where Rich previously lived with some of the Al Jazeera guys to say hi. The boys had obviously missed each other more than I'd realised ;-)
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& when we left we were treated to the most spectacular goodbye I've had so far in Doha.
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I'll be expecting this kind of treatment wherever I go from now on.
It's been a fun few days, with a lot of chatter.
And I've just looked up from my writing, and once again it's dark.
