The rat race

For a while I kinda lost my mojo, and didn't feel like doing much at all apart from going to work, coming home and slobbing out while eating lots of comfort food.

It's been a busy period at work, with the relaunch of Generation Amazing consuming all my time and headspace. It's going to be such a fantastic programme, and I can't wait to finally meet all 22 of the young Ambassadors when they arrive in Doha for the start of our World Cup tour on 16th June. 

On top of this, there has been a lot of evening and weekend work with my lovely colleagues from the Sport Business Development and Competition department of the Supreme Committee for Delivery and Legacy. Including an observation of the key sporting event of the Qatari calendar, the Emir Cup (with backstage access to the VVIP area, of course!).

Detecting how stressed out I was, the girls took me out for lunch at Al Sultan Brahim, a beautiful Lebanese fish restaurant in the St Regis hotel

Which was followed by my first of many visits to Donna's new brood.

Meet Princes William and Harry (Harry's the ginge, of course).

Aren't they adorable?! 

Rich was rather taken with them when he met them too.

I'm a firm believer that kittens are the answer to all of life's problems.

Hanging out with our neighbours on The Pearl and discussing the highs and lows of Doha life has been a real blessing this week too. Understanding that everybody is going through the same things out here really helps - it's true what they say, a problem shared is definitely a problem halved!

And this was helped along by a few glasses of the good stuff of course.

The week culminated in a night out to the Four Seasons Hotel's 'Party on the pier' to celebrate Donna's upcoming birthday.

For a while there, I wasn't sure we were going to make it out of the flat. The boys were being extra adorable and we just. could. not. tear. ourselves. away. 

But we eventually decided that the night had to go on, packed the little princes off to bed, and headed out.

Another fabulous night with fabulous friends.

And now I'm going to sit back and do a bit of this:

Before the rat race starts again tomorrow.

Thanks to my lovely friend Vic for sending this one to me. Sarah and Tee, notice the Cinnamon Lodge choc boxes in the background?! This made me smile as much as the picture itself.

Fate

I've been doing a lot of reading and a hell of a lot of thinking recently.

Have you ever read something that resonated so much that it changed the way you think about life?

Here's a quote I read the other day from 'This Side of Paradise' by F. Scott Fitzgerald:

The premise is simple. It is wise to let go and trust fate to carry you through life with it's endless ebbs and flows. It is the only way to be happy. Sounds easy, no?

Errrr, no!!

First you have to blindly believe that no matter what is currently happening in your life, fate will eventually bring each and every one of us something good; something that is, and always has been, meant for you and you only. In other words, you have to remain the eternal optimist. Secondly, you have to let go of all control and simply let what will be, be. And that, for anyone, is hard.

With all the 'ebbs and flows' of the past few weeks, I was very happy to finally have Mummy Bags touch down on Qatari soil for a week's visit.

On our first day, we travelled to the north of Qatar and the stunning Mangroves where we spent the day Kayaking.

The rest of mum's stay and the days that followed were spent enjoying the usual Doha activities, with lots of chats along the way.

While Mummy Bags was in the Museum of Islamic Art, she found this Arabic quote on a plate from the 10th Century

It reads: "Foolish is the person who misses his chance and afterwards reproaches fate".

Basically what I think they were trying to say all those years ago was...

That way, nobody can argue that you didn't give fate every possible chance to work its magic.