Homeward Bound

All my bags are packed I'm ready to go...

My blog will be a little quiet this week as tomorrow I'm heading home, back to Australia for 6 weeks of living it up with family and friends!

Once I'm over the jet lag (give me a day or two) I'll be back with gusto with plenty to share about my fun adventures! My diary is already filling up fast and I can not begin to tell you how excited I am to see everyone again! I'm also excited to be going home to a nice cold winter, my newly bought Hunter boots are waiting for me and I can't wait to start wearing some winter clothes!

The only thing I'm not looking forward to is saying goodbye to Mr D who has to stay behind for work. I absolutely hate being apart from him and even more so I hate that he can't be with Lady Sadie every day but we knew going in to this expat adventure that there were going to be times apart...but still...there will be lots of tears tomorrow.

So kiss me and smile for me

Tell me that you'll wait for me

Hold me like you'll never let me go

My Week...Through the lens of my iPhone

 

Wordless Wednesdays

*Image - Bing

It's All About Chevron

We have been living in our current house for 18 months now. When we first moved here from Abu Dhabi, Mr D and I both felt we wanted to live in a small compound as we had come from an extremely large compound in Abu Dhabi, you couldn't even really call it a compound it was it's own mini city of sorts and we LOVED it but wanted a change in Doha. Big mistake....huge!

Our little compound here in Doha is TERRIBLE! We live in a brand new house but you'd think it was built circa 1982, the finishes are shocking, we have huge power outages every other week, the house is ruled by a large tribe of ants and really I could go on and on but I won't, otherwise I might start to cry!

So for the last 18 months, pretty much since the day we moved in I've made it my hobby to go house hunting! And let me tell you I've found some absolute shockers in my journey and some beauties! One of my all time fave houses here in Doha you can rent for a mere $20,000 a month!

You may ask why we haven't moved out? Well it's really hard to do that here in the Middle East, you see you pay your rent in advance and you have to sign on for a 2 year lease which means we paid 2 years rent in full the day we moved in and unless we leave the country and our visa is cancelled we'd never see that money back again so we're stuck here for another 6 months.

But that's ok, I can live with it because I have something much nicer to look forward to! A couple of weeks ago I stumbled across a new compound being built on the other side of Doha - about 20 minutes drive from where we are currently. The house is brilliant, very modern, great finishes, you can tell that a westerner has designed it and it ticks all our boxes! There are 200 currently for rent and Mr D and I have all our fingers and toes crossed that there will still be some available when it comes time for us to move.

What gets me most excited about this new house is 1. it's literally a 2 minute drive to Sadie's new school and 2. it means I get to RE-DECORATE!!!!!!!! Yay!!!!

We are keeping our furniture because I love the pieces we have collected over the last 3 years which I mix up with pieces we bought from Ikea (yes Ikea sells more than just ugly pine furniture!) but I'm going to re-do the soft furnishings...new curtains, rugs, sofa covers, throw pillows, paint the walls etc...

My current fave trend at the moment is Chevron stripes, they are very in vogue right now and I love it because it plays to my obsession with stripes and my love of mixing both traditional and contemporary. I've been collecting images for inspiration and hope that by this Christmas my new abode will resemble the following...

Images

1. Real Living

2. Unknown

3. Unknown

4. Unknown

5. Unknown

6. Where the Sidewalk Begins

7. Cote de Texas

8. Domino

9. Real Living

10. The Decorista

Lining Up

This image is like porn for me!

From the pages of the New York Times style section...

My Week...Through the lens of my iPhone

    

 

 

Love Etc.

What could have me posting twice in one day you ask?

The trailer for this new documentary...



The trailer alone had me tearing up, I can't wait to see this.

Sarah
x

Why I Love Doha.....Sometimes

As you know we are expats living in Doha, Qatar. Three years ago Mr D, Lady Sadie and I moved to Abu Dhabi in the UAE and after 18 months and a retrenchment we moved next door to Doha.

We are here for the cash and that's it. Mr D earns a good salary and it's tax free and we are here to set ourselves up for the future.

Somedays I find it hard living here, women can be treated like 2nd class citizens most of the time, we live in the worlds largest sand-pit and there isn't a great deal to do.

BUT...living here does afford us a wonderful lifestyle as far as getting to eat out in great restaurants, being able to go to the Ritz Carlton to swim and work out, having a housekeeper and being close enough to Europe to travel and see the rest of the world. So really I can't complain. I know I'm a very lucky woman to live the life that I do and what I love most is that since Sadie was 2 months old she has been living in different countries and is experiencing a way of life that most of us have to wait years to do if ever.

What does get me down sometimes are the locals. In the three years that I've been living in the Middle East I've had my fair share of run ins with them. I believe that no matter where you come from, how much you earn, what religion you practice, we should all be treated as equals. This is not the case with most locals. So when I see something out of the ordinary, something really beautiful I need to share as this is what makes living here worth it.

Last night we were walking around the Virgin Megastore waiting to go and see a movie. Rhianna was blaring over the speakers, Mr D was looking at new laptops and Lady Sadie had an armful of DVD's begging us to buy them for her. Then out of no where I hear the sound of a piano being played, I turned around to see where it was coming from and I saw a local Qatari sitting at one of the piano's playing beautiful music. A lot of other people in the store heard it to and slowly a small crowd started to gather around him. He played a few songs and I started to well up with tears. You see this is quite strange for a local to do something like this and I was pleasantly surprised. The guy turned to me and saw that I was crying a little bit (I'm such a sap!) and asked me what song I would like to hear. I asked him if he knew the theme to Love Story as it's my favorite movie and favorite piece of music and this is what I saw...

This really made my week, I know to most of you it will just look like some guy playing the piano. But if you knew some of the things that happen in this part of the world, to see something like this really is a treat and something very special.

Have a lovely weekend

Sarah

x

Steak Slice with Lemon and Thyme

It's no secret that I love Nigella Lawson, I have all of her cook books and am constantly using them for either simple meals at home or for entertaining (as you can see in my previous posts 1, 2, 3 and 4). I think she and I share the same food philosophy and I think actually we would be friends...if of course we ever met (something Mr D would love, he's got a major crush!).

Tonight I cooked Nigella's steak slice with lemon and thyme. I cook steak once a week in our house as it's good for you but more importantly the Australian meat that is shipped over to Doha is of restaurant quality and I pay half the price of what I would back home so it makes sense to eat all the good stuff while we can!

However, because we eat steak so regularly, I felt I needed to change things up a little. Normally I serve steak as it is, with either salad or vege's and I was getting a little bored which lead me to this recipe.

I had made this once before about 3 years ago and had completely forgotten about it - what an idiot I am because it's got to be the best way to eat steak (except maybe my other fave... steak with  bernaise!).

If you're a lover of steak, I urge you to try this at home, it's really easy and quick and tastes so darn good!

Sarah
x

You can follow the recipe I used here.

Kate Moss wears Galliano

I have to say I've never been the biggest fan of Kate Moss much to the horror of my sister. I did eagerly wait however to see what her wedding gown would look like. There were rumors flying around that she was going to have one of those big fat gypsy weddings and that seemed to be true when Kate stepped out in this ensemble for her rehearsal dinner!

But on the day Kate reigned supreme. She looked absolutely stunning in a custom made Galliano gown. Now I've always adored Galliano's designs but after his recent episode I've turned against him. Kate and Galliano have been long time friends so I understand why she would choose him to design her gown. 

The beading on her dress and the colour of the gown reminds me very much of my own wedding gown. The highlight for me was Kate's veil. It is sublime, I adore it. In fact I'm putting it out there that it is the best wedding veil I have ever seen! 

I have no doubt there are thousands of brides to be taking inspiration from Kate Moss right now!

Sarah

x

New Fitness Regime

Today I'm starting this...

*Download the app here

 So I can eventually look like this...

*I think Mr D will be suitably impressed

And NEVER end up like this...

*Major gunt alert!

My inspiration is this amazing new blog My Mum Runs

My Week...Through the lens of my iPhone

If you have an iPad or an iPhone, I'm guessing you have the instagram application and if you don't you should download it!

I'm always snapping away on my iPhone so thought each Friday I'd share with you my week through the lens of my iPhone.

Have a lovely weekend everyone.

x