week 3 on the new job...perhaps that is why my blog entries are few and far between! my first week was spent up in sweden at one of our main furniture manufacturers that we are the distributors for in qatar. it was a great opportunity and an even better way to start the new job. of course, it meant living out of a suitcase for yet another week but it was worth it! the gruelling journey took about 20+ hours (doha - dubai - munich - gothenburg) but i had the company of 2 colleagues so it wasn't too bad. in fact, we got to know each other quite well during the trip!! sweden in january was exactly what i expected - cold and dark. it reminded me of canada with all the open space...and snow! we actually had quite a few snowstorms whilst up there! it was 2nd nature to me being a canadian but to others it was a treat and i spent some time taking pictures of them amongst the snowflakes!!! we did see the sun, however, it didn't rise until around 9am and it set at approx. 4pm. apparently, it is worse in december when the daylight hours are even more numbered especially in the north. every house window had a lamp in the window - to give them the illusion that 'sunlight' is coming in from outside! a bit of getting used to as it was difficult getting motivated in the morning! in doha the sun rises at approx 6:30am in the winter months and even earlier during the summer.

so back in doha my commute to the office only takes approx. 10 minutes with no traffic. pretty sweet! right now, i have a driver pick me up and drive me to work. mike and i try to plan it so he can drive me home at the end of the day until we get a second vehicle.

the company mike works for just moved into a new office in QSTP (qatar science and technology park). QSTP is a home for technology based companies from around the world. read more here. it is quite an impressive building...