We got married one year ago today. My parents were stressing out about it, and made sure to tell me about it as well. How it was such a terrible idea to have an outdoor wedding on the first week of May, in Lebanon. We should have pushed it back, at least 1 week if not 2. There were many clouds in the sky in the week leading up to wedding. The night before it really looked like the heavens were going to open up. It rained very early the morning of that day, and then it stopped to present this amazing sunny day.

Seeing my bedridden grandmother and other sickly family members make superhuman effort to come to the wedding was a gesture that I couldn’t help but marvel at. Having my friends and other family members travel from all over the world to come and visit was another aspect of this wedding that I will forever remember and cherish.

My wife was radiant (as all good brides should be), and the smile and happiness on her face was bright as ever. The food I’m told was pretty good as well, although we didn’t get to sample much of it to be honest as we were far to busy with everyone else.

Everything else was a blur. It went by far too quickly. It ended far too quickly for me. Months spent preparing for this day, gone in a matter of hours. Ultimately it was a good way to start off our marriage.

The first year of marriage has been both exciting and hard. The highlight for us was going to Malaysia for our honeymoon. A trip that Yasmine still talks about (and even calls Qatari Riyals as Ringits, because it sounds better). We were unlucky in our choice of first house, which was a construction mess - which triggered off Yasmine’s asthma, something she still has problems with. We ended up moving houses 6 months into our contract. Then I got made redundant. Because of this fact, we ended up moving houses again 6 months later, this time to a different country entirely.

It’s not been a calm year that’s for sure. Turbulent is one way of describing it. Thankfully life in Qatar is simpler. Quieter. That’s something we’re relishing at the moment. We feel much better for it. We feel like this should have been the start we wanted a year ago. We’re moving into our new house this weekend, so hopefully we’ll be there for more than 6 months.

Life with throw things your way, that’s a given, lefts hope that in the future the amount and frequency will be less than what it was in our first year.

Happy Anniversary.

I’m in Doha. This is the second time that I visit Qatar in the last year. 9 months ago Yasmine and I passed through Doha on our way to Malaysia for our honeymoon. Ok, so the first time wasn’t really a visit, but still, we spent a few hours looking around the airport.

That was during the summer and so I remember the insane heat that greeted us. This time the weather is better, except I’ve not really had a chance to see the city as I’ve been on site all days working on this project, the Qatar National Museum.

Also since arriving we’ve there’s been a pretty thick sandstorm which has hit the GCC states and I can’t see across the bay.

Trying to find the right opportunity to make things work is also something that I feel was a rough ride but I think this could be it. The work is incredibly interesting and I genuinely enjoyed sitting down with the various specialists last week in London to get the nitty gritty details of the plethora of services that I’ll be discussing in the coming weeks and months.

Through it all my wife has been supportive even though our patience with everything has been tested, my family have been a great help as well and obviously my friends have really been there for me as well.

Once I get a good look at the city, I’ll start posting pictures.