eat, pray, love...doha: Playing catch up

Catch up topic 1: Work

Okay so I didn't realise that it was almost a month ago that I posted something on my blog. Apologies to those that keep checking and get nothing new!!

So much has been happening in the last couple of weeks. We started coding in ICD 10 AM from the start of June and that has been a life saver at work. My work weeks just fly by now and Thursday just come around way too quickly. It seriously feels like Sunday was just the day before Thursday so that is an indication of how quickly the weeks are going by. It doesn't help that my mind is still not adjusted to the Sunday-Thursday work week so that is probably why Thursdays seem to come around quicker.

So the process of coding started off very slowly. It was all manual and very backwards compared to what I had left back home. We were back to using books and manually documenting codes on paper. Then we took one step forward and progressed to using the stand alone code finder and documenting on paper and now we are fully electronic with 3M...yah!! Makes life so much easier for those like me who haven't touched a book in years.

I suppose it didn't help that the computers we were using initially were so old and slow, but we all managed to get some brand new computers...yippee!!

From this...

...to this

So the set up was and still is an occupational health and safety hazard but I was working with a team of 4 other Australians/New Zealanders and it was the most relaxed yet productive environment. We were located up on the 6th floor in the Internet Cafe and we had a window that looked out to the water feature at the front entrance. It was so so nice!!

Catch up topic 2: Visas and more

After waiting for what felt like ages, I finally got my Qatari ID. They say that getting your ID is like getting your life back here. I was just excited about having my passport back so that I could travel if the need came about, which it hasn't by the way :(

Once Aamina and I got our ID's we headed in to get our drivers licence changed over so we could tackle the roads here. It was such an easy process, apart from having to run back an forth from one end of the hospital to the other. The only thing we had to pass was an eye test and dear Olive who did the test for us, I swear wasn't even concentrating when Aamina was reading out the direction that the letter E was pointing in. All we had tell her were the direction of three E's for each eye and then that was it. So simple!!

So we both got our licences...yippee!!

Aamina has already bought herself a car and just after three days, she was rear ended :( Her poor baby, three days young is now a little damaged. The car that hit her was much worse than hers though which has reinforced the fact that I need a car that sits up higher!! I think I must be the bad luck because I am sure I was just telling Aamina a couple of days ago that I have been in a car accident with nearly everyone in my family.

The damage to Aamina's car

and the damage to the car that hit her

As scary as it is, I, the indecisive one, has finally decided that today is the day that I am going to VW and buying myself the Tiguan. No more dilly dallying around. I'm just going to do it and hope that they have something either in store or coming in that isn't white!!

The other good news is that I finally have Zoe's visa which would be more exciting if she was coming out sooner. Never mind. The status for Zoe that those don't know yet, is that she is coming out end of August. She will arrive on Friday 24th August nice and early in the morning and I so can't wait to see her and see how much she has grown and changed. By then, 144 days would have passed since I last left her in Melbourne. I just hope she remembers me and gives me the biggest cuddle ad kiss. If I don't, I will just put it down to jet lag to make myself feel better!!

The countdown

Catch up topic 3: Life

So much has been happening with life in general, but the most exciting is the villa that we finally have!!

I have had to make many difficult decisions all by myself so I am learning to be a bit more decisive but not with our annoying Aamina along the way with my thoughts going back and forth. So I've had to decide on what furniture I wanted to keep in the already furnished villa, then I had to decide on keeping the furniture for Zoe or buying her a completely new suite, then I had to decide on the furniture layout of the villa, then the colour of the roller blinds and many more decisions still to come. For those that know me well, you can imagine how hard it has been to go through this process myself. I am learning though and just hope my decisions are the right ones!!

So the furniture is in and the cleaning has been done. Just need my boxes to arrive so that I can start unpacking and buying all the essentials that I didn't bring with me. This is when the fun starts!!

Here is a sneak peak at my very dirty and dusty villa: