Harris life in Doha: Birthdays, poorly people and poorly cars : (

Firstly Emily sends a big thank you to everyone who sent her birthday gifts and cards. Can't believe my little girl is 2! Sadly she wasn't well on her birthday and most of the plans got shelved but she managed to have fun opening her presents and blowing out her candles. She had a sickness bug the day before her birthday and slept and vomited all day - given the amount of sleep she'd had she therefore decided that 1.30am was an appropriate time to wake on her birthday and mummy had the pleasure of watching 2 hours of peppa pig at 2am! She wasn't well enough to go out and do anything on her birthday and needless to say by the end of the day everyone was shattered. Birthday photos attached. She obviously enjoyed her birthday and can't seems to cope with anyone else having one!! Its Andi's birthday today and I've been telling her its daddy's birthday and she keeps saying 'no me' and actually gets quite cross. She refused to give Andi any of his cards this morning as she wanted them!

After Emily's illness Andi was sick and then last weekend it was mummy's turn and I spent about 3 days in bed. Emily kept telling everyone that 'mummy not well.' The car also decided to stage a protest and amongst other hideously expensive problems the air-conditioning broke. We had to drive it for a few days without any air-con and I got stuck in a huge traffic jam taking it to the garage in the heat. I swear it must have been 50 degrees in the car and my water that had come out of the fridge could have been used to make tea by the time I arrived! You just couldn't live here without air-conditioning.

Apart from birthdays, nothing exciting has happened to report and we haven't left the house much. Its slowly getting slightly cooler and we're looking forward to BBQ's and more time outdoors. We're also hoping to get away for the weekend to Dubai or Abu Dhabi in the coming weeks and so no doubt more news and pictures to follow........