Life on the Spot! Life and Leisure in Doha, Qatar

It is customary among Filipinos to await the New Year in their own homes.  That is why for most Pinoys, New Year’s Eve is spent at home.  Just like last year we had planned to celebrate the birth of the New Year in the comforts of our own home.  As usual, shopping includes different kinds of round fruits to symbolize abundance and prosperity for the coming year.  There should be 12 kinds of fruits in all but I didn’t strictly follow the tradition.  I guess I had about 7 kinds and that was it.  I didn’t want to bother myself anymore and look for 5 more kind since getting at 7 was already difficult enough.

We would have wanted to prepare turkey but in our search for one, not only was it very expensive (around QR 180) but most of all it was humongous.  A friend told me that there are smaller ones but unfortunately we didn’t find any.  It was just too big for a small celebration that we had planned.  The stores were selling turkey breasts but we didn’t want that.  So instead of having turkey we opted for a much smaller fowl, chicken. 

Then we had the all-time favorite kare-kare (oxtail with peanut sauce stew), spaghetti, my very own spicy garlic shrimps, pancit and some pastries from some wonderful friends, brazo de mercedes and banana cake that I ordered from a friend, and halayang ube (purple yam jam) that Tian cooked himself.

As for our guest, this time we only had one family for our guests.  They were also our guests on the past New Year’s Eve.  Mel whose wife and daughter spent Christmas in the Philippines was with us on Christmas day.  Luckily, his family came back to Doha just in time for New Year’s celebration.  It was such a delight having them again this year.  It was a very nice and intimate celebration with such wonderful friends.  Tian and I were also happy because Xiane and Mela (their daughter) also had some time to play and bond with each other.  We all had a wonderful time that night.  Our guests left at 12 midnight just as 2007 was coming to a close. 

This too marks the end of celebrations for the year.  But here’s hoping that the year 2008 will be a year of celebrating for all of us- to celebrate another year ahead of us, another year to do better and to celebrate life and live it to the fullest.  Here’s hoping that this year will a better, brighter 2008 for us all. Happy New Year to all!