A Night Out in Doha
Posted on April 21, 2017
MB attended a night out with work colleagues last night at the La Cigale Hotel in Doha. The event comprised a sit-down dinner and musical performances by two well-known Lebanese male singers.
A few shots from the hotel and the event follows, and there’s a short video clip of one of the performers at the end. To convert the drink menu prices into Euro, divide by 4. Pricy!
Weekly Photo Challenge – Earth
Posted on April 19, 2017
This week Cheri is asking for a scene that honours the outdoors.
Well, in Ireland we have tonnes and tonnes of nature, and tonnes of outdoors, all green and naturey. Is ‘naturey’ a word MB? Did anyone ask that question to James Joyce? MB replies. And quit with the inane questions lads. Pleezze.
Anyway, there is so much nature in Ireland, we can say that nature is second nature to the Irish. That’s clever MB. Yes, MB knows it is lads, now whisht up a while.
Yes indeed, the Irish are boggle eyed from all that emerald greenery. So to liven nature up a little, and prevent naturey over-familiarisation, the Irish are likely to throw in some music, at a whim, just to help nature out a little.
Here’s an example, from 21 June 2015, at the stone circle in MB’s HX homeland:
Weekly Photo Challenge – Surprise
Posted on April 12, 2017
The photo challenges are coming thick and fast from MB this evening from his Middle East blogging den. How lucky you all are!
MB’s surprising photo features a model, a make-up artist and a violin player. It also features the letter ‘M’ a number of times.
MB can hear followers shouting quelle surprise! as they wonder how this surprising ensemble has appeared in the same scene, without the use of photoshop, or MB’s Irish magic.
The answer to the aforementioned wonderment will not be revealed, it will remain only in the large brain of MB. But followers are welcome to offer any stupid guesses they wish. The photo was taken recently in Doha, Qatar by MB.
A make-up artist, a model & a violinist
Weekly Photo Challenge – Security
Posted on April 12, 2017
MB is playing catch-up with last weeks photo challenge!
There is security in numbers, it is said. This applies to camels as much as humans, a fact proven by numerous studies throughout the Middle East. There is, for example, no known incident of a male lion attacking a large pack of camels. True!
The below photo, demonstrates the typical herd shape adopted by a camel pack. The roadsign on the left warns the public that a pack of camels is likely to cross at any time. True!
Weekly Photo Challenge – Security
Posted on April 6, 2017
MB read in the dim and distant past, or heard it from some sage or other, that street performers help lower street crime in the areas in which they operate. MB guesses that street criminals just get chilled out when the hear the music, smoke a joint or a fag (Irish slang for ‘cigarette’), and just go with the normal flow, rather than engaging in their more usual dastardly criminal activity flow, like stealing MB’s camera and such like.
MB just looked up the statistics for ‘street buskers help to lower street crime’, and guess what? Google never even heard of the theory, nay, never even heard of the absolute fact. Prompted by that particular piece of ineptitude, MB just looked up the google share price and was not surprised to see that it’s down 3.16 points on the day. No wonder, MB is now thinking, if the googlers (people employed by google) don’t even know that street musicians help to reduce crime, then they don’t know diddly squat.
So get your s**t together googlers. Feed your knowledge from MB’s HX blog, and stop the share price rot.
MB is just now running off to do a search on Bing and Yahoo and see what they throw up. They can’t be as bad as google, surely.
MB came across this guy, playing a tune on board a ferry that was crossing the Bosphorus Straits, on 11 April 2014. How do you know the exact date MB? Just because MB does lads. For sure, MB didn’t find it out on google. And MB can safely report, that there wasn’t a single crime during that 15-minute crossing!
Foto Friday – Doha
Posted on March 31, 2017
MB is departing the money laundering capital of planet earth (Switzerland) in the coming hours and will arrive in the Doha (Qatar), the ‘richest locals’ capital of planet earth, in the early morning hours.
In case MB’s recent camel pics have given followers the impression that Doha is some quaint one-camel sand-blown dusty outback desert town, it’s not.
This MB phone-shot is from the ‘West Bay’ area of Doha, where many Westies like to live.
Weekly Photo Challenge – Dense
Posted on March 30, 2017
MB’s WPC effort this week is a shot he took with his Samsung phone last night, as he took a stroll along the waterfront in Geneva. Awesome shot MB. Thanks lads.
Friday Foto – Portrait in B&W
Posted on March 24, 2017
MB included lots of green Sri Lankan landscapes in his most recent posts. Time for a black & white portrait.
MB had a chat these two characters at a street market in Colombo, before boarding the train to Haputale, that was a story-feature on his two previous posts.
Green – Follow-up post
Posted on March 23, 2017
MB was chuffed with the reaction to yesterday’s ‘green’ photo challenge post. So he has decided to give followers some extra ‘green’. Thanks, MB, you’re a lege. Don’t mention guys.
The time is 5.30am. The date is 08 August 2013.
MB could no longer lie on the sheet-of-plywood that constituted a ‘bed’ in the sleeping carriage of the British-rule era train en route to Haputale. Bleary-eyed from lack of sleep in the preceding 24 hours, hungry as hell, and with serious back ache from the previously referred 1/2″ thick plywood ‘bed’, MB arose to face the day.
The rickety train continued to chu chu its way through the high hill country of central Sri Lanka, winding around acute bends, climbing inexorably towards destination Haputale.
The darkness had now lifted, enabling MB to take in the views from the train corridor outside his badly misnamed ‘sleeping carriage’. MB could immediately see that he had entered God’s country, with stunning vistas around every corner. He grabbed his Canon 7D and framed his shots. Click, click, click………..
Some shots from the moving train:
Weekly Photo Challenge – It’s Easy Being Green
Posted on March 22, 2017
On 08 August 2013, very early morning, MB found himself disembarking an old train at the train station of a small town called Haputale in central Sri Lanka. He had taken a bone-shaking ten-hour journey from Colombo on the islands west coast, travelled inland about as far as one can travel in, in Sri Lanka, before one starts to travel out.
So there was MB, smack bang in the middle of high Sri Lankan hill country, with no advance booking for accommodation, no contacts and no clue how he would solve his immediate and pressing needs of food and sleep. MB wasn’t even sure if this small Sri Lankan town had accommodation or cafés or even a spare bed for a wandering Irishman. But fate would take its course and MB would just see what hand of cards fate would deal him.
MB has previously written about his Haputale adventure so he won’t repeat the story. But if anyone’s interested, click here for the low-down.
As things turn out, Haputale wasn’t half bad, as long as one wasn’t expecting 5-star standards. And if life throws you lemons, MB was thinking, make lemonade! He found ‘lemonade’ in abundance in the people and place in the coming days, and achieved his primary goal of sitting in the famous ‘Lipton’s Seat’ atop one of the highest points in the original Lipton’s Tea Plantation, where the legendary Sir Thomas Lipton had sat to relax of an evening to contemplate life and the universe, some hundred years previously.
Oh ya. And there was lots of green!
Irish Wedding Dance
Posted on March 18, 2017
For MBs Lebanese friends in particular, who like their weddings!
Video taken from the Irish Post website:
Foto Friday – Cattle & Cable
Posted on March 17, 2017
Yet another incredible awe-inspiring shot from the photo library of MB, wherein the juxtaposition and combination of cattle and cable causes one to reflect on the intricacies of life and the universe.
What a pile of shit you speak MB. Sorry dear followers, MB got a tad carried away with his Foto Friday intro!
Happy St Patrick’s Day
Posted on March 16, 2017
In Qatar, it’s already St Patrick’s Day as it’s 30 mins past midnight. In Ireland, there’s still a few hours to go.
Best wishes from MB to all on the occasion of the Irish National Holiday, which is also celebrated to a greater or lesser degree in most countries around the globe.
MB has avoided pics of churches and such like in making his celebratory selection. Instead, he has just selected a few shots from his HX homeland from October 2013. The occasion was a charity horse ride around the local lake. MB’s Arab friends, in particular, like to see some greenery!
Happy St Patricks Day to one & all.
HX Report 