After about a few failed attempts at meeting up, Noemi of  The Greek Pinay (and Pinay Flying High) and I have finally met. Well, aside from the accidental meet-up at Crowne Plaza's Be Social Brunch, that is. We have arranged a little meeting at Eatopia along with Dani of Flights & Flavours and her aunt Mia.


Eatopia has a very uncommon concept on ordering food: they give you numbered card once you come in (that's what it says on their place mats, but we received ours a few minutes after we were seated.) And then, you can roam around the whole place and check out the different kitchens, where you can place your order and hand over your numbered card.


They have different kitchens from which you can choose your meal; Japanese, Italian and Arabic to name a few. There's also a dessert section, if you're into sweets.

Japanese

Dessert

Italian kitchen

I was thinking of going for Japanese but changed my mind when I saw the Italian Kitchen. Pasta and risotto are my weaknesses.

Seafood Risotto

I had seafood risotto which I very much liked. What I loved about it is the abundance of seafood, as you can see. I never call anything "seafood something" unless I see more than ten pieces of seafood in there. (yes, it's a very specific number. I'm kind of OC like that.)

The drink orders are taken from the table by the servers. I was very impressed with our order taker as she didn't even write our card numbers while taking our drink orders. Not until it was time to pay the bill, the orders were interchanged. So much for the number cards.

That and there was also a little incident when our server came and served us with some mana'esh. At first we thought those were complimentary, until she came again with another plate of it. Good thing thing we didn't touch both because as it turns out, she got the table numbers wrong. The orders belonged to the table beside us.

Macaroons

Also had to take home some french macaroons for the hubster (and me, Haha.) I loved the flavors - I had Mint Chocolate, Rose and Pistachio flavors - but I was a little dismayed with the texture as it crumbles in every bite.

It was definitely a fun night and I was very pleased to have met these fine ladies. Please check out their blogs if you have time. The Greek Pinay and Flights and Flavours.

We've had a dog for a little over a year now. It has been a lot of effort but definitely worth all the hassle. They take up much of our time but we are not complaining, because at the end of the day, they are the ones who lick your nose when you lie in bed and sit on your lap while you're reading a book.

You can never take the perfect family photo with two dogs.

I might not be a dog expert but here are some of the things that I've encountered or experienced about being a pet parent in Qatar:

As I've said before here, we got Marco from a vet and Dexi, we adopted from my aunt. So we don't really have experience in bringing-in a dog from overseas.

• The different types of cab drivers
• We usually get turned down when the drivers spot the dogs. The biggest number to turn us down in one day was 5 drivers (imagine a hot day in August and you have to take the dog to the vet). 
• Once we do get a cab, some drivers beg us to please hold them tightly. I get that some people are really afraid of small, fluffy creatures, but there was one cabbie who told us to put our precious MarcoBear in the trunk. Can you even believe that guy?
• Well, in all fairness to cab drivers, fifty percent of the time, we get really friendly ones who even want to take photos with Marco and Dexi.

• Walking the dogs
• Unlike in any other country, dogs are not allowed in parks here in Qatar. You can only take them to the Corniche, but only the small breeds and they must be on the leash at all times. which is actually acceptable because this is for the safety of everybody. There are times when I want to take them to MIA Park or Aspire Park, but who am I to be so choosy, right?
• I get to walk them around our block to a little patch of grass (Marco's favorite, by the way, he could stay there all day) two blocks away from the house. Still fine, as long as we are allowed to stay there for as long as we want.

• You meet different kinds of people
• Like cabbies, not everybody we pass-by wants to snuggle or pet them. This is normal, but the thing with Dexi is that when she senses somebody is afraid of her, she gets really aggressive and barks at that person non-stop. 
• Most of the time, we get to talk with absolute strangers - people who we wouldn't even imagine be talking to us if we didn't have a pooch in tow. 

After reading about Rosalyn's post about Cosmo's Italian Brunch, I knew we had to try it out for ourselves, too. Since Millennium Hotel was basically two blocks away from home, it was a no-brainer, it was practically our neighbor and we walk our dogs at the back of the hotel every night. The only downside was that we had work on Saturdays so the Italian Brunch was off the table. The least we could do was dinner buffet which also proved quite impressive.


I am an Entertainer freak and I try to use the App every chance I get. So, as you might have guessed, we got the dinner two-for-the-price-of-one.



The salads section was quite impressive with so much choices. Some were even served in cocktail glasses. Of course I had to get myself a shrimp cocktail.



There was also a table for Arabic starters (hummus et al.), I decided to skip that section entirely.



The dessert spread was also charming, with all those cute sweets in shot glasses.


The cold cuts section was adorned with turkey and beef ham, cheeses and smoked salmon and mackerel. I found myself coming back here every time I stood (I was the only one, I think, who frequented this section).


The roast lamb was glorious, you could hear my husband all praises about this.

Fish tandoori with tartar sauce, roasted potatoes, steamed vegetables, breaded chicken fillet

There were limited options for the rest of the food which I found disappointing (I should have gone to brunch, instead). Aside from the roast lamb, the only thing that we loved was the pasta bechamel (not in photo). And duh, of course the potatoes.

I grew quite fond of Lomography when I came to Doha, which is kind of ironic since there are only a few shops which offer film and film processing here. So while the rest of the world is comparing camera pixels, I was busy learning about film. There are different types of film but we will go into that on another post (soon).

Where to buy Cameras and Film in Qatar:

• I bought my first two Lomography Cameras (I was only planning to buy one), the Diana Mini and the Fisheye2, from Khalifa Art Center, they used to have a shop in Al Bidda Park but there's an on-going renovation there so they had to close for a while. It is owned by Mr. Khalifa Al Obaidly, a film photography enthusiast, who was so kind to answer my queries regarding film. He also holds workshops on film processing (I haven't been to one yet, but I am planning to).
• Also, there is the Katara Art Center Gift Shop where they sell Lomogrpahy. This is where I bought my Super Sampler and La Sardina.
• I hear the gift shop of Mathaf: Arab Museum of Modern Art also carries Lomography, but I haven't been there. 

Choosing FILM:

To choose your camera, first you have to choose which film you want to use. For a beginner like me, I suggest you go with the 35mm which is the widely popular film format. Besides its size and availability, I was also drawn to the fact that it shoots up to 36 frames. The 120 medium format has only 12 frames and I doubt that you can find a place to process them here in Doha. Most film enthusiasts I know who use 120 films process their own negatives. I should learn how to do that too.

Choosing a CAMERA:

Each Lomography camera has its own unique feature, I'd like to show you some of the features I love about my cameras.

DIANA MINI
I love that this little beauty can shoot up to 72 pictures. You can either shoot the 35mm in square format (you'd get 36 shots) or you could choose to shoot each frame in half-frames and multiply your pictures to two.
It also comes with color filters that you can put in your flash to give your pictures awesome colors.

FISHEYE no.2
Now who doesn't love the fisheye effect? I remember buying a fisheye filter for my digicam years back. The original Fisheye was a huge hit in the lomo world because it captures 170 degrees of the surrounding environment. So when the Fisheye no. 2 came out, they added a standard hot shoe and a viewfinder, it became widely popular.

SUPER SAMPLER
I've always had a fascination with multi-lens cameras and this is my first one. The Super Sampler takes auto-shots in a single click of the button. You can choose from two available shutter speeds: 4 shots in 2 seconds and 4 shots in 0.2 seconds.
It does not need any batteries because it does not have a flash, so I suggest you use a film that can be used for all lighting conditions (800 ISO).
It's also very light-weight and handy, you can literally bring it anywhere.

LA SARDINA
My favorite feature of the La Sardina is its 22mm wide angle lens and the its bulb setting for long exposures (perfect for taking light painting photographs).
Some camera packages come with its own Fritz the Blitz flash, or you can buy it separately.