Today we move out of the hotel and into our apartment.
For the last 3 months we have lived at the Movenpick Doha. Room 513 has been my home.
The Movenpick Hotel is the cream coloured building. Our room is on the other side looking towards the yellow building. People on the right side of the building enjoyed the early morning wake-up with the 5am Call to Prayers from the adjacent Mosque.
It has been a strange artificial existence… having someone make the bed, change the sheets every other day, empty the bin and clean the bathroom. My laundry has been put in a bag outside the room in the morning and comes back clean and pressed (even the socks and underpants) at 6pm the same day.
I have added a few pounds eating large hotel breakfasts, some lunches and 3-course evening meals. I can tell what day it is by the buffet menu… Asian night on Wednesdays, fish on Thursday and so on.
I am looking forward to filling up the taxi with our five suitcases. I won’t miss the institutional environment, albeit 4-star.
I will miss finding my toilet paper folded into a nice point every day, but I guess I can always do that myself when we’re in our new home.
Ian Edelman in Doha 