Doha slang: please help

hill starts are terrifying for people like me when I travel abroad...so is reversing into a parking space...I am so bad at it...don't get enough practice here...although I have a licence i have a driver and only drive in Qatar on the farm so the roads of London for example are a total nightmare!!!

ha ha ha!!! that's hilarious!

I recollect hearing if people putting money in the card slots. One guy thought the card had to go all the way in, hit the card and knocked the mechanism out of the back.

The original cards were a wafer of two differing types of plastic with different expansion rates. If you left the card in the car, it warped and couldn't be used.

The roof to the top level of the car park was lower than the others. It would take a landcruiser but not one with lights on as an unwitting policeman (or soldier) found out after he got well and truly wedged in.

They employed an Indian to stop cars going up the ramps too close together as many drivers were hopeless on hill starts and were rolling back into the car behind.

It was truly an amusing time but was a vast improvement to the postal services.

Rainbow R/A (if you are going from City Centre to Ritz), Toyota signals (where Toyota/Lexus showroom is), Parachute R/A which is now Parachute signals (at the bottom of E ring road by the airport), Air Force R/A (coming from the airport out of town it's the one after Parachute signals), Mannai R/A (near British Embassy with underpass), Midmac R/A (after Ramada signals before Qatar Decoration R/A on Salwa Road), Fort R/A (up Salwa Road towards industrial area but it may be demolished now - pity it's lovely), Petrol station R/A (on Rayyan Road heading in Wajba direction where jaidah petrol station is)

At oryx R/A beside the PO there used to be a giant globe with an airmail envelope drawn round it which was rather cool but one night during high winds the globe blew off and it lay on the r/a for a few days and was a mini attraction. The municipality then eventually replaced it with a smaller, plainer globe and then the oryx appeared. Somehow they don't look right to me as I was a fan of the first globe!!!

Diamond girl. Sarcastic, no. Facetious, entirely. I'm afraid I just have a really bad sense of humour.

The Maccy Dees was open at Jarman Park: a massive complex (for the area) of cinemas, iceskating, bars, a 24 hour supermarket, the works, It was built on an old rubbish tip and they said when it opened the site went downhill. As a young school leaver, I worked for a brief period cleaning the supermarket car park, and again we come back to the same point. We might get annoyed with Qatari lads for trying to spit on ice scaters in City Centre, but you should have seen some of the stuff I had to clean off the kids swings on a Sunday morning. Not too pleasant...

Keep the slang coming. A few people have been emailing me stuff they're not sure will go down very well....it's all more than welcome and will try and credit people if this makes it to print.

Be lucky.

Joe

Joe Williams

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ha ha ha...can't function without the teaboy!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! My Grandfather said that it was a truly memorable time when the new PO opened as the technology of using the plastic cards was a first in Qatar. People used to go there sightseeing.

Even QBS were broadcasting for their "gopher" tea boy to contact them. He was missing for about 12 hours at the post office

will do that sounds hilarious, mind you he probably sent someone to do that for him, you know how it is/was!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

What about the Bebsi Roundabout?

Cheeky but I will let you off.

I am sure the locals had and still have their own names for landmarks.

Ask your Grandad if he remembers the fiasco when they first opened the "egg box" and everyone was told to turn up at the old post office near the corniche fish market. Not only on the same day....but at the same time, to surrender the old PO box keys

have just checked the link for the Magic Roundabout. sorry but that makes our former Crazy Roundabout look like a good idea!!!!!!!!

Joe, do I detect a hint of sarcasm????? Maybe not, I'm not sure. If not then thanks for what you wrote. There's so much Qatar bashing on this website and being proud of my country such as it is I do try to redress the balance when I can. what do you mean, the most 'violent' McD??? Drive by shootings?

Dweller, I asked my Grandfather about 'the olden days' and he said that the locals had their own nicknames in Arabic to describe places/landmarks before there were that many expats on the scene. Still do but the landmarks have changed somewhat! Sorry am not nearly as old as you so don't remember some of your English landmark names!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Alongside the roundabout is what we thought was a water tower. It isn't it's a sewage tower and the top has been corroded for years.

Jumpjet stems from when they built the roundabout. They dug a hole in the middle (that was eventually filled in) and surrounded it with big kerbstones.

A Toyota landcruiser coming down the road late at night and at speed didn't see the kebstones (they weren't marked), hit them and took off (bit like a jumpjet). There were three killed.

I know I'm going to regret asking this...

Why is it called stinky roundabout?

Stinky roundabout..aka jumpjet roundabout

Sorry no offence here but ppl call Sudan RA as smelly roundabout

what about croocked R/A, on your way to qatar foundation, it feels like its inclined on the right side

Thanks guys, keep ‘em coming. Actually, slang for anything would be interesting, not just roundabouts: cultural, geographical, whatever. For example, someone once told me that ‘to integrate’ in Doha is maintain a mobile phone conversation at all times whilst driving with one foot on the dashboard; something I’m yet to perfect.

Also: Diamondgirl, you're absolutely right. My friend was completely wrong to insult a place with such a rich cultural heritage as Doha. I think what he was trying to say was that it’s a bit odd that the city is perceived as being so bereft of decent landmarks that it’s necessary to rely on roundabouts to find directions. As misguided as his view is, of course. I grew up in the town next to Hemel Hempstead back in the UK, whose two main landmarks are the most violent McDonalds in Europe and this monstrosity:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Magic_Roundabout_%28Hemel_Hempstead%29.

So to me, Doha, with its strong tradition of theatre, literary scene, artistic talents and underground music scene is like some sort of edifying utopia.

Be lucky.

Joe

Joe Williams

[email protected]

The mother of all roundabouts is the Magic Roundabout in Swindon, England:

The post office used to be known as the "egg box" for obvious reasons

Of course I've counted R7! I'm always interested in big balls. :P What about the old castle/fort roundabout that no longer has a castle/fort in the middle. :)

I feel your scorn and I accept it-Jon Stewart

The street signs and stuff came into place only a couple of yrs ago.. before tht if u didnt know where u were going u would b totally lost....

Is now known as Jaidah flyover. The Mazda showroom was on the roundabout before the floyover was built

may be it was in honor of some team tht had 8 players hehehe !!! Why u know how many balls there are is a different story i guess hehehe !!! something about this is just makin me laugh out loud n people at work think im goin nuts

There was a time when street names didn't exist part from the main thoroughfares.

Jasper Carrot commented on this a long time ago when, during one of his visits, he claimed to have seen skeletons driving round looking for places.

I don't know the name of the road but it's between the Markihya Sports Club and Landmark. There are about 16 big balls decorating the roundabout. Hence the name big balls roundabout. :D

I feel your scorn and I accept it-Jon Stewart

What the hell is big balls roundabout ??!! is tht named after someone hehehe !!! this place is to silly

Burger King or BK roundabout just down from TV roundabout. Oryx roundabout (with the statue with the two Oryx) Decoration roundabout on Salwa because theres a home decorating store next to the roundabout, New smelly roundabout just up from Rainbow roundabout, and big balls roundabout near Landmark mall.

I feel your scorn and I accept it-Jon Stewart

expats here tend to name roundabots and signals based on a visual description rather than the correct Arabic name for them. i presume this is because it's much easier to recall a location based on it's visual description. perhaps because many expats don't speak Arabic they find it difficult to remember or haven't read the signs. there is in fact an official Arabic name for each and every roundabout or signal intersection in Qatar!!!

Jump jet roundabout (aka stinky roundabout on the "d" ring)

Pollygone roundabout (the old Ramada Roundabout)

Both had reasons for those names.

PS crazy roundabout was also known as "magic roundabout" and "topsy turvey roundabout"

It's real name is MUSEUM Roundabout but the design resembles an arabic perfume containers so others called "Perfume Roundabout". Funny thing is, it's called "Patisan" (fish sauce) roundabout by some Filipinos here in Doha because it reminds us of the fish sauce containers we use back home...lol

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What you are is what you have been, and what you will be is what you do now. - Buddha

There was Crazy Roundabout, it was really crazy and the site of many an accident but it's been turned into a proper intersection with lights now. Still feels a bit odd.