Safe but not quite sound.

Well my last entry was from Pearson Airport. I was sitting at Gate 162 waiting for them to call me up to board the plane...but no one was calling me. No one was at the desk. No one was anywhere in the area. So I decided to go and check the board because my plane ticket says boarding will commence at 7:05 and it was 7:08. Ooops, they printed the wrong gate number on my ticket so just as I was realizing my mistake I hear them making the last call for my flight. All I have to say is thank goodness for moving sidewalk escalators! I made it on time, yay first disaster avoided!

We arrived in Washington DC a little late but I asked the pilot if he could let me know my gate number for Qatar Airlines which he did. So I booted it off the plane, ran to get the shuttle (essentially a portable - size and shape - on wheels.) I figured even if my luggage didn't make it, I would! They managed to find me a seat that is usually reserved for basinets (I am the baby of my family but...) that had a little extra leg room! Thank goodness.

I wish I could always fly Qatar airlines. The service was great, you get things like pillows and blankets without asking, your own personal TV (which is not new) but one that included the ability to create you own playlist of up to 99 songs and video games as well. Yes I did play an underwater spaceship type game as well as some puzzle game that had me as a frog spitting jewels out of my mouth at other jewels. Very bizarre but hey around hour 10 what else are you going to do?

The TV had some technical difficulties and had to be reset during the trip but I was able to watch Julie and Julia (sorry Mars I couldn't resist but I will still watch it with you when I get back), The latest Terminator, Night at the Museum 2 and some of Transformers 2.

The people beside me are also attending the conference so we chatted on and off during the trip. The food was surprisingly good. I always like how they package everything in the little compartments. Everything was included so I enjoyed a nice refreshing beverage as well. They even served us a mini-tub of Ben and Jerry's Vanilla Ice Cream. I wanted to keep the container because it was so miniature. I could definitely have used it for some Hobbit and human tricks!

Once arriving in Doha, it was dark so I couldn't really see anything, we were escorted into a VIP lounge where we were given refreshments and got our passports stamped so that we could jump the cue for customs. This is where the story starts to crumble....

No luggage, even though the WISE officials kept asking me to double check the conveyor belt, no luggage. I had to go to the lost baggage area and fill out a claim. I am hoping that it will be on the flight from washington tomorrow (evening). I did throw some undergarments into my carry on but I was wearing jeans for the flight. Tomorrow we meet the queen...something tells me I shouldn't be wearing jeans in front of her.

They had cars waiting to take us to the hotel...and I can't even describe it to you...I will be putting some pictures up, but it is very beautiful and modern. I got checked in okay and was reassured that they would get my luggage to me as soon as it arrives at the airport.

I ended up going to local mall (approximately the size of Eaton Centre) to buy something to wear for tomorrow. I went with Roberto, from Paraguay, who also lost his luggage along the way. I managed to negotiate the price of a suit down from 1900 ryals to something much more reasonable. It was difficult to find something my size in a short time frame. Everything is dual language, arabic and english, and everyone seems to speak English to some extent.

I am writing this blog overlooking the hotel lobby in an over-sized leather chair wondering what tomorrow will bring. We have to be in the lobby for 7:15 to take a shuttle to the conference centre.

I am hopefully going to be posting some pictures on-line and I have started a twitter account Joyceroom110 if you want to follow along.

So needless to say it has been quite an eventful day...a good day for sure.