Barwa bank challenger 2012

Things you learn On the way to Qatar:
- small British airways planes have very prolaps friendly seats
- all british airways planes fly with a norwegian flag on the back :D

Things you learn in Qatar:
- These People have MOOOoOonnneyyyy... There are two types of People here, those who have money and build very Nice stuff, and those who clean all the stuff that THE rich people built. And THE cleaners use à lot of time cleaning. Constantly. Wicht is nice, sine everything is always Nice and clean offcourse.

This is my first time away from my comfort zone in central europe and it is a small adjustment that has to be made as i am facing à completely different culture. Although they are very international here it is still mainly a muslim country where you see that everything is very seperated when it comes to male and female activities, and naturally the men gets the better piece of the pai in these situations. Some of it really gets to me but i should not speak to loudly about some of the things i see as it has been tradition for many years, and i am indeed an outsider. Interesting, for sure :)

They have put in a lot of funds in squash here as well as other sports. They are hosting the FIFA world cups here as well as major WTA tournaments and the world junior squash championships this year. They have Geoff Hunt and Stewart Boswell as the local coaches. That is not a bad start.

This challenger 5 tournament is played at the khalifa international squash and tennis complex.

I had to start from the bottom again arguing my way through 2 qualifying rounds before i can play the main draw. In the first match i played a local player and got through comfortably 11-3,11-4,11-0.

Lunch: 13.50 at Benningans:
Kindly ordered from the starters menu quesedillas, and pasta w chicken as main course.
Only to find out that the starters consisted of 8 big Quesedillas w dip and salad. Finally people that understand me. This meal was, however enough for me for the rest of the day :P


Second round quallies was versus the second seed, jonathan geekie from scotland. I continued with good length and width, and the rest went by itself. I felt like i played a good match. I won 3-1

The next day i faced a young welshman by the name of david haley. From my side it was the complete opposite from the day before. If i was focused sharp hitting well on day one, i was slow as a snail, dull as a spanish labourer, and not with the right mindset at all. I lost 3-1 and i have only myself to blame for not performing. Massively disappointed with the waste of a great opportrunity that will not come around again for a while. I think i took to lightly on the task. In norwegian we say: " hovmod står for fall" which translates into something like " being cocky will get your ass whopped" or something along those lines.

Lunch at Benningans 14.30:
Trying the starters menu again sitting at my usual table. Not that hungry this time, but I still want a startet. How about nachos!? And a steak with baked potato with a coke since I lost. Something to cheer me up. I got the same weird look from the waitor as the day before, as if I am joking....
Apparently there must be some mistake with language or my eyes. This time as well the "starter" is 3 times the size of the huse hard rock cafe nachos, and with 4 times as much cheese. I finished it. I finished my steak too. I had no dessert... I wish Will John was there with me. I was full...and the coke didnt make me feel better :(

Thanks to the norwegian squash federation for the support, housing at ekatarina sandakova and juliane boljahn, and my roller/ipad//gatorade sponsor Cigany Leffie Sillevis ;)