00Gin

I have just got back from an awesome week being immersed in all things Lush in Poole which I will definitely blog about but first I felt I had to share my experience of the QDC, or Qatar Distribution Company. It really was the most intense alcohol purchase of my entire life.

You may remember me mentioning that I needed to get a license to buy alcohol here. Well I got my license this week, I feel just like James Bond only with a more useful level of clearance. This was surprisingly one of the simplest things I have managed to acquire here, I needed a letter from my employer stating I was allowed a license and of course I needed my Qatar ID but once I had those things it was a matter of minutes to get the license itself. Buying the alcohol however was another matter...

Below are a couple of photos I took during the 'shop' at QDC on Wednesday night.

 

 



The first photo is us in the queue to get into the shop. I should point out that the queue behind us went all through the car park and out onto the road. I wanted to take a photo of that but the security guard was looking at me with a Give me a reason to throw you out and I will way, so after one sneaky photo I wasn't risking losing my chance at gin!

Anyway, we patiently queued up moving our booze trolley along and eventually got to the entrance, only I was allowed into the shop as my housemate doesn't have license so very quickly a to grab list and some cash was exchanged. I then entered the shop which can only be described as Christmas Eve/The Next Sale on Crack. It was absolutely bonkers!

The trolleys were end to end, worse than the traffic in Doha and with even less rules of the road, my poor ankles! Thankfully I befriended a nice American couple near the spirits section who had sensibly come in with only a basket and they handed me everything I needed as I was literally being swept along by the trolleys. My housemate wanted beer which was in the middle in a bizarre one way section, my god if I went in I was never coming out. Thankfully I spotted the case she wanted on the edge of the section and decided to do a drive by whipping case off on the way past, then came the wines again mostly just grabbing ones I could reach and finally the pork shop. Now this was off to the side in its own little section. Did I really want bacon that badly?!

My options were try to manoeuvre the trolley out of the stream of traffic - never going to happen or risk abandoning the trolley and grab that precious bacon. Would the booze still be there when I got back? That was the risk. People were crazy in here. You can do this Kash, you can do this, elbows out and go! Amazingly I succeeded and the trolley was pretty much where I left it as the queue had gone nowhere (see the second photo above).

Throughout this whole experience I basically was either shouting out spirits to other handily situated shoppers, laughing hysterically or just keeping my cool. Other people were doing much the same, or getting their rage on, I'm sure they'd have been honking their horns if the trolleys had had them installed. I have never experienced anything quite like it in my life.

Now I should point out a couple of things. The QDC is not normally this insane, Ramadan is just about to start which means the shop will be shut for a month and this is the only place in Qatar you can purchase alcohol to consume at home. Also during Ramadan you can only consume alcohol at home as all of the hotel bars are not are not allowed to sell it. This begins to explain the level of crazy. I think every expat in Qatar was at QDC at the same time and I imagine the first few days of reopening will be just as bonkers!