Veritas

Those are directions to the cattery. Do you want directions to the dog kennels? V :)

Thanks ladies. Will risk it. Can't dooo standing for long.

This is a very serious situation indeed. However, I feel that if you are posting here to raise awareness, the title is such that does not do justice to the subject matter, the seriousness of it or grab attention of more viewers. If you can, it ought to be changed to "ATTEMPTED CHILD ABDUCTION/DSO - BE AWARE EVERYWHERE. People everywhere need to be aware of not being complacent here. This occurred on a 'gated', security checked housing development. If it can happen in such a place as this, it can happen anywhere.

:) "Like" :)

Hi Ladies, I lived in JVT in an arabic villa for 2 years, left about a year ago , so before the new 'fuel surcharges' I think. However, we had sprinkler system with 7 sections that in summer ran for 3 mins each section in morning, 1/2 mins midday, and 3/4 mins evening. And some extra watering by hose for some patches and pot plants. My A/C was on constantly during the day downstairs and landing and bedroom one all night. 2 of us showering every day, several washes a week, dishwasher etc Bills during summer, including housing fee were never more than 2700 ish. 1500 ish or less in winter. The ghost system you are refering to is actually a fresh air system. The unit is located in the maids room ceiling and the control box for the temperature is in a small grey box on the wall (the wall that is the garage wall if you like) in roof. The unit, as it suggests, supplies fresh air throughout the villa, regarless of whether the A/C is on or off, and creates almost like a pressurised atmosphere in the house, hence the 'wirring' (sometimes even whistling sound like at home countries when it's blowing a hooley outside!!) sound and the doors sucking shut . This system sucks in air constantly (if on) from the slats that you can see down the side of what I call the alley leading from the garage door side of gardn, above the maids room window. Firstly, if you want to keep it on, you need to get an engineer to check what level the temp box is set at. We had the same problem as one of the ladies on these JVT threads, that an ice block formed on the radiator grill (on the unit in the maids room roof) and flooded the maids room and utility. This was because the temp was set too low -10 degrees (!!) and in 50 degree summer, that was just too much for it to cope with and formed the ice . The temp should be set to 18-20 degrees. Secondly, if you are using the fresh air unit, then the filters have to cleaned AT LEAST once a month. These are not the easiest of filters to get out and quite big and again would be useful if one of the A/C chaps could show you how to do it and then you can do it yourselves. But if you imagine the amount of cr@p they are sucking in, on a building site, surrounded by sand, they get very clogged, very quickly, hence decreasing the efficiency of the unit, making it work harder, costing more money. Thirdly, if you want to turn it off, (which I recommend), it will affect your A/C slightly. With ours off, our A/C temps never dropped below 23 degrees which in summer was not enough, but I don't think our A/C units were working as well as they should have been. Turning off the fresh air unit saved us about 800 Dhs a month. And yes I think it is Section 3 big switch (might be Section 4 will have to check with hubby) in the upstairs box. There are actually 2 Section 3(4) switches, 1 is definitely in the upstaits box and forgive me, but I can't remember if the second is in there too or 1 is the box downstairs in the entrance but either way, both Section 3(or 4) switches need to be turned off. These should ONLY turn off the fresh air sytem, nothing else, so if it is, you need to check with a Nakheel A/C chap. They 'should' know which switches to turn off. With reqards A/C get someone to check the units on the roof, ie all the coils, for gas leaks, they are a bit prone to this. Even you can do it, with a bottle full of water and some farly liquid in it, pour it over the coils and if there's any bubbling - you've got a leak. A/C blowing out hot air means the gas has run out. I believe that DEWA has had some charge increases since we last paid it, but I think there has to be something wrong with these bills people are getting. Maybe you need to get together and go as group to DEWA. I would also write to the papers as a group. Some of the bills people are getting are what I used to pay in the UK for a 4 bed detached house with gas and elect for a whole YEAR!! And an extra for Ange74 that she mentioned on another thread :) The water tank is under the garage floor and is pretty big. Even with a sprinkler tank it shouldn't affect your water supply drastically. I used to find that the water didn't run quite as well when the garden tank was filling up as no doubt it was never built to cope with dealing with 2 demands for water at once!! But it should not run out! We actually did have that problem when we first moved in over 2 years ago, we were on water delivery twice a day, and quite often the water tanker didn't turn up, so if the garden had been watered, yes we ran completely out of water in the house. But those days are gone now :) And, from another thread, there is also issues with the toilets. We had to have our upstairs toilets taken out and 'redone' as the outflow pipe was higher than u bend/water pool (!! muppets). We should have done this in the downstairs loo too but just couldn't put up with more hassle (we had a lot of snagging issues). The flush pressure is not good and as far as the downstairs loo is concerned, there is also an issue with the gradient of the flow channel from the toilet to the manhole which is also in the 'alley' and then to the second manhole in the garage. Those of you who live in the villas will know that the downstairs toilet is on the opposite side of the house to the manhole in the alley. The gradient between these two is only about 6 inches covering, what, 40/50 feet?? So, when you go to the 'loo' (if you get my drift) in the downstairs loo, the flush is, a) not powerful enough and b) not enough water is released, to get the contents adequately from toilet to manhole!!!! It then needs to get from manhole 1 (in alley) to manhole 2 in garage (right hand side looking out of garage) and ideally beyond that!! Again gradient from manhole 1 to manhole 2 is about another 6-10 inches. So solution to avoid your house smelling like a sewerage works and prevent manholes from getting blocked up, is to use the loo showers as an 'extra' flush when you've been 'to the loo'. At least these have a nice bit of pressure. Simply use the shower for 30 seconds-1minute and that should do the job, or al least flush it to where it should get to!!! :) And one more thing, just keep an eye on the towel 'hooks' that are in the master bathroom on the wall by the loo. I noticed one day that water was dripping from the right hand side one (when looking at them). When these had been put up 'they' had drilled through the downflow pipe from one of the units which is directly above these 'hooks' in the roof!!!!???!!! So we had to have it removed, the tiles taken off, the wall drilled out, pipe section replaced and all filled in again! I did not have that hook put back up!! Sorry for long post but have been there, bought the T shirt and come out the other end, so hope it is of some help to you all. V

Hi Phokoje, I presume this was yesterday? Is the dog still showing any effects from being out in the heat for that long? It might be an idea to take her to the vet to get her checked out for heat stroke and maybe microchip although I doubt she will have one and chipping and registration with the Ministry has only recently come into being. She may have been dumped but she could also be lost and the following are likely to be who someone would contact to see if they know anything. Qatar Veterinary Centre is near Villagio - http://www.qatarvet.name.qa/QVC/HOME.html or the Al Timimi Clinic which is in Cultural Village - 44081492 Mobile:77119770 You can also contact QAWS - Qatar Animal Welfare Society - http://www.qaws.org/index2.php for some advice but doubt if they could take the dog as they are bursting at the seams already. Likewise - Dogs in Doha (DiD) may be able to give you some advice but they do not have a shelter and rely on foster homes and are also full to the brim. QVC, QAWS and DID have website/facebook pages so if you get a picture done and give them the details they could put out a plea on your behalf or you can do it yourself and you never know, someone might just be looking for her - however, they need to take a bit more care with their dog, if that's the case! HTHs V

Hi all, @ Sue B, haha yes about 8 months - 8 months too long!! Fine thanks but busy, busy villa hunting - nightmare if you want somewhere other than AR, Springs, Lakes, GC, etc :\: Looking forward to coming back. @ Greenish, you have well informed birds ;) @ dunight, Hi hun, soon :) Are you well?

Never mind the horn. I sooooooo want spikes that come out from the wheels, do their thing and then go back in again, so no evidence of what caused afore mention vehicles to be left in a heap with half the car gouged out!! Now that's what I would call therapy and sooo much better than the mercury exploding blood pressure. Ohhh the things you dream of in the middle east!! Oh well back to reality and the pills :)

Here here! Looking for a pup? - see post below for Patch. Good with people, good with dogs, housetrained. Couldn't ask for much more really. Animal, dog, breed, pet :) V

HAPPY NEW YEAR! :)