often seen in the street without a hat

Yep, I lived in Qatar 1990-1993, minus a month or two at the start of 1991 while we waited for the Gulf War to blow over (well, the minimal effect it had on Qatar anyway). The last two years of primary school were at the Doha English Speaking School, and then I had a year of secondary school at Doha College. It was a really good experience, but the coming back to Britain was rather hard and took about five years to settle in.