2010 is almost over

2010 has been an interesting year for us. On 1 January 2010, I would have been unable to accurately place Bahrain on a map and apart from a vague "middle east" tag I would not have been able to tell you anything about the country. 365 days later we are resident here with good jobs and apart from close family and friends we miss nothing of Scotland. I suppose the lack of grassy golf courses (in fact the lack of golf courses) might just qulify as something I miss a little. We can honestly say there is nothing else.

For us the year has been a whirlwind of activity, of highs and lows, excitement and challenges and as it draws to an end we look forward to 2011 and hope it continues to bring us good fortune. We also spare a thought for some friends and family for whom 2010 was not so good. You are in our thoughts at this time.

Skype is a great thing and we are using it to the maximum to keep in touch with family. Our skype name is dave.spittal if any other friends care to add us to their list. I have now bought the fastest internet access on the island so quality of skype should improve if your end is up to the task!

So for 2011 we wish you all the very best of health, wealth and happiness. Thank you all for your support, friendship and encouragement. We hope to be welcoming some of you to Bahrain later this year.

David and Sheila.

Sunshine, sunshine and more sunshine

Sorry to rub it in folks but today it is glorious here. I have played 12 holes of golf and returned to relax in the sunshine. I noticed on the way across that the whole of Western/middle Europe is white but there is absolutley of sign of it here! I filled the car with petrol without even a grimace never mind any gritted teeth, in fact I would say it was with a smile. It seems all wrong really. You are there in the freezing cold, have to get out of your car in baltic conditions, grab hold of the nozzle which makes your hands blue and numb and then you have to pay through the nose for your measly few litres. On the other hand, I wind down the electric window, flip open the wee catch that releases the petrol flap, and tell the man "Mumtaz please, full tank". I sit back and relax, perhaps winding the window up to make sure the car doesn't heat up too much, and then pay the man a few Dinars for his trouble.

Anyway, enough of that, I thought you just might want some reassurance that the sun is still here. Our plants didnt survive our tiume away so we are going to start again and our TV box didnt survive the electronic chop either so we will have to get the real thing I suppose. Still, all's fair in love and war as they say.

Oh I must say a belated thank you to Ashley for her hopsitality and for sharing her house with us for the past two weeks. It was much appreciated, even allowing us the use of the master bedroom!

Toddle pip for now, I dont want to miss too much of this sunshine.
David

Settling back in

OK we have had a chance to grab a bite of supper and it olny remains for me to update you all. Despite Claire's best efforts the upgrade to business clas did not take place. The checkin man told us that we had been upgraded and ushered us to the business class queue. We checked in and made our way to the plane where we were in fact not in business. We weren't really that bothered for the short flight to Amsterdam so said nothing. When we got to Amsterdam we realised that our seats to Bahrain were not businesss class either but worse than that they were not even near each other. I brought this to the attention of staff ad showed them the booking we had with adjacent seats. After a bit of tooing and froing she m anaged to move a few passengers and get us seats together.

The flights were very pleasant and we arrived in good time. If anybody is coming by that route it is worthwhile to note that every other day the flight is direct from Amsterdam to Bahrain and on alternate days it stops in Kuwait (as it did on our original flight). It saves about 2 hours journey time if the direct flight is in operation. It is the same on the way back so we will be checking carefull and taing the direct option wherever practicable.

House is all in order here and the temperature tonight is 15 degrees. We dont need the air conditioning on but then again we dont need heating yet either!!!

Off to bed in the next few minutes. It was great seeing you all.
David and Sheila

Back in Budaiya

OK folks that's us arrived back in the villa and all is well. Update to follow soon.
D

Flight update

Seats together now secured. Leaving here at 1pm uk time. Direct flight to Bahrain. D

Big disappointment

Well it seems that the only people who think We are business class were at edinburgh. Our seats on the 7 hour flight are not even together! Trying to get something better sorted. D

Upgraded ya beauty

Waiting now in airport lounge clutching our business class boarding passes. Three cheers for Claire. Using my newly bought reading glasses as i have lost mine already. Love to all.

Chapter 2

They say that time flies when you are enjoying yourself and I have to say that the last two weeks has flown in. Today we prepare for our flights back to Bahrain tomorrow morning. The weather has restricted us somewhat but we have really enjoyed our stay and catching up with those of you who managed along to Kirkcaldy. I have to admit it will be great to get back to the warmth of Bahrain and to playing some golf again. This snow has been a pain and I am sure you all feel it much worse than us because you have been hampered by it since November!

Anyway it's onward and upward as they say. We look forward to a longer stay in July/August when we will hopefully be able to see more friends and relations. Andrew Maggi and the children are returning to Scotland for a holiday in July so we have many plans to make and we have started looking forward to that already.

Have a great new year when it comes and remember to look out for us on Skype.

Cheers for now
David & Sheila

Safely Home

Hi y'all, I am pleased to announce that we have arrived safely home in Kirkcaldy. Please note that we have not got a car here and consequently will not be able to visit everyone during our short stay. Everyone will be made very welcome if you can come to see us.

We are now relaxing after a beautiful plate of Barbara's lentil soup and bacon rolls. Magic.
David and Sheila

Edinburgh here we come

Last flight boarding soon

First leg complete

Here we are after check in. Should be boarding in about 40 mins. David

Travel update

Arrived safely in amsterdam tried to get an earlier flight but no joy. See you all soon. David

Taxi booked for 2 hours time.

That's the taxi booked and in just over 2 hours the first part of our journey should begin. It's about 30 minutes in the taxi from here to the airport. We are leaving the car at the villa rather than the airport. Parking there at the last holiday time was an absolute nightmare. The cars were parked everywhere there was (or wasn't) a space. On the verges, in the spaces between spaces. Cars were blocked in right left and centre. Anyway we have decided to bodyswerve that hassle in favour of the taxi. Let's hope it arrives on time. Needless to say I think I have booked it in plenty of time. I usually have us at the airport far too early!

Today I was back in at school to see the director. I have been appointed as Head of Science with effect from the first day back after the holidays. I will be in overall charge of physics, chemistry and biology for the whole school. There are heads of chemistry and biology who will look after the issues pertinent only to those subjects but I will have ultimate charge and responsibility for everything including general science which is taught right up the the end of year 11 which is the same as the end of 4th year in Scotland. It will be a new challenge and I am looking forward to it. There is a small amount of extra money which always helps.

The bags are packed and it's just a matter of watching the clock. I see the weather forecast isn't too good. let's keep our fingers crossed.

Bye for now,
David and Sheila

The countdown is on

Well that's the online check-in done. Less than 30 hours till we fly. There's been a bit of a sand storm here the last couple of days so the air has been full of dust. Good time to head for home.

I am not sure if we will be able to update the blog as we travel like the last time but I will give it a go. Dont worry if you dont hear from us though, my last attempt to blog from the mobile failed although the "sent successfully" message came up! Not sure why the post didnt appear on the blog.

Last minute preparations are well under way. Will relax tomorrow and maybe play a few holes in the morning. It's great to be on holiday.

See you all very soon.
David and Sheila

Promises delivered

Here is the picture I promised of the Bahrain World Trade Centre. As you can see it's taken from the bottom looking up. A truly awesome building.

Here is the original to compare

I took mine from the bottom of the right hand tower as you look here. We also drove half way to Saudi Arabia today. There is a 23km long causeway from Bahrain to Saudi. You can't get in to Saudi without a visa but you can go the the island half way and go up the observation tower from where you can see Bahrain and Saudi. It was a little hazy today but you could see Saudi in the distance. This picture is looking back towards Bahrain. If you zoom in on it you'll see Bahrain.

In the city today we walked around the suq (sook) which is a kind of bazaar with zillions of stalls selling all kinds of tourist souvenirs. There was a cruise ship in the harbour so we fitted in well as tourists!

Counting the hours now. See you all soon.
David

There IS another course in Bahrain

Before we left Scotland I was sure that I had read on the internet that there were three golf courses in Bahrain. Well there is. Today we played Bahrain Golf Club which is another desert course very similar to the one we are members of and believe it or not you can actually SEE one course from the other! They are right beside each other but it took me until this week to actually realise its does exist and how to get to it. The entrances are at opposite ends of the courses.

Here is a picture of the second hole. You can see Rifa Fort on the hillside in the background.

This hole (the second) is a par five. As you can see the weather was once again magnificent. It's getting boring again isn't it? We played a full 18 holes in the baking sunshine. I have entered a competition there in late January which is how I found out about the course. It doesn't have a website although it has a great big clubhouse and a pro shop and all the other things you would expect of a golf club including a driving range. For some reason it has a practice putting green with real grass on it. Not sure why when there's not a blade on the course!

Tomorrow we are going to investigate an area of the city centre that we have never really explored. We saw lots of shops in Manama (the main city) when we went to the booze shop but we never stopped. Well tomorrow we are going to have a day in the city. I am planning to take my camera to take some pictures including the one I promised you in one of the first posts on this blog. I posted a picture of the world trade centre saying that I would take my own picture. It's got three wind turbines mounted between two towers. The wind turbines provide the power for the building. I'll try to get a good shot tomorrow together with some of the other interesting buildings in the city. It's cool enough now to walk about for a while.

Hope you are all beginning to thaw out.

David and Sheila

Black Gold

Snapped this picture on the edge of the golf course today. This oil well is a working "nodding donkey" well which is continuously pumping oil. It is located right on the side of the third fairway at Awali. You can hear it chuntering away as you walk past. There are actually quite a few located on and around the course. I expected all worthwhile oil wells to be huge things so I was a bit surprised to see this.

Weather still fantastic. Watching the forecast in Scotland with interest. It doesnt look too good for our return which is now only one week away.

Fingers crossed. If its still looking bad next Wednesday I'll have to ask you all to get out a clear a wee bit of runway so that our plane can land!

See you soon.
David

Those lazy hazy crazy days of winter!

Today we had a picnic lunch on the beach in the sunshine. It was a little breezy but not a cold breeze you understand. We drove today down to the very south of the island where there is a group of man made islands with thousands of properties built on them. The motorway goes all the way down there. The only problem seems that no-one actually lives there yet. The properties are there but I dont think they are finished.

We didnt try to get out on to the islands because the bridge has a security gate on it and we didnt want to say we were just going for a wee look!

We passed the "Tree of Life" which is a big tree in the desert. It has confounded the experts because apparently they dont know where it gets its water supply.

Here's me in front of the tree with my new 1 Dinar 500 Fils sun specs. Still cant go anywhere without sun specs!

We had to get some netting today because something ravaged Sheila's vegetable garden and decimated most of our plants. Not sure what it was but whole branches of the broccoli were missing. Not the sort of damage you associate with caterpillars. Its more like a bird or gecko or something. Do you get vegetarian birds or geckos? We hope we have saved the rest but it might be too late. It was always going to be a problem getting them watered while we are home anyway. We can try again when we return in January if they dont survive.

We passed the Shaik Isa (pronounced eesa) Air Base today and saw their spectacular entrance monument thingy ... see below

Zoom in and have a close look at this one. The jets are spectacular. Note how the jets silhouette against the azure blue sky! Also took some great photos of rock strata for John Blackwood. He loves stuff like that and I feel sure if I upload one he will put a comment of explanation of the features on for us .... well maybe not. Watch out for your wee email box John I'll send you some.

Hope you are all getting enough provisions and hope the airport is open by a week on Thursday. We are counting the days. We have a day off for the Islamic new year on Tuesday so its starting tomorrow it's 2 days on, 1 off, 2 on, 2 off, 2 and a half on and we leave the next day and home the day after (if you followed that).

See you all soon
David and Sheila

Grassy Golf

Today I enjoyed my first game at Riffa Golf Club, the grass course. I was guest of a player I met at Awali called Madden Broadbent, originally from South Africa. Madden says he is working his way round the world having lived in Indonesia, India and now Bahrain. He lives in one of the houses actually on the course. Must be worth a bob or two!

Here is a picture of the 18th fairway.

The big fence is to separate the driving range from the fairway and the water is there to make the fairway look much narrower than it really is. It was a great course but very narrow winding its way through the houses. It will be very interesting in January to see how the professionals play the course when the European tour comes here. I was also gifted a voucher for a free round worth about £108. By the way, for as good as the course is, NO course is worth that sort of money.

It was the school fair today and Sheila thinks that they have raised a tremendous amount of money with stalls representing many of the 65 or so nationalities that make up the school.

Tomorrow we may veture down the the very south of the island which is almost uninhabited. They have built a motorway to the south to service a new city but they havent built the city yet!

Weather is still fantastic. Perfect for golf and other outdoor activities. Thanks for the icy photos. We noticed that the shops have started displaying heaters because its getting a bit chilly here!!!!! The locals have clearly got no stomach for the cold.

Cheers for now
David

Lunch of the sun terrace.

Just thought you all might want to know that we have just enjoyed lunch on the roof terrace followed by a spot of sun bathing. It was a bit too hot so we had to come in to the air conditioned house for a bit.

David

"Snow day" in Bahrain

We dont actually have any snow in Bahrain to get an extra day off like you lot but we do have the King of Bahrain. He has graciously (and suddenly at 6pm tonight) given all of the schools the day off tomorrow. Now I would like to say that its in sympathy for the poor weather in Scotland but I think its actually because Bahrain has won some Culture or Heritage Award. Whatever the reason I thank him for the opportunity to relax tomorrow and have a long weekend.

I hope you are all managing to get along without access to the shops and provisions and I hope that it all melts before we come home. This time in two weeks we will be checking in for our flight home.

Cheers for now
David