Lucky Man

This week I had a stroke of luck or rather I NEVER had a stroke. I was admitted to the BDF Hospital suffering from angina after a few months of feeling pains in my chest. Dr Husam Noor my Consultant Cardiologist seemed confident that he knew what was wrong with me and I am pleased to say that his diagnosis appears to have been spot on. He performed an angiogram and found that a major heart artery was completely blocked. See the before picture below which is actually my heart not some internet picture. (You actually get a video of the procedure these days.) There should be a blood vessel roughly between the arrows.

As you can see (or not see) it is missing as it had closed up completely. Dr Husam managed to perform an angioplasty which is to say he inserted two stents which keep the vessel open. After he was finished the same vessel (from a slightly different angle) looks like this

You can clearly see a beautifully open blood vessel between the arrows.

Words cannot adequately express my gratitude to Dr Husam and his fantastic team at the BDF who looked after me during my stay. Thank you seems so inadequate but I have little else I can offer.

Ladies and Gentlemen, I thank you from the bottom of ALL of my heart.
Dave

Did the earth move for you honey?

Although the big earthquake was in nearby Iran, only a slight tremor was felt here in Bahrain. Personally we never noticed it but some tall buildings were evacuated as a precaution.
All safe and well here. The hotel next to Ashley's shop was one of those evacuated but she was in the shop at the time and I believe, like us, felt nothing.
David

Prizegiving

Here is the picture I promised of me getting my prize from the King's son His Highness Shaikh Nasser Bin Hamad Al Khalifa.

That's me with the green shirt on. We were not looking at the club camera because our cameraman had been ousted to a side position by the paparazzi there for the Royal visitor.

On the first tee (first day)

Me and my caddie waiting to start.

David

19th Hole, 19th Place

I am delighted to say that in very windy conditions today I played magnificently and despite a triple bogey 7 on the 15th carded a gross 76 to finish in a very creditable 19th place in the Bahrain Open ahead of many professionals and other very good players. I won the prize for the best gross score on day 2 outwith the main prizes so that brings our total for the Festival of Golf week to BD200 (about 320 GBP) vouchers for the duty free shop. Not a bad week. Prizes were presented by His Highness Shaikh Nasser Bin Hamad Al Khalifa son of the the King of Bahrain. I will post a picture once I get it.
Off now to the Gala Dinner.
Take Care
David

There's silver on tham thar fairways!

Its the second day of April 2013 and the sun is splitting the skies as normal. Its very hot and the players take to the course for the Bahrain Mixed Open. Its a shotgun start and David and Sheila Spittal are starting on the 16th Hole so we have a way to walk to our first tee. The format of the competition is Greensomes. That means both players drive a ball and you choose the one you like best then the other player plays the second shot and you then play alternately until the ball is in the hole. Our plan is that I will drive the ball up the fairway, Sheila will hit it as near to the green as possible leaving me with an easy chip on and Sheila will hole the putt for a par. Does that happen? Amazingly YES. And not only did it happen there but it happened again on the par 5 18th, and then the 1st, and the 3rd and so on. We played great, Sheila holed some great putts and for the very first time we played to our joint handicap. To make things doubly enjoyable we came in second overall and won BD100 in Duty Free Vouchers to go with the BD50 I won on Sunday.

This is Captain Andy (Ace) McAlpine having just presented us with our envelopes. You can see all of the gallery pictures from the event on the club page here and if you want to follow live scores from the Bahrain Open on Friday and Saturday you will find the link on the same page.

I am having a day off today in my preparation for the Open. I will play a few holes tomorrow and then the big one starts on Friday. There are 120 players entered so its a full field with a cut after Day1. Let's hope I am still playing on Day2.
David

How's this for accuracy

Sheila is coming on with the golf. Yesterday we played a few holes and on the second she had a tree in her way. She played an absolute beaut and the ball finished, not quite in the hole but very nearly. See for your self in the picture below.

We had to use a "tree" iron to get it down again!

On another front I took a picture of a car when we were at a function some time ago. It was pretty amazing.

I think its the new Land Rover.

David

A change of luck

Every Friday at the golf club presentation the scorecards of the players who didn't win a prize go into a raffle for a few small prizes. Usually its a bottle of wine or a car wash. Last night was the Nass Medal competition which always draws a big entry because the prizes are really good. One of the rules of the competition is that if you win a prize in the golf competition then you have to be there at the presentation to collect the prize or it goes into the raffle. There is also always a big raffle for some better prizes where you have to buy the tickets.

So to summarise, only the players who were rubbish at the golf and didn't win a golf prize get their scorecards in the raffle. You may have guessed that mine was in that raffle as usual. It is also a bit of a standing joke that my card never gets drawn even for the bottle of wine.

Last night? Correctamondo - out pops my card and I win a Creative Sound Labs 5.1 surround sound system for our TV. A pretty good prize.

A short time later the main raffle draw takes place and guess what? Correctamondo again - Sheila's ticket comes out and we won a 42" LED TV to go with the surround sound system. Not a bad evenings pickings.

So now we have THREE TVs and have no idea what we'll do with this new one. Still its a nice problem to have.

Hurrah, hurrah for Nass.
David

Oor New Hoose

OK, OK, I heard on the local grapevine that someone wasn't too happy about the lack of posts on the blog. So here we are. I will make more of an effort but if it turns out to be  information such as "we went to she shops today for milk" then don't blame me.

Anyway, our new abode. First off here is a picture.

We have all of the right hand side of this. Now before you go asking we have not bought another car. The second car in our carport is that of Ashley who was visiting us at the time I took the picture. I usually just park in the middle but in honour of the visit I budged up to the side and let her in. It helps to keep the car out of the direct sunlight. Temperature was up to 30 degrees again today. It really is VERY nice just now. You can see our verandah which is quite sizeable with plenty of room for the loungers and a table and chairs if we wanted.

Here is our dinky wee pool

It actually looks quite big on the picture but it really is only a plunge pool. I have been in a few times now but its still too cold for her ladyship who definitely prefers when its like a bath. I can manage three strokes before I have to turn. My swimming is not improving but my turning is awesome.

Ashley has settled in quickly and seems to be enjoying her new position. You can look her up here
Ashley management profile You might need to enter your year of birth and agree to the alcohol thing before you can see the page. All alcohol based sites are like that here in the Middle East.

She is driving herself about now and gaining in confidence daily.

Life in the school goes on almost as normal since the head was relinquished of her duties. Sheila works for the new acting head but as you might expect its not like it was. Lots of others feel like there is an axe over their heads and it would be better if it is to happen that it did and then those left behind can get on with it. Daily life for me continues as it was before, exams to prepare for classes to teach and enthusiastic little faces before me on a daily basis. It will soon be the Easter holiday here during which time there is a lot of golf to be played. Did you notice I have managed down to here without even mentioning it!

There are lots of competitions during the holiday. Its the 75th anniversary of the golf club, the 60th anniversary of the club house, the 50th anniversary of the Gents Bahrain Open and the 25th anniversary of the Ladies Bahrain Open so its an amazing year. There is a festival of golf with several professionals joining for the tournament this year. Should be great fun although it means I finish further down the field!!!

OK thats all for now. I'll try to post more regularly as long as I know that someone is reading it.
David and Sheila

A sad day indeed

The weekend was marred for us by the announcement that Karen Moffat, Head of School,  has been told that her services at the British School are no longer required with immediate effect. Sheila has worked closely with Karen since the day we arrived and it is very upsetting. The only reason offered is that Karen's strategic vision and the strategic vision of the owner are not aligned. What does that mean? We don't really know and the staff have asked the question. I cannot comment further about the reasons on a public forum but, suffice to say, I am not confident about the direction in which the school might now go. Sheila will continue as PA to the acting head until the new head is appointed. After that it's anybody's guess. We fear that a number of jackets are now hanging on pretty shaky pegs because we can only surmise that too much money was being spent and not enough profit being made. Surely no-one could disagree with the academic vision of the school which was judged as "outstanding" in all six categories after our recent inspection so that only really leaves the management of the business and administration side of things. The transformation in the school since we arrived has been huge and it has all been managed by one person who is a workaholic and an unbelievably kind and compassionate person. Her farewell speech spoke only of the greatness of the school and how much she wished in her heart that we would keep it that way for the benefit of the students. She will be sadly missed by all. We talk like there has been a death and it feels like there has been a death but I am sure that she will rise again somewhere, perhaps leading one of the other schools on the island on to greater things. If she does, and she needs a PA I know exactly where she will find one, and if she needs a physics teacher I know where she will find one of those too.

David

New personal best

Just to report a new personal best on the golfing front. Yesterday I managed to complete the round at Awali golf club in 70 strokes. This is level par and was actually disappointing because I was 1 under par starting the last hole. However 70 is my record low on any golf course and I am proud of that. It ends a long run in the doldrums and I am hoping for more good scores to come.
D

The new Korando

Finally got around to taking a picture of the new car for you.

I have gone from a gas guzzling 4.7 litre to a thrifty 2.0 litre envirofriendly smooth a silk engine. I like it.
D

Strange shopping trip

It's sometimes strange what you finish up with in your shopping trolley. On Monday evening we went to get some petrol and a pint of milk. Sheila went into the shop to get the milk and a few bits and bobs and I went to the cash machine to get some dosh. On the way into the shop I stopped at the for sale notice board and browsed casually thereon.

I spotted an advert for a house rental that looked really nice and was a good bit cheaper than we are currently paying. Just to satisfy my curiosity we drove round and met a couple coming out of a house in the street. I asked them about the area and believe it or not they invited us into their house for a look round as it is the same as the one we had seen. We were pretty impressed and arranged a viewing for last night. When we looked round the actual house I can say it was a complete "no brainer". The house is beautiful, everything new, all appliances, all mod cons.

Tomorrow I sing up and we are on the move again. Its a little further to school in the morning but not much. It has a smaller pool, little more than a plunge pool but apart form that everything else is much better. Watch this space for some photos in due course.

D

The King and I

Here is a link to the video that appeared on TV here in Bahrain. If you know how to jump to 8 minutes and 15 seconds then thats where you'll find the start of the good bit. If you don't then the first 8 minutes and 14 seconds might be a bit boring!
Video of us meeting the King of Bahrain
D&S

Special Post

Well, well, isn't it a long time since I posted. I said I would stop if there was nothing worthwhile to say and I have to admit that for some time life here has been pretty normal. Nothing exciting, nothing untoward. We attended the St Andrew's night ball and more recently a Burns Supper. All of that however pales into insignificance when compared to tonight's events. This afternoon Sheila and I were amongst a select band of Scots to be given an Audience with Hamad bin Isa bin Salman Al Khalifa, King of Bahrain. We met the King in Shakira Palace and shook him by the Hand. His Excellency Iain Lindsay, Her Majesty's Ambassador to Bahrain introduced me to the King and told him that I was an excellent golfer (probably because I recently beat him in a challenge match and knowing that the King himself is a keen golfer). I am really mixing with the important people now you know. Sheila shook his hand too and exchanged a few words of greeting.

The Bahrain TV cameras were there and loads of photographs were taken. I hope we might be able to secure a copy of the pictures that were taken of us whilst we were being introduced. The inside of the palace was absolutely amazing. We got two wee cups of tea and a glass of orange juice (which definitely was not out of a safeway bottle).

By the way it was the King's birthday today too. Nice of him to delay his pairty to see us.

D&S