You find me this week, dear reader, back in the motherland. I have come back to the United Kingdom for a week to golf with a bunch of ex-Bahrain residents.
The Expatriate Awali Golf Association consists of a number of people who, when they lived and worked in Bahrain, were active members of the Awali Golf Club. They are all now retired and back living in the UK, but meet up once a year to have a little golf and a whole lot of reminiscing.
I discovered them a couple of years ago and although as a non-retired and current member of the Awali Golf Club, I am not sure if I strictly qualify but no one complains. It gives my wife and me a chance to pop home and play a few rounds on grass for a change. With Debbie and me having lived in Bahrain since the 1980s and 1990s we know most of the members anyway and can actively contribute to all the old stories.
As we still live in Bahrain and some of these retirees have been gone for many years, there is a lot of curiosity about how it has developed. We tell them about Amwaj and Diyar and Bahrain Bay, we show them pictures and tell them wondrous tales of new motorway junctions and under and overpasses and explain how there are twice as many people and four times as many cars since their days.
We urge some of them to come back and visit and have a nostalgic night out in the British or Rugby clubs or Senor Paco’s. Sadly, the Londoner is no more and the coffee pot roundabout is now the clock roundabout.
We are also asked about how we cope with the current situation regarding the drones and missiles being fired at Bahrain from Iran and we tell them that the situation is not really that bad. Yes, there have been some damage and injuries caused by falling debris but by and large the Bahrain Defence Force has managed to intercept and shoot down the vast majority of the incoming ordnance. By taking sensible precautions it is still a lovely place to live and does not deserve the British government’s stringent travel restrictions which are after all only designed to protect them against any possible litigation.
Once our nostalgic week in Blighty has ended we shall make our way back to The Pearl of the Gulf to play golf once more in 40 degrees in the shade. I know we are slightly mad but the saying is ‘mad dogs and Englishmen go out in the midday sun’. The secret to that is of course water, water, water – drink lots and also put some rehydration salts in with it. Not just golf if you are doing anything outside in August then you should drink lots which is not unlike our trip here this week.
Jackie@JBeedie.com