View from balcony

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New home

Have finally left Ramee 4 - thank god for that! Will post photos of new, clean and quiet abode very soon.

Although there is just one thing I need to show you all before I put them into a plastic along with a few other 'items' I don't wish to have in the apartment while I'm here. Sure the landlord won't be offended if I give them back.







Nice cushions, especially the gold ones. Was tempted to hang them from the ceiling and have a disco party...

The Good Old Yaris - everyone has one!

Seems anyone who is anyone has a Yaris in this country..........why? Because of the sheer engine power? No.....The stunning good looks? uh-uh.........Yes that's right, it's the bottom of the line, cheapest rental car an Ex-pat living and working in Bahrain can get their hands on. Pure class.

There are a huge number of these little 1.3L zooming around and while it goes just fine for a non-petrol head like me, sometimes it would be nice to have just a tiny bit more pick-up to get out of those classic Bahraini intersection situations. Of which there are many on a daily basis. Driving here is still a buzz, especially if you're the passenger and have no control.............

At our temporary accommodation as us newbies were picking up our rentals it felt that everyone had a white Yaris, the line up downstairs in the carpark was impressive. Then some of us rebelled (or got lucky) and got Olive coloured ones, although some people just had to copy my style; then others went wild by obtaining blue ones - this where the diversity in the Yaris colour selection ends I believe. Now while my little wonder car might be labelled 'Olive' I prefer to call it 'dust' coloured as the paint work matches the ever present dust perfectly, you would hardly know it was dirty.....

....until you brushed up against it in your dark work suit or in fact tried to open the door and ended up with a filthy hand. Looking at it today I will have to give in and get it cleaned, mostly because I can't see out the windows - which just makes my passengers a tad on the nervous side.....

PS the photo was taken just after its last clean - this photo no longer resembles the car parked outside on the road

Al A'ali Burial Mounds

These amazing mounds were built between 2,000 and 4,000 years ago during Dilmun, Tylos and Helenistic times - so fairly impressive just for that fact alone.

They are just on the side of a major road with a small brown sign indicating that yes indeed these are the Burial Mounds. So understated. Just driving home from work via the Malls when decided to stop and give it all a better look. Appartently there is a rebuilt model at the museum showing what the interior looks like and how they were constructed, which I'll check out so I have a better idea of what I was staring at. There were thousands more but roads and buildings are more important..........sigh.............

Beach scene

As Monday was the Prophets (may peace be upon him) birthday it seemed a fantastic opportunity to go and find a beach. Realising that I was spending way too much time inside buildings with small windows perhaps I was way overdue for a little sunlight. My mood after a day in sun and a swim in salt increased ten-fold :-) Even though the weather here is lovely and warm the crap apartment block where I am staying (please may my new one be finished sooooooooooon) doesn't have anyway you can sit outside and it's tiny windows allow for very little in the way of natural light to come inside.

Anyhow I found myself an exploring companion and went southwest with map in hand, Davin (fellow new tutor at polytechnic) had just rented his new car and was keen to try out his driving skills in the Bahrain traffic. After being in full control of my driving destiny for the last few weeks it took me a little while to stop using my passenger brake.........poor bugger.

Needless to say the beach was found, driving was fine and this is what it looked like - sand, shelters, street lights, water etc. Fair amount of rubbish around too :-( this is one negative about Bahrain their attitude to the environment is shocking. The low tidal picture doesn't make it look much better either - whoops!

I was rapt to feel the salt water - really miss that! Swimming was fun, although not a wave in sight and it didn't get deeper than mid thigh, but just to get in the water, ahhhh all good. Bahrainis are really into having family BBQs - hence the shelters are an ideal venue for doing so.

Another highlight of the day was sighting the highest point in Bahrain - Jebel Al Dukhan. Now as you will understand with me being a Wellingtonian hills are very special. This one is a whooping 134metres in height, kind of what you might call a bump in the landscape back home, but here I was so rapt to see it, it deserved a photo and status on my blog.

The building in front is the Bahrain International Circuit - Interesting point, just about every road sign in Bahrain seems to point to it. The Bahrain Grand Prix is coming to town on 24th April and rumour has it the place goes off for for F1 week.

Not being even remotely a petrol head I think I will cruise along to see what the fuss is all about too.