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Hey! What happened to the weekend? And what is going on with all the raffles? After last week's Bahrain Relay Marathon (which was very rewarding, great fun, but also very tiring) this whole week has felt like every day has run straight into the next one and straight through to the weekend too.
On Wednesday night I compered at the Dhadabi Annual Dinner Party at the Crowne Plaza Hotel. I met up with Priya, the event's organiser, beforehand and she explained that because Dhadabi Travel sends people to destinations all over the world there would be a showcase of international dances.
We started off with dances from Thailand, following which the great Australian songstress Lisa Morgan took everyone over to the US with her rendition of Frank Sinatra's classic hit "New York, New York".
Then it was time for the first raffle. I called out the winning ticket number and the name on the ticket was 'Brenda.' a lady jumped onto the stage very excited.
I looked at her ticket and ... it wasn't the right number. I asked her what her name was and she replied Rania. So unfortunately she hadn't won.
Brenda eventually arrived to collect her prize and I asked her to pull out the next ticket. Then something happened that I've never seen before. The next ticket was ... Rania's! It was amazing since there were over 900 tickets in the raffle drum.
During the night we also had dances from Hawaii, the Philippines and even five energetic Indian dancers who performed some Bhangra.
In between there were more raffles and we gave away over 70 prizes. There was even a lovely fashion show of jalabayas. Thanks to VJ and Chennai for their help with the raffle.
The next day, after my radio shows (I do two on a Thursday; Radio Bahrain and Voice FM) I went to the Naseem International School to film a special national day edition of Music Mania. Thank you to Jo Taylor and Martin Hughes who arranged for pupils to be wearing national costumes and who also arranged a special dance to celebrate the upcoming national day.
I had a fun '60 seconds challenge interview' with Martin whilst he played his guitar, and at the end we had all the pupils arranged around the playground apparatus waving flags and cheering. Watch the show tonight and Sunday at 7.30pm to see all the fun.
That evening we were invited to a great party hosted by Martin and Nicki Whitaker. I should have taken a jacket with me becauses it was held outside and I was freezing. Thankfully they had plenty of those toasty outdoor heaters to mingle around. I caught up with some people I'd not seen in ages and got to relax and have fun without having to 'be the fun'.
The next day I worked at the St. Christopher's Annual Festive Fair (and they really had some fabulous stalls this year). I had great help from the famous DJ Ollie. Talking of famous people I even bumped into GulfWeekly editor (Stan) who was sampling some of the delights from the cake stall at the time.
Next up I hightailed it to the British Club (where I was a little late and got shouted at by Sylvia from the committee). It was kinda funny and for once I was lost for words; 'cos the last time I was talked to like that was from one of my old headteachers ... but we all have our bad days and she had a lot on her plate. After having my ears roasted, things were sorted out and I started putting on some music for everyone.
Later, when the raffle was about to start, who should come up and say "Daddy, can I help you," but my sweet little Hannah. And she was fantastic pulling out all the raffle tickets for me. I thought "oh no, she will pull out only orange ones because that's my favourite colour." But she was great and I'm so sorry for standing on her toes, twice.
I called out the first ticket colour and number, and a lady came to collect her prize. But as she walked away another lady with the same ticket came up. We checked the serial number and it was the second lady who was the winner.
It's been a weird week for raffles. One lady won three prizes, while others with sheets and sheets of tickets won nothing. But with a three-year-old drawing the tickets it was all very above board, so it must be something to do with chaos theory, or something.
After the raffle I carried on playing the music and got home about 8pm feeling pretty shattered. I sat down on the chair to have a coffee and a relax when my telephone rang. It was Mohammed Rumani, the head of dj's from Radio Bahrain, and he was desperate to get me to do from 9pm til 12pm because someone had gone on holiday and given him the wrong dates.
So, I got in the car and drove to the station. There was another coffee waiting for me, to get me through the night. I've never done this shift before and it felt so weird. I kept saying 'good morning' which had some people pretty amused and others very confused.
I had to explain why I was working at that time to telephone callers so often that I felt like a broken record. Anyway, I made it to midnight, got into my car and drove home. My weary body collapsed on the bed around 1am and I thought "What's happened to my weekend again?"
My wife Wendy thought the same thing the next morning as she got up with Hannah at 6.30am, as that is supposed to be her 'sleep in' morning ... and nothing was going to get me out from under the covers.
Til next week, keep happy and have that smile on your face
Krazy Kevin
