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SO, was love in the air for you last week? I hope so. My Valentine's Day was one of the busiest days I've had so far this year! It began early with my little Hannah off to school with a heart-shaped cake for her teachers, my wife Wendy off to do some work, and me in the Voice FM Radio Studio at 9am.
We had some great guests in to talk about the upcoming Riffa Views Bahrain International Garden Show. Juhi and I chatted with Shaikha Maram bint Isa bin Ahmed Al Khalifa, Richard Browning, the CEO of Riffa Views, Debbie Stanford, acting-CEO and director of Bahrain Exhibition and Convention Authority and her sales officer Mahesh Bhatia, all about the goings-on at the Bahrain International Exhibition Centre from this coming Friday to Sunday.
Shaikha Maram started off by explaining the history and the aims of the show and how it all began.
Next up in our lively discussion was Richard to talk about corporate responsibility and Riffa Views' participation in the show, and especially the popular 'Eden Challenge'.
Schools from all over Bahrain have participated in this exciting event which has involved participants sending in their drawings and projects. These have been assessed and whittled down to five winners.
The winning concepts and designs will be transformed and become a part of the International Garden Show.
Debbie then spoke about the exhibitors and on the differences between this year's show and past ones. Of course, one of the main differences is the sheer size of the event.
The actual planning (which took a year to put together) included inviting exhibitors from over 14 countries to participate.
This year's event is focussing on scents from flowers and other plants - as detailed in this week's GulfWeekly - and there will even be garden displays from Thailand and Japan.
Shaikha Maram also gave Voice FM listeners a world exclusive; by revealing that next year's show will be centred on a water theme.
Straight after this entertaining and very interesting hour I hot-footed it to edit my weekly music TV show 'Music Mania'.
Unfortunately though, our wires had been crossed somehow, and there was no editor available. So, with an hour to kill I decided to pop over to the GulfWeekly offices where editor 'Stan the Man' demonstrated his depths of hospitality and served me up a lovely cup of coffee with a Bounty bar. What more could a chocoholic ask for? (OK, maybe not the Drifters video!)
We had a good chat about things and on the way out Asma and a couple of the team gave me some special Valentine's requests to say on my lunchtime 'Midday Madness' show on Radio Bahrain.
There were just so many requests that the show went so quickly. I also had lots of fun on the 'guess the intro' quiz with everyone getting the title 'Bad' and the singer Michael Jackson correct, but not getting the year!
We went through every date in the 80s until the already famous 'Guess the Intro' expert Beastie telephoned in with the correct answer. At the moment I think it's 50-50 between him and Nicky who have won the most CDs so far! If you want to get in on the act tune in at 1.45pm daily for a chance of winning.
After the radio I headed down to Seef Mall where I had put aside a dress that my wife Wendy liked. (I'd bought it a couple of days earlier but you know what women are like - there was nowhere that I could have hidden the dress where it would be safe that she wouldn't find it).
Fortunately, the lovely people at 'Aftershock' let me leave it to be collected later. When I arrived to pick it up I was also presented with a Valentine's Mug and chocolates for Wendy. Fantastic! (Also, the dress was in a great sale at a great price!)
Then I went to the Dilmun Club to collect my daughter Hannah who had just finished her riding lesson. Hannah and I had a run around in the playground until Wendy arrived, when we all enjoyed a lovely 'romantic' meal altogether. Other loving couples there included Mr and Mrs V.
When we got home I presented the missus with her presents. She loved them all, but the one that impressed her the most was the Darryl Lee liquorice all the way from Australia.
Wendy just loves the stuff, (and so does Hannah, so it's lucky I got two bags). In fact, if I had only got her the liquorice she would have been more than happy.
You wouldn't say that our Valentine's Day was exactly romantic. But it was very loving. Little Hannah was worn out and went to bed reasonably early, so we curled up on the sofa together and watched a movie.
Wendy ploughed into her liquorice and I tucked into some chocolates, and together we were as snug as two bugs in a rug (or perhaps that should be two pigs in mud).
Either way, we were happy, and it was so lovely to finish the day with my Valentine!
All my love,
Krazy Kevin
