Flip through the latest issue of Gulf Weekly.
What in the world has happened to the weather this past week?
Bahrain enjoyed rainfall in mid-April (bringing a very welcome reprieve from the soaring temperatures, I might add) and when I phoned my mum in England it was snowing. Amazing!
As the skies remained cloudy into the week I had my fingers and toes crossed that the weather would be good for the weekend as I'd been asked make an appearance at the Sacred Heart School fundraiser day.
I'd met up with some teachers, pupils and sisters from the school a week earlier - and what a lovely bunch of people they are. They gave me some gorgeous fruit cake and chocolates after our photo session and I had to prise myself away from their wonderful hospitality.
On the day the clouds gave way to a beautiful sunny day and when I arrived at the school I was amazed just how many cars were there.
Luckily for me Mariam had sorted me out with some parking and so in I went. The school was packed with people so let's hope they made some serious money for their much needed school renovations.
I was ushered onto the stage and introduced some Salsa dancers, followed by a band and then I brought on stage the Indian Ambassador Mr Shetty to cut the ribbon on the first souvenir programme. I asked him to say a few words and he came out with a great little speech extolling the virtues of education. It kind of made me wish I had had one.
Then I went back on stage to have a bit of fun. Firstly, we got a dance competition going for the boys and five very brave guys got on stage and strutted their stuff. Then it was the girls' turn, of course, we got seven on stage before a few more joined in, and then more again joined in, and together they really got the crowd moving.
I got the audience to cheer for who they thought was the best and, the smallest, but bubbliest, young girl won the contest. Everyone got prizes. It was a really great day for the school and the turnout of people to this event was just mind blowing.
The next day for my 'Krazy' little family was a bonus because I was supposed to be working and at the last minute the date was changed. So, we had a full day of family fun together for just me, my wife Wendy and our little daughter Hannah.
It's been a long time since we could all be together for a whole day (without me having to run off and do my thing working somewhere) so we started off by getting a picnic together and heading off on a great adventure, as I told Hannah.
First of all we went to the 'Water Gardens' in Salmaniya. This is a potentially beautiful spot in the middle of Manama and it's probably the only place in Bahrain where kids can feed some bread to the ducks and geese.
The water is smelly and full of rubbish but the geese make it very worthwhile. Hannah busied herself telling other kids not to feed crisps and popcorn to the birds, and I didn't have the heart to mention that bread is probably not ideal food either.
We were there from about 10am and Hannah was desperate to go on the rides. However, we were told that we would have to come back after 3.30pm. Sigh! The place is sadly neglected and there is always litter everywhere, but nevertheless it is one of the few places where kids can ride bikes in relative safety.
Anyway, we enjoyed our picnic, looked at the birds and bunnies and Hannah and Wendy rode around the ponds and then we left to go on the rest of our 'adventure'.
As Hannah had a quick nap in the back seat we started off on a drive around Bahrain. We visited Al Jazayer Beach for the first time in ages and whilst there is some great new playground equipment it is not undercover and was too hot to go on.
The water was crystal clear and the beach was strewn with rubbish. Unfortunately I managed to stand on a thorn, puncturing my foot quite deeply so we didn't stay for long, and then we went to check out the new huge Rameez shop in Riffa.
There was certainly plenty to buy and we had a great time looking around for bargains. We then went back to the Water Gardens and Hannah got to go on her rides. She even wanted to go on the roller coaster and I went with her. Wendy stayed to watch and to "pull us out of the water if we fell in".
We all went on the Ferris Wheel together and Hannah got to enjoy a few other rides as well. The weather was lovely and there were plenty of other families out as well and it was a pretty perfect afternoon.
When we got home a friend of Hannah's came over to play for a little while giving Wendy and me a chance to put everything away and start on dinner and getting everything ready for the upcoming week. It was a good end to a pretty lovely day.
Later Wendy fell asleep reading Hannah some stories. I think she had a touch of the sun. I watched football into the wee hours ... which is the perfect end for any day.
Keep Happy,
Krazy Kevin
