Being between shifts I had time to get down to one of the massive malls in Manama, called City Centre it is about 5 times as big as West Quay in Southampton. As if they did not have enough shops already - and most of them are empty - there was a story in the news today that there will be a Waitrose store opening up in Bahrain soon.
Anyway have a look at a short vid I put together to give you some idea what it is like. Despite the vast number of shops I only found the Carrefour to have anything that I wanted and that happened to be a French loaf!
Tuesday 31 March 2009
Friday 27 March 2009
Running
It is probably more to do with the temperature than anything else but you don't tend to see many runners in Manama! The only times to go running outdoors are really dawn or dusk, some fools are jogging around the HQ at midday but they are few and far between. The only people you see out running are are not local and i suspect that most of them are military types who work on the base.
The other issue is that the scenery isn't particularly stunning for running. There is no greenery, a bit of sand and so the only options are to run along quite wide pavements beside major roads. Having had the embarassment of falling off a kerb with disasterous effects on my foot I am now considerably more careful when crossing roads and more frequently when pavements just disintegrate to a stop.
The response from locals that you meet when out is varied to say the least. Often locals are somewhat wary but most are bemused and will give a smile, if going past the local Indian tourist shops you get a cheery Hello without the usual hardsell and invitations to enter their shops. I have seen small children openly gawping out of the window of passing cars that there is someone so foolish as to be outside taking exercise. Its not as though no one takes exercise as the open sandy areas are frequently the scene of enthusiastic football and indeed cricket matches first thing in the morning or in the evening.
The thing is that that rich Bahrainis exercise in gyms and health clubs and the poorer ones and the ubiquitous Indian and Pakistani labourers get plenty of exercise in their jobs and if they don't they have no time for the luxury of exercise.
The weather will soon be getting to hot and humid to permit much to happen outside so I had better make the most of the weather while I can.
The other issue is that the scenery isn't particularly stunning for running. There is no greenery, a bit of sand and so the only options are to run along quite wide pavements beside major roads. Having had the embarassment of falling off a kerb with disasterous effects on my foot I am now considerably more careful when crossing roads and more frequently when pavements just disintegrate to a stop.
The response from locals that you meet when out is varied to say the least. Often locals are somewhat wary but most are bemused and will give a smile, if going past the local Indian tourist shops you get a cheery Hello without the usual hardsell and invitations to enter their shops. I have seen small children openly gawping out of the window of passing cars that there is someone so foolish as to be outside taking exercise. Its not as though no one takes exercise as the open sandy areas are frequently the scene of enthusiastic football and indeed cricket matches first thing in the morning or in the evening.
The thing is that that rich Bahrainis exercise in gyms and health clubs and the poorer ones and the ubiquitous Indian and Pakistani labourers get plenty of exercise in their jobs and if they don't they have no time for the luxury of exercise.
The weather will soon be getting to hot and humid to permit much to happen outside so I had better make the most of the weather while I can.
Tuesday 24 March 2009
Badges and uniforms
We always accuse all the Army and indeed RN aircrew of being a bit Boy Scoutish in their approach to collecting badges but I do feel as though I have now arrived as I am now in possession of not only my HQ and RN badges but also my name badge with rather natty Arabic script translation above - at least I presume it is a translation of my name, it could be saying 'Kick Me!' for all I know.
The real problem with desert camouflage is that it is so damn camouflagy that it is virtually impossible to identify someone else's rank, particularly if from a foreign country, at greater than about 6" from them. The US Forces insist on having Officer rank badges that are almost identical to their ratings badges and since you can get about 6 different varieties of Chief Petty Officer (we just have the one!) its hardly surprising no one gets saluted, at least they don't tend tomake too much of a fuss! Almost everyone has very smart desert gear apart from the US Marines who have the latest digitised pattern which is all pixellated greys - it looks very much like they have been standing under a very large seagull colony, which never ceases to amuse me.
Monday 23 March 2009
Food
Food varies from the sublime to the ridiculous. During the day I work on a US Navy base and so to all intents and purposes we are living in America. This means that all drinks must be at least 30% sugar, vast amounts of sugar and salt just must be added to anything and meat and cheese (cheese must go in everything as well!) must of course\be as processed as possible. So beefburgers, 'Taco Bell', chips with everything type meals with pints of coke are the order of the day. This contrasts rather spectacularly with the 5 star food available from eight different restaurants within th ehotel complex. The truth is that you cannot live indefinitely on either - normal food is definitely required even though finding time to cook it is not trivial.
At work I have at least now found the 'Deli' counter within the NEX (a sort of worldwide US Forces supermarket) and though they need some encouragement to not throw all sorts of rubbish into their rolls they can produce a straight-forward common or garden beef, lettuce and tomato roll - you are of course looked upon as some sort of backward species for not wanting BBQ sauce, mayonaise, processed cheese and extra bacon but that is a small price to pay for preserving one's heart. Off base we have now started cooking and the saviour here is the fantastically normal (well, up to a point) Al Jazeera supermarket within walking distance of the hotel. The food options are a little strange but on the whole the things you can recognise are good quality and indeed good value - looks like my culinary skills will be sharpened up over the next few months!
Motorbiking in Bahrain
First of all, you would certainly not get me on two wheels of any form on the roads out here - driving on 4 is definitely exciting enough. It is the lack of signals, awareness or ability combined with an Arab view of any disasters being 'obviously' unavoidable as 'the will of Allah' that make driving such a high intensity task.
Nonetheless you do see a few bikes on the road and these vary between the classic pizza delivery boys through to the most powerful and flashy machines you can find. These of course have to be ridden at maximum speed. It is again a particularly Arab thing to be ostentatious in all possible ways to display your wealth, power or strength - hence ridiculous buildings, bright yellow MASSIVE Humvee cars with huge chrome wheels and watches which must have copious amounts on diamonds on display.
The video below shows a particularly good example of the sort of bling I'm talking about as well as a rather extraordinary 'sand bike' which looks lethal to ride on and two kids chopper style bikes all found in the one bike shop I have identified in Bahrain which is just around the back of the hotel.
Nonetheless you do see a few bikes on the road and these vary between the classic pizza delivery boys through to the most powerful and flashy machines you can find. These of course have to be ridden at maximum speed. It is again a particularly Arab thing to be ostentatious in all possible ways to display your wealth, power or strength - hence ridiculous buildings, bright yellow MASSIVE Humvee cars with huge chrome wheels and watches which must have copious amounts on diamonds on display.
The video below shows a particularly good example of the sort of bling I'm talking about as well as a rather extraordinary 'sand bike' which looks lethal to ride on and two kids chopper style bikes all found in the one bike shop I have identified in Bahrain which is just around the back of the hotel.
Saturday 21 March 2009
Time Flies ....Not!
Being essentially chained to a desk for 12hrs a day definitely gives a warpped sense of time. It is already slightly odd to kick off at 7pm being completely wide awake - a process which requires a considered sleep pattern, a run of about 2 miles despite the heat which prevails at dusk and hot shower. That all done staying alert all night is not much of a problem despite the best efforts of BFBS broadcasting to send one to sleep. I also have the, shall we say - varied, conversational subjects of my fellow watchkeepers to keep me going. Both Leading Hands, one does communications and signals stuff while the other monitors the intelligence picture. Needless to say not a lot changes on the whole and unless we have a major drama which unfortunately (?) rarely happens we have quite a bit of time on our hands. This innevitably means that tasks that could be done in about 30mins get done slowly and then revisited several times just because you can. I also suspect that having more time to do stuff does not necessarily improve the accuracy to which it is done. As I have my first briefing to do this morning we shall probably find out as I'm sure there will be plenty of advice from various folk about how to do it better. I have already begun to suspect initiative is rather frowned upon around here despite protestations that the opposite is true.
I'm also sure there will soon be many keen (panicking?) staff officers descending on the office unnecessarily early to sort out their briefs and I am fairly confident that their problems will rapidly become my problems - oh, well, gives us something to do to accelerate time a little!
I'm also sure there will soon be many keen (panicking?) staff officers descending on the office unnecessarily early to sort out their briefs and I am fairly confident that their problems will rapidly become my problems - oh, well, gives us something to do to accelerate time a little!
Friday 20 March 2009
The Gulf Hotel
Although I am not seeing that much of it at the moment, other than the inside of my room and more particularly, my bed, the hotel I am staying in is one of the best in Bahrain. It has about 8 excellent restaurants, and I have tried one so far - not the slightest idea what I was eating but all very good indeed, there are also great sports facilities (untried so far) and a great pool and gardens - probably the only green bit of Bahrain.
Have a look at the video below and see what you think - I know I will get no sympathy at all now but trust me, compensation for this job is desperately needed and deserved!!
Have a look at the video below and see what you think - I know I will get no sympathy at all now but trust me, compensation for this job is desperately needed and deserved!!
Thursday 19 March 2009
Area Tour
This is a changeover day between days and nights so having come off-watch at 7pm yesterday I will be on-watch at 7pm this evening giving me 24hrs between watches and so a little bit of time to have a look around. Consequently I had a drive around with one of my fellow watchkeepers to get a bit of local orientation and see where things are and where not to go - there are a few, literally 'Black Flagged' Palestinian areas to keep well clear of but the rest of the place is largely benign.
We went for a drive out to two of the big, and I mean really big, malls that are out here and encompass just about every shop name you have ever heard of including Marks and Spencers, Carrefour and Debenhams as well as endless rows of very upmarket clothes and jewellery shops. One which did catch my eye was a massive toy store where you could get stuffed animals that were only about half the size of the real thing – fair enough for your run of the mill cat or bunny but how about a half-size gorilla, or elephant! Or if it really takes your fancy and the room is large enough a half-size camel or giraffe for goodness sake. I'll try and get some photos the next time I'm out there so you can see I am not making this up.
We briefly visited the Souk area but due to difficulties in parking did not get out but the area looks very interesting with lots of little shops including tailors who will happily knock you up a hand made suit in any design you fancy for about £50 which has to be a bargain – I will definitely be looking into that. From the sublime to the ridiculous we came from the slightly tatty area of the Souk back past the Bahrain World Trade Centre which consists of two towers in a very point sail type shape joined by two propellers which are wind turbines to provide power to the building.
So all in all a quick but good introduction to the area and a few ideas for places to explore later.
We went for a drive out to two of the big, and I mean really big, malls that are out here and encompass just about every shop name you have ever heard of including Marks and Spencers, Carrefour and Debenhams as well as endless rows of very upmarket clothes and jewellery shops. One which did catch my eye was a massive toy store where you could get stuffed animals that were only about half the size of the real thing – fair enough for your run of the mill cat or bunny but how about a half-size gorilla, or elephant! Or if it really takes your fancy and the room is large enough a half-size camel or giraffe for goodness sake. I'll try and get some photos the next time I'm out there so you can see I am not making this up.
We briefly visited the Souk area but due to difficulties in parking did not get out but the area looks very interesting with lots of little shops including tailors who will happily knock you up a hand made suit in any design you fancy for about £50 which has to be a bargain – I will definitely be looking into that. From the sublime to the ridiculous we came from the slightly tatty area of the Souk back past the Bahrain World Trade Centre which consists of two towers in a very point sail type shape joined by two propellers which are wind turbines to provide power to the building.
So all in all a quick but good introduction to the area and a few ideas for places to explore later.
Wednesday 18 March 2009
Tuesday 17 March 2009
En Route!
The adventure has begun!
All fairly uneventful so far with the travel plan working from the off and even arriving in Heathrow much earlier than anticipated – which was a bit of a surprise as the driver, Bruce apparently and supposedly local, needed close direction to get himself out on the main road from my house, not a particularly promising start. This was made no more encouraging by his desire to talk, at some length, about his plans to holiday and to emigrate to Borneo. Interesting up to a point but when one has just woken up the family at 5.30am to say goodbye to them for 6 months, small talk is not really going distract the large number of emotions going through one's head. Dozing, both needed due to only intermittent sleep and as a diversion from conversation was the only answer which also seemed to have the effect of increasing Bruce's average speed as he clearly wished to seek a more promising captive to hear about his vacation history and plans.
I'm not sure that I have ever flown on a Boeing 747 before. Today's aircraft was a British Airways 747-400, a truly MASSIVE aircraft by any standards which was largely full but by good fortune I got an aisle seat with no one in either of the two seats beside me offering plenty of room to spread out. As I type now we are about 2hrs into the flight (6hr 30min total) at about 37000ft above Austria. I'm listening to The Starlight Mints, they did the 'Demons' theme tune if you saw any of that; anyway I'm using noise-canceling ear phones that I bought ages ago and have never used for any length of time – they are quite excellent and completely make you forget you are in an aircraft as the engine noise just gets magicked away.
It felt more than a bit weird this morning saying goodbye to everyone but I definitely feel a lot more composed now; hope it doesn't wear off too quickly.
All fairly uneventful so far with the travel plan working from the off and even arriving in Heathrow much earlier than anticipated – which was a bit of a surprise as the driver, Bruce apparently and supposedly local, needed close direction to get himself out on the main road from my house, not a particularly promising start. This was made no more encouraging by his desire to talk, at some length, about his plans to holiday and to emigrate to Borneo. Interesting up to a point but when one has just woken up the family at 5.30am to say goodbye to them for 6 months, small talk is not really going distract the large number of emotions going through one's head. Dozing, both needed due to only intermittent sleep and as a diversion from conversation was the only answer which also seemed to have the effect of increasing Bruce's average speed as he clearly wished to seek a more promising captive to hear about his vacation history and plans.
I'm not sure that I have ever flown on a Boeing 747 before. Today's aircraft was a British Airways 747-400, a truly MASSIVE aircraft by any standards which was largely full but by good fortune I got an aisle seat with no one in either of the two seats beside me offering plenty of room to spread out. As I type now we are about 2hrs into the flight (6hr 30min total) at about 37000ft above Austria. I'm listening to The Starlight Mints, they did the 'Demons' theme tune if you saw any of that; anyway I'm using noise-canceling ear phones that I bought ages ago and have never used for any length of time – they are quite excellent and completely make you forget you are in an aircraft as the engine noise just gets magicked away.
It felt more than a bit weird this morning saying goodbye to everyone but I definitely feel a lot more composed now; hope it doesn't wear off too quickly.
Wednesday 11 March 2009
Podcast 1
In addition to the traditional internet diary approach of the blog I will from time to time, largely depending on how quickly I can put them together and whether I have anything interesting to say, include verbal and video entries. The first of these offerings is accessible below, it was done quite quickly so needs a bit of work on a bit less intro music and better quality of speech recording but its a test so take it as that, it lasts about 5 mins. The best method of activating the link so thatyou do not navigate away from this page is to right click on the link below and 'Open in New Tab'.
If you have an opinion, let me know what you think.
Opportunity Costs
Quite apart from being away from home and missing friends and family one of the key annoyances is that there are many things I will simply not be able to do whilst out in Manama. There is the seperation from vehicles mentioned previously which really means no biking to do or to help with as in Sarah's No Limitz antics, no travel to interesting places (doing so for a few days is a whole different world from 6 months! - France, Germany, Canada, and India would have been on the agenda), no going to sea, no outdoor running ( I suspect though acclimatisation and at night may offer some potential, no home cooking or indeed visits to homes, no lawn mowing or emptying the bins - now we're talking!
I will get used to a change of life, one always does but the more I think about it there are quite a few changes to get my head around.
Friday 6 March 2009
Abandoned Vehicles
One of the most tedious consequences of my short notice departure has been the need to decide what I am going to do about my increasingly large fleet of motor vehicles.
The recently acquired CR-V will of course get plenty of use and as a relatively new and recently serviced vehicle hopefully will not need much attention. Likewise it should not be difficult to get the S2000 driven now and again, especially as more sun emerges. The slightly unloved, by everyone other than me (!), Peugeot 306 has now reached 130,000 mls and is proving occasionally dificult to start but has provided sterling service over the years.
So he doesn't just get abandoned I have found some friends that need a vehicle in which to train their son to drive so little blue peugeot may get quite an exciting few months in my absence.
Lorry will be looked after by Andy and Chris and so shouldn't need anything special happening to it, fingers crossed!
The real sadness is my two wheeled friends and I can unfortunately find no better plan than to sell Mr Ducati and so he has now been accommodated by Motorapido who will do their best to sell him for me to be replaced with something interesting when I return - more on that later. The trusty Honda CBR600F has always been fairly bullet-proof and I am sure will withstand sitting in the garage for 6 months and there my be a chance Chris will take it out for a trashing from time to time in my absence.
It is a real shame to have all these toys though and not be able to play with them!
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