Construction and Traffic

It could take several days to show you all the construction sites and new buildings in Bahrain. I'll show you a couple of the towers that are going up in the "Canary Wharf" of Bahrain, called the Bahrain Financial Harbor. This is the view from David's old office.


Here is what it looks like at ground level. Everyday there is a new traffic pattern.



Where is the policeman, to sort out the traffic mess? At least he has a colorful bike.



And if any of you are wondering what is the availability is of housing.......call this number.

Bahrain School Library

All this week, I have been going to volunteer at the Bahrain School. This is a Department of Defense school, kindergarten through high school. There are approximately 500 students enrolled this year. Our boys attended this school between 1985 - 88, when we lived here full-time. I have been volunteering each winter when I come back to visit, for the past several years.

Here is the library; where in the olden days, it was the only place to find current reading material in English on the Island. Still a great place to check out a good read. One of the perks of volunteering!



The Library is the center for a lot of the computer activity that the students do, such as reading tests and class assignments.



The Librarian overseas this computer use, as well as teaching library skills to classes , and reading to the Elementary students. She always makes it a convivial place to be.

Transferring the Catch of the Day

I hope you can see and hear my video today. I should spare you all the gory details about getting this to work (or not), but ... what the hey. I spent about 2 1/2 hours downloading the video the other day. While it was doing it's thing, I went away from the computer, came back, cleaned the bathroom, came back, cleaned the other bathroom (I told you it was gory), came back, and finally it had finished downloading. I went to post it and it would not allow me to publish it. Then I spent a couple of days researching why it didn't work, and found I had to upgrade my Blogspot. I finally got that figured out and done. Luckily it kept all my entries, and everything
else was working fine.



If this works, you'll be hearing a lot more from me.

The Dhow

When we walk out on the pier near our house, there are usually 3 or 4 Dhows moored along side the quay. The Dhow is a traditional sailing vessel, with a very distinctive shape. Today these dhows have motors. In the photo below you can see the stern of a dhow. What looks like a barrel hanging our the back end, is the outhouse!



I thought I would show you some of the activities we see on various afternoons. Below the fishermen and hauling up and folding their nets to be stored on board.



Hanging out the wash, and draining the bilge?



This afternoon, all the other fishing dhows are out on the calm sea. This was the only dhow left in the port.

Massage

Today is my day for a massage. As some of you know, this is one of the best reasons to come back to Bahrain. My masseuse is Del, who comes to the house. The massage is from head to toe for an hour. I like her fingertips "tip-toeing" on my cheek bones under my eyes. The aroma of lavender almost puts me to sleep. Every muscle is loosened. Every tendon relaxed. It is very therapeutic.


Sorry, no pictures today. Well, maybe just one.

Bahrain from the Sky

Here is a satellite view of the Island of Bahrain. We live in the Northwest corner of the island. From that corner is you follow the coast line south, you will see the Bridge going West to a small island, and then continuing to Saudi Arabia. Only the norther 1/3 of the island is inhabited. the Capital, Manama is in the far Northeast corner of the main Island. Muharraq is the large island to the northeast of Manama.

Below is a picture that we captured from Google Earth. This is a free program from Google. If you would like to put it on your computer, look under the heading more, when you bring up the Google search page, and then click on even more. Then find Google Earth, and bring up the page, follow the instructions to download, or learn more about it. If you type in a search for Bahrain, the island will come up. Budayia is in the far Northwest corner of the island. You can zoom in as close as you want. If you click on a blue dot, it gives you a photo.



In the very center of the photo above, you can see our compound. It is the dark (green) rectangle. The pier that we walk is due West. You can see the slips for some of the boats. From our compound, if you go East, southeast (about an inch), you will see our village roundabout. The building directly South of our compound is the nearest Mosque (with the 9 white domes).
Happy Globe Trotting.

Bahrain International Flower Show

Today I went to the Bahrain Flower Show. Five or six years ago, when I was living in Bahrain, more or less full time, I was a member of the local Garden Club. The Garden Club would present a flower and vegetable show, with professional judging and was usually
opened and prizes given by the Emir's wife. The show this year is in the International Exhibition Halls. This is a much bigger venue than in a hotel ballroom, where they used to hold the show. This year's exhibition is excellently presented, and has many commercial stalls as well as the flower arrangements, vegetables, and projects made by school students and school groups.



I enjoyed walking around and seeing the international visitors. There were a lot of families making it an outing for the day. The girls below were enjoying posing for each other's phone camera! I caught them "in motion".



I found my friend from the Garden Club, Thoraya, which means shining star. She entered many flower arrangements, and won a couple of first prizes, and several second and third prizes. She also showed me her winning photograph; plus, she won first place in the Small front garden category. Here she is standing beside one of her winning arrangements.



Thoraya is such a sweetheart. We sat for an hour sipping tea together, and almost everyone passing knew her, and she graciously introduced me to her friends.

Walk to the Post Office

I like to walk to the local Post Office, which only takes about 15 minutes to get there. If I go mid-morning, the temperatures are mild. I walk up to, what we call, the corner, which is the center of our one round-about village, called Budaiya, and then it is only about 200 yards up the road.

Here you can see I have reached the side street, where I turn to go to the Post Office. You can see in the background what I mean by a round-about, where the cars have stopped at the circle and allow cars from the left to come through before they proceed either to the right or straight ahead.



On the way back, this woman is waiting for the bus. See, it's cool in Bahrain.



On my return, I came through a different alleyway, and came across this house, and what luck this little girl walked into my photo. I saw her turn the corner, and enter the house.

Around the Outside of the House

Yesterday I showed you some of the interior of our house. Here are a few photos around the outside. We live in a six house compound. You can see the building behind the cars in the driveway, which has three units. Our unit is in an identical building to the left of the canopy. Our landlord lives in the house in front of our carpark (the shadow on the left). Our compound manager has a company office in the one story building you can see to the right.



This is the entrance to our Unit.



Welcome to our home in Bahrain.

Around the house

Thought I would give the blog a new look. Like it?
Just when you were getting used to the site, I go and change it! It's like all the new-fangled programs I come across ... and they tell me I need to upgrade or download, update or upload, and then expect me to learn where all the functions are!

Today it is very windy outside. I had to get up in the night to close the windows, and still there is a layer of fine sand on everything.

Here is where we spend most of our time, especially today ... around the house.

My workspace is on the ground floor, with a view of the backyard. Notice the Turquoise wrist cushion, which came from the 600 fil shop. That's like a $1.50 store, in the US. The shop advertises "Finest Japanese Quality", though most items are made in China.

Here is David in his work space in the spare bedroom on the second floor.

It is not very pleasant out today, so this is where you will find us.

On the Pier Again

There has been a very low tide in the past few days. You can also see where they are building a new complex of houses on the reclaimed land.



This is part of the catch of the day.

Spice Market

Almost every local market has a section where they sell spices. The picture below is one vendor's stall where they also sell dried beans. You can see the scales in the foreground. This is where we bought cinnamon sticks in bulk...1/4 lb.(which is two big handfuls) for $1.

Inside the shop, we found these two pyramids of spices. I believe it is for curry, or sometimes they call the mixture of spices Masala. The scoop is on one of the trays, and would be drawn up through the layers getting some of each spice.

What is that licorice smell? I looked down and there was a whole bag of star anise.

Recipes, please?

A day at the Spa

Yesterday, I went to the Moroccan Steam Bath salon.

Here is the waiting area, before entering the individual Steam Bath rooms.



I think I lost 5 pounds from the steam and scrubbing.

Here are a couple of gals at the salon.

Backyard Activity

11th Annual Great Backyard Bird Count coming up this weekend from Friday, February 15 - Monday, February 18

Here is our Backyard.



Looking down from our balcony. The view is blocked by the eucalyptus tree. I am listening to the birds and can distinguish only two different calls so far. I do not hear the pair of parrots.

Iranian Market

Today is the Muslim Sabbath, which is the one day off for most people who work in Bahrain. Schools, government offices, banks, and some shops are closed. But most markets and restaurants are open. We went to the Isa Town Market this morning, also called the Iranian souk, because many of the shopkeepers are Persian. There is a large secondhand market there.

You will see just about anything for sale there. From clothing to the kitchen sink .....

The black moving objects on the right are two women shopping.

To a man selling pebbles .......


To a variety of fruit and vegetables. The oranges are wonderful for juicing.


Many different nationalities of vendors and shoppers were in the market today. I hope to capture the sounds of the market one day.

Happy Valentine's Day

What more could a gal wish for to make this a special day.......

Jewelry?



Shoes?



and Chocolate?

Springtime

This morning, the hibiscus in the front yard had a couple of blooms on it.

Use it or lose it

There are three ways to re-distribute unwanted items in Bahrain: rubbish tip, re-cycle bin, or thrift shop.

Tuesday is our day to visit the Bahrain Society of the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals Thrift Shop. This is where we practically furnished our house when we arrived! So, we are “returning” the favor by donating back several items. Here are the volunteers who sort the donated items.



The concept of re-cycling has only recently (a year or so) come to Bahrain. These re-cycling bins are near our grocery store. You can drop off glass, metal, wood (?).



And the traditional way of getting rid of things is throw it and aim the rubbish in the vicinity of a tipster. This is the one outside our compound. This morning, I saw one more way, and that was a woman tossing two plastic bags over a 6 foot wire fence onto some waste ground, and in a few seconds a herd of goats were running over to get them. Darn, I didn't get a photo.