The weekend that was……..

As mentioned before, Thursday and Friday was my last “weekend” in Bahrain, and what a weekend it was! I left work on the dot at 1pm on Thursday and headed straight for home and grabbed some snap because I was absolutely starving! I decided to go with the tried and trusted Pizza Hutt order, although it let me down big time; with only a few hours before I was due to go out, I felt absolutely dog rough and after fetching the lot back up again I thought the night was over before it had started. Luckily, a few Panadol, loads of water and a power kip later I felt ok so I hopped in the shower and got ready for the night. Once out of the shower and fully awake I didn’t feel too bad so and dressed and headed out to Graham’s place. We had a couple of cans on his porch before heading around the corner to see Morgan and Doris (Louise) who were going to be our taxi in to town for the night, and we cracked open a bottle of champagne to toast their life together in their pad as well as to bid me farewell on my last mad Thursday.

Once in to town we headed straight for JJ’s again, it was supposed to be just for the start of the night but once the drinks started flowing we spent most of the night there! After an hour or so we were joined by the Pikeys (Derek & Lorraine), their friend Waleed, Disco Chris, Tracey and ‘Orrible Phil. There were a few other comings and goings throughout the night too and it was a really good craic. As usual though our American Cousins were causing a fuss and decided that the game for that night was to relentlessly pursue any woman in sight, regardless of whether they were with their blokes or not…it was a busy night for the door staff that night as you can imagine!! I even had to step in between Derek and one of the cretins at one point as they were hassling Lorraine and he was none too impressed obviously. This led to a conversation between me and one of the English RAF lads that was out regarding the mentality of the armed forces and why the US troops seem to be such horrible, arrogant people! I’ve got all the respect in the world for people that put their necks on the line for their country, but in my opinion it doesn’t make them any better than anyone else. As far as I’m concerned it’s what they sign up for, and being stationed in Bahrain isn’t much of a strenuous lifestyle I’m sure. There’s simply no need for the arrogance that some of these boys feel the need to force upon everyone. Anyway, by about 1:30 Graham, Chris and I were the last ones standing and we were pretty much tortured so there was only one thing for it……..chip shop! We grabbed our snap and headed back to Graham’s place where I was bedding down for the night and it wasn’t long before I was unconscious as I was knackered.

Friday morning came and when I surfaced Graham had already left for the Yacht Club to fetch the boat, so I got myself sorted out and sat out on the porch again just watching the world go by. The canal was like a motorway at one point as people headed out to sea on their jet-skis and boats at the same time as people were canoeing back and forth and messing around in dingys and things. After around 30 minutes Graham appeared around the corner on the boat so I locked up and jumped aboard…next stop Morgan and Doris’. Once we’d tied the vessel up and got back on dry land Doris had prepared a slap up breakfast and a pot of tea which was just what the doctor ordered after the night before! It wasn’t long before Andy and his mate turned up along with Chris and his mate Rich who was over for a few days so we headed out to the beach on the boat and Chris’ jet ski while Morgan and Doris got tidied up and things. Once we got out to the beach the water was lovely, there’s a massive break-water encapsulating much of the island and the sea around us was like a sheet of glass it was so calm. As the conditions were so good we spent the next hour or so just taking it in turns on the wakeboard and just having a general cruise around. Once we saw some bodies appear on the beach we headed back to shore where Matt and Kat had arrived along with their new sprog along with Derek, Lorraine, Waleed, Tracey and ‘Orrible Phil. Matt’s Dad who was over from England also joined us too so there were plenty of bodies around and it made for a great day. It wasn’t long before the ringo came back out and it was time for folks to get tortured behind the boat. Chris and Rich had a go first out and managed to stay in despite some close calls so next up were me and Graham. Andy was behind the wheel this time and we managed to discover that there is someone more psychotic at the control of a water craft than Morgan! He’d got his technique sorted in no time at all for creating a massive wash and it was only a matter of a minute or two before the two of us were 6ft in the air bouncing over the waves and gripping on for dear life as he dialed in more and more throttle! In the end the inevitable happened and as we hit a big wave Graham back-flipped, landed in the ring backwards and then got fired out to sea! I managed to stay in but my hands were red raw from holding on so tight! Now it was Graham’s revenge! Andy and his mate were in the ring this time and Graham was doing everything he could to get them out while I was stood at the back of the boat navigating, trying to spot the biggest waves to aim at. At one point there was a real choppy patch of water created and we headed straight for it, the ring crashed in to about 3 consecutive waves in close succession whilst at wide open throttle and Andy had no choice but to start flying! How he never broke any bones is unbelievable as he must have gone cart-wheeling in to the sea at about 60mph! We had to go a good 200-300 yards to go back and get him and were amazed to find him bobbing around and ok! The rest of the day was pretty much the same, with people taking it in turns in the ring and generally just chilling out on the beach with some ale and random conversations. Once night-fall came we got everything packed up again and headed over to Chris’s new place for a bit of a house-warming barbeque. Only problem with this was that the barbeque was still in the box in a million bits! Chris headed off in to town to fetch supplies while Graham and I hit the barbeque construction with a bang (I think we were nominated purely because of our mechanic backgrounds!). We were soon greeted by a floor full of bits and to accompany them, possibly the World’s worst set of instructions. There was only one thing for it; blag it!! Once we got cracking it wasn’t too bad and there was dead cow sizzling in no time. It didn’t take a genius to figure out that alcohol + water side party was a recipe for chaos and it was only a matter of time before most of us were in the water in various states of undress, including naked! By 9:30 I was all partied out to be honest after a full day of it so headed home. It seemed so bizarre walking back in to the apartment after all the commotion; it was so quite…almost eerie. As I mentioned when I last blogged it’s always been such a busy place since Leanne and I moved in all those months ago, what with Leanne’s mate being over for a while, then Morgan moving in followed by Louise and a brief visit from mini-Doris (Sarah), there has never been a time really when it’s been empty. It was at this stage that I decided to look at my feet as they’d been hurting for a while, as I looked at the soles I discovered why; they were minced! In the shallow water near the beach it was like sinking sand and there were allsorts of rocks and coral in there and it’d chewed my feet up good and proper. Once I’d cleaned them up though it was fine and I hit my pit exhausted again, but satisfied at such a cracking couple of days. I’m certainly going to miss that lot, I know that for sure.

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