Goodbye Arabia

After almost 40 years bar a month, I am saying goodbye (ma’asalamah) to Arabia this month after living 72 per cent of my life here in Bahrain (34 years) and previously the United Arab Emirates (6 years) and going back home to the United Kingdom with a lifetime of treasured memories.

My ‘Arabian Adventure’ started back in December 1977, when along with my mother (Joan) and younger brother (Nigel) we joined father dad (Eric) who was already working in Sharjah, UAE for more than a year at Mina Khalid.

Our first house was appropriately called Sunshine Villas and was located on a patch of desert not far from the Al Khan and Lagoon area just opposite Sharjah City.

In those days, Sharjah was not the sprawling conurbation it has become now.

I left after a month vacation over Christmas and New Year to return and complete my schooling and finish my O-Levels and CSE’s back in my native city of Liverpool.

My return to the Gulf was just in time to celebrate my 16th birthday on June 2 in 1978, this time however, my father had transferred jobs’ and was now working with Dubai Aluminium.

Dubai in those days was still a small town and the tallest building was the Dubai Trade Centre and a mere 39 storeys in height, how Dubai has changed since.

As I was only 16 and too young to work, I went back to school and did two more years of education at Dubai College.

On leaving school, I was given a training job in the administrative office of the Harbour Master, which entailed documenting ship arrivals at the newly opened Jebel Ali Port and worked with my father who had also been employed as a Fire, Safety and Security Officer.

Over more than three years at Jebel Ali Port, I got to work in administration, maintenance and the finance departments and also regularly accompanied the pilots way out into the Arabian Gulf to bring the VLCC Tankers into the port, as a ‘meet and great’ a vessel coming for the first time and document its arrival.

I never imagined that as an 18/19 year old I would be climbing up rope ladders on the side of a half-million tonne tanker.

My other fond memory is seeing Queen Elizabeth II when she visited Dubai and the other Gulf States.

Moving on, I joined my father in March 1983 here in Bahrain and worked in the Gulf Weekly Mirror newspaper as a proofreader and librarian from 1983-86.

Bahrain itself then under his HH Shaikh Isa bin Salman Al Khalifa was very small compared with now and most areas such as New Juffair, Seef, the Grand Mosque and Amwaj Islands just didn’t exist.

As a youngster in my early 20s, it was great fun partying all the time and hanging out at weekends, as in them days the community was much closer.

My next move was to the Gulf Daily News in 1988 just before my parents left Bahrain early the same year, at first I was scared at being on my own for the first time in my life, but quickly adapted and spent 22 years with the newspaper.

It was a fruitful time and great experience, starting again! with proof reading, 11 years running the archive section, eight years of sports reporting and two years of administration work.

In that time, I had the chance to expand my horizons and diverse from just sports.

My last venture is the seven years I have had at the Daily Tribune and a hat-trick of working for the three main English language Bahrain newspapers over the years, this time dealing mainly with sports, notable events I have covered and attended include being at the Formula 1 Grand Prix, ITF Tennis Championships, GCC and World Cup Football, Basketball, Volleyball and Bowling to name a few along with many other regional and international events in Bahrain, along with a number of charitable and community events, most importantly the annual Think Pink Bahrain initiative every October. 

Bahrain and the Gulf has been great to me and I would never 40 years ago envisaged as a 15-year old back in Liverpool what the future would hold.

Never in my wildest dreams did I ever expect to be rubbing shoulders with top members of the ruling family in Bahrain, ambassadors, top company officials, interviewing top sports people in the field of football, cricket, rugby, netball, bowling, athletics, hockey and other sports.

As an expatriate resident, I have also had the time to visit the other countries in the region, including going back to the UAE, Oman, Qatar, Kuwait, Iran, Lebanon, Jordan, Syria (pre-war), Cyprus and Turkey, of which I am really glad to have done.

Bahrain is a truly remarkable country for its size in the region and has been ‘my very comfortable home from home’ thanks to the leadership of His Majesty King Hamad bin Isa Al Khalifa, HRH the Crown Prince, HRH the Prime Minister and previously the late Amir Shaikh Isa bin Salman Al Khalifa, who have made this one of the most welcoming countries in the whole wide world for people of all nationalities, cultures and religions.

I would like to wish all the people and friends I have worked with over the years the very best of luck for the future and hope we meet up again sometime?

Good luck to Bahrain, I will never forget you and hope you prosper for years to come!!

I am going back to Anglesey, North Wales, which coincidentally is similar to Bahrain in size, with the two main islands connected by causeways and bridges and the highest (Jebel/Mountain) points being similar as well.

Say no more!!!