Happy Birthday Minerva

Our nanny/maid is 35 today. Happy birthday, Minerva!

We bought her a cake and some champagne and San Miguel beers to share with friends, some chocolates and some money to buy something nice for herself. I think she was appreciative - we are certainly appreciative of everything she does for us. She has been brilliant throughout the troubles here - particularly in looking after our house and things whilst we were away, not knowing how long we were going to be gone for. She's great with the kids and is an absolute cleaning fairy!

Today we are all home early from school. At about 11am, in the middle of lesson, the embassy informed everyone that there was going to be a very large funeral happening in Sar where we live for a 15 year old Bahraini boy found shot dead in the village last night whilst the demonstrations/fighting were going on. So we were all sent home at 12pm. I left at 11.30 so I could go pick up the girls from school - they were so excited to see me waiting outside their classroom doors with all the other mums...makes me well up.

Last night was a pretty noisy evening - lots of shots, helicopters, tear gas once again (the air was very smoky as well - not sure if it was the tear gas that had been blown towards us in the wind or smoke from fires/Molotov cocktails or whatever. I made sure we were all inside for the late afternoon / evening as friends on the compound just down the street got caught in tear-gas the other day and were not very well after it at all.

We also heard three loud explosions - but apparently people set fire to their gas cylinders in the villages, so it could have been that. It's funny how you sort of get used to certain noises that would be frightening normally - like gunshots - but then something different happens, like a loud boom and your mind races once again and you become super-sensitive to every noise after that.

Anyway.

We are home. Listening to the Anneka Rice equivalent above! (Remember her? I used to love that program) and waiting to find out whether we can go to the Dilmun with the kids for a swim or if we are going to spend yet another weekend day stuck at home.

I'm supposed to be going to a housewarming party in Sar tonight to my Irish friend Jen's. Not sure whether it will happen now.

Gwen's First Dhow Trip

Having trouble with my picasa and photo uploading - I keep turning the pic round but it keeps flipping back again. Anyway. All that's important to know from this sign, apart from the obvious spelling errors, (which we can forgive a second language person for), is that on no uncertain terms, whilst on this particular boat, you MUST NOT smole. Smole? Smole? Schmole? I would love to know what 'smoling' is. Answers on a postcard please - and try to keep it clean!

The last afternoon with the Aussie side of the family, before they flew back to Melbourne, we went out on a dhow. Gwen had never been on a dhow, so this was a fab opportunity for her.

It was a beautiful day and the boat was really simple but lovely. For the equivalent of 40 pounds for the 8 of us, we had the whole boat for an hour's cruise. Not bad really.

We had a wonderful time sailing through the crystal clear turquoise waters. Doha has quite a beautiful skyline.

Whilst we admired the view, the kids all passed out! Must be that gently womb-like rocking of the boat!

Last Swim before back to Bahrain

The pools at the Ramada Plaza are fabulous for kids - there is one completely devoted for water play. The kids had a ball.

Andrew had a ball at the sunken pool bar.

Fun At The Dilmun

A couple of nights before things went pear-shaped, we took the in-laws to the Dilmun for swimming and dinner and drinks with our friends Jamie & Rachel & Emma & Stu and kids. I am always blown away by how well all our kids get on (all girls!) and Stephie fit in so well with them all. This is the girls posing in the sports bar, as it got too cold sitting out by the swimming pool to sit outside! Whilst the kids were having fun, us adults spent much of the evening watching Al Jazeera news - all of us panicking in different ways at what seemed to be our home rapidly getting becoming out of control.

Safe.

Ok. Been a while since I wrote properly. So, the day after writing my 'We're OK post', Bahrain imploded. We were 'urged' to leave/evacuate by the embassy and the school - which led to full-scale panic here in Bahrain. The embassy started putting on charter planes for people to get out who couldn't get out by commercial means, as the army took over the country.

I need to be careful what I write here, so won't say anything more. Except that we left for four nights to Doha, had a fantastic time with the family who then made their way back to Melbourne after their holiday was cut short! And then we were called back by the school and government to teach our examination kids and then this week, have gone to full time teaching all the year groups and from today, and for the next 5 weeks of teaching, have extended days and timetables to try to recoup some of the lost teaching time.

School has been interesting, as we started with very low numbers, but gradually, each day, more families are coming back. There are, still, though, many families/companies who remain away so classes are small.

We are safe. But, there is trouble every afternoon/evening. We don't venture out at night, unless it's to just around the corner to friends or to the Dilmun Club. We know that 'we' are not targets. As I type, we are hearing helicopters, gunshots, tear gas canisters popping. This is a regular occurance at the moment. All the outbreaks are being controlled by the defense forces.

I have more updating to do, but will get to it soon.

As for now, we are carrying on as normally as possible, getting used to the sounds of protests, fighting, seeing tanks and army and going through checkpoints.

Life is still good, albeit unsettling.

Hotel Fun

After two days staying at the most gorgeous apartment hotel - The Kempinski Suites. (On our arrival to the hotel I think the reception felt very sorry for us being refugees and upgraded us from a one bedroom suite to a four bedroom suite - BONUS!!!) It was fab, and had a great pool, a kids club! Howvere, it was very pricey, so for the last two nights, we booked into the Ramada Plaza hotel - the hotel we stayed in last year for our interviews in Doha and where I stayed the previous weekend with my students.

Anyway. I am digressing.

Our second last night in Doha, we went out to the Italian restaurant at our hotel for a family meal. It was a great night, where we drunk far too much wine, ate far too much pasta and then stayed drinkign in our hotel room till the wee small hours - I think actually, Andrew and I had almost fallen asleep/passed out by the time the in-law clan taxied it home!

Gwen and Fiona showing off their Doha gold souk buys!

Family hilarity!

Birthday Cake & Marine Expo

This is the first of three cakes we had for Andrew for his birthday. After blowing out a whole 50 candles, we panicked that the smoke alarms were going to go off!

Keith & Kay took us to Qatari Beach and Marina to visit the Marine Expo that was on. Wasn't the greatest of expos, but we got to see the Doha Film Institute and amphitheatre and arts/cultural museum which was interesting.

Andrew's 50th Birthday

Green Party Dinner - cheeky cousins tucking into dessert!

So.....the Green Party, planned to have about 50 adults and 20 kids on Friday 18th was, ocourse, cancelled/postponed as we flew/evacuated to Doha on the morning of his birthday. I will try to update with more news of our leaving, but things here are so crazy busy and stressful - as they certainly were then also! However, I think Andrew had a lovely birthday in Doha - we went to the JW Marriot hotel for an all inclusive free flow buffet dinner with Gwen, Fi, Gary, Stephie and Keith & Kay who came to spend the weekend with us in our hotel apartment. A gorgeous night out!

Daddy's girlies.

Fun with a Cousin!

Annalise & Stephie having a cuddle/squeeze/slight suffocation moment!

Fun in the bathie!

Juliette making very attractive faces!

We're Ok

Just thought I'd write and say that at the moment, we are safe and well.
Things are very unsettled here and we are relying on news reports and facebook postings to tell us what is happening. The embassies are emailing us reguarly throughout the day with reports and safety warnings.
The US embassy have told their citizens to evacuate. The British embassy are saying to stay at home and not go anywhere.
So we are staying indoors, keeping our heads down and getting very bored!
Last night was a little worrying as in our village where our compound is, there were riots and disturbances and we had ambulances and helicopters and tear gas within walking distance away. We were completely safe though.
Our compound upped the security from one guard to at least 10 and vigilantes barricaded the roads in and out of compounds to stop the violent protesters coming near.
We are hearing all kinds of rumours - but can't do much about anything until things become more concrete and we are informed of what to do by our school and the embassy.
The airport is open, but roads getting there are pretty much blocked by rebels.
Apparently Qatari armies are arriving as I type, although it's not on the news yet, but photographs on facebook show them coming across the causeway from Saudi so if it's true, we now have most of the GCC state military forces here to lend support to the King.
We'll just have to see.
We are safe and we are well. We are stocked up and can still get supplies if we run out.
Andrew even had booze delivered today!
The only thing we can't get easily is petrol, so if we do need to escape, we would probably only have enough in our tanks to get to the airport or across the causeway to Saudi.
I don't think it'll come to that!
Will keep you updated.
We are not panicing.
We are getting on with daily life, just shut up at home.
We even plan to have a BBQ for dinner!

Karaoke at Beijing Chinese Restaurant

Andrew singing Rolling Stones numbers.....he got 99/100 - no idea why, cause to me it was just LOUD!!! But hilarious!

Gorgeous food, far too much alcohol and a hangover the next day that I do NOT want to repeat in a while!

Birthday Cake

Again, as I did for Juliette's birthday, I bought three plain chocolate cakes of different sizes and then Annalise and I decorated them last night with sprinkles and cadbury's flake and M&M's and icing to make a special Princess wedding-style cake for her. It was yummy!

Making wishes!

Family Photos. Ahhhhh!

Annalise's Belated Party

Waiting for the party to start with their cousin, Stephie! Triplets!

Playing games, disco dancing and stuffing faces with fried food galore!

We have a couple of Year 9 girls we know who we paid a little bit of pocket money to come to the party and do 'makeovers', 'tatoos' and face painting. The kids loved it!!

Friday Brunch with the Australian side!