December 20th 2003. I'm off to Riyadh tomorrow and won't be back until about 5PM on Christmas Eve so I've just sent a load of electronic Christmas to friends. If you're reading this you probably got one ! We'd love to hear from you so why not drop us a line instead of watching yet another repeat of the Great Escape and let us know how you are.....
December 13th 2003. I thought I was going to avoid it but I've finally succumbed to the flu that Liz has been nourishing for the last 10 days. It's only fair - it's usually me that gives it to her.....
December 6th 2003. Well, that's the Fast Frisky 40's participation in the Bahrain Marathon Relay over for another year. First our captain debunks to Antarctica and then our vice-captain decides to have a detached retina the week before the race so he can boast he's had them both done ! Cue David....Fortunately it all went well although not without a last minute panic when I discovered just before the start of my second leg (leg 10) that if a female (woman or child) was running the last leg (16) she had to wear trousers, and yes of course, I had scheduled probably our fastest runner, a non-male, Canadian female type of person, running leg 16 and no, she certainly wasn't wearing trousers nor was she likely to be persuaded to ! A lot of fast driving after I finished my leg to swap runners 15 and 16 and almost no-one would have known if I hadn't had to get half of the team to help me ! For full results see The 2003 Bahrain Marathon Relay results page
November 25th 2003. Ramadan is finally over so it'll soon be time to put up the Christmas Tree. This year we'll dress the top section before we join it to the middle section so we don't have to risk life and limb at the top of a ladder trying to put the ormaments on it !
November 2nd 2003. Anyone want to buy a lovely plot of land in an up-market golf development in Florida ? It's been on the market for ages but the US housing market is very slow.
November 1st 2003. Back from 10 days at a Computer show in Dubai, and now up to my eyes in work. And, oh joy, it's Ramadan ! No food or drink in public during the hours of daylight. No coffee shops or similar "pleasures". Day shift becomes night shift. Only 3 weeks to go and then it'll once more be time to find out how much slower I've got that last year - the Marathon Relay on December 5th - last year's 3K in 12:56 to beat....
September 12th 2003. Back from a lovely vacation. We went back to UK as it was Liz's parents' Golden Wedding on August 17th. After a super evening at a country pub we took them up to Scotland on a magical mystery tour that started with a trip to the Edinburgh Military Tattoo and finished in York. Loads of pictures have been uploaded and a link added to the photos page.
April 1st 2003. It's been a very long time since I updated our site.....that's because I lost my job 2 days after the last update. It's taken a while but I have a new job as Country Manager, Saudi Arabia for OKI, a Japanese printer manufacturer. A very good job with a very good company. I'm very glad not to be working for a Saudi any more - I did not enjoy my job at all for the last 2 years.
September 14th 2002. And just when we thought it was safe to get back in the water........we went to hit some balls at Riffa yesterday morning at 08:30. Liz lasted 2/3 of a basket. I gamely ploughed on till I'd only 7 balls left. Thoughts of a second basket were far from my mind as I towelled off after every other shot ! The cause - unbelievably horrendous weather - very hot, no breeze and 100% humidity. Summer is definitely not over ! Cool towels and a half of Stella with a bacon butty for breakfast in the 19th helped immeasurably, even if I did feel like I'd just stepped out of the pool. What's even worse was I was hitting the ball well - only one wayward shot out of 53 shots with an 8 iron.
September 7th 2002. Our best man Ernie has won a match-play golf tournament at his home club of Kenilworth. It's only taken him 20 years but he's finally learnt how to put into practice all those match-play secrets I taught him in the IBM Golfing Society . Well done, Ernie !
July 14th 2002. We're on the move (again). We're leaving the small compound where we've lived for the last 13 months to a private villa about 3km away, near where we used to live. The area is better, the house is better (it has 4 bedrooms and 4 bathrooms but a slightly smaller lounge and less storage space) and we're hopeful (based on what we've seen so far) that the landlord will be better too.
May 24th 2002. It's getting hot. Over 100F and rising humidity.
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