It’s going to be busy and emotional this week, what with all the kids going back to school or even starting for the first time.
What’s that noise I hear? Is it a sigh of relief from all the parents or is it a groan of dismay from the kids? When I was at school I hated going back after the long summer break. Actually, I hated going full-stop. Oh no! Memories are flooding back; like when our Maths Teacher Mr. Hill (we called him Benny) hit me over the head with a geometry book for messing about in class. But I wasn’t messing - I was just telling a joke. I think that if a teacher did that these days they would be up for child abuse although it didn’t do me much harm. We also had a French teacher who was somewhat pompous and liked to wear his BA graduate gown everyday. He would sweep grandly into the classroom with it billowing behind him. This amused me so much that it was almost inevitable that I would end up in detention for humming the Batman theme tune. Another teacher who left a lasting impression on me was our drama teacher Mrs Hawkins-Peregrine (what a name!) who was quite a large lady. If we forgot our lines when rehearsing the school play she would give a big bear hug and say: “There, there dearie, even the great Laurence Olivier sometimes fluffed his lines.” Thank goodness she didn’t say anymore or else we would have suffocated! Best of luck to all you kids going back to school. Whether or not you are looking forward to it or not almost doesn’t matter because the best thing about school is the mates you make, some of whom you will know and love your whole lives, and the stories you’ll fondly tell for years later! Riffa Golf Course has temporarily closed down as reported in the sports pages of GulfWeekly and I’m pretty miserable about it (as are plenty of other golf enthusiasts around Bahrain). But I suppose it’ll be worth it and just quietly … I’m pretty excited too because me and my family have decided to make the move to one day live at Riffa Views! Anyway, as a final get together for all the golf club members a farewell party was organised in the marquee and I was asked to DJ. The theme for the night was ‘Hawaiian’ so there were colourful shirts aplenty on show as you will see in today’s paper. What a perfect excuse for me to put on one of my more ‘understated’ numbers! I arrived early at 7pm and went behind the DJ console to get my music ready before the crowd arrived. There to greet me were about 50 of the biggest, meanest-looking ants you’ve ever seen, fighting over a very large beetle! Help! I hate creepy crawlies. Luckily one of the girls working at the club very bravely came over to sweep them all away. People soon began arriving and were wearing various degrees of fancy dress. Some guys had been in the last golf competition which had been organised by Richard Duncan of CFC (Caledonian Financing Company) fame. Boy, were they ‘appropriately’ dressed ready for the party! Now a gentleman who often gets a fair bit of ‘stick’ in my weekly articles is Riffa Golf course’s very own, and somewhat vertically challenged, Phil Jones. He was wearing a Brazilian football shirt and I asked him what he’d come as. He answered “Ronaldino, of course”. But I knew that really he was dressed as a Subbuteo player .. you know, the ones that are about 5cms tall and you flick them to kick the ball! A great night was had by all and I played all sorts of music from the 60s to the present day. Towards the end of the night a lady walked over and asked if she could collect donations for the BSPCA. A good cause, I thought, so I said, yes. She returned 20 minutes later with BD 67. Well done Vicky and Tina and thank you everybody else for your contributions. The doggies and cats give you a big “woof” and a “miaou” of appreciation. I kinda wonder what all these golf loving guys and girls will do with themselves whilst the golf course is closed. I reckon we might be seeing a few lost looking people wondering aimlessly on the streets of Bahrain with their golf trolleys in tow. Krazy Kevin