Flip through the latest issue of Gulf Weekly.
"Be sure to be at the helipad at one o'clock. Don't be late," I was told by the ever-efficient and lovely Sarah Al Fayez at the Ministry of Information.
The Ministry is helping me to put together a big photographic book on the kingdom and London-based professional photographer Terry McCormick had asked for an aerial tour of the island.
So it was that Terry and I reported to the helicopter centre at Manama's police fort to be greeted by Major Khalid and Flt Lt Mohammed and a third crew member in an orange jumpsuit whose name was torn away by the roar of the rotor blades.
The side doors of the aircraft were taken off and Terry and I were anchored by a 'monkey harness' so that we could lean out with our feet hanging down.
Terry's camera weighed about three kilogrammes, definitely a Formula One version of my little family runabout snapper. "I hope you're not frightened of heights," said Mr Orange jumpsuit through my headphones. "Don't worry; my job is to make sure you don't fall out!"
We did a tour of the whole island, from the airport down to the BIC and back. There were some astonishing views, most notably the immense area of reclaimed land off the Budaiya shoreline which is being prepared for a whole new town for the residents of northwest Bahrain.
Another highlight was coming low over my home compound. My wife Meriel had been warned we might do this, but was still mighty startled out of her afternoon nap.
I had first seen Bahrain from the air in 1968 from the tiny window of a BOAC Vickers Super VC10, which circled the island before landing at Muharraq.
Then the island lived up to its reputation as the 'Garden of the Gulf,' because the northern region was covered in palm tress. Sadly, there are not many left now.
The northern region is built up and covered with sweeping highways.
The iconic Bahrain Financial Harbour towers and the World Trade Centre spikes presage a whole 'new look' for this delightful little country.
As we came into land, I could only give thanks for a safe return and thought that at least Bahrain's kind and hospitable people have remained much the same over the last 40 years or so.
I was afraid of heights, but I didn't tell Ahmed, whose name I grasped once we had landed and the terrible racket of the helicopter's engine had stopped.
But I'm not now. Two hours hanging out of a helicopter rising to 5,000 feet had cured me of that phobia.
