Flip through the latest issue of Gulf Weekly.
Hi everybody. Would you believe that this is my 50th article in Gulf Weekly? I've made it to a half a century!
I hope you've enjoyed my ramblings and hearing about my escapades over the past year. It's been a roller coaster ride for me, which I suppose is what life really is. There's always something unpredictable coming around the corner; which hopefully is not a train. (Not such a problem, here in Bahrain that!)
So anyway, onwards and forwards!
On New Years Eve I was DJ and Compere at the Diplomat Radisson SAS Hotel Residence and Spa. Over 700 people attended the evening and I worked for the second year running with a great group from England called the "Mannix" band. They comprise of six polished musicians.
The bass guitarist I recognised from the year previous and I asked him what he had been doing with himself. Well, he had just finished a tour with the one-and-only Lionel Ritchie all over the Far East and on his way back to England dropped off in Bahrain to do this gig. Wow, jet-setting, or what?
It was a very good night and the crowd danced to everything from the Beatles through to Akon. I love to play a variety of music. At about 11.45am when I'd got all the party music on, a lovely lady comes up to me and says please put on 'No woman, No cry' by Bob Marley and the Wailers. I said I'd play it later, but "No, NOW!" she insisted. I tried explaining that people were jumping up and down all over the place to Abba's 'Dancing Queen', but she was adamant that Bob Marley would go down a storm.
Luckily, I caught her husbands' eye and said to him 'definitely later' and he calmed her down for me. I mean, I was trying to get the crowd wound up for the midnight chimes which were only 15 minutes away!
Anyway, we brought in New Year with a bang and the night flew by. A special mention to Claudia, the belly dancer, who hails from of all places, Brazil! A country more noted for samba than belly dancing usually but she was fantastic.
My weary head touched the pillow at 5am. I was very grateful that I didn't have to do the radio breakfast show at 6am (thanks to Marie-Claire my fellow Gulf Weekly scribe) who sat in for me. Instead I did her show from 12pm til 3pm, which is a far more civilised time.
This week we filmed Music Mania at the Elite Resort and Spa on a beautiful Friday afternoon during their weekly Friday Funday.
I'm reading a book by UK chef Gorden Ramsey and did my best impersonation for the camera (but without the language).
I also got Paresh (the famous Voice FM DJ) to do the 60-second challenge interview; he had to answer my questions whilst jumping up and down on the bouncy castle.
He was shattered afterwards as we had to film it twice because during his exertions he dropped his mobile phone, wallet and keys, and half of the radio microphone too!
What a lovely afternoon we all had. Thanks going out to the staff and management too numerous to mention and special thanks to Sunhil for inviting us.
Whilst we were there we felt the first drops of winter rain and later that night (whilst we were at the cinema watching the Bee Movie) the heavens opened and we walked out into a mass of puddles.
My little Hannah splashed in them all and when we got her in the car to go home she had to take her jeans off because they were soaked. Whilst we slept that night there was a further downpour and when we woke the next day it was wonderful to feel the freshness in the air and see how clean everything looked.
To finish with I've just got to make a special mention of my favourite hometown football team Oldham Athletic, who defied all the odds to beat Premiership team Everton away in the FA Cup. So one of my New Year wishes is to see Oldham in the FA Cup Final! Fingers, toes and eyes firmly cross for good luck!
All my love
Til next week,
Krazy Kevin
