Flip through the latest issue of Gulf Weekly.
One of the great bonuses of having a column in a newspaper is that it gives you a chance to publicly give credit where credit's due. In this particular case, I really want to take a few minutes out to sing the praise of the British consulate.
I had to take a last minute trip recently and as I couldn't leave my son home alone, he needed to come with me. Fine, in theory, but when I double-checked his passport I realised that it was due to expire soon after our return and he might not be let back into Bahrain when we got back.
I called the embassy and was directed to the Consulate where they confirmed my suspicions and told me I needed to get it renewed before I left. Only one problem, getting a new passport takes anything from two to four weeks and I had to be out of the country in less than a week (having discovered that my flight was actually leaving a day earlier than I'd thought).
Unfazed, they told me to come down and fill in the forms as soon as possible and to cut a very long story short, had the new passport ready for me in less than 24 hours.
To the lady who moved heaven and earth for me: I'm sorry I never caught your name but you know who you are and THANK YOU for coming through so admirably in an emergency.
