Flip through the latest issue of Gulf Weekly.
GO ON, spoil yourself, I thought. You've worked hard and all your expat workmates and playmates have packed their bags and returned for a soggy spell back in their homeland to escape the harsh Bahrain summer.
You have decided to brave the weather and stay in the kingdom.
And your prize for saving yourself from the misery of waiting endlessly in airport queues and visiting family members more interested in moaning about the economy, the cost of fuel and the rising price of heating their homes ... is an overnight stay at the Ritz-Carlton Bahrain Hotel & Spa.
And to do it properly, the only place to book is a villa, with breakfast and, of course, your own personal private lifestyle butler.
That's how the Szecowka family ended up splashing about in a private pool located outside one of the jewels of the complex which also boasts its own beach and terrace.
The good lady wife Kathryn, our two children, Imogen, nine and Stan, five, were joined by my eldest son, Louis, 18, celebrating three straight A passes in his A'level exams and wishing he had joined us on our adventure to Bahrain instead of staying behind in Bristol to finish his studies.
I did explain to him that putting on the Ritz was not a usual occurrence and this experience was to be soaked up for all it was worth.
The normal cost of having a taste of the high life for a couple for one night is BD1,300 plus taxes (extra for the kids) although there are some relative bargains to be had during the summer months ... so it's worth checking out the price before dismissing the suggestion out of hand.
The 23 exclusive villas were recently named one of the 'Top 101 Hotel Suites in the World' by the US magazine Elite Traveller and also featured in the prestigious Architectural Digest.
They were built by the government of Bahrain soon after 2000 to host the Gulf Co-operation Council Summit and in 2003 Ritz-Carlton was offered the management of the hotel complex.
"Bahrain is a holiday destination for the Arab world," Jean-Marie Lascelles Lloyd, a designer with the Bahrain firm Decovar Orient, which 'reimagined' the interiors of the villas in the summer of 2007, told the international magazine of design.
"The brief was to create a holiday feeling," notes the designer. "The exteriors have the peaked roofs, clapboards and gingerbread trim of Caribbean villas. As it happens, the gingerbread is also characteristic of late-19th and early-20th Century European architecture in Bahrain."
There is a collection of Bubble Club sofas and chairs on the terrace in tan and bright yellow, designed by Philippe Starck.
And, the insides of the villas are particularly breath-taking with added Asian touches, including teak floors and finishes.
I was particularly intrigued by the design of the book shelves on the wall which, in an optical illusion, gave an impression that the books were defying gravity.
The TV screen in the living room was huge, even by today's standards, but the bathroom was where the sybaritic existence really kicked in.
The tub is filled from the ceiling and the walls are glass. Outside planting ensures one's privacy remains intact but the overall aim is to make the experience like bathing in a tropical waterfall in a castaway movie from the 1940s.
Each villa has three bedrooms and affluent Saudi families are known to take a block and stay for several weeks. Guests sometimes bring their own cooks but the hotel provides each 5,000-square-foot villa with a 'private lifestyle butler'.
The butler business encouraged former British national newspaper editor Piers Morgan to wax lyrical about his similar stay in Bahrain.
And I can fully appreciate why, because Hany Mohammed Abdel Salam, my villa butler, was the crme de le crme of the company - like a perfect friend, always by your side when you need him and invisible when you don't.
Like magic he memorised the favourite drinks and food each member of the family favoured and made friends with each one.
"It's really down to common sense," he told me. "With experience you can watch the guests and know what is required and the main thing is not to get in the way.
"Take food, for example, if people are engaged in a conversation it may mean that you serve from the left, rather than the right, to avoid interrupting them. A good butler should be flexible."
So Hany, or 'honey' as the children called him, must have seen a few funny things during his eight years working for Ritz-Carlton, I assumed. Any gossip about Piers I could share with my journalist friends back in Blighty? The normally chatty Hany smiled knowingly, a good butler, it appears, never tells. But the resort's team is happy to shout loud about the villas ... and who can blame the staff.
They have had a particular spring in their steps ever since Elite Traveller, published in New York, rated them so highly in the worldwide bi-monthly luxury travel magazine for those who enjoy the 'private jet lifestyle'.
"We are proud of being honoured with such a great recognition for our unique suite product, the villas, offering a tranquil haven with breathtaking views over the Arabian Gulf. The luxurious villas have been elevated to a class of their own to fulfil the vision of becoming one of the best resort destinations worldwide," said Bernard N Viola, general manager.
Well, if you've got it, flaunt it.
