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WELL-LOVED and respected teacher-trainer Diane Lindsay, who has spent 35 wonderful years in Bahrain, has bid farewell to the kingdom.
She came to the island as an adventurous 23-year-old Gulf Air 'hostie' and ended up touching the lives of countless students who she has helped train, find work placements or simply guide through career-enhancing tests.
And, in a farewell message to all the friends she has made and the acquaintances she has met, Diane, turned to GulfWeekly, her favourite community newspaper, to formally say goodbye.
She said: "In a way I want to say thank you to everybody for making it such an enjoyable place to live for all these years. All my jobs were 'customer facing' and as a result there are hundreds and hundreds of people out there whom I can't possibly say goodbye to personally. I just wish I could!"
Her training career started with Gulf Air and then progressed in the Bahrain Training Institute in Isa Town and Gulf College of Hospitality and Tourism in Muharraq and finally culminated at the British Council in Salmaniya where she managed the examinations department.
On the eve of her departure, Diane, 58, from Sanad, said: "I came, like lots of people, on a short-term contract that goes on to five years and then seven and then you just stop counting.
"I can remember thinking when I was here for two or three years and I met anyone who had been here for around seven years, it seemed like a lifetime, an eternity. Little did I realise that it would go on for even longer for me!
"Bahrain is just such a comfortable place to live in. I love the country and I love the people. I have absolutely no regrets and I have enjoyed my time here."
Diane worked at Gulf Air for 13 years and advanced to become one of the most senior expatriate employees in charge of training. Among her most treasured memories of her time with the airline was being involved in taking special state-of-the-art aircraft to an international air show at Farnborough in the UK.
She said: "Gulf Air at the time had the most luxurious aircraft ever seen and one, for example, had gold liveried seats for the first class passengers.
"It's wonderful how you remember the little things. The good times were the early times when there were less crew and everybody knew everybody else. Everyone was a name and not a number.
"When the Royal Family used to travel, the flights used to be known as VIP charters. I remember taking His Majesty King Hamad, before he became King, on a trip and the wife of the late Amir (His Highness Shaikh Isa bin Salman Al Khalifa) on a couple of flights. I was never worried about doing these VIP flights despite the fact that there was so much hype that went around them. In reality they were the loveliest of passengers."
Speaking about the unique friendliness of the kingdom, she remembers being offered a cup of tea when she first went to get her Bahraini driving licence and how business was often conducted on the basis of trust and a handshake.
But not all things were so informal back in the 1970s. One of her vivid recollections was the style of interview individuals had to go through if they wanted to join the British Club.
She said: "To join you had to be invited to a cocktail party and arrive in full evening dress. Men had to wear bow ties and dinner jackets and you were given a checklist of senior members. You had to go around and introduce yourself to everyone on the list, around seven in total, talk to them for five minutes and then ask them to sign whether they approved of you joining the club."
After Gulf Air, Diane worked as a catering manageress at the Oasis Hotel Al Waha, now known as the City Centre Hotel, and also ran a coffee shop. She then took a course in teaching English and began a course called 'passport to work' at the Bahrain Training Institute.
Six-years later she joined the Gulf College of Hospitality and Tourism where she was involved in everything from training students on event management to airline ticketing and placement services.
Her years of teaching in both colleges helped her span the generation gap. She explained: "I have actually trained a Gulf Air recruit and gone on to train his 20-year-old son!
"I was working with many young Bahrainis who had left school and had a lot of potential but really did not know how to get jobs.
"I didn't want to be just a teacher but wanted them to learn from us doing things together. It was not just standing up and talking ... but showing somebody how to do it and then encouraging them and teaching them until they could do it themselves.
"I found it very rewarding. A lot of the students I trained had little confidence at first in their own ability to achieve but after the appropriate training they flourished and bloomed, earned the necessary certificates and qualifications and found a job - that was fantastic.
"Wherever I went after that, whether it was the supermarket or the hospital, somebody would always run up to me and say: 'Hello teacher, do you remember me?'"
The kingdom brought love into her life too. Diane met her husband Graeme, from New Zealand, who worked as a land surveyor for the Government of Bahrain. Together, they shared a passion for water sports, sailing, diving and jet skiing and at one point owned four boats, four windsurfers, two dinghies, a kayak, a couple of white boards and a water ski. They also ran with the Hash House Harriers, kept time for the Bahrain Marathon Relay and worked closely with the BSPCA.
Now the couple have officially retired but their new adventure begins with a long holiday that starts in Turkey, moves on to the UK and will eventually end in New Zealand.
Diane said: "In a moment of madness we bought a holiday home in Turkey near the Bodrum Peninsula and it is near four big marinas. No high-rise villas, everything is just two or three stories, with bougainvilleas and hibiscus.
"After spending a few weeks there we will move on to the UK where we have a boat. Over the next two or three European summers the idea is to sail down the canals and get the boat to the Mediterranean and into Turkey but our long-term plan is to retire to New Zealand and take the boat with us.
"We have always spoken of retiring to New Zealand because of the water and the loads of things we can do there," she explained, "such as camping, tramping, walking and just relaxing and being one with nature."
Friends who have missed saying goodbye to Diane can email her on diane_lindsay@hotmail.com
