Write to the Editor

It was also lovely to see the article by Too Hot To Trot columnist Helen Blake in GulfWeekly regarding the charity event held at Twin Palms Riding Centre in memory of my mother Chrissie.

The community of Bahrain has contributed greatly to our fundraising efforts for drug development at The Royal Marsden Hospital and for that we will be forever grateful.

My sister Caroline and I hope to travel to Bahrain this May and we are very much looking forward to coming home.

- Sarah Parker, London.

Thank you for the prize in your recent VIVA competition. My wife absolutely loves it.

- Fayez Abubacker, winner of the Samsung  S3 Mini.

I just wanted to let you know that you are showing the old times for Al Basta Market in Riffa in your leisure section. This has changed to 3pm to 9pm on both Friday and Saturday until the end of market on May 25. 
- Fetooh, by email.

Editor’s note: Thank you for updating us. See Leisure Guide on Page 8.
 

Renault engines will power four of the Formula One racing teams involved in the 2013 championship – Lotus, Caterham, Williams and current world champions, Infiniti Red Bull Racing.

The Renault-powered Lotus F1 team took the first win of the season at the Australian Grand Prix in Melbourne. As reported in last week’s GulfWeekly, the 2007 world champion, Kimi Raikkonen, started on the seventh grid and secured his win 12 seconds ahead of Fernando Alonso in the Ferrari and current World Champion Sebastian Vettel in the Renault-powered Infiniti Red Bull car.

His decisive move came on lap 9 when he changed to medium tyres and avoided unnecessary pit stops that hampered other teams.

The association with Formula One has helped Renault to attain global leadership in engine technology – and this is being passed down into their cars and commercial vehicles. The issues with reliability that beset the brand years ago are now gone and Renault’s are now one of the most reliable cars on the road today.

YK Almoayyed and Sons, the Renault dealer in Bahrain, offer a range of vehicles to suit all tastes from the stylish Fluence and Safrane, to the rugged Duster and Koleos – all of which have engines developed from years of F1 involvement.

For more information on how you can own your very own F1-inspired car, visit the Renault showroom in Sitra or call 17702081 for more information.

- Ranjit Nair,  senior sales manager,  YK Almoayyed and Sons.

We were a bit surprised to see the Page 1 article in GulfWeekly (Issue 11) about the Volvo Golf Champions.

We question which ‘reliable sources’ have told GulfWeekly that the event will return in 2014 as part of the swing through the desert after two years of being banished to different courses in South Africa.

We have never spoken to Mr Flanders at the Royal Golf Club and we would just like to clarify again, as my colleague wrote in his email to you, that the venue for Volvo Golf Champions 2014 has not yet been decided.

Hence, there is no truth that ‘sources’ have told GulfWeekly that an official announcement will be made after the Gulf Air Bahrain Grand Prix.

Regarding the 2014 venue, Volvo is the one choosing where to go, not the European Tour, nor a venue, so when we have a release about that I will be more than happy to share.

- Anna Hafström Kováts,
communications director, Volvo Event  Management – Golf,
Gothenburg, Sweden.

Editor’s note: Our reliable sources are the same ones who correctly revealed, before press releases were issued, that the European Tour event was COMING to Bahrain and was later being REMOVED from the Royal Golf Club, despite a senior Volvo executive publicly stating the next European Tour would start in the kingdom.

It was never suggested in GulfWeekly’s article that Volvo Event Management – Golf had spoken to Mr Flanders, the Royal Golf Club’s general manager, and it was clearly reported that an official European Tour spokesman had said ‘negotiations for next year’s venue are on-going’.

With this in mind, suggestions that a course in Oman is attempting to snatch it away from Bahrain and confidently predicting it will stage the tournament in 2014 are being investigated.

A friend of the Whisperer enjoyed a short trip to London at the weekend and enjoyed the company of a dedicated Bahraini shopper who ended up worse for wear after going on an all-day shopping spree in a pair of high heels.

However, she will not be the only one needing a lie down to recover; she had been using her father’s credit card.

He received an anxious call from his bank informing him that his card had been used in several stores over a short period of time at a top designer shopping attraction in the UK in the classic manner of a stolen one.

As he had no idea his daughter had even left the kingdom he made a frantic call to her mobile phone. Fortunately, his youngest daughter was able to reassure him that the card was still ‘safe’ in her hands.
Was he annoyed? No, he was simply happy that she was enjoying herself. “I’m his favourite,” she explained.