Flip through the latest issue of Gulf Weekly.
It was definitely harder this year to say goodbye to my UK family and friends, despite optimistic plans for future get-togethers, there were too many tearful farewells, and I arrived back in Bahrain with a terrible bout of homesickness.
It wasn’t the moment my daughter got off the plane, and her glasses steamed up that made me miss the cooler weather. It wasn’t the idea of getting laughed at by walking outside that made me miss my long coastal and countryside walks. It wasn’t the big bright mall that made me miss the small shops, it wasn’t the Bahrain supermarkets that made me miss all my summer food options but I truly and utterly did miss England, my family and friends.
So for a few days like a bear with a sore head the hours and days slowly passed. Then one morning around day four, I woke with a little spring to my step, Skyped the family, filled the car with petrol without leaving the vehicle, valet parked to the hairdressers, found slimline tonic in the supermarket and then the kids had a night-time swim in our pool, neighbours returned and the blues were miraculously chased away.
Back with a new energy for a new school year, the last few days have been filled with back-to-school shopping; uniform, shiny shoes, lunch boxes, haircuts and endless pencils, whilst the evenings have been filled with last sleepovers and late nights.
Remarkably, we have all managed to wake to the 5.45am back-to-school alarm this week and the older kids have gone onto the school bus, and I have driven, cuddled and waved goodbye to the younger one.
The house is eerily quiet and nobody is calling out ‘mum, I’m bored’. No more PJs until noon and back to rigid routine, the morning rush, trading trips to the beach and family movie nights for new classrooms and nightly homework.
Just as I feel a pang of sadness on not having the children with me and the start of term coming round quicker every year, I get a text from a friend asking if I would like to meet for coffee, a Little Prints customer texts asking if I can do a hand and foot casting of her little boy and a call asking if I’m interested in a cookery class later in the week.
When is pick-up again?
