What a nice weekend it was for me. I had pretty much the perfect mix of socialization and alone time. I got up to watch the world cup qualifying match between Bahrain and New Zealand. The kiwis won, 1-0 or 1-nil, and Bahrain won’t go to the World cup now. Everyone here is pretty disappointed. Bahrain is such a small country, that going to a prominent global event is a big deal. Honestly you people outside of Bahrain, how many of you heard about it before I came here? I didn’t know it was a country either til I moved to Saudi Arabia. Its pretty small and obscure. I was talking with a friend about it, life here is still really surreal. I’ll be moving to Amwaj Island in January. My friend that married the Romanian wants me to live in his villa. The cool thing is the villa back up to a canal that leads to the gulf. So in my backyard I have a beautiful gulf view and the water is very calm. So I get to dock my kayak in my backyard, How cool is that. My friend Ms. Florida said it looked like a vacation resort. It really does. It feels like Im on a working vacation. Now I’ve enumerated many many times how much I love my job. But its been quite troubling with the difficult clients and cash flow issues to continue to love what I do. I excel in the creative/production realm. I am good at the business management sales side, but Im not great. Clint Eastwood said in Magnum Force as Dirty Harry “A man’s got to know his limitations.” Before he blew away the bad guy. So with the restructuring of the office with Nader taking a more business management role, and me focusing in on production, I think we will be OK. That will put me in an area of my strength. It’s been expected of me to do everything. But when I have to write, produce, edit, not one project but three with a tough deadline, my focus was somewhat divided. Fortunately we have navigated through the financial crisis point and are doing better now.
After the game the three of us that watched the soccer match when shopping in the downtown Muharraq souq. That was quite interesting. I wanted to bring along my friend Moody, since he’s Bahraini. He negotiated for me. The vendors see my white skin coming and think American tourist and jack up the prices five times. So that was an adventure. We didn’t get everything we needed but we got a lot of stuff…pretty cheap too.
I came back to play Darren another match at squash. We really enjoy playing each other because we are so evenly matched. I think he might be just a tiny bit better than me for the moment but we swing back and forth, but please don’t tell him. Our matches our sooooo intense we really give absolutely everything but you will never find two better examples of sportsmanship. When each of us makes incredible shots (incredible in our minds) we cheer each other on. Neither of us likes to lose, but its more important to play with grace and dignity.
I came back home and I’ve been relaxing ever since. Oh yesterday, I ran into Syd Bell at the British Club. Syd is a nice guy and he was the main contractor/point person for our video projects for the port. I call him the voice of reason. It was just after a squash match, and I was looking pretty grungy. I asked him if he ever played squash. He said…let me tell you a story about squash. He said, I’ve played squash for 25 years in Scotland, I used to coach and teach professionals. About four years ago in that court right there (the court I just finished playing in) I was teaching a student and I got hit in the eye with the squash ball. That is the only time I’ve ever been hit in 25 years. I’ve had six eye operations since then, and my right eye is currently being held together by plastic. I can no longer exercise at all, and I can’t lift my right arm above my head. I went out and bought a pair of goggles the next day. I’ll be wearing them from here on out.
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