TBK travels- OMG, just 20 working days to go

From the depths of the Underground River to the scary heights of Bato Ni Ningning

On 4th January 2020 we drove up a long and winding track at the end of the 14km long beach at St Vicente to the viewpoint known as Bato Ni Ningning, where I overcame my fear of heights ( with Chester's help) to climb the rock for this spectacular view of the 14 km beach below

The green lush grass at the viewpoint is an Instagram-perfect location with its jaw dropping background of long beach. You have to pay 20 pesos for the entrance fee

Source: https://rarelygohome.com/san-vicente-travel-guide-2019-the-next-boracay

accessed 27.12.2020

So one year on, what have I been up to? I worked on New Year's eve, the only person in our building to do so , apart from our Janitor , Rakesh. My delegates were told to get their assignments in by the end of the year ( they were due back in November) and I received 10 to mark in the last week, the last arriving at 3 pm on 31st December

I surprised the world by going to bed at 7 pm on New Year's eve and was up at 3.30 am on New Years day cooking breakfasts for my houseboys and gardeners who arrived at 5.45 am

New year's day breakfast for Jake and Corleen

At 11 am we went to see the Annual Awali England Vs Scotland Football match and met up with many colleagues and their families. Since I stopped running the Awali Swimming Club bar in 2011 I rarely mix with the Awali community and so it was nice to catch up and see all the 7 yr old's that are now 17 years old

The Grandson of one of my former colleagues

In the afternoon, after lunch at Café Dome, my friend Joshua came to collect his Christmas presents from Miss Andrea and I, and his cousin bought some compost and a plant

Joshua's presents

On Jan second I did some more Indian cooking for my neighbours ( Gujarat Vegetable samosa and Onion Bhaji). For my Nephew Anis I made Lahore Lamb Biryani and Rakesh , our Janitor, got his favourite Hot Punjabi Prawn Curry with Mint and Onion Raita and Kulfi with almond and coriander ( ice cream) for his 22nd Birthday on 3rd January. I also made a Kerala fish curry for my gardener, Shji

You can read all about my mass curry cooking session in another Blog called Curry Nation

Curry Nation Blog

Hot Punjabi Prawn Curry for Rakesh on his 22nd Birthday

On Jan 2 evening I took my Thai friend , Kingpromtu, to the new Thai mart shopping centre where we had a Thai meal. The place is advertised as open but only 25% was. It is supposed to be "the best of Thailand but it was mostly staffed by Filipinos and the sweets were being sold in the shops 400% more expensive than anywhere else in Bahrain

Thai Mart in Bahrain opposite Dragon city

Back at work on 4 Jan everyone was back in the office and the noise was terrible. There were guys sitting around discussing movies and jokes, people taking calls or having meetings on Microsoft Teams etc. By contrast I prefer to work in silence marking my assignments. As we were told Blackboard was going on 31 December, we wrote to all our delegates to ask them to email me their outstanding assignments. I had 20 arrive in a few weeks, some going back to 2019! Each one takes an hour to mark and type and many had to be done again as they did not meet the high ILM standards

Leadership and Motivation, first time around .

In between marking I had to run catch up sessions online for those who missed the original sessions last year and for which we did not have recordings. It is hard enough running a session 30 times for 30 groups over 11 years, and far worse having to repeat it again, especially when only one person turned up! Well at least !I did my bit

We can no longer take photos for the blog as all the camera batteries have died !and the charger is on the way to the Philippines

John and Joe deliver the final ILM 3 session as I press the

recording button and read out the messages to our guest presenters

I changed roles for the final ILM 3 session and became Executive Producer recording the online workshops taking attendance and reading out messages for our guest presenters John and Joe on the Writing your Project workshop

- Two of the four delegates for my final customer care course on 8th January

I ran one final Customer Care workshop for the Hospital Reception team on Friday 8^th January, with my favourite Pinoy receptionists on. However she since left and I found her working as a waitress at a Thai restaurant in Juffair! As we do not get paid overtime for working on our day off I get to leave Bahrain one day early on 10.2.21. Next jobs are to book my flights, accommodation in Manila for 2 weeks quarantine and get my Retiree Visa ( No, I still didn't get it!)

Jamie Oliver Recipe book..... My Christmas gift from Miss Andrea

Last Saturday I had to go shopping and I spent the week making some recipes from another cook book I received for Christmas, from Miss Andrea

I have also being doing some research for my new life in the Philippines by reading the book below , charrot

The next day I had another plant sale when I made another 500 bd from selling all the plants Shji and I have grown fed and watered over the last 11 years