I left Cyprus on Thursday and took a flight to Bahrain. Phil was there to meet me and we spent the night at the Sheraton. Then on Friday morning we headed back to Saudi over the causeway into Dammam and then on to Riyadh. Nothing to see for miles and miles but sand and camels. Well we did stop to get petrol and what an amazing shopping centre was alongside it. As you can see from the photograph it wasn't worth getting out of the car for!
This pretty little group of wild flowers was on the side of the road going up the hill to Kili (Cyprus).





I thought it best not to try the toilet!

We have gone through gardeners here like a flu patient goes through a box of tissues! I wish to stress that it is not our fault. We employ, we are happy, we come here and find that nothing has been done because they have got tired of our garden.
So gardener number 5 is a real find! He worked in one of the stately homes gardens, speaks as though he has a hosepipe in his mouth and has letters after his name like RHS.
He walks the garden paths with me and tells me about each plant, "that is a rununcular variagatous convulvulous impatiens and this one here is the purple variety of the sageous herbious smellious plant in a weeping form." I walk beside him nodding very wisely and kicking the odd corgi that gets in the way!

I am 'SO' enjoying the new camera. This was taken also using my new tripod so I definitely look the business. I'm trying to pursuade Phil to take me to the camel market when I get back to the land of sand so maybe it's time for a caption competition again! I bet you can't wait!

Just before Christmas (in Bahrain), Phil said that we had to go to a business lunch. Little did I realise that it was actually with a Prince from the Bahrain royal family! Yes, ladies I have ...arrived!
We had a lovely lunch with lots of light hearted banter and our royal guest insisted on giving us a lift to the hotel.
His 'every day' vehicle turned out to be a brand new black BMW which he told me his wife gave him the week before as 'just a small surprise gift'! Well forget socks and Snoopy Y-fronts girls if you want to surprise the man in your life!