Bahrain

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I went to bahrain recently for work purposes. Specifically I was there to provide sustainability advice in a masterplanning competition that my company is running for a new exclusive resort out there.

It was quite a fun trip, except for the fact that it was complelty and utterly freezing cold. So cold in fact that I was shaking in the meeting room that we were sitting in from the cold.

The presentations were mostly pretty good. One of the companies that was presenting really didn’t have a clue about what they were doing or proposing. The second company was really quite good and had a very interesting scheme and the third company was just amazing. They presented the most incredible comprehensive scheme that I have seen in a long time. They also went to town on sustainability and I actually had to tell them at lunch afterwards that I thought that had talked about sustainability too much in their presentation, which is not something that I ever thought I would have to tell someone.

Most unusual.

We went out for dinner with the client and the country manager whilst we were there and the funniest thing happened with the food that I ordered. I asked for some steamed veges for my main thinking that I would get a nice plate of mixed veges. But no. What turned up was something totally different. I ended up getting a tiny plate of green peas, green beans and some broccoli. Everyone took a look at it and just started laughing at me.

The lack of food (and the red wine) probably helps to explain what happened next as well. Which is when I got back to my room in the hotel ( the massive suite!) I tried very hard to step over my laptop cord which was running from the laptop on the table to the plug on the wall, across the entrance way to the room. However even though I was trying to step over it I managed to completely screw it up and tripped on the cord pulling the laptop off the table and smashing it on the ground. And also sending me flying ahead into the lounge side table smashing the lamp on the table onto the floor. It made a hell of a noise! And I have a couple of lovely bruises now.

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