Eid Mubarak!

This is a day or two early but we're going away so I thought I'd get it done now....

Ramadan is about to end: should be either tomorrow or Friday, depending on the sighting of the New Moon. Immediately following Ramadan is a short public holiday called Eid ul-Fitr, and Karen and I are taking advantage of the long weekend (the Embassy will be closed Saturday and Sunday) to pay Bahrain a final visit before we leave the Middle East at the end of November.

"Eid Mubarak" means Happy Eid (pronounced 'Eed'), essentially, and is how you should greet any Muslims you may meet over the next four or five days.

We'll be staying at the Movenpick, which we chose because of its legendary Friday Brunch, but only after booking did we discover that brunch this week is off because of Ramadan :-(

Still, I expect we'll find other things to do: like lying by the pool all day with a cool drink and a good book. I may or may not blog while I'm away, and I may or may not take a camera along for later blogging purposes: depends how the mood takes me.

This is the first of three things that are making me panic about leaving preparations:
1. Weekend in Bahrain
2. Half term with the children (in just over a week's time)
3. Business trip to the U.S. mid-Nov

With those three things my remaining time to get the garage sale, packing etc. organised is woefully short, not to mention fragmented by said events.

Right, that's it then. We'll have a nice relaxing break in Bahrain and then next week I'll go full steam ahead on leaving preparations, so that we can relax again when the children come out the week after. Sounds like a plan...