Jamie's Input

As this is the 'family' blog, I figured I should get some air time. OK, that is not strictly true - I've given up trying to up-load recent photo's of the youngster to send through hotmail, so thought I'd try this as Emma advised it was quicker. As you can tell by the lack of any photo's, quicker, my backside! We are making progress in windy & wet Bahrain. We found a house last week that we liked, and we'll hopefully get the lease finalised & deposit paid this week. At the 4th attempt, we managed to get a bank account opened today - with the level of difficulty experienced, you would actually think we had turned up in black & white stripey tops, with tights on our heads, carrying a bag with 'SWAG' written on in and that we were intent on emtyping their safe - not give them money! The CPR card still proves elusive, which means buying Em a car remains impossible, which in-turn means that I'll continue to get my ear bent on a daily basis for the foreseeable future. Apparently, once we have a house lease signed, we can then get a CPR card, but I'll believe that when I see it. Despite the lack of official documentation, we ventured round a few garages today,and got a feel for prices, availability & scope for negotiation. While I had some fun bartering with salesman, the end result was still the same - whichever car we end up with, my wallet is going to take a longtime to recover from this purchase. One thing that became apparent, is that the global economic crisis does not appear to have reached the small island of Bahrain. $25-$30K for a small GMC (without insurance or road tax). In Houston I reckon I'd get one free with a box of cornflakes! Any hoo, the purpose of me coming on here was to upload some photo's, but after 19 mins of trying, I'm giving up. I'm away to enjoy my weekend's quota of 1 small tin of expensive, imported beer. Cheers, J.