TOTALLY forgot...

Here is a great entry I wrote on WORD while in an airport, and neglected to post. You'll get it, and it might make past posts more enjoyable. Ha. Just found it.


Mahddi's Hand

Let the Carnage Begin
I just completed the purchase of a large quantity of fine dark chocolate, a Diet Coke, and 750ml of “American Whiskey” at the Bahrain airport duty-free. Don’t worry, I don’t plan on mixing the whiskey and Coke just yet (plus, I would never use diet for this purpose). To be precise, the American whiskey is Jack Daniel’s Silver Select Single Barrel Tennessee Whiskey. As I was in the store, considering my choices, I almost went for something easy, like Absolut. Then I thought, What Would Matt Gallagher Do?

If you do not know Matt, I don’t have time to explain. If you do know Matt, you will know why I decided immediately on whiskey. Matt, however, probably would have picked the Early Times (in absence of Wild Turkey), but upon further refection I decided that this break I am about to go on is unique, and deserves a quality bottle of whiskey, and one that has its own degree of uniqueness, hence my choice.

I plan to begin drinking at about 11pm tonight, but it will not be from this bottle. The JD I will save until I unpack at whatever guest house I choose in Goa. My 11pm drinking will be with Naser, in Dubai, at Carter’s in Wafi City. My layover is long, and he has elected to help me kill it at the most convenient bar to the airport. The last time I drank in this bar with Naser before an early AM flight, I met a beautiful girl that I had to depart from as soon as I was making progress. We’ll see what happens this time.

So, to fill in: I never ventured out in Bahrain. Just didn’t have the energy for some reason. In fact, yesterday I was filled with a deep malaise, as I answered emails and sat around my hotel room. I met with the student and her family at 4pm, putting on a happy face for a time. At 10pm I fell asleep, but woke up around 3am and could not go back to sleep. So, I cruised the internet until the gym opened. A work-out is exactly what I needed. It cut right through the fog in my head. I then pigged out at the buffet and packed my bags in preparation for my departure, but these I left with the concierge while I made two school visits on the south side of town.

I really liked my taxi driver, Mahddi. He was a friendly, gnarled old man who didn’t talk too much, but just enough. When he gave me his card, I actually used it – a first for me with taxi drivers. He picked me up from the schools when I was finished, taking me to the hotel for my bags before going to the airport.

Now here I sit, remembering my last mid-trip break, in Seville. Dios mio…