While running around yesterday trying to get enough groceries for my house and also some really nice and fancy stuffs in preparation for resumption, thoughts of how I spent my summer holiday kept on flashing through my mind. Well, unlike other expatriates working in my place of work that travelled back home to meet their families and friends, I decided to stay back in Bahrain to explore different environments and new things about the place, since I have never really had much time for myself and it has always been work all the way.
During the process of me reminiscing about the different activities I did for fun during the summer holiday, I asked myself which one actually gave me that perfect day experience? Honestly speaking, every day was well spent during my summer holiday, but I guess some days are just more fun and memorable than others. Sometimes, the best days of our lives are barely planned, like we just wake up and things start happening randomly and then end up just becoming so perfect.
On this faithful day (July 23, 2022), I woke up looking tired after staying up till 3am playing video game (don't judge me, I love video games at my free time). Off to the kitchen I went to fix myself something to eat before making plans for what to do on that particular day. My flat mate and friend also came to the kitchen to get something to eat. While in the kitchen he said to me, “IYA Bella (Mommy Bella) is coming to pick us by 12pm, we are going to the beach”. Mommy Bella happened to be the wife of another friend of mine who has now moved to Canada, and she also happens to be the mother of two amazing kids who now see me as their favourite uncle (not that I am related to them though).
I looked at my friend with surprise and asked him, “when did you guys make this arrangement, how come I don’t know of it sooner?” He looked at me and replied saying, “well, she called me this morning saying the kids kept on saying they want to go to the beach and she said she cannot handle them alone and she need’s us around.”
Acting like I had something planned out for the day and pretending to want to cancel it when deep down in my heart I was full of excitement and ready to go to the beach, I replied with a straight face saying, “well, I will have to cancel other engagement for the day and spend some time with the kids, if they are happy then I am happy.” I immediately rushed to the bathroom to freshen up because I had an hour left before she would stop by to pick myself and my friend (yeah, I really woke up late that day).
Immediately I finished getting ready, Mommy Bella and the kids drove in, myself and my friend quickly went out of the apartment to join them. As soon as the kids saw us, they were really happy and they kept on saying, “Uncle, we are going to the beach. We are going to have so much fun uncle”. I was equally happy about the whole thing and it was nice seeing them so happy as well.
We arrived at the beach and we were the only one there, honestly speaking it was the best feeling for me. There was this calmness from the wind and this feeling of peace I got inside from just gazing at the water. Let me just say this before I continue with this memorable experience of mine. I have phobia for large body water, I don’t swim, I have always refused to learn how to swim because of my fears. On this day, I told myself I will just snap pictures and help Mommy Bella to protect the kids from anything that will cause them harm.
Getting there on that day and feeling the peace in the atmosphere and the calmness within changed so many things for me. On getting there, my friend, Mommy Bella, Little Bella and Sammy (that’s the names of the sweet kids), all ran into the water. I was just watching and smiling. I told them about my fears before coming so they don’t feel some how at the beach. But this people are really something else, the put water into one of the water guns they brought to play with and they shot at me, I got wet and quickly had to join them.
At first when I joined them, I was just standing at the bank of the water and was splashing water on the others. When the play started, we forgot about who were the adults and who the kids were, everyone was just so happy. I literally forgot about being scared of entering water and I was just enjoying myself. The kids told me, “Uncle let’s make a sand mermaid”. I saw how much fun they were having and could not stop the fun, so I agreed with them to make a sand mermaid on me.
Towards the evening hours, so many persons started coming to the beach. We all had an experience with a little child that clearly don’t trust the father enough to help her swim, she would run to our side to meet Mummy Bella and she trusted her completely to take her into the water. Each time the father comes to meet her, she would cry so loudly and will run again to meet mummy Bella, the father had no choice but to leave her with us. We all laughed about the incident and talked about it even while on our way home.
Well, we could not stand the crowd any more and it was slowly getting dark, so many persons coming to the beach and so many folks getting into the water, so we decided to get our stuffs and we went home.
Even though I was carried away with the fun, I was opportune to capture some very rare and lovely images. That day marked the day I stopped being scared of water. Seeing myself, my friends and those kids have so much fun, made me feel the presence of family again, even though I am far away from home. JULY 23RD 2022 was a PERFECT DAY for me this year.
My favourite shot. Vinny and Mommy Bella told me to go and learn photography after seeing this shot I took. From left: Bella, Vinny, Mommy Bella and Sammy
NOTE: All images where taken by using Iphone 13 Pro Max, unless stated otherwise.
Thanks for stopping by to read this post, do well to re-blog for others to share in this experience as well. Share your thought in the comment section and follow to see my future posts. Do enjoy the remaining part of your day.