You find me this week on the beautiful Mediterranean island of Cyprus.
For some reason Cyprus holds a huge attraction for expatriates who have been in Bahrain at some time.
We are staying with one of my best friends who is in the middle of the process of leaving Bahrain to live permanently in Cyprus.
The last few days we have been out to lunch and dinner with a whole host of friends and acquaintances that we first met in Bahrain and in some cases have not seen for nearly 20 years.
Indeed 10 minutes ago at a local supermarket I bumped into the mother of one of my friends who I only know from her many recent trips to Bahrain.
A few years ago an ex-Bahrain resident who had retired here created a list of all the people from Bahrain that had bought properties in Cyprus and the list ran to more than 200 names.
I presume that having lived on a small island at one point then small island syndrome sets in and Cyprus fits the bill. It is also not quite as extremely hot during the summer and not as cold as the UK in the winter.
More importantly as Cyprus is in the European Union, British nationals are not considered outsiders as we are in Bahrain.
It is unsettling every time a member of parliament introduces a bill which targets expats.
In Cyprus all residents pay the same level of electric bills and the non-Cypriot residents are not discriminated against.
The other major attraction of Cyprus is its roads. They may not be as nice or as wide as roads in Bahrain, but they are empty.
Bahrain is about 50km long and 20km wide with a land area of under 800 square km, but at 220km long, 85km wide and an area of more than 9,000sqkm, Cyprus is more than 10 times larger than Bahrain. But here’s the rub, it only has only two-thirds of its population.
There are just over one million people living on Cyprus and nearly 1.6m on Bahrain, so Cyprus is sparsely populated. This results in not so many people on the roads at any one time and it is therefore probably the least stressful place in the world to drive.
I have had an apartment in Cyprus for more than 15 years and I am not the only Gulf Daily News columnist to have property here. My Friday mate Mike Gaunt has also fallen under the Cyprus spell, but am I going to live here once I leave Bahrain?
Probably not.
As much as it is lovely and peaceful there are just a few too many old colonials living here, and the GnT starts flowing when the sun goes over the yardarm (noon) and that is probably a bit too much for us.
Don’t get me wrong I can mix it with the big boys when I need to, but since I would like to get a bit of time out of my retirement I will probably hide in the UK and prepare for my occasional forays.
Jackie@JBeedie.com