The day is coming! The day when I, at long last, stop working, for good this time, and move into permanent retirement.
I have not yet named the day but I suspect it may be sometime in the next couple of years.
Then, what to do? Do I stay in Bahrain, the country I have made home for the last 30 odd years?
Do I return to the country of my birth, Scotland or UK?
Or do I do the same as many my friends have done and retire to another country.
Popular destinations are France, Spain and Portugal but, by far, the majority of the people I called friends for most of my time in Bahrain now live in Cyprus, most of them live in the same village.
In fact, I am writing this column in that very same village near Pathos. My wife and I have come over for a week to stay with an old friend to have a look around and see if we can find a house that would be suitable for us when we do decide to go.
Apart from somewhere to live there are many other things to take into consideration such as cost of living, cultural integration, climate, residence permits and health provision.
So, we immediately rule out the UK as the cost of living is through the roof, the health service is broken, the weather is miserable and we are not sure if we even fit in with the culture anymore.
Bahrain has mostly great weather, July and August can be difficult but that is what holidays are for. The health facilities in Bahrain are superb and have saved my life, as I have previously stated. In fact, they are so good that it is now a rising centre of health tourism. But the older we get the fewer of our friends in our age group are still here and so there are fewer opportunities to socialise and party.
Spain and France would present some language and culture differences and difficult to access health facilities. So, it would seem that the answer is then same as most of my friends, Cyprus, which is why we are here this week.
The climate here is perfect, bit hot in the summer but not as hot as Bahrain, bit chilly in the winter but nowhere near as cold as the UK.
The health facilities are excellent and there is a good arrangement between Cyprus and UK to treat each other’s citizens. (There are almost as many Cypriots in the UK as there are in Cyprus).
Cyprus, like Bahrain, has a strong connection with the UK, almost everybody speaks English and they even drive on the left side of the road. The cost of living is less than the UK and it is relatively easy to buy a house and get a residence permit.
If we do buy a house, we will rent it out until we do make the final decision, but we have not yet ruled out friendly Bahrain … you have a couple of more years of me spouting gibberish.
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