Two Old Fools on a Camel: From Spain to Bahrain and back again

It's been a long time since I have been as captivated by as series as this one. Loved it.

This was my first time as a reader of Victoria Tweed’s work. This edition was a fun read of her year teaching in Bahrain. The colorful portraits of her students and coworkers paint a picture of her teaching year in a private school.Her students were a select bunch taken from parents who could afford private school tuition. Due to this select population it was very hard for me to draw conclusions from her narrative that bear on the people of Bahrain in particular.Overall, I enjoyed her story, but, what can we conclude from her story about Bahrain? An educated population will help Bahrain grow in the future, master the wealth of the oil economy and raise living standards for the people.Only enlightened leadership on the part of the monarchy will accomplish the goals of economic growth, a mastery of the oil wealth riches and the future development of an educated people will accomplish these goals. But, will this development occur? With the boiling over of unrest in the Middle East, only time will give us the answer to these questions. Has time run out for the monarchies in the Middle East, or, will the monarchies play it safe, or, will they work on a new political path forward for their people. The clock is ticking and the western powers have more than a casual interest in the outcome.

Victoria and Joe Twead are British expats living in Spain who decide to take teaching jobs in Bahrain to supplement their retirement in Two Old Fools on a Camel. This is a continual laugh-out-loud book as Vicky describes the antics of her sixth-grade Arabian students who she attempts to teach English, vocabulary, sentence structure and the sort.Many of the other teachers at this ASS school are from around the globe and there is never a dull moment for the pair as they attempt to deal with the very rich and entitled children at the school. The other teaching staff are also filled with flaws, and they soon find a watering hole at Bennigan’s to keep them steady as they laugh, vent, and get through the school year.Things are mismanaged enough until the Arab Spring of 2010 reminds them that they could really be in danger as British on this tiny island. They weather the storm along with a sandstorm and are happy to return to their humble abode in Spain at the end of year. Each chapter ends with tasty recipes along with oodles of laughter that offer healing for the soul!

After finishing and loving Victoria Twead’s second Two Old Fools book recently, I decided I wanted to read the sequel as I was intrigued about the year the couple spent in Bahrain. I am happy to say I thoroughly enjoyed it despite the unhappy circumstances Joe and Victoria found themselves in. For all the problems, they made some wonderful friends in Bahrain and as always, their lives were filled with some highly colourful characters, whom Victoria describes with great humour and perception. I loved reading about her cheeky students and the regular results from her spelling tests had me in stitches. The book also deals with the tragic events of the Arab Spring uprisings which occurred during their stay, so I learnt a lot from reading this memoir. For foodies too, there are great recipes included as chapter separators. My thanks to Victoria for a fascinating, informative and very enjoyable read.

Very interesting, but very different from the first two books that describe their lovely lives in Spain.The Tweads are worried about money and take jobs teaching on the island of Bahrain to fatten their savings. The jobs and the living conditions are not what they expected, but they manage to make good friends and eventually love their spoiled students. Disappointingly, they don't see any camels until the end and they don't travel much, but Bahrain is an island of sand and not much else. There are some scary times with civil unrest where many of their colleagues leave, but the Tweads stay.This book is enjoyable and it's fun to read about the unusual people they meet and the people they work with every day. As usual, the Tweads do their best to make their lives enjoyable and see things in new and different ways despite being homesick for Spain.I do prefer the first two books about their lives in Catalonia, but this one is interesting in ways different from the earlier books.

I'd give this book 3.5 stars. The irrepressible Tweads remain irresistible but I didn't enjoy this as much as the Spanish memoirs. Perhaps it was the locale - you couldn't help but picture how uncomfortable an experience Bahrain must have been for westerners. I got the distinct impression they were making the best of difficult circumstances throughout. One huge culture shock after the next. That said, the Tweads just seem like people you can't help but like and cheer for, so I appreciated the insight to Bahrain as a whole. It was interesting, especially as I'm unlikely to have the opportunity to experince it first-hand. I laughed out loud at Joe's trolley adventure and the barking/biting/getting kicked in the head incident. I also quite liked the recipes in this book - I'm a veggie so its nice to get some new lentil ideas. This is the third book in the series and like the others, its well-written and has touches of humor throughout. Dare I hope for a fourth book on Oz?

The author has an excellent knack of conveying her feelings about the characters she introduces us to in her books. I felt a bit annoyed at Joe for precipitating their move away from Spain and on to this rollercoaster ride of a year in the Middle East, but it did make for an entertaining read.Interesting to read about the Arab Spring in this context, and would recommend to most people after an accessible yet informative account of those times in Bahrain.

I've read the two previous 'Old Fools' books and this one did not disappoint. Why four stars? Only to differentiate it from the five which I gave to Two Old Fools Ole as I felt that that was the stand-out best of the three and I wanted to reflect that it had that extra something. This has many many good points and I really enjoyed it, though, I feel I related better to and liked the Spanish setting in 'Chickens, Mules and Two Old Fools' and 'Two Old Fools Ole' as I have never visited the Middle East and I did kind of miss the little Spanish village and the characters there. I did learn lots about this other part of the world through this book though. The book starts off with their journey to Bahrain; Vicky and Joe are going to spend a year teaching in Bahrain before finally retiring and moving back to Spain. You learn customs of the Country-some surprising. It's very informative and interesting as I've never read anything set in or around this area. As they start teaching it soon becomes hilarious: Vicky starts taking the register. Their names!!! I really like Victoria Twead's writing style; as for her previous books, there are photos throughout and recipes giving a real feel for the different foods there. Recipes are from Nadia Sawalha! What a scoop! I wonder, did Victoria already know Nadia, did she just invite her to do the recipes or did she meet her out in Bahrain? Very interesting. Victoria has such a knack for expressing things in a different way. Hilarious scenes at the smoking area! Parents evening-confusion with all the Mohammeds. Then there's the rain in Bahrain, spending Christmas there, buying booze, ordering pizza, followed by devastation. In and amongst all this are examples of cards made for Victoria and penpal letters from pupils at 'The Gin Twins' school-these are all the more authentic as they have been left with the same misspellings that the children made-so moving this way. What an eyeopener! What pupils will do to cheat in exams!-both in Bahrain and the UK-Victoria tells all. I really enjoyed this, can't wait for the next chapter of Victoria and Joe's adventures.

So, Joe drops the bombshell that he would like to do more teaching and Victoria joins him for their adventures at an international school in Bahrain at a most turbulent time in the history of this country.Always interesting, at times horrifying, once again I found myself transported into the life of this intrepid couple. Bahrain was a far cry from the small mountain village in Spain they had called home and, at times, both Joe and Victoria wondered quite what they had got themselves into.Some wonderful characters appear in this book, bringing the whole experience to life.I can’t wait to read more.

I read "Chickens, Mules and Two Old" Fools some time ago, and then I noticed that my other half had accidentally downloaded "Two Old Fools - Ole" to my Kindle. I eagerly devoured this story of everyday life for a couple of British expats in a tiny Spanish village, wonderfully written by "Auntie Vikki" Twead. As soon I finished it I was straight on to the next one "Two Old Fools on a Camel" "Uncle Joe" gets this hankering for a last stint at teaching, and they leave their cosy Spanish village life for the delights of a school in Bahrain which, of course, is rather different to "El Hoyo" and a bit of a shock to the system! Victoria or "Mees" as she becomes known to her charges and Joe introduce us to a fabulous array of characters, make some very good friends and also meet a few "oddballs". It certainly wasn't all partying as they were there during the "Arab Spring" of 2011 which brought a good deal of violence to Bahrain.This book, like the other two, is a very good read. For anyone thinking the "grass is greener" by suddenly following a whim, the books pull no punches. It's not all wine and roses and painful mistakes can be made, but if if you've got the will to succeed and you are prepared to mix with the locals and get to know and understand their way of life, even later in life, a change can be highly satisfying.Nice one Victoria, wonder if we will be getting "Two Old Fools Down Under" anytime soon!

Don't get me wrong, this book is as well written as the first two, however the elements that I loved from the first two books - immersion into every day life in Spain within the community - is missing from this book. It is mostly school-centric,focussed on teachers at the school, with very little perspective on life outside the school. I don't know if this is because its very hard for outsiders to interact with the locals unless you have lived there for a few years.Vicky has done a brilliant job at bringing alive the different personalities of the teachers at school, and it was lovely to catch up with them in the epilogue.I was also hoping to see some authentic recipes from Bahrain (though personally I don't buy the books for the recipes). Full credit to the author for cataloging the tumultuous events in Bahrain in the last year, it was very interesting to read a first-hand account of events as they happened.