From Boodles to Boucheron

I turned the big 4-0 while I was still in Brunei, although Nathan had already moved out here so we weren't together for my big day. He wanted to get me a nice piece of jewellery but wanted to wait until I got here to buy it, since you get more for your money out here, gold and diamond wise.

It took a while, but nearly a year after my big day I had finally picked out and purchased a beautiful diamond ring, a Boodles Waterfall ring in white and yellow gold:

My idea with it was to get a nice right-hand ring. A ring I could wear with most outfits and on most occasions. As amazingly beautiful as this was, I realized with time that not only did I end up only wearing it on "very special occasions" and got too scared to loose it; it was far too blingy for me...
I'm more for the subtle and sleek, classic but with an edge. I've built up a collection of well chosen pieces, mostly in gold, that I wear every day, and this ring didn't fit in.

So, I went back to visit my goldman in Dubai over the weekend, and I exchanged my Boodles ring, for this one:

The Boucheron Quatre Classique Large ring.
It is rather fittingly inspired by the architecture of one of my favourite cities, Paris. I love the combination of different golds and textures in it. It is so much more me.
It's truly stunning and I am so pleased with it. Happy at last!

Saturday in Dubai

That our weekends include a trip to Dubai for a bit of rugby fun is almost compulsory this time of the year. Although last weekend there was no game, and this weekend it was on the Saturday morning instead, which was why we got a two-day "almost vacation" out of it in Dubai!

The Harlequins played against the Arabian Knights, at Dubai Sports Central. First time for me watching them there.

Harlequins put up a good fight and had a good game, but they still lost pretty bad. The Knights had a superstar player that scored all but one of their nine trys!

The funniest bit was after the game, when they all got caught in the automated sprinklers while having a pow-wow on the field!

After the game we headed back to Meydan for a little bit of r&r by the pool, and some pizza for lunch. Aaahhh, so lovely to soak up the sun! The temperatures are just perfect right now!

On the way home from Meydan Heights we stopped into Meydan South as well, for a quick cup of coffee at the Dehlis house. It seemed silly to be so close and not stop by, even though time was not really on our side. Good to see them. We unfortunately don't see enough of each other although they are "just up the road". Life kind of gets in the way..!

Last Exit

The last few times I've been driving to Dubai I've spotted this new place on the side of the road, literally in the middle of nowhere, signposted 'Last Exit'. I kept wondering what it was so I found out - it was a food truck park!
On Friday when we drove up to Dubai, I planned it so that we could stop in there to have our lunch, and boy was I not disappointed! What a cool place!

The park is inspired by old fashion fuel stations and food joints of the 1950s and is completely sticking to the retro theme throughout with all this rehashed automobiles design and lots of upcycled elements. It is the first of its kind in the region and it serves food 24/7, seven days a week.

You can choose to drive through, or dine in. We parked and had a walk around, picked out what we wanted to eat and then sat and enjoyed our food inside. The kids had pizza and I enjoyed some enchiladas from the Baja Fresh Mexican food truck.

Even in the the washrooms, you had to "accelerate" on a pedal to release the water in the old pipes that then flowed into the basin, which of course, was made out of and old truck tyre! So cool!

We will definitely try and time all our Dubai trips so that we can have lunch here each time from now on, there are many more food trucks to try out!

Taste of Abu Dhabi and Björn Again

Nathan was flying Thursday night, but the kids and I had scored some free tickets to the 'Taste of Abu Dhabi' food festival, from a very nice lady who had a few spare to hand out. I thought, why not then go there and have dinner instead of having boring take-away at home!

'Taste' is a food festival that exists in many countries across the world, in both Europe, Asia and Australia. This was the third edition here in the capital, and the first hosted in ZSC. It's a festival that celebrates food, drink and music and you can meet celebrity chefs, taste food from pop-up stalls of famous restaurants, listen to music and go on fairground rides.

We had a really good time, at least for a few hours until people started to get a little bit too "happy" around us, ha ha!

We tried a few dishes here and there, in a few of the stalls, and the winner was some great tasting lamb chops from Tamba, mmm...

After having walked around and scored prizes and free stuff from the many booths, we sat down on the big lawn to wait for the main music attraction of the night, the ABBA tribute band 'Björn Again'.

Did you know that ABBA actually only existed for 10 years, and during that time only toured in total for about 10 months?? They only ever played about 160 concerts!

The 'Björn Again' tribute band on the other hand has been going strong for nearly 30 years now. They have played over 7000 (!) concerts in more than 100 countries around the world, according to their homepage. This group is regarded the most successful tribute band of all time!

There they were - Agnetha Falstart (Agnetha Fältskog), Frida Longstokin (Anni-Frid Lyngstad), Benny Anderwear (Benny Andersson) and Björn Volvo-us (Björn Ulvaeus).
It was great fun watching them, especially since everybody knows all the ABBA music! The atmosphere was buzzing! We danced and sang along too of course!

Although I didn't quite get the supposedly "Swenglish" banter... ha ha... It didn't sound even close to Swedish/Swenglish to me... Is that really how we sound to everyone else?

Grateful

If last weekend was dull and boring (well, for me - Nathan was at work and Lucas had two birthday parties; Linnea had a sleepover and went to a brunch with a friend!), I made sure this weekend was a lot more happening and packed it full of fun things for the whole family.

Thursday night we went to rugby practice and then straight to the 'Taste of Abu Dhabi' food festival which also was held at ZSC. There was a performance by 'Bjorn Again' the famous ABBA tribute band there too, fabulous! We then overnighted in Dubai yesterday and it almost feels like we've been away on holiday!
On the way there we stopped at the new food truck park 'Last Exit', which was awesome; we hung out with our friends Andrew & Kat and had dinner at Dubai Mall last night. This morning Lucas had a rugby match against the Arabian Knights so we spent the morning at Dubai Sports Central, and the afternoon passed with pizza and pool fun at Andrew & Kat's place in Meydan Heights.
On the way home we stopped in for coffee at Meydan South, to see the Dehlis just quickly. We passed my "Goldman" to pick up the last of the replacement items I got instead of what was stolen in the burglary. We had to make a pit stop along the highway at Burger King and only just now made it home - and straight to bed..!
What a weekend!
More blogs will follow, with photos. Tomorrow.
Zzzzzz...

366 in 2016 - October

The October movie - with Dubai friends over, Octoberfest, Thomas here, Linnea's birthday, my Tour Guide course, a Dubai day, UK visitors and much more.

What a week

I'm glad that it's the weekend because this week has been a bit testing to say the least.
As you know it started with the Hybholts sad departure, and the day after Nathan got a text with a speeding fine.  My speeding from a couple of weeks ago... aarrgghh. Well, at least this time I know where and why (I was driving in an unfamiliar area and didn't notice the speed changing from 100 to 80), but still, not good.

I also had a bit of an issue in my Zumba class Wednesday morning. For the first time since I started teaching over 5 years ago did I experience that I couldn't play my music. I got a new phone and had forgot that I needed a little adapter to plug the speakers into the phone... Total panic 10 minutes before class with about 20 students waiting for a good workout!
Well, we found a solution by using one of the phone of one of the participants, and playing music off YouTube... So my well planned playlist went out the window and we just had to work with what we could find of songs and choreo that I knew, rather improvised!
So not me messing up, but there you go, there's a first for everything and I'm going to work the girls twice as hard on Monday to make up for it!

On the bright side, it's November and my favourite part of the year is starting. The temperatures usually stay below or around 30 degrees now even in the middle of the day, and the evenings are getting cooler which is so nice. Bring on UAE winter!

And so she is gone

Pia and co moved in to a hotel for their last week here, after their container had gone. Over the weekend we managed to spend a bit of time together here and there, in between all the normal stuff going on - school, Zumba, work, rugby, football tournaments, Halloween celebrations etc...

Early this morning they took off towards their new(/old) life back in Sweden. It will be same, same but different for them I guess. They sure picked the worse time to go back, from the start of the good season here to freezing cold, grey and gloomy back home...

I know that it will be very empty for me though.
Miss you already.

❤️❤️❤️

Halloween 2016

I know it's no surprise that Halloween comes on the last of October every year, but it still kind of crept up on me this year. It has really been the most hectic weeks for me in... a very long time, with my Tour Guide course and exam, having had guests all last week and Pia's last week here too.
I didn't even decorate the house for it this year, which is probably a first for me!!

Anyhow, the kids were lucky enough to get invited out for Halloween. Linnea went to an absolutely fantastic Halloween Party at one of her classmates house, and Lucas went to a big compound nearby to go trick-or-treating with his group of friends.

Luckily the dress-ups were easily sorted too. Lucas' devil cape and horn were found in our Halloween box. We then sprayed his hair black and added some spooky makeup. 
Linnea's brief was that she wanted to be something new this year, preferably a unicorn. I did try and source unicorn stuff, but as time ran out we had to go with an easier option. She got to wear a borrowed Minnie Mouse costume. I think they both looked fab!

As usual they came home with an impressive haul of sweets, cookies and Halloween themed toys. It has all been confiscated until the weekend though... and I'm happy that Halloween is over for another year.