Full power for four days

Four days went really really fast, and no wonder, considering the heavy program we had!
She arrived very late Wednesday night to Dubai, and I went to pick her up so that we could pass by and get her PCR-test done straight away for the result to come back quickly. We needed her to be green already in the morning, so that she could join me up at the Louvre Abu Dhabi. I had a tour in the morning, and after my tour we had lunch. Then I showed her the new exhibition; and while I had another tour in the afternoon Pia went to Soul Beach to get some sun.

We kept the tempo up and decided to go for a Ladies Night on Thursday night. Since it had been a while since Pia's last visit, she hadn't yet seen the new area down in Yas Bay.

We went to Buddha Bar and enjoyed some sushi, and delicious cocktails.

Friday was spent mostly at the beach, we decided to go to Yas Beach, familiar ground. The weather now is absolutely perfect, warm enough in the air, and not too cold yet in the water. So lush!

As we had big plans for the Saturday we then decided to spend Friday night at home, playing board games and drinking wine. We introduced Pia to 'Ticket to Ride', which of course suited that old train conductor perfectly!

Saturday it was brunch time! Pia wasn't aware that we now have "normal" weekends here in the UAE, so this Saturday Brunch was a new concept for her, ha ha. But, it worked just as well! We dolled up and got ready, and I invited Pia for a lovely Asian brunch for her 50th (or 51,5th but who's counting...):

We returned to Yas Bay, but this time to Asia Asia. I have been wanting to try their brunch for a while. It's a bit on the pricey side, but - it certainly was worth it! The food was delicious, I just sat there and clapped my hands and mmm-ed and aaaah-ed at every bite!

As it was Johan's birthday the following day, Linda and Johan joined us for brunch for a bit of celebration. We had the best table in Asia Asia, right under the cherry tree! This is a seated brunch with table service which is really nice; especially when there is only four of you, otherwise someone would always be up running around to get more food.

 

 

Just LOOK at this spread! All the entrees, sushi, sashimi, sides and desserts could be repeated as much as you wanted - and then we picked four different main courses, and shared. We had both lamb, duck, blackened cod and beef, om nom nom!

We certainly didn't lack anything, neither food and absolutely not drinks..!

Dessert time - the mochi ice cream was the best!

Sunday Pia wanted to have some more sun and fun, so I took her to another new area - Hudayirat island. Even though it was the weekend, it wasn't crowded at all. We had a lovely morning on the beach, and then we walked up to the Marsana area and had lunch, and even ice cream. It's so nice to get to feel almost like you are on holiday, and every time I do this I wonder why I don't do beach days a lot more often!

Four days of full on fun! A shorter visit than she normally comes for, but so grateful still that we did get four full days together, just us! And to be honest, with the hectic programme we had, I wouldn't have handled more than four days, ha ha!

Pia!

It had certainly been a while since we last welcomed guests... TWO AND A HALF YEARS! Our last guest pre-Covid was Thomas, at the end of February 2020; and since then our guest room was transformed into a training haven, and used as a full on laundry room instead.
I almost didn't remember how to "do it", prepare the guest room, the house, and the all over schedule..! But last week Pia finally came to stay again! Yay!

This time it was a bit of a different visit, as she didn't bring the family, and she only stayed a few days rather than the two weeks they used to come. Man we had fun though..! More photos to follow in the next post!

Pathways to Modernity

There is a new temporary exhibition going on at the moment at the Louvre Abu Dhabi, called 'Impressionism - Pathways to Modernity'. I have already delivered quite a few tours in this international exhibition, and I have really enjoyed every single one. It's a beautifully curated exhibition, which explores the many ways Impressionism came to be in the second half on the 19th century.

This exhibition shows around 150 artworks from about 40 different artists. Most of the loans comes from the collections of Musée d'Orsay, many, many masterpieces. No other exhibition abroad has involved this many paintings from its collection.
It starts with a dialogue between a Monet and a Manet:

The exhibition is unique in the way that it is multidisciplinary. It is a mix of paintings, etchings, photographs, movies, drawings - and even fashion.

One of my favourites, a Renoir - The English Pear Tree, 1873.

This painting by Claude Monet, The Magpie, is my absolute favourite one of this exhibition. I guess this snowscape reminds me of home somehow, that muffled, quiet and still feeling after a heavy snowfall. And that light..! Love!

For the next part of the exhibition, the scenography is absolutely spot on. I think they've illustrated this part of the story really well. The red wall shows how the Salon could have looked like at the time, and just next to that the white wall shows how the first impressionist exhibition would have looked like in 1874. The info panel on the wall says "The SHOCK", ha ha!

Masterpieces, masterpieces, here the Floor Scrapers by Caillebotte.

There are a lot of paintings by Monet in the exhibition. This Gare St Lazare has already been showed once here at Louvre Abu Dhabi, when the museum opened back in 2017.

I like the story about this Degas, The Absinthe, although I can not really present it to all types of audiences, for obvious reasons.

Another Monet, called The Ice Floats. It has fantastic reflections, and can you see the poplars? At a quick glance, it almost looks like a skyline!

This one is a premiere - this is the latest acquisition by the Louvre Abu Dhabi! This 1878 Renoir, was hidden away in a private collection for most of the 20th century, but now it will be a part of the permanent collections here in Abu Dhabi!

The second to last part of the exhibition talks about the many reasons that Impressionism came to an end; age, politics, geographical separation and maybe above all artistic differences. Here there started to be a divergence in the artistic claims of the different artists, for example Cézanne began to pursue other paths and very much became the father of Modernism as we known it.

A late Monet, from the period when he was suffering the most from his cataract, hence the explosion of brushstrokes and colours. This is not an abstraction, it is a Weeping Willow, painted in a mix between open-air and studio practice.

Finally some photos from the tour I gave to the SwedishLadies group today. I always enjoy giving tours in Swedish, as it's not that often.

The last part of the exhibition is a contemporary piece by a French artists called Ange Leccia. It's a video installation which is a tribute to the Water Lilies paintings by Claude Monet. It's a powerful and immersive experience, quite different to the rest of the exhibition. A rather lovely ending to the tour.

Pinktober

Last Monday I organised a special Afternoon Tea.

I had seen that the Westin did a pink-themed Afternoon Tea for Pinktober, and I really wanted to go so I asked Linda to join me. Their spread is always very delicious, super pretty - and good value for money!

We decided to turn it into a SwedishLadies event, to maybe get a few more girls to join us - and in the end, we were 16 people! Dress code pink, of course!

So yummy, and such a lovely afternoon!