BeReal-ing

While I was in Sweden in December, Mormor saw me using this app called BeReal.
It's an app where you connect with friends, and once a day you get a notification that you need to snap a photo - preferably within 2 minutes - to show what you are up to. You can do it delayed too, but the whole point is to show an unfiltered and quick snapshot of your day. The camera goes off in both directions at the same time, to both show you, and what you are doing. Each day the previous photo disappears when you post the new one.
It's a fun way to get a glimpse of the life of your friends and family!

Mormor wanted in on the action, but to see what your friends are up to, you have to also post the daily photos.
Said and done, Mormor is posting away, and this is by far my favourite one so far!! ❤️❤️❤️ (I had to screenshot it for posterity!)

Gotta give it to her, 70+ and in with the kids and the new technological happenings!

The Monster Machine

We have a new family member. Meet - The Monster:

Nathan's new toy, a Ram Warlock with a 5,7 L Hemi V8. (Fueled full tank for 200 AED/513 SEK/83 NZD/€49 the other day).
I had to give up my parking spot in front of our house, as this demands a bit more space than The Beast, believe it or not. I have only taken it for a spin around the block so far. Always takes a while to get used to driving another car than what you are used to, but I can tell you - it will be a long while before I take this anywhere where parking is remotely tight. It is BIG.

When Nathan picked it up he didn't just get the keys, but also a box of chocolates!

Lucas having a trial-sit in it, thumbs up! Another few weeks and he will be our designated driver..!

We traded in the old car, a Dodge we had bought off our neighbours when they left back to Ireland a few years back. Ever since we have had it, we never bothered to change the photo on the home screen of the car. A photo of their family, about 10 years old... ha ha!
We decided to sell the car, still with that photo - it's like those stock photos that sit in photo frames when you buy them. I wonder who is driving around admiring that lovely family photo now..!?

I also got something new, a new screen in my car:

Nathan had the whole radio console taken out and replaced with an Android kind of tablet, so I can control everything from a big touch screen now. Good idea in theory but we need to do something about the glare. I actually can't use it at all - as I can't see anything on it! Sigh...

Zwifting

I've shown you the set up of my treadmill in the middle of the living room already, but since the first few sessions I've upped my game a bit. Or rather, Nathan has upped my game. That's what happens when you are married to Mr Gadget!

Yes have a look, I still have the fan going but also I have the Zwift on the big screen and the ironing board with my current tv-serie on the iPad next to me. It's all go go go! It's actually rather motivating to run around f.e New York, I keep thinking "let's keep going to that next light pole, let's keep going to that turn in the road" etc. (Zwift is a multiplayer online cycle and running program which enables users to train, compete and interact in a virtual world.)

To make it even better, while I was on my treadmill inside the other day, Nathan went on his trainer in the man cave outside. And for a short time (enough to grab this photo, ha ha!), we Zwifted together in the same world!

Zwift for the win!

Spring Cooking Class

My German neighbour and friend (and also Thermomix-consultant) Karin and I went to Dubai yesterday for a Spring Cooking Class at the Thermomix HQ. Luckily their office is situated this end of Dubai in the Al Barsha area, so it only took us just about an hour to get there from ours.

It was really nice to see someone else use the Thermomix, and get introduced to a few new recipes; it started smelling really nice in the kitchen really fast and I got so hungry! The Thermomix ladies cooked up a storm, and showed us seven different recipes, and a crafty way of preparing Easter themed eggs.

My favourite was the bread with walnuts and blue cheese which surprisingly was really tasty; the roasted pepper dip which had a lovely sting to it - and the desserts, of course! Always!

A nice morning!

Hybholts here, Day 1

No wonder it's been quiet on the blog, we certainly have had a full program while the Hybholts have been here. Started already the first day after my Zumba class, going straight to the Yas Mall at the girls' request. They just couldn't wait hitting the shops!
While the little ladies browsed the mall, Pia and I had a lovely time getting a bit pampered at the nail salon, in preparation for the Friday Brunch coming up:

Later in the evening we enjoyed some slow-cooked chili con carne for dinner, and played with Nathan's newest toy - Sparky the drone. Oh how much fun we are going to have with this!

Nathan's day

Nathan was actually off for his birthday this year, yay!
He had a nice day with the family. He got woken up as per tradition with singing and gifts (special 'Big Bang Theory'-LEGO that the kids had picked out while in the LEGO store this summer, very cool!):

We had a huge sushi lunch, with chocolate milkshakes and everything. Gotta celebrate when it's somebody's birthday!

We did a quick trip to Yas Mall to purchase the big birthday gift...

Later on in the afternoon there was a small Nerf war with Lucas and his mates; and we had friends over for Pavlova:

Finished the day with an All Black World Cup game (they are looking more worried than they had to be!) - NZ-Namibia 58-14.
Happy days!

Spring clean

We are finally going into a season with some cooler temperatures, and everybody is looking forward to being able to live outside again.
Our garden is also finally done, but before we brought out the new outdoor furniture, Nathan did a bit of a spring clean on the patio - and on the windows!

The Kärcher and the new attachment worked beautifully! Now we can see out again!

The best smell

One of my all time absolute favourite smells is the smell of newly cut grass. Today I got to experience that in my very own backyard!
As the garden people are coming back tomorrow to sort out some issues with the irrigation and possibly plant the bushes and flowers, Nathan took our new mower out today. Cutting the grass took all of about five minutes... :)

Work space upgrade

I got a new rug for my "office" the other day. I really like the pattern and the muted colour, which goes well with the black, white and beige. The rug helps divide the office into it's own "room", within our bigger living area.  

I also improved another part of my office, the desk space. Do you see any gadgets, hard drives, charging docks etc that normally lives on a desk? No you don't! I didn't like having to look at them, so I got a cheap box, cut out a big hole in the back of it for the cables to run through and hid them away. Smart huh!

Finally I have got a new addition to my picture ledge. We all got some lovely Egyptian gifts from our Bruneian friends on the weekend. Amongst other things, these two black statues. They look really nice here on the shelf.

Kitchenthusiasm

Ok, so next on my shopping list was a new stand mixer. I had planned on getting a traditional Swedish Ankarsrum while in Sweden this summer. A newer model of the one I had, that was my Grandmother's, but in the end, that didn't happen.
I couldn't figure out how I was going to pack it safely to lug it back here, and I also didn't think I was going to have the extra 10 kg allowance needed left, by the end of the summer... So I had to scrap that idea, and decided to get one here.

I chose to get a KitchenAid machine instead. I have always liked that they are colourful and fun, and look good on your counter top. Also it's such a well known brand and well functioning machine, the KitchenAid design have been basically the same since the 1930s.
I got myself one in Apple Green, isn't it pretty?

Today it was time to give it a first spin. As we got the ice cream attachment in the "Special Offer", we decided to try and make ice cream! Of course, the ice cream mixture is still in the freezer so we wont know if we succeeded until tomorrow.

Then I totally channeled Martha Stewart, when I figured I could use the left-over egg whites to make something else - a Pavlova!

Here's the end result - and yes, it was just as good as it looks! My second Pavlova ever!

Thumbs up!

Mind blowing

Last night Nathan and I attended a special parent info session at school, regarding their Technology Plan for the next school year. It was led by the Primary ICT Coach.
She was talking about the ICT standards and benchmarks that are in place, how they follow them. She explained how school is using, developing and extending the BYOD (=Bring Your Own Decive) classes and the 1:1 iPad classes for next year.  Finally she was also talking about how they will be introducing Google Apps all across the G2-5 from next year, some pretty big changes.

It was quite an interesting talk and I'm really glad we went (as usual in any school, it seems to be the same parents that go to all of these kind of things...), but it was also quite scary.
Amongst all the other information, she showed us this video, called "Did you know?", which was full of true, interesting and quite frankly very scary facts about education, and about the world and the technology evolution in general.
Here's a few things I learned:

- China will very soon become the #1 English speaking country in the world.
- The 25% of India's population with the highest IQ, is greater than the whole population of the USA.
- The Top 10 in demand jobs of 2013, didn't even exist in 2004!
- If Facebook was a country, it would be the 3rd largest country in the world.
- The amount of new technical information is doubling every 2 years, four students starting a 4 year technical degree this means that half of what they learn in their first year of study will be outdated by their third year of study...
- We are currently educating students for jobs that don't yet exist, teaching them how to use technologies that haven't yet been invented - in order to solve problems, we don't know are problems yet!

No wonder educating the children of our time, is such a challenge.

Easily excited

Ok, so I must admit, I get easily excited - but check this baby out:

After having lived with an ancient washing machine with only 2 programs, and only able to wash with cold water... this is so fantastic! I actually don't mind doing laundry (too much). The novelty will probably wear off yes, but for now, I love my fancy washing machine!

We also got a dishwasher, another novelty for for a while, and a great gadget especially since we are not having a maid for the time being. Here's some of the rest of the machine park, with our lovely new coffee machine to the right! Always Jura, simply the best!

The first meal we cooked on our new shiny stove, was one of Lucas' favourites, Spaghetti Carbonara. Even cooking is a little bit fun at the moment, ha ha! Actually I'm enjoying not having an extra person in the house right now, even if it means a lot more housekeeping jobs for everyone. It's ok for a while.