Your time starts now!

This week it was my time to host our Swedish Game Night. I had looked forward to it, and set a nice table with my colourful Flower Farm flowers.

For our dinner I had prepared a new recipe with turmeric rice and salmon, which was delish! (And I had made far too much food, so now I have lunch food for the whole weekend at the museum!)

For dessert I inaugurated my birthday present from Linnea and prepared a dessert platter (inspired from the one Tash brought over for Christmas two years ago, which has been with me since then!). It got real popular, such a nice way of presenting dessert!

We had so much fun playing my new 'Taskmaster" game!

 

I had sorted out some of the tasks that would have been too difficult to complete without being able to go outside - or without wrecking things..!

The game board with our self portraits, can you see who is who?

Lots and lots of laughs, silly tasks and brain teasing missions!

I love our Game Nights!

First losers

Last night Nathan and I went to a celebratory BBQ at the A-Team padel club, as Nathan and Bevvan had taken home a prize in their tournament that had run the past few months.
They came second in the C-category, and won a Summer Pass so they can play free all summer!

Yay, well done! They also got a nice award for being "First losers", as Nathan said.

All the prize winners in categories C, C+ and mixed:

BBQ in the middle of June was a bit hot, but every now and then there was a little bit of a breeze, saving us from melting completely. These kind of nights, where you just accept the "glow", really brings me back to Brunei.

Padel galore!

Making the most of the beautiful February weather, this morning I had organised an Americano tournament for 12 players for the first time! Three courts, three hours of play, 11 games in total. Full on!

We are playing now at the brand new courts at Yas by the Park Inn, our new favourite spot. Perfect for those of us living off-island, but we have also been so well received and included in the A-Team community - today we got coffee and pastries for our mid-tournament break! Likey likey!

Our group is growing every week, and getting more and more international - but the Argentinian dominance is strong! Valeria, Marina and Alexia took the three top spots today.

The 18th celebrations

Lucas invited some friends to celebrate his birthday last night, an evening which started at the Yas Kartzone at Yas Marina Circuit.

Only Nathan was there to watch, as someone had to take Lucas over (and pay!). For the rest of the evening we weren't invited.

They went to Stars & Bars for dinner. Nice to have your birthday in the winter so you can enjoy sitting outside!

They seemed to have had a great night, so grateful for this group of friends of his. Quite sad really they only have a few more months together, before school is all done and they will go in different directions. Crazy how time flies!

647 days

So, I have fallen off the exercise wagon. Not just fallen off, but fallen off it, set fire to it and bought croissants with the insurance money, ha ha..! It's been two weeks since I have moved in any kind of intentional way, other than around my house.
I'm actually surprised at how fast that happened.

I think they say it takes 20 days to create a new habit? Well, I kept at it for 647 days. And then, I didn't.
I lost my streak on our travel day back to Abu Dhabi from Sweden just before Christmas. For those of you with Apple Watches, that was 647 days in a row I had closed the red ring, which means having done some kind of exercise for a minimum of 30 minutes a day. 647 days!
On that travel day, I was 19 calories off closing it when we landed here in Abu Dhabi late in the evening. Silly me I changed the time zone on my watch without thinking, and - boom, we were into the next day and I had missed that days goal! Aaarrrghhh!

So, bummer. But then I didn't really get back into it, at all. I thought maybe "after Christmas", and then I thought, "in the new year"... and now I'm wondering - what happened? How was that habit so easy to break?
Still. Six hundred and forty seven days. Pretty impressive huh!

Retro Blast Roller Disco

I celebrated the 50th at the Louvre Abu Dhabi, my "happy place", on Friday night. The cultural programming team had organized a Retro Blast Roller Disco Party under the dome, where you were welcome to come and roller skate after hours, together with the MadRollers crew.
My friend Kathleen and I got super excited, and even bought our own roller skates last week in preparation for this event!

The set-up was amazing, with the roller skating rink placed under the dome and pictures from all over the country, both new and old, displayed on the museum buildings.

Lighting and music was top notch as well, DJ Bliss from Dubai made sure the whole session was one big party. I must say, it sure was the closest we have come to a proper night out in a long, long time! We skated, and danced - all while laughing and smiling from ear to ear the whole time!

One of the favourite shots of the night - loved these photos of the Sheikh Zayed Grand Mosque.

I managed to stand upright almost the whole session, only fell over twice, ha ha! Once was my own doing, the other time I was run into. Luckily I didn't break anything, which was a bit of a worry beforehand. (You can have a look at my Instagram @dinsvenskaguideiabudhabi for some videos from the event!)

My friend Kathleen and I! And no, we didn't call and coordinate our outfits before coming! We apparently just happened to both think that stripes were retro..! :) In all honesty, I picked out my top as it matched the laces on my new roller skates! It's all about the look, don't you know!

We had the best time!! So much fun to try something new! Well, 30 years ago I was a "roller groupie" in Paris, hanging out every Sunday with the cool roller skate gang doing street performances outside Notre Dame; but that's as close as I got. It was great to get to move, vibe and enjoy the good music; and share that joy with the people there, feel like the world was normal, even for just a few hours!

SOME streak!

I have been waiting for today's display on my watch - the 365 days streak is complete!

365 days of burning at least 500 calories through exercise EVERY day! A whole year of daily exercise!!!

So what have I been doing?
Lately my exercise have consisted of padel 3-4 times a week, and usually the treadmill for the rest of it. Sometimes I've done some outdoor walking, or Zumba; and during the summer trip to Sweden it was only outside walks or bike rides, so most of it has been just cardio I must admit. So no, not all exercise have been generating puddles of sweat or huge spikes in the heart rate, but I have made a conscious choice to move - every day for a year. That's something to be proud of for sure.

Last spring during the lockdown I was doing a lot more strength based exercises as well, and I was both slimmer and more toned then, than I am now. I would like to get back in top form, so will try and bring those videos back into my routine. I guess it'll come naturally eventually, when the heat will force me to do inside workouts only.

I guess I have the Covid-situation to thank for finally sticking to a routine and for realizing that there is always time every day for some exercise.

1558 km

Yes, the school holidays are over for the kids, but for me there is honestly no big difference in the rhythm of daily life. Every day is pretty much the same, as it has been for the last many, many... many months now... I basically only leave the house these days to go play padel, other than that we try to do most of our shopping online, both for groceries and other things, and many days I don't even go outside at all.

My exercise streak is very much alive though, I'm "closing the rings" every day; usually by walking on the treadmill (such a good buy!) while watching Swedish TV. On Saturdays I get to watch the 'På Spåret'-show which aired the night before in Sweden:

Out of curiosity I tallied up all the kilometers I walked last year, both inside and outside but yes, mostly on the treadmill. I managed to walk 1558 km in 2020! To my surprise when I was looking for something that distance, I realised that the length of Sweden is 1574 km!!! Argh, had I known I would've pushed for those last few kilometers..! But close though! Next year I'll go the whole way!

Corona Diary, Day 276-282

Day 276, Sunday 6 December. 2nd of Advent
Today was the first time this term we saw below 20 degrees on the school run! Winter is here!
With Nathan at work and Lucas at school, Linnea and I spent our morning studying and having rice pudding for lunch, yum!
Exercise was done in the afternoon before we had daal for dinner (yes, it's a favourite, and so fast to make!) and some TV.

Day 277, Monday 7 December
Today I did a walk about the mangrove park with Susanne after school drop off, before I had a long 2,5h training session with the LAD. Good balance of outside and inside this morning!
Tried a new Cookidoo recipe, chicken meatballs and Mexican rice with beans for dinner. Yeah nah, will not do that one again.

Day 278, Tuesday 8 December
Padel! Padel! Padel! Nathan and I played with Petra, Susanne and Tina today. Great to try our new rackets, but we had trouble getting the play to take off, as we are all new beginners.

Day 279, Wednesday 9 December
Time for Uni lecture again, this week without sitting by the pool at the same time unfortunately. Otherwise a pretty boring day. Nathan spent several hours on his bike, I did my exercise and Linnea and Lucas their school work.
Linnea finished baking with the gingerbread dough, after she had made us Chicken & bacon pasta for dinner, although Nathan went out for dinner with a friend.

Day 280, Thursday 10 December
Moooore padel! This morning I played with the SWEA ladies again. Getting better every time!

School was out early as it was the last day before the winter break. Linnea and I went to celebrate the holidays with a Festivitea at the Westin, together with Linda and her boys.
Then we went straight to Galleria Mall to sort out some Christmas shopping, had dinner at PF Changs and got home really late. Busy day!

In the meantime the boys (of course) had ordered their dinner and were planted in the sofa when we got back.

Day 281, Friday 11 December
Nathan and I got up early this morning to get going and sort some Christmas-related things out before the crowds hit the mall. Just the two of us for an early lunch, and jobs got sorted. Quite a lazy day all around (apart from the daily exercise, of course!), even had pizza for dinner.

Day 282, Saturday 12 December
I tried a new hairdresser today, on recommendation from a friend who looked absolutely fab last time she had been here. I was very pleased too, with the colour, the cut and the whole experience. But above all with the blow-dry which held the whole day, and if I wasn't sporting tomorrow, would probably look good then too.

Lucas saw some friends today, and Nathan went down to Yas Marina to sit on a friends boat and watch the qualifying of the GP. It's really weird that it's F1-weekend, but since there are no spectators this year, it's without the usual full-on circus that comes with it.

What Corona does to you...

In these times where you look for entertainment anywhere, we decided one evening have some fun and make the most of all the beer cans in our house. We wanted to build - 'Burj Beer'!

We used the Lego instructions for the Burj Khalifa as inspiration, but had to scale down a bit as it was going to be way to tall to work.

It turned into total team work getting all the cans, turning them the right way, get the tower balanced etc. The whole family was involved, but Lucas was the main engineer. Cool huh!

Corona Diary, Day 62-66. Eight week of home school

Day 62, Sunday 10 May
It was 10th of March we last socialised with anybody. Two whole months ago today. Two MONTHS! I'm so over all of this now. Can it please just go away, pretty please.

Today Linnea and I went for a quarantrip after school into the city to visit the new bookstore. Kinokuniya finally opened here in Abu Dhabi last Wednesday!

Yes, we have got our own branch now, wii-hoo! It's not as big as the one in Dubai, but it sure is easier to get to, so - AWESOME! First I was disappointed they chose to open it in one of the gallerias in the city, but in hindsight I guess it's actually a good thing that it's not in Yas Mall as I would be going there way to often, ha ha. It really is my happy place.

Day 63, Monday 11 May
The days are floating into each other, now more than ever. My life seems to have reduced to these VERY few routines which reminds me which day it is: Sundays we change the sheets, Mondays I put out the empty water bottles to get replaced, Tuesdays we clean the house and on Thursday nights we have a take-away to celebrate the weekend.
I do still get up every day and have my morning coffee. I do my workout, I shower, get dressed and all that every day. I don't just lay in my bed with a blanket over my head waiting for better times - but, my mental state currently is pretty much the same as if I was. Although I'm not sure what kind of better times I'm waiting for anymore. What kind of normal will we get? What kind of life do I want?

Nathan has been in the hotel for 11 days, but we are still only just halfway through his time there. Never has time apart from each other felt this long.

Day 64, Tuesday 12 May
We made a decision today to move our cleaning days to Thursdays. That way we can combine the after-cleaning treat with pizza night, not to also have to cook after having spent a few hours cleaning.  Not sure it's a good idea or not, maybe Thursday afternoons should be just for chill after a long school week? Ah well, we will see how it works out this week.

This afternoon I went for groceries all by myself. I always offer the kids to come, but today I had no takers, which I didn't mind actually. Although I realised coming home unpacking the bags that this isolation must be starting to get to me - I hardly bought any "real" food, mostly just treats, snacks, chips, ice cream and chocolate, ha ha!

I guess it is because we are properly stocked up already. Or is it..?! (Edit: I DID buy more groceries than what's in the photo, I only photographed the treats.)

Day 65, Wednesday 13 May
Another day in the life. This "trying to make the best of every day" is getting harder and harder.
Today I decided to flip my day and do my exercise in the afternoon instead of the morning. I even went outside for a walk, for something different. Just around the block of course, on all the small streets in my hoods, the same streets I used to run for my C25K-challenge two years ago. I rarely saw anyone else out then, but today there was quite a lot of people out and about, walking their dogs, running, getting some air. Everyone following the distancing rules carefully, crossing the streets to avoid even meeting on the same sidewalk, barely smiling to each other. What a strange world this has become.

I had set the kids the task of getting dinner ready while I was gone, so when I got back we enjoyed Swedish meatballs with the final episode of 'Friends' which has been the series of choice lately. Linnea and I have rewatched the whole thing, again.

Day 66, Thursday 14 May
This morning I sat downstairs at the dining table with the kids and finished this puzzle while they were at school.

Some really good results and grades have been coming through lately, so I guess at least when it comes to the quality of their work, home school is working for them.
I'm still worried a lot about the recent news that normal school most probably will not happen here next term either. There are so many other things they are missing out on by being isolated like this; and so many ways they are getting affected.

Cleaning day today, with pizza delivery when we were done. Another school week bites the dust.