Netflix and chill?

Another change at home recently is that we have now got a TV - in the Master Bedroom!
I'd say finally, because I am convinced we have actually never had a TV in any of our bedrooms; although Nathan claims we did have it in England? Hm, it's been so long, I actually can not remember, but I still don't think so.

I inaugurated it by using it to warm up for the Coldplay concert, but mostly my (yes, cause it was my wish to get it!) thought was that if "someone" is in the living room drinking beer with friends, "someone else" can then more comfortably now watch TV upstairs rather than having to hide in the office.

Office revamp

As so often it happens, when I pack away the Christmas decorations and see our home with fresh eyes again, I feel like a change.

This time, I dealt with our office.
We had two very old IKEA shelves in here, that had been repurposed over and over in different rooms in our house. At first they were in each of the kids' rooms, then on the landing in the old house and here they had been bookshelves/storage space in our office. 

I got annoyed as one of them had become miscoloured, and also because they actually didn't hold much - I needed more space for more books..!

So, new plan - I got two nice and tall, very classic Billy bookshelves instead. Built them all by myself:

Even installed the LED lighting on top, with dimmer and everything! So proud of myself!

Now I have a LOT more space for new books!
The room itself has also become more spacious as these are slightly narrower than the previous shelves, which is good for the odd occasions we use it as an extra guest room.

The shelves are in the same wood as my desk, so it all looks really nice and put together in here now.
Very pleased.

Christmas ready

This year I had good reason to decorate early, as I am off to Sweden for a bit as per usual in the middle of December. Hence there is not so much time for me to enjoy it all otherwise.
It is a rather big job though, took me a whole day!

Got some electric candles for my Advent candle stick. They are so real looking nowadays, and while still bringing all the vibes, they don't make the house warm - perfect!

Of course I also have my calendar candle, counting down; and my big Santa has got some lights on his tree in the stairs.

The flying Santa is back, I still love him so so much!

The new additions to the tree are coming from both here and there, from this years travels. First I bought two ornaments in Denmark this summer, one from Tivoli and one from Rosenborg Castle:

I also bough an ornament while on the West Coast, in Fjällbacka; and one down in Brighton when we were there in June. A chippie-stealing sea gull:

And from Lisbon I got two baubles, one in papier-mâché and a handmade ceramic one:

Bring it on - I am Christmas ready

Student 2024 / Graduation Reception

It was really important for me to celebrate Linnea with a reception, just as we did for Lucas - the Swedish way. We did it the day before her Graduation, and invited our friends to join in. Auntie Nikkie was more than happy to help out with the preparations, cooking is her love language!
I had been inspired by Peta's 40th grazing table, and wanted to do something similar so I send Pia to buy a lot of charcuterie in Sweden (much cheaper there), and Lucas brought it all down here for us. It took the whole family to help set it all up!

The girls:

The grazing table turned out absolutely amazing! There was so much food, such a spread! All the hams and sausages from Sweden, home made dips, hummus and paté; crackers and cheese, fresh and dried fruit and berries, blinis with salmon, chocolates, nuts and sweets, and much more.

The boys:

It was so lovely that Lucas was able to come down for the weekend, to celebrate Linnea. It meant a lot to her, and to us of course.

Decorations across the whole apartment!

We had a slideshow running on the TV with lots of photos from all her school years, and I had also made two timelines, one with all her first days of school, one with her school photos:

The red velvet cake we had ordered was book-themed, suited our little book-worm well!

 

For some reason (must have been a good party!), I didn't take any photos of our guests - Matt, Will, the McGeehees, Linda & Johan, Kathleen, the Browns and some of Linneas friends.
Linnea got some really lovely gifts, most of them were gift cards to Kinokuniya (the book store), very much keeping on brand for Linnea, ha ha! She also got a cutlery set, cool cash, and a kit with a book, a first aid-kit and a bottle opener in a canvas bag - "something interesting, something useful and something fun".

A mouse in the house

The spring cleaning I started last week continued with a BIG clean out of the kitchen the other day, as I discovered a little mouse in one of our kitchen cupboards. Yes, a mouse! Eeek.

We were totally baffled as to why he was in that particular one, as it was in a cupboard with only plates and bowls, and none of the cupboards next to it has food in them either. So strange.
It was Linnea who finally pointed out, that some of the upper shelves in that cupboard were shorter and there was actually a false back there, which created a HUGE 10 cm gap. Well... *duh*, that would explain how he got in. He probably just took a wrong turn somewhere and came down to have a look!

We caught the little rodent, and then I proceeded to clean out EVERYTHING.

Nathan and Will mounted an old shelf we had lying around upside down to block the gap, so now we hope we will get no more unwanted visitors.

This years spring... shift?

Usually this time of the year, I go through a bit of a metamorphosis process. I wrote about how this usually pans out last year.
I have to say, this year I'm not experiencing quite the same urge, as my focus is all together on Linnea at the moment. She is in the middle of her final IB exams (she has done 6 out of 13 exams so far) and it is - and has been for a while - a very stressful time for her, obviously. And for all of us.
The time I usually have trouble to fill as work slows down, is spent at home supporting her in all and every way possible during this time. Mostly by just being here, but that is important enough.

I have actually moved my trusty old best Covid-friend the treadmill into the guest room for a while and started doing some indoor walks. I never really got into to going to the gym here. It being placed in the basement with no windows give it such a "dungey" feeling. I like it better with the view of the sea!

We have also done some spring cleaning around the house. I guess its the old platitude, when the mind is messy - you clean!
We finally got around to clearing out the downstairs bathroom a bit. It had basically just become a dumping room, and was full of all sorts of things that didn't have a place anywhere else. Even though technically we don't need to be able to use it (as there are three other bathrooms in the apartment) we thought it could be nice when we have several sets of visitors at once, which has happened a few times already.
Here's Nathan about half way through the process... ha ha, just when steam tends to run out.

Well, we managed. Now there are still some things in there in one corner, but someone could still use it as a bathroom (as it is huge!), so mission accomplished. What's next..?

Zzzzz

We furnished our first house all in one go when we arrived in Abu Dhabi those 10+ year ago. We had made a mood board in advance, discussed different options and made a shopping list for IKEA. Our first day here, we spent 7 hours in IKEA, and a few days later when everything turn up - it was like a pop-up house!
We got big 180x200 IKEA beds for everywhere, both in the guest room and in our room. (And in the kids' rooms, although we updated both their beds throughout our time in Haya Compound, as they grew out of their initial set-up).

Nathan had been complaining for quite a while that he didn't sleep well in our bed anymore. Our mattresses had probably done their job, and it was time to look for something else.
He refused an IKEA bed this time, so we spread our search a bit further. We went to Dalma Mall, where we had found there was a lot of different bed/mattress shops. Although buying a bed is really difficult! How are you going to know if a bed will be comfortable by just trying it for a few minutes..?!

Anyway, we ended up ordering a new bed in an even bigger size than the previous, 200x200. As Nathan was going on an overnight when it was going to be delivered, we decided to dismount the old frame and sleep on the mattresses to make sure the new one could be placed right away. Quite cosy actually, a bit like camping!

Ha ha, we ended up "camping" for over a week, as the bed delivery got delayed because of the storms. Finally though, it arrived! Behold our new blue dream!

I have to admit, I have not immediately started to sleep like a princess, it seems like my body needs to adjust to the new mattress? Or maybe I new new pillows too? Ah well, at least it's bigger..!
I am so pleased with the overall feel of this room now. We decided to go for a really big new rug, to cover most of the room. It took six people to roll it out and place it, but the end result is so cosy!

The old bed frame will be taken over by friends, but we decided to keep the mattresses as they will be useful for when having visitors. In the meantime, to store them, we made them into a daybed in one corner of the upstairs landing (the laundry/training space). So a bit of change both here and there in the house!

Flooded

Late yesterday evening, while watching TV and just at that moment when we contemplating going to bed, there was a strange loud bang from somewhere. Nathan and I looked at each other, and while we texted Linnea if she was doing something upstairs, she texted us the same. Strange.

Then we could hear - the rain?? Or..?
Nathan went to have a look in the hallway, and discovered a flood of water coming through from under our front door. We could hear it GUSHING just outside, and all of a sudden we had to leap to action as the water kept coming in at a raging speed!

It turned out there was a major water pipe that had burst, right outside our door, and the - warm - water was quickly filling up the corridor, seeping into every apartment. There was an alarm blaring and people shouting, neighbours making sure everyone was ok. This photo below is after it had all stopped, but as the water was warm, it was completely steaming.

We used every available towel in the house to create mounds to stop the water from going further into the apartment than the hallway, as there are no thresholds on the whole floor apart from into the bathrooms (where we would have actually liked the water to go, as they have drains!). At the same time as we were struggling to stop the water, we also had to start swabbing it up, as there was just SO much water. Even though we have an industrial Kärcher, the best method turned out to be a scraper and a shovel.

Finally the maintenance crew managed to turn off the flood and we could start the major clean up. Even though it was not exactly what we wanted to do on a Sunday night, we were so relieved we were actually home. If we wouldn't have been here, the whole downstairs would've been destroyed by the water as it would have entered all over. Phew.

Not only did I have to wash all the towels in the house the next day, but there was window cleaning scheduled, so I couldn't dry them on the balcony. Fun, fun, fun. Ah well, it could've been worse.

Lush start to the weekend

This past weekend Nathan and I finally did something we had talked about since a very long time - we booked in for a massage. At home. In our living room!
Yes, like everything else, you can have massage therapists "delivered" to your house here, have a massage, in the comfort of your own home!

Two ladies turned up, ten minutes before the set time, and unfolded their massage beds and set up and created a lovely atmosphere with music, flowers and a scented candle.

We then had 90 minutes of absolute bliss, before they packed up and disappeared just as quickly as they had come. It was wonderful, and I really enjoyed being able to just cosy up and relax afterwards, and not have to get dressed and have to drive back home.

I suggested to Nathan we should try and have a massage at least once a month, to which he answered "Or once a week!". Ha ha! He got hooked straight away!

Nice to see you!

Last weekend we finally got to host the Dehli family at our house. They hadn't yet seen our new place, we actually realised we hadn't seen each other since Lucas' graduation party last May, so about time!
This time it was no problem convincing Frederik to come down to Abu Dhabi though, as he picked up his new truck the same morning, so he was super keen on a road trip!

They really liked our apartment, and the surroundings. They boys went for a drive bringing the girls to the mall, and Anne and I spent the afternoon in the neighbourhood, by the pool and on our balcony.

They stayed for the night, and the next day I was going to work. They came with, and since I didn't have any tours planned for the beginning of the day, I could show them around for a bit.

It was their first visit (finally!) to the museum, but I don't think it'll be their last. They liked it a lot!