About time!

It might be slightly bad timing, as we are moving slowly into the warmer months, but - I have finally returned to the padel court! After a three year (!) hiatus!

We now have two padel courts here in our compound that you can book (well, if you are fast enough once the bookings are released) for free. There is also a WhatsApp group where people look for players, so in preparation for getting back to playing with other people, Nathan, Matt and I booked and went down to hit some balls one afternoon.

It did get a bit hot... 

I managed to remember (mostly) how to do it, so I now I have thrown myself into playing in every game I could get into! So. Much. Fun!

Hopefully I'll get in many more games before the weather becomes unbearable. 

Apart from work...

Yes there have been a lot of work in October, both for me and Nathan - and Linnea, who keeps impressing us with the way she keeps dedicating herself to her school work. But this means there has been a lot of work, and not a lot of play, for any of us.

I invited Linda for Thai on her birthday, still too hot to sit outside but we enjoyed a few hours of celebration together inside by this gorgeous view.

Our friends the McGeeHees came down from Dubai last weekend and we shared a meal at the Mexican restaurant down in Yas Bay after they had been to Disney on Ice on Friday. The following day Linnea joined them in visiting Warner Bros Park, and had fun taking on all the rides with Aiden and Wyatt.

I played padel in the morning (yes outside!), for the first time yesterday, and even though it was hot, it was manageable. So now it's time to get rolling with our weekly Americano-tournaments again! I've been looking forward to that!

The weather has finally changed this past week, now I can have the door open to the garden most of the day without melting away. We are entering into the perfect season! Yay!

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.

Another week bites the dust

It's Friday, again and the weeks are rolling by both fast and slow at the moment. But now, only two weeks of school left until Christmas holidays and December next week!

Nathan went back to work this week after more than two weeks off (he was on leave) where he ended up not going anywhere as initially planned because of changed (and confusing) restrictions in Europe. Instead he got to play quite a bit of padel, and received the new bike kit for SideHustle. Check him out!

I have been working (always yay!). This week a bit unusually doing "normal" tours, not at the Louvre Abu Dhabi but at the SZGM, and also Wahat Al Karama and Masdar City. The first one a private one with a Swedish family and the second with the Swedish Ladies-group.

I received the result on the exam for my Women and Surrealism UNI-course - "With Distinction"! Very happy and proud!

I have also played padel, of course! I realised it's been a year this week since I was introduced to padel, and I have loved it from that very first time! I had a private coaching session at this gorgeous club the other morning - my padel court is sunnier than yours!

I haven't posted our dinners for a while, and truth to be told, we have gone off the track with the weekly menus and well-planned meals. Or more to the point - I have been working more, and since no one else manages the planning, the execution has gone out the window too... There has been quite a bit of easy dinner solutions, take-aways and home deliveries, not really worth listing. Ah well, that's ok too sometimes I guess.

So, Friday morning and we are all PCRed and ready for the weekend. Lucas is off this afternoon to celebrate a friends birthday, which apparently includes a boat trip to an island, picnic and water sports, limo-drive (!) to a restaurant and evening celebrations at Yas Island.
The rest of us are going to see our favourite comedian, Michael McIntyre, at the Etihad Arena. (Hence the PCRs, participation in events demands a max 96h PCR, even if you are vaccinated).

But first, as Nathan is at work, I have the Christmas music blaring and have brought out all the boxes with Christmas decorations! First of Advent on Sunday so bring on the Christmas explosion!

A big padel week

At the same time as I have been really busy this week with work (yay!), I have also been really busy playing padel! We did an Americano tournament Monday morning at the Cricket Club, I played at Active Sports in the city on Tuesday night, and Thursday morning we were invited to try the brand new indoor court at the Golf Club, pre-opening.

Nice court, but I think we will keep playing on our familiar outside courts... not only because we are creatures of habit, but also because we are very much in the best season now temperature wise! It's super lovely!

Last night I participated in a tournament at the ESS club in the city, having teamed up with my English friend Lauren. It was the first Ladies Challenger Tournament that the club organised for our level of playing, with 9 teams playing.

Lauren and I managed to reach the semi-finals, but were beaten 9-5 by our good friends from Argentina, Valeria and Alexia. Not only are they better players, but we already play together weekly so they know our game (and weaknesses), and to be honest - they managed to get into my head real quick, ha ha! I think I mostly lost that game with my mind..!
Anyhow - Valeria and Alexia went ahead to win the whole thing, well deserved! Congratulations!

Winning or loosing - we had SO much fun! The games, the ladies, the chats in-between games, the cheering on, the weather... - it was great! We spent all night at the padel club, from 6pm to 10.30pm!

Now I'm all fired up and have finally booked in for some more coaching! Next time I will be able to return ALL those sliced balls, ha ha!

Close contact

We have packed up another week, with some school for the kids, some work for Nathan, some exam-writing for me, some padel for both of us and some Pfizer for all of us.

Wednesday night we got the dreaded email from school that there had been a positive case detected in one of the kids' classes. The contact tracing is done very thoroughly here, so anyone who had been sitting close to this particular student in any of his classes, got the email. Quite a big group of students, since they have different class mates in every subject. At least it is easy for the school to trace, this is the reason the kids have allocated places where they sit in each class, and they are not allowed to swap seats.

Yesterday morning we then had to visit the allocated SEHA center for contact cases, which is way down in Mina Port in the city. Lucas had to take a PCR test (which was negative) and register there to sign a form he now will complete home quarantine. As he is vaccinated, it will only be for seven days, but they actually count from when he was in contact with the positive case, which was Monday.
On day six, so tomorrow, he will have to have another PCR test, and as long as that comes back negative as well, he can go back yet again on Sunday, to pick up a quarantine certificate which he will need to go back to school on Monday. So in the end, he will only have missed two days of school, luckily.

Sliding into the Midterm Holidays

We made it! The whole term so far - IN school! This is something you actually don't take for granted anymore, so great stuff! But now, we have all deserved a week to chill out, with many, many sleep-ins. It has actually been quite a start to the year, it feels like we accelerated straight to fifth gear after pottering around in first and second gear for a year and a half. So a bit of a break now is welcomed.

Another flown by week, which has seen me go to WORK - yes, twice even!! I have also organised an Americano tournament, submit the first Uni exam for the Costume- and Interiorhistory course, been to Game Night and played around with pottery. Nathan has mostly been on stand by for work all week, and the kids have been to school.
Lucas is off to a friends birthday celebrations tonight, where they are going to play Paintball and eat sushi. Linnea is busy planning her own birthday celebrations for next week..!

Finally, I have taken a few photos of some of our food this week, starting with this weeks favourite, pecan crusted cod with green veggies:

Next up garlic prawns, rice and veggies:

We also cooked chicken with rosemary potatoes and sundried tomato sauce:

This was yakitori beef and cous cous salad:

We have also had pasta bolognese and beef spare ribs with corn, and TGIT pizza delivery tonight - but no photos of those!

Hot, hot, hot

Stop this now please! This is not how October is supposed to be!! It's way too hot still!! Can someone turn down the heat??!

This morning it was really humid and rather warm, and I had organised a padel tournament at the new courts by the Cricket Stadium. I had convinced seven other chicas to join in for the Americano, so it was a brave group optimistically setting out on two hours play.

We managed to finish all seven games, just about, as it was so, so hot - extremely hot! No shade at all, 30 degrees and 85% humidity..! I could wring out all my clothes when I got back, I was soaked all the way through!
But, it was worth it, so much fun!

Five weeks in

TGIT - another week in the books.

In between studies I've managed to catch up with a few friends this week over coffee, both Sunday and Tuesday morning; and played padel all of four times! Monday and Tuesday evening with my British friends in the city and Wednesday and Thursday morning with the Swedish and Argentinian chicks at our usual place. The morning play was very, very hot still though (about 33-34 degrees), can't wait for some cooler weather! We have just dipped below 30 degrees for the morning school run the past two days, about time.
Linnea has got a new hairstyle after two visits to the hairdresser, first the cut, then the colour. Nathan has been working and Lucas has been busy with school, school and more school.

The kids are finishing the week by hanging out with their friends and Nathan and I are off on a hot date to the movies to see the new James Bond movie! I can't even remember when I last went to the movies! It was pre-Covid for sure, so probably about two years ago. I'm all excited!

Finally the menu for this week has been:
Garlic pork chops with steamed veggies and béchamel sauce
Sweet chili pasta with chicken (cooked by Lucas)
Indian vegetable curry
Steak and Greek salad
Mac n' Cheese

Four weeks done

Great stuff! We have managed four whole weeks of school - IN school!
So normal, it's fantastic!

Nathan has been busy working all week, I have had Game Night, been to a book exchange breakfast with SwedishLadies and - played padel! I finally dared to take on the humidity on Tuesday night, and actually it wasn't too, too bad. I survived, and had great fun!
Kids are digging their heels in and firmly getting on with school work. Lucas kicked back and hung out with his friends this afternoon, while Linnea and I went to the mall and sorted a few things for tomorrow. Bad idea to do the mall on a Thursday night, but we had to do the needful!

This week we ate:
Poke Bowl (yes, again, such a hit we had to repeat!)
Beef stroganoff
Pasta bolognese (cooked by Lucas)
Daal
Pizza take-away

Last (and first!) family ride of the summer

It took almost all summer, but finally it happened - we managed to convince everyone to get out for a family bike ride! Linnea with a sour face (because her helmet was uncomfortable...), but the rest of us happy as!

We really enjoyed our last days in Stenum and made the most of the fact that the sun and the warmth decided to do a quick comeback. Nathan went bike riding up Kinnekulle:

Lucas went to play one last Americano tournament (with both Nathan and I as spectators, ha ha!):

And I went on my forest walks:

Fun in Åhus

We amused ourselves while Eva and Fredrik was at work today, and took a walk from their house  (which is really their summer house) out by the beach...

... in to the city to see their latest project - their new house emerging on Sjögatan!

That's what I call a Covid-project!

It's very much under construction at the moment, Fredrik works on it every day together with his team of contractors. But walking through these parts, we could get a good idea of how it will look when it's all done - ah-mazing!

Åhus is famous for above all two things, it's the home of Absolut Vodka (ALL Absolut Vodka is produced here!), and it has really good ice cream.
Going for a guided tour in the Absolut Vodka factory will have to wait until next time, as that was all booked up.

But we managed to find some delicious ice cream at Pråmen down in the harbour, which we enjoyed immensely, even though it was raining. Again.

When Fredrik and Eva came home from work, they had challenged us to a padel match. Although we took Lucas with us as well, so it turned into more of a family battle than a proper game. Lucas did really well, so well actually that I got cold waiting my turn on the sidelines as his game was so even!
Fair to say though, all in all - it was a Wellander win today. We'll be back to redeem ourselves!

Thank you Wellanders for a lovely visit in Åhus with you!

Hello Bunkeflo!

Touchdown Bunkeflo! We are out on a week (plus) long road trip at the moment. First stop Malmö and our friends the Hybholts in Bunkeflostrand. Got welcomed by taco dinner - "food, friends, good times".

The weather hasn't quite been the greatest, so we've had to do the dog walks with Mollie in the short periods when it wasn't raining. But look at the blackberry treasures we found along the way! Mmm!

Pia and I had some alone time in Malmö city shopping one morning, before anyone else was up and awake. The Malmö/CPH region is hosting World Pride this week, so the whole town was covered in rainbows and unicorns!

One afternoon we did an excursion even further south, down to Höllviken, Skanör & Falsterbo. We had lunch in this lovely little place:

They had never tried padel, so obviously we had to introduce them to our favourite sport! Great fun to hang out, while being active.

Most of the time, it didn't bother us too much that it just kept raining. Pia and I spent most of the weekend out in her conservatory anyway. I just love the noise of the rain on the roof, and we had plenty of wine!