An evening at the mosque

At the same time as Auntie Nikki was here, there was also an old colleague of mine in town on holiday with her two boys. Vicky and I started flying together in what was then Premiair, many moons ago. She and her family came to see us in Brunei at one stage, and we went to visit them when they lived in Hong Kong. She is now back in Malmö, still has got her wings, but now works for SAS.

I offered to show her and her boys around the Sheikh Zayed Grand Mosque, and we ended up going in the evening after dinner.

Auntie Nikki came too, as she had a few souvenirs she wanted to look for in the underground mall; plus she hadn't seen the mosque in the evening before.

It had been quite a while since I'd been to the Grand Mosque at night time too, I just love the lighting, it makes it very special.

We were so lucky that there were not many people at all, so it was a really pleasant visit.

A Dubai must-do

On Auntie Nikkis whirlwind visit there was at least one thing she had on her must-do list, a visit to the "Goldman". She had a bunch of jewellery she had realized she was never using, plus all the rings after Grandma that needed resizing and resetting. So I took her to Dubai for the day and we spent a good hour (good thing they treat you to coffee there!) uhm-ing and aah-ing at different options for it all.
In the end with all the gold she was returning she was in credit, so she thought she should invest in something new as well..! She ended up deciding on getting a lovely rose gold bracelet, after as you can see in the photo, having stacked quite a few different ones up her arm.

She ended up leaving with a really big bag..!

I only came away with one little box, with this dainty little set of gold ball earrings that I had ordered last time.

I was more excited about this bag!

Full of books about art and architecture, of course!

2019 Christmas tree additions

Our Christmas tree is not decorated with only baubles and tinsel, our Christmas tree is a trip down memory lane as it's full of souvenirs and memories from countries we've lived and places we've traveled to. Here are this years' new additions. First a few here from UAE, a coffee pot (dallah) and a bauble I got at the Qasr Al Watan, with the pattern of the mosaics from inside the palace: 

Then another two, both from the Louvre Abu Dhabi. The hippo from the Egyptian gallery and Leonardo da Vinci:

A bullfinch from Sweden:

A glass bauble from Copenhagen, with a picture of Nyhavn on it:

And a bauble in porcelain from Amsterdam, in Delft blue with a windmill on it:

And finally a very special one, a NZ Santa fisherman that Auntie Nikki brought over, it came from Grandma and Grandads  Christmas decoration collection. ❤️

All packed up and put away now for another year!

New toy

While Nikki was here we decided to try out our new kitchen gadget, and cook some steaks with the new TM6 function sous-vide. I had brought a vacuum sealer back from Sweden and it was time to put it to use. It took all of our reading glasses and quite some concentration!

We managed to figure it out, and created perfectly vacuum sealed steaks which then cooked in the sous-vide TM6 for an hour and a half.

Result, pretty good! Although, the next day I just fried the left-over steak for lunch... 1,5 minute on each side - and just as good..! Ha ha!
I think we need to try some more recipes of sous-vide stuff.

First 2020 visitor

Already on the second day of the new year we welcomed this years first visitor, and not just any visitor - Auntie Nikki! She came alone this time, and just for a week unfortunately, but she was really in need of a bit of change of environment after the last really rough months so better that than not at all.

I had some work at the Louvre Abu Dhabi already booked in since a long time, so I brought her with me, and gave her a tour of the galleries before my group arrived.

I was feeling particularly smartly dressed this day - in a new, crisp white shirt (I always have issues finding shirts that fit my shape, so very pleased to find this one. COS for the win, again!) and my black suit. Sharp!

My tour was a private tour for a German family. Auntie Nikki in the meantime had browsed the temporary exhibition, and then she managed to snap some photos of me in action at the end of my tour:

In the evening, Auntie Nikki got to play around with the magic machine, the Thermomix - and she managed to produce (with some technical guidance) a great Butter Chicken for dinner. Om nom nom!

Happy 2020!

Those who know me know that I am ridiculously excited about 2020 (not only because it can only get better than the shit year we just had), because I love the symmetrically pleasing numbers - 2-0-2-0. Well, I love even numbers all together, and twenty-twenty just has such a good ring to it, doesn't it!!

We welcomed the new year - the new DECADE! - at home. Once again Nathan was working early the next morning, so no big party for us. Even though it was just us, we had got some decorations and set a nice table for dinner.

As per tradition we had fondue for dinner. It was actually Lucas who made sure a few days ahead that it was going to be the same New Years dinner as every year! Gotta love traditions!

Lucas had invited his friend Yazan for dinner, he happily joined in cooking his own food, not being too bothered about the fire extinguisher next to the dinner table... well, better safe than sorry...

After dinner we tried to make time pass by playing some board games, 'Speak Out' is always fun!

Nathan had an early wake-up call so he went to bed even before midnight.

The rest of us celebrated midnight with jumping off the sofas (into the new year) and some 'julmust'. We tried to get a glimpse of the fireworks from Yas Island, but referred back to fireworks from the Burj Khalifa on the TV instead. 

Then it was time for the festive cake Yazan had brought for dessert. As delicious as it was pretty.

We wish everyone an awesome 2020! Love and light!