Life in Abu Dhabi

Friday Fun

Friday was a big day for our guests.
In the early morning Max and Jens went along to ZSC to watch Lucas play a rugby game against one of the Dubai teams, the Warriors. Lucas team won, so everybody came home in a good mood!

The girls and I took Oakley for a walk in Yas Park. We stopped at the playground and the girls could enjoy some play in the perfect morning temperatures. I love UAE winter!

Then it was time for another Friday Brunch!!

We went back to trusty Fairmont Bab Al Bahr, and it didn't disappoint this time either..! Even the kids ate and ate and ate, so much food. Mmm!

I suspect we might have drunk our brunch worth, more than eaten it this time though... These yummy watermelon cocktails and freshly made mojitos just kept appearing on our table... ;)

Desserts, mmm! Can you see, the chocolate mousse is covered in gold!

After the brunch we caught up with another Swedish family here, who also used to live in Horsham (and Berlin!) many moons ago. We had a few more drinks on their balcony, and Karin got to try a traditional shisha, before it was time to call it a night.

A big Friday for sure!

An afternoon in the dunes

Going out into the desert is something we would like to do more, but somehow the weekends always get away from us, and we get busy with other things.
We have only really been out twice, once with Swedish School and once doing the 'Carols in the Desert'. At some stage I would actually like to do a proper camping trip and stay out there overnight, but that might have to be next season, as it would involve a bigger shopping trip for all the gear...

After having spent the day at Yas Beach, we packed everybody up after the kids had come home from school - including Oakley - and drove about 45 minutes out into the dunes.
It was Oakley's first trip to the desert and boy, did he LOVE it!
He ran and ran and ran, up and down the dunes, tried to dig holes (a bit pointless in the desert...), chased the kids, and ran and ran and ran some more! He seemed to think this was his best day ever!

I think for next trip we need to at least buy some toys to sled on, this approach didn't work very well..! :)

My gorgeous ❤️

The kids had a blast, and tired themselves out nicely too. Up and down the dunes, pretending to go skiing, racing and chasing each other.

It was rather windy, but we got the BBQ going and had our dinner in the dunes. It was a bit crunchy and sandy, ha ha, but nevertheless, a lovely experience, especially for our guests.

It was a really nice afternoon, but as soon as we had watched the sunset, we decided to pack up and go home. It gets cold, and dark, really really quickly, and since we are not seasoned desert travelers by any measure, we thought we'd better get out of there while we could still see.
We'll be back, soon!

We go way back

This week we had visitors from Sweden - the Robertsons. We go wayyy back!
Jens used to live with us in England, when he started in EasyJet and still was commuting back to Sweden; and later during our time in Horsham his girlfriend Karin moved across too and we were all part of the Scandinavian crew there.

Even though we left for Brunei, and they went to Berlin, and later moved back to Helsingborg - we have always kept in touch, and tried to touch base every so often. Since we have been friends for so long, I thought it could be fun to have look back on our friendship.

Let's start at the beginning, in 2003, when we the three of us lived in the old cottage outside Horsham:

This was during one of Karin's visits, pre-kids. Karin and I got hooked on 'Halo' on the Xbox:

Later on in 2003 we moved in to Durfold Road, and Karin had moved to the UK at this stage. This was Christmas Eve at our place, and Max had arrived:

Same year, but now New Years Eve. Karin reminded us that we had a slight fire incident this year too, with our fondue pot... ah yes... that's when that table got it's burn mark...

On an excursion to Arundel Castle in the spring of 2004, and look - there is now also Lucas!

At Lucas' christening in July 2004, Max looking fly in a nice shirt, talking to "Big Lukas":

I don't seem to have any photos of us after Linnea turned up, or from the next few years..? We must have all started to moved away, so there was no meet-ups for a while.
These next set of photos are from the summer of 2009, and our visit to their house in Helsingborg:

In the summer of 2010, we met up in Åhus. We had a big reunion, including also two other families from Horsham, Wellanders and Johanssons. What a great day!