Red Bull Air Race 2017

While Lucas went to the movies this afternoon with a few friends, Linnea, Nathan and I went into the Corniche to have a look at the Red Bull Air Race.

Abu Dhabi currently plays host to the Red Bull Air Race for the 10th time. It will once again the season opener for a brand new World Championship. There is a purpose-built race village on the breakwater of the Corniche, where we went to have a look.

14 pilots are competing in the Master Class category in eight races in different locations around the world for the title of 2017 Red Bull Air Race World Champion. What they need to do is to navigate an aerial racetrack featuring air-filled pylons in the fastest possible time, with as few penalties as possible. Pilots can win World Championship points at each race and the pilot with the most points after the last race of the season becomes the Red Bull Air Race World Champion.

It is a visual race experience unlike any other with a combination of high speed, low altitude and extreme maneuverability. It tickled my tummy just watching the pilots do their loops and twist and turn the airplanes to avoid the pylons along the track.

It was nice and breezy but we still needed a bit of cooling off, we opted for some freshly made ice cream. Very cool, it was made there and then, really as fresh as it gets - mmm!

 The current World Champion:

We only stayed to see the practice. Tomorrow is the proper race but we will be busy with International Day at school so we will miss that. Anyway, it was cool to get a small taste of it today!

Small joys

I wish I was one of those organized Mums that make a weekly menu plan and only have to do one big grocery shop once a week. I'm not. Actually I don't even have a fixed routine of where I get my groceries, it's different every time.
Usually it depends on what else I am doing. When I've been to IKEA or at the mall I get the groceries from Géant. Sometimes if I have to do an extra big shop, I try to go to Carrefour as I find they are the cheapest, and have the biggest selection.

Otherwise I tend to pick up bread, milk and fresh meat when I'm out and about. It could be at Spinneys in Al Bandar (while Linnea had her piano lessons, or after I'd been to lunch with Pia), at Waitrose in Al Zeina (after a hair appointment or while Nathan is at the bike shop there), at Lulus at Raha Mall (if I'm going to the party shop or the uniform shop for something) but mostly - I shop at our closest supermarket Souq Planet at Etihad Plaza, which while it is practical, really isn't cheap.

The other day at a coffee morning one of the girls told me that she orders all her groceries online. I had looked into that a while ago already, but decided it wasn't really worth while since there wasn't  a bit selection of different foods. After this lady told me she was more than happy with it, I decided to have another look.

Well, things change quickly around here! Now you can order most kinds of fresh meat and all your vegetables and fruit together with all your other groceries! Fantastic! I decided to try it out straight away and put in an order.
I wasn't disappointed. They came to deliver within the two-hour slot I had picked and all the groceries were lovely and fresh, just like I had picked them myself. Hourray!

Their prices are very competitive, although some things can be found cheaper (but you have to remember in which supermarket you saw the specific thing at the best price!). I think ordering groceries like this will probably still save us money, as it prevents me from adding all that "other stuff" in the basket, that we actually don't need..!
I will test it out for a while and see.

Linnea's Grade Five Science Fair

Linnea has had no homework all week, as the students have been expected to work only on their presentations for today's big happening - the Grade Five Science Fair.
All afternoon they were presenting, not just to the parents visiting, but to their peers, younger students of the PYP who came by to learn.

Linnea had teamed up with her good friend Daniella. They had investigated which of their different sized balloons would make the most hair stand up from your head when rubbed against it.

Their stall was very popular, although not so much for their exceptionally exciting scientific finds I must say... more because they gave everyone who guessed on the right balloon candy..! Ha ha!

I can't believe how time flies, it seemed like it was just last week we came to school for Lucas' Grade Five Science Fair... Slipping through my fingers...

Ever green

As you might remember we had our garden done up (=installed) two years ago. It sure wasn't cheap, but it turned out really lovely once it was done, and I so enjoyed opening my curtains to something greeeeeen every morning, instead of just sand, sand, sand...

Unfortunately though, our garden wasn't as low maintenance as we had asked for. Well to be honest, it ended up completely dying on us!
It wasn't all because of lack of love... mostly it was because the irrigation system packed up over and over. Once we didn't notice until it was almost too late, but managed to salvage most of the bushes; but then it happened again while we were away - which then completely killed off all the flowers, the grass and whatever greenery that was left. Boo.

So for the longest time we have talked about having all the dead stuff ripped out and replace it with AstroTurf, but we haven't got around to it - until last week.
Now I wish we would've done it sooner!
It only took the garden people half a day to remove the dead grass, level it all out and install beautiful lush artificial grass. They also trimmed the bushes and the tree that is still standing and filled all of our flower beds with bark. It's back to looking nice and tidy!

I don't care that the grass is fake, at least it is greeeeeeen and I enjoy opening my curtains again! Apparently it still needs some maintenance in the form of vacuuming (yes, really!), as a lot of sand gets trapped in it. Lucky we have an industrial Kärcher vacuum, the good stuff! I'll be sure to photograph the first time it happens, ha ha!

We even got a little patch of left over grass placed at the front door! No red carpets here, they are all green, green, green!

Preparations

International Day is coming up this weekend, and once again I'm involved in the Swedish stall. I love it - it's really the best day of the year.

We have got some 'Swedish Fika' prepared again this year, ginger thins and elderflower cordial that we picked up from IKEA. We will display some Swedish books and other paraphernalia, but we are also going to try something new - Fiskdamm!
A "Fish pond" is a traditional birthday party game in Sweden really, where you get to "fish" for candy. IKEA generously sponsored us with the fika and most of the candy, but as it came in huge tubs, Susanne, her daughter and I had to repack all the pick&mix candy into small bags, ready to be fished for!

Harlequins Junior Team Photos 2017

Team photos were taken at rugby on Thursday, in the storm..! It was seriously cold, and really windy - lucky most girls had their hair tied back!
Here's Linnea and the U12 Girls team. Linnea is the fifth girl from the left in the upper row:

And here is Lucas and the U13 team. Lucas is at the far left in the middle row, next to his good mate Ed:

That holiday feeling

Every now and then our life here resemble life on holiday. Not very often, there is still early mornings to get ready for school, work and homework, dinners to be cooked, laundry to be washed, driving around to endless activities etc.. - but it happens.
Like last Tuesday.
I was meeting Susanne, a Swedish friend for breakfast (before we were going to IKEA to pick up some things for our upcoming International Day at school). We decided to meet at the Yas Links Golf Club as we had heard they were doing a good breakfast deal at the moment.

I had only been there once before, on Christmas Day, and the atmosphere now was certainly a lot more peaceful and quiet. This was our view, over the golf course, the mangroves and the cool Aldar building. We even saw a dragon boat team out practising:

We had a lovely breakfast and a good chat while we waited for IKEA to open. And yes, I too have been watching 'Skam' (the latest TV craze in Scandinavia), so now I only ever go out with red lippy on..!

Return visitors

This week we had some return visitors, my cousin Johan and his wife Beatrice. They were last here for the F1 in 2015, when they did most of the Abu Dhabi sights. This time they merely stopped in for a few days, to beat the jet lag on their way back from a month long holiday in New Zealand.

Mind you, you can do a lot in four days! We had a few lunches out, both with and without the kids; started on Monday by taking them down to the Yas Marina:

Linnea got her hair professionally styled by Beatrice, who is a hairdresser. She sure did it a lot better than Mummy normally does..!

Tuesday morning I had organized for them to go on a desert walk together with the ladies from 'Out of the gym - Sand dune training'. I still have to try that out myself as unfortunately I couldn't join them this week.
Johan & Bea also came along to ride the track on Tuesday night of course! They are hugely into their cycling. They were very excited to try this out as they missed out on this experience last time. Since they were here during the F1 week, obviously the track wasn't open for the public then.

Johan borrowed the De Rosa and Bea took the mountain bike, and after riding for a few laps they also ran the circuit once! They got a solid workout for sure!

Wednesday they spent chillin' at the beach, and Thursday morning Bea came along to my Zumba class, while Nathan took Johan for a bike ride.

After the ride Johan got to try the Zwift (an online training program where you compete IRL with other cyclists) on the Tacx trainer. He went up the famous Box Hill in the UK. He managed to get in amongst the top 10 times for the day! Not bad!

Thursday night, after they had done a quick shopping trip to Yas Mall, they came along to the rugby training. One way of easing into going back to the subzero temperatures the following day as it's really chilly here now in the evenings. As you can see we were all wearing several layers, puffy jackets, UGG boots and scarves..! The UAE winter weather is no joke! And we love it!

First ride on the track

So last Sunday it was time for Lucas to try his new bike, and his racing legs, on the F1 track. Nathan took him down for a quick first ride around. It is so well organized, and nice and safe down there with no cars or anything. A perfect place to start getting used to the bike, and other bike riders.
All geared up and ready to go!

He really enjoyed it and wanted to keep going when it was time to go. Unfortunately they were running out of time as Nathan had to go to work, but they got to do three laps at least, to try it all out.

On Tuesday we went down again, and Nathan and Lucas did five laps. Although by now, the bike bum started to hurt a bit...

Linnea and I also went around, but she took a big spill off her bike, so we ended up doing only two laps. Such nice temperatures for it now though, absolutely perfect. We will be going as often as we can the next few months!

Swimming Squad

Linnea tried out to join the school swimming squad again this term, and she got a place. This week the Raha squad took part in a Swimming Gala at the Cranleigh school on Saadyiat.
There she is, wrapped in a yellow towel:

There was a lot of races, so a lot of waiting. Linnea only took part in one race, a 25 m relay. She came in second on her lap and her team won that race. Well done.

Unfortunately at the end of the gala when all the points were calculated, Raha came last of the four schools participating. Linnea didn't seem too bothered as she had really enjoyed the afternoon together with her friends cheering on each other, and sometimes that is just as important.