Birthday Bonanza

This year, my birthday was all about me as there was nobody else to sing for in the morning... a bit odd indeed... It was an early wake-up, as Linnea had to go to school and Nathan to work.

I got some nice gifts, such as a pretty little label maker, a new perfume (that Lucas had sent down) and - a spray for our kitchen sink! Ha ha, I got so excited, but it ended up not fitting in the end... argh.

I had to put up my own decorations, and since Pia was here she took care of cooking the morning pancakes for the birthday breakfast, while everyone else got ready for their day.

Pia had also brought the special cardamom buns, and some mandelmassa, so we could continue to celebrate the day with semlor, yum!

And she had also packed some bubbly and Swedish snacks that we enjoyed for birthday sundowners on the balcony:

In the evening, we dressed up warm and walked (such a novelty!) over to Al Bandar and Desert Lotus, the Thai restaurant there, to have birthday dinner.

A rather quiet but nice birthday, gearing up for the big party the following day. Happy last year in the 40s to me!

Food by the bucketload!

I have got a new favourite food! And it comes by the bucket!

Someone ordered it at work to share the other day, and since then we have ordered it several times at home already. It's Butter Chicken Biryani, with cucumber raita - mmm! I can't get enough!

The birdwatcher

During the pandemic Erika turned into a bit of a birdwatcher. Since I had already taken her to the Al Wathba Wetlands on another visit, this time I decided to show her the Jubail Mangrove Park, and hope that some of the bird life there would be awake.

Well, there are supposed to be a ton of different species living here, but we didn't manage to spot many, other than this one catching a fish!

But it was a lovely sunset walk, the Jubail area is really nice. Hard to believe it's just off the highway, so green and lush - and calm.

Sidehustle expands

Buckle up, there are new members in our Sidehustle family - behold..:

The first of many different spirits Sidehustle Brews are bringing out this year. I have been particularly excited about this gin, as it is a colour changing gin.
It starts blue, but when you poor it over your ice and lemon it turns purple - and finally when you add a mixer, it becomes pink! Apparently it's the butterfly pea flower that is causing these effects, and it's pretty cool if you ask me! And tasty too!

The best news EVER!

Etihad has now finally officially announced their new destinations for the fall, and guess what?? COPENHAGEN is on that list!!! From the 1st of October, Etihad will fly four weekly direct flights to Copenhagen from the capital!

We couldn't be more excited! What a game-changer this is for us!
THE best news in a long time!

Museum of the Future - kind of...

Erika is working at the Institute for Future Studies in Stockholm. So ever since the Museum of the Future was in the works, she has been wanting to visit.
So, Dubai was in our plan for one of her days here. Although we made a real rookie mistake in not booking any tickets to enter in good time. I had completely forgot that it books out weeks/months in advance, and by the time we got around to it, there was no slots available the week she was here. Duh!

We decided to give it a try anyway, and see if we could get lucky and get to enter on the day, on some cancellation or something. But no luck. We had to be content visiting the lobby, and having a good look around the outside.

Ah well, there is always next time!

Glass Onion

I only worked one day while Erika was here, delivering a tour of the Impressionism exhibition for the SwedishLadies group. Purposely scheduled that weekend, so that Erika could come along..! Only less than a month to go now, this might have been the last tour for me.
Here I am, talking about one of my favourite paintings - The Magpie by Claude Monet:

One of the paintings we have shown in this exhibition is the In a café by Edgar Degas, or L'Absinthe, as it's also known as:

Just recently, while watching the latest Netflix murder mystery movie 'Glass Onion: A Knives Out Mystery', I spotted this in one of the more pivotal scenes - can you see the painting behind Janelle Monae??

They are using the Degas painting! (Or understandably, a replica of it) How cool is that!
The whole movie in fact is full of amazing artworks, as almost every wall of the mansion of the tech billionaire Miles Bron, one of the main characters in the movie, is covered in one masterpiece or another.

But we can see it for real - at the Louvre Abu Dhabi! What a treat!

Al Wathba Salt Lakes

Something I have seen around social media and wanted to explore for a while is the Al Wathba Salt Lakes. They are situated not very far from Abu Dhabi city, only about a 40 minute drive, and since Erika is always up for a discovery trip we decided to make an excursion there one day.

We didn't quite find any of the "emerald-coloured" water that this place is so known for. First we thought it might have been the wrong season; but after a bit more research we realised we went to the wrong lakes... (Tip - Search for Al Wathba Long Salt Lake on Google Maps) I guess I will have to go again!

But we did see lots and lots of salt formations. These have slowly built up over time, due to the water evaporation. This region is in fact full of these kind of salt flats, or 'sabkha' as they are called. Products of the hot climate combined with the proximity to the sea.

And we saw these strange shapes... We thought it was car tyres... but then again we weren't entirely sure, as they were rather small. Any other theories?

Right or wrong place, we still had a nice trip. We had brought a small picnic and it was great to enjoy our morning coffee out in the fresh air!
Wintertime in the UAE rocks!

Erika here

It had been a while, but when looking back through the blog we realised that this was Erika's 6th visit here in Abu Dhabi! The first one while we are living here in Al Zeina though, so the very first morning we went out for a walk along the water to introduce her to our new surroundings.

Unfortunately I had forgot to order some sunshine for her arrival, or more like it - it's wintertime here now, so the weather was rather grey and gloomy. Once we reached Al Bandar it even started to rain quite a lot, so we decided to seek refuge and have some lunch in the meantime to wait it out. Brrr!

The evenings were better, and we could enjoy a few drinks on our balcony! I think we have used this outdoor space more already in the barely two months we have been here, than we used our garden in the the old house in the 8,5 years we stayed there... A win for the move I guess!

Looking for my mojo

I haven't had much time for it up until now, but it is sure about time to start enjoying the perfect weather we have at the moment - and our new hoods! I have no more excuses, now my surroundings are perfect for getting out there and going for long walks.
This morning while Linnea was at school, Nathan at work and Lucas still in bed; I plugged in my ear pods and turned on a good podcast, and off I went to get some vitamin D!

This is our little piece of the beach - maybe I'll even make it down there one of these days?

Our new hoods from the other side of the water:

I walked for about 30 minutes along the water before I turned back and went home again. Glorious!

I am looking to get back into those great exercise habits I stuck to during all of 2020-2021, when exercise just came naturally day after day. I lost my fitness mojo somewhere along last year... which was truly a crap year when it came to sports and exercise for me. I need to get back into it again.
I haven't set the bar high, I just want to get some movement done each day again. A walk outside is perfect to get going.

Plus, better take advantage of the stunning weather while the temperatures still allow. Before we know it, we are cooped up back inside again because of the heat.