Brunei 2.0

Our last visitors for January (it was a busy month!) didn't have to travel far. The Scotts now live in Doha (Qatar) and the stars finally aligned so that they could come over for a few days, while we were actually both off.

Already the first night, the Browns came over to say hi, creating a little mini Brunei-gang here in Abu Dhabi! It felt really good, and a bit odd, like we were in the wrong place; but mostly really good!

The rest of the week continued pretty much as it started, with sundowners on the balcony, before we either had dinner at home or went out to explore.

So good to get to hang out again, it had been quite a while since we last saw each other. Last time Anna & Andrew came over was in 2016; and then time went by, Covid happened, and so on.

We tried to show them some of our favourite places, for example Mamsha, which we really like, although this time we went there for lunch time:

The padel court, of course! We managed to play padel twice while they were here, great fun!

Yas Bay, having drinks with a view at the Buddha Bar and amazing-as-always dinner at Asia Asia:

I even managed to convince them to come to the Louvre Abu Dhabi, albeit only in the evening time. We went up to the Art Lounge:

Even in the evening, when the museum is closed (only F&B outlets open), there is actual artworks to admire in the entrance, like the Yan Pei-Ming, and the Pistoletto! So Andrew got a little taste of it, and claimed he would do a proper visit next time.

Their last night we went back to Yas Bay, for another stellar dinner, this time at Hunter and Barrel:

Meat galore, om nom nom!

It is so great to have them so close now, only a 30 minute-ish flight away! Next time it's our turn to go and see Doha!

Bollywood Superstars

There is a new temporary exhibition at the Louvre Abu Dhabi. This is the first exhibition where pop culture is brought in, and also the first that centers around film. It is called "Bollywood Superstars - A short history of Indian film".

This exhibition was an original idea from the Louvre Abu Dhabi, but it will actually travel and be shown in Paris also, from September onwards later this year.

It is the first exhibition that focuses on this scale on the Indian subcontinent. It is built up to show some of the precursors to the Indian cinema, the earliest devices of storytelling. Like tapestries, scrolls, shadow puppets, a bioscope and a magic lantern:

It talks about all the different inspirations to the Indian cinema, and how it evolved as an extension of the visual arts traditions, but also of theater, music and maybe above all - dance. All these forms of expression share a common artistic language in India:

The kaleidoscope room is almost hypnotic, with its looped film excerpts, the sound, light and colour explosions:

The exhibition further looks at some of the early blockbusters in the context of their mythological and historical influences. A whole wall is dedicated to the images of Ravi Varma for example:

We get to see some clips from the very earliest Indian films, by Dadasaheb Phalke:

This is a mask used in dance performances. It's Ratana, the 10-headed demon king, a key figure in the epic Ramayana:

In one section, there are historical objects shown that originate from the Mughal period:

A portrait of the famous Emperor Shah Jahan, the one that constructed the Taj Mahal: 

There are also clothes and images from the Rajputs:

A lot of photographs, showing for example the Red Fort in Agra:

There is even a whole cinema built up inside the exhibition, of the single-screen type. It shows a projection from the movie 'Sholay' from 1975, one of the very first Bollywood blockbusters and a classic in Indian cinema. A true "masala-movie", or "Curry-Western", that tells a story about friendship, love and fidelity, but also about deceit, treachery and crime..!

This exhibition is truly a feast for the eyes, so colourful and beautiful! And talking about eyes, it has certainly opened mine to this impressive world that is Bollywood - and all it encompasses.
It runs from now until the 4th of June at the Louvre Abu Dhabi - don't miss it!

Sting - My songs tour

Nathan and I went to the Sting concert on the weekend. Absolutely unbelievable that Sting is 71 years old. He was giving his all, a real rock star performance.

To the difference to the previous concerts I have been to lately, here I could actually sing along to most of the songs. He started out strong with Message in a Bottle and then Englishman in New York right after, so the crowd really got going from the get go. Everyone was singing and dancing around us.

There was many highlights for me, Fields of Gold is one of my favourite tracks with Sting and it was beautiful to hear it like this in a big arena. I also enjoyed his duet with his son (who looked and sounded just like him!), and how his harmonica player got to shine in Brand New Day.

But the song that made the roof lift was, not surprisingly, Desert Rose.
Oah, chills...!

The concert lasted almost an hour and a half, and he managed to cover every decade of his long career with his set list. So happy to hear so many Police songs, as well as the later music. The crowd was hyped throughout, it was a fab concert.

BeReal-ing

While I was in Sweden in December, Mormor saw me using this app called BeReal.
It's an app where you connect with friends, and once a day you get a notification that you need to snap a photo - preferably within 2 minutes - to show what you are up to. You can do it delayed too, but the whole point is to show an unfiltered and quick snapshot of your day. The camera goes off in both directions at the same time, to both show you, and what you are doing. Each day the previous photo disappears when you post the new one.
It's a fun way to get a glimpse of the life of your friends and family!

Mormor wanted in on the action, but to see what your friends are up to, you have to also post the daily photos.
Said and done, Mormor is posting away, and this is by far my favourite one so far!! ❤️❤️❤️ (I had to screenshot it for posterity!)

Gotta give it to her, 70+ and in with the kids and the new technological happenings!

A Margarita Housewarming

On the weekend of my birthday we were all on off-days and Pia was visiting - what better time to finally throw a housewarming party!

We had invited around 25 friends to come and have margaritas to celebrate our new home. As always, those magic margaritas were a success, and the party was a blast!

We even had a guest all the way from Brisbane - Dave turned up!
He was on a stop-over in Dubai about to go out for dinner with his crew when Peta told him our housewarming was on, so he threw himself straight in a taxi to get down here, and - surprise!

The day after our side table looked like this, with tons of flowers, bottles of bubbly and lovely gifts! Some for our housewarming, and some for my birthday. Lucky us!

We recovered down at the beach, relaxing and getting some sun and fresh air... and some sundowners with the neighbours..! Imagine that, to have our own beach, another novelty that we so enjoy!

Lucas' Danish birthday

Meanwhile, in another corner of the world, Lucas was also celebrated in style thanks to Thomas and the rest of his Danish family.
Early celebrations there too, with flags and singing:

He was also treated to birthday pancakes for breakfast, birthday presents and Danish flags galore!

In the evening he got to choose where they would have birthday dinner, and they all went to Pinchos together. We spoke to each other of course during the day, and he seemed pretty happy with his day.

Tillykke!