Mazaraa Farm

It has in fact been school holidays this week, but for many reasons we decided not to travel. Instead we have been mooching around, yesterday Linnea and I took a small excursion out to a farm in Al Bahia that I had heard about from the Swedish Ladies-group.

It was really nice to be somewhere so green, we took a long walk through the farm and all the different areas.

They also had a bunch of different animals, everything from turkeys, doves, ducks and chickens; to donkeys, horses, rabbits, turtles and goats:

And camels, of course!

We had coffee in the farm café.

Then we had a look in the farm shop.

And left with all this beautiful, organic produce, for only 20 AED! We will be back!

 

Pura Beach

As Linda and I share a passion for discovery she usually gifts an experience as a birthday present, something we can do together and mostly something we haven't tried before. This year was no exception, she treated me to an Afternoon Tea experience at the Pura Beach Eco Retreat, where none of us had been yet and this week it was time to make it happen.

It situated in a very pretty location, on Jubail Island, in a protected area in the middle of the mangrove forest there. You have to park up at the visitors center and then you get driven in a buggy the last three kilometers out to the resort itself, which really makes you feel disconnected from the hustle and bustle of the city, even though it's just visible on the horizon.

The set-up was stunning, we were sat amongst these floating curtains, just on the edge of the mangroves.

We were the only ones there this afternoon, so nice and private; but I lacked some ambiance and buzz, that having other people there would have brought.
We still enjoyed our Afternoon Tea set up, of course. Especially since it came with unlimited mocktails as well as coffee and tea, nice touch!

It was lovely to sit here and see the sun set over the mangroves, utterly beautiful!

Thank you Linda for a very enjoyable birthday treat!

Welcome to the community!

On the weekend we were invited over to our ex-neighbours who now, after having had a few years also in Raha Gardens, are our neighbours again! Well sort of, they are all the way over in A-block, but still, we are in the same compound again!

 

They were having a housewarming, and since we now have been here already a couple of months, we got to welcome them to the community!
It had also been Holgers birthday, so it got celebrated as well, with cheesecake, candles and balloons! (He didn't turn 60 though, not just yet, that was just a joke from some of his co-workers..!) Hip hourray!

Jaya and me

A few weeks before our Bollywood Superstars exhibition opened I had an Express Tour scheduled one afternoon. It was just a "normal tour" from a tour operator, with six guests. No protocol, no fuss, so I met them in the lobby to welcome them.
Turned out to be an Indian group, five of them seemed to be the core group, and one guy was kind of just following along.

I noticed some people taking photos of us as we walked along, and one of the guests, the older lady, told some people off for coming too close. I didn't think much more about it, but quickly realised - everyone stopped and stared and took pictures as we moved through the galleries, everyone. Who were these people??

Well, it turned out to be Jaya Bachchan!
I hadn't delved too deep into our Bollywood information just yet, but when I did, I realised - she is true Bollywood ROYALTY! Closest Hollywood comparison might be Meryl Streep? Everyone who is into Bollywood movies knows her, and her whole family.
 
I had no idea! Maybe for the better?
But when our Bollywood exhibition opened, guess who is on the welcoming screen and the first thing you see when you enter the space..:

In fact, Jaya Bachchan (and even more so her actor husband Amitabh Bachchan) appears in many, many places in the exhibition; and the curators got super excited when I told them about my tour. To imagine Jaya Bachchan had been there, all incognito!

Well, she was very lovely, as was the whole group. I enjoyed the tour, and I hope they did too!

An extra yummy Game Night

As both Lina and Frida have had the audacity to move back to Sweden lately, we have now recruited a new member to our Game Night, Ilze. This week it was her first time to host, so we went to her house yo play some Mexican Train-dominoes, and a Harry Potter labyrinth-game:

Both which took, as you can see, a lot of focus, ha ha!
That was ok, as for dessert we were rewarded with this:

Yes, the dessert was semlor, made of ingredients imported straight from Sweden as Ilze had just returned the day before. Mmm! She scored immediate brownie points for sure, what an entrance into the group!

Au revoir Monet!

I was pleased to be at work at the weekend, because this Sunday was the last day for our Impressionist Exhibition. Hence I got the chance to go one last time, to enjoy and say goodbye to all of the masterpieces now returning to Musée d'Orsay.

It was a bit sad in fact. I have so enjoyed this exhibition and I have delivered many, many tours there, every single one being such a pleasure.

I grabbed some snaps of a few of my favourite paintings, but only the details. Can you identify these masters?

We are so lucky to get to have all these temporary blockbuster exhibitions at the museum. Our work is never stagnant and boring, always something new!

International Day 2023

Linnea and I dropped Anna & Andrew off at the airport on the way to school on the Saturday morning, after a full week of party-party. The party continued, as it was finally time for International Day!
Back again, after three years - it was so exciting!

Of course I participated in the Swedish stall again, although I had chosen not to be in charge this year. We had changed the theme up a little bit from the traditional just Go-Sweden-Blue-Yellow-stuff, and went for a snow-theme this year!

We were all in white, had dressed the table in white and printed out lots of photos of snow, the ice hotel and winter things. One of the mums had made this amazing cut-out of a mountain, for the kids to come and try their luck at throwing "snowballs" through the holes:

We had got another kind sponsorship from IKEA, so we could offer free cookies, sweets and drinks from our stall, which was a hit!

We also handed out stickers with snowflakes, and vouchers for free icecream or free coffee at IKEA! That made us real popular!

Now for a quick tour around the Raha Global Village, feast your eyes on some of the countries represented! First up, Pakistan:

UAE:

Malaysia; and Singapore, who made us feel we need to step up our decorations a bit for next year. Look at the size of their Merlion!

Colombia, who treated us with exotic fruit:

Palestine:

Croatia, with a fun approach this year, emphasizing their invention the necktie.

Mexico, which was absolutely stunningly presented. I was so happy to see Frida Kahlo represented, in and among all the flowers and colours:

England and Germany:

There was so much food to try and taste, Italy had brought their freezer and was selling gelato, as per usual; Finland had "real" coffee, Spain served paella, the Netherlands had stropwaffel and the US had a popcorn machine, just to name a few of the many, many countries with food:

 

My friend Fernanda in the Brazil stall, and Greece:

Ireland, and New Zealand:

Linda and I met Chris Hemsworth downunder:

Japan had set up a funny fish game, like the one we tried (with real fish!) in Tokyo:

France impressed with the big Lego Eiffel Tower! Brave of them to bring that along to International Day:

What a great morning!! I love International Day!