Linnea's Graduation Prom

On Wednesday it was time for Linnea's prom. Preparations had been long and thorough, she had had both her nails and her hair done; we had ordered her dress from the states and bought new shoes with a bit of a heel. She borrowed earrings and a bag from me, went with silver as the dress sparkled in silver.

Oh so pretty, ready for her Graduation prom!

She went to a pre-party with her group of friends before they continued to the W Hotel where the prom took place, with dinner and dancing.

Obligatory toilet selfie!

A night to remember I'm sure! So many memories are created these days, that I hope she will cherish forever. Emotional times.

Two Summer girls

Linnea, Auntie Nikki and I had a Dubai day on Monday. Auntie Nikki wanted to come see “my” colour lady, to have her colours done; and as we had gifted Linnea a colour consultation for her birthday, it was about time she cashed that in. It’s nice to do it together with someone.

It turned out they were actually both the same season! 'Summer' girls! Although Auntie Nikki is a ‘Brown Summer’, and Linnea is a ‘True Summer’.
It means for example that they should be wearing silver jewellery, which is something I’ve said for a long time about Linnea. It also turns out that the green prom dress she had already chosen - fits right into her colours! Perfect!

Just look at what a difference her best colours do for her. There is no filter on either of these photos, no make up applied. It's the 'Summer' colours that help even out her skin and make her eyes whiter. Her facial features also become more sharp and her eye colour really pop.

Julie, my colour lady was really good with Linnea. She said teenagers sometimes are not as receptive nor eager to follow her advice. So Julie told her not to stop experimenting, to find her own style and just keep going with what she likes, without thinking too much. For any future special occasions, work interviews or other happenings when she will want to make an impact - she at least now knows her colours, and can use them as she wants.

Haya Compound catch up

Sunday night we had dinner at Craft with some old friends we hadn’t seen since they left Abu Dhabi, now seven years ago! Time flies!

Andrew and Amanda used to live in our old compound, Haya Compound, just across from us. They moved back to the UK in 2017, this was their first visit back since then.

It was really nice to catch up, let’s hope it will not be another seven years until next time!

Sightseeing with Auntie Nikki

Auntie Nikki has come to visit, to join in with the festivities around Linnea’s Graduation.

She did have a few other things on her to-do list though, she wanted to go see the goldman, do a Saturday brunch, have her colours done with my colour lady and also come along to the museum for the latest exhibition. 

The day she came to the museum I didn’t have many tours, so I could walk around with her in both the Kalila wa Dimna and the general galleries. There had been some new additions since her last visit in 2020.

 

We also went up the Etihad Towers, somewhere she hadn’t visit before, to have an afternoon coffee and admire the views.

The last of the last

Today was a celebratory day, as it was the day of the last IB exam for Linnea. For the past three weeks, she has sat 15 exams, covering everything she has learned during her two years of the Diploma Program. Fifteen exams!

Now all there is left is Graduation, and everything that has to do with that! (And waiting for the grades of course... but we'll think about that later...!)

We got her a little present to celebrate finishing the exams, a building set of a 'Book Nook'. It's these little miniature worlds that are in the size of a book, to be placed in between all other books in your book shelf.
I thought it would test her patience a bit with all the fiddly bits, but Linnea got right into it. It took a fair few hours, and it turned out so pretty!

A mouse in the house

The spring cleaning I started last week continued with a BIG clean out of the kitchen the other day, as I discovered a little mouse in one of our kitchen cupboards. Yes, a mouse! Eeek.

We were totally baffled as to why he was in that particular one, as it was in a cupboard with only plates and bowls, and none of the cupboards next to it has food in them either. So strange.
It was Linnea who finally pointed out, that some of the upper shelves in that cupboard were shorter and there was actually a false back there, which created a HUGE 10 cm gap. Well... *duh*, that would explain how he got in. He probably just took a wrong turn somewhere and came down to have a look!

We caught the little rodent, and then I proceeded to clean out EVERYTHING.

Nathan and Will mounted an old shelf we had lying around upside down to block the gap, so now we hope we will get no more unwanted visitors.

Where the World's Tales Unfold

First time we went to the Book Fair was just a few months after we arrived, as Sweden was the Guest of Honour in 2014. It was really exciting, we met famous authors, joined a cook-a-long and did a lot of fun things in the Swedish booth.

The following year we returned again, because there was a huge celebration for Pippi Långstrump in 2015, on her 70th anniversary. And do we like Princess Cake.., oh yes!!

So it had been quite a few years since I was last at the Abu Dhabi International Book Fair, but this year I really wanted to go. For this the 33rd edition, the whole fair was centered around the theme of tales. Also they had chosen Kalila wa Dimna as the "Book of the World", the one book each year that has influenced the literary and cultural process around the world, and whose influence has spread across cultures and time.

I took my friend Michaela, and we went to have a wonder for a couple of hours on Saturday afternoon.

It was huge, lots to look at! Like a giant tree made up out of books, and a portrait of Sheikh Zayed made with falcon feathers:

The Louvre Abu Dhabi booth was beautiful!

I found out they were premiering a new publication called Pearls of Wisdom, a book I have been waiting for a long time. It is a book made up out of the quotes that you find on the windows all over the museum. So many of our visitors gets moved by them, and this is really the perfect souvenir from a visit at the museum.

We also found the Swedish publisher, with lots of titles we knew:

Love love love books!

This years spring... shift?

Usually this time of the year, I go through a bit of a metamorphosis process. I wrote about how this usually pans out last year.
I have to say, this year I'm not experiencing quite the same urge, as my focus is all together on Linnea at the moment. She is in the middle of her final IB exams (she has done 6 out of 13 exams so far) and it is - and has been for a while - a very stressful time for her, obviously. And for all of us.
The time I usually have trouble to fill as work slows down, is spent at home supporting her in all and every way possible during this time. Mostly by just being here, but that is important enough.

I have actually moved my trusty old best Covid-friend the treadmill into the guest room for a while and started doing some indoor walks. I never really got into to going to the gym here. It being placed in the basement with no windows give it such a "dungey" feeling. I like it better with the view of the sea!

We have also done some spring cleaning around the house. I guess its the old platitude, when the mind is messy - you clean!
We finally got around to clearing out the downstairs bathroom a bit. It had basically just become a dumping room, and was full of all sorts of things that didn't have a place anywhere else. Even though technically we don't need to be able to use it (as there are three other bathrooms in the apartment) we thought it could be nice when we have several sets of visitors at once, which has happened a few times already.
Here's Nathan about half way through the process... ha ha, just when steam tends to run out.

Well, we managed. Now there are still some things in there in one corner, but someone could still use it as a bathroom (as it is huge!), so mission accomplished. What's next..?

I Fablernas Värld

The Cartier exhibition which ran from November to March, proved a fantastic success when it came to visitors numbers. It had well over 250,000 visitors, a record-breaking figure for temporary exhibition visitation since museum opening.

I don't think though that this next exhibition will pull just as many visitors, nor that I will be delivering many tours in it. It is an exhibition which actually surprised me a lot in that I personally wasn't aware of the many different origins of our well-known fables, I have (again) learned so many new things, and I love that! Although it has proven popular to book for schools, otherwise I will probably not tour it much unfortunately.

The other day I delivered a tour in Swedish though, for my trusty SwedishLadies-group who always books a visit in each new exhibition.

All of them were old enough to remember this old children's tv show featuring anthropomorphic felt animal puppets, where each episode was based upon famous fables. It was made in the Netherlands, but was very popular in Sweden, where it was called 'In Fablernas Värld'.

We had a nice morning together, in the world of fabels!

Celebration at the Residence

After the visit of the delegation from the Swedish Embassy at the museum in March, I received a beautiful invitation to the Ambassadors residence and an evening to celebrate the 30th Anniversary of the Swedish Business Council here in the UAE.
We were a little bit worried this evening would be postponed due to the previous storms, but we were lucky and it was just a little bit windy, no rain.

I was in the company of Linda and her colleague Yoana:

The residence is a beautiful venue for a gathering, and this particular evening they had set up everything on the lawn. We had some Swedish themed nibbles, mingled and there was a few token speeches of course.

Since this year it's been 50 years since 'Waterloo' won the Eurovision Song Contest, we got entertained by an ABBA medley. These ladies always perform during SBC events, and they are great.

To end the evening and the celebration, Swedish Princess Cake! Served individually in plastic cups, such a great idea!

 Thank you for a lovely night and Happy Anniversary SBC!