Record rainfall

This week the UAE was hit with another weather warning for severe weather coming up. This time, it was actually warranted - on Tuesday we got hit with the worst rainfall the country has ever recorded! And all in one day!

In less than 24 hours rainfall reached 254.8 mm!!! Do know, that the yearly rainfall here normally is less than 80 mm..!

Sure, you can joke about us living in a desert, but honestly, few countries in the world have an infrastructure that would have withstood this huge amount of rain. To compare, the average amount of rain per month in Sweden is 127mm - so the rain that fell here in ONE day is equivalent to two months of non-stop rain in Sweden!

The heavy rain, thunder and lightning caused absolute chaos and carnage as everything flooded. It honestly felt like Armageddon with the sky going first green, and then nearly black four times throughout the day, it was rather scary.

Some areas experienced power cuts, many homes and malls flooded. Trees and signs were ripped up by the wind, building facades got shattered, furniture was flying off balconies and flights were cancelled. The rain fell so heavily and quickly that many people got stuck in their cars on the road, and were forced to abandon them as the roads turned into floods and some vehicles got completely submerged.

Schools of course immediately switched to distance learning, and because of the damage caused it will not open until next week. After a three-week Spring Break not really what the kids needed. I'm extra sad for Linnea, as this was supposed to be her very last school week - ever. The Grade 12 Spirit Week went down the drain, literally.

But most importantly though, we are safe. Nathan was in the SIM in the afternoon, and Linnea and I hunkered down here at home. Since our apartment faces inwards towards the other buildings in the compound, we didn't suffer any damages, luckily.
What an experience! Not one I am eager to repeat any time soon..!

Cooking by numbers

While we have been here in Abu Dhabi we have tried meal boxes before, but they have never really been a complete success. Still, we have decided to try yet another type and so far, it seems to be a hit!
It is called Spring, and it is almost like cooking by numbers!

Twice a week, we get a cool box outside the door, with either 2 or 3 meals in each. Meals that we have picked out ourselves from their menu. I try to pick things that I would normally not cook myself, to try things and get some more recipes to add to my menu bank.

Each meal comes in a box with all the ingredients marked and ready to be cooked.

It really couldn't be easier, vegetables are washed and chopped, and all ingredients are measured and separated into vacuum sealed bags, each with a number that corresponds to a specific step in the recipe.

 

We have enjoyed all of the meals we have tried so far, some more than others sure, but they have all been tasty. Another thing I really like is the very little amount of wasted packaging. This has been a gripe of mine with other meal boxes, but here all the plastic is biodegradable, and the cardboard boxes by Spring. We just leave them in the cool boxes each time they gets picked up.

So the food is delicious, there is not a lot of waste, its easy to cook - and, it takes no time! What's not to like! Last night we had the Cajun Blackened Chicken with Avocado Dijonnaise Mayo, and vegetables.

Sure, it is not cheap. But. Apart from all the things mentioned above, I also do enjoy that I can adapt our order week by week, depending on how many days we want, and for how many people. This service does help us, as we have ended up going down the 4pm "hm... what are we going to have for dinner today... let's go to Waitrose and get something"-route too many times. Which is also not cheap, at all.
So, we will continue to "Spring" for a bit yet!

(If you would like to try yourself - let me know, and I will share my code with you for 50% off on your first 2 deliveries!)

Fontana Circus

Pia was here for little over a week, and I managed to take all of ONE photo of us both during this time - this one:

This was the night of our visit to the circus! Oh yes!

Fontana Circus is a traveling water circus, where the dancing fountain and the laser show is at the center of the show. I sure could have done without both the water and the lights, and the opera singer... but - the circus acts were impressive!

Pia was not a fan of anything aerial, especially since none of them had safety nets, or safety harnesses...

She preferred the clowns!

We got treated to both aeralists, trapeze artists, an antipodist, a Robin Hood act and daredevil motorcyclists.

Quite an impressive show, close enough to traditional circus for me. A fun night indeed!

Pia!

I didn't have to travel back home by myself, Pia had decided to come with. So I came down to Malmö the night before, to spend some time with her and Lucas; and then we went bright and early across to Kastrup to get to enjoy the airport together. We did some taxfree shopping, had some coffee and my favourite, tebirkes, for breakfast.

Then we quickly switched the coffee out with - bubbles!

So nice to have company!

An April 'snow punch'

Over the weekend it had been lovely weather. I could go without socks (I HATE socks!) and wear only a t-shirt. Our Monday dinner was enjoyed on the terrace in the sunshine. It was so lovely!

But jokes were on us, as April in Scandinavia can also look like this:

Yup! The following day we woke up to - as they say - a "snow punch"! A total winter wonderland had emerged overnight, and the snow didn't stop!! It continued to snow all day long... lucky we weren't going anywhere! A slightly different view from the terrace this afternoon.

But the next day as it all calmed down, we had to clear the yard to make sure we could get out if need be! Luckily my parents own a big snow mover, which is the perfect help for days like this. Just look on top of the rubbish bins - we had got about 40 cm of snow, all in one day!!

This is how the yard looked like when we got started:

The snow reached all the way up to the top of my wellies!

The snow mower got a good run!

I focused on finding the car:

Sure, it is beautiful with the crisp, clean snow glistening in the sun... but, not what I wanted in April! I wanted spring, with sun and colourful flowers..!

At least I found the car!

Konstrunda 2024

It's a tradition in the area where Mormor and Morfar lives, to have 'Konstrunda' during the Easter weekend. Many of the local artists and craftspeople open their studios, ateliers and workshops for the afternoons, with special offers on. You pick up a map, and have many options to go feed your soul, viewing many different kinds of artworks and handcrafted items.

Lucas was only staying over the weekend as he had school to get back to, so before we took him to the train Monday afternoon, we decided to go visit some of these places. Like Löfwings, one of the biggest and most well known studios.

I enjoyed the outdoor exhibition with prints of some of his works. They looked even more beautiful placed like this, framed by nature.

Mormor found a painting of the farm where she grew up as a little girl:

Mormor and Morfar live in The Crane Kingdom. Lake Hornborga is perhaps Sweden’s most well-known bird lake. Every spring, thousands of cranes gather and dance here; and they inspire many of the artists of the area, Löfwing included. He had placed a whole heap cardboard cranes around his house.

Skara Easter

We were welcomed in Skara with another Easter feast! Yum!

More board games, playing 'När då då'. We have almost all the categories, and always enjoy playing it at Mormor and Morfars.

On Easter Sunday Mormor had invited my Aunt and my cousin Emma with her family. It was the first time we got to meet the newest addition to the Gustafsson clan - little five-week old baby girl Elicia... or... maybe Meja...? She actually hasn't got a name yet, but they were trying these two out.

"Sandwich cake" - one of my favourites! Mmm!

Oldest and youngest second cousins:

Malmö Easter

Linnea has three weeks of Spring Break this year due to Ramadan, or more precisely the Eid celebrations falling at the end of the holiday. She just didn't want to travel as her final exams are coming up, and not being able to study stressed her out.

So while her and Nathan had Thomas and his friend Klaus visiting, I took off to Sweden for a short trip to visit my parents. Having the direct flights to Copenhagen has changed all travel for us, it's super!

As per usual I did a stop over in Malmö, to catch up with Pia. After landing early in the morning, we spent most of the day at Emporia doing the shopping I had on my list. Then we picked Lucas up from his apartment, and went back to Bunkeflo for Easter dinner. It was Good Friday after all.

Pia had prepared a lovely spread, focusing on salmon and luxurious whitefish roe.

We had a really nice evening with all this great food, and a couple of rounds of a new board game I had bought that brought so many laughs. So much fun!

The following morning, on Easter Saturday, Lucas joined me for the train trip up to Skara and onto some more Easter celebrations with Mormor and Morfar.

Fables across continents, centuries and cultures

So yesterday the Louvre Abu Dhabi shut the doors for the very last time on the Cartier, Islamic arts and Modern Design exhibition, after we have delivered many, many (many!) tours in that exhibition.
But there is no rest for the weary!

Tomorrow already the next temporary exhibition From Kalila wa Dimna to La Fontaine - Journeys through Fables is opening! So, time to reset and refocus!

Last week there was training on the exhibition by the curators from La BnF (Bibliotheque Nationale de France), and I was really happy that this time I was there for these sessions. They are very helpful of course. I was a bit dubious about 'another' exhibition covering mostly manuscripts to be honest, but, after having seen the space the other day I got excited. It is a really beautiful exhibition!

The history of fables begin with the oral tradition of stories being passed down from generation to generation. The genre can be divided into two distinct traditions. The first originated in India, in a written tradition from 2nd century in a collection called the Panchatantra.

This tradition developed further around Ibn al-Muqaffa in the Arab-Islamic world, who translated the Panchatantra (and added some other fables too) into Arabic and the text of Kalila wa Dimna in the 8th century.

In parallel, the other tradition of fables first appeared in the Greco-Roman world around 6th century BCE, attributed to the mythical figure of Aesop.
These two traditions travelled for centuries, they were translated, transformed, expanded, adapted and enjoyed considerable success; culminating with the French fabulist Jean de la Fontaine in the 17th century, who borrowed from both traditions when writing his stories.

A version of the fable of The Fox and The Stork, written by King Louis XV in his own hand. He was only 12 years old when he copied this story in both French and Latin, to learn its morals.

The exhibition is divided into three sections. In the first part you get to follow the journey of the texts over time, through numerous adaptations and translations.

In the second part it looks into the content of the fables and the moral messages they convey. The space is beautiful, I really liked the colour scheme chosen for this exhibition.

It doesn't only encompass manuscripts, but also showcases artworks to illustrate how these fables inspired artists to create ornamentation of everyday objects.

An illustration from 1927-1931 by Marc Chagall for the fable of The Two Pigeons.

The last part of the exhibition focuses on the Eastern tradition in the 21st century with a diverse selection of artworks from contemporary artists, and a reading corner for the visitors to continue to explore the different fables.

I think this will be a very popular exhibition, especially with all of the school students visiting.

This exhibition indeed is a shining example of the universal approach that has guided Louvre Abu Dhabi since the very beginning, forging links between Eastern and Western traditions. Fables draws on themes of concern to all - they truly have a universal dimension.

I'm already looking forward to delivering my first tour!