Moscow City Ballet's "The Sleeping Beauty"

I am very starved of ballet since I moved to Abu Dhabi 3 months ago.  So, today I went to the Emirates Palace to see a performance of the Moscow City Ballet with their version of "The Sleeping Beauty".
Well, well, well, where do I start?  I was in fact debating whether to let the whole thing drop as if it had never happened, but it was so ridiculous that it actually deserves a review to be shared with you esteemed blog-readers.

Before the performance my colleague Nawal and I went to Le Café at Emirates Palace and had a snack, I chose the scones with different jams and what a good choice that was!  This was the deciding factor that when my parent come to visit I will take them to the Palace for an Afternoon Tea.  Absolutely delicious!

For the ballet Nawal and I opted for the cheapest tickets at AED 95 (~£18) which in hindsight was exactly the right decision.  The seating in the auditorium at the Emirates Palace is so well designed that one has a great view of the stage from every angle, we were in the plush balcony seats.  Unfortunately the same focus on quality of the seats wasn't applied to the sound system, this I have experienced here before when attending film screenings.
There was no orchestra, the music was played from some recording on the tinny sound-system the Emirates Palace's otherwise wonderful auditorium is equipped with.  As you might have guessed this awful sound only added to the ridiculousness of the performance.
Also, the lighting left something to be desired, the spot-light wasn't necessarily following the main soloist on stage and sometimes some of the dancers were even left in the dark completely.  I am not sure if this was Emirates Palace's fault or lack of attention of Moscow City Ballet company's lighting technician.
Now, I am still trying to sort my thoughts into something comprehendable but am struggling slightly, so please accept my apologies in advance if this post seems a little mumble-jumble (in that case it's actually just in line with the performance in general).

During the overture the curtain opened (25 minutes late btw!) and we saw a Lilac Fairy standing there for about a minute or two before she started simply walking around the stage, intercepted with a few port-de-bras and some pointing to something in the wings (I have no idea what/who it was she pointed at).  All along people were still taking their seats in the auditorium and taking photos despite a vocal announcement prior to lights down in addition to clear signs outside the auditorium.  Rude, just plain rude of these patrons, no matter the quality of the performance, such behaviour is just disrespectful of the dancers.

Prologue:  The Lilac Fairy did not exude the confidence and wisdom you'd expect of such a prestigious role and was in fact outshone in technique and stage presence by the girl who danced the Songbird Fairy.  Little Songbird Fairy was probably the highlight of the evening.  Although, none of the choreography was the Petipa-version known to anyone who's ever seen a classic Sleeping Beauty.  In fact, the choreographer must be a very dull person if his creative output is anything to go by.  In my opinion any Liam Scarlett choreography for White Lodge students is better: more varied, more logically put together, more sophisticated, much more musical, not to mention better executed by the students.
The Carabosse character was The-Little-Hobbit-meets-Little-Britain's-David-Walliams-for-a-Red-Nose-Day-sketch.  I just call it character as I'm not sure what it represented, I think it was a male dancer in some kind of cape-y dress with a walking stick.
The mime wasn't very clear throughout the whole ballet (luckily Sleeping Beauty is a well known fairy tale) and especially when this caped, crouched over character just stomps around the stage one feels one has blundered into a British Christmas panto-performance without the audience interaction.

Act I:  The 4 princes all wore the same outfits, no distinction between them, no wonder Aurora is not taken by any of them, I personally wouldn't want to marry some nondescript, bland numpty either.
Well, Aurora, what can I say, she had super-high extensions but only danced the steps, she didn't put any heart and soul into the role.  The Rose Adage was a very shaky affair, there were literally no balances.  Yes, the only original choreo-bit that had been kept were the 2 attitude balances when Aurora meets all the princes.  Only tonight our Aurora did not hold a single balance, quickly grabbed (!) the next prince's hand and still looked very uncomfortable.  Maybe she "returned the favour" as the main-partner-prince seemed to manhandle her more than actually partner and support her.  During Aurora's partnered pirouettes he stood in a wide second position almost in a grand plié and spun her around like a potter spins his wheel.
At no point during this act did the Lilac Fairy soften Carabosse's spell from death to long sleep.  A big FAIL in my opinion!

Interval:  No Emirates Palace staff knew how long this interval was going to be.  So, Nawal and I made sure not to stay out too long and get back to our seat promptly.  Good thinking that was, too, as there was one announcement "Act 2 of the performance is about to be" (sic!) the lights went down and the performance commenced.  Again, patrons were streaming back into the auditorium whilst the dancers did their bit on stage.  Very weird, wouldn't happen in Covent Garden.

Act II:  Prince Florimund appeared on stage and this guy immediately reminded me of Thomas Anders during his 1980s Modern Talking heydays, and I am sure Thomas Anders would have been as good a Florimund as this guy of MCB tonight, possibly even with more charisma.
And, as flexible as Aurora was as stiff was this Florimund, his arabesque did not even reach a 90 degree angle (he made me think of him as a croaky attic door), plus he walked around the stage as if he was doing his weekly grocery shopping, no grace, no inspiration, just doing a chore.
The vision scene wasn't lyrical and imaginary at all and I suspect that a big chunk of the audience was wondering why he was dancing with Aurora already before even having kissed her (she was still wearing her pink birthday tutu).  Ach yes, the kiss... was there actually a kiss?  I don't think there was, but that might be because of the ban of public displays of affection in the UAE.

Act III:  Puss in Boots had forgotten to put on his boots, he must've left the house in a hurry and was still wearing his comfy bedroom slippers.  Blue Bird had definitely had one (or two or ten) caterpillars too many.  At this point I was oh so very close to a laughing fit, especially when Nawal leaned over and whispered "this guy is FAT".  Indeed, he was more like a blue elephant than a blue bird.
Seriously, the men in this company are terrible, no turn-out, stiff as a board, no stage presence, bad partners, all in all rather misplaced on a stage.

a grainy BlackBerry photo of the final tableau

As soon as the final tunes of Tchaikovsky's otherwise beautiful music faded out, Nawal and I were out of our seats, leaving the auditorium.  I have not applauded once during the whole performance.  Am I mean?  No, I don't think so.  I just know what a good dancer looks like, in fact the Royal Ballet School would have shown this troupe up a million times.  Any RBS Linbury performance (Lower and Upper School) has more oomph than tonight's show.

Ah well, we'll file this under experience, not necessarily an experience I need to repeat, but we gave it a go and now know that Moscow City Ballet is not a company I will rush to see again.

On the other hand, the food before and the view of Emirates Palace after clearly make up for quite some rubbish in between those two.

Furthermore this evening confirmed my love for the Royal Ballet and the knowledge of how spoilt Londoners are to have Royal Ballet and English National Ballet on their doorstep plus regular visits from other renown ballet companies at Sadler's Wells.
Royal Opera House Covent Garden, be ready for my visit in January, 3 days in a row.  Whoopee!

Oddities and Observations

"Is it just me or is this weird?"  That's what I'm often asking myself these days.
I have definitely stepped into another world when I moved from the Occident to the Orient.  Not only the weather required some getting used to - I've been here very nearly 3 months now and have not experienced a single drop of rain, unheard of in Germany or the UK - but also various other customs.

(1)  In Abu Dhabi most streets have at least 2 to 3 names, for example the main road from my home on Al Reem Island to work is officially called Hazaa Bin Zayed the First Street, but is also registered as 11th Street, also commonly referred to as Defense Road.  Obviously this confuses anyone, not just newcomers like me but taxi-drivers, couriers and delivery-men alike.  Even less helpful is the sheer lack of any house-numbers.  This means you always need to give some kind of landmark (e.g. opposite Al Wahda Mall, next to Marks & Spencer, in the same building as Jones The Grocer etc).  Our temporary office is in Al Odaid Tower, a name no-one knows, and directing someone there is easiest giving the name on the big company sign attached to the building.  Right, here's my predicament:  the company's name is Al Wifaq.  Try saying it to a taxi driver without blushing, I always kind of mumble the "faq"-bit and hope he still understands whilst I point and say "the blue sign, the blue sign on the tall brown building" (remember, Abu Dhabi is the city made of Fifty Shades of Beige)  Here's proof that I'm not making this up

(2)  There are no taxi ranks to speak of in Abu Dhabi, so taxis keep roaming around (unfortunately not so much on Al Reem Island where I live) and are seldom stationary.  This is surely a city built for cars, pavements are rare and very crooked and usually only found in "central" Abu Dhabi.  I've always been an avid walker and would've rather walked for 30 minutes in any kind of weather than say going down several flights of stairs and squeezing onto over-crowded stuffy tube trains.  However, walking or running home the 5km is not an option without pavements or even cycle routes plus totally and utterly completely mental drivers on these roads, to call it reckless speeding would simply be an understatement, too many nationalities and ways of driving don't mix well.  So, I try to walk to the nearest mall at lunchtime or even towards home in the evening to stretch my legs.  Yet, these leisurely strolls are frequently disturbed because taxi-drivers seem incredulous that any person would actually chose to make use of their legs.  It's not that I look around with a helpless look on my face or stand on the kerb frantically waving my arms about trying to flag down a cab, no, I'm minding my own business and am walking straight ahead.  Nevertheless, some taxi-drivers see me walking and assume I am in dire need of their service, so they honk their horn and pull up beside me.  I have already given up indicating that I am not interested in a taxi-ride and just keep striding on ignoring them.  I just mutter under my breath "where are you when I actually do need a cab getting anywhere from my home?"  tsk

(3)  I am still oh-so-very-German in the sense of bringing my sturdy reusable bag when grocery shopping instead of using the supermarket's plastic carrier bags.  So you can imagine the little battle I regularly have to fight with those bag-packer-helpers at the registers.  Despite saying that I do have a bag, they happily start packing away my shopping into the plastic carrier bags.  But this packing is not even done economically or with any sense.  You could find the washing powder on top of the nectarines or, if you are "blessed" with a generous helper, you get one carrier bag per item, which makes me wonder whether this chap gets a kick-back from the company providing the supermarket with the carrier bags.  Yet, I will continue to bring my own bag for grocery shopping to make my small contribution to saving the planet and will shoo Mr. Shopping-Packer elsewhere.

(4)  One thing I have come to really appreciate:  delivery- and maintenance-men will take off their shoes before they enter your flat.  this is a normal action and they don't even seem to think twice about it.  Only once, when my shipping from London was delivered, they walked into the flat with their shoes (quite understandable as they were still unloading the lorry) and I could see the dirty shoe-prints clearly marked on my white floor-tiles.  I didn't like that!  Maybe this socked/barefooted apartment-access is a custom other countries' handymen could adopt as well?

I'm sure there will be more than these 4 things I'll find noteworthy to point out as being different.  Keep your eyes peeled...

Treasures

Last weekend I received some horrible news:  My cousin-in-law in Colorado Springs was killed in a motorcycle accident.  Mark was only 39 and a really lovely person, sometimes I really don't understand the man above and His plans for us.  I have cried many a tears but realised they weren't actually my tears (despite being incredibly sad) but my heartfelt sorrow for my cousin Meike who has lost her partner, her husband, her best friend.  I will always remember Mark and feel blessed to have known him.  R.I.P. Mark!

Being out here in Abu Dhabi, so far away from my family and friends, I felt quite alone and really appreciated the messages sent to me from friends via twitter and Facebook   Thank the Lord for Skype too, a wonderful way to stay in touch with family and friends.
So, yesterday morning we had an email from our Office Manager informing us that our office will be closed next week Thursday (Arafat Day) until Sunday (Eid al Adha).  You see, here in the UAE the Islamic public holidays are based on the sighting of the moon and can vary a day prior or after the originally announced date.  Don't ask me why, since the moon doesn't change its course all of a sudden, but hey, it seems to be a relic from olden days and we just have to go with it.
Well, to be honest, reading about the 4-day-break I was a bit at loss at first as I didn't want to spend 4 days just bumming around in Abu Dhabi.  However, I then looked up flights for getaways, also flights to Germany amongst others, just for a laugh, but it turned out to be a happy laugh.  I immediately got in touch with my 3 best friends in Frankfurt and my parents what their plans were for next week, and I can happily report that they're all looking forward to welcoming me, no matter the short notice of my visit.  Thank you Etihad Airways for having this amazingly reasonably-priced flight-combination for me to book.  I will be flying out 2am Thursday to Frankfurt (arriving there 7am), spending Thu and Fri in Frankfurt with my friends, taking the train up to Hannover Saturday morning and enjoying my parents' and brother's company Saturday and Sunday.  The flight back leaves Hannover just before 6pm Sunday, via Munich back to Abu Dhabi (arriving 7:15am just in time to get to work).  I cannot wait, haven't seen my Mutti und Papa since my birthday in April (I don't really count Skype video-calls as seeing).
I truly value my friends and family and try my utmost to stay in touch with these loved ones.  Thank you for being there for me through thick and thin.  You're real treasures!

Swedish Delights

I really wasn't sure that this blog-entry would see the light of day.  After having nearly finished the entry my blogger account crashed last night, and took the whole essay into cyberspace, untraceable despite continuous intermittent savings.
But, today I decided that this anecdote in my little life should be told especially as it's about a certain Swedish furniture manifacturer that often gets slated and ridiculed.  I had a very positive experience and am of the opinion that it needs to be told.  So here I go again...

What does any Westerner usually do on a Friday?  Under normal circumstances one would got to work, wrap up the week, finalise any weekend plans and possibly go out in the evening.  Right?  Not so much in the Arabic world where Friday is the holy day and first day of the weekend (the work week here runs from Sunday to Thursday).
So, this was my second Friday in Abu Dhabi, and also my second Friday morning I made a trip to IKEA.  Abu Dhabi's IKEA offers a shuttle service from Marina Mall (Abu Dhabi's biggest and most swanky shopping mall) out to its store on Yas Island.  The shuttle bus departs once an hour and takes approximately 40 minutes, even on the empty highway.  The lunch-hour varies between Fridays and all other days and also during Ramadan, so you might want to confirm with the driver the return-shuttle departure times before getting off the bus.
Little geek fact, by the by:  IKEA has its most stores in Germany (46), that's even more than in the USA (38) or even Sweden (16).  Us Germans seem to love a bit of self-assembly furniture.

So, here we are at IKEA on a Friday morning, 15 minutes after store opening.  The 4 people, inluding me, (all expats) of the shuttle bus most likely being the only customers in the whole store.  Bliss!
I, being ever so German sometimes, had a shopping-/wish-list compiled on IKEA's website with and printed it off for an easy shopping trip.

First stop:  Living room furniture, or to be more precise:  sleeper-sofa.  Unfortunately my sofa-bed of choice was not in stock.  However, the helpful staff member checked the system again and then took my mobile number and promised to call once my wanted sofa-bed is back in stock.
Next stop:  Dining furniture for table and chairs.  Here I was met by a super-nice Kenyan who remembered me from my previous Friday visit.  We got chatting as I noticed the German flag on his name tag in addition to the British one, I asked him about his German skills and where he had acquired them, he told me that his parents live in Friedrichshafen am Bodensee (Lake Constance) which is very near my mom and dad's holiday home and that he is in fact trying to move to Germany to be closer to his family.  He then went through my whole list and checked and confirmed availabilities and locations in the self-serve area, not only for the dining furniture but also the bed, plus he investigated a tad further as to when the Moheda sleeper-sofa might be delivered.  He found out that there are currently about 10 of these sofas in some container on their way to the UAE and should be in store within a week.  He suggested that I should call the store this week and if the sofa is in the warehouse to make a booking which means the item will then be held back from further sale until the end of business (10pm at the Abu Dhabi store) that day.  How good was that?  A one-stop-super-accommodating IKEA staff member whom I would love to recommend to Mr. Ingvar Kamprad personally.

Anyway, onwards and upwards on my swift IKEA visit, quickly going through the lights- and bathroom-textiles-sections where I knew what I wanted and readily found.  I arrived at the self-serve warehouse where I was greeted by more friendly staff who were happy to assist me in gathering all the different flat-pack-boxes and load them onto the trolley(s).
The girl at the registers was the only fly in the ointment.  My credit-card was declined.  Twice.  I knew for sure that I was still far from reaching my limit despite having made quite a few larger purchases with my card recently.  So I called the Amex customer service number in the UK and after hearing various announcements and pressing many a numbers I finally managed to speak to a representative who assured me that it wasn't Amex declining the transaction but in fact the store's system itself cancelling the charge immediately after authorisation.  The check-out-girl then tried a different terminal and guess what... it worked a treat.  All the while I was getting rather impatient as this (unnecessary) delaying episode left me with only 5 minutes until the departure of the return shuttle bus and I hadn't even seen anyone for the home-delivery.  I should mention here that due to the lunch break the next shuttle after that would've been 2 hours later.
The check-out-helper and I rushed over with our fully laden trolleys to the home-delivery counter and I anxiously asked this customer service guy whether he thought I'd make the shuttle bus.  He restored my good experience of before the check-out-incident by phoning down to the bus-driver and asking him to wait for me and then very efficiently noted all the required information for the home-delivery.
Having done that, leaving behind all big items to be delivered to the new flat next Saturday, I took my blue tarpaulin bag with all smaller purchases and rushed down to the shuttle bus, actually making it only about 3 minutes late for departure.  Incidentally the 3 other customers from the shuttle to IKEA were on the same return shuttle with me again.

From Marina Mall I took a taxi back to the hotel, deposited my Swedish purchases in the room and went straight back out to Lulu Hypermarket where I bought £50-worth of cleaning products, mop, cloths, bucket etc.

Hopping into another taxi with all this cleaning stuff and IKEA items I was off to the new apartment (for which I had collected the keys a week before the rental contract actually starts) for a spring-clean in autumn.  Since I will be the first occupancy in the flat there is still so much builder's dust you could "catch" asthma.
The only down-side of having access to the flat before official move-in date is that the utilities aren't fully connected yet and I didn't have any hot water.  Nevertheless, cleaning with cold water only is still preferable to moving into a dirty, dusty apartment.
3 hours later and I was quite pleased with my cleaning efforts though rather sore and tired.

Bring on the 1st of September and the deliveries of bed, table, chairs, washing machine and TV.  Hopefully by then I will also have decided on a good (affordable) mattress to make sleeping more comfortable than lying on the slats  ;-)
Oh, I forgot to mention that I will get a gas-cooker in a little while as well, buying it 2nd hand from another German expat who I was put in contact with through my lovely estate agent Anne.
The only big purchases left on my list (apart from the sofa) that I still need to decide on are the fridge-freezer and a car.  Big purchases indeed.  I'll keep you posted.

Thanks for reading my little happy story about the often ridiculed flat-pack-furniture-heroes of IKEA.  Tack så mycket!

New Beginnings

So, it's been a week since I left London for Abu Dhabi: time for a blog update.

7 days ago I boarded a British Airways plane with a big lump in my throat, yet huge excitement about the new adventure bubbling inside.  It might not have been the very best time/season to arrive in the sand-pit at the hottest time of year and during Ramadan but it's all part of the deal and the sooner I get used to the hot, sunny and above all very humid climate the better.
If you're following me on twitter (@missbunnyman) you will know some details of this first week already, though here's a little more insight for you.

The hotel where I'm staying for the first few weeks is almost opposite the office, well located by Al Wahda shopping mall and the room is nice with a sofa area and a super-comfortable bed, I have already asked housekeeping for the make of the mattress and where to get it, would like to have one of those for my new bed.  The only thing I'd complain about is the mosque right outside my window.  Can you imagine my shock-surprise the first night being woken up at 4:30am (!!!) by the broadcast of the Adhan/Azan (Islamic call for prayer)?  The Adhan is then again broadcast at 6am, 12:30pm, 4pm, 7pm for Iftar and once more at 8:30pm.  And this is not some lonely Muezzin standing on top of a minaret, no it's actually truly broadcast via speakers from the roof-top of the mosque.  It wakes me up every night/early morning.

Admittedly, on Sunday I completely crashed (not helped by the aforementioned sleep-interruption), only woke up lunchtime and wasn't up to much, the past few weeks had really taken their toll on me, still working on London matters, trying to tie everything up and preparing for hand-overs, and at the same time slotting into my new position as Accounting Manager for our Abu Dhabi office.  Having had to deal with AD being 3 hours ahead of and NY 5 hours behind London time didn't make it any easier.
However tired I was, I still managed to go for a lovely Iftar Dinner with Anissa who is the new Office Manager, she's come from the Cleary Paris office.  Iftar refers to the evening meal when Muslims break their fast during the Islamic month of Ramadan and the dinner-buffets are a big feast, usually for the whole family.  You will hear a lot more about Anissa in this blog, she and I will be working closely together, and so far I can only say she's wonderful and I'm thrilled we're in this together, it's a splendid career step for both of us.

Monday morning Anissa and I went out on our own account and looked at apartments, in the afternoon I met with the Estate Agent Anne and viewed a few more.  We (Anisa and I) both had set our eyes on the newly built high-rises on Al Reem Island, I viewed about 5 properties with Anne that afternoon and more or less decided on one apartment for which we then put my name down, just to be on the safe side and secure it for a day at least.  The reduced working hours during Ramadan are slowing everything own, most people/businesses operate until 2pm only.

Tuesday I went with the PRO (Public Relations Officer) to the medical examination (blood-test, X-ray...) that is needed for the residency visa and for the application for the Emirates ID.  Luckily the firm decided to use the PRO and pays for the VIP process, otherwise I would probably still be sitting there, waiting to be seen.  Still, with the reduced Ramadan working hours last week and now 3 days of Eid celebrations it'll only be next week that I have my visa issued and finally get my passport back.
In the afternoon I met with our bank business contact and went to the office.

Wednesday Anissa and I met with Anne (Estate Agent) again, this time mainly to view apartments for Anissa who - after having seen some in the new high-rises on Al Reem Island as well as older ones near the Corniche (Abu Dhabi's beach-front) - also decided to put an offer in for a 2-bed-room-flat on the 50th (!) floor of the Sky-Tower.  That building has luxurious in-house gym/spa/pool-facilities of which I am very envious.  But we've already made a deal that in exchange for baby-sitting her little son I will get access to her leisure facilities.  Also, there's a Waitrose in her building, another feature I will frequent.
We had another look at the apartment that had been secured for me and on this second viewing I knew I made the right choice and definitely want it as my new home.  My apartment is on the 17th floor of the Burooj Tower on Marina Square, it's a one-bedroom-flat, has a balcony, an open kitchen to the living room and there is a walk-though closet from bed- to bath-room very much in the style of Carrie Bradshaw's apartment in SATC.  I can't wait to move in there!

 

Again, the afternoon was spent in the office, and on a conference call with New York, the budget process has kicked off.

Thursday morning I met with Anne regarding the offer letter for the apartment.  Here in Abu Dhabi the rent is paid a year up-front.  And the house-prices are London-standard!  As a matter of fact I will pay double the amount of my London flat-share and am a little anxious as to what to expect in bills: aircondition, chilling-system (so that you actually get cold tap water), gas and electricity.

And, once more, the afternoon was spent in the office.  I know, it seems to become some kind of routine that I am doing some work here as well  ;-)
In the evening (after 7, since Anissa is fasting during Ramadan) we went for dinner and a girly manicure pampering session to catch up as Anissa flew back to Paris Thursday night, where she'll be for a week to wrap up any loose ends from her job there and organise her husband and son's move to Abu Dhabi.

I got up fairly early Friday morning (btw the working week in the UAE runs from Sunday to Thursday) and went to IKEA.  I have never before been to an IKEA with only approximately 30 other customers in the whole store.  It was amazing!  Of course the bed I want is not in stock, and I can't decide between 2 sofa-beds but I wasn't there to buy anyway, only to look and decide.

Afterwards I went to Carrefour in Marina Mall and then also to LuLu Hypermarket in Al Wahda Mall to look at kitchen appliances, I will need a cooker, a fridge and a washing machine, apartments here are empty just as they are in Germany (not furnished like in the UK).  In the evening my head was spinning with information and I so wish I had a bigger budget.  Nonetheless, after some internet research I at least decided on a TV (with a little decision-making-help from my lovely friend David).  He and I video-chatted for a while in a Google Hangout, a great alternative to Skype!  It was so good to see David, I miss him.

So, this morning (Saturday) I traipsed over to LuLu early to beat the crowds and I purchased the chosen TV, to be delivered in September when I have the keys to my new flat.  Whoop whoop!  Abu Dhabi Doo!  Then I went to the office for the day, had a quick evening session in the hotel's tiny gym and updated my blog.  There you go, my past week in a nutshell.

There are so many more details I could have talked about, so many impressions and little incidents in this first week, but I am not writing a book, only trying to include you on my New Adventure.

See you soon!  Eid Mubarak!

The Countdown is on

So, here goes: I am told to keep updating my blog, especially considering I am off to New Adventures.

Yes, just one week to go and I am off to the sand-pit.  Meaning: I am leaving my beloved London to start a new life in Abu Dhabi.  I am relocating with my firm who are opening a new office there.
Exciting times!  Although, admittedly, it's been a long time coming.  I had been approached by our New York head-office in February 2011 (yes, that is last year) and got the official job offer mid-May 2011.  At times it wasn't even sure whether this project was going to continue to go ahead but it just seems as though bureaucracy in the United Arab Emirates is as bad as Germany and UK combined.
Anyway, at the end of April we had been issued with the trade license and things have since moved forward at a more or less steady pace.  11th August 2012 (18 months after first approach and 15 months after job offer) is the date I'll fly out to the desert, leaving wet London for hot Abu Dhabi.
I've had a good 6.5 years in London and will miss the Royal Ballet desperately but am very excited about the challenges and adventures I am going to face.  Becoming Accounting Manager with my firm is a brilliant step up the career ladder and opening a new office in a completely different cultural environment is exactly what I need right now.  I've been very comfortable in London, some might even say complacent  ;-)
Thank you London for your hospitality and a warm farewell (and hopefully see you soon) to the lovely friends I've made here!

Half-time?

Right, I might be one of the weirdest people on this planet, but I have recently come to realise that I am actually really looking forward to my birthday this year. The reason this seems weird is that I am entering the 4th decade of my lifetime. Yes, it's the big 4-0 and I am not afraid to say it.

40 and fabulous!

Hey, I might not be beautiful or rich, but I believe I've had a pretty good life so far. Not always easy and happy but some great adventures and a lot of laughter on this journey. I have made some wonderful friends along the way and can always rely on my family. Especially my lovely mom totally rocks!

I have great things planned for the big day itself:

I'll be flying to Frankfurt the weekend before to meet with my wonderful friends there. Then Sunday and my actual birthday Monday will be spent at Europapark Rust (apparently Europe's largest theme park) with Manu and Kathrin, the bestest friends a girl could wish for. Monday evening we'll meet with my parents, who will come down to Freiburg especially for this occasion, for a birthday celebration dinner and I will then stay on in Freiburg and explore the Black Forest together with my parents. How cool is that, eh? I can't wait!

And even coming back to London the jubilations will continue stupendously with a Royal Ballet performance of La Fille Mal Gardée with the amazing Marianela Nuñez and Carlos Acosta. What a great week that shall be. Whoopee!

Sounds like a week-long party to me. Splendid!