Vienna: Day One

Very sorry this post has been so long in the making.  It's not even as if we have been too busy to post, more like too lazy!  Our vacation has included pretty much nothing but sitting in the living room and watching and re-watching TV episodes.  It's been quite nice really, but not as nice as our mini-vacation to Vienna!  So here are some photos from our first day in Wien...

We arrived in Vienna late in the evening, but thankfully it was super easy to get from the airport to the city center (where our hotel was)...I mean stupidly simple.  If you haven't traveled much and are hesitant about traveling to a foreign country, I highly recommend Austria.  Friendly people, everyone speaks English, safe, clean, beautiful and YUMMY food!!

We were greeted with chilled champagne in our hotel room - well done Bryn!  After our little night caps we hit the sak, after all it was late and we had lots to explore the next day!

Of course you know that this was a surprise trip for me.  I knew we were going somewhere, but Bryn wouldn't tell me where.  He did ask me what "must-do/see" things there were in Europe, and one I said was that if we went to Vienna, I HAD to go to the Spanish Riding School to see the Lipizzaners perform.  Well, here we were in beautiful Vienna.  The first thing Bryn told me was that he looked into it, and it wasn't the season for performances, but we could visit the school.  

Well, the next morning we had a nice breakfast at the hotel, then bundled up to explore (it was COLD!!).  One of the first places we happened to come across was the Spanish Riding School in the Hapsburg Palace.

There was a gift shop, so I had to go in.  That was when we saw the sign that there was a performance that morning - starting in about an hour!  We grabbed tickets and went to chill in the Starbucks across the street until show time.

Unfortunately photographs weren't allowed during the show, but it was really, really cool.  Those are some insanely talented horses.  Even Bryn who isn't a horse-person enjoyed the performance, especially with a horse expert beside him to tell him what he was looking for, haha.

It was raining when the show let out, so we snapped up some umbrellas from a souvenir shop and continued wandering.  The rain wasn't seeming to let up, so we decided it would be a good day to visit the Art History Museum, the Kunsthistorisches Museum.  It was packed, but impressive, filled with Roman and Greek artifacts and loads of paintings by lots of big names. (These pictures are in no particular order...)
   

Museum cafe where we snagged a table for some late lunch...our first sausages in Austria! Not as good as the street vendor ones yet to come, but better than anything we can get here.

We finally decided that we had seen all the art we could handle for one day and headed back out into the cold rain.  Luckily for us there was a Christmas Market right outside of the museum, so we loaded up with some hot gluhwein (mulled wine) to sip on as we wandered through the twinkling streets back to the hotel to thaw out!

Day one was a little damp, but we didn't let it bother us - in fact it was a nice change from the dry heat we have 365 days a year!  It made outdoor photos a bit difficult, but don't worry, there are tons of gorgeous photos yet to come!!

Instagram Update

I know, I know, we are long over due for an update.  Life has been hectic though...between being sick, wanting to pull my hair out at work and getting ready for the holidays we have had little time to do anything exciting at all.

Well, last weekend I decided I was going shopping.  A few weeks ago I finally got my Japanese pension refund (a rather large check that just appeared in my bank account!) so I had money to spend, and darn it, I wanted a Coach bag!  So off to Dubai Mall we went! After a Starbucks breakfast, Bryn went off to wander while I took care of business.

I have had this purchase planned out for weeks, maybe longer, but when it came down to looking at the real bags, the sales girl showed me a different one, and low a behold, it cost less!  It was much more simple than the ones I had been looking at, but it was just right at the same time.  I decided to go with it, and I am glad I did (besides, there will always be another trip to the Coach store!)

So, now I am the proud owner of a brand new leather smelling Coach bag and I LOVE it!!  I also treated myself to a pair of super nice jeans (they are seriously like wearing sweatpants - so comfortable!) and some macarons when Bryn discovered a Pierre Herme kiosk in an upscale department store.  All in all it was an extremely successful shopping day!  I doubt I will get to splurge like that again anytime soon, but it was so much fun to pretend to be rich for a day.

Anyways, here are some pictures from the trip and of my purchases (some instagram, some iPad, some camera shots).

AND...in 3 days we fly off to Europe!!!  The final destination is still a surprise, if you can believe it!

Thanksgiving 2012

Despite having to work on Thanksgiving day and battling with our lame excuse of an oven, Thanksgiving happened at the Thomas house!!  Yes, we had to overcome all odds for our turkey dinner, but overcome we did and our turkey and all the good stuff that went with it were delicious (and will continue to be for the next few days I think!!)

Hot Apple Cider than bubbled away all day...very autumnal, very yummy!

We started collecting all the goodies we needed weeks ago.  The grocery stores here are sort of hit and miss...they have something one day, and the next it disappears off the shelves forever.  We have been learning the hard way that when we see something we want or may need in the future, we buy it.  If we wait for that day in the future it may not be there anymore.

I spent the week leading up to Thanksgiving mixing up all of my great grandmother's recipes so that we would have the perfect thanksgiving.  We would be celebrating on the Friday after since we both had to work on Thursday, but that's beside the point.  The point was, on Thursday night, after I had chopped all of the celery and onion for the dressing and the sweet potatoes and put them on to boil, the stove wouldn't light.  Not only wouldn't it light, but the stupid thing didn't even tick as if it were trying to light!!

It's all in the details!

So there we were, thawed out turkey, pecan pie ready to go in the oven, half made dressing and sweet potato casserole and no way to finish cooking any of them.

I HATE YOU OVEN.

We called up Carrefour because, thank goodness, we had paid for the 3 year warranty on that piece of crap in a moment of clarity when we first moved here.  Nope, they wouldn't send anyone out tonight.  No, no one was working tomorrow either.

I HATE YOU CARREFOUR.

After a minor mental breakdown, I had another moment of clarity.  The gas was working...we could hear and smell it coming out of the elements when we switched them on.  It was only the starter clicky thing that wasn't working.  Could we light it with a match?

YES, WE CAN!

Problem solved.  (For now).  Bryn went back to the store (for, like, the fourth time that day) and got some of the extra long matches and we were back in business (for now).

Friday morning we were up bright and early to put the bird in the oven.  By some amazing act of God, the oven stayed lit for the entire four hours, and we had a BEAUTIFUL turkey!

By another amazing act of God, the oven stayed lit for another hour (almost) - enough time to reheat the dressing and sweet potatoes!  The problem came when I tried to put the green bean casserole in to heat.  The oven wasn't having it anymore.  The thing is, ovens shouldn't have a choice in when to work and when not to.

Poor Bryn tried for ages to relight the stupid thing - a very hot job.  Eventually we had to put the green beans in the microwave to heat.

Next problem - who wants raw marshmallows on top of sweet potato casserole?  Um, not me.  Stupid oven.  Eventually Bryn managed to light the top broiler and we could at least brown the marshmallows...not all melty and gooey, but at least not cold.

Anyways, we finally called it done and served up heaping plates!

It.

Was.

So.

Good.

I do love Thanksgiving.

Bryn ate 1/4 of a turkey in one sitting and claimed he got the "turkey sweats".  I've never heard this term, but whatever!

Both of us were too full and tired to wash dishes yet, so we plopped on the couch to watch TV until it was time to get out the Christmas decorations.

Our Advent calendar!  We both wrote down ideas of Christmassy things we will do each day, and will take turns opening them once December gets here.

That's right.  We have become those people who put up the Christmas tree and decorations on Thanksgiving, haha.  The house is still in transition from Fall to Christmas, but it's well on its way to being very festive!!

Hope everyone has a very happy Thanksgiving and ate lots of good stuff :)

Maybe my favorite part of Thanksgiving...the leftover turkey sandwiches. 

Countdown to mystery Europe trip: 18 days!!!
Countdown to Christmas: 29 days!!!

Some things to look forward to

Let's face it, we all need things to look forward to from time to time (or all the time...) These are some of the things that we (or at least I) am looking forward to.

1.  Mystery Europe trip in December (in 33 days and counting)...all I know is that I should pack for winter weather!

2.  Holiday coffees at Starbucks (if only they included gingerbread lattes and peppermint mochas...) I may not be near as excited about Christmas as Bryn, but I still get a little bit excited when I see the cheery holiday cups!

3.  Thanksgiving...we've been collecting all the goodies we will need as we see them.  Cross your fingers our oven will stay lit long enough to get everything cooked.  I can taste the turkey, dressing and pecan pie already...yumm!

4.  Christmas...convincing Bryn to wait til after Thanksgiving to turn our house into the North Pole is becoming more and more difficult!

5.  Pro Tennis in Abu Dhabi...last year was a lot of fun, so we splurged and treated ourselves to tickets to this year's final.

Haunted House!

Well, sort of... 

Halloween is nearing, and we have spookified our house accordingly. This is particularly exciting for me, because it is the first time in my whole life that I have had Halloween decorations in my house! Back home in New Zealand we have Halloween, but most people don't really "do" much for it. Maybe a theme party, or perhaps a scary movie, but (at least, when I was growing up) kids didn't go trick-or-treating, we didn't really "decorate" or anything like that. Also, the little Halloween that we do have is exclusively "scary" or "paranormal". We don't have the American "anything goes" approach to costumes. I noticed when I was in the States for Halloween that kids could dress up as anything they wanted, be it a geisha girl, a princess, a block of cheese, a dice, whatever! Back home, dress up parties would have been "scary" costumes only, like Draculas, witches, ghosts, zombies, etc.

Aaaaanyway, I digress... we jazzed up the house a bit for Halloween, and I played with my new iPad app to make the photos look a little "spooky" haha.

First Picnic of the Season!

It's October now, and even though the UAE doesn't really have "seasons" as such, it still manages to cool off over the "winter" months a little. At the moment it's still reaching pretty hot temperatures during the day, but the mornings are definitely feeling cooler, and actually really nice for spending some time outside. The sun is also lower in the sky at 6:40, when we are heading off to work, so it glares right in the windshield, just at an angle that the sun visors don't really help... (sorry, irrelevant tangent...)

Today we made the most of the cooler morning air and headed to Green Mubazzara (a park) at the foot of Jebel Hafeet (a mountain). We planned ahead and picked up some good quality croissants from our local "french" bakery last night, so this morning it was simply a matter of packing up the cool box and driving out there! The weather was predictably sunny and clear, but it was nice and cool (low-mid 30s C), and best of all it was Friday morning, so basically nobody else was out and about. We almost had the whole park to ourselves.

 

 We set up in our usual spot, in the shade of one of the many date palms. I say "usual", but we hadn't been out for a picnic since March, haha. There was a little stream nearby with crystal-clear water.

 

There were various different pretty birds nearby, and the grass was nice and cool. We had cold deli meats, croissants, fruit, dates (ok, they are fruit, too!), juice and Liz's Southern Living magazine. It was funny being out enjoying OUR version of autumn weather (like US summer!) and reading all the yummy autumn-themed recipes from the US magazine, and seeing the pictures of what Autumn is like in regular four-seasons countries. I miss the seasons.

It was a good picnic. So nice to be able to get outside again now that the weather is cooling off (at least in the mornings).

 

two white-eared bulbuls chatting in a nearby date palm.