West Side Story Opera

It was weekend, mid of February 2017, my husband and I  had our first experience to watch an opera performance, West Side Story at Dubai Opera.

We went to Dubai after having lunch at home. We left Abu Dhabi around 2.30 p.m. We did not want to go there too early, yet we still want to have time to roam around the  Dubai mall before the performance started. The opera performance was scheduled at 8 p.m.

After roaming around the Dubai Mall, we then went out around 6.30p.m and  took a walk to Dubai Opera. It was very crowded at the Dancing Fountain area at that time, as so many people gathered to see it outside the mall. However, it was totally fine with us 😊. After passing the crowds for a couple of minutes, we can continue walking conveniently.

We finally arrived at the Dubai Opera. My husband and I were very excited to see the performance and have the experience.

Since we still had spare time before the entrance door was opened, we bought some snacks and drinks at its caffe beforehand. It is totally prohibited to bring any food or drinks inside the opera house.

When the entrance door was opened, a lady guided us to an area where we sat down. We both loved the angle as it was very close to the stage and the seat area was not too high. Well….it was perfect spot for both of us who sort of in a date-mode 💑 😊.  The opera house interior was beautiful. Since we went in early, we still had the opportunity to take some pictures inside before the opera was started. It is strictly prohibited to take any pictures or videos while the performance is on going.

West Side Story – The Brief Story

It is a love story between Tony and Maria, who come from two different gangs. Tony is from an American gang and Maria is from a Puerto Rican gang. These two gangs are enemies. The love story between these two persons brings conflicts between the two gangs for sure.

They both insist to love each other despite no one approves their relationship. Once upon a time, there was a fight between these two gangs, where Maria’s brother was accidentally stabbed to death by Tony. Tony was panicked and finally told Maria about the incident. Maria decided to keep the relationship despite the fact that she had a deep sadness of the tragedy. This story has a sad ending where Tony was shot dead by a friend of Maria’s brother for the revenge.

There is a strong message conveyed from the story of the opera, that no matter the racial differences exist in this world, love is stronger than it. Unfortunately, when the hate still exists, it will always lead everything into a terrible fight and disaster.

 The Performance

It was an amazing performance for all the casts. My husband and I loved the story and the music arrangement. All the casts sang and danced perfectly on stage. We also saw the conductor led the orchestra closely from the spot we sat. Everything was really amazing.

At the end of the opera performance, all the casts and the conductor came together on the stage. The audience gave a stand applause very long for them. They really deserved it.

I think that’s  all about our Opera experience that I can share here 😊. Thank you for your time to read my story…..😊 Have a good day 😉

First Experience at Taste of Abu Dhabi 2016

Before I write about the experience coming to the event, allow me to share about the reason why I have the curiosity and appreciation about culinary and food. When I started living in Abu Dhabi, I learned cooking from the beginning. My husband and I love to eat varieties of food, not only Indonesian food. I felt encouraged to cook on my own by searching any recipes and watching some cooking videos in the internet. I am happy that cooking turns out to be one of positive things to do at home while my husband is working.  Since then, every time my husband and I were eating out, I started to recognize the taste of the ingredients that made up the food. Sometimes I cooked the same dish at home, which of course I still need to find the recipes in the internet. As I really understand the efforts every time I cook,  I remind myself to appreciate any food served in any places. I also became a person who love to explore any new food and any food festivals :D.

Let’s go to my story about Taste of Abu Dhabi event. This event is one of the biggest food festival held in Abu Dhabi with some celebrity chefs coming as its guests. It was held from 10th – 12th November 2016.  For food lovers and  restaurants lovers, or those who just want to spend their family time outdoor other than at the mall, it was just a perfect event to come. This event was third time held in town, but my first time experience. I accidentally found the advertisement on my social media news feed, so I started to find the information about it. After discussing with my husband, I bought two tickets online for both of us. Buying online tickets  was cheaper than buying on the spot. So….here we go, on last Saturday, 12 th November 2016 we brought our tickets with us and came to this event at Zayed Sport City areas.

For us, this kind of outdoor event is very entertaining, especially for me who is getting bored very easily when doing same activities from time to time. We had different atmosphere for our weekend other than just roaming around the mall.

There was one thing from the event that attracted us. It was Taste The World Competition at Etihad Airways Chef’s Theater. Each finalist cooked their signature dish in front of the audience and the judging panel within the time frame provided.

There was one celebrity chef who is quite familiar to me, Chef Luke Nguyen. I saw some of his cooking shows on the TV. From what I read at Taste of Abu Dhabi website, he has been  appointed as food Ambassador for ETIHAD Airways. In this event, he acted as a host for Taste The World competition. Here the pictures while Chef Luke Nguyen being a host while Chef Francesco Apreda, a Taste The World finalist from Rome doing his cooking presentation in front of a judging panel.

The finalist with his signature dish

The finalist and the judging panel

We watched another cooking presentations by a celebrity chef, Chef Shanjeev Kapoor. He cooked prawn curry mixed with sliced green mango. While he waited for the food to be ready, there was a Q & A session. I remembered there was a young boy sitting on his father’s lap asking at which age he can start to learn cooking. Chef Shanjeev Kapoor answered that this young boy is not too young to start learning to cook if he  really has interest on it. I can see that this young boy seemed having interest in cooking from his early age.

We left the event at the afternoon as we had something to do outside and decided to come back at evening to see the announcement of Taste The World competition :D. We told the security guard that we planned to come back. He stamped on our hand when we left and then we just showed the stamp when we came back. We then waited for the announcement time of Taste The World competition winner. And, here we go…..the winner was one of finalists from Amsterdam, Chef Andre Gerrits.

The winner gave his winning speech and he said that even though he was very happy to be a winner, all of the chefs that were present were winners too. It is inspiring to see someone lifted up others in a sincere way even though it was his best moment 😊.

After watching the announcement,  we left Etihad Airways Chef’s Theater, and walked around to find something for our dinner. The live music performance was also one thing that kept the visitors entertained.

Right after we had our dinner, we went home. After all, this event was very entertaining and we had a great time. I personally loved it, despite the weather was still warm when we came at the afternoon.

Thank you to those who have read my writings. I really appreciate it.. 🙂

Healthy Activity Every Tuesday Evenings

Every Tuesday evenings,  TrainYAS offers free entry for all the residents to do some training at Yas Marina Circuit. For those who want to do serious running, cycling, jogging or just walking, are all welcome to the circuit. The circuit offers a safe and friendly training ground, so families can also bring their kids to participate. We have been doing this activity couple times before and we do it especially when the weather cools down. We have tried cycling once. Since we did not have the bikes, so we rented them  at the site. The rental fee was 30dhs per person.

Before joining this TrainYAS training activities, we have to register our TrainYas ID Card first. It can be done online or directly at the site. We preferred to do it online so that it will prevent us to be on long queue at the site.
Once we arrived at the circuit, we just presented our TrainYas  ID to the person in charge at the entrance gate. Bottled water are also provided at every corner of the jogging track. One more thing to do before going there is don’t forget to check the schedule on the website of  TrainYAS training activities , just to make sure the circuit is open for public or not.

Yesterday evening, we went to the circuit after long time we didn’t go there. For the first 2.5km I was continuously jogging, while my husband was patiently on my side to cheer me up to go another kilometers before I stopped. Since I am not a serious runner, the other kilometers I just walked.. 😀 While doing it, I was observing people (maybe this is one of my hobbies to observe how people behave 😛 ). I saw an old couple doing the activity together, an old man ran faster than I did, a father who cheered up his kid to finish biking, etc. So many people took this activity as their quality time with their loved ones. Sometimes these kind of things gave inspirations for me too.

After about 45 minutes, we finally finished our work out. Yeaaay, finally! 😛

This is one of many ways for us to stay healthy and make the most living in this beautiful city!  Thank you Abu Dhabi and TrainYAS! 😊. As the residents, we feel lucky to have this opportunity.

Let’s be healthy together, people! 🙂 So we can spend our lives well with our loved ones. This is actually an encouragement for myself too, who sometimes being lazy to workout 🙂

Thank you to those who have read my story… 😉

Al Marjan Island and Its Surroundings

This trip was actually a year ago (2015), but allow me to share some experiences from this second trip to Ras Al Khaimah.  The first one was long time ago at 2010. And before I go further about Marjan Island, let me write a little bit about the Ras Al Khaimah. It is one of seven emirates that make up United Arab Emirates, located at the northern part of the UAE. We drove around 2.5 hours from Abu Dhabi. Even though it’s not as popular as Abu Dhabi or Dubai, some residents (including us) chose it as one of the getaway destinations inside the country.

My husband and I went to Al Marjan Island for only 1-night stay. The island offers leisure to the residents and tourists who want to enjoy quality family time. Here some pictures I captured when we arrived at the island.

We stayed at Marjan Island Resort and Spa. The place is good enough for having a weekend getaway. Unfortunately, when we wanted to relax at the swimming pool, it was full of the visitors. So, we decided to walk and relax along its promenade until sunset. Some people also did the same thing like us. Some rode their bicycle with their kids and there were some visitors who played jet ski.

In the night we went out of the resort to explore the surroundings. We went to the shopping center nearby the island, named Al Hamra Mall. We came there for once or twice, just to roam around inside the shopping center. I think that’s all I can write about this trip. See you in another story! 😀