When The Killers came to Abu Dhabi

I can’t believe I haven’t written about this already! I would blame my Christmas brain but… yeah.


In December a terribly exciting thing happened – The Killers performed in Abu Dhabi… and the tickets were affordable!!!!! WHOOP!

Lots of performers play here, of lots of different varieties. Since I’ve lived here we’ve had (off the top of my head) Christina Aguilera, George Michael + Alicia Keys, Andrea Bocelli, Beyonce, Kings of Leon, Aerosmith and on New Year’s Eve it was the turn of Rhianna.

Not a lot of those interest me, and those that do (Kings of Leon and Aerosmith) I wouldn’t have been able to afford the price of the tickets since both played after a Formula 1 day, which meant that you had to buy an F1 ticket to be able to see the show. Cheeky, I know.

So it’s always a treat when a less-mainstream (for the UAE) band comes to town and tickets are both available and at a decent price.

The venue was the Emirates Palace (a monument to gold leaf and marble of all the colours of Starbucks – apart from green) and I had no idea what to expect having never been there. Imagine my delight when I found that the stage is in the open air giving a decidedly festival vibe in one of the blingingest of cities.

The weather was wonderful for December, nice and warm, the set was fab but short and half way through the gig a shooting star passed right above the stage!

A top night and one I hope I get to repeat soon.

ArtParis-Abu Dhabi and the Jazz Festival

Friday was a culture day.

It was the last day of the ArtParis Abu Dhabi art fair, 57 galleries from 22 countries represented at the Emirates Palace. It was a lot of art. Probably better to spend a couple of days wondering around but I was determined to see it so we did it in one go.

It was quite a thrill to see the work of some artists well represented that I'd only seen glimpses of in the flesh, or hadn't seen in the flesh at all! Keith Haring, including his BMW, and Warhol stand out for me as the highlights of the day but I was very impressed at the number of Middle Eastern artists that were displayed. Not all of it was good (and frankly, I'm no one to judge what is "good" art) and there was a lot based around Arabic caligraphy, some bad and some wonderful.

All in all it was a nice day and I particularly enjoyed a walk around the Emirates Palace garden where they had installed a sculpture exhibition, turning it into a monumental garden. There was a band playing softly as we strolled around in the fading sun.





After the art fair we hot-footed it over to the Beach Rotana for the annual Abu Dhabi Jazz Festival. It's held every year (this was the fifth I think) around this time, when the weather gets better anyway.

Now I'm not the world's biggest jazz fan (slight understatement) so I wasn't counting the minutes until it began, but it was actually really rather lovely. Bit overpriced to get in, and the food and beverages were similarly overpriced (and on that silly voucher system, why do they do this?!) but all in all it was worth it. Sitting outside on a nice warm evening with good friends and new friends listening and chatting is a wonderful way to spend some time.

Highlight for me would have to be Natalie Williams - so much so that I think I may investigate buying her album. Fantastic voice and a lovely energy and spirit on stage. Also pretty good were Colour of Rhythm. The evening ended with a less than average rock band and by the time they were half way through their set most of the crowd had departed. Possibly a smart move what with needed to get cabs, etc.

But a good cultural day in all!

Christina Aguilera and the "joy" of shopping

The last few days have been busy busy busy!

In Abu Dhabi pretty much all properties are rented unfurnished (we did see a couple of furnished places while we were looking but they tend to be let by hotel groups and look just like hotel rooms so they were an instant "no"). When I say 'unfurnished' I actually mean 'empty shell'. Let alone the lack of furniture, there is no kitchen. That's right, no fridge, no washing machine, no cooker.

So we've had to buy everything, and we did it all in one go in a fantastic magical place known as Costless - and it certainly does! Well, compared to the one other place we looked anyway. It's very difficult being a foreigner because you simply don't know where all this stuff is sold! In the UK I'd know exactly where to go and could reel off a list of names for you, but here we need to rely on friends to tell us where to go (friends have been fantastic by the way, always answering the phone when we call to ask annoying questions, even if it's in the middle of the working day, and for that I salute them!).

The difficulty is compounded when adding the no-car factor into the mix, we have to rely on the taxi drivers to know where we mean when we give the vague directions we have, and then we have to rely on there being one there to take us home again when we've finished! I feel a headache coming on just thinking about it.

But! We have got all the white goods our little hearts could desire and a glorious cooker with 5 gas spider burners and a huge fan assisted electric oven (it's 90cm in width - we did measure the space for the cooker, thankfully, and it will fit). I'm itching to get my hands on it and start concocting totally inedible creations until I get used to the way it works.

Yesterday was another monster shopping day, allbeit productive because we now have our dining room chairs (I was agonising about those - our table is a little... unusual and I was worried we wouldn't find any chairs that we liked to fit with it) along with some other bits and pieces that I'm praying will look ok in the flat.

Are you wondering about the Christina Aguilera bit? On Friday we were invited to a private party in the club at Emirates Palace (the theme was "Bling") and who happened to be playing her first UAE concert at the self same Emirates Palace? That's right! Miss Aguilera!

Much of the evening was spent observing the rest of the club engaged in a mass meerkat impression trying to get a look at her and there were constant stage whispers regarding whether or not she had made it into the club yet or not.

No, I didn't see her and no I wasn't particularly looking either. I did hear that the concert was pretty terrible though.

A.