Carmen

Abu Dhabi is trying hard to compete with Dubai for tourists and recognition. The new island construction (name?) will house a Guggenheim and a Louvre and this week we saw opera come to the capital.
Carmen is one of the more accessible stories, if a bit culturally insensitive, so there was much excitement about the show.
We were taking bets to see if the performance would start on time. With an international opera group, most thought that it would. I would have won enough to buy a small island if I had actually put money down. And even though the show started late, there were still people coming in to the auditorium 30 minutes into the performance. Anywhere else in the world, people are asked to wait outside so as not to disturb people who arrived on time. Not so here.
It immediately became apparent that the theatre was not designed for opera. In fact I can't imagine what it was designed for. The acoustics were more than lacking. And while you might think that the singers could adapt to the deficient surroundings, it seemed like they hadn't even rehearsed on the stage because it was certainly hard to hear all of what was going on. But of course you could follow the 'subtitles', I hear you say. The highlight of the evening was the translation / spelling / speed of the titles. 'Fans to make wind' ;)
What a disappointment. It felt more like a travelling circus than a professional opera outfit. While one friend pointed out that opera in Abu Dhabi was a miraculous feat and we should be grateful for any culture we can get, it begs the question: if the powers that be have so much money to spend, why could they not spend it on getting a top class performance?
Part of the disappointment was with the sets - sorry, set. Substitute faux wood for faux tiles and that counts as a whole new set…not quite the Vienna Staatsoper! But maybe all of these gripes would have paled away if it had not felt interminable. Act, interval, act, interval can get boring, particularly after 4 hours!
In spite of all this vitriol, I'm glad I went. No, really. I just wouldn't go again!

Ladies' night

To quote the song: Oh yes, it's ladies' night. Oh what a night!
The only problem with as much free champagne as you can drink is that you tend to get quite drunk! I always think I'm going to be suave and interesting when I go out, then the next day I realise I just ended up being drooly and annoying.
On Sunday I even gave away one of my favourite necklaces. I'm all for random acts of kindness, but I think that was more a drunken act of stupidity!


Here it is on my neck for the last time… :( Bye bye beautiful!

Hair woes

Finding a decent hairdresser when you live in the same place and speak the language is hard enough but imagine you keep moving from place to place and half the time you have to communicate by grunting and pointing. I have had the bucket hairdo, the mullet, the old lady and the just plain bad. Now I have a pathological fear equalled only by my fear of dentists (sorry Yamen!).
So, the choice now is to go to the only hairdresser I trust, who happens to be in Cyprus, a place I lived when I had no hair, or go on the search … again!

Film festival

It must be challenging to set up a new event in a market saturated with international film festivals and the inaugural MEIFF here in Abu Dhabi seems to have had its fair share of ups and downs.

The venue was stunning, if a little out of the way for a non-driver. It is possible to get numbers to rival a national football match in the sumptuous Emirates Palace hotel and not feel crowded. The sheer scale of the place is more than impressive but the size also posed one or two problems when trying to find your way around. Thankfully, there were well-trained staff on hand at every corner to point you in the right direction but a few well-placed signposts would have been a welcome addition. Maybe they just don't go with the gold décor!

Let's take the promotion of the event - I only found out about the festival one month before and that was from a filmmaker coming to represent one of the documentaries in the official competition. Taking a look at the website, it seemed well set up and fairly easy to navigate but, again, where was the information? No schedule info appeared until about 10 days before the festival was due to start.
The majority of the people I spoke to were unaware of the festival going on, either before, during or after the event. At the closing party, those attending did not even know that it was to mark the end of a weeklong event.

There was an interesting selection of films - none of which were censored - in each of the categories but it was such a shame to see them so poorly attended on the whole. The main point and success seems to have been in the area of film finance; apt for a festival held in one of the capitalist centres of the world.

But the best part? Crashing the closing party. Red carpet and all ;)

Kite surfing

I went kite surfing at the weekend. Well, when I say 'I', what I really mean is, I went to the beach and watched other people kite surfing. Which was cool. In fact, it was hard to believe we were still in the UAE. The beach was beautiful, the atmosphere was relaxed and everyone was just there to enjoy the sea, not to stare at white women in bikinis.

The ugly friend

I've never thought of myself as being beautiful, but I've never been short of an offer or two when I've gone out. Now, I seem to have turned into the ugly friend. You know the sort. You see two girls out on a night out and you know which one is going to go home with a fit bloke at the end of the night and which one is going to have to talk to the guy's mate to pass the time. Well, I seem to have turned into the ugly friend. Time for a revamp obviously!

Feminism

I have a degree in political science and a personal interest in international affairs; I like watching rugby, cricket, football; I have opinions of my own on a number of topics and I refuse to be patronised by someone by virtue of their age or sex.
And that seems to make me an arrant feminist.
What is wrong with being an independent woman with education and opinions? What makes us so scary a breed?
It seems little has changed since Samuel Johnson's times. Women are supposed to be incapable of higher thinking, particularly when they look good in a cocktail dress.
Maybe I've been reading too much Virginia Woolf and am just a bit touchy at the moment; or maybe the type of men I've been meeting in Abu Dhabi are just Neanderthals!