Month: December 2008

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We have a tickle-date with these two!
(click on photo for Totolici Photography)

We began our search by checking out the Atlantis. It’s the hotel resort with the huge aquarium in the middle.

We walked around and saw a lot but as it turns out we only saw about 1/10 of it. But we got a great cappuccino at the Brasserie Rostang. The croissants were so good with the orange peel marmalade I got a little barbaric.

But by following Beth’s example of how to act in a world-class resort such as this, I finally got it.

Now that’s a good cappuccino. Afterwards we enjoyed the sun for a while.

Then it was off for a little drive to Abu Dhabi to the Emirates Palace Hotel where you can spend over $10,000 USD per night on a room if that’s your thing.

To build up our appetite for extravagance we decided to check out the exhibit of Saadiyat Island architecture. It’s the new development that features a Cultural District with 6 commissioned buildings by the biggest name players in international architecture. The ones pictured below are by Frank Gehry, Jean Nouvel, Zaha Hadid, and Tado Ando. I think my favorite is either Tado Ando’s or Jean Nouvel’s. They both really did something great with the opportunity. The others just did more of the same craziness.

OK. Now…

Presentation is good. What’s with the pretty box?

Nice.

Living the high life.

Now off to get our valet parked car…

And off to home where I had to get back to work for a little while to help pay for our cappuccino budget.

The Emirates Hotel charged about $12 per cappuccino, the Atlantis Brasserie only about $8.

This is in another mall near us.
It’s a lounge kept at -6 C. They serve mocktails in glasses made out of ice. People WANT to go there.

Last night we went to the opening at the Jam Jar (see In Situ post below) where our piece, “The World’s Largest Blue Tarp Origami Boat” debuted.

It was a really great show with lots of excellent works. A lot of the pieces had themes inspired by the city and the construction and the nature of transitory lives and the crazy show that goes on here about being the biggest and the best.

Setting up the show this morning went flawlessly. Here are two images of the piece. I’ll put the video that is a part of the piece up on the mogulus screen soon. Thursday is the opening and we’ll take more photographs then of the other pieces in the show. We were the first to finish setting up so the others weren’t ready to photograph by the time we left.

We had a hail storm last Saturday. Ice fell from the sky…the closest we will be getting to snow!