New Year’s celebration in the desert

New Year’s Eve Menu
Starter: Sauteed shrimps served with tropical salsa and homemade Parmesan crackers
Main course: Grilled lobster
Dessert in the desert: Warm apple pie with touch of cinnamon and cardamon.

The lobster was delicious!

Firing up a New Year’s cigar

“It’s midnight. I’m tired. What were we celebrating again?”

Santa Terminator

Lussekatt buns for breakfast.

I woke up at seven this morning, still groggy witnessing Hanna entering the bedroom trying to balance a tray filled with buns, two cups of tea and candles. Sam was jumping around her legs, happy as…only Sam can be.

Yep, it’s the 13^th of December and that day of the year when Swedes celebrate St. Lucy’s Day.

I have no clue what this whole thing is all about but don’t get me wrong,  I do get a kick out of starting my morning having a Lussekatt bun washed down with some Earl Grey tea (a bit too early to hit the glogg).

Off course, we ended up singing “Santaaaaaa Luuuciiiaaaa…,” with Sam humming along (it is really annoying but I actually noticed that he does have a better voice than I do).

Anyway, this is our plan for the evening:

1. Cook some glogg (mulled wine),
2. Heat up some more of these fantastic Lussekatt buns,
3. Cozy up on the coach,
4. Watch the Terminator.

(Although Hanna hasn’t been fully briefed on point four yet).

“I’ll be back…for one of those Lussekatt buns”

A smart cat’s hide-out

“No matter what I’ve done wrong…

“…I always try to make it look as if Sam did it.”

Hanna & Henna

A couple of days ago I tried Henna for the first time. It’s a traditional pattern from Sahara and I must say I really love the result. I hope it will stay for a couple of weeks…at least 🙂

It’s KITE time!

On 28 March – 1 April, 2012 the Kiteboarding World Cup will be held in Dakhla.

Dakhla, a small town on the Atlantic in the Sahara desert, offers one thing that is really tough to find – the perfect conditions for kitesurfing. Here there is a lagoon that has all you need: strong wind and perfectly flat water. The place to indulge in your extreme sports desires (if you have them obviously) is Ocean Vagabond, a bungalow hotel with all the required gadgets. You can rent the equipment, get a personal trainer or join a group, chill out on the veranda sipping a drink and have some reasonable food (heavy on vitamins and calories since you will be losing a few). The surfers staying here are mostly from France, Germany and UK, professionals and beginners, who after braving long distances, come for the excitement of generating some serious speed on that board.

Ocean Vagabond

Ocean Vagabond is located approximately 30 km north of Dakhla. If you want to visit the town itself, we suggest you go to the Bab Al Bahar Best Western hotel. If you are already into kitesurfing we don’t have to tell you more, but if you are willing to try it for the first time, book a week at Ocean Vagabond and go with the wind!

For more pictures check out our FB page

Alex’s birthday party – behind the scenes

An almost picture perfect start of the day (except for the fact that Sam always likes to play dead in front of the camera)

Alex’s 50th birthday celebration was a big hit. The entire samandthedunes team was invited and it ended up being a fun day (and night). There were games, lots of laughs and jokes. Alex made a short speech that was a blast. But behind this perfect facade none of the guests (particularly Sam) noticed the drama that was going on in the kitchen. The cake-baking process was not proceeding according to plan (to put it mildly). For various reasons the recipes had to be changed several times during the day and at one point disaster loomed. When plan A (Key Lime Pie), plan B (Fruit Tart) and plan C (Cheesecake) were beyond saving, panic took over. In a last desperate try to surprise Alex with a cake, the ready-cake-mix (bought in IKEA on Gran Canaria) was coming to the rescue. Now everything was going to be OK as long as the cover box with the unappetizing name could be kept secret.

The infamous chokladkaka

But guess what…even this cake failed. The expiration date was long overdue. Isn’t anybody looking at the expiration date in this house?! Who in his right mind would be happy getting a chokladkaka that expired half a year ago?!! Surprised, yes, happy, I don’t think so. To make a long story short, plan Z dessert (grilled fruit with vanilla yogurt) were finally ready to be served at 10 PM.

Enjoying the plan Z dessert...in PJ's

Alex turns 50 – Samandthedunes “shocked”!

Alex a few years ago

When samandthedunes.com recently heard that their co-founder, Alex, was turning 50, they were absolutely shocked. Our reporter got a chance to meet with one of the team members and got an exclusive interview about this big event.

Why were you shocked?
You know, this guy listens to Marilyn Manson and goes to rock concerts religiously. His music taste hasn’t changed at all since the 90’s.

OK, but that sounds like a typical 50 year old to me?
Maybe, but you see, his idea of fun is to hang around with his buddies, drinking beer and telling high-school-level jokes!!

Hmm…can you give me an example?
Yes, like this one:

“-Mr. Smith, I have reviewed this case very carefully,” the Divorce Court Judge said, “and I’ve decided to give your wife $875 a week.”

“-That’s very fair, your honor,” the husband said, “and every now and then I’ll try to send her a few bucks myself.”

OK, OK, I see what you mean. But what did you give him as a present?
As a token of our appreciation, we presented Alex with a brand new aerobic stepper.

That’s a good one. Was it appreciated?
He was delighted and decided to try it out straight away. We even have a picture of this event.

Great! But hey, wait a minute, what is the bottle doing there?
Not quite sure…anyway, got to go now, big day today. Ciao!

The night watcher

Apple-biting suspense

The torture, the anxiety, looking at the watch, click, click, click, making sure it hasn’t stopped. Two, three o’clock in the morning. Sweaty palms, bloodshot eyes glued to the screen, waiting and waiting. Voices in the head whispering it won’t happen. Go away, it will, we know. And suddenly, there is light, there is movement, hooray, it has arrived! We are ecstatic, jumping up and down singing: “Yabadabadooooo!! our first view!” Yes, somewhere out there in the unknown cyberspace somebody has graced samandthedunes.com with being our first visitor of the day. We fall on the bed exhausted. Passing out. Until next night…    

Who is the plumber in the house?

After we moved into our new house we found out that the sink was hopelessly clogged. Alex who always brags that he is an excellent plumber and carpenter decided to take charge. Using what he refers to as the “old Russian approach” he tried to pump the waste through with his hand. There were peculiar noises coming from the object of his attention but the water still didn’t disappear. Sam had a look on his face that said it all: “He really thinks that he can do this, doesn’t he?” After several hours of fruitless effort Alex decided it was time to buy some tools and deal with the problem professionally. This is when Hanna stepped up to the plate. She dismantled the whole sink with her bare hands, cleaned it without even getting any water on herself and put it all back together – in about ten minutes. Humiliated, Alex wandered off to the back yard with a can of beer… Now, who is the real plumber here?

 

Night of the living dead

Moving into a new house is always exciting. The funny thing is that none of us in the Samandthedunes team has ever lived in such a big one before. Four rooms and a kitchen, plus a front and a back yard is pretty cool. But what we didn’t expect were the new and unfamiliar noises a new house can generate. Actually, the first night we didn’t get much sleep at all since a scary, strange sound from the kitchen kept us awake all the time. Even Sam (who usually likes to think of himself as brave) was clearly uncomfortable and his nervous shivering sadly reminded us of the cowardly lion in the Wizard of Oz. As if this wasn’t enough, the morning after we woke up in a state of complete horror. The roaring sound outside the door was definitely not a product of our imagination. Our brain told us that there are no tigers, lions, beasts of prey, Draculas or Hellraisers in the neighborhood but then why did it sound like somebody just stepped on Freddy Krueger’s toe? Slowly we opened the front door just to find…a camel. Still surprised, but relieved it wasn’t any of the other creatures, we stumbled back to bed as living dead in an attempt to catch up on some sleep.

“-Good morning, Freddy!”