The Abu Dhabi Music and Arts Festival may have come to an end for this year, but our memories of the concerts will remain with us until next year's edition. We watched as the British cellist Matthew Barley, one of the most inspirational performers on the programme, got into the spirit of the UAE on the festival's closing night. At the Karim Said piano recital on April 2, Barley was spotted in full Arab dress and looked quite splendid. He said he was going to change before his flight home but we suggested it might be a good way to get an upgrade. He agreed and added that he planned to wear his new clothes in the UK over the weekend where he would be visiting his brother in Stroud, in Gloucestershire. The Romanian opera diva Angela Gheorghiu was similarly smitten with the local way of dressing, declaring at her press conference last week that she loved the clothes and wanted to get some herself. She later told The National she had been blown away by Etihad Airway's first-class service. "They call it a suite, not a seat," she said. "They wanted to impress me and they really did."
If you haven't yet boarded the Twitter bandwagon, then maybe the InterContinental and Crowne Plaza hotels at Dubai Festival City can convince you.
Yesterday, both hotels offered followers of their Twitter profiles (www.twitter.com/intercondfc and www.twitter.com/crowneplaza.com) a chance to participate in a free room giveaway. The first three Twitter followers of each hotel to "tweet" a reply to their profiles at a certain time yesterday afternoon were told they would receive a complimentary night's stay at the respective hotel, plus breakfast this morning.
We're anxious to hear from the winners of yesterday's giveaway, and will be keeping an eye out on this new Twitter phenomenon. Something fishy "The ocean is their life itself. For a fisherman, the waves just don't rise and fall. For him, the ocean breathes. The ocean is the very breath of his life," said the Indian artist Subodh Kerkar, known for creating temporary installations on the beach using shells, sand, light and boats.
Through temporary installations on the beaches of the southern Indian state of Goa he captures ephemeral poems on the sand, which he then photographs, freezing them in print. Anchored Ocean, his new body of work, in which he uses the fishermen themselves by exploring their lives and their connection with the ocean, will be displayed in Dubai towards the end of this month. "My installations erase the boundaries between the creator and the created, the fisherman and the fish, the boat and the boatman, using the magic wand of art," said Mr Kerkar. The Jam Jar gallery behind Dubai Garden City will be exhibiting Mr Kerkar's work starting on April 29, and the exhibition will run until June 6.
For the lovers of all things French, a crêpes promotion is being held at the Radisson SAS hotel in Dubai Media City until the end of this month. "Crêpes are a popular French dish that had their origin in Brittany, a region in north-west France. Crêpes are highly adaptable and are appropriate for any meal," said Faycal Ouaissa, the hotel's food and beverage manager.
Mr Ouaissa said it was a myth that crêpes were fattening, insisting that if the right ingredients were used, crêpes could be part of a balanced diet. Any type of crêpes will be ready to be served to guests in under 10 minutes, and take-away orders have been popular as well. * The National
