Sewing Adventures

Despite our trip to Dubai, I'm still taking one of my fashion classes. We had started a children's wear project before I left. I've been working on it here in Dubai. The electronic portion isn't finished yet (it's due Wednesday), but I've finished all the sewing.

I made a fit sample weeks ago and mailed it to my sister-in-law, Amity. She and my brother tried the fit sample (a simplified version of the dress made out of muslin) on their girls and sent me pictures. They also took a few measurements so that I could decide on design details.

Before we left, I was able to sew the dress for their eldest (because she was closest in size to the fit sample). I was in such a hurry to ship the dress before our flight that I forgot to take a picture of it. Amity was kind enough to send me this picture of the first dress:

I had also made a second fit sample before leaving. I draped this on a children's dress form at school and cut the cape the way I wanted it. It's not perfect, because the children's dress form at school is for a larger boys size. But you can get the idea:

In the midst of dress fittings, my brother decided to look at the power supply in Dubai. He recommended that I not attempt to take my sewing machine, which had been my plan. Something about the motor - a simple converter wouldn't solve the problem. Instead, I got a machine here. Of course, given the power situation, I'll have to leave the machine here.

First, I worked on the coat that goes with the dress. It came out pretty well, if I do say so myself. It's fully lined, which was a bit of a puzzle. I'm not sure how lining is installed in an industrial setting, but I'm pretty sure it isn't the way I did it. I'm very happy with the end result, though:

Lacking a dress form or a small child, I put the coat on a pillow to see how it looks. My pillow is a little too chubby for the coat:

When I asked Amity what her daughter thought of the dress, I was informed that the eldest wasn't a fan of the "wings" (the collar). But when discussion began about the dress, the younger girl stripped off her clothes and wiggled into the too-big dress. So today, I decided I would finish her dress as well.

Here it is, only partially hemmed:

I hemmed the bottom with a machine stitch to start. The dress could be let out to this length and no one would probably notice. But here it is hemmed by hand to the intended length:

That's an 1.5 inch hem, but it's hard to tell. Both dresses have large hidden pockets in the side seams. I was very happy to hear that both girls loved the pockets. They are far too young to be required to choose between wearing dresses and having the convenience of pockets.

Finally, a picture of the dress and coat that I've made in Dubai. The dress is approximately a size 2T and the coat is approximately a 4T.

Banyan Tree Al Wadi Breakfasts

A breakfast buffet was included in our (anniversary?) package. We went twice, giving me the opportunity to try a wide variety of things.

On the first day, I picked familiar looking items. I'd like to point out that there is no pork on my plate. I have "veal bacon", "beef pepperoni", and some kind of "ham" that simply wasn't ham. I had salmon hash, mint-lemon juice, cheese, a date, a sweet pastry, and some strange fruit Craig insisted that I try.

Turns out, the fruit was good enough that I took a second one on my return trip. I tried some different kinds of cheese and several more fruits. The crazy spiky looking one is another that Craig had gotten on the first trip through the buffet and I had enjoyed. I picked up the donut for Craig in case the waffles didn't turn out. As it happens, he didn't eat waffles or the donut. (The donut was more like bread with unsweetened chocolate on top.)

The second day, I was a little more adventurous. Craig claims that the tortilla type things have melted cheese in them, but I'm not convinced. They taste more like butter-soaked tortilla that hasn't been fried properly. The roasted tomato with cheese was good. The fried noodles were extremely spicy - not flavorful, just hot. There was a strange casserole that turned out to be mashed potatoes with a few green beans in it - tasty enough, but maybe not my idea of breakfast. Another casserole like dish that had many types of squash in it with eggs cooked on top. And, of course, a date.

When I went back to the buffet, I got fresh fruit (they didn't have any exotic fruits left by the time I went back through) and a couple pastries. These were better than the donut from the day before.

Looking back at these pictures, I realize that my breakfast preference leans heavily toward fresh fruit.

Craig ordered off the menu both mornings. The first morning he tried waffles, which were not freshly made. He asked the server about them and got a new, over-reheated version. The second morning, he ordered Huevos Rancheros.

This was not at all what he expected. To make things even more interesting, the "chorizo" was a beef sausage that tasted like Slim Jims.

Banyan Tree Al Wadi Adventures

Our trip this weekend was an incredible retreat. Our villa opened up to a private infinity edge pool. We spent a great deal of time out on our patio, hoping in and out of the pool. Here's a picture of me in the pool:

We had bikes to ride around the resort, when we weren't taking a "buggy" (a golf cart driven by resort staff). Craig and I took one long ride around the resort and several shorter rides to different activities. Here, Craig and I took pictures with the oryx that live on the resort as a part of a nature preserve:

We also had to try the Rainforest Spa (you can find the resort's description here). We were told there were 14 stations (the website says 16), but we only found 13 of them. And that with some difficulty.

We started by going into men's and women's changing rooms. I was told that I should leave my glasses in my locker, so the whole adventure was very blurry. In fact, when I came out into the pool area to meet Craig, I hesitantly approached the only person I could see. I can't actually see a person well enough to tell who they are at any socially acceptable distance, so this could have been really awkward. But it was Craig, so we headed to the first station.

The experience began with a series of showers. There were four showers, each with lights overhead to let you know when to move from one to the next. Of course, we didn't figure this out until we had gone through the entire course, missing most of the showers. So we went back and did it again, as you do.

Next, we walked through a shallow "stream". This was challenging because there were four sections of water, each one lit with blue or red lights, but with a step between the sections. Navigating this without my glasses was challenging, even with Craig giving me direction.

Next, we encountered four rooms. Two of them were marked as the third station. The other two were unmarked. We tried them all before settling in the cooler of the two steam rooms. Even this one got so hot and uncomfortable that we were forced to open the door. The instructions said that we were supposed to sit in one of the two rooms for ten minutes, but I doubt we managed anything close to that.

We swapped from one steam room to the other, mostly to enjoy the cooler air between the rooms. On one such occasion, we saw a staff member headed into one of the other rooms carrying a tray. She told us that she was putting our scrub in there and we should go into that room next.

After enduring the steam room as long as possible, we found our scrubs. We had paid extra for this: a honey-salt scrub that you apply yourself. The scrub came in two bowls. The first bowl had a mixture that smelled like orange, felt like the guts of a pumpkin, and presumably had honey in it. The second bowl was Kosher salt. We set about scrubbing ourselves and one another with the scrub, mixing the two as we went. We were wearing swim suits, but we still ended up flinging scrub at one another before rinsing off.

After cleaning most of the scrub off our bodies and swim suits, we went to the next station which was another steam room. Craig and I are not fans of steam. Each time, the sign told us to spend ten minutes breathing in the steam. Each time, I think we managed perhaps three minutes.

The next station had two shower-like stalls. We went into one, which had two different showers with lights and sound effects. One was gentler and the other heavier with thunderstorm effects. We enjoyed this and actually came back to it after the bucket drench failure.

The other shower was a bucket drench shower. From the description on the sign, we were expecting a huge amount of ice cold water to pour on our heads. We huddled together under the bucket and pulled the rope. All the water poured out onto the ground next to us, missing us entirely. Laughing, we waited for the bucket to refill and tried it a second time. We had both reached out to the water and found it wasn't nearly as cold as advertised, so we weren't nearly as anxious the second time. This could have been much improved by an indication on the floor of where to stand. And colder water.

At this point in our adventure, we were unable to find the next station. There was a room marked Hamman, which we finally decided must be where we were supposed to go. I couldn't see very well, but we explored the Hamman a bit. The center room had a large jacuzzi-like thing. Four rooms off the central room had individual bathrooms and large soaking tubs. An alcove off the center room had a shower. Craig used the shower, trying in vain to rid himself of the last of the honey-salt scrub. We climbed into the jacuzzi for a minute. 

While we were soaking, an employee came up to the double doors we had entered through and looped something around the door handles. Frightened that she had locked us in, and bored with the tepid water in the jacuzzi, we hopped out and went to the door. We were able to exit the Hamman without difficulty. And the employee directed us to the next station, which was out of sight around the corner.

I see now that the Hamman is on the list of amenities in the Rainforest. But at the time, we thought we had gone into a place we weren't allowed. And the employee didn't disabuse us of that notion. She acted like we were crazy. Of course, we were giggling like lunatics by this point, finding everything amusing. 

The employee sent us into a herbal sauna. As with most of the steam rooms, there were two options. We settled on the cooler option. I think we lasted longer in the sauna than the steam rooms, but I may just be optimistic.

After the sauna, we backtracked to the Ice Igloo. Inside a chamber decorated like an igloo, there was a central pedestal with a large bowl-like top. The bowl was lined with plastic wrap. Inside the pedestal, we found crushed ice. (We could see that the crushed ice came from an ice machine overhead.) At first, we were distrusting of the instructions to "rub ice on our cellulite-prone areas". But it turns out that rubbing crushed ice on your skin is really invigorating and rather fun.

We moved on to yet another miserable sauna. This one had a clock outside (we had lamented the lack of timepieces in the saunas, because we had no idea how long we had stayed). The clock said 4:05 when we went inside. As we settled into the sauna, I asked Craig what time it was because I hadn't been able to read the clock. He told me "4:05" and I replied, "so we started in this one at 4."

Initially, he was confused by my inability to tell time. But when we came out of the sauna at 4:07, he agreed that we must have started at 4:00. We decided to run back to the Ice Igloo and rub ice on our faces before continuing.

We enjoyed another brief shower with lights and sounds. With every shower, Craig claimed that bits of orange pulp were coming out of his swimsuit. 

We walked through another stream. This one wasn't divided, making it easier for me to walk through blind. 

And I think there was another shower, with several different showers.

Finally, we ended up at station 13, which was the large pool where we initially met outside the locker rooms. I couldn't see anything, but Craig led me into the water. The sign said that there were 6 stations in the pool. There were several seats/locations at each station. We sat in chairs that had jets at the back. We tried to lay in lounges with jets along the bottom, but the jets pushed us both out of the seats and into the pool. We turned on "waterfalls" - one felt like you were trying to walk under a fire hose and the other was like being attacked by a wall of water. We walked through a corridor that had jets underfoot and on the side walls. That was probably my favorite part of the "Vitality Pool".

I wish I had pictures. Or better yet, a video showing this experience. Craig and I really enjoyed it, but we were acting like hysterical maniacs most of the time. The steam rooms were miserably hot. The "cold" showers were never cold enough. The ice igloo was pretty amazing, even if it was just crushed ice from a machine. The whole spa was something of a maze, with no clear direction from one station to the next. While some of the showers had lights and sound effects, the entire place was eerily quiet. 

It was fun. And I'm glad we did it. But I'm not sure it's something I would go out of my way to do. But I suppose if I went back, I might give it another go, provided it had been some time since this trip.

Saffron Tower

Craig told me we were having dinner at Saffron Tower. I assumed this was a restaurant on the resort property. He had asked our golf cart driver for directions to the Tower, but the driver arranged for someone to come back and pick us up for dinner. A good thing, because it would have been an interesting hike in the dark. Here I am in front of the tower:

As we headed up the stairs, it became obvious that this was not exactly a restaurant. We took this long winding staircase to the top of the tower:

At the top, we found a single table set for two. Here's the picture our waiter took for us:

To serve our dinner, the waiter went downstairs and drove off in a golf cart to pick up each course. When he returned, he would carry it upstairs before leaving us alone again. Craig didn't know what we were going to be served (and I obviously had no idea), but I did find the menu later in the room service book:

Appetizers:

Soup:

Main Dishes:

And dessert:

Aside from a few surprise encounters with cilantro, the food was very good. But the setting was incredible. And the company, of course, couldn't have been better. (Our waiter abandoned us for most of the meal. He spent most of the meal driving to get more food, I believe. So Craig and I had the tower all to ourselves.) It was a marvelous treat.

Weekend Get-Away

To break up our stay in Dubai, Craig planned a weekend get-away. We were headed to the Banyan Tree Al Wadi, in Ras Al Khaimah. I didn't know what to expect, but I was looking forward to the change of scenery. Craig left work a little early on Thursday so that we could head out of town. 

After pricing a rental car against hiring a car, he had decided to go with hiring a car. I believe it priced out similarly, but he thought it would be nice to have someone else driving since he'd never been to this location. There was terrible traffic on the way out of town, similar to that heading from L.A. to Vegas on a Friday evening. It was nice to have someone else driving. But once we got to Ras Al Khaimah, we were even more pleased with our decision to hire a car. The entry to the resort was nearly invisible in the dark. Even our driver had to stop and reverse on the highway to make the entrance.

After a harrowing drive on a dark desert highway, we arrived at the resort. As we checked in, we were offered some hibiscus water and dates. The dates were stuffed with almonds. I've fallen in love with dates on this trip. I like them in nearly every form - plain, stuffed, or diced.

A golf cart took us to our villa, which was the first surprise of the weekend. The room was incredible. Craig took some videos when we got in. It was around 7 p.m., so it's dark.

Shortly after we arrived in the room, someone came with a "forgotten" cake:

You may not see it in the picture, but "Happy Anniversary" is written on the plate. Someone else booked this trip for us, so I'm not sure if she was confused or if something was simply lost in translation. But the room was certainly prepared for a couple celebrating an anniversary, as you can see in the bed decorations:

We had dinner reservations (originally at 7:30, but at reception they had pushed them back for us), so we didn't have time to do much more than take a few pictures and videos and change for dinner.

Taste of "Home"

After all our adventures this past week, including a nightly dinner out, Craig and I decided to try cooking at our apartment. The kitchen is small, but it has everything we need - stovetop, oven, full-size fridge, two plates, two bowls, two glasses, two sets of silverware, a tiny frying pan, a small sauce pan, and one medium sized pot. The nearby 24-hour grocery store is small, but it stocks an enormous variety of food in a tiny space. As a result, our dinners at "home" here look very much like our dinners at home in L.A.

Sunday night, we decided to make steak, potatoes, and Brussels sprouts. This is a favorite meal of ours at home, so it seemed like a good place to start. At home, we would grill the steak, but that obviously wasn't an option here.

The steak, as it turns out, was a challenge. The only frying pan we have is a "one-egg" frying pan - one of the smallest frying pans I've seen. So we thought we would pan fry each steak and finish them together in the oven. I've learned how to turn on the oven, so we thought we had this all figured out. Things went according to plan until we checked on the steaks in the oven. After ten minutes in the oven, the steaks were cooler than they had been after searing them. All told, it took over an hour just to finish the steaks in the oven.

As a result of the steak fiasco, we sat down to dinner well after 9 p.m. But dinner was delicious:

Monday night, we had decided to do a taco night with the team. Kathryn has a much larger space, so we planned to eat there. I went shopping while they were all at work. We had found all our usual ingredients in the "Filipino" aisle at our grocery store:

I found a similar aisle over at Waitrose (in the Dubai Mall). The aisle at Waitrose is a bit larger, but equally oddly marked. This is the organic and gluten free aisle:

I probably should have gone across the street for the variety. But the long walk back carrying enough to make dinner for five didn't appeal to me. In addition to the Tex-Mex stuff I found, I got avocados, lemons, limes, onions, green onions, shredded cheese, and tortilla chips.

Craig had to go to the business office to print out some things, so I met everyone downstairs. The four of us were happily cooking when Craig joined us. Someone asked him if he felt that he fit in now, having four "wives" cooking in his kitchen. But with the five of us working together, dinner took no time at all. Another taste of home:

For our final cooking experience of the week, I decided to make spaghetti. This is a favorite of mine that has quickly become a favorite meal of Craig's as well. I managed to take a picture of some of the ingredients this time:

The red and white bottle is salt. I've been using the salt and pepper shakers that came with the room service we ordered when we got in at 2 a.m. But when I went shopping for taco night, I gave in and bought salt. Everything looks very similar to its counterpart in the U.S., excepting the Arabic writing, of course. But most things are labeled in both Arabic and English. The challenge is finding things in the grocery store. Once you've found them, it's easy to read the label.

Looks just like at home. Of course, just like at home, I've been eating the leftovers for lunch while Craig's at work:

First Weekend in Dubai (and Abu Dhabi)

On Saturday, Craig rented a car to take us "on an adventure" - but not the sort of adventure we took with the cab driver the other night, that's why he rented the car for this one. Gwen and Kathryn joined us for this trip. Of course, there was a bit of a shuffle regarding the rental car. It was supposed to be delivered, but they went to the hotel instead of the apartments despite Craig's detailed description of the differences. This is a common problem.

First, we headed to the Mall of the Emirates. Yes, another mall. It seems like we should be content with the largest mall in the world - the Dubai Mall - just across the street, but we are not. Actually, we went to the Mall of the Emirates for a very specific reason - Ski Dubai. Ski Dubai was one of Thinkwell's earliest projects in the region. It's also the only indoor ski slope with an elbow (a 90 degree turn on the slope). It also has an enormous snow play area, which was my favorite.

In this picture, I'm standing in the mall, which has huge windows looking into Ski Dubai:

Inside, we were treated to a special tour. We were given snow boots and enormous white coats. We were also provided with socks and gloves. And we had a private room in which to change. Here, Craig caught me taking a picture of him:

And here we got someone to take a picture of us together:

This is a picture of me taken inside the play area.

And another picture of me looking up the ski slope. You can see the chair lift. At the top of the picture, the slope makes a 90 degree turn to the left side and continues higher.

This is another picture from the same angle. It's really hard to get a sense of scale in these pictures, but four people fit comfortably on the ski lift.

Here are the four of us riding the ski lift up to the top of the slope. We took the whole circle, riding it back down again without stopping at the top. It gave us a great view of the slope. We saw lots of people skiing and snowboarding.

We didn't ski, but we did try some of the snow park activities. We rode the Twin Track Bobsled run, which took us to scream-inducing speeds. Kathryn took the opportunity to be a snowball,  rolling down the hill in an enormous, inflatable ball. I would have liked to try that, but my neck was still giving me trouble so I decided it wasn't worth the risk. We watched children sliding down the hills on tubes and playing in the snow. It's surreal to go from the heat of Dubai into the snow. But it was an incredible experience.

After we left Ski Dubai, we drove around to see some more of Dubai. We drove out on The Palm, which is a funky man-made island shaped like a palm tree covered by high-rise developments. We saw countless malls and other enormous developments. Dubai is unlike anyplace else that I've visited.

We headed to Abu Dhabi, where we planned to visit Ferrari World. Yas Island is another man made island, but this one is dedicated to "entertainment" according to all the signs on the island. Ferrari World is surrounded by a mall, of course. After walking around the mall a bit, we decided to go for the familiar Buca di Beppo for lunch.

I got chicken carbonara, which was delicious:

Craig got some kind of meat lovers pizza, again with all beef toppings:

And Gwen and Kathryn shared spaghetti with the largest meatballs I have ever seen in person:

After lunch, we went to Ferrari World. We had been prepped well for this adventure, so our expectations were not high. Here's a picture of me in the mall outside the entrance (you can probably see why we had lunch at Buca):

Ferrari World is the largest indoor theme park in the world. The Ferrari theme is clear throughout the park. It's less clear to me why anyone would want a park this large dominated by red and black Ferraris. But I'm obviously not the target audience here. Craig gave us a tour of the recent improvements to the park, which was interesting. We rode several of the rides.

Our first ride required 3D glasses, which I hate. The story line was an odd mix of video games and a Ferrari, which was obviously aimed at a very different demographic. To make matters worse, the motion didn't always match the video. That disconnect leaves me with an even greater headache than the 3D glasses alone.

We started with the slower of the two coasters at the park - Fiorano GT Challenge. I actually enjoyed this ride. I know that "dueling" coasters - two coasters running simultaneously and "racing" one another around the track - are a little bit silly. But I enjoy roller coasters. And I enjoyed this one.

Gwen opted out of the next ride - Made in Maranello - and I wish I had joined her. This "ride" was a factory tour wrapped in a commercial presented at a painfully slow speed. Except for one sudden swirl at the end of the ride that set my neck throbbing again. Gwen reported that she had heard our complaints while she waited for us outside the ride. I'm not sure this would have been good even if I were interested in the product. Okay, no, I'm sure it wouldn't have been good.

Craig, Kathryn and I rode Viaggio in Italia, a Soarin' style ride. I love Soarin' at Disney's California Adventure. It may be my favorite ride ever. But this...this was not Soarin' over California. The load-in was an unmitigated disaster. They simply opened the doors and let people in, without any organization. And the film? Terrible. Low resolution. Not in any way transportive the way that a Soarin' ride should be. And don't get me started on the motion of the ride, which did not match the film in any way.

Kathryn and I rode Formula Rossa, the fastest roller coaster in the world. We were given goggles to wear on the ride, and you need them! I had large goggles that fit over my glasses, while Kathryn had smaller goggles that protected her contacts. Both of us made it off the ride with our prescription eyewear intact. The rest of our bodies, however, felt weird as we tumbled off the ride. There's no other way to describe it. But it was fun and I'm glad I did it. But I wouldn't need to do it again.

We finished with Bell'Italia. This was similar to Autopia but without the illusion that you're driving the car yourself. The mini Ferrari drove us in pairs through a scale version of Italy. I think it's telling that this ride was one of the more pleasant experiences of our visit to Ferrari World.

First Weekend in Dubai (part one)

I had a very lazy Friday. We slept until we woke up (I still woke up around 7:30). I made coffee for Craig (he gave in during the week and purchased a french press and some Starbucks coffee) and tea for myself. And Craig fried an egg for me:

I spent my morning reading while Craig worked on his computer. The unfortunate part of the twelve hour time difference between here and Los Angeles is that he never actually stops working. (Not that he ever does, to be completely honest, but it's more obvious here.) By the time we've finished dinner, the L.A. office is waking up and sending email. In the evening, Craig tries to keep up with the new flood of email.  In the morning, he responds to the rest of the flood. Just when the L.A. office is closing down, he goes to work here. And the cycle repeats. Although Friday is the first day of our weekend, Craig had all of Thursday's email to respond to on Friday morning.

But he finished all of that in time to meet a friend for lunch. His friend has recently relocated from London to Abu Dhabi with his family. Abu Dhabi is about ninety minutes away. So they came up to meet us for lunch at the Dubai Mall (of course). We ate at Social House again, but we both ordered pizzas this time.

Craig ordered a "meat lovers" pizza. You may not be able to tell from the picture, but there are no pork products on this pizza. The sausage and "bacon" are made from beef.

I ordered a cheese and mushroom pizza, asking them to leave off the honey that was included in the menu description. Honey? On pizza? The sun-dried tomatoes were remarkably sweet, so maybe it would have worked, but I just couldn't wrap my head around it. I love honey, but I have no desire to have it on my pizza.

We enjoyed a very nice lunch and we got to see the fountain show again. It was interesting to hear about their adjustment to the UAE. It's got some unique quirks.

We did a little shopping at the mall before we came home. Craig and I are finding it hilarious how often we "need to go to the mall" here. We've never wanted or needed to go to a mall so much in our lives.

We had dinner at home. We had picked up things to make a charcuterie - sliced meats, several cheeses, and fresh bread. It was nice to relax in the apartment for a bit. Of course, Craig had to meet with the team twice - once for a team meeting before part of the team heads back to L.A. and once to make a call back to the L.A. office with the team (see above for how his work day never ends). But it was a nice start to the weekend.