Dubai Pt.1

Well, we finally made it to Dubai and back. :) 4 1/2 days of shopping fun (or at least as much fun as one can have with 4 children and hubby in tow.) I did pretty well getting things both wanted and needed. I found GREAT prices on fabric. Instead the expected of just over $2/yd, I bought most of my fabric for $1.38/yd. Woohoo! I even got a very nice Moda fabric for $2.18/yd! The best prices and selection were of course at the first fabric store we stopped in and because Mohsen kept reminding me that we had at least 3 more stores to go and I should try and get everything at one shop, I ended up not buying as much as I had planned. If you're ever in Dubai and looking for quilting fabric, go to Najran's first and then Tahir's (right next door) on Al Satwa Rd. They didn't bargin but at those prices, who needs to bargin. ;) I'm downloading Picasa right now so I hope to have lots of pics up soon. I didn't have nearly as much luck with kids clothes but did manage to get shoes for all of them for just under $25.

Getting there and getting back were absolutely crazy. As usual, we ran late getting to the airport only to find out that there was no flight at the time listed on our tickets. After much inquiry, we found out there has never been a flight for our airline at that time....until the following day when they would be starting a flight at that time. (All thanks to an older travel agent {and owner of the agency} that didn't know what he was doing appearantly.)Grrr! However, the airline reps recognized us from our last attempt, took pity on us since we had four kids in tow and wanted to make a good impression on the American (me) so they put us on standby for the next flight which left 2 hours later. They even kept a whole row free for us while they were checking in the other passengers. We had a late flight back (10 p.m.) and knew the kids would be a challenge at that time since bedtime is usually 8:30-9 but we figured what could we do. We also had to go to the airport at 7 because that was the only time the hotel's shuttle would take us and we decided it would be too much of a pain to get our big bags into a taxi. Since we were going SOOO early, we figured we could get some dinner at the airport since we had heard good things about Dubai's airport. Unfortunately, all of the good stuff is in Terminal 1, we were in Terminal 2 where they seem to really not like the passengers. The only things there besides some smoky seating, were a small snack bar and a small duty free shop, which left us without many dinner options and once you go through passport control, you're stuck until your flight leaves. To make matters worse, our flight ended up getting delayed for a total of 3 1/2 hours. We didn't make it home until 5 a.m. with 4 VERY cranky kids, especially Zahra. Not that I can blame them. We're finally just about recovered 3 days later but we let Safiya stay home again. It's not like she's missing that much in kindergarten. ;)

Oh, yeah. I was also greeted with a (unwelcome) rearranged courtyard thanks to my sister-in-law. It seems she just can't resist moving things around while we're on vacations. This is the second time she's done this. The first time was my kitchen and we were only gone for less than 2 days! Boy, was I annoyed! Fortunately, Mohsen returned things back to their normal state before I went back outside again. After I expressed my irritation, of course. I hate to see what she rearranges if we go on another trip. I guess that's one of the downfalls of living close to family or at least close to Mohsen's older sister.

Well, that's it for now. I'll answer Patty's questions about serving tea and include some Iranian style picnic pictures in the next few posts.