Tailoring, Dubai Style

While nursing another sinus infection that saw me wake up two days ago feeling like my right notstril was an artery involved in a heart attack - completely blocked and not budging, I've been on the hunt for some comfort food.

Having been grounded for three days by one of the doctors at the clinic, today has seen me hit the vegemite toast, a bowl of strawberries and bananas and then a mad stint in the kitchen whipping up a pot of pumpkin soup. Soup seems to be the flavour of the month - a few nights ago Ash made some seriously good potato and leek soup.

I have a wedding to attend at the end of this month back in Brissie and Jena gallantly offered to take me to her tailor in Satwa. Ash and I do have a tailor in the backwaters of Deira, but it's a logistical nightmare to get there and manage to get a taxi OUT of that area once we're done. Inspired by the fantasies I've been having of a purple v-necked dress for the last two months, I packed my magazines, pictures, one purple suede pointy high heel, material, a dress and a skirt (for copying) and piled into a taxi. We roared down to Jena's building and from there set out on the journey. We arrived and to my dismay we did a small cross-country gravel trek and turned down a small alleyway to find a tiny dingy little shop with a singer-esque sewing machine in the back. Had I not seen physical proof that Jena's had fanastic stuff made there, I'd have turned around and hailed a taxi home!

Assured that this was indeed the place, we entered and proceeded to describe what we wanted and have our measurements taken. Hitesh the tailor was an absolute gentleman and apart from the regular phlegm hacking sounds coming from the other tailor, it was a remarkably smooth outing. We headed across to Deepak fabrics and proceeded to make a big mess of things and drape ourselves in the loveliest silks and satins. We finally decided on what we wanted after much umming and aahing and made our way back to Hitesh for more measurements.

From there, it was a walk to find a Lebanese restauruant Jena had heard about and on the way we came across a real live air force jet! I have a very credible source in the air force and he informs me this little beauty is an F16.


We finally came across Sidra, the restaurant and proceeded to order what seemed like one of everything on the menu. We were starving and rather amused when the complimentary starters came out. I've never eaten at a Lebanese place at home and no other restaurant I've been to gives you a bowl of WHOLE veges to munch on while you're waiting on your meal. We were staring at this bowl, which consisted of a whole lettuce, tomato, green capsicum, two small cucumbers and thin strips of carrot on ice, wondering what on earth we were supposed to do with it. Are we supposed to eat it? Cut it up? Look at it? Take the tomato and put it in our purse for later? We settled on looking at it and were soon distracted by a beautiful cat that was lurking around our table.


A fully grown tabby, we decided it was female and named her Sidra (after the restaurant). She was so affectionate, a little dusty but very shiny. Collarless, I'm sure she was someone's pet, as she was so well behaved and didn't seem starving like many of the cats in Dubai, specifically the once-white male I've nicknamed Tinkerbell that stalks around our building howling at people. Tinkerbell has the biggest cat-balls I've ever seen and is definitely a little worse for wear.

Sidra however won us over and had us reminiscing about our own pets back at home. Jena's just been home on leave and had stories of her cat parking itself on her feet every night. I'm on leave next month and am planning on attaching myself to my favourite cat for the whole ten days.

We started constructing fantastical plans of kidnapping Sidra, putting her in my bag and smuggling her home. We both live in buildings that don't have balconies or opening windows and I knew that Ash would have my guts for garters if I dared to bring a creature home without asking! Jena's flatmate does want a cat, but it was all too hard. We politely asked the owner if the cat belonged to the restaurant and he waved his hand, muttering 'take it, take it' with disdain, like many of our passengers do when they've had enough of their meal trays.

Our fittings should be in a week, with our fabulous new threads ready a week later. Stay tuned for an assessment of their quality.