Work got in the way

It has been a CRAZY time at work, to put it mildly, and I'm tired of slogging through the weekends. Plus, we're all down with the cold bug at home, so there has been lots of sniffing and middle-of-the-night interruptions.

BUT (and this is a "but" of the nice variety), I'm taking some time off tomorrow to meet a new friend (and fellow fabricaholic) and we're going to go gallivant around the fabric shops in Arab Street and hopefully Chinatown too!!

This new friend is relocating to Singapore soon and we were "introduced" by Jeremy of Hot Patterns. He's so sweet -- he put us in touch with each other when he heard that H was moving to Singapore.

So far, H and I have communicated by e-mail only, so it will be terrific to meet her in person tomorrow. Only thing is, I really have to control myself and NOT BUY ANYTHING. Hahahhaha!

Anyway, here is some fabric news:

1. New Liberty prints at NicoleXavier - I just called Nicole and she said that most of her new shipment is IN! There is a last batch coming in tomorrow, but most of her new Liberty stock is IN IN IN. She has some classics as well as some of the latest from the upcoming season.

2. New fabric at Malin Textiles - I haven't written about Malin yet, but it's one of my favourite stores for cotton, especially Japanese cotton. It's just two shops to the right of NicoleXavier. They have new stuff in, including some Kokka prints!

3. Sale at Spotlight - It's on till 4th July. All patterns are 50% off and it's also 20% off all elastic, buttons, thread and interfacing.

"My father rode a camel..."

"I drive a Mercedes..." (click the link for the back story) and so the vision to transform a desert landscape began. It was my first trip to Dubai and the Emirate impressed indeed.

My first impression was that everything was rather green, thanks to an extensive sprinkler system. The second thing that struck me was the proliferation of space-agey skyscrapers.

Then, I realised how HUGE everything was, from the 7-lane highways to the miles and miles and miles of carpet one had to walk from the hotel lobby to the conference area. I got a good workout! LOL!

Dubai is also home to the world's largest mall (1,200 stores), the largest fountain and the tallest hotel/building, amongst other superlatives.

Oh, and over at the Mall of the Emirates, they even have a ski slope!

Shops open till 10.30pm daily except Thursday when they stay open till 12 midnight.

There wasn't time for retail therapy, unfortunately. I just managed to sneak in a zip into the shops on the way back to the bus after the team dinner. My darling monkey is now in happy possession of some pink camels. Hahahahahaha!

The next time I visit, I'll extend the stay and make it a point to visit the dunes in the desert too. I've never seen a desert up close, so it has been a bit of a dream to do so.

I'm off ...!

It's for work, not pleasure. And no, the work does not involve being in that structure. Too bad. Wonder if ...

1) I'll stumble upon any fabulous fabric;
2) By some miracle, I'll have any TIME to do anything that is not work-related.

We'll see.