needles & such

(Photo is not me, obviously.)

So I've now been to two (of five) acupuncture treatments at the Dubai Herbal & Treatment Centre, not too far from my house. My migraines just kept getting worse and worse, and the four-day one I had last week was the last straw.

I am keeping my fingers crossed that this is going to work for me. However, I've realized two important things about myself:

1. I still hate needles.
2. I still have no pain tolerance.

So basically, getting poked with needles is nothing short of Chinese water torture for me.

Fingers crossed that this actually works.

In the land of shopping malls

...yet another one has opened. And I thought the market was saturated two malls ago!!!

So Mirdif City Centre opened last week and no one will shut up about it. There are a bunch of restaurants and shops new to Dubai including: American Eagle, Pottery Barn/Pottery Barn Kids (and I thought that place cost a fortune in the U.S.--it's double that here!), Crate & Barrel (second shop), Pinkberry (second shop), Office Depot (this one was somewhat exciting), P.F. Chang's (restaurant, also mildly exciting), etc. (Complete list of shops here.) Why they decide to build a humongous shopping mall in the middle of what I consider B.F.E. (look it up) still puzzles me.

The Mall of the Emirates has Ski Dubai, Dubai Mall has the ice rink and the aquarium...so Mirdif City Centre has--get this--INDOOR SKYDIVING. No joke. Unfortunately, I won't be doing any indoor skydiving for at least 6-7 more months, but...wow. Check this out for the details.

We kind of did a little reconnaissance snoop around there last weekend but to be honest, malls really aren't doing it for me lately! I think it'll be worth going to P.F. Chang's once and maybe splurging on some Pottery Barn at some point, but otherwise nothing so amazing that I HAVE to go there.

But if you want to come visit and go skydiving, I'll come cheer you on and take photos.

Our friend Fadi's shop:

From Turkey, via Yemen

Ha!

Here's what I've been up to:

Making this guy!

Stay tuned for more about "Nugget," future rock star. I probably won't think of much else for the next 6 months or so!

Sorry we were M.I.A., but we're back now!

I actually couldn't remember my password the last time I tried to log onto this. I'll be posting a few more entries from the past few months soon. Stay tuned!

Here's a sign we saw this week on the road: