Chinatown Take 2

It's been quite a day! Where to start?

The work day went smoothly, with only a few minor irritations. G kept herself busy doing the ironing and then trying to make a loaf of artisan sourdough bread.

I have three days to renew the trade license before the current payment voucher expires. Half a day spent on Saturday trying to renew it online resulted in zilch, so rather than waste any more time, I decided to wait until Monday. Long story short, it needed a few calls and some web-searching; the result - go back to the place we went to in March. I switched off early, and we headed to Dubai Mall.

We got to the DED centre only to find that the system was down, so we couldn't accomplish the mission. Chatting with the cashier, we discovered it had been down for a week! The helpful lady suggested we visit the "DED Cafe" in Jumeirah. I looked it up on Googlemaps to pinpoint the location - opposite Jumeirah Mosque, so not too far.

As we were already in Dubai Mall, I treated G to a Hibiscus tea in Chinatown (my extra). I can't believe how cool the space is! There are some weird and wonderful things to see there, so over time, I hope to blip more of it. For today, you have the lanterns which hang opposite these neon signs and some wall art.

We had a quick whiz around the M&S food section before finally making our way to the DED Cafe. I wasn't expecting much, so was pleasantly surprised when I not only got my trade licence renewed but also the Establishment card and I have started the process to renew our residence visas! It all costs a pretty penny, but the procedure is relatively effortless compared to past years.

We came home much later than expected. G cooked a beef stew while the oven was on to bake her sourdough bread. The stew was delicious, and the bread... looks GOOD but has a very distinct taste of *something*. :))

GK over and out!

PS. In case you're wondering about G's expression - the shadow cast around her eyes by the ceiling lights was so bad, even the camera flash couldn't rectify it. She sat patiently while I played with settings, then got fed up!