It's my party

Well, yesterday was birthday 28, and it was great!

The weather was beautiful and the heat is really cutting down now, so it is really enjoyable to go out in the day...Giuseppe and I spent our day out and about at the Festival City mall over the Al Garhoud Bridge, getting some little things at Sephora and looking at shoes, and then heading to HyperPanda (they don't have super-markets here, they have hyper-markets!) for some house items....we also drove around a new development near IKEA (not sure we like it...), but we did get some good pics of the new buildings and the golf course, neat stained-glass water feature, and some lady with an umbrella! You need those out here, you know? You can see them all on our flickr account (for those who don't know it, it is: www.flickr.com/photos/bellablu2007 I can invite you to see them all if you haven't been invited already, so let me know!!!)

As for my birthday, breakfast was at mOre, a neat place in the Al Marooj Hotel right around the corner from here...then for dinner, Giuseppe took me out to sushi at this totally amazing place called Tokyo in the Emirates Towers (where Sheikh Mo has his office!). We got a private room where we had to sit on the floor and take our shoes off and just enjoy eachothers' company and have drinks and eat a lot of excellent food. We haven't had the chance of having sushi here yet...actually that is a lie...we did have sushi, just not GOOD sushi, so I don't count it. So, this was our first "good sushi" experience and I had been dying for some really good, fresh unagi and sake (those are eel and salmon), and that is just what I got. Giuseppe, of course, had his signature tako nigiri and tempura prawn maki roll, and although I only have a picture of our EMPTY plate (that is a good sign!), we utterly enjoyed it all.

And the waitstaff was extraordinary, in fact, the first few minutes, I don't think we actually knew who would be waiting on us-there were so many people helping, whether to pour the Italian bottle of water, placing our napkins on our laps, handing us menus, and offering red slippers to Giuseppe for his feet after taking our shoes off. Although we find the service unmatched here in Dubai, Tokyo really set a high standard yet to be experienced...needless to say, we will be certainly go back!

After we ate, Wayde came to join us for more drinks and gossip before he had to leave to go back to Boston this morning (it is 12:50pm here for all of you who are not yet accustomed to our time difference, we are 8 hours ahead of EST)...the chef made a special dessert for me with a little "Happy Birthday Danielle" tag made of chocolate and after a few lime daiquiris and some hot sake, we were ready to call it a night...so I now say goodbye to my birthday and HELLO to a wonderful year of being 28! So far, so good! Talk to you all soon again..check out the pics below of our night...xoxoxox