Al QUDRA CYCLING TRACK and AL QUDRA LAKES (Dubai) : A day of ducks, ponds and cycling

Dubai never ceases to amaze us. Apart from the highly-advertised-around-the-world super structures, which attracts tourists, there is so much on offer for expats here.
After few months of mall-walking, and shopping till the-end-of-your-budget, and the scrumptious restaurant dinners, one starts to crave for a bit more.

We got hold of a different type of place the previous weekend. Zain's new found passion for cycling took us on a long drive early in the morning at about 5: 30am to a place bang in the center of a desert - THE  AL QUDRA CYCLING TRACK.
But there was another exciting reason why we bundled up our sleeping daughter also in the car at this unearthly hour. We were going in hunt of AL QUDRA LAKES also called the flamingo lakes. Yes, you read right. We got our directions and information on the place from here

google map

Get your GPS, get on the Emirates road, drive to Al Qudra, that falls after Arabian ranches in the middle of Seih al Salam desert and Bab Al Shams. The entrance is marked by a huge entry board with cycles on them. You may park over here and start cycling. But best is to drive on,  three roundabouts ahead you will see a roundabout with the structure of mesh horses, then the TREK BICYCLE STORE and ZAD FOOD STORE. This is where you can park and get on with cycling. Brace yourselves for the shock of the humongous number of cycling enthusiasts here.

Al Qudra falls after Arabian Ranches

The Entrance to the Al Qudra Cycling track

The Zad Food Store

We decided to locate the lakes first, so got some directions at the bike shop. There is an unpaved well-taken road on the left of the bike shop. Easily accessible in our sedan, within the few minutes we reached the first lake.

The unpaved way to the lakes

Whoa! is that a lake in the middle of the desert?? That too with ducks, swans and plenty of other species of birds. This was just great, having home-made breakfast picnic in the middle of the desert sitting by the lake watching the ducks wade and the swans glide. Fully awake by now the little one did some bird watching with her binoculars and then slowly tread out to have a more closer look. Seems like the swans were having their breakfast too with their neck mostly under water.

This is a man-made lake, and attracts many migratory birds, a hot-spot for many bird-watchers and photographers. This is a lovely place to practice your photography skills in natural settings. Wonderful for the kids to have a natural feel of birds so up close. Drive around the area as there are quiet a few lakes there. There is a designated camping and barbecue  area, so we have our eyes set here, already dreaming of the onset of winter here again :)

We also noticed a few dog owners with their pets in certain areas. The dogs were having a much needed off-leash time.

Back to the cycle track, its a completely exclusive cyclists only track, and winds to about 80 kilometers. Trek bike shop has rental bicycles and any other accessories you may be in need of . There are well maintained restrooms, and a Food Store for your food and especially water needs.

Zain got his fix of cycling for the week, and as it started getting sticky and stuffy we headed back by 9 am.
What a weekend morning.. if only it was a tad bit cooler.

Tips....

• Have a good night sleep and get on the road early to catch the sunrise and cycle before its pretty hot
• Get the location and your directions saved in your GPS 
• Carry lots and lots of water
• Wear your comfortable clothes and shoes and be ready to spend some quiet time in the beautiful place. 
• Carry your cycles and cameras
• That's it. And this place is on our list for the winter :) for the camping and barbecuing

Speaking of winter this is the latest update. Camping in UAE is all fun and very much do-able. Hop into our latest post and have a look http://colorsofourrainbow.blogspot.ae/2015/10/camping-with-family-in-uae-beginners.html

Have fun!

ZAIN & FARZ

SHARJAH SCIENCE MUSEUM: A Perfect place for learning and fun

We keep discovering beautiful little hideouts in SHARJAH. 

For those of you who don't live in UAE, Sharjah is a less glamorous city that borders the classy and glittery DUBAI. Barely 20 minutes away, SHARJAH is supposed to be the cultural capital of the country.

Though my childhood was based in DUBAI, We are discovering so much in SHARJAH, now that we live here. 

SHARJAH has many places, which are less known, but a delight to visit and that too without spending too many dirhams. 

We paid a visit to another kid-friendly place and spent hours and hours playing. And unbelievably, though the entry tickets are a meager 5 AED for children and 10 AED for adults, we actually scored a free entry , which was on for the entire week. 

Well within city limits, just on the exit from cultural square, is the SHARJAH SCIENCE MUSEUM. But don't forget to get your GPS set for the location.

There is enough to do for all age groups.  Microscopes,  human body and organ exhibits, preserved insects and butterflies from the local environment, a bit of astronomy, planetarium, scientific games. A well stocked play pen for pretend play, reading etc. And a little cafeteria with kid-friendly food. What else do you require, there is enough to intrigue and delight the kids for a few hours:) 

Do catch the shows, demonstrations and workshops that run often, there was a bubble show the last weekend.

If you need a peaceful and less crowded fun for your kids, after school hours on weekdays are the best. We went here on a Thursday afternoon and had the place absolutely to ourselves. 

Checkout some more details on the official website. Do make a call to enquire the timings before you make the trip there, as the timings keep changing. (another tip: Don't bank on the automated timings on the call, please speak to the operator to get the real timings).

Right now it seems to be 8am to 8pm on weekdays (Sunday to Thursday) and 4pm to 8pm on weekends (Friday and Saturday).

We really hope these snaps inspire you to make a visit with your little ones, if you are in UAE.

The building has no entrance boards :(. There is a brown road sign once you reach the place though. I really wish there was more advertising and bill boards for places like this.

A really cool way to see things up close. Salt, Velcro, snakeskin etc.

Simple working model of the lungs. 

Unlimited excitement for my daughter with the plasma globe and static electricity.

Check out the workings of a hot air balloon up close.

Okay, now look close..that is my daughter's head on a tray!! Magic or illusion? We had so much fun goofing around here. 

Some creepy and crawly exhibits. These are the local species.

A planetarium and some space-based exhibits.

The Bubble show.

A make-believe play space for ages 0-4. 

So this was a fully equipped play-kitchen I totally envied. I was served lunch here fully cooked and served by my daughter :)

There's so much more in this place. It would spoil the fun with too many photos. So I stop here :)

If you are wondering for other KID-FRIENDLY  places to visit in SHARJAH without a dent to your budget , check these out too.

SHARJAH AQUARIUM

SHARJAH DISCOVERY CENTRE

SHARJAH SCIENCE MUSEUM

SHARJAH MARITIME MUSEUM

SHARJAH CHILDREN'S READING FESTIVAL

SHARJAH BOOK FAIR

SHARJAH NATIONAL PARK

Meanwhile we will keep exploring and unearthing wonderful places in this city of SHARJAH , especially the KID-WORTHY ones.

FARZ

COLORING FLOWERS: Science experiment for kids

My daughter thrives on coloring books and pages, she can just finish bundles of paper and hours together just coloring her heart away. 

So, why not color real flowers, it would be a fun and magical activity for a 4-year-old.

We brought home some beautiful white roses but they were so pretty that we needed some convincing to carry on with the experiment :)

What do we need??

• Oodles of patience. :) May take 2 days to more than a week depending on type of flower and color used.
• White or pale flowers. Roses, carnations, daisies, etc.
• Transparent cups/ glasses/ vases
• Food color. We used them, But I would still test the experiment with other colors like water paints.

So here we go:

Place the cut flowers into the cups of colored water and wait. It may take at least 24 hours for the colors to start showing. And may be wait even more for the colors to show up well. The depth of the colors depend on how fresh the flowers are , the type of flower, the length of stem, the type of color etc. 

Things we discussed as we colored the flowers:

• What colors had we used- primary or their combinations
• How plants or stems uptake water. My daughter thought the flowers drank the colored water. They drank the colors they liked best :) which was red and yellow.
• The pattern by which the color spread through the petals
• Which color came up most
• For older children it would be fun to repeat the experiment with different flowers and colors from different sources. 
• We could split stems to get a flower to take up two or more colors at the same time
• The capillary action (also for older kids)

Along the experiment, there were constant updates from the little one and umpteen questions.
It was a fun activity and to her little mind I guess a little bit magical too.

Catch our other activities involving color.
Magic-milk Color experiment
Rainbow Pinwheel

FARZ

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World Book day: Sharjah Children's Reading Festival: 2015

Happy 'World Book Day' Everyone!!

There's a day for everything these ages, but this is one I don't mind. 
I still remember the day when I was around 6, and we were taken to a huge library to pick our own book at school. Since then this love affair with books has stood the test of my growing years and adulthood. 
We started books with our daughter when she was pretty young, may be six months or so. From board books, picture books, quiet books she has always had her own favourites, which she always asks us to read again and again. 

Today, they celebrated books day at school where she had to donate a book to her class library and also dress up as a story character. She was pretty excited about it in the morning. 

We added up to that excitement this afternoon by heading off to the SHARJAH CHILDREN'S READING FESTIVAL .

There is so much to do there Story telling, meeting Authors, Science and Maths workshops, Jewellery making, a 3D dinosaur exhibition, cake icing competition, they can make their own book, theatre.

There even is a competition for schools to decorate their school buses to mark the event and parade around AL Majaz.

Glimpses of the event:

Rows and rows of books, reminded me of  Sharjah Book fair. We picked up quite a few books the little one fancied!

I love that quote on the reading nook. It sums up all, isn't it?

As we walked up to the 'Creative Kids Café', I was in love with the decor, upcycled cardboard boxes made cars and huts for play. How amazing is that! Tiny little huts for many activities.

This was an amazing art work in progress, Canvas, felt, yarn, fabric, crayons... she used it all. I guess she was making a collage of children from all over the world.

My daughter colored herself away here. The giant pencils are so cute. I could steal them for my daughter's room:)

Stations of art and science work. Workshops for handicrafts like woven baskets and hand held fans. Check out that cute miniature majlis in the upper left corner.

Cooking stations, wonderful learning areas on healthy food and fitness for the kids.

An extensive exhibition of children's book illustrations. That girl and her mom on a swing was our favourite.

 

These upcycled cardboard dinosaurs were arousing our curiosity and we couldn't wait to see the last exhibit. So we followed those huge dinosaur footprints and look how amazing it was!!

 
My daughter refused to enter the hall in fear, and so were many other children. These dinosaur exhibits were so lifelike , the chewing and munching their food included :)

A reminder to the huge Dubai Dino we saw at Dubai Mall.

We wouldn't want to mess with this dino or her brood :)

We spent the longest time here, seeing and hearing the dinosaurs chomp their food down. Brought to UAE in collaboration of UK Natural History Museum, these are life sized T Rex's in robotic 3D form, simulating both their sound and eating mannerisms.

We thoroughly enjoyed the show.
An amazing day of books, dinosaurs and all kinds of learning.
A not to miss event- the children will love it there.

As much as we loved the books, I guess it was the dinosaurs that stole the show:)

Don't miss it.
FARZ

SPRING INSPIRED: D-I-Y Multi-color frock for kids- Tutorial included.

Spring in UAE seems a misnomer to me. It probably just alludes to the oncoming heat of the summer.

Saying that, it is still pleasant in the evening though the daytime has become rather hot. We are not great fans of summer, being outdoor people. But two good things about summer is we can pack away our winter woollens and get more closet space and I can sew cute summer clothes for my little daughter :) 
I thought that my daughter deserved a cute little cotton frock to welcome the change in temperature. I love the way this beautiful dress turned out and it looks amazing on my daughter.

So here is a tutorial, of a fully lined, sleeveless, embellished, lightweight cotton frock with  button enclosures at the back. The in detail steps of drafting the bodice and skirt pieces and the basic sewing steps are here: DIY Girls Dress Part 1 and DIY Girls Dress Part 2.

Some things I really love about this dress:

• Light-weight and fully lined
• The pop of color against a white background
• The detail of the embossed cotton fabric
• Completely soft and smooth on the inside. Even the trims have been stopped short of the full arm hole, to prevent discomfort as the little one moved her hands. I had to really work hard on this, because of my daughter. She is fussy and would refuse to wear any prickly and poky dress, no matter how much she loved it. There was even a stage where I was picking off tags from store bought dresses. This was one of the reasons I was motivated to start sewing cute little dresses for my daughter, keeping her preferences, needs and liking in mind.
• The yoke- lovely blast of color
• The pom-pom- such a cute little thing
• The assorted buttons 
• The gathered ribbon tie-back
• The lining of the skirt short of the main fabric revealing the embossed pattern on the main fabric beautifully

STEP 1: IDEA, FABRIC, EMBELLISHMENTS, and BUTTONS.
This idea of multiple colors colliding and complementing each other on a neutral backdrop was looming in my head for a long time. Finally I got some free time to get things going. I went to my local sewing supply store and picked up some cute and colorful stuff, yokes, trims, ribbons, buttons and an embossed cotton fabric in white. I thought that the embossed floral pattern provided a pretty little detail to the white fabric.

STEP 2: PATTERN, BODICE and SKIRT PIECES, LINING
Went about with the same way of drafting the pattern for both the bodice and skirt part as in my tutorial DIY dress part 1 and DIY dress part 2.The tutorials for the little additions like adding the yoke, the button placket, and the sash are up here.

The only change is, in the front bodice and lining fabric the neck has not been cut. We will be doing this as we place the yoke, so that it matches. 

STEP 3: YOKE, SHOULDER SEAMS
1.Place the yoke on the bodice and lining fabric and mark and cut off the neck following the curve of the yoke applique, leaving 1 cm as a seam allowance.
2.Separate the bodice fabric and attach the yoke to it following the pattern and simply sewing it down using a straight stitch. 
3. Join the shoulder seams of the bodice fabric. Join the shoulder seams of the lining fabric separately.

STEP 4: BODICE, NECK and ARM HOLE
Keeping the right sides of the bodice and lining fabric together, sew along the neckline matching up with the yoke. Sew along the arm holes too. Turn the bodice inside out through one of the shoulder straps.

STEP 5: TIE-BACK, EMBELLISHMENTS and BODICE SIDE SEAMS
1. Attach the side seams of bodice and lining individually. The tie-back will be attached to the bodice fabric at the side seams.I hand sewed the pom-pom trim around the arm hole, leaving the lower end where the arms meet the body. The stitches all lie only on the main fabric and are completely hidden from the inside of the bodice.
2. This shows a clearer picture how the tie-back (here I've used multi-color ribbons) is attached on the bodice fabric alone at the side seams.
3. This is the finished bodice with lining. It has no seams or sewing showing on the inside. Completely soft on the delicate skin of children!

STEP 6: ATTACHING MAIN SKIRT FABRIC TO THE TOP BODICE FABRIC ALONE
Gather the main fabric for the skirt, and sew it to the bodice fabric. Do not join it to the bodice lining. 

STEP 7: SASH
Attach the sash at the bodice and skirt joint of the main fabric only. In this case I had to hand sew the entire thing down as the pompoms wouldn't feed well through the sewing machine. But in simpler sashes machine sewing would do.

STEP 8: ATTACHING THE LINING SKIRT TO BODICE LINING
Now gather the lining fabric for the skirt and sew it to the bodice lining, such that the seams lie towards the main fabric. The whole idea is to have all the rough seams ( neck, armholes, waist) in between the main fabric of the frock and its lining. Also the yoke, tie-back, sash and any other embellishment are added to the main fabric of the bodice, so that none of the sewing shows through the inside of the dress. The dress turns out pretty smooth and comfortable in the sweaty months to come. 

STEP 9: FAUX BUTTON PLACKET, BUTTON HOLES and BUTTONS

1. At the back seams for the button, double fold inside for about half an inch and sew down on both edges, till the length the button plackets are needed. Repeat same on the other side. 
2.Now overlap the edges and sew them together at the lower end till where the buttons are required. Mimic the stitching that is usually seen on button plackets 'X'.
3. Attach the skirt seams together sewing all four layers - two layers of bodice and two layers of lining together.

STEP 10: BUTTON HOLES, BUTTONS

Mark the button holes, and sew the button hole openings. Align and attach buttons on the other side. 

There you go this was the perfect end result. 

I promise to get better with the photos :) Those taken a little later in the day have turned orangey:/
I would love to hear your opinion on the dress. 

Cheers to spring and the spring inspired dress!
Happy Sewing.
FARZ

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An amazing experience to be featured at Threading my way by Pam, yet again..

I would suggest if you are into sewing or designing anything, please do hop over to her blog. She has got amazingly huge collection of tutorials for almost anything under the sun in her ongoing linky party.