Ze Germans are very goot

Instead, I'm going to tell you about The Venue. So like, Dubai World Trade Center has convention halls. And I'm not talking just halls. I'm talking Sheikh Rashid Hall halls. This mother can hold more than 6000 people. They had it all done up for the recent wedding. Oh but it was lovely. Plush red carpeting with hundreds of dinner tables with light pink tablecloths and huge flower arrangements and mammoth floor speakers and dim lights and a projection system throwing up images of Burj Al Arab and other buildings around town and gold plated dinner plate lids (I can't for the life of me remember wot those are called.. and no, don't say domes) and gilt-edged glassware and things. Very very lovely. And no, I couldn't take pictures 'cuz it wasn't allowed.

And then yesterday I saw the Wedding Showroom. Oh my. Pinks and ruffles and pristine whites and oh it almost makes you want to get married just to throw a party. 300 weddings a year they do. Ho mama, I saw the dinnerware they had for the Al Futtaim wedding and I wanted to weep. Did you know they have one dinner set that has about 10,000 pieces? And over 300 styles to choose from. Makes me hungry just thinking about it.

And then today I was given a tour of the kitchens. But boy oh boy. Two levels below the convention center building. There are two lifts to be used for prepared food already (can't go around dragging raw meat in those things) and I could live in one. No, seriously, the lift is bigger than the study I have at home. In fact, it is about three-quarters as large as our living room at home and we have a bloody large living room. And they have Honeywell monitoring systems to raise alarms if the temperate drops in the freezers. And they have about 7 walk-in freezers - for vegetables, fish, meats and other bits and bobs. And a blast defroster fridge. And more individual chillers for everyday use. All pretty much the same size. Which would be about half my bedroom at home. Yes, I do realize that giving you actual meterage would help but I couldn't be bothered to estimate now. And they have this really funky ceiling. Wot it is is a completely ventilated ceiling. Which means they don't have those large metal-looking hoods over the stoves type thing. The hot air in the cooking area is sucked in by the ceiling and it administers an air-pressure curtain so the temperature in the preparation area isn't raised. 'Cuz you see, they're on either side of the room with only about 15 feet between them. Lots of shiny counter space. And these large pressure-fryers and vats for boiling and portable immersion blenders as tall as me. And these really cool ovens with humidity control so your meat never dries out. So very cool.

Oh, and the Kitchen Artist was making a butter falcon for some big Sheikh doo-dah so we went and peeked in there. They have about 100 chefs in that place. For the royal wedding they had 500. That's just the cheffy staff. Doesn't include waitstaff and cleaners and transport people. That's the people that transport food from one place to another. You know, in those lifts. Up and down and from the kitchen to the banquet halls. Brilliant.

I'll try and sneak in a few pictures later but I'm not allowed mostly. I'll try and get some of the public areas though.

It's been a long day and I'm a bit sleepy now that I've skipped the swim. I'll go to bed with my book and you think about your wedding and if you want yellow Holland tulips or oriental pink lillies. Me, I'd personally like the bright red and yellow tulips.. and blue ones.. and pink ones.. and orange ones.. and the ones with the streaks.. and those ones..