Underwater Love: Design Features At Atlantis, The Palm Dubai (and my wee visit to the hotel!)

Me, blending in like a piece of the furniture at The Atlantis Palm Dubai

I love a good theme and I love water so a water themed hotel is bound to be my kind of place right? Atlantis, The Palm Hotel in Dubai is indeed that 'water themed' hotel but I had no idea it would also be such a creative destination. There are crafty touches in the design and décor everywhere you look, starting with this exquisite glass centrepiece in the entrance (made by Dale Chihuly the same artist who created the jaw-dropping Rotunda Chandelier the V&A Museum in London.) It consists of 3,000 handblown pieces of glass and measures 9.75m in height. The good news is you don't need to stay at the hotel to enjoy the art, so if you're ever in Dubai it's worth popping in just to admire the views...

Dome ceiling in the lobby with top view of the sculpture

Underwater themed painted ceiling in the hotel

Another painted ceiling in the hotel

And another one!

Sea urchin lampshade
So that's a taste of when you look up....when you look down, the floors are works of art too...

Then there are the giant prawns in the corners ...

and random features around the place like shell vases...

That's just some of the water themed décor touches, but what about water itself? Well there is no escaping 'The Element' and the 65,000 sea creatures that live within it at the hotel...

From my room (I was lucky enough to spend three nights at the hotel earlier this month) I could look down onto sting ray from my balcony, while around the hotel there is no escaping the sharks and giant leopard print sting rays swimming passed thanks to The Lost Chambers Aquarium that stretches throughout the hotel...

She's in fashion

If that's not enough, you can also dine next to fish at Ossiano underwater restaurant (I should point out it's a seafood restaurant so it's a bit strange eating fish while they are looking at you!)

Oi! Is that my cousin you're munching into?

Or if you have £8k spare you can sleep with sealife in one of the hotel's two dreamlike under water suites....

I don't mind if I do...

But if that's too overwhelming you could simply stick with visiting the aquarium and just watch the fish swim by for hours.

Who needs a telly? 

I spent one afternoon doing just that and spent my other two afternoons hopping from flume to flume at the hotel's Aquaventure Waterpark (which included going down one of the longest and scariest flumes in the world!)

Ahhhhhhhhhhh! Splash!

As well as a dip in the 'fake sea' that Dubai is known for

 I also had a dip in the pool...

This is the life!

...fed some stingray, and most exciting of all, got to hang out and swim with a dolphin called Tina at the hotel's Dolphin Bay. 

Holding on!
Could a hotel got more water themed? I think not! I went with little expectations (other than I hoped the flumes would be good and thankfully they were!) so it was a real pleasure to discover that I would love staying in the hotel so much. 

Should you visit Atlantis, The Palm Dubai? If you get a chance to then yes. If you can stay overnight then even better - there's just so much to enjoy and take in, from the surroundings to the little details, and so many people to talk to - staff are everywhere (especially around the waterpark) and they always at the ready to strike up a conversation.
This trip is going down as #funtimes : )

With my fellow travelling companions

Oh go on then! 

Here are some snaps of what I ate while I was there (I took so many photos that it would be a crime not to share them...be prepared you may get hungry!)

Delicious Chinese lunch with bubble tea at Yuan

Teatime at Plato's Tea and Coffee Lounge (over 120 teas to choose from!)

A mere snapshot of the 100 desserts on offer at Saffron buffet restaurant

Yummy global breakfast

Sipping a mocktail at Nasimi Beach Bar

Ethical Handmade Clothing In London By Heba

Everyone in this picture is wearing a jacket that was handmade in London, in a sewing room in Brick Lane. What's more, on the label of every jacket you can find out the name of the seamstress who made it and they are priced fairly to reflect this.
I recently took part is a discussion about ethical fashion on the radio to mark the one year anniversary of the Rana Plaza Factory disaster in Dhaka, Bangladesh. The question they were asking was are we shopping more ethically now?

Heba don't just made jackets they make all kinds of clothes including capes!

'Ethical' has many meanings but one of the questions that commonly arises is do you know how the garment you are wearing was made - was it made in a factory where workers work in unacceptable conditions and are badly paid? When clothes have labels inside that say what country they are made in, we really never know the exact circumstances they were made in....but at Heba it's different. 

This cape cost £20 it was love at first sight so I bought it immediately! Makes me feel very ladylike

Heba is a women's sewing enterprise, collective, co-operative and training facility for women from diverse multicultural backgrounds. Based in Brick Lane, East London, women can come here to learn English, IT and sewing skills, which they can then use for enterprise. 

Some of the women who use the training facility go on to make clothes to sell - some are private commissions and others are sold on a special Heba stall at Spitalfields Market every Sunday morning. (currently based in between Lola's Cupcakes, Benefit and Giraffe.)

Buying an item from their stall means you know exactly who your money is going to, who made the item and where it was made - in fact the money goes back into keeping Heba running.

One jacket two fashionistas

The project is instrumental in giving the women who attend skills, independence and confidence - they also get to show off their creativity in a safe environment (there's even a creche facility on site so while they are learning their kids are looked after.)

So why am I modelling some their creations with a group of other women? Well Heba need help! Although there are other handmade clothes stalls at Spitalfields they are also up against mass-made cheap clothing. So they decided it was time to do some promotion starting with a photoshoot of all the lady's hard work.

I got involved because I attend sewing classes at Heba on Saturday mornings and all the girls in the photo are involved with Heba in some way too.

On the Heba stall the stock changes regularly. They work on seasonal collections bit most excitingly take made-to-measure bespoke commissions too. So next time you are in Spitalfields on a Sunday check out the stall and see what they have been up OR if you've ever wanted to get something made just for you, an original one off that's made-to-measure OR need help with creating your own products for your own business or needs (the women provide sewing services) be sure to speak with them and then book them so that they can continue such an admirable organisation. 

Heba Women's Project is based at 164 Brick Lane and their stall is Sundays at Spitalfields Market.
If you are a woman who wants to learn to sew or make their own clothes they also run sewing classes that anyone can attend. Be sure to them them out!

The Perfect Sunday? Sunday Papers Live have got it sussed...

There are two versions of my perfect Sunday. One involves me having a major lie in and staying in bed all day in my PJs recovering from the madness and sleep deprived state I tend to find myself in at weekends and the alternative me wants to get up super early and cram in loads of fun stuff like going to a bootfair, hanging out somewhere Sundayish like Colombia Road and meeting friends for brunch.

So when I heard about Sunday Papers Live it was as if my prayers has been answered. Finally someone had cottoned on to the fact that Sundays should be reclaimed to be all those things we want it to be. So last month I made the pilgrimage to Primrose Hill to get a taste of the perfect Sunday at Sunday Papers Live.

A cross between a festival, Secret Cinema and a giant house party, Sunday Papers Live is a bi-monthly event that literally brings the papers to life without you needing to read a word. Every section of your typical Sunday broadsheet is covered from UK and World news to the travel supplement, crossword section and letters page, by special guests along with other quintessential Sunday pastimes like board games and a satisfying Sunday lunch. 

You can make the experience as interactive as you like or sit back and snuggle up in your PJs, with your dog on the sofa, as if you were at home. Running from 12pm-10pm it's a full day of Sunday indulgence, entertainment and stimulation....but was it really the perfect Sunday?

Here's what I loved about it and a few things I think they could have done better....

Having my Happyscope read

I'm a big fan of reading my star sign but when I stumbled across the Happy Scope table run by Dumb Love I realised that all my life I'd been following the wrong kind of karma. As my happyscope astrologer pointed out, Horror-scopes are horrible and happy scopes are so much nicer.
After a few questions he wrote me a personalised happyscope on the back of this fine postcard. I can't reveal what it said but it made me very happy. 

Tucking into a lavish lunch

Instead of a menu on our tables, Chef Tom Hunt personally introduced the afternoon's meal and it sounded heavenly. Served at banquet style tables over several settings, diners were sat down in order of how they arrived at the dining room doors encouraging banter between random strangers. In case there were any awkward moments there was a live music accompaniment. The dishes were then served communally so you could help yourselves. The room was gorgeously decorated and the closest I've come to eating in a Harry Potter canteen set up. 

The veggie option was delicious, a tasty nettle tart...but it was cold. And Sunday lunch shouldn't be cold. I mean I had hot spuds with caramalised garlic and yummy sprouting broccoli and mash but when your tart is cold and your neighbour's roast beef is steaming it's a little mean. 

Chill out time

The Sunday Capers room is an area that takes all the fun parts of a Sunday and condenses it into one space ....a chill out spot to grab a nap or watch movie matinees. There was even a mini grandstand face and live lonely hearts column. The main room gets completely rammed so it was nice to have an alternative space to hang-out in. 

Activities

So how do you fill 10 hours? With a back to back programme of stuff to do there was no chance of getting bored. You could even have a massage or book a canal boat trip but the fact it was such a lovely sunny Sunday meant just relaxing on a deckchair while sipping on juices was enough to keep me occupied.

Although most pastimes were covered there was no bootfair. Sundays are not Sundays without a car boot sale in my books. I'm pretty sure there is space to fit one in - hopefully they'll add this element soon. 

Not having to read the papers
Whenever I buy a Sunday paper it takes me over a week to get through it so having 'the contents' of a paper presented in the form of talks, discussion and performance is actually rather pleasant and useful. 

I particularly enjoyed the debates around the letters page bit - a drop in talk show where you could pull up a seat and have your say. 

In terms of speakers and topics there was an interesting mix - the spoken word performers got the biggest appreciation, but overall I was a bit disappointed with the 'western approach' to the choices, especially the World news. The main speaker for World news gave a talk about the issue of sex workers being excluded from the media in the United States. 

In my mind there are infinite unique and usual stories and issues of interest and relevance all over the world so whoever curated World news should have taken advantage of focusing on a geographic location we hear little about rather than one we hear about every day. 

As for whether I can now go back to reading a Sunday paper after I've experienced Sunday Papers Live....well if the truth be told, while I was there chilling, I picked up a physical newspaper and still enjoyed it.

Reading the Sunday papers are a great British pastime. There's nothing like chilling at home with your feet up reading the papers but also there's nothing quite like Sunday Papers Live. A lot of love, passion and detail went into planning the event (sooooooo much bunting and even a radio and candles in the loos) so I totally salute the organisers. It was probably one of the best organised events I've been to in a long time...but it wasn't overganised in a regimented way, I liked the fact it still had an air of spontaneity about it.

 I recommend Sunday Papers Live to anyone who loves all the non-music bits of music festivals, are overdue meeting up with friends and want an excuse to hang out with them, looking for somewhere quirky to go on a date or just want to do something a bit different. With only three events under their belts so far it's still got cult status appeal so go along before others start ripping it off.

The next Secret Forum's Sunday Papers Live is on Sunday June 1st. 

Find out more here.