The toys come out to play

Back when I often stayed up from night till morning, then slept during the day, I went to the mall thinking I'd "start" my day early one morning. However, I was a little TOO early, and none of the shops were open yet, although the mall was already lit. It was really weird, walking around the empty mall, its large halls echoing the sound of my footsteps and the occasional cleaners passing by.


I passed store after store, some shut and in complete darkness, others with its window displays brightly lit. Looking at all the mannequins made me think of Amelia Jane and golliwogs or whatchamaycallems. You know, those Enid Blyton stories of the toys coming out to play at night, or if you never grew up reading Blyton, then, like how the displays came to life in Night At The Museum.


In a weird way, it may make sense if they did come to life, after all the trouble it took to deck them in the latest fashion apparel and what not, and with such a huge mall to run around in.


The "girls" could finally meet the "boys", especially 'em tall, dark and handsome'uns from Hugo Boss or Debenhams. The kid mannequins could play with anything in the toystore, and sit on the funrides for free. And the "flying man" could finally really fly, instead of being suspended from the ceiling all day :o)

The Long and Winding Road

This is one spot in Dubai that I actually like and MAY miss when we decide to finally leave this place.


It's a street near our apartment that leads to Ibn Battuta Mall, and is a longer route compared to walking along the main road, as it snakes through the Gardens villas. But in the evenings, just before dusk (and only during the winter months), walking along this street makes me feel like I'm back home. Something about how green it is, with trees and shrubs lining the entire stretch, and even patches of green moss on the areas of earth not covered by turf. Imagine that, moss in a desert city.


At twilight, just as the streetlights are lit, it's cool and windy, and walking along this stretch just takes you to another place. Seriously. You no longer feel like you're in Dubai, and forget that the rest of the city is mostly grey, brown and dusty, its streets full of traffic, its skyline dotted with large construction cranes and concrete structures. So I'm enjoying my weekly walks to the mall while I can, cos once the cool months are over, walking ANYWHERE in Dubai only takes you to the nearest airconditioned environment to escape the heat and humidity.

The Parable of the Big Flood and Two Loaves

It rained on Sunday, drizzled on Monday, and on Tuesday, it rained all day from morning till night. That's really not much rainfall if compared to the cats n dogs we get back home, but by Dubai standards, 24 hours of light rain equals flooding throughout the emirate.

People in Sharjah probably had to swim to Dubai, and many roads in Dubai were accessible only by big vehicles like 'em Hummers that the locals love to drive. Ben said he saw a Ferrari stranded near our home, left to "soak" by the roadside. Imagine the earful he gets when this dude explains to his wife why he came home, sans-Ferrari. "Lah illah ha illallah... How many times have I told you, Limo on weekdays, Ferrari, Lamborghini and Maserati on weekends, but take the H3 out on rainy days, habibi".

The weather has finally caught up with the rest of the northern hemisphere, with temperatures dipping to as low as 1 degree Celcius in places like Al Ain. I'm now thinking of nice yellow Phua Chu Kang boots to keep my feet dry, and gloves to save my fingers from icy petrification.

Along with the cold, comes colds - the dreaded winter sniffles. Luckily, unlike the usual flu, most of us just have a runny/blocked nose and slight cough, minus the fever and phlegm by the bucketloads. The best remedy is, as always, lots of liquids, and keeping warm. I've been cooking soups and stews a lot. Nothing like a warm and hearty stew or soup for dinner during winter. I even managed to find "kiamchye" (sour mustard) here, so we had the usual post-Christmas turkey bones with kiamchye soup recently.

All we did last Christmas and New Year was eat... Actually, all we do most of the time, any time of the year is eat! We baked a lot in November and December - cheesecakes, lemon pies, sugee cake, cupcakes, cookies...


And Ben says Christmas isn't complete without a lorry-load of chocolates, so we stocked up on chocolate biscuits, caramel-filled chocolates, fudge-like chocolates, mint chocolates, praline- nougat- semisweet- assorted chocolates... even chocolates shaped like Santa Claus... You get my drift.


This last Christmas however, we had something really special, brought all the way from Singapore - two loaves of Gardenia bread!


Our friend Jac had her parents over just before Christmas, so she asked Ben if he wanted anything from Singapore. "Gardenia! Gardenia!" Ben's been craving for Gardenia sandwich bread since he heard that Chee Lin and Mabel brought TEN loaves over when they moved to Dubai, cos the bread here is terribly dry... It's so dry, you could wipe your nose with it when suffering from winter sniffles.

In fact, local bread is so dry, they should line the streets with it to solve the flood problems. "Yulla, yulla, throw the roti out the window, habibi... Khalas!"