Malls, Penguins, Dates and Dancing Fountains
I've been here a week now and my darling brother has ensured I have packed lots in! Everything is new here; buildings seem to fly up at an unbelievable rate; I swear one skyscraper in the Marina area we've been driving past has gone up two floors in height during my time.
Some of the most amazing buildings are the malls; obviously the residents of the UAE love to shop, think Meadowhall yet four times as big and you're almost there.
We went for spot of food at the Apres ski cafe at the Mall of Emirates; overlooking the huge snowdome; think Xscape times four (as a rule everything here is four times as big and covered in fancy tiles and with a massive parking garage!). The snowdome even has its own penguins who perform for the crowds of shoppers in the mall. I was a little disconcerted by this until Phil, a fountain of all knowledge regarding Dubai, informed me that penguins have resided here in the Mall of Emiratessince the time of the dinosaurs and have always been well known for diving through hula hoops. I didn't have the heart to point out that the mall was only built in 2001.
Wednesday night saw us visit the Dubai Mall at the bottom of the Burj Khalifa, the world's tallest building and eat with Phil's father in law who took us to an amazing restaurant where we could see the spectacular fountain show and the building itself. The real revelation of the evening came after the meal when Phil's father n law took us to Bateel where he ordered us dates (as in fruit, mum.Stop worrying.....). Well I am a man who bows to nobody in my Christmas enjoyment of those sticky things in the 'Eat Me' box; so was excited anyway. These dates however were on a whole different level; if you ever get chance try chilled Kholas, don't hesitate!
On Thursday, in order to give our kid some respite, I took myself to the Pakistan v South Africa Test Match at the Dubai Cricket Stadium. A wonderful stadium where I and about 100 others took advantage of the free entry to watch Smith and De Villiers smash some woeful Pakistani bowling round the park. The crowd was sparse and very well behaved; not at all like the Western Concourse at Headingley; I tried to get a beer snake going but was hampered by there being no beer and no glasses!
