At A Glance: Level Shoe District

Level Shoe District is the newest  shoe store to open in Dubai Mall.  Barely a week old and the biggest in the world at 96,000 sq. ft. What a joy!!!!

most high end designer brands have their own shop inside the store

opening soon..

shoes galore!!!

i don't know how far i can walk with this...such a challenge!

studded..

am in love with this...

colorful ... sooooo lovely!!!

has lounges..

own cobbler

for men too...

Vogue Cafe will open soon...with 250 brands and 15,000 different styles, what else can you ask for...all in here!  just a matter of finding out what shoe fits and if the budget fits as well, lol!

IHOP

Me, friendships PO, AO and MA had our Eid lunch yesterday (Oct. 27) at International House of Pancakes (IHOP) Mall of the Emirates (MOE).  I booked the table at 12:15 and was told that 1 hour was needed to get one.  My stub showed that i needed to come back at 1:16 pm.  Whew, i dunno if queueing was a must regardless of what day it was or it just so happened to be a holiday and everyone was out.

browsing thru their menu

they serve my favorite fish - tilapia!!!

i want to get from the kid's meal but i was told that i can only do so if there's a kid in the group (sad...sob, sob, sob...) i want the mac and cheese and silver five (the last 2 photos)

 the carrot cake picture on top looks good and maybe yummy too!

our drinks....iced tea (soo bitter and bland that i had to put 2 cups of sugar syrup, 1 pouch of white sugar and squeeze the lemon garnished on the glass)

and this never empty coffee pot

well, the coffee pot gets empty, they just refill (for as long as you want to drink). with caplets of fresh milk

here's friendship MA's Sirloin Tips

me, friendships AO & PO ordered the Big Steak Omelette - big indeed!!! - and 1 for each of us lol..so 3 in all

i only finished half of the omelette as i suddenly felt sick - weak and dizzy.  i thought i was going to faint. maybe because  i did not have any food intake until 2:00 pm when the food was served. i was like in a rush to eat. i had to order sparkling water to help me burp.

and here's the pancakes that came with the omelette - 3 layers

i had to taste even just a small portion (nothing spectacular though)

Midnight Malling

When it was announced that Dubai will have its 24 hours shopping for 3 weekends (Thursday and Friday) which started last October 18, i was obsessed with going to the mall at midnight.  This weekend being the eid holidays, is a fitting time.  My two friendships LM and CF supported my obsession and we decided to meet last Thursday, Oct. 25 at Dubai Mall around 10:00 pm.  That day was still a regular workday for me so upon reaching home i took a nap to regain some energy.  But owbhuoy, i didn't realize that i enjoyed the nap too much and woke up to the call of friendship CF asking where i was.  She wondered why i had been too quiet and absent at the meeting place at 11 pm (well, it seems that no one was there on time).  I had to rush and made a cab booking but was told that it'll take a minimum of 30 minutes. 

After making sure that my senses were wide awake, i decided to go out and get a cab (my place is 10 minutes from the mall).  Was lucky enough to immediately find one and here's what greeted me upon reaching the mall at 11:30 pm:

cars galore....

 alive and atmosphere was festive

i had to grab something to munch as my tummy was grumbling for some food so off we went to Paparoti for some buns (for me) and coffee for friendships CF & LM.  By 12:10 am we went to the cinema hoping that we'll get into the 1st screening of Skyfall (with Oct. 26 being the 1st day of showing in 5 screens at Dubai Mall Cinema).  As luck would have it, the 12:40 and1:20 screenings were all sold out so we ended up with the 3:00 am show. this means enough time to survey the shops. At the moviehouse, they offer free breakfast of waffle and coffee or tea from 3 am to 9 am.  Aren't we happy, ours was included!  But the happiness was shortlived as we were told that the free breakfast will be served starting at 3:00 am and only before the screening.  Okay, forget about this freebie...we prefer to sit inside the theather shutting our eyes for the 1st 10 minutes of commercial shows than queue for the waffle and risk coming back after the movie had started.

we were out of the movie house at 5:30 am.  as we were looking for a nice resto serving hot food for breakfast, we passed by the reception and saw the guys manning the counters in their coolest outfit (i asked for his permission and told him that this will appear in my blog for which he agreed-thank you!) - in PJ's

we were told that at 3:00 am (again! - what is there with 3:00?), they give t-shirts, eye mask, scarf and slippers. well, at least this time we were lucky to have two of those souvenirs - t-shirt and eye mask.  we missed the scarf (pashmina) and slippers. there's still one weekend (Nov. 1 & 2) lol!

The Bus

Dubai has a nice public transport system.  From the trains and cabs which i talked about in my previous posts - now it's the Bus' turn.  Overall, they're safe and very accessible for my use.  So no need to buy a car (aside from the absence of funds). 

November 1 is public transport day and we get to ride the metro and bus for free (taxicabs are excluded otherwise we won't find any on the road).  I always avail this and includes my morning ride to the office which takes me 1 hour against my 10-minute taxi ride to work. At least i get to reach the office for free and burn calories at the same time. But wait, i get an additional dose of migraine that lasts for an entire day unless i get to immediately take a pain reliever. 

The free ride day is coming in a few days but i don't know if i want to take it this time just thinking of the headache that i need to suffer in exchange of  AED 15.00 (USD 4.00) taxi fare.  Maybe i need to leave home earlier like 6 am when temperature is cooler and the sun is not quite up yet.

Presenting the bus.....
There are designated stops for every route and everyone is guided by the bus number.  So even if you already saw your destination, you cannot get off if that's not the designated stop. Meaning, one might still need to walk a few meters back. 

Here's the driver side.  There's a microphone when in need to call someone's attention. I think there are cameras in the bus as he can see what's  inside thru that screen in front of him.

the front door

the seat behind the driver.  i was seated on the other side.

that bar separates the ladies' and men's section.  usually, the 1st 5 rows are for women and children

the bus has the number shown on all sides. It makes bus chasing easy knowing that we are trying to catch the correct bus number.  that red thingy is where we tag our card (for the fare).

My Office Wardrobe

For the past 2 weeks i only remembered to take photos of my office wear 3 times (and that's 12 workdays in all) whew! Either i was too busy, my photographers were not around at the time i remembered the picture taking or my thoughts were so pre-occupied monitoring the time to make sure that when my 8 hours are over, am off the door.  Call that being prompt - sun is still up when i reach home.  These were the outfits on those 3 days...

i attended a meeting on the day i wore this...trying to look corporate. Trousers by G2000, short sleeve inner shirt from Sacoor Brothers and Blazer by Stardivarius.  As this blazer is cheap, AED 195.00 (USD 52.00), i got them in four different colors - this, another in fuchsia pink, mustard and light brown. My footwear was the mid calf boots. I walked for 20 minutes to the metro station and these booties were killing my feet that i felt collapsing from the pain. As i know that i cannot walk far enough, i took a cab instead and told the driver to drop me at the doorstep of my building. It was hurting so bad that i thought of requesting the guard to put me in a trolley and push me to my flat. But ole, i had to pretend that i'm ok so i tried to keep my poise and writhe in pain inside.  What a relief it was when i entered my flat.

Tank top by G2000, cardigan from Zara and trousers by Atos Lombardini (i so love this piece)

Dress from esprit.

Look Back: Massachusetts, USA; December 2011

When i decided to spend my 2011 Christmas Holidays in the US, i was sooo looking forward to seeing snow - touch it, feel it and stare at it.  Well, nothing of this sort happened.  On Christmas Day i saw snow but only flakes.  It's already melted even before it touched the ground and lasted for only 15 minutes...sigh! Dry ice is maybe the closest alternative to my snow dream.

In Massachusetts, i stayed at my friend NW's place in Salem.  My 1st activity was a visit to happines haven - Wrentham Village Outlet Store which was a good 2 hours drive from her place.  It was sooo cold that i have to go inside stores just to warm myself (even if there was no intention to buy).There were so many nice buys and shopping was even more fun with their no taxes on clothes and shoes policy.

I also went around Salem's famous sights - The House of Seven Gables

The Salem Witch Museum

The Peabody Essex Museum - that's the building to the left

PEM at night

Of course it won't be complete without visiting Cambridge and its Harvard U.  Since friend NW's significant other goes to HU for his law studies, we were able to get inside their huge Law Library - one whole building i guess and several floors. Lotsa, lotsa books! The visit made me wanna go back to school - wish am rich enough to finance my studies and my pea sized brain would grow the size of an apple at least, a fuji apple,  so i can be brilliant enough to see answers when thinking instead of seeing clouds. 

We took the subway from Cambridge to Boston

there's the train waiting...i forgot that their not driverless like in Dubai.  So when the driver yelled at us to hurry up, we had to run down the stairs.

Boston here we come...another happiness haven waiting to be discovered

and yeah, enjoyed here too!