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!