Monday, September 8, 2008

Shopping Heaven, Car Park Hell

The last few days of August and the first few days of September were shop-tastic, which inevitably involves a lot of driving when it's too hot outside to walk more than twenty metres.

Driving in Dubai is like an extreme sport. The highways are ten lanes across with no slow lane, lots of fast lanes and a mob of madly grinning faces trying to force you off the road. And not many motorways have a signposted minimum speed.
Trolley discipline is far better.

A trip round Ikea was much more enjoyable than the English equivalent - except when Mark got told off in the markethall for opening boxes to check things were the colour marked on the shelves. They were.

Not only did IKEA guys help lift things down from the shelves, they also rearranged our trolley to make it easier to go through checkout, and pushed the trolley to the Exit. And, as if we weren't already in Ikea Shangri-la, they also offered to deliver AND ASSEMBLE the heavy furniture.

Oh joy.

Random fact: 10% of the UAE population visited Ikea in December.


But, as they say, with pleasure comes pain. The Barbie car was so stuffed with lovely Ikea rugs, cushions, mirrors, placemats and various other 'essentials' it was impossible to see out of the back window.

Which was unfortunate, because out of the back window was a parked car.

Which just happened to be one of the most expensive parked cars in the vicinity - a brand new, full-spec luxury sports Range Rover.

Which was worth slightly less after we backed into it and smashed the brake light.

A brief stay in Dubai prison for leaving the scene of an accident did not appeal. Particularly following the Ramadan release of DJ Grooverider. So we folornly reported ourselves to a security guard.

Time to return to the police station.

But on the positive side, there was no damage to the Barbie car, and Rachel found the passports.








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