Barclay's Dubai Tennis Championships

Spent most of friday at the Dubai Tennis Championships and watched the men's semi finals. The first match between Djokovic and Simon was a huge thriller going down to the wire. The match was probably even closer than what the score of 3-6, 7-5, 7-5 suggests. But I am still putting my money on Djokovic winning the finals today.

The second semi final match between David Ferrer and Richard Gasquet was too one sided to fit a semi final standard. David was in control from the word go.

Unfortunately I have not been able to get tickets to the finals so will be watching it on the television.

Dubai Pet Show

Just got back from a fun day at the Pedigree and Whiskas Dubai Pet Show at Dubai Festival City. It was a riot of color with a wide variety of dogs out in their best outfits. Some of them wore bandanas while others were comfortable in light T shirts. The kids has loads of fun and for many of them this may have been a first time experience of some many types of dogs.

Besides the general parades, the police department put up a super show demonstrating the skills of the canine department including detection of narcotics and explosives and crowd control. Also around were Dubai's first two women police dog handlers, Fatima Abdulla and Badria Saleh who impressed the audience with their skills.

A Venetian Experience at Mercato Mall

Today's weekend trip to Mercato Mall was a truly Venetian experience. The mall has been specially dressed up in venetian style with a variety of programs including a DSF carnevale, a masquerade museum and a mask making workshop.




The renaissance style shopping mall is located along Beach Road in Jumeirah 1. The architecture brings out true Italian and Spanish flavours.

Designed by a famous Italian architect Daniele Moreli, the interiors of the mall are designed along the concept of several squares from a typical Mediterranean town.




Head out to Mercato mall for a Venetian costume parade and other Italian performers specially flown in for the occasion.

Al Qusais (al Ghusais)

Al Qusais (also spelt Al Ghusais) is a suburb located towards the North Eastern edge of Dubai city bordering the emirate of Sharjah.

Al Qusais is today a popular residential suburb of Dubai but it was in fact the site of an important settlement and cemetery. Based on excavations in the early 70s, it is believed that settlements existed in Al Qusais as early as the first millinium.

Historical research shows the existance of large number of copper and bronze vessels in the areas from ancient times.

Al Qusais is now a bustling area with a largely asian population.

Dubai Media City

Dubai Media City (DMC), a specially developed hub of media related business activities lies along the Sheikh Zayed Road (SZR) towards the southern end of Dubai. Some of the organisations location in DMC include Bang and Olufsen, BBC, Axiom Telecom, MBC, Saatchi and Saatchi, and Star TV,