This isn't the greatest picture, but I hope it gives a bit of the sense of chaos that we found in this area. We are setting ourselves the task of finding new areas of town to explore on Fridays and I particularly wanted to find this area as the Bombay Silk shop is here, which I am delighted to say we found and it has become my new favourite place. Downstairs is full of beautiful silks and upstairs is full of cottons and linens and saris with beautiful wedding saris. I could spend hours there poking around. Opposite, to the left of the picture is a little side street and it is full of tailor supply shops mixed in with bicycle shops. Quite a mixture. One shop we went in had cotton threads from my mother's era or even my grandmother's! with enough dust that you could hardly tell the colour. However, the prices were really cheap and I got a new pair of knitting needles for 8QAR, quite a bargain. Although they look like they may have been previously owned! The other interesting thing about this area on a Friday, it was absolutely packed with mostly Indian men, you could barely drive down the street for the people wandering about. I found out later that this is the area of town they congregate in and find their friends on Fridays. Most of the men work on the construction sites and this is their one day off. Pretty chaotic, but certainly interesting. I asked my Indian taxi driver yesterday for what he thought would be a really authentic indian restaurant and he suggested the restaurant next to the Silk shop, so I can see we will be visiting the area again soon.

It is way too hot to be out much during the day but we went for a walk down to the Corniche the other night and it was a beautiful night, less hot, but still warm enough that walking the block there and back and a bit of a walk on the Corniche itself was enough. It was way more humid down by the water, but then there is usually a bit of a breeze as well. Local people were greeting people they knew as they walked along and it was a generally fun atmosphere. A number of the new buildings now have their lights on and this particular building changes colours all the time, from blue, to red to green. Very colourful! There are lots of others nearby that are lit up as well and I will have to spend one evening taking pictures of them all. Here is just a teaser to start with!

Yesterday I went to Villagio Mall, which is way the other end of town. We had gone here on a Friday once before, but hadn't been back since. I found out that there is a taxi stand here, so knew that I would be able to get back. A problem here as it is really easy to get places, but not so easy to find a taxi to take you back. Anyway, I thought I would try it out and had no problem. This is one of the newer malls and is built on an Italian theme as you can see. They have gondolas you can ride in and the whole place looks like Venice. I had a great time wandering around the shops - the usual mixture of mostly British and North American shops. There was one whole wing with very high end shops including all the Designer shops as well as Tiffanys etc. Oh to be 20 again and to be able to wear the beautiful gowns in the window of Ralph Lauren, they were stunningly simple and elegant.

Everywhere you went in the mall were these beautiful mosaics in the floor. I had nice time shopping there and stocked up on some workout wear from Marks and Spencers for the Pilates class which starts tomorrow and a few other things that were on sale. With so many people away for the summer it is was quite quiet and pleasant. I will have to be more adventurous and try some of the other malls I haven't been to yet.