The rituals of Dubai visits

Every time I go to Dubai, which is averaging about once or twice a month now, I effing buy stuff unintentionally ;). Mostly things that can fit in my backpack without too much trouble, and this turned into a habit. But no matter, I enjoy the exercise!

I normally buy stuff at the airport as it is much more convenient for me, and I don’t get to spend too much time in town as I’m normally running around from one place to another. I must confess however that as much as possible I make time to visit two essential places, and fortunately they’re in the same location:

1. Plugins
2. Virgin megastore

Both are in the Deira City Centre Mall.

To make a long story short, let me share with you what I spent my money on this time:

DVDs: I buy a few every time I visit Dubai, mainly on the way out at the airport, but if I see something new or rare, I buy them during my visit to Virgin. The bag this time contained (haven’t watched them yet so I can’t review them):
1. Fehrenheit 9/11
2. The Cooler, William Macy must be the most underrated actor, I really like the guy and think that he’s great! I detest that twit Alec Baldwin though.
3. Twisted, hey, it’s Ashley Judd, the affirmation of the existence of God! This time she’s starring with both Andy Garcia and Samuel L. Jackson, so there is no way am I going to be disapointed in this movie.
4. Marmoulak (the Lizard), this one sounded very interesting, a story about a criminal who escapes an Iranian prison disguised as a cleric! This one is promising to be immense fun. It’s got subtitles in Arabic and English so I won’t get lost in Persian. I am really looking forward to watching this movie tomorrow afternoon.

And of course, what’s a trip without picking up a few CDs?

1. Natasha St-Pier‘s L’instant d’apres, I’ve been listening to this CD almost all afternoon and I’m all a-tingle!
2. Claude Challe’s Happiness is a brilliant double-CD. He’s the guy behind budda-bar, now that I found out that I really like his style, I’ll be after all of his work for the next trip!
3. Norah Jones‘s feels like home deluxe edition which comes with a DVD and extra tracks. I like her music, but a little at a time because otherwise I might go and hang myself. My wife likes her music though…
4. Staind, Maroon 5, Switchfoot because I thought Amna might like them and I get to be the “star dad” for all of 5 minutes!

That’s the shopping list, and I’m sure I left something or other as Arif came and raided my bag immediately he walked in the door, and took all the DVDs away.

The best thing that I really enjoyed in Dubai this time is visiting the Music Plus TV channel in the Dubai Media City with a couple of my colleagues from Bahrain TV. It was fun proving to them that these 4 or 5 young people are running a profit making, 24-hour, music and entertainment station while their own with some 700 staff continues to languish in the amoeba-pool! There is hope though, they have new management and so far they seem to be aggressive in changing the station. Time will tell. Not holding breath though.