It is now Saturday and the third day of the the Eid holiday. Other than shop workers, most people are off today.

Our day started with a trip to the Villagio Mall. It’s a short taxi ride of about 6 km into the suburbs costing about £5. It has a Venetian theme, complete with a canal and gondolas. The canal has shops either side. The shops are exactly as you’d expect in any shopping centre including a number of familiar UK brands such a M&S.

There is also an ice skating rink and Imax theatre, huge food court and a large indoor theme park.

Some months ago there was a serious fire in a nursey in the building. A number of adults and children died in the fire. Allegedly fire safety was compromised by locked exits amongst other things. The mall was closed for months while safety improvements were made. Court cases are still pending.

In the afternoon we went to the MIA Park which is next to my work place. It is a short walk down to the waterfront cafe where we sat for an hour. Then a walk around the park.

It has a large childen’s play area and acres of green grass. The park, grass verges and other large green spaces maintain their verdant ground cover in a country where the daytime temperature rarely falls below 30C and can reach the mid 50Cs by frequent and copious watering.

At dusk as we left, the park was still filling up with people bringing in picnics.