Another shopping excursion

Well the eReader had died and I was seriously bored.  I decided to catch the free compound bus to Granada Mall which is in the north of Riyadh.  I climbed aboard to discover my harem waiting (ladies can’t drive remember).  They all fell quiet (as you would expect).  I got quite a ribbing for joining the ladies bus! (the men drive their own vehicles of course).  

My expectations of the mall were low but at least I knew I probably wasn’t going to be disappointed.  

Carrefour is a large, French owned supermarket chain (I think!)

We disembarked around the back of the mall and the crows fruitbats 'ladies in black' made a beeline towards the clothing shops.  Meanwhile; having decided I didn’t need a second backless, strapless and plunging front dress with sequins;  I wandered off to see if there were any “different” shops in this mall that might interest me.  

The mall was virtually deserted and, despite it being 10.30am, many of them were closed.

If you don’t know what Debenhams looks like when written in Arabic then the following photo will enlighten you.  I managed to fend off all the perfume boys at the entrance (remember ladies can’t be shop assistants).  

“Dear Victoria, your secrets will not be secret for long if you advertise them so openly!"

Blurred photo taken on the phone from some distance

The directory in the entrance to the shopping mall stated there was an "early learning centre".  The Saudi's are heavily into education and I was interested to see what type of training was being provided.

Now I know...... An "Early Learning Centre" is a toy shop!

It’s bloody hard doing nothing!  No doubt it takes Saudi’s years to acquire the art.  At the very far end of the mall was an “Extra” shop.  It would be similar to a Curry’s in the UK or Harvey Norman in Australia.  At least it had “stuff” that would interest a bloke……….  But it was closed! 

There was a Food Court and children's amusement centre on the top floor of the mall.

Closed of course!

At one point I thought my diet was going to undergo an exciting change

London fish & Chips..... But closed….. of course!

Last time I flew back from Dammam the aircraft arrived in Riyadh at 1.00am.  To my surprise I found the roads choked with traffic and the shops full of people.  Actually they were families with small children.  Only then did I realise that with the requirement to pray five times throughout the 24 hours, and the heat during the day, the Saudi sleeping and shopping routine is different to the west.

After wandering around for three hours and discovering there are no ebook readers in Saudi Arabia (I wonder why?) I discovered the Carrefour supermarket had a special offer on tablets.  I managed to buy a 7" colour tablet for £20.  It will suffice as a replacement eReader until I can get back to my Nook.

I joined my harem for the bus trip back to the compound noticing that almost all of them were heavily laden with purchases.  More ball gowns to try on tonight? :-)