This is being written a few days after the event, but back dated. These are some photos I took at Dhahran Mall. It is actually not permitted to take photos in shopping centres; hence the framing is a little less than perfect.

Dhahran Mall is actually my favourite for many reasons. This, readers will recall, I talked about in my Shopping Mall review a few blogs ago. But today I actually got a few photos.

This is the huge circular mall built around an amusement parlour with a 'frozen pond'. The children skating all dutifully wear helmets for protection then are taken home 10 to a car with no seat belts down the 'Turbo Lane' at break neck speeds. But at least they are safe on the ice.

All the floors are polished marble and there are cleaners everywhere. I wore sandals there the first time I went. It was the last time. You really have to wear grippy shoes, especially when you duck out of the way of children roller blading through the centre.

The 'Call to Prayer' happens 5 times a day in the Middle East. All the shopping centres, offices, hospitals schools etc have mosques. For the devout it is a good thing. However the rush is not so much to the bathrooms to wash your feet, hands and face, but to the nearest coffee shop to sit out prayer, refresh, and return to shopping after the interruption.

Bathroom punting is a hobby everyone should take up. This is done immediately after the call to prayer and immediately after the actual prayer time. The floors of all private and public bathrooms are awash with several inches of water and rubber shoes gently float on the tranquil pond that is the bathroom floor. I kid you not a Cambridge or Oxford regatta could be held here with ease.

But the availability of shops is brilliant. Dhahran is more of a clothing place than a supermarket, though there is a supermarket. All the shops you could want all trying to our sell and out discount each other. A 'Sale' here really is a sale. Everything is inexpensive and yet always the highest quality.

Well that is the Mall with its ice rink, 2 Costas, Debenhams, Next and Gap, Celio and food hall and when the extension is finished a huge glass walled atrium for more pick 'n mix.