My son and I enplaned for Dubai last weekend since he was to take the college entrance test for De LaSalle St. Benilde in one of the Philippine schools there. We stayed at my brother's place near Jebel Ali - quite far from downtown but since accommodation, food and transport to wherever we wished to go were free, who was I to complain!

We were told that it was the start of the annual Dubai Shopping Festival so off we went to the newest mall (Dubai Festival City) after the exam in the morning. It was a cinch, James said then asked for a new Nokia cellphone with all the bells and whistles as a reward to replace his old 3310. Duh? How would I know you passed, I asked. He made a wry face as though I had insulted him! It was cheaper by ten dinars compared to Kuwait, he noted like he was doing me a favor. Okay, I said, that's my graduation gift for you then. I also got the wife (who's in Manila) something for good measure. What about for me? Actually, I had been pining for the Nikon 70-300mm lens since the safari last summer when I found my 135mm grossly inadequate. Costs $700/- and it was waving at me to take him off the shelf. And I was about to, until my practical side whispered what am I going to do with it for until now, I even haven't taken out the fisheye - which I got in San Fran - from it's case. Oo nga, sa susunod na lang. Sale or no sale.

There were many things going on at the mall and after a late Italian lunch and Cold Stone ice cream, we wandered around the place until late at night to watch the fireworks. Quite impressive. Last time I saw something like this was in Paris Disney some six years ago when my old Nikon F60 film camera ran out of batteries. This time around, I was able to capture almost everything at 5fps. Now it's a helluva headache to edit them!