The Power of Retail

This is a walking bridge that connects the Dubai Mall (new-new) to the Souk Al Bahar (old-new, newly built but made in the old style) shopping area. It’s actually just another small mall, but a lot of the shops here sell traditional Arabic things….carpets, stuffed camels, shisha pipes, and so on.

Besides these traditional stores, there are some great restaurants here such as Dean & Deluca (there is another Dean & Deluca in the Dubai Mall as well, along with a D&D supermarket as well) , a great Italian place called Urbano and so on.

Both malls overlook the Burj Dubai and the area between them will be flooded once the Dubai creek is extended all the way here, making all of Bur Dubai an island. Yes, I know it’s really quite mind boggling!

Also, the largest musical fountain (like they have in LV) will be in-between the malls as well. Currently, construction on the Burj Dubai and the fountains is still ongoing, so there’s not much of a view.

The seasonal change here is quite mellow, but it is there and so it’s nice to be able to shift things around a bit. I find that if I just change the curtains to something like bamboo shades, it changes the mood of the room and I need to have a different feel in my home during the year. I find it just gets too boring to have the same look and feel, and one has to do more than just rearrange the photo frames, books and vases. Changing the window coverings is the quickest way to change the feel of a room and that’s exactly what I’m going to do.

Going for early morning walks has been quite a revelation for me. I really didn’t think I would enjoy them so much…well, I don’t want to get ahead of myself, since I’ve not been going regularly lately. I love them for their silence and peacefulness, for my clear thoughts, for the fresh air, for a sense of accomplishment that I feel and for so many more reasons. Here’s a shot that I took one morning. It’s really not as early as it looks…with the sunrise so much later these days, it’s easy to get shots like this much later on.

Retail really is the business to be in, or rather retail analysis, since there is always the market for this kind of work, in both up and down times. Whether you’re researching trends or monitoring sales for Hydroxycut hardcore, it’s always interesting. The current credit crisis has only livened things up for us, as there is a lot more analysis and work to be done than in placid times. The trick is to be aware of all that is going on, to read a lot, to monitor the websites, especially sites like Consumer Price Watch which is an effective gauge on the consumer mindset.

Black Friday is almost here but it really doesn’t have the excitement that it has had in the past few years. People are cutting back on spending, of course but they are spending on Christmas stuff, much to the relief of retailers worldwide. Usually by this time of the year, consumers are going crazy trying to find out what is on offer on Black Friday sales, but this time it’s been quite subdued. There have been lots of newspaper articles saying that sales are upbeat, but that’s mostly to keep the morale of the consumers and retailers up. It will be interesting to see how it will all pan out in a week’s time!

While most people are not doing much of stocks and bonds these days, many people think that this is the perfect time to pick up some really great stocks, of companies that one is sure of, of companies that will rise, since prices are quite low at the moment. If you’re thinking about it, then doing some online trading is a good place to start out from. I’ve been doing some research and thinking about it quite seriously and feel that if one selects the right sectors and the right companies, this is really the key to it, then one will profit from the transactions, even through the times of turmoil. It’s certainly not a time to go blindly into buying and selling, but it’s not to be avoided altogether either.

I’ve always loved art, even though I was never good at drawing or painting myself. It wasn’t until I took my Art 101 class in college that I realized that I was good at other things in art, such as more crafty things, collages, and so on. Now I realize that I am good at photography too I try to buy some art from each place that we have lived in. I don’t care whether it is large or small, a famous artist or an unknown student, my only requirement is that it must appeal to me, and that I must be able to have it on my walls. So nothing gory or ghastly for me, but not the other extreme of flowers and puppies either. The print in the picture is an etching of a gladoli and I bought it in Bangalore, at the annual arts fair. I wish I had bought some more.

When a good friend of mine was moving to Austin some time back, she needed to find a job that she could start once she moved there and went online to Austin resumes to find a job for herself. She was successful and within a week had got a great offer, which she eventually took up a month after moving to town. Using online job sites is a great way to save on travel costs, to reduce the stress and worry about how to go about the hunt in a new city, a new environment, and mostly to have things sorted out, so once you settle in, you’re all set. Literally! If you’re going to be moving and have to look for a new job at your new destination, then remember to start this process off a month before you move.

Here’s a photo that I took on my trip in September. I’ve always loved to travel, but I never used to take photos of things and sights alone, it was always with people, as in us. But this time, I completely enjoyed myself taking photos of the sights and scenery around me and I’m so glad that I did, since I now have them to remember that lovely time. Really looking forward to the next trip now!

Continuing on from what I wrote earlier, I’m looking for people who have tried some of the newer weight loss plans, such as the Slimquick Cleanse. I’m doing some research on them so that I may write an article about them and would love to hear from anyone who has tried any of them out. This cleanse system is very popular with the celebrities, I believe, and that trend is now trickling down to readers of popular Hollywood magazines and such. It definitely is interesting to see how these trends start and where all they spread.