It’s back to school time and we lowly parents need to go and buy the costly uniforms again. Ready to be robbed in broad daylight, we went to Zaks at Uptown Mirdif, a rather sleepy open type mall with nail spas, pet salons, clothing shops and other random stuff. Mirdif is also a community of villas that are fairly cheaper than the ones in new Dubai (Jumeirah area) because of the low flying planes every 3 minutes or so.

There’s this fountain at the square.

There are open cafes around but who lounges outdoors when the temperature is as high as 40C at this time of the year? No one. Uptown Mirdif is particularly a ghost town, of sorts. I just don’t know how it is during the weekends or at night.

It’s a boring place.

We left after we bought the uniforms, straight to the car park. However, something caught our attention. There’s a shop called Khuttab Bookshop and Cafe. A small bookstore, mostly selling Arabic books. We went inside, to seek shade to be honest and to cool off. There was a decent array of Arabic books on display and we start to ask our 10 year old how to read this and that.

Pristine tells me, this reads: “Made in Jumeirah“. I asked around on Twitter if it’s correct and Arabic speakers said yes. I am always amazed and PROUD she can read something I can’t!

The bookstore connects to a cafe and I should have taken photos of the cakes on showcase (they looked amazing)…BUT what caught my attention was the adjacent reading corner. WAIT. Imagine there was something that made me look first instead of the cake? I can’t believe it myself, too.

This.

Wooden flooring, good natural light, charming chairs. A very cozy looking reading nook!

That moment, I just want to grab a book, press the busy life pause button and stay for a while.

When was the last time you sat down with a book? Me? It’s been ages.