Oh, the joy of possessing a squeezy water bottle that had Ariel and Flounder chasing each other in circles, as envious glances were cast at the Disney princess-shaped eraser and sharpener sitting on the neighbouring desk on the first day of school.
Back-to-school shopping is a special time in a child's life, no matter how much grief it might cause a harried parent. There's something about seeing, touching and choosing colourful paraphernalia peppered with beloved characters and fun slogans, that appeals to and enlivens the senses.
Putting together a kit of cool stationery in a new bag almost assuages the grief experienced at the end of the long and lazy summer holiday (again, strictly from a child's point of view), and makes the idea of swapping fiction and fun movies with textbooks and digital worksheets a touch more palatable.
While the lenticular pencil boxes of parents' childhoods may have flickered out of style, there is an array of options your child can choose from to start the new term on a cheery note.
Scroll through the gallery above to see the back-to-school products currently on shelves in the UAE
A number of brands have also put together back-to-school kits to make parents' lives easier. Online grocery store Food Crowd, for example, has a snack box with fruit, veg, crackers, juices, chicken nuggets and more that should take care of some of your child's nutritional needs in their first week back. For easy lunch box ideas, click here.
Elsewhere, Cutting Edge salon in JLT and Dubai Marina has a 50 per cent discount on hair cuts for teenagers until Wednesday, August 31; Skechers is selling two pairs of children's shoes for Dh349 (as opposed to Dh229 to Dh2,300 a pop); adidas is offering Dh100 off on every spend of Dh300; and electronics shop Eros has a laptop exchange programme in place.
Malls across Dubai are also holding activations for families as they shop. At The Dubai Mall, for example, in the Star Atrium, find activities such as science-themed workshops and shows from 4pm to 10pm until Sunday, August 28.
In Dubai Hills Mall, there are more science-inspired activities, workshops and weekend shows, with raffle draws open to shoppers, while over at Dubai Marina Mall’s Dome Atrium, there are workshops as well as magic tricks, soap making and a giant memory game for children to put their brains to the test.
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Company profile
Company: Rent Your Wardrobe
Date started: May 2021
Founder: Mamta Arora
Based: Dubai
Sector: Clothes rental subscription
Stage: Bootstrapped, self-funded
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Notable cricketers and political careers
- India: Kirti Azad, Navjot Sidhu and Gautam Gambhir (rumoured)
- Pakistan: Imran Khan and Shahid Afridi (rumoured)
- Sri Lanka: Arjuna Ranatunga, Sanath Jayasuriya, Tillakaratne Dilshan (rumoured)
- Bangladesh (Mashrafe Mortaza)
KILLING OF QASSEM SULEIMANI
Key facilities
- Olympic-size swimming pool with a split bulkhead for multi-use configurations, including water polo and 50m/25m training lanes
- Premier League-standard football pitch
- 400m Olympic running track
- NBA-spec basketball court with auditorium
- 600-seat auditorium
- Spaces for historical and cultural exploration
- An elevated football field that doubles as a helipad
- Specialist robotics and science laboratories
- AR and VR-enabled learning centres
- Disruption Lab and Research Centre for developing entrepreneurial skills
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Seemar’s top six for the Dubai World Cup Carnival:
1. Reynaldothewizard
2. North America
3. Raven’s Corner
4. Hawkesbury
5. New Maharajah
6. Secret Ambition
The smuggler
Eldarir had arrived at JFK in January 2020 with three suitcases, containing goods he valued at $300, when he was directed to a search area.
Officers found 41 gold artefacts among the bags, including amulets from a funerary set which prepared the deceased for the afterlife.
Also found was a cartouche of a Ptolemaic king on a relief that was originally part of a royal building or temple.
The largest single group of items found in Eldarir’s cases were 400 shabtis, or figurines.
Khouli conviction
Khouli smuggled items into the US by making false declarations to customs about the country of origin and value of the items.
According to Immigration and Customs Enforcement, he provided “false provenances which stated that [two] Egyptian antiquities were part of a collection assembled by Khouli's father in Israel in the 1960s” when in fact “Khouli acquired the Egyptian antiquities from other dealers”.
He was sentenced to one year of probation, six months of home confinement and 200 hours of community service in 2012 after admitting buying and smuggling Egyptian antiquities, including coffins, funerary boats and limestone figures.
For sale
A number of other items said to come from the collection of Ezeldeen Taha Eldarir are currently or recently for sale.
Their provenance is described in near identical terms as the British Museum shabti: bought from Salahaddin Sirmali, "authenticated and appraised" by Hossen Rashed, then imported to the US in 1948.
- An Egyptian Mummy mask dating from 700BC-30BC, is on offer for £11,807 ($15,275) online by a seller in Mexico
- A coffin lid dating back to 664BC-332BC was offered for sale by a Colorado-based art dealer, with a starting price of $65,000
- A shabti that was on sale through a Chicago-based coin dealer, dating from 1567BC-1085BC, is up for $1,950
Killing of Qassem Suleimani
The five pillars of Islam
1. Fasting
2. Prayer
3. Hajj
4. Shahada
5. Zakat
The years Ramadan fell in May
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