On Friends & Food

It's been since September 2012 that the four of us hung out. Last time I saw Nadine, Rola and Sura all together was during our trip to Marmaris! Luckily, Nadine was on a Business trip in Beirut this week and she stayed a few extra days to see us. So after work, Sura and I drove down to Beirut to catch up with her and Rola. And it just goes to show that when you drop the four of us together, be it in Marmaris or in Beirut, we'll catch up and laugh so hard like it was only yesterday! 

We had a late lunch/ early dinner at Lord of The Wings in Hamra. And if I can throw in a lil tip, try the Super-duper cheese nachos with guacamole, salsa, and sour cream, and the Boneless Wings with BBQ Honey or Garlic Parmesan. As for dessert, Nadine had earlier discovered Nutellissimo, a little dessert store also in Hamra, with scrumptious Nutella recipes! We ordered the Nutella Banoffee followed by Nutella Fondue. We would have ordered more except we were all still stuffed from LOTW less than an hour ago...

Here's the four of us after we had devoured our meals! Last three drawings of us are a courtesy of Rola, and the first drawing of Rola is courtesy of me. And as an inside joke, it's a good thing I can draw! :-P It's always the laughs with us four, and I love you all so much! :-)

Beirut International Marathon '12

Today is one of the first days of the storm, or the downpour, or whatever term you want to use to describe the rain and the official change in the weather from summer to winter...

Today is also the day of the Beirut International Marathon. I registered for it last month, with a couple of friends from work and I'd been looking forward to it ever since… But after hearing the weather forecast, all of my colleagues backed out of it and so I didn't get to put my sportive kit on :-|

Nevertheless, I want to take this opportunity to support the spirit:

This year, I was supposed to be "running for Autism" ...

"Autism is a developmental disorder that appears in the first 3 years of life, and affects the brain's normal development of social and communication skills."

So despite the rain that washed a good portion of the competitors out of the race, I want to put an umbrella over the cause, and sincerely apologize for not participating… Hope to run it in 2013!

Man In The Mirror: The Michael Jackson Show

It was on the first night of Eid-El-Fitr where my parents were watching the news and I was idly browsing the internet. Fast forward till the end of the news where I heard something about Michael Jackson that caught my attention. I remembered seeing an ad for this MJ Event in Beirut about a month ago and as it turned out, Man In The Mirror: The Michael Jackson Show (a tribute band and act to the late king of pop) was coming to Beirut for four nights (on the 19th-20th-21st-22nd of August)! 

I quickly messaged Sura, asking her if she wanted to go the next night and she was just as excited as I was. So the next night, Sura, her brother, and I head off to Beirut. We left at exactly 7pm (the road normally takes 1.5 hours tops). But, not taking the fact that it was still Eid into consideration, we were still stuck in heavy traffic by 9pm, at the time the show was supposed to start!) All three of us became quite frustrated at the fact that we were missing the show. But somehow, by some miracle, we arrived, parked, got tickets, and were sitting in front of the stage by 9pm!

It was a great performance! I have to admit I had my hopes up a little too high but nonetheless it really was great! They played all of MJ's greatest hits, including my personal favourite, "You Are Not Alone":

I've been trying to upload one of the several videos I took but the internet here is killing me (so bare with me… sigh)

*Update: Finally, Uploaded "Beat It":

Cirque Du Soleil: Saltimbanco

The first time I saw Cirque Du Soleil was last summer, with my family in Montreal. The theme was evolution, entitled TOTEM. And as much as I’d like to say that I loved them, I didn’t. I liked them, but I didn’t love them. I think they’re so overhyped that I had this great expectation from them and they didn’t meet it…

Several months since then, I heard that they were coming to Lebanon. A couple of old friends from Toastmasters were interested in going and so I thought I’d give them another chance with a lighter themed performance, SALTIMBANCO…

We arrived a couple minutes late, with the unorganized parking at Forum. We presented our tickets and quickly found our seats to watch the show. And it was just as I’d expected it to be, good but not good enough. But maybe I’m being biased here, because it wasn’t the greatest night for me...

During the intermission, I got a text message from my boss that tomorrow’s marathon had been postponed due to the current security situation. Shortly after, Dad called, telling me that several main roads in Tripoli had been blocked with burning tires and that they could hear gunshots. I checked BBM and my Twitter and Facebook timelines were all filled with the violence that was erupting back home in Tripoli. And of course I couldn’t concentrate on the show after that…

On the drive back, we got stuck in Jounieh for 2 full hours because they had cut off the highway in order to demolish the burnt carpet factory. After we got out of the traffic and got back on the main road, it was smooth… until we reached Chekka’s tunnel of doom, as I like to call it. The roads got darker and quieter until we reached Tripoli, by then a ghost city. And it all went downhill from there… :-(

N.B. SALTIMBANCO is playing at FORUM DE BEIRUT till MAY 20^TH. 

Villager’s Opera

Last month, my parents went to watch Villager’s Opera at Caracalla Dance Theater. I wasn't too interested in joining them at the time, but when a group of colleagues from work asked if I wanted to join them, I thought I’d give it a visit…

So yesterday, we went to the matinee show and I must say, it was quite a performance! What I loved most about it was the visual effects, both during the show and intermission. Yet I found it to be a little too cliche of a story. It’s the typical girl loves boy from the village, but mother wants girl to marry boy from a more upper class. And of course, her true love triumphs…

Maybe it’s the love part that got to me. A younger me, or an in love me would have definitely fallen for the fairy tale ending. But in this age, would the boy from the village have come back and fought for her? Would the mother have given in and let her marry the village boy?

Ah well, I guess that’s not the point. Just sit back and enjoy the dance

(still running till April 1st, 2012)

Tis The Season To Be Jolly!

I just got back from a wonderful weekend in Beirut with two of my closest friends from AUB, Dan and Nadz. They both flew in from Kuwait and Jordan respectively and I took the weekend off to spend it with them. I haven’t been to Beirut in a while, and though I don’t appreciate the capital as much as I do Tripoli (shocker!), it was a good getaway and the Christmas spirit was in the air:

The Kindness of Strangers

I’m free! Well, almost. I finally finished the seminar in Beirut that I had registered for two and half months ago, all that’s left is the exam on the 15th. But what I’m celebrating about today is NO MORE DIS-CONNEX-ION BUS!!!:-)

I've had a bunch of adventures on the bus over the past few months, I could almost write a book about my mishaps: like a moving truck screeching the side of the bus, bus door accidently opening into a street pole, breaking the glass and yanking the door off (both events of which happened on the same day!), arguing with one of the drivers who used to insist on taking us to Barbeer before Charles Helou, the weirdo passengers on the bus who tried to Bluetooth me, one man chocked on his cough and almost puked in my lap, the chatterboxes, the Connex-ion love, and of course the ultimate killer: arriving to the station just as the bus is driving away, forcing us to wait for the next bus for another half hour…

But today, as I was walking in to the station, I found a girl about my age crying hysterically on the phone. Our eyes met, and she just made my heart tinge with sadness. What could be so wrong that had her crying her eyes out? I wanted to go up to her and tell her that it was all going to be alright, but I couldn't. For some reason, the situation reminded me of a book I once heard about called “The Kindness of Strangers” it got me thinking about how people sometimes really do care, but just don’t do anything... it's an interesting topic, but one that I'll leave for another post...

Till then, ciao Connex-ion! Even though I hate you, I can't help but love you too :-)

P.S. I won't be checking in to Connex-ion on Foursquare for quite a while, so my Mayorship is up for grabs to whoever would like to accept it! :-P

Today, I Don’t Feel Like Doing Anything...

As Bruno Mars sings in The Lazy Song, “Today I don’t feel like doing anything, I just wanna lay in my bed. Don’t feel like picking up my phone, so leave a message at the tone, cause today I swear I’m not doing anything…” it’s been a lazy Sunday indeed, but a much needed lazy Sunday. And I’m sorry for not having kept this blog updated for the past couple of weeks but I've been exhausted…

See (two months ago) at work, I voluntarily signed up for a two and a half month seminar at the Head Office in Beirut, which has been brilliant so far. But, because it’s in the Capital and I’m in Tripoli, the transit time is against me, and its wearing me out. It’s been since April in which the routine of my life has been going like this:

07:00AM – 07:45AM: wake up, quick breakfast, get dressed, off to work

08:00AM – 11:30AM: work, work, work

11:30AM – 01:30PM: dis-Connex-ion bus (this is the biggest @$$ pain!)

01:30PM – 02:00PM: cab to HO + quick lunch

02:00PM – 04:45PM: seminar

04:45PM – 05:00PM: back to dis-Connex-ion station (rush hour!)

05:00PM – 07:00PM: dis-Connex-ion bus, home.

I’m frustrated! I’m not complaining about any of it except the four hours of dead time in the dis-Connex-ion bus! I’ve done everything to keep myself entertained; I’ve listened to the radio and memorized all the songs Mix FM, NRJ, and Radio One play, I’ve listened to all 827 tracks on my iPod at least a dozen times, I've memorized all the outdoor advertising billboards on the road from Tripoli to Beirut and back, I've read magazines, I’ve read Paulo Coelho’s latest book “The Winner Stands Alone” (great read!), and I've even caught up on my sleep… but come on, four spare hours a day is just too long a time to kill! (Yes, that was all a vent ;-)

So, “today I swear I’m not doing anything… no, I ain't gonna comb my hair, cause I ain’t going anywhere… no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no!” Really, it’s lazy Sundays like these that give me the recharge I need to restart the work week again on Mondays. So to all my friends and distant family members whom I've shamefully been out of touch with, apologies…

On the bright side, it’s almost over. I still have three more days next week, five more days the week after that, and then the big exam on the 15th of June (which I’d better do well in!). Thankfully, the biggest motivation that’s keeping me pumped during all this is the two week vacation in Canada that I’m going to be taking at the end of June! I’ll be back in the blogging scene again soon, so stay tuned! ;-)

On The Beirut International Marathon 2010

As I was reading Sietske’s post on “Not the Beirut Marathon”, I giggled at the part she said “I thought other bloggers would probably cover the marathon, but I haven’t seen any posts yet”. See I couldn’t help but wonder if any other bloggers who went to the marathon shared some of the same aftereffects that put me out…

I don’t run, let alone walk on most days. I’m not a sportive person, not at all! But, something (an email from The Human Resources division at work) encouraged me to register for the 10KM fun run at The Beirut International Marathon which took place last Sunday November 7th, 2010…

We met up at 6:00A.M. that morning, and rented a bus to take us to the capital. We were the “Happy Planet” Team, here’s our cute group:

But that’s about as good as it got for me because what I registered for, well, it wasn’t what I would’ve dubbed a “Fun Run”. By the time I’d reached the 3KM checkpoint, I was beat. But I kept going. At 5KM, I developed a blister on each of my feet and walking turned into the most painful experience ever. I should have stopped right then and there, but I was at the point of no return and I didn’t want to leave the group (or, I didn’t want the group to leave me!). So like Johnny, I kept walking…

At 7KM I had an urge to sit down and start sulking but after all the ache, what was 3KM more? I still don’t know how I dragged myself to the finish line, got my medal and souvenir pack filled with a bottle of water, Granny Smith, apple juice, a packet of nuts and dried fruit, a T-Shirt, a bottle of Listerine, and some brochures…

Its also ironic how at the finish line (which I reached in a record breaking 4 hours!), there was a sign that read: “I thought I couldn’t… I can!” Well I can’t even begin to tell you how much the “I thought I couldn’t” part rings true! Oh dear God, thank God the marathon is over! Unfortunately, my pain isn’t…

I limped to work yesterday and today wearing thick socks and sneakers, and I got a couple of friendly smirks from some of my colleagues like, “Nour, Marathon’s over, take off your running shoes”. The blisters on my feet are still there and my leg muscles are still aching. I’m only hoping I’m all healed up by Saturday, as that’s when my nine day vacation officially begins, and I’ve got a lot of action packed for the next couple weeks... stay tuned! :-)

UN Day 2010 Celebration

Yesterday evening was the “UN Day 2010 Celebration” at the UNESCO Palace. Tony Baroud was hosting the event, and there were live performances by a south-based Youth Group, The Lebanese-Palestinian Choir, and Violinist Jihad Akl, all of whom put on spectacular performances, especially the latter!

But the number one reason I was going was to find out if the photo I had submitted for the UN Photo Competition had made it to the exhibition. Unfortunately, it hadn’t. But among the pictures that had reached the finals, there were indeed some exceptional photos…

There were 10 winners, 8 for each category of the MDGs (Millennium Development Goals) including: Reduce Poverty and Hunger, Achieve Universal Primary Education, Promote Gender Equality & Empower Women, Reduce Child Mortality, Improve Maternal Health, Combat HIV/AIDs, Malaria, and other diseases, A global partnership for development. Each of the 8 won a Nikon Coolpix P100 and a photography workshop with professor Bassam Lahoud. Then there was The People’s Choice Award, who won through online voting with over 2,000 out of over 6,000 votes. He won a round trip plane ticket to Istanbul with Kurban Travel. And finally there was The Big Winner, who won a Nikon Digital SLR D300S. And that prize went to a girl named Abir Ghattas, for this photo:

What’s interesting about that photo is that it had reminded several of the judges of a picture that once appeared on the cover of National Geographic. Later that night, on the ride home, my friend remarked that the picture in National Geographic was taken years ago (in 1985) and several years since then, they went out to look for the girl all grown up, and they were able to recognize her because of her distinctive eyes:

In conclusion, yes, I was a little disappointed at the fact that my photo hadn’t made it to the top 50, but I’m glad I got to go look at the bigger picture(s). The pictures are of “1 WORLD, 1 FUTURE, 8 GOALS”. At the end of the evening they gave out the following brochure (click photo to enlarge):

Do you know that...

Around 300,000 persons in Lebanon are considered poor and have limited access to basic nutrition and safe drinking... Out of 100 pupils, 9 are not registered at schools ... Out of 100 (aged above 15), 10 are illiterate ... Out of 128 parliamentary seats, only 4 are held by women ... Out of 1,000 infants in Lebanon, 16 die yearly ... Children in Lebanon are still dying from diseases such as Diarrhea, Pneumonia, and others ... Out of 100,000 pregnant women, 23 die while giving birth ... 2/3 lands in Lebanon are prone to desertification...

Dis-Connex-ion

The last time I used to use the Connex-ion Buses on a weekly basis was back in 2008, during my university days. I’ve taken it a couple of times since then, and I used to enjoy sitting in a comfortable chair on the hour and a half/ two hours of the Tripoli/Beirut (and vice versa) roads, listening to music or catching up on my reading. That is, until last week…

Last week, a friend and I decided to go to Beirut, so we of course resorted to Connex-ion. When we arrived at the station at 9:00AM, it was packed with more people than could be seated in one bus! I looked outside at the driveway to see that it was empty, where were the buses? We went to get tickets and the cashier told us that one of the buses had broken down on the way, and it wasn’t going to arrive for another 20 minutes. But we couldn’t take the 20 minutes one since it was already jam packed. We had to wait another 20 minutes on top of the 20 minutes for the second bus to arrive! 60 minutes later, the promised 40 minutes bus arrived. An hour later!

And then numbers! They used to have seat numbers! Now, it’s on a first get on the bus, first get seated wherever you want basis! There was a girl who got a ticket and decided to wait till the boarding chaos was over before she would get on the bus, and when she did, there wasn’t a single seat left! “But I have a ticket!” she protested, “You didn’t get on the bus on time” the driver rudely remarked!

I thought Connex-ion must have been having an off day that day, and they weren’t usually like this (at least not back when I used to use it). But I was wrong! On Wednesday, my cousins and I decided to head to Kaslik for some shopping. So we called the station to ask what time the bus was leaving. In 20 minutes, we were told. So we got there in 15 minutes also to find it as crowded as ever. We couldn’t leave till the second bus arrived another 40 minutes later!

Then to put the icing on the cake, yesterday, I went to see a friend in Beirut, and on the way back, the motor blew. TWICE! The poor driver (respectable as ever, I felt so sorry for him) had to stop and some of us got out for him to open the motor compartment and pour cold water on it to cool down. After that, he had to continue driving at a speed I could beat while walking. It took us three full hours to get from Beirut to Tripoli (without major Traffic!) Here’s a picture I snapped while basking in the sun at the station we stopped at…

I don’t want to be all hating on the Connex-ion, but its standards have recently become comparable to $h!+. I sincerely hope something is done about this because it used to be a good company, organized, punctual, respectable, and one I used to look forward to using as a means of transportation… in the mean time, its just a means of Dis-Connex-ion!

Holiday On Ice

Tomorrow night’s the Opening Night for “Holiday On Ice” at La Salle Des Ambassadeurs in Casino Du Liban…

We got tickets last week, and it’s a show I’m really looking forward to watching it…
One of the things few people don't know about me is that I used to ice skate. I’ve got ribbons for it; I was an ice princess back in Canada! :-)

I’ll post about it soon!
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Update (30/05/2010):
WOW!