LONDON

After the success of the 'Missing Z Domination' campaign on Facebook and all related posts and comics, most of you knew that I was the winner of Zaatar w Zeit's competition, and the prize was a trip to London for 6 days + Hotel + Breakfast + Class A football game ticket!
First of all, a BIG thank you goes to Zaatar w Zeit for the beautiful prize and because everything was perfect there!

I can easily say that I went through all over London... Ok except China town.
From Buckingham Palace, Big Ben and London eye to London Bridge, Saint Paul's Cathedral and all around the amazing huge parks!
And since I was there on Halloween, I enjoyed the fully crowded streets of the Covent Garden, Oxford and Piccadilly circuses with all kind of scary/funny costumes, and I enjoyed the London Dungeon at it's best, plus a 5D laser ride!

And to make my visit perfect, I went to Stamford Bridge to watch the amazing Chelsea vs Arsenal game, that ended 5 - 3 (lucky me) for Arsenal unfortunately! (since I was a Blues fan back then... back to roots now ;) )

Enjoy the photos.

Welcome to Stamford Bridge

41,801 fans! Including me.

The breathtaking Saint Paul's Cathedral. 

No photos inside. Yeah right :P

And the protesters outside

Tower of London

London Bridge

Wellington Arch

Buckingham Palace (after the changing of the guards)

The Chimes of Big Ben at 12 o'clock.

The wonderful leaning Big Ben!

الحرية والعدالة لفلسطين - Next to Big Ben

London Eye :) with the Aquarium penguin

From up there!

Saint James' Park

Amy Winehouse.

Obama next to the president :P

El Führer with something stuck in his nose.

Bruce Willis. Amazing details.

Hyde Park

Kensington Palace gardens.

For landscape photographers, Hyde park and Saint James' park are the places to be, especially in autumn.

I got a small conclusion from this trip:

• London is a very beautiful, clean and organized city, and people there were very nice and respectful (when I was there at least). And just to mention, England doesn't have any independence day and was never occupied.
• Lebanon is a very beautiful, unclean and disorganized country, and people here are very arrogant and mean (for my last 25 years). And just to mention, Lebanon has many independence days, and was occupied by more then 5 countries.

If you find this conclusion logic, then good luck!

Monday Moaning: Ziad Rehbani

I was in Mojo – Hamra on Saturday watching “Georges Nehme and the band” (or “Band Jaze’e”).

These guys are amazing, and they master Ziad Rehbani’s songs!

While enjoying “Ya Zaman El Ta’ifiyi”, I realized that someone has to send the following letter to Ziad:

“Dear Mr. Ziad Rehbani,

Where are you?!

Seriously! You can’t just leave us!

We’re desperately waiting for one big classic concert! Just one more…

Sincerely,

All your fans”

Like Liliane said, choose any country you want for your next concert, and we’ll be there! But please do!

Check this YouTube video, it might make you feel better.

Monday Moaning: Embassies' rejections

It's been a while since my last post!
The reason is that I work in the IT industry, and I was rudely trying to meet my deadlines.
If you know about IT, you'd know that us and deadlines aren't best friends!

Each time I will have something to moan about, it will be posted on a Monday moaning euuh morning, to start your week happily! :P

This Monday moan is about most of the embassies that enjoy rejecting your application!
So, you apply online, get all the specified documents, and book an appointment.
You go there on time, take some photos, give some fingerprints, pay and leave.
After 10+ working days, they inform you about coming and picking up your result.
You open that envelop to find a big "REJECTED" .

Why?
You mentioned something in your application without signing a seperate paper about it.
Instead of calling and informing you about that missing document and giving you a couple of days to get it, they take your money and discard your submission. And to make it worse, you don't get any of your documents back!
They could've informed you about it before rejection and then, you'll only be the victim of your own crime.
All you can do now, is running from mayors to translators to studios to get all the documents again, pay again, and pray more!

I read once that the embassies make millions of dollars per year from applications rejections.... in each country.

How a Lebanese Conversation Starts

Each time, two Lebanese persons meet, this is how their conversation starts for around half an hour (and it gets on my nerves!):

 

P1: Hi

P2: Kifak?

P1: Mni7?

P2: Kello Tamem?

P1: Cava?

P2: meche l 7al?

P1: Bien?

P2: Good?

…

 

And it keeps going like this to cover all the “How are you” synonyms in all known languages until one of them surrenders (shame on him) and says:

‘Mni7 w enta?’

Common people! Listen to each other and try acting interested in knowing the answer!

Lier 7?

Seriously, I’m still wondering and wondering about some of these newly opened roof tops or open air clubs!

Here is how it goes:

- You buy a land, basically in a strategic spot, which is logically “VERY EXPENSIVE”.

- You build a luxurious and pricey building (or open air space) in almost two weeks.

- You do some massive marketing campaigns, including radio ads, websites ads, Lebanese celebrities invitations…

- You organize huge openings where you invite everyone.

- Each weekend you bring some of the international stars for live performances (lately: Ke$ha, Alexander Stan, Adam Clay, …) including dancers, musicians …
By the way, rumors say that one of these artists got paid 200,000 $ for a 30 minutes performance!

The thing is, these clubs open two months per year, and some of these have to vanish before it rains or the place will be ruined!

Can you please explain to me how is this reasonably possible? Especially in an average country with mostly average people?

Thanks!

A Lebanese True Story

A friend of mine, who's a volunteer in the Lebanese Red Cross in Antelias (North Beirut), had an overnight shift this last Friday.
His shift finishes at 7h00 am, when he goes straight to work.

At 7h, he left the building to find out that his car was stolen from the parking next to the Red Cross center!

So the good guy Shady called the ISF (Internal Security Forces) immediately.

At 8h00 am, he asked someone in the ISF if they told their Information Branch about what happened?

And the answer he got was: 'We will tell them later on, it's still too early for them, haram!'

SERIOUSLY! these are the people we're trying to build a safe country with!

The poor Shady did some investigations on his own around that parking to see if there are any cameras or any witnesses, but none has been found.

And now he's desperately waiting for the thieves to call him, knowing that the ISF will do nothing!

If you don't know the usual car stealing process, it goes like this:

1. They steal your car

2. They use it in some ‘legal’ businesses (yeah right!)

3. Call you and sell it again to you (but less than its usual price! They are good guys after all!)

4. You bring the money and head to 'Britél' (somewhere in Bekaa), give them the requested amount and get your half-wrecked car back.

The ISF know where the stolen cars are, but can't do anything about it... Since the gang has its back covered.

Shady man! Keep on Surviving!

PS: Britél = Bretelle (or shoulder strap) in a Lebanese ‘bad’ accent ;)

Connect the dots

A teacher gave her 8 years old students the usual 'connect the dots correctly' test to solve it as one of their holiday homework which should take approximately two to three weeks.

Below is the test:

Most of the students matched the dots correctly except one student.
It took him around four months to finish his homework and it was all wrong!

His name was Najib.

Kindly help Najib finish his homework before he gets a zero.

PS: The characters in the above story are a figment of my own imagination and are not related to reality in any way ;)

Meanwhile keep on Surviving...