There is a donation basket right outside the TSC supermarket at City Mall for the “Enfants de Lumiere” charity. The basket has a clear label that says “Donate Food”. Well apparently, in some countries, food means garbage. If you look closely to the pictures below, you can find a half eaten popcorn carton, a peanut pack, an empty water bottle, plastic bags and a lot more nutritional items, all part of a good and healthy diet for kids.

TSC’s and City Mall’s management should be ashamed of themselves for allowing this.

Thank you Lorna for sending me these pictures!

It is not very often that you find typing mistakes in major Lebanese newspapers such as Al Balad.

Myu is one of my favorite pubs in Gemmayze, I go there with my friends once per week on average although the place is very small (by small I mean there is a seating area for dinner where I never sit coz its boring and there’s the bar on the other side where it’s more fun and crowded. The bar area has the shape of a tunnel and all the crowd is stuck literally in a 1m alley width (between the bar and one of the tunnel’s side.) I don’t really know why all my friends and I like this place although it’s tiny with very limited seating in the bar area but it’s probably because of its nice music and very friendly bartenders.

I went there on Saturday and it was as usual one of the most crowded places in Gemmayze (especially on the weekend), there was literally no room for one more person on the bar, but still I can say that if you’ve never been to Myu (location facing Byblos bank), you should try and pass by early (around 8pm), book a chair at the bar and enjoy the music, your drink and the crowd around you.

Today I went with some friends on a cool hiking trip in a very

nice and green area between Faqra and Bakiche on cliffs overlooking Faqra, Baskinta and Zaarour as well as the high plateau of Bakiche. The hiking trip, a 14 km trail, reached 2100 meteres at the highest point where Cedar trees are planted. The way back was easy as we did not have

major uphills or downhills. Here are some pictures of the trip.

Hope you enjoy them.

I am glad to welcome Paul, a very good friend of mine, as a contributor to the blog. Paul does hiking, trekking, climbing and country skiing to places I never knew existed in Lebanon or never thought they could be this beautiful.

Hope you all will enjoy Paul’s adventures and who knows maybe one day join him in one. I should warn you though it is no picnic as they are very demanding.

I just noticed Naharnet got a facelift. Nothing major but they’ve annoyingly inserted their Facebook activity on the left sidebar and added “In the spotlight” animated pictures below their live coverage among other things. Personally I think they need a complete revamp. The site looks extremely outdated and unorganized. [Link]

On the bright side they have a ton of iPads in stock. On the other hand, you need to be one of those cigar smokers at Lina’s to be able to afford one.

Update: When I left Beirut yesterday the Duty Free had at least a dozen iPads left for sale. Now it seems they already sold them all. A friend of mine who traveled today just told me when he checked the duty free earlier today the salesman told him they had only one iPad left and it was the display model. I have no comment…

I spotted few weeks back a Snickers ad about participating in the longest football game ever. I checked the website and it turns out it’s some online game where you need to score the highest points possible to:
1- enter a draw for winning 15 mini football tables.
2- participate in the longest football game ever (36 hours)

I played the game a few times and thought i got a decent score but when checking the leadership board, i was shocked to see i was some 800,000 points behind the leader. I played the game the longest for 15 minutes and scored around 10,000 points. Who has that much free time on his hand to score 800,000 points ?

I did some simple calculations to see how many hours or days it takes to score such a high score:
- You have to score 3 goals in each turn, with the highest possible return being 120 points, so a maximum of 360 points per round.
- You need around 20 seconds to finish the round, that is if you mastered the game. They add a person to block your shot every two rounds or so, so in 10 rounds, you find yourself faced with at least 6 blockers and the goalie, and it goes on.

To score 100,000 points you need almost 5600 seconds, which equals an hour and a half.
To score 800,000 points you need at least 10 hours !!

I would understand such dedication if the prizes are worthy, but a 36 hours football game ?

I am assuming most of those are “World of Warcraft” players lol. They have no life.

As i was mentioning the other day, i had dessert at Sugar Daddy in Koreitem after my dinner at Le Rouge Hamra.

Sugar Daddy is located right after “Secrets”, a very well know patisserie for those who live in Beirut. It is 2 minutes away by car from LAU Beirut campus or Hariri’s residence.

It is a very original place that does cupcakes, brownies, muffins, cookies, pies and all sorts of cakes.

I go there mostly to get my pecan pie or apple pie. I started loving pecan pie from the show True Blood . Sookie‘s grandma does the best pecan pie apparently (in the show) and it looked yummy.
I had never heard of it before, so i asked around and surprisingly, i couldn’t find any place in Lebanon that does it until i spotted Sugar Daddy.

A friend of mine called me today in the morning freaked out. I asked what’s wrong and he started telling me all about it.

Around 6 am, the door bell rings and wakes him up. He goes to open the door and find two armed detectives at his door step. They start asking questions about his next door neighbor, if he knows him, if he passed by yesterday, if he is in the apartment now. My friend was barely awake and didn’t realize what’s going on, and naturally answered them that he is home alone (or so he thought).

As he was going back to his room, he spots the shadow of someone on his balcony. He approaches closely and spots the neighbor without the later noticing. He goes back slowly to the front door and informs the detectives he is on the balcony.

They storm the place and capture him and leave. It turns out he is involved in some major car theft network and has been hiding for more than an hour on my friend’s balcony.

What a way to start your day !

The Beirut 39 festival, held in the Lebanese capital, brought together 39 specially selected writers of Arab heritage, all under the age of 39.

The writers appeared at public debates, readings and discussions, and all 39 have had their work included in an anthology, called “Beirut 39: New Writing from the Arab World,” published simultaneously in English and Arabic. [Full Article]

There is a new blog for this event as well.

Among the 39 writers, we have 6 Lebanese: Hala Kawtharani, Hyam Yared, Joumanna Haddad, Nazem El Sayed, Rabee Jaber and Zaki Baydoun.

Article suggested by Chahe who is too lazy to post about it.

The dome of the UFA Assurances building next to Virgin in downtown has been shaped to look like a soccer ball.

No one yet to claim back the busted car. Why don’t they tow the car ?

I overheard lately that the government is considering reactivating the trains and tramways and restructuring the railways in order to lessen the daily traffic. I researched a bit about this and found out they have been considering doing so for more than 8 years now !

The last official news goes back to 2007 when the government was looking for funds to restore the Tripoli-Abboudieh railway.

Even though forgotten, railways in Lebanon are highly documented online. Almashriq has all you need to know on trains in Lebanon, from stations, to old pictures, maps etc.
Also, AFAC-Liban (Section Libanaise de l’Association Française des Amis des Chemins de fer) has a whole website dedicated to railways in Lebanon. They even organize exhibitions, publish books and attend social events.

It would be great to have a decent public transportation in Lebanon, as the traffic is becoming unbearable year after year.

What’s wrong with the weather these days ? Yesterday it was a bit cold and today morning was hot and now its raining.