This comic is inspired from a true story i heard from a friend of mine.
(Thanks Johny)

This stunning picture is one of many photographer Clement Tannouri took of Lebanon in his album entitled “Liban: Sur la terre comme au ciel”. There are other images including regions such as Ehden, Qaraoun, Mount Lebanon, Sannine, Bkaakafra, Annoubine, Beirut and Byblos that i will upload later on.

Why i uploaded this picture in specific is that my old house appears on it, the small one on the extreme left with the green windows. I was practically living on the beach back then, too bad they buried the sea in front of it. [High resolution]

I just found out about the LIFE magazine photography archive and decided to check for “Lebanon” and “Beirut” and found some pretty interesting pictures some dating to the 50′s and even older. Check the pictures out by click [Here] for the Lebanon search and [Here] for Beirut.

I passed by Gemmayze this morning and checked out the location of the building that collapsed which Nency posted about last night. Thank God it wasn’t on a weekend because it would have definitely caused casualties.

No warning signs were put anywhere near the building.

Roadster diner is one of the most popular diners in Lebanon, and my favorite, and i am not saying that just cause of their really good food. Their customer service is impeccable and believe it or not, this is something very hard to find in Lebanon.

Yesterday, i ordered two sandwiches (Lemon Turkey) and a drink for a friend and myself. 17 minutes later, the order was here, even quicker than a fast food place. However, one of the sandwiches was a Tuna melt not a Lemon Turkey. I called them and reported the error, they apologized and sent 10 minutes later the correct sandwich (Free of charge of course and without taking the wrong one).

Added to that, they called me today to apologize for the error again and thanked me for calling.

Breaking news: a building near the Byblos bank in Gemmayze that was being renovated collapsed tonight around 9pm. According to the news, the collapse damaged only a car driving on the road, causing no major injuries, only one person who was in the car (but nothing is severe).
Well, Imagine this happened on a Saturday evening!!!! I think someone is jinxing this area! (PS: does anyone have any pictures?)

This looks like a very cool museum, didn’t know it even existed. I need to pass by and check it out. [YouTube]

Driving in DownTown Beirut apparently doesn’t differ much from Driving in Hamra!

He just couldn’t wait 2 exact seconds before the light turned green [YouTube]

To commemorate the Lebanese civil war, the two opposing political camps in Lebanon – March 8 and March 14 — chose this year to remember this day in a friendly football game in a show of solidarity.

(Picture from nowlebanon)

Among the players in the 30-minute match were the following ministers and MPs: Ali Abdullah Ziad Baroud, Jebran Bassil, Mohammed Rahhal, Akram Shehayeb, Simon Abi Ramia, Ibrahim Kanaan, Ghassan Mukhaiber, Fadi Aawar, Alain Aoun, Ali Ammar, Serge Torsarkissian, Nadim Gemayel, Sami Gemayel and Ali Miqdad.

The game was hilarious to watch, and at the end Sami Gemayel scored two goals for the red team beating the white team 2-0.

Here’s a picture of our Prime minister Saad Hariri dribbling the ball. (Taken from Al-Akhbar)

And the two goals scored by Sami Gemayel.

I just wanted to throw this note for all the lebanese people living here and abroad…As of today, it’s been 35 years since it all started in Ain El Remmene (13th April 1975): Lebanon’s Civil war.

I was having a quick chat with my mum an hour ago about the war and how we all survived it and suddenly I had a flash back… Probably many of us was young back then and can’t really recall all the events in details but I can definitely remember some good and bad times we used to spend in the shelters, playing cards, laughing, crying and running from place to another. If you’re interested to refresh your mind about this dreadful war, check out the following [Link]

I found this article on cnn and guess what??? We’re in the top 10!

How retarded is that?

I’m sure that there are at least a half a dozen cities in Iraq that are more dangerous that Beirut!

The caption under the picture says that the ranking was based on a 2008 study by Mercer

3ayb… I think CNN should fire the writer Teo Kermeliotis for using outdated data. [Link]

Driving in Lebanon can turn any calm & cool person insane! I am usually cool while driving but Lebanese drivers are becoming unbearable and the traffic lights are even making things worse, whereas you have to double check every time you pass a green light!

To illustrate what i am talking about, i thought of filming every time i am trying to pass a traffic light, mainly in Hamra where people drive like crazy. Of course i fix my camera on the steering wheel so i stay focused :-)

One minor issue in uploading videos is that it takes forever with the impressively turtle-slow connections we have here. It took me 30 minutes to upload a 6MB video (17 seconds). [YouTube]

Since i get stuck in traffic almost every day on my way to work, i waste time checking out places or ads or cars or whatever is on my way. There’s this new place that opened recently on Dbayyeh maritime road and i can’t figure out its name yet and it’s starting to piss me off. So if anyone knows what that writing is, i would be grateful :-)

I know it sounds lame, but when it’s on your way every day, you can’t just ignore it.

Here’s the writing. Is it uyarin ? I thought of M.RDesignuranium but that makes no sense. Plus if they meant Mr.Designuranium, then the dot is wrongly placed.

One of the typical Lebanese show off places on the weekend is Lina’s Cafe at Kaslik on a Sunday afternoon. Its become the place to show off with your car, your clothes, your bags and you sit and talk about what you did Saturday evening and gossip about what happened during your weekend. It is such a cliché tradition where all Lebanese show offs like to do after a nice long weekend. The valets will park the best cars in front of the café (by best I mean Audi R8, Porsche Turbos, F430′s etc…) and the girls will come fully loaded with make up and designer clothes. Men with cigars and drinks, ladies having a glass of wine or coffee…

If you’ve never experienced it you should. I passed by Lina’s yesterday with my girlfriends (for the only reason that one of them is pregnant and wanted an open area coffee shop close by Jounieh) and it was a very funny experience.