I attended the Fairuz concert on Friday. I haven’t been able to post about it earlier because it is quite difficult for me to describe in words because I believe there are no words that would do Fairouz any justice.

I flew in to Beirut from Kuwait on Thursday and you would be surprised to know that the majority of the people on the plane were flying to Beirut specifically for the concert.

As most of you know, it was RAINING on the night of the event. The concert was at 8:30pm, and when I got off the highway, down towards the port, there was sooooo much traffic. We knew that if were to stay in traffic we would never get to Biel on time. We managed to leave the area, go round and come from the other side. We parked near Plum and walked towards Biel in the rain.

We got to the venue, of course cameras and mobile phones were not allowed in. We found our seats ourselves (without the assistance of ushers who seemed to be MIA). The concert started at 9:20. Fairuz walked on stage and that’s when it hit me…. I was seeing Fairouz live!! THEN my view was blocked for the first 3 songs!!! They were allowing people to come in when Fairouz was singing!! The ticket specifically stated that if you were late you were going to have to wait for a break before you were allowed in. Not only was there the matter of having your view blocked, but ushers and people were talking all around us trying to find peoples’ seats and because they were initially MIA there were many people sitting at the wrong seats so they had to figure this out which lasted an additional song or two. This lack of organization was totally frustrating!

Once everything calmed down, Fairouz received my full attention and the feelings that overcame me are indescribable. Her presence on stage captures any audience and her voice… my goodness her voice! At first I was worried that I would not hear the Fairouz we know, with the voice we know, because of her age but she proved me wrong. Her voice is just as magical and captivating as ever, if not more. I was extremely pleased with the selection of songs chosen, and I loved the new songs that she sung. I did not want the concert to end. I wanted more… I thought to myself, if there only was a way that I can save my ears, my emotions, my thoughts from any pollution and just be able to save what I just experienced.

People started walking out of the concert during the last 15 minutes, when Fairouz was still on stage performing! I assume they wanted to leave early so they don’t get stuck in the crowd and traffic while exiting but I found that utterly disrespectful towards the people who were still there enjoying, and of course to Fairouz.

I am so glad that I finally got to watch the great Fairouz live in concert and it is an event that I will cherish for as long as I live, I however, pity the lack of organization that did occur at the event. Fairouz does deserve a whole lot more than this.

We have been hearing a lot about speculations of civil war, now we have a date for when it is going to kick off.

Kuwaiti newspaper Al-Rai reported on Saturday that according to an unnamed diplomatic source, the attempts to stage a coup in Lebanon will kick off on October 16. [BeirutSpring]

Let’s hope they are wrong and more importantly, let’s hope the Lebanese won’t freak out and start invading supermarkets and gas stations!

This is a video added by Reema Rahbany of Fayrouz’s concert two days ago at Biel Beirut. [YouTube]

I went to City Mall yesterday to watch a movie and there was no place left except in Julia Robert’s new movie “Eat Pray Love” and “The Other guys“. I wanted the Other guys but we ended up watching Julia’s movie since some friends insisted on it. I love her movies usually but this one sucked really bad. I fell asleep like ten times during the movie and left before it ended.

It was really long and slow and “mfalsaf 3al fade” as we say here.

Those are pictures of an Israeli motorist driving straight into young Palestinians boys in East Jerusalem. Luckily the boys hit were injured slightly. [AFP/Getty Images]

There are no words to describe the taste of a Nestle Tollhouse chocolate chip cookie…
I’m on a diet now so I try as much as possible to avoid eating sweets and junk food, but today I failed big time, but it was soooo worth it.

So I went up to the cashier and the guy asked me if I’d like to sit and be served or just do take-out. I told him I’ll just have a cookie to go. I chose the regular chocolate chip cookie.

I took the bag and started going up the escalator when I took my first bite of the cookie…. It was fantastic!
I went up to the 1st level, turned around and went back down and ordered 2 more and ate them on the spot… so much for my diet. And I took another one to go in the end…

The cookie costs 2$ but u can get a dozen for 18$, and it’s worth it.

They have all kinds of cookies, with smarties, rice krispy treats, nuts..

I highly recommend that anyone who’s reading this try them.

The shop is located on the basement floor of the ABC Dbayeh, dunno if they have any other stores though.

It is so good to hear Elie Nasr trashing the Lebanon team basketball coach and explain how much he deserves to be fired. I urge the Lebanese basketball officials to think twice before bringing back such coaches.

Captain Elie Nasr in his interview emphasized that the coach had absolutely no “inside game” and relied a lot on Fadi el Khatib and implemented strategies that cost us very dearly.

This is why i was furious on how the likes of Roy Samaha are kept out of the national team and why Lebanon got humiliated in the World championships.

This is a very encouraging move by the ministry of public health, but the question remains: Who will make sure those places are kept smoke-free?

The National News Agency (NNA) reported Friday that a Lebanese man, identified as Nafez Tarabay, killed his brother, Kanaan, in the Jbeil town of Blat after the two men quarreled over a parking space.

Nafez Tarabay fled the scene, said the NNA, adding that an investigation is underway.

Lebanese authorities cordoned off the area. [Source]

The Lebanese Maronite order of monks elections were held few weeks back and there was a fierce competition between two prominent groups of monks, each affiliated to competing Christian parties in Lebanon. Elections were very tense and close and the Patriarch Mar Nasrallah Boutros Sfeir had to interfer personally to put and end to this non sense. Even the Vatican interfered and received officially the results once they came out.

The results came out today at noon and Father Tannous Nehme was elected as president of the Maronite monastic order.

Can someone remind them that they are monks for God’s sake!!! They should be peaceful and praying and serene, not holding electoral battles!

I was parked under the “Marche du Pont” bridge in Adonis waiting to pick up a friend when i spotted this man trying to pass the deadliest and the busiest of highways in Lebanon. I am talking here about the one that gets you from Beirut to Tripoli.
This highway causes God knows how many casualities every year in the area between Kaslik and Adonis yet there are people still willing to die trying to cross it, and unsurprisingly the government and municipality and concerned ministry still have no plans of building a bridge allowing all those coming down from Adonis to cross safely.

What is funnier is that elections every year in Jounieh are very close and witness very high participation rates. Maybe Nathaly’s agency and Mr.Zalzali should apply for a fashion show there, maybe then they’ll build her a bridge.

Crêpes à GoGo is a new place in town that does only crepes. It opened few weeks back in Gemmayze street and its price list is very reasonable and ranges between 2$ for a simple chocolate crepe to 4-5$ for adding several ingredients. I have no clue if it is a local place or is related to the Crepe a Gogo place in Toronto, Canada.

I am a big fan of crepes (I don’t like pancakes though) and my favorite place for crepes is Crepaway. However, My favorite crepes are my mother’s.
We just ordered 4 crepes, so let’s see if they turn out to be good.

Delivery number: 01-570887

Update: We ordered 2 nutella and nuts crepes, 1 kinder and nuts crepe and a dark chocolate crepe. They were decent but a bit too small. I like Crepaway’s crepes better.

Here’s an approximate price list for the most popular firearms in Lebanon, according to an anonymous dealer.

M4, M16 and K47 rifles are among the most popular firearms entering Lebanon, the paper wrote.

“Today, prices are going up where the M4 with a launcher was being sold for $12,000 an M16 [for] $1,500 and the Kalashnikov [for] between $750 and $1,000,” said the dealer.

No mention of RPG’s whose sale I read and posted about is booming.

Update: According to my anonymous friend, RPG prices depend on the quality and the type. RPG 7s were around 600$ two months ago but now their prices have gone up. A Chinese AK for example that was sold at 700$ is worth 1200$ today.

I laughed so hard on this movie my head started hurting me! [YouTube]

I had some time to kill before my dentist’s appointment yesterday, so i asked a friend to meet me at Saniour Antelias to play backgammon for an hour so that i don’t have to go back home and get stuck in traffic.

We got to Saniour and asked for a backgammon board but it came without a dice. I informed the waiter and he confirmed that they come with no dice and that people get their own pair of dice with them.

Is it that costly to get few extra pairs of dices for the customers? Next time i go there, we will generously donate Saniour restaurant 12 pairs of dice on behalf of BlogBaladi.

PS: We ended up using my friend’s backgammon game on his Imate to generate numbers.