I always complained that nothing’s being done to remove this power plant that’s polluting the whole Zouk area and causing numerous diseases, turns out there are plans to add a third smoke stack !!!!

Here’s an excerpt from a report done by Al Jomhouria.

[Full Report]

The ironic part is that instead of revolting against their municipalities and doing something to stop this pollution, the people in Zouk are actually building new apartments facing the power plant and selling them at crazy prices, and the worst part of all is that people are buying!

That’s not a shop’s window but the AUB Lost & Found office. They keep things for years there and as a result the collection is growing bigger and bigger.

I can’t believe that many students lose their stuff and don’t go looking for them. Maybe the AUB administration should consider giving some stuff away to homeless people or use them for an auction and donate the money to charity?

I was surprised to find an email from The Daily Star today, it seems somehow I got added to their mailing list and they sent the email above to everyone on their mailing asking them to check out the website. Issue is I didn’t sign up their mailing list and worst of all there isn’t an unsubscribe button or link in their email which is extremely unprofessional. I even sent a reply back saying “UNSUBSCRIBE” but the email bounced back since they sent out their advert from an email that doesn’t receive mail! I hate being spammed! The Daily Star if you are reading this, UNFUCKINGSUBSCRIBEME!

A lot of Lebanese are anxiously waiting for today’s Royal wedding to kick off. I am sure some of them even made the trip to watch it.

There’s also a sold out gala lunch at Le Royal hotel in Dbayyeh organized by the British embassy where around 400 guests will be able to watch the wedding live. [DailyStar]

Check out the site for the Royal wedding.[RoyalWedding2011]

I am sure a lot of Lebanese guys will be cursing that day as their fiancees will take the opportunity to get some ideas for their wedding lol.

I can imagine some talks:

“Lek lek hal arrangemenet chou 7elween! lezim na3mil mitloun”

“Meen 7elle2a dakhlak? 7abbet chou 3emle”

“Badde khetim mitil hayda hayete, stofil chouf chou baddak ta3mil!”

I was just saying two weeks ago how Lebanese fans are gaining more interest in the Spanish league and El Clásico [Link] and what I saw yesterday in Down Town Beirut was enough to convince me that there’s a Barca & Real Madrid mania spreading all across the country.

I shot the video above after Messi scored the first goal against Real Madrid. You would think it’s some party but not at all, those are Barca fans dancing the dabke. Restaurants in Down Town Beirut were as crowded as during the World cup yesterday.

As far as the game is concerned, I have to say the referee yesterday reminded me of the one that directs the basketball games in Lebanon. I second Real Madrid coach Jose Mourinho that something’s not right and there should be measures taken to stop those bad calls. How the hell was that a red card against Pepe? WTF was the referee thinking?

Also, I think Dani Alves should be banned for 1 game for being such an awful cheat.

Here’s an image of the tackle that earned Pepe a red card.

From the Economist via BeirutSpring.

[YouTube]

This weekend there’s going to be a huge UFC fight between Welterweight Champion Georges St-Pierre vs Jake Shields. What a lot of people might not know is that his head trainer, the guy behind GSP is a Lebanese called Firas Zahabi. You can watch him talk about GSP’s training in the video above, it’s from the first episode of UFC Primetime: St-Pierre vs. Shields. The video should start from 2:42 since that’s when Firas comes in. You can check him out on twitter by clicking [Here]

I was on my way back from the North when I saw parachutes in the sky near Batroun. I always loved going skydiving or parachuting so I checked online to see if anyone does those activities in Lebanon and found out we have a Lebanese Parachute Association.

They have a website and offer tandem jumps as well as skydiving lessons, but the skydiving lessons are done outside Lebanon as the sport is still not legal in Lebanon.

I’m always worried about the safety measures when it comes to doing risky sports in Lebanon, so if anyone knows anything about the LPA or tried parachuting before, I would be grateful if they shared their experience since I am very eager to try them out.

You can visit the website here. [Website]

The court ruled in favor of Mark from 248am in Benihana’s lawsuit against him.

For those unaware of this lawsuit, Mark was sued by Benihana restaurant in Kuwait for having reported a bad experience he had at their restaurant. [Link]

Here’s an article from LorientLejour on the lawsuit. [Link]

This is great news for Mark and all bloggers!

PS: Now we can get back to critisizing restaurants safely.

So much for the Lebanese National Anthem controversy, turns out only 5% of Lebanese only know their anthem lol. [Link]

76!

This is kinda cool! 3.42% of the passengers on board were from Lebanon. Full list

I have a theory on why the Titanic sank:

Lebanese passenger 1: “Shou ya man? Shou 3am bta3mol hon?”
Lebanese passenger 2: “3am betsayyad samak, a*** bsou2alak, shou ma32oul koun 3am ba3mol hon??”
Lebanese passenger 1: “Rou2 ya zalame, shou bek 3am btetmanyank???”
Lebanese passenger 2: “3am bemza7 ma3ak. Leyk, shou 3emel halla? Ba3ref el captain, mashe ma3e nekhod kess ma3o, yemken bikhallina nsou2a lal bekhra”

I’ve seen a lot of falsh mob/viral/whatever videos but I don’t think I’ve seen anything as strange as the one above. I’m completely at loss for words. [YouTube]

BlogBaladi’s team was invited to attend Crepaway Sodeco Branch’s opening two weeks ago. Chahe & I attended the event which was very successfull and pleasant.

There’s one thing that I love about Crepaway, is that they chose the best locations for their restaurants. Either in Kaslik, Maameltein, in the middle of Hamra street or Broumanna, they are always great hangout places. My favorite was and will always be Crepaway Kaslik. [Link]

Similarly, Sodeco branch is located after Dunkin Donuts and on the street where there are lots of restaurants (Piazza, Bodeguita del Medio, Falamanki) and pubs (Gold, Element etc ..). It has a huge parking lot right next to it which is very convenient.

As far as the party is concerned, there were lots of entertainers, all wearing costumes or eccentric clothes and fitting the “Come as you are” theme. Mini burgers and sandwiches as well as chicken wings were being distributed for everyone and it was an open drink night.

Another theme of the event was peace (Since it was the civil war remembrance day on that day:April 13) and there was a tank-shaped balloon at the entrance along with its guns covered with flowers and sandbags around it and at the entrance door. Turns out those sandbags contained seeds ready to plant and were given as souvenirs for all attendees.

I must congratulate Crepaway on this very successfull event and I have to admit I’ve been really impressed by he professional work their marketing team have been pulling, however there’s always the customer service issue (mainly the waiters/waitresses) which is yet to be resolved at Crepaway.

There is no noticeable consistency in the service as it’s sometimes perfect and quick and other times slow and full of mistakes, and those other times are pretty frequent.

Nevertheless, I always keep coming back to visit Crepaway every now and then, as they have more items on their menu than any other diner, including their awesome crepes, and I’ve noticed a major improvement lately in the service but still not enough to make me re-become the regular I was few years back, but I am quite confident they will get there with the professional staff they have.

PS: BlogBaladi was featured in the April-May Hangout Magazine. You can check it out here. [Link]

Some friends of ours from Ghazir (Keserwan) got us during Easter some weirdly shaped and stuffed maamoul they are apparently known for.

Their Ma’amoul comes much bigger than the usual ones, with a white dough (barely baked?) covered with sugar, and stuffed with almond and walnuts (very similar to the Katayef stuffing during Barbara).

It tasted pretty good, but nothing beats the real Ma’amoul.

I was invited to dinner on Saturday night at a place called “Le Pacha” in Amchit. It’s a seafood place right next to the famous (yet highly overrated and overpriced in my opinion) “Chez Zakhia”.

We sat down and start ordering before some woman took the mic and welcomed everyone to the Karaoke night! I wasn’t informed that there will be Karaoke as I usually stay away from such nights, but I said what the heck! How bad could the singing be?

Well it turned out to be pretty bad, at some points even terrible and I noticed almost the same trends I see in most Karoake nights in Lebanon:

1- There’s always a couple of semi-professional singers who want to impress the girls with their charming voice. They come prepared and well dressed as if it’s some sort of competition or maybe just “la yichedo banet”. Doesn’t that beat the whole purpose of Karaoke nights?

2- Many Lebanese think they are so damn talented and request songs that are almost impossible to sing. Some dude requested Bohemian Rhapsody and I only wish I recorded it for you guys to hear the horror! In some countries, you might get shot for doing that. [Link]

3- There’s always a girl who wants to put up a show by taking the mic, going on stage and dance like a stripper. Maybe this is how new artists are recruited in this country?

4- Some guys think of themselves as the Wassouf or Melhem Baraket and get in the mood to the extent of walking among tables while singing.

5- Some people are too cool to stop smoking the arguile while singing.

I am not a big fan of Karaoke nights in the first place, but what happened to just going out with friends, having a few beers and singing acceptable tunes without putting up a show or dancing for everyone to see?