The long-awaited indictment for the Rafic Hariri assasination was finally released today accusing four Lebanese members of the Hezbollah party of Hariri’s murder. [Link]

Funnily enough, I was just reading an article on how Lebanon needs more tourists this summer. [Link]

I am guessing that’s not gonna happen.

[Pic from Exoleb.com]

I saw on TV this morning the launch of a new initiative, The Roads for life initiative funded by the Talal Kassem Fund for Post Accident Care. [Website Not yet launched]

Talal Kassem is the grandson of Adnan Kassar, a prominent Lebanese businessman, who was killed when a raging driver hit him on the corniche road in front of IC. [Gino's]

The initiative aims at raising awareness on driving safely, enhancing our rotten traffic laws and most importantly increasing chances of survival for accident victims in the crucial 60 minutes after trauma. For that purpose, the foundation will provide Advanced Trauma Life Support courses to Red Cross volunteers and ER doctors and caregivers from across Lebanon.

That is indeed a great initiative, and hopefully will lower the risk of fatalities from accidents. However, I wish that those organizations, such as Roads for life and Kunhadi, knowing that they are well funded, take their actions to the streets by forming awareness checkpoints, or collaborating with the ISF in spotting drunk people driving out of Gemmayze for example, fixing the Zekrit blind turn that killed more than 12 people since the beginning of 2011, and other minor actions that are practical and will materialize in a lower accidents rate.

Increasing awareness by spreading billboards all over the country is not what will keep Lebanese drivers from speeding. There are a zillion things that could help lower accidents which I will gladly suggest to those organizations if they are willing to do them.

Nevertheless, one cannot but salute those behind such initiatives for raising awareness and being socially responsible and doing the job our government should be doing.

I don’t know how I missed those fireworks even though I live in Jounieh. They must have been on Friday when I was outside Jounieh. Pretty impressive fire works.

I witnessed a typical Lebanese fight right next to the Medical Gate at AUB. It had all the typical Lebanese sayings such as: “nzal men el siyyara iza rejjel” (step out of the car if you’re man enough), and “3ashou 3am betzammer??” (Why are you honking?)

So the guy in the black Nissan Sunny was trying to park when the guy in the white cab started to honk. So out of nowhere 3antar(*) steps out of his car and starts cursing at the guy, blocking the road and causing even more traffic than usual. He shouted at the guy in the white car for about a minute. A couple of times, the other guy was just about to step out of the car, but at the last second would change his mind. Maybe it’s because he noticed that 3antar can kick his ass, and decided it would be better for his teeth to just relax.

In the end 3antar parked his car and lived happily ever after.

* – 3antar or Antar is a Lebanese folk hero. Guys who sound like they’re not afraid of anything are referred to as 3antar of Antar

I spotted this automated parking cashier at the Beirut Souks’ parking the other day. It is very easy to use and lets you insert 1000 LL, 5000 LL and 10000 LL, as well as coins which is very convenient.

Maybe the park meter people should think about doing the same instead of forcing us to go from one shop to the other looking for coins.

For the past 10 years, the first saturday of July has been celebrated as the National Tabbouleh day, yet I had no clue about it.

I was buying some bread from Paul when I saw a flyer inviting all Lebanese to participate in the National Tabbouleh Day being held at Souk el Tayeb in Beirut Souks on Saturday July 2 from 9:00 am till 2:00 pm.

A competition will be held to determine who makes the best tabbouleh in 3 different categories:
1- Traditional Tabbouleh
2- Winter Tabbouleh
3- Creation

To read more about past event, check out National Tabbouleh’s website. [Link]

PS: Whomever is in charge of this website needs to update it to include this year’s event.

Step 1: Add bullhorns to the top of the hood. Make sure it has a zebra pattern somewhere, you can never go wrong with zebra patterns

Step 2: Add skulls on the left and ride sides of the hood

Step 3: Don’t wash the car for a year

and voila… you get yourself a kickass ride!

I wanted to open up a topic for discussion but I wasn’t planning to until Chahe posted about my engagement.

While planning the dinner, I had no choice but to put Arabic music as most family members don’t really dance to English or French music. I can only laugh imagining my aunts or uncles dancing R&B or Trance.

Now don’t get me wrong, Arabic music is not that bad but what irritates me about it is that guys can’t dance to it. The moves one has to do to cope with all the belly dancing around him are limited and plain stupid:

Here are some moves my friend Leila suggested sarcastically of course:

Move 1: Clap ur hands in the air while smiling stupidly.

Move 2: Go down on one knee clap side ways on the hips of the dancing girls (also while smiling stupidly)

Move 3: Open ur hands as if saying rise up and rise em .. rise ‘em rise ‘em (no smiling this time just a serious ana el jaggal look)

There are two moves I must add here:

Move4: Stretch your hands over the girl’s shoulders and start moving them left and right like you’re some ski jumping athlete trying to maintain balance.

Move5: Try to belly dance and make a joke out of yourself.

The only good part about Arabic Music is Dabke but unless you know how to really dabke, it gets boring after few minutes. That’s why I am planning to take some Dabke lessons or maybe ask my dad who should join Caracalla for his Dabke skills.

If anyone knows a good place to learn Dabke, please feel free to share it.

What happened to all the push up ice cream? When I was a kid I used to get one that came in a semi transparent tube and came in 3 flavors, either chocolate, strawberry or vanilla. Now I can’t seem to find any kind of push up ice cream.

I saw this biker on the Zouk-Dbayeh highway, it just looks weird…

Najib got engaged this weekend to his longtime girlfriend Justine! (That’s him in the picture with the sword, and that’s Justine on the right, if you were wondering)

The party was in a restaurant in Mansourieh with family and friends. Too Arabic for my taste but everyone had a great time. Especially Najib who doesn’t like to be the center of attention. He must’ve had 15 shots of Arak!

Alf Mabrouk to Najib and Justine!

Magida el Roumi’s concert was the main attraction in the 2011 Jounieh Festival and it was quite an eventful concert. I had decided not to go and gave away the ticket to a cousin but I ended up going as he bailed out at the last second.

The concert was scheduled at 9 and we had to be at the parking lots near the Casino du Liban by 7 (Now we know what they are for). Since I live in Jounieh, I decided to go park somewhere near Fouad Chehab and walk to the concert instead of parking far away and waiting for shuttles to pick us up. Surprisingly there was barely any traffic around 7 and I found a parking spot easily.

We were greeted at the Fouad Chehab stadium entrance with scouts selling wine and peanuts. There were also several stands including a Taanayel-sponsored Saj, a Hotdog stand, and a Johnny Walker stand. I wish they had some free juice or ice cream stand instead as it was too damn hot to drink Whiskey.

The event was planned to start at 9 but like all other Lebanese festivals, it started an hour later. At 9:20 Georges Kordahi the party’s host made a small presentation on the Jounieh Festival, before Samir Geagea, head of the Lebanese Forces, showed up to the concert followed shortly by the President of the Republic Michel Sleiman. Magida el Roumi showed up around 10 pm and the concert was on its way.

Magida sang for almost 2 hours and listening to her live didn’t change my opinion about her. She has a very loud and annoying voice and I feel like she’s screaming all the time. No offense to the Magida fans. That’s just my opinion of her. Also, she kept on pointing out to our Lady of Harissa and thanking her for blessing this night and all to an extent I felt I was in some religious concert. Funnily enough, electricity went off Harissa for like half an hour.

At the end of the concert, President Sleiman decided to reward Magida for her achievements and there was a small ceremony on stage, then Magida sang a medley of folklore Lebanese songs to end the concert. Samir Geagea went on stage as well and danced dabke with the band.

In all, it was an entertaining night and a major success for the Jounieh festival organizers. Also, I didn’t know people were so fanatic about Magida as they were singing almost every song with her. I recorded some of her best songs which I will upload later on on YouTube.

I went to Skybar last night and I have to say the place looks amazing with the huge screen walls all around. Jimmy’z was at Skybar last night which I would have figured would mean we’d finally get some good music but it was still crap. The music is actually the worst part of Skybar, they might as well have been tuned in to Mix FM or Radio One. Actually I wish they were tuned in to NRJ last night since they had Jade from BASEMENT playing. At least then we would have had some decent music.

The service last night was really good since my group had a table which for some odd reason came with a butler/waiter? I thought it was pretty awkward having a butler standing at the end of our table the whole night but I could imagine some people liking that plus you don’t have to search for a waiter when you need something. I shot a few videos but since the connection is pretty slow I only managed to upload the one above. [YouTube]

I’ve passed by this Saj place probably hundred times but never knew it was a Saj place until I was looking for an apartment near it and Mark told me there’s a cool Saj place next to it.

I went there to try it on Sunday but it was closed. Turn out it opens on week days only so I went yesterday morning and ordered Jebneh and Zaatar. The Zaatar was not that good but the Jebneh was tasty, even though a bit salty. I’ve always prefered Saj to Manakish and wonder why there are so few Saj places when compared to the “furns” we have everywhere. Saj is much easier to setup and tastier.

I noticed BHV now carries the Dyson brand of vacuum cleaners. I’m starting to like BHV a lot more than before and it mostly has to do with their house ware section. They now carry a lot of my favorite brands including the likes of Kitchen Aid mixers, OXO kitchen tools, Bodum glassware and now Dyson. The prices of the vacuums are slightly more expensive than they cost on Amazon which is not bad. Word of advice, if you’re interested in one make your research on the different models online first since the two sales people I spoke to knew less about the brand and vacuum models than I did. They also carry the cool Dyson fans although I always found those a bit over priced.