Lionel Messi is not hurt because of a car accident, just because the Argentinian national team did not play well during the Coppa America. He’s in Chile still and preparing for a friendly game tonight. [Link]

This whole rumor about Messi being involved in a car accident was started on some website and picked up by the Lebanese media for unexplainable reasons.

Hope I did not give the Messi fans a scare with the title.

While ZWZ valet parking guys give you the looks for not handing them out the keys to your car, Lord of the Wings Valets in Gemmayze will politely take your car and drive away with it.

Hoping that these stories will encourage the Lebanese to park their own cars and stop being so damn lazy!

Check out the story [Here].

A friend sent me this picture few minutes ago from the Marina Dbayyeh (C-Lane). The boat is similar to the one on the TV series Dexter as well as the name (check picture below).

It would be a lot cooler if Dexter was actually here in Lebanon as well.

Thanks Roy!

So “the Egg” is going to be demolished soon and a lot of bloggers seem to be pretty annoyed by this piece of news. To be honest, I think it should be destroyed for many reasons:

1- The building is very ugly and there’s nothing artistic about it, at least in my opinion. I don’t know why they even kept it while reconstructing Beirut in the 1990s.

2- Not every building that’s 50 years old and survived the war should be restored and preserved. Mustapha shares this thought with me.

Even though it’s a bit unrelated, there’s an important point needed to be said that the responsibility for restoring old houses or monuments should be on the Beirut municipality while in reality old houses owners are the ones baring all the expenses and unable to sell them because it’s part of the heritage.

Who gives a damn about heritage if it’s costing him all his money and the authorities don’t want to pay a penny?

For those of you who do not know about the Egg or Beirut City Center, it was designed by by Joseph Phillipe Karam, a prominent modernist Lebanese architect of the 60s to be a state of the art cinema in downtown Beirut.

Having said all that, I just read on the Daily Star that Solidere denied plans for taking down the Egg. Maybe it’s another rumor spread like the one about Messi being involved in a car accident.

Mosaic is set to reopen its doors next week at the Intercontinental Phoenicia Hotel in Beirut after being closed for renovation. [Link]

This place has the best buffet in town by far and I am looking forward to seeing its new layout.

This is how short-sighted we are in Lebanon, thinking about least worse solutions rather than better ones.

Renewable energies and public transportation are what we need on the long-term in Lebanon, not 0.1% less polluting gas.

This whole Valet Parking thing is seriously getting out of hand day after day and the first ones to blame are the companies and restaurants hiring them.

If Zaatar wou Zeit cares that much about its customer service, they should hire their own people to park the cars and fire the “VIP” valet parking company they just hired in ZWZ Kaslik and I suppose elsewhere.

It’s not enough that we have to deal with ever increasing prices [Link1] [Link2], we also have to bare the arrogance and impoliteness of some valet parking guys.

To cut the story short, I passed by ZWZ Kaslik yesterday to meet my brother and there were 3 empty spots in front of it. The Valet guy had put his sign in a way that keeps me from parking properly but I still managed to park the car.

Once I stepped down my vehicle, he came out of nowhere and asked me for the keys (“Badde el mfetee7 blease”). I told him that the car is parked fine, so he answered that it’s not and I HAVE to give him the keys. I still insisted the car is fine and told him I can change it by myself if he wants to and so I did even though he barely moved his sign and kept giving me the looks as if I stole something from him.

Since the ZWZ people apparently read our blog, and since we all love ZWZ despite its insanely expensive man2ouches, I urge them to take action as soon as possible and train their own employees to park the cars or get decent parking space, instead of hiring retired military men to do the job.

Valet Parking should be optional and Valet guys should be well trained and well dressed and the least polite and courteous.

Here’s how valet parkings should look like, anywhere you go and if you think they are too fancy, then maybe ZWZ should not have Valet Parking in the first place. After all, it’s a freaking man2ouche place and not an intercontinental hotel.

Few hours ago, I read on Kataeb News portal that Lionel Messi had a car accident in Argentina and was seriously injured. His gf was with him and died instantly because of the crash. I googled to see if it’s true or not and found nothing online. Some 20 minutes later, the same portal denies the news so I forgot about it until LBCI just mentioned the news few minutes ago!

So I checked again and could not find anything online about this. There is not even a mention of a rumor of Messi having an accident. So I ask LBCI where the hell did they get this piece of information from and how can they allow themselves to report such news without verifying it?

Update: Messi is in Chile not even in Argentina today and all this rumor about him getting involved in a car accident is a lie. [Link1] [Link2]

This was pointed out by one of the blog’s readers. Alfa Waffer new plan includes a prepaid emergency card that costs 4$ and gets you 10 minutes only.

4$ = 6000 LL for 10 minutes means each minute costs 600 LL!

So Alfa is basically telling us we are allowed to rip you off if you need an emergency card?

If you want to know more about Alfa offers, check [Here].

Thank you Wael

I’m coming down to Lebanon for like 10 days in August and want to try a bunch of burgers so I could review for the blog. Could you guys tell me what the most popular places are or the burgers I need to try?

Note: I shot the burger above at Cocoa Room in Kuwait

I had no clue which one it was but I spotted the new place opening next to Republic and it’s Le Maillon restaurant, which originally opened in Achrafieh in Sofil Center.

It surely will no longer that highly regarded if it plans to open an arguile place in Zalka.

We have around 40% less tourists than last year yet the traffic is still the same and even getting worse. What’s even more interesting is that we lost 65% of our tourists coming by land according to Minister of Tourism Fadi Abboud [Link].

I don’t know how this is happening or it’s just me, but I am facing traffic almost anytime anyday and everywhere I go. Even in the morning there’s still traffic even though there are no schools or universities at the moment.

Pic from Beirut Drive-by

I may have been mistaken about Stallone in Chivas’ ad but don’t tell me the girl in the Braun ad does not resemble Robin Scherbatsky‎ (Cobie Smulders) from the How I met your mother series.

Interior Minister Marwan Charbel banned the use of firecrackers and restricted the use of fireworks in a statement carried by the National News Agency Monday. [More]

Does this decision remind you of any previous one? I really want to see how our new minister is gonna implement this law. Imagine cops running after little kids playing with firecrackers in every little town in Beirut to celebrate Ramadan. That’s gonna be fun.

When you pass through Beirut Airport you might notice that there are some really flashy cars on display to be won. There are usually 1,500 tickets per car selling at about 120$ / ticket, unless the car is really expensive then those numbers change.

Like the Mercedes SLS AMG: 3,000 tickets at 135$ / ticket.

I bought 1 ticket with 2 of my colleagues during a recent business trip. I’ll keep you updated if we end up winning.

I was going through the website of MOCWINNERS, the company running this business, and I noticed something a bit weird: a guy called Dany Hassan Moustafa has won 3 cars already! 2 Porsches and an Audi!

I’m guessing his strategy is to buy as many tickets as possible and hope for the best. I just hope the entire thing is not rigged.