Tire Shop on Dbayyeh Maritime road (Not the one I went to)

After I damaged two of my tires on Monday by falling in a pothole on the Dora highway, I remembered an incident that happened to me few months back that I had forgotten to post about.

I was on my way up to Ghazir to meet a friend when a van passed me on the right, hit me and kept going. I felt my right front tire got damaged so I didn’t bother following him but instead headed to the nearest tire shop to have it checked. Once I got there, the guy took out the tire and after inspecting it and cleaning it with water, showed me that it was punctured in 5 different places and that I needed a new one.

Punctures were 3 from the outside and 2 from the inside in the same area. That’s not my tire but just to show you a close up picture

I found it weird that the punctures were in different places and in this specific area (as shown in the picture), so I asked the guy to keep my damaged tire in the trunk and put a used one that’s not so expensive (He wanted to keep my tire). I paid him 20$ and headed to the tire shop I usually go to in Jounieh. After checking the damaged tire for few minutes, my guy “M3allim Zakhia” got pissed and started cursing the other guy so I was like what’s wrong? That’s where he showed me a needle that tire shop owners are using to puncture tires in sensitive areas and force people to buy new or used tires.

Apparently, there are several tire shops on the highway that are using this method and you can’t really see what they are doing because they take the tire inside the shop. So whenever you have a flat tire, I recommend you call your insurance’s tow truck or take it to a trusted tire shop. Fortunately, I was able to fix my 200$ Michelin tire and threw away the used one.

PS: The pothole on the Dora Highway was closed only yesterday.

[YouTube]

Joseph Sfeir died two days ago when his car slipped due to landslides caused by the storm in Hazmieh.

Here are few pictures sent to me by Eddy of the accident and other rock-slides from the storm.

[High-Res]

[High-Res]

[High-Res]

[High-Res]

I got a very nice surprise yesterday on my way back home yesterday, a new pothole in the middle of the Dora highway that ruined my right front and right rear tires. I got pissed for a few seconds but then smiled when I saw a lot of cars parked on the side of the highway having ruined their tires as well. There were 10 cars behind me and new ones were coming in every 10-15 minutes.

The tires were completely ruined and are beyond repair so I called my insurance’s tow truck and had the car moved to the garage. Of course I started thinking on how to report this to the ministry and have them pay for a pair of new tires but I quickly snapped out of it and remembered this is Lebanon we are talking about.

The positive side of this story is that I have two brand new Michelin tires to burn in case of a protest. I bet Meshkal’s director Dania Bdeir didn’t think this could be a valid reason to burn tires in Lebanon lol!

PS: I am thinking of coming up with a postcard for every ministry with a picture of their achievements.

[YouTube]

Via @Crouhana

Picture taken by George: ESIB road – Mansourieh

Here are some fresh pictures of the storm taken this morning, noting that the storm will get worse in the days to come.

Picture taken by @NadiaBsat: Karantina

Picture taken by @NadaAbdelsamad : Karantina

Picture taken by Leila: Mathaf – Sodeco road closed by trees

Picture taken by Rania el Khatib: Saida

Picture taken by SamSalameh : Saida

Picture by @khaladk: Tripoli under water

Amioun under water: Picture from Rania el Khatib

Picture from Saida via CeeReports

Kahraba Zouk

Source

Interior Minister Marwan Charbel told MTV that Lebanese cars will be equipped in 2013 with smart license plates that cannot be replicated and that contain substantial information about the car.

Let’s hope the information doesn’t end up getting leaked like our fingerprints presumably did.

[YouTube]

Top 10 pictures of 2012. Picture taken by Goran Tomasevic. Azaz, Syria. Aug. 15, 2012.

I always enjoy reading Time’s Top 10 lists from year to year. Check out the 55 wide-ranging lists [Here].

The HuffingtonPost has a bigger album of 2012′s best pictures that you can check [Here].

Picture taken from Yasa Facebook page

YASA tweeted yesterday that it expects 20% more car accidents next year in Lebanon if the road conditions stay the same and the law remains unchanged. I was looking at KunHadi’s graphs and figures and I was quite surprised to find out the highest number of accidents are during July & August and not during winter.

Here are yearly statistics as reported by the Red Cross and you can check the monthly statistics from 2006 till 2012 [Here].

*2012 is not up to date and only includes the first two months.

I think YASA are being too pessimistic as the authorities are working day and night to prevent further car accidents. In fact they decided to stop building further pedestrian bridges, fixing roads, using speed radars and instead started fining drivers for kissing in the car.

Photo uploaded by Aya Hamade on Cheyef7alak

I think we have enough pictures of Lebanese cops breaking the law that we can come up with a book and maybe sell it in libraries.

I spotted all three of them yesterday while trying to find an empty parking spot at ABC Mall in Achrafieh.

I tried looking for the model online and the closest I found was the 1945 BMW R75 model, which was a World War II motorcycle. That’s a pretty cool bike to have!

Spotted by Rachel

If you don’t know what “Galops Lachoups” is, watch this Christmas special episode from Ma fi Metlo:

[YouTube]

The Lebanese Army issued an apology for the traffic it caused today, not that it makes any difference after we got stuck for hours. The good news though is that there won’t be any closed roads tomorrow.

[YouTube]

While everyone was stuck in traffic for long hours this morning because of the Independence Day rehearsals, Zaatar wou Zeit took some requests from their Twitter followers and delivered Manakish to their cars.