the thing that gets me through the day

when life threatens to overwhelm me i recall the following ditty
by the always brilliant dorothy parker

razors pain you
rivers are damp
acids stain you
and drugs cause cramp
guns arent lawful
nooses give
gas smells awful
you might as well live!

one reason i am vegeterian

Living Graves

We are the living graves of murdered beasts
,Slaughtered to satisfy our appetites.
We never pause to wonder at our feasts,
If animals, like men, can possibly have rights.
We pray on Sundays that we may have light,
To guide our footsteps on the path we tread.
We're sick of war, we do not want to fight -
The thought of it now fills our hearts with dread,
And yet - we gorge ourselves upon the dead.
Like carrion crows we live and feed on meat,
Regardless of the suffering and the pain we cause by doing so,
if thus we treatdefenceless animals for sport or gain,
how can we hope in this world to attain,
the PEACE we say we are so anxious for.
We pray for it o'er hecatombs of slain,
to God, while outraging the moral law,
thus cruelty begets its offspring - WAR.

on the first day of ramadan my true love gave to me .....

a scraped foot and a hungry belly!

S.O.S music festival

due to sheer stupidity i forgot to blog about the marvellous time i had at the s.o.s music festival last friday
but since im feeling a little grumpy as i have to go disember a freakishly huge pumpikin/squash i'll keep it brief .
it was beautifully organized ,espeascially since it was a free event , the weather , hot as usual
the music : FAB (and not just because my friend omar plays drums for moodshift) (though he is wickedly good) .
to be honest it was just nice to dance around in the sunshine with congenial company . it was a lovely way to celebrate the (supposed) end of summer . check out beautiful creatures of the male species or just sunbathe
i heard they'll be repeating the event on a monthly basis , i strongly reccomend going espeacially if you are a constantly broke student such as myself

pscyhological damage

Today i witnessed something of an extremely disturbing nature .
i was reading in the car waiting for maman to buy some last minute ramadan stuff
all was well in the world (relatively speaking) then this chap comes walking along with two of his friends a seemingly mundane sight , then suddenly he unbuckles , unzips etc.and puts his hand inside his pants to rearrange what the brits term his meat and two veg! i shit you not ! then rezips . all this while walking down the street ! his friends didnt even blink ! i repeat , i shit you not dear people
im not entirely lacking in empathy , i myself would find it disconcerting to have fleshy apendages dangling betwixt my legs all the time . But come on! there is a thing known as a public toilet , or even a seculded alleyway ! jeez!
if i were to rearrange my boobs in public there would be a hue and a cry and a possible lynching ! (not to mention a horde of rabid and sexually repressed men) but since its a bloke not a word was uttered !
i dont think i can bring myself to shake hands with a man after this incident

the moral of this sad little tale is ; gents keep your hands away from the vicinity of your phallus for fear of disturbing impressionable young ladies .

minor irritation

a conversation between moi and s a new aquaintance

me- so tell me do you have a favorite book/books

s- of course the holy quran

me- you read it all?

s- ummmm no

me- hows it your favorite book then

s- (looks at me blankly) its the word of god

me - and ?

s- blushes and changes the conversation

honestly! is it just me or has piety become something of a fashion statement , please people dont go all smart ass and tell me your favorite book is the quran full stop

hebe's reasons why this is highly irritating and somewhat obnoxious

1- it seems to indicate you have not heard of another book let alone read one
2- the sickening holier -than-thou attitude people assume when they tell you that
3- if you dont like books just say it ! big deal but stupid and obvious pretense is just plain old irritating
4-the whole im -mentioning a religous topic hence you cannot argue or question it is dogma and hence to obeyed blindly. fuck you very much and have a lovely day you hell bound pysychopath

mind you if someone has read the entire koran and finds it to be truly to be a book to last several lifetimes . then kudos to you ! but its hard to take it from a silly empty headed little chit who has the cranial capacity of a walnut .

things i want(and will do!)

have been feeling so terribly lazy about blogging so to motivate myself im going to make a list of skills i want to learn and things i want to do, in no particular prder

1- learn to belly dance like a pro
2- learn to play the drums( i used to play the violin but as i usually produced a sound akin to a cat being skinned alive i decided to quit) the drums seem less complicated
3-take a proper makeup course (i have the dexterity of a blind toad when it comes to makeup)
4-learn to sew so i can make at least one of my endless dress /clothing designs
5- learn spanish , portugese and Italian
reasons why :
spanish: me aimo those lovely latino chicos
portugese:relatively close to spanish so why the hell not
Italian: i love the opera , it would be nice to understand things without constantly refering to the program
6- improve my french so i can read les fleurs de mal and colette with ease
7- go bungee jumping
8- take more sailing courses
9- finish my very lengthy must read list
10- take art classes i dont think i'll rise above mediocrity when it comes to drawing but who knows
11- read more arabic novels(any suggestions?)
12- go on my grand cairene tour - i.e visit the lesser known historical monuments in cairo
13- volunteer for a charitable cause
14- buy my father the harley davidson hes always wanted
15- take my mother to India
16- try to find out what happened to my childhood friends in south africa
17-visit my friends in england and my best friend who is studying in yugoslavia
18- put a bouquet of lillies and sunflowers on the tomb of oscar wilde which is in the pere lachaise cemetry in paris
19- write my first novel before i turn 20
20- learn how to bake bread

what about you? what do you aspire to do?

an evening with ragheb alama

are'nt i a lucky gal (occasionally life does come up trumps)
yesterday evening i was diniing avec daddy , little sis , dads best friend and his utterly adorable blonchen wife . we were ravenously wolfing down copious amounts of sushi
when lo and behold who do you think sits down at the table right next to us .
ragheb alama ! the lebanese singer
uncroyable eh non?
well my fathers pal happens to be in the foreign affairs ministry and knows our ambassador in lebanon who just happens to be to be a friend of M. Alama
so he lured him into a chat !
i must say he is a very charming man and very congenial company .
come to think of it he is the first lebanese person i have ever met .(interesting)
we talked about lebanon naturally . he kept encouraging us to visit soon saying things will perk up soon enough etc etc.
im not a huuuuge fan of his mind you . but his music is pleasant enough
an unexcpectedly pleasant evening