A never ending fight

I am proud to share with you followers & friends my latest advance in post cancer rehabilitation process:

Psychologically I was followed by dr rabih Hourani el massri(ex murex colleague converted to psychiatry)

Did many sessions to accept my condition and he encouraged me to keep fighting as long as there is hope for improvements even if little, and so I did.

For leg mobility I rejoined the Laetitia Hatem center in hotel dieu for stretching and hydrotherapy session were I started to see improvements in my walking balance & stability in walking

For my hand use i asked my friends to do research on the possible reachable solutions for my case and they came back with the Saebo solution that gladly had a representative in Lebanon Phisioline Sodeco square center no waiting I asked for an appointment with Dr. Malek Ounsi who was more excited than me to proceed asap we ordered the needed devices:

1-Saebo stretch to reduce muscles spasticity/atrophy

2- saebo glove to reeducate finger motion and neurologic order

I’m sharing with u the results after 7 sessions:

Impressive huh?

Big thanks to dr Malek and his team

And a special thanks to Elyssar l zein who was closely following my case and gave it high importance and was my main motivator (look at her pic you will understand better) => still same old Fadi some things never change ;)

Law enforcement in lebanon , my experience

In a country like lebanon law enforcement is unfortunately selectiv, it depends on how strong your connections are or 'wasta' as we commonly call it 

Well today i enforced  my law on  one of many  careless law breakers  that are used to  use my handicapped parking lot 

Needless to say that this happens more than frequently and goes without any ticket by the police who never care for this kind of issues

But first Let me tell u about what happened on valentine day  on my return home i found the lot was used by a sporty car  a convertible black chevrolet camaro  was parking just under the illuminated  handicap sign

So i spent 1hour looking for the car owner without success since he did not leave any contact info on the car windshield

An hour later Mr bhim arrives with his Valentine date, given his size 3*3 i kept a polite speech and told him about his mistake expecting an excuse me or a regret sentence... 

to my surprise he just pushed me away saying move out of my way got in his car and left as if nothing happened!!!!i stood in chock wondering what kind of species was that human looking  being?

So next day i downloaded the access app with lebanese cars database just to be able to track such pigs 

Unfortunately i did not take his plate number to track him down but the very next day the same happened but this time a black 318 BMW  

So i used the app to get his number and sent him an sms  message saying ur car will be towed by the police  in ten mins plus a 500'000LBP fine .

3 seconds later he was moving his car with all due apologies and words of kindness and forgiveness

Im sooo proud of myself but i still beleive it wont be the last time it happens  given the number of his alikes in lebanon but now i know how to act

In Lebanon Be your own law maker

In a country like lebanon law enforcement is unfortunately selective, it depends on how strong your connections are or wasta as we commonly call it 

Well today i enforced law one of many  careless law breakers  that are used to  use my handicapped parking lot 

Needless to say that this happens more than frequently and goes without any ticket by the police who never care to monitor this kind of parking tickets 

But before telling my adventure on this issue today,

Let me tell u about what happened on valentine day  on my return home i found the lot was used by a sporty car  a convertible black chevrolet camaro  was parking just under the illuminated  handicap sign

So i spent 1hour looking for the car owner without success since he did not leave any contact info on the car windshield

An hour later Mr bhim arrives with his Valentine date given his size 3*3 i kept a polite speechand told him about his mistake expecting an excuse me or a regret sentence... 

to my surprise he just pushed my away saying move out of my way got in his car and left as if nothing happened!!!!i sood in chock wondering what mind of species was that human looking  being

So next day i downloaded the access app with lebanese cars database just to be able to track such pigs 

Unfortunately i did not take his plate number to track him down but the very next day the same happened but this time a black 318 BMW  

So i used the app to get his number and sent him an sms  message saying ur car will be towed by the police  in ten mins plus a 500'000LBP fine .

3 seconds later he was moving his car with all due apologies and words of kindness and forgiveness

Im sooo proud of myself but i still beleive it wont be the last time it happens  given the number of his alikes in lebanon but now i know how to act

Anniversary

Five years ago god gave me a second chance to live ,

To thank him for this blessing i decided to live happily praising his love to me so i decided not be sad or let anything or anyone make me forget the joy of being alive  some think i got too hard and describe me as an emotionless crocodile 🙄😆

I also discovered that the only true peace that i could find is to be with him

So i got closer to god as much as i could 

I spent time with people that cheer me up and boxed out the  negative vibe persons even some relatives and family members

At work i quit the projects that made my life miserable no matter how important they were to my career

I now carefully choose where when and with whom to spend this extra time that was given to me 

I hope you do same without having to go through what i went thru

The last episode

It’s been 6 months I stopped Chemo and still in good shape as per latest RMI result

I think it’s time to close this chapter of my life and move on/ back to normal life

However like any respectable TV series this event needed a grand finale episode to mark the end of a 3 years nightmare

And what’s better than a lifetime signature fo r a lifetime experience ? (in good or bad)

Yesterday Nov05-2014 Without any hesitation I headed to Jal el dib centre Mallah and paid a visit to Hadi Beydoune the famous tattoo artist in lebanon and below the result

Note that this is my second tattoo done  by Hadi the first one was 19 years ago done by meaningless  rebellion attitude of a teenager (was 18 sigh)

however the new one expresses a real sentiment of achievement and personal fulfillment (what I was trying to fake when 18 happened at 37)

What I considered as a curse 3 years ago turned out to be a blessing from god to reach this stage of grace and confidence thank you Jesus

Big thanks and big up/ thumb up etc… to Hadi who was kind enough to offer me a pro-bono tattoo as a contribution from him to my fight

If you want a tattoo don’t hesitate a second Hadi Beydoun  is the man :http://www.hadybeydoun.com/

Another good reason to get inked : Mariam Nour’s aliens won’t be visible to you anymore(good riddance they only appear to non inked humans lol)but you cant escape her tv show on New TV J

I think it was a nice Finale , hope you liked it there wont be season 2 cross my fingers

The banana republic airlines

After one week in Sarajevo , I was heading back to Beirut with our national carrier MEA (middle east airlines )/ air Liban here is my experience :

I arrived early to check in desk in order to ask for a business class upgrade. I explained to the lady my condition (hemiplegic) she agreed to do so was so happy to comeback on a large comfortable seat so I head quickly to the gate arriving to the boarding point I handed my ticket to the lady :

 She said oops  I'm sorry sir u have been downgraded to economy due to captain request when I asked for the reason she answered u have to talk to the captain. Once on board I asked for the explanation from pilot he literally said ana ma khassneh( not my concern) to my knowledge a pilot has an ultimate power on his aircraft he is the legal D.A . On the plane 

Gladly my zgharta friends intervened to let him know they won't accept this, magically the hostess told me its ok u can sit in business

Here is what really happened( got it from the hostess when we insisted on getting an explanation:

One of the relatives of the cabin crew was travelling on the flight so she decided to upgrade him giving him my place!! ( wrong shot honey) 

Luckily my mum is an ex MEA employee and asked to speak to captain again and asked for his opinion on what happened he said :

What do iu want me to do ? Sue her??

Here I'm not mentioning the bad service on board!!! The ultimate chicken or basta seyyyr

And I still wonder how they choose the hostesses( a hybrid specie of monkey and woman with alien  tattooed eyebrows  scary  

One ore thing fragile cargo arrived broken !

In one word : miserable 

las vegas trip summary

5 crazy days, 12 total hours of sleep 
320 chicken wings, 30 at 6AM 
60 leghems at Cosmo, 10 at Paris, 6 at Vegas airport 
4 cavity searches at Heathrow 
1 $700 bottle of Moet for $30, or the other way round 
1 $700 bottle of Moet consumed in 12 minutes 
1 Grand Cabana with a TV 
3 times the minimum charge spent... at a minimum 
4 cups of vomit, 2 with ice cubes 
4 English girls who live in Bricklane, Hertfordshire 
10 pairs of sexy eye glasses 
$100 spent on $1 slot machine in 49 seconds at Ballys 
7 blocked necks, 3 guys smelling HCL. O! cirque du soleil
10 nails engraved on a helicopter seat 
1 pee in the grand canyon 
10 inches added to the Colorado river 
30 FB check-ins, 150 FB checks 
1 night with Armin, 1 with David Guetta, so we were told 
50 girls pinched at 5AM, 1 unhappy 2x2m boyfriend, 2 lucky guys 
1 hour of free detartrage: 30min horizontal, 30min vertical 
3 Emirates hostesses, 2 dodgy Egyptians, 1 goddess 
438 Vodka redbulls, 204 Vodka tootberry, 79 shots, 84 beers and 6 coffees 
1 $400 bribe for a good table, 1 excellent table 
2 new guests invited to wedding, 1 confirmed
1 Cinderella who never found her shoe 
Unlimited free vodka at the 1st table on the left with delivery guy and cigarette tray with Viceroy and Cedars 
1 failed negotiation with homeless guy over the sale of a belt 
0 big macs served at McDo in the morning 
1 chick with burnt legs 
1 guy with stained shirt. He has learnt a lesson. 
5 seconds for fastest bottle ever ordered at Speamint 
2 seconds for light drinks to be transformed into a table and bottle 
1 Tunisian from Venezuela 
1 Japanese with 6 different names 
1 most disgusting best pastrami sandwich ever made 
1 mysterious disappearance of a Fiji bottle 
1 baby sleeping on his mom's shoulder. Amalya, we love you 

The rest "none of us can remember, remember?"

never buy a Montblanc

Dear readers and followers,

I am writing these lines to share with you  my disappointment regarding the customer service experience encountered with one of the official dealers of MontBlanc  in Beirut(Tamer Freres):

In December 2012 I decided to indulge myself with a montblanc  watch (Mont Blanc being a top of the line trademark) () that’s what I thought at hat time

so I bought the watch from the dealer in Beirut (montblanc ABC achrafieh)

Few weeks later to my surprise the watch stopped working

At first I thought it was a battery issue so I took it back to the dealer to replace the battery (since it was still under warranty)

The dealer informed me after multiple notice that it’s not a battery issue but a defect in the watch and the only technician he has is on vacation so he is not able to repair it before 2-3weeks minimum.

I asked for replacement , he refused I asked for refund refused as well.

So now its been 3 months I bought the watch but did not enjoy it yet

Meanwhile I contacted Montblanc Germany to help me solve the issue with no success(for different excusesuch as no spare part or spare part delivery delay you know the Lebanese way of lying and dealing with customers)

The best one was: from the dealer: saying that cars may have defects so montblanc watches defects are quite normal

So now the moral : next time you think of buying a montblanc watch, save your money and buy a Casio…(fya calculatrice w betdaweh);)translation it haas a calculator and lights up 

A year ago !!

A year ago, Jan 9^th 2012 I was undergoing a nine hours brain surgery to remove a part of a big tumor I discoveredfew days before

It was definitely not the best way to start the year

2012 was certainly a shitty year health wise for me, but it made me realize many positivefacts:

1.       God exists and is alive and listening to my prayers(all prayers)

2.        How lucky I am to have such wonderful supportive family

3.       Everything happens for a reason  (good or bad)

4.       How blessed I am to have such true friends (I won’t mention names to avoid missing someone nd the list is long)below one example (marc haddad supportive message on abdo feghali's car during rally des cedres)

5.       I am working in a wonderful supportive company (Murex systems)that still maintains human values despite its big size

6.       My brother in law is a great guy I was not very close to him beforeand I’m glad that now I know him better

7.       We have a skilled medical care in Lebanon (sprcial thanks to my doctors and my therapists especially my ergotherapist Sally)

8.       Believe in yourself, never give up whatever the doctors say(I was diagnosed with a cancerous grade4 tumor scale of 5..with few months to live)

9.       And yes you read well I ‘WAS’..I have healedtoday J

To 2013 I say : I will live and enjoy every second of you cheers happy new year

I'mBack

Wondering where I washiding  in the past few months?here goes my story :


In my last tweet in December I was in paris for a training(I finally changed my job and moved to a decent company: Murex systems (not linked to murex d’or)
paris was great as usual during christmas season (la ville lumiere)

While in paris I noticed a loss of vision in the right eye, I did not give it any importance and said I’ll check with my ophthalmologist when back to Beirut

After check up the clinical result showed no problem in the eye itself but the doctor asked for brain RMI imageto identify twhere the vision malfunction is .

Long story short the RMI showed a large tumor(8-12cm) in the head ..it was so big that my brain was being pushed andcrushed against my skull thus affecting my vision (occipital lobe responsible for vision remember biology in terminal??:) )

an immediate surgery was advised to prevent further damagein other functions my neurosurgeon dr Ibrahim saikali operated me for 9 hours at Clemenceau medical center to remove parts of the tumor in theright frontal foreheadventricul

(this partof the braincontrols the left side motricity) this is why I did a post operation left side hemiplegy (paralysedmy left arm and leg)like a 'felij' effect


the tumor was not totally removedand was cancerous this is why I had to go through 30 chemotherapy radiotherapy treatment sessions(to reduce the remaining part of it
in addition to physiotherapysessions to regain mobility

needles to describe the difficulty for me and my parents to do these sessions while in a wheel chair during this exceptional heavy winter season especially that no infrastructure is designed in Lebanon for wheelchair users, even in hospitalsand medical centers

so my daily programfor 30days was :

1- Chemotherapyin the morning

2- Radiotherapyat noon

3- physiotherapyin the afternoon

to end this post on a positive note :

I got engaged !!!yes I finally met my soul mate who stood by me during this horrible

 experience I thank god for this angel and my parents and friends who supported me to maintain a high moral and solid fighting spirit

now, why i a m posting on this subject??:
1- I consider it a part of my therapy to continue mnormallymy life when fighting cancer 
2- i want to highlight the exponential grow of cancer ratio in lebanon (the radiotherapy section in hospitals are full of patients- pollution bad food...)an unofficial statistic reveals a ratio 4 times more than normal
3- i want to speak about what we lebanese call 'hayda l marad '(as if it is a taboo subject)
Today : I a m still undergoing chemotheraoy sessionsthe tumor volume is reducing slowly progressively and …
im walking again :D and back to work... life goes on
i still dont see with the right eye(please excuse the typo mistakes)

1 month in Riyad - The good, the bad and the worst

Things you learn /see when in Riyo :) :

- Weird buildings

- Smart women, way more educated than men: at least the ones I got the chance to work with, but again one should consider that these women represents the elite of the Saudi society since they have this strong will to work (working women is not in the Saudi culture)

- Smelly taxis : this was the hardest part in the morning when heading to the office

- Junk food overdose : Hardee's, BK, Kudu, Pizza hut, Subway loop...

I really missed my mum's cooking

- Work work and work: When in Riyo you have a tendency to become workaholic, you hate week ends (Thursday and Friday) since you have nothing to do. Even the malls are restricted to single guys!

- Interesting projects big opportunities : the best part of my trip... Intranet governance, Online strategy, solution roadmaps etc... and guess what ? : they won't ask you about the cost... they just want it done !! Apparently KSA did not know about the financial crisis.

- On prayer times (5 times a day) you become a prisoner ! everything is closed

- Detox : Thanks to Saudi no alcohol policy, (munkar) I finally managed to keep away from alcohol for one whole month...

ok, it wasn't by choice, so I'm not claiming the credit, but my doctor is gonna be so happy

- Saudis are very kind people :like that guy at traffic red light stop who offered us his pizza and really insisted that we share it... otherwise he will divorce his wife ! (!علي الطلاق! علي الطلاق)

- Compounds : I hated these silos where foreigners and expats live

- Last but not least : Finally some time to blog

Bisous

Accommodation in Beirut - Finding a place to stay

Last week, Shane, an Irish guy who is planning to move to Beirut in the near future, asked for my help in finding an affordable and central accommodation in Beirut.

Since I couldn't come up with a decent suggestion he found this interesting site and asked me to check it out for him and advise on the place.

So I followed the directions on this hand drawn map:

at first I found it hard to find the little alley between el Mandaloune grill and the Coral gaz station. In fact the alley is so tiny that I passed it twice without noticing it (see it's behind the orange 'thing')


Taking down the alley, I was surprised to see this nice old building that serves as an Arabic language learning institute

Further down, this private garden that serves as a snack for the hostel , (you can see 2um Nazih baking on her Saj)

I give it to you, it's not the Grey or the Four seasons, but one could not but admire the old house architecture under renovation

below the reception,

and the double room setting :

Now comes the most interesting part : the rates that will highly interest any student or NGO worker such as Shane (25usd per night the single room on a monthly rate) also available, a shared dorm option.

Now why am I blogging about it ?

1 - I never knew we have such places in Lebanon

2 - I found it cute,decent and suitable for students / foreigners / tourists who cannot afford the expensive luxurious hotels we have... so spread the news

3 - On that same day , there was a candle light march in Beirut for preserving such old buildings from being destroyed and replaced by modern towers

A good example of how we can take advantage of those charming structures without destroying them.

Voila...

30 + TVA !

Long time no post !!

I know what you are probably saying : I am not a frequent blogger ! but what the hell, I blog when I have something to say... not for keeping high traffic to my blog !!

So no pressure and no stress…

For me, blogging is for letting loose, not for creating more burden or stress

Speaking of stress , lately I’ve been under a lot of stress and here are the reasons:

- I’m 33 years old or 30 + TVA like my friend Rubs like to say!! and YES we guys stress about age too

- I have been offered a very nice business opportunity , but involves high risk , so I have to get back with an answer soon enough , and to be honest I haven’t made up my mind yet

- And… I’ll spare you the details of my private life.

Anyway today’s post is gonna be about… (drums rolling )…..ma ba3rif (don't know) !

So I’ll choose a recent pic and tell you its story (wow It was so easier when this blog used to be a simple photo blog…)

The below pic was taken last Sunday, at my family house in the mountains, as u can see there are plenty of kids in it and thank god they are not mine…

BUT I am their godfather… (yeah… A pretty expensive role on xmas !!)

More seriously these little devils were my bday choir singing me happy bday until I shouted at them to shut up. And I enjoyed it more than David guetta’s F**** me im Famous, White and Sky bar celebrations with my friends (no offense guys)

Is it a sign that I’m getting old ???

I’d like to believe its not :)

PS here are the gifts I have received

Beirut night-life

Summer is here and the open air bars are in the hype again. (above is the sky bar opening night pic)

Everyone agrees that beirut is considered to be a reference in the night-life scene -

my expat-friends envy me for living in beyrouth all year round -

but lately I'm starting to get frustrated with it and here are the reasons :

1 - The reservation hassle : It is becoming harder and harder to get a table reserved in the trendy places. From june to september it becomes almost impossible to reserve.
It looks like the policy is : the harder it is to get a table, the trendier becomes the place !
Some hints and tips to improve your chances :
- Call from an international line number (preferably a european number , ultimately a Saudi one)
- Call yourself Jean-luc or Jean-louis and choose a reputable family name (Abella or Sursok)

- Take a superiority complex - attitude when talking to the manager (don't worry he will treat you the same way)

2- Door policy : Even if you have a reservation, the rude bouncer (or 'visagiste' like they like to call him) will give u hard time to get in!
For example he will make you wait 5 mins pretending he is looking for your name on the list
(this is normal knowing that he doesnt even hold a brevet degree) but given the size of his biceps you have to smile at him and be very polite (it is highly recommended NOT to piss him off!!!)

3- No one dances : Once inside (and you're glad to be among the happy few to pass the door),the trend is for definitely NOT to dance !!! You are allowed to make some small moves though and that is, if the place is not overcrowded! (Have you been to 'element' lately ?)
The main idea of the outing becomes : 'to see and to be seen' so get a spot with a nice view preferably where everyone can see you :)

4 -Lebanese girls attitude : overdressed, wedding style !! don't get me wrong I love classy Lebanese women, but this is way too much...

5- The recurrent "mistakes" in over-charging you on the bill (extra drinks , extra number of persons etc...)

6- Last but not least : the valet parking. you will wait 30 mins waiting for your car, unless you own a Ferrari (it will be parked at the door)

I am not complaining , it is still exciting to go out in Beirut, but I had to let loose !

Lebanese banks 101

We Lebanese, always brag about how great and solid our banking sector is, and how Lebanese banks managed to stay away from the global financial crisis.

But have you ever wondered why Lebanese banks are so profitable ?

Even though I'm definitely not a financial expert, here is my humble explanation :

1st - Lebanese banks (privately held) hold 80 % of the public Lebanese debt. This means that they are making huge money from the interests service, where the majority of the yearly state budget spending goes.

2nd - Lebanese banks are tightly governed by the central bank who prohibited them from speculating with high risk financial products (this is why Lebanon was spared from the financial crisis)

3rd and most importantly (and this is the core subject of this post) : they are suit-wearing thieves as they charge us, customers on every single transaction we make (from statement of account to phone bill payment to cheque deposit etc...)

But the most outrageous issue is 'the date de valeur' trick !!! let me explain :

Suppose you cash deposit 1000 usd to your account. They'll give you a 'date de valeur' of today +8 days. This means that the money wont be effectively available for use until 8 days have passed !!!

This means that if you did not have any money on your account before the deposit, you wont be able to withdraw any dime from your account until 8 days have passed !!

Even though you've just handed 1000 usd to the teller, she will tell you with a smile (yes they are very polite !!!) that you have nothing on your account!!!!

Bottom line: better keep the cash on you.

And I am not mentioning the mediocrity of their online services (if they exist)

I cant imagine what would a French consumer protection organisation would say about this illegal practice ?? Do you imagine 'UFC que choisir' working in Lebanon ????

Khay it feels so good to bad mouth them !!

Home coming process hints

21 months ago, I was packing my things in Paris and moving back to Beirut...

Today I remembered this period as I was having lunch with one of my friends who is currently experiencing the same 'home coming' process. (gladly I am not the only A**hole who took this step, as more and more of my friends are moving back)

As a 'subject matter expert' I was giving him some hints and tips on the issues he would be facing.

First hint : If you are shipping your things to Lebanon, and to get your things thru the airport customs, you have to have some good connections with the surete generale (Amn el 3am) especially if by mistake you decided to ship your CD and DVD collection. Apparently they need to go through censorship (ra2abeh) to make sure that the content is aligned with their values and ethics. If not, make sure to prepare a good bakhchich !

So for those of you guys thinking of bringing your porn collection ... re-consider :)

Second hint : when employed in Lebanon, it is a common practice for your employer not to declare your full salary to social security. Don't panic it's normal , this way they pay less charges, and no it wont affect the huge home loan you're planning to get from your bank ! Not that I encourage these practices, but this is the way it goes here

3rd hint : be patient ! especially with your parents, they will still think of you / treat you as the same young boy who left 9 years earlier! It will take some time for you and for them to adapt to the new situation

Anyway, welcome back dude ! it was good to see you...

Yes I'm blogging again !

After a long time with so few posts , I am back to blogging again !! much has happened since my last post ! I changed my work for example .... And this post is related to the new things / places I am discovering during my tiny lunch breaks (30 mins ! talk about slavery ... )

Today I tried l'atelier (resto d'application pour L'IGE) as you can see lunch was delicious !!! In addition to the good food, I really appreciated the 'ambiance'. surrounded by 'de bons vieux franchouillard' It reminded me of my lunch breaks in Paris (Nostalgia)

L'atelier facing CCF and french Consulat. Mathaf

Lazy B - Jiyeh

Berlin Wall - Busted !