T'as le bleu?

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In reference to my spicy sis' and her tag here, here's my touch of blue.

Bon alors comme promis sur le blog de ma sœurette que je boycotte ces temps-cis (affaire privée, nan mais oh!) voila ma palette de bleus.

1) RUBIK's CUBE

or maybe this one?

2) HILTON RAK

3) CAFÉ BLEUTÉ

4) UNE MER DE CIEL

5) ROTANA FUJAIRAH

6) SHISHA

7) PAPOUTI

Je suis sure qu'il y en a plein d'autres touches de bleu, mais je suis un peu pressée ces temps-cis mais je ne pouvais quand même pas ignorer le challenge de notre petite épice parisienne...

On déménage et no time! Je sais que je dois encore vous parler de mon petit permis (qui n'est pas bleu, donc comme ça, pas de problème), de mon premier petit tour en tuture, de ma nouvelle home sweet home, du retour de mon hadhoud et plein, plein d'autres choses.

Alors à plus! ;-)
Hopefully, bientôt! :-P


I'm sure there's plenty of other touches of blue on my blog but I'm in a hurry so I chose the latest ones only because I couldn't ignore our little spice's challenge...

We're moving and I've no time on my hands! I know, I'm supposed to talk some more about my license (which incidentally is not blue, so we're OK), my first drive, my new home sweet home, hadhoud's return from the USA and much, much more.

So see you later! ;-)
Hopefully soon! :-P

. S H A R E . T H I S . P ✮ S T .

Pilobolus Dance Theater

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Pilobolus
Uploaded by laurkal. - Arts and animation videos.

Pilobolus Dance Theater links:

Official site
Wikipedia
MySpace
Google Videos Search Results

. S H A R E . T H I S . P ✮ S T .

Puzzling...

English

A friend shared an article on Facebook the other day about the latest nerdy toy hitting stores this year: The Rubik's 360

Yes, I said Rubik.

Sounds familiar? Of course it does! It's our childhood's most popular tool of torture: The Rubik's Cube! My God, how I hated this toy!! So damn frustrating! Never solved it!

Apparently, 30 years later, the same inventor decides it is time to torture a new generation of innocent kids who will be undoubtedly receiving the Rubik's 360 this Christmas for two reasons:

1. REVENGE! Their parents were tortured with the cube, it's now time for them to hit back and be on the other end; i.e. inflicting the pain! :-P

2. IMMORTALITY! In Lebanon we have a proverb that says "One who has children never dies"; which means that if you have kids, they'll take after you, physically but also in their mannerism and attitude (and in our culture the family name is very important, so having a boy means allowing your name to carry on to the next generation) and so, the memory of you is kept alive through your children; i.e. you're immortal :-P All this seems unrelated to our topic here, but in fact, it is not because the whole point is to explain to you that no matter how hard you fight it, ultimately you will do like your parents did. And what did your parents do? They decided that getting you a Rubik's Cube would mean PEACE. Occupy that child for as long as possible! Well now it's your turn to suffer children's nagging... But also your turn to occupy them with their own Rubik! Ah, isn't life beautiful? Doesn't this entire existence seem so much fairer now?

Your kids' torture tool is not a cube, it's a bubble...
Different shape, same anguish! :-)

Rubik's cube inventor unveils testing 360 puzzle

Rubik's 360 will hit UK stores next week and promises to be just as challenging as its predecessor

Haroon Siddique
guardian.co.uk, Tuesday 7 July 2009 12.24 BST

Almost 30 years after the Rubik's cube led many to a fit of pique and sleepless nights, its inventor is back with a new puzzle that promises to prove just as testing.

The Rubik's 360 will be launched in the UK next week and Erno Rubik hopes it can replicate the success of the cube, which has sold more than 350m units since its 1980 launch and remains the world's fastest-selling toy.

The puzzle is based on similar principles to the cube, with the objective being to steer six coloured balls inside a sphere into their respective home slots.

"I feel that the Rubik's 360 is one of the most innovative and exciting puzzles we've developed since the cube – adopting elements of my original design, challenging the solver to use skill, dexterity and logic," said the notoriously reclusive Rubik.

David Hedley Jones, senior vice-president of the Rubik's brand, said that, like the fiendishly difficult but addictive cube, the 360 looks like it should be quite easy. "But it is incredibly complicated. There are some really cunning tricks to it," he said.

It is the 64-year-old Hungarian inventor's first new puzzle for almost 20 years and, according to Rubik's, the level of pre-orders has already left stocks low.

It will be officially launched at Hamleys on 15 July and the London toy store said the 360, priced at £18, was the most popular item on its website, with thousands of inquiries received.

The Rubik's cube was invented in 1974 and its popularity exploded when it was exported from Hungary in 1980. The name entered the Oxford English Dictionary after just two years and the toy is a permanent exhibit in New York's Museum of Modern Art. It still has a cult following and 15m were sold last year.

While Rubik's is keen for the 360 to follow in the footsteps of the cube in terms of sales – it is already being touted as a Christmas bestseller – the new puzzle has fallen foul of one of the problems that afflicted its predecessor: fakes. Rubik's has warned customers to beware of copies after a spate of imitations appeared on eBay.

Of course, this reminded me that if a new puzzle is coming out soon, I should at least try and solve the original one right?

But unlike in the old days, we now have access to a wealth of information... On the net! This time, I skipped Google and directly hit YouTube with my fatidic question:

How to solve a Rubik's Cube?

Apparently many people have already taken care of that matter and I found many videos willing to answer my question. Didn't have the patience to check them all because, well the first one (which is made of two parts) completely broke me! It was supposed to be simple damn it! Well I am still as clueless about Rubik as I was before! But I'm sure you guys are smarter than me, so go ahead, check it out and enjoy! As for me, my only solution is this.

Now... Waiting for the 360 "how to" guide on YouTube...

. S H A R E . T H I S . P ✮ S T .

English ✮ Français

Taken from: Grossesse En Blog

Couldn't resist sharing this ;-)

J'ai pas pu résister; je partage ;-)
(profitez-en pour suivre 1Gars 3Nanas; blog génial!)


Les bébés Evian, c’est des oufs

Ils ont bien changé les mômes Evian. Souvenez-vous, dans les années 90, ils faisaient du bébé nageur sur fond de Mr Sandman, y étaient tout mimi, y se la jouaient même Muriel Hermine.

En 2009, bah… y ont changé, quoi. C’est pu c’que c’était la jeunesse, ma p’tite dame. Vous remarquerez également que les effets spéciaux ont un tantinet progressé. Juste un tantinet.

Kiiiiiiiiiim ? Tu viens ? Papa a une idée de fiiiilm !

Alors, pour la comparaison avec la pub Evian des années 90, passez par ici chez 1Gars 3Nanas. Moi, je vous laisse avec encore plus de bébés tout mimis et le Making Of d'Evian Roller Babies (pas vraiment un Making Of, parcequ'on explique rien de comment ils ont fait la pub, mais c'est juste une nouvelle excuse pour voir tout plein de bébés!)

For the comparison with the commercial from the 90's, go here at 1Gars 3Nanas. As for me, I leave you with more cutie-babies and the Evian Roller Babies Making Of (not really a Making Of though because they don't show how they produced the ad, but just another excuse to watch more cutie-babies!)

. S H A R E . T H I S . P ✮ S T .

The meaning of "Finally"

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Here's a little story about little me:

Those of you who have been following know how hard I've struggled (yes, yes, I'm taking the big words out) with my driving school and my license.

Well this morning at 9:00am, the suffering ended!!
I mean FINALLY ended ;-)

I don't even want to think about my previous trials here, here and here.

You're probably wondering what took me so long. Well after my last failure I got so frustrated I decided to change branches (and thus, examiners, as mentioned in previous articles, each center/branch has its own on-site based examiners). So it took a few weeks for the school to move my file and assign me a new instructor. So basically, last week, I took exactly three classes just to familiarize myself with the area and the roads and this morning, went for my exam. First trial: Pass.

To tell you the truth, I thought that I was doomed to roam the roads in taxis and I welcomed the metro with open arms thinking it would be my new best friend forever! I'm still planning to use it on a regular basis: love public transportation and quite honestly, hate traffic so in Dubai, the metro appears to be a great ally for me ;-) But since we're moving to a new location which is quite far from the actual city, I'm going to need to drive especially that at the moment, it's still under construction and there are no accessible buses in the area.

After my humiliating failures I was beginning to think that I was not meant to be a driver and that I should just accept my wheel-less life. I mean come on, why else would I fail so much?

But on the very first day I started at the new branch, my instructor told me that the examiners at my former branch are very well-known in the school for failing the students five, six, and sometimes more than ten times before giving them a license. That explains a lot (see previous posts here, here and here where I talk about the poor girl who tried 13 times and still failed... Don't know what happened to her at the end though; hope she got to appreciate the meaning of "FINALLY" too).

And this morning I thought, well if I fail again, that really means I am a bad driver and obviously a danger to myself and others so I should really rethink the whole driving thing. After all it was an entirely new area, new roads, and most importantly a new examiner.

Again (I love to say this): Three classes; One test; Pass.

So yes, peeps! I CAN DRIVE! I'm not a bad a driver. I was just at the wrong center!!

I have to go back tomorrow to pick up my license... Will share it with you for certain!! :-) In the meantime, here's the report form where it's written in big letters (and in Arabic :-P):

PASSED

I have just one last word addressed to my baby sister:

ÉPICE, IT'S YOUR TURN NOW!!!

Fancy some Frenchy?
Oki Doki then :-)

La signification du mot "ENFIN"

Donc voila ma petite histoire:

Ceux qui suivent ce blog savent déjà que j'ai beaucoup souffert (oui, oui, les grands mots!) avec mon auto-école et mon permis.

Et bien ce matin at 9h00 exactement, j'ai mis fin au supplice!!
Je veux dire, j'ai ENFIN mis fin au supplice ;-)

Pas besoin de se remémorer les essais précédents here, here et here.

Vous vous demandez surement pourquoi j'ai mis une éternité avant de l'avoir ce permis. Et bien j'étais tellement frustrée après mon dernier échec, que j'ai décidé de changer de branche (et donc d'examinatrice puisque comme je l'avais expliqué dans mes billets précédents, chaque branche a son propre groupe d'examinatrices). Il a donc fallu quelques semaines pour que mon dossier soit transféré d'un centre à l'autre et qu'une nouvelle prof soit disponible. La semaine dernière j'ai enfin pu reprendre les cours. Juste trois classes pour me familiariser avec la nouvelle zone et ses routes et ce matin, j'avais mon test. Premier essai: Réussi.

À vrai dire, je croyais que j'étais condamnée à errer en taxis et c'est d'ailleurs pour ça que j'attendais le métro avec tellement d'impatience. Je compte toujours le prendre régulièrement parceque j'aime les transports en commun et je déteste les embouteillages; alors à Dubai, le métro c'est quand même mon futur meilleur ami pour toujours! ;-) Mais vu qu'on déménage dans une nouvelle zone résidentielle qui n'est pas encore bien couverte du point de vue transports en commun, mon permis commençait vraiment à devenir une nécessité.

Suite à mes humiliants échecs, je commençais vraiment à croire que j'étais un danger public au volant et qu'il valait mieux pour moi et autrui, que j'abandonne mon rêve de devenir automobiliste. Bein oui quoi! Qui raterait son permis autant de fois? Ce matin encore je m'étais dis que cette fois serais la dernière, si une nouvelle examinatrice me saque sur une nouvelle zone, et de nouvelles routes, le problème c'est moi, c'est sur!

Mais, et j'adore le répéter: Trois classes, Un test, Un permis.

Alors oui, JE SAIS CONDUIRE! J'étais juste au mauvais endroit!!

D'ailleurs, dès ma première séance, ma nouvelle prof m'a dit que l'autre branche est réputée pour son taux d'échecs et que personne ne passe avant cinq, six ou même dix essais; ce qui explique beaucoup (cf. mes précédents billets here, here et here dans lesquels je parle de cette pauvre fille qui a essayé 13 fois, en vain... Je ne sais pas ce qu'il lui est arrivé d'ailleurs, mais j'espère qu'elle aussi est quand même parvenue à apprécier la signification du mot "ENFIN").

Je retourne à l'auto-école demain, pour la dernière fois, pour prendre mon permis. Je promets de vous le montrer; entre-temps, je partage ce magnifique rapport où il est écrit en lettres gigantesques (et en Arabe :-P) le mot magique:

PASSÉ

En conclusion, il ne me reste plus que quelques mots à dire à ma petite sœur chérie:

ÉPICE, À TON TOUR!!!

. S H A R E . T H I S . P ✮ S T .

Week End Fun :-)

English ✮ Français

As you know, Hubby is in the USA at the moment. So it looked like he was going to be the only one having fun being in LA and all, until Loume & I decided that our weekend would not be dull either! ;-) So we checked nice locations that we hadn't seen yet and opted for the Hilton Ras al Khaimah Resort & Spa. It took us two good hours to get there because we go lost on the way :-P otherwise, from Dubai, it's accessible in a little more than an hour and a half.

It was excellent!

Of course, missed Hubby a lot, but planning for another trip there, with him.

We arrived on Friday morning and were already in the pool before noon! The hotel is huge and borders a beautiful beach with immense connected pools extending from one end of the hotel to the other. Actually, when we called we were told that it was fully booked but because there are so many pools and each one bigger than the next, they all seemed almost empty!

We discovered later than day that there the first bunch are regular pools but the second half are all salty pools to give a Dead Sea experience! No matter what you do or how hard you try to stay down, the water just pushes you back up. You end up floating on your back all the time, as if you were lying on an air mattress, but without the actual mattress :-) It was really cool and needless to say we spent hours there, just lying on the water!

In the evening, we had lunch at the sea food restaurant which was delicious (unlike the very less than ordinary food experience at the Rotana) and then we had a wonderful time at Havana, the hotel's pub where a very talented band from Latin America performed live. They were really great and the two girls had amazing voices (not to mention bodies that they used to salsa and samba non-stop throughout the performance). Also, and again unlike the Rotana the alcoholic drinks actually have alcohol in them! Turns out they are very generous and as a result, the cocktails are delicious!

The next morning we spent some time at the pool and checked out at around 4:00 pm.

Only complaint voiced Loume: "Where are the poles?" Apparently, the weekend is not complete unless there's a bunch of models sunbathing around :-P

We were back in Dubai by 6:00pm or so and then decided we would go have lunch/dinner at the Jumeirah Beach Residence. We ate at Fuddruckers where I discovered they have a delicious burger with all the amazing toppings but without bread! Perfect. And since we had our laptops with us, we decided to go for coffee afterwards. After discovering the other day that Costa doesn't provide wireless Internet connection, we decided to go to Starbucks although I really hate it. Don't like the coffee and hate the brand altogether... But Loume had to finish some work and check some emails so Internet connectivity was mandatory. So we're sitting there for a while and suddenly, one of the employees comes up to clean the tables next to us and... Starts mopping the floor! So I look at him in shock, thinking what the hell is he doing now? But before saying anything (thank God) I look at my computer's clock and realize it's already 11:30!! So we finally head home.

Good couple of days :-)

Comme vous le savez déjà, Hubby est aux États-Unis et il semblait qu'il allait être le seul à s'éclater ce week-end (vu qu'il est à LA) mais Loume et moi on en a décidé autrement! ;-) On a jeté un coup d'œil sur Internet pour voir où on pourrait aller, et on a opté pour le Hilton Ras al Khaimah Resort & Spa et il nous a fallu deux bonnes heures pour y arriver (et moins si on ne se serait pas perdus!)

C'était génial!

Bien sur, Hubby m'a manqué mais on pense y retourner ensemble.

On est donc arrivé vendredi matin et on était déjà dans l'eau avant midi! L'hôtel est gigantesque et longe la mer sur toute sa longueur avec des piscines spacieuses connectées les unes aux autres tout au long de la plage. En fait, quand on a téléphoné pour réserver, on nous avait dit que l'hôtel était plein et en dépit de tout ce monde, il y a tellement de piscines et elles sont tellement grandes qu'elles semblent toutes presque vides!

On a aussi découvert un peu plus tard que la première moitié est composée de piscines normales mais que la deuxième comprend des piscines salées pour expérimenter l'effet de Mer Morte! Quoi que l'on fasse on se retrouve sur ses fesses, à flotter comme si on était sur un matelas gonflable :-) C'était très cool et on y a passé des heures à ne rien faire, juste allongé à bronzer!

On a diné au restaurant spécialisé en fruits de mer, et c'était délicieux ce qui est un grand changement comparé au Rotana puis on a passé une soirée sensationnelle au Havana, le pub de l'hôtel où un groupe d'Amérique Latine dont les interprètes (les femmes en particulier) ont des voix extraordinaires nous ont divertis avec leurs chansons et leurs danses (elles n'ont pas arrêté de danser pendant tout le spectacle! Un petit coup de samba par ci et un petit coup de salsa par là). Sans oublier les cocktails alcoolisées qui eux aussi sont un grand changement par rapport au Rotana puisqu'ils contenaient bien de l'alcool cette fois!

On a passé le lendemain matin matin et après-midi à la piscine et on est rentré vers 16h00.

Seul hic d'après Loume: "Où sont les polonaises?" Apparemment, le week-end ne peut être complet sans elles :-P

On est arrivé à Dubai vers 18h00 et on a décidé d'aller déjeuner/diner à Jumeirah Beach Residence. On a mangé à Fuddruckers où j'ai découvert un délicieux burger avec garniture à volonté, mais sans pain! Parfait. Et comme on avait nos laptops sur nous, on est allé boire un café à Starbucks puisqu'on a découvert à nos dépends l'autre jour que Costa fournit pas de connexion internet; malheureusement, parceque moi, le café à Starbucks non seulement j'aime pas, mais je ne supporte pas toute la marque et son image... Mais Loume avait du boulot à finir et devait absolument se connecter. Nous sommes donc assis sur les canapés et après un bon moment, un des employés commence à faire le ménage! Je le regarde avec de gros yeux et je me demande pourquoi il s'est décidé à passer sa serpillère maintenant. Mais avant d'ouvrir ma grande bouche (Dieu Merci!) je jette un coup d'œil à la montre sur mon écran et je réalise qu'il est déjà 23h30!! On est donc enfin rentré à la maison!

Un bon week-end quoi :-)

. S H A R E . T H I S . P ✮ S T .