Dry New Year's Eve

This year it has been said yesterday that New Year's Eve will coincide with "Waqfat Arafat", the day when pilgrims in Mecca climb the Arafat mountain and pray to God, finishing their pilgrimage, this day will fall on the 31st of December 2006. This means one thing in Dubai, No PARTIES for New Year's Eve. This is because the law in Dubai states that these holy nights are dry night where no alcohol is to be served at any of the nightspots in the city.

Any ideas of cheap destinations where people from Dubai can start planning their new year's parties? I know there's going to be a ton of house parties, but it's just not the same. I was supposed to be going to Goa for new year's this year but I now have to cancel that trip because....yes another piece of news.....The Amr Diab concert (Mentioned below) has been postponed and will now most probably take place early January, which means I can't afford to be out of town such a short period prior to the concert, particularly not for a week in India. If I do travel for new year's it will be for one day and most probably to Beirut.

Anyone planning to come and spend New Year's eve in Dubai, reconsider, and maybe plan your trip a couple of weeks later to come to our concert!!!!!

Freedom of Choice?

Well...apparently in my country that is not really something people know. Recently I've read that 18 months ago, Bahaa El Din El Akkad, 57 year old ex-Islamist Daiaa (A person who's job is to teach non-muslims about Islam and help them understand the beauty and peace in this religion so they would convert to it), was arrested. This is pure Irony, considering the reason he was arrested... [Read the story here]

Converting to Christianity...

|t's really strange sometimes that governments can be so hypocritical and over-protective to the point where Secret Services, while it is their job to be obtrusive, intrusive and know everything about everyone, interfere with such personal decisions of individuals. It is clearly stated in the teachings of Islam, as a religion, "La Ikraha Fil Din" - Literally translated : No Compulsion in Religion. Does this not mean that every person is allowed to chose for themselves and let God be the judge in the end? Why is there a judgement day if people are going to be judged for actions that don't physically impact others by other people who are probably much more in the wrong that this person will ever be?

The mere fact that this person converted to Christianity, while i'm sure many people change religions every day, is his status, Who he is.

The one thing that this reminds me of is the Spanish Inquisition. Congratulations...the Egyptian government has finally caught up with 15th century Spain!

Burj Al Arab - In my Room

Yes, that's true...I have spent the last 10 hours, non-stop, building the world's only 7-star Hotel in my room...

Result? See for yourselves:

Separation Anxiety

Even those who know me very well might not know one fact about me...I get very strong cases of separation anxiety...And this is much easier handled with people than it is with items...simply because I manage to keep in touch very regularly with most people that I know, even those I've encountered briefly. With things and memorabilia however, it's much more difficult, because once something is thrown away, it's gone forever.

Yesterday I set out to clean my room, or what anyone who walked into it liked to call it, the giant garbage disposal. It's not that it's filthy, it's quite clean, it's just that my room probably holds within its four walls more things, stuff, items than the Egyptian Museum.

While cleaning, I found the following items:

• Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles Action Figures (Raphael and Michaelangelo - of course those stayed)


• My Stamp collection (also stayed)


• My Basketball Cards (Guess what...they stayed)


• Loads and loads of electric cables, some which were put to use instantly, and some were ....YES!!! THROWN AWAY!!!!!!!


• Lots and lots of CD's...(Haven't sorted them out yet...but I have a feeling the garbage shute at the end of the hall will win this battle due to the condition some of the discs are in)


• Many memorabilia and random collections (Will tell you about those in my next post)


• Oliver Twist and Abba Soundtracks - ON GRAMOPHONE RECORDS!!!!!!! (Keeping those)


• The original "No Woman No Cry" Single


• Over 100 VHS Video Tapes - Again...these are to be sorted, but most of them will be converted to DVD's and added to my ever growing collection...


• Books...lots and lots of books - My Second Grade French Book, Algebra, Biology, etc... Tell Me Why (The Whole Collection), Loads of reference and text books, Poetry Books, etc...(I think I threw away one book...Learn to drive...don't think I will ever refer to that again.)

Given what I've kept (ABOVE), does it come as a surprise to know that the result of the cleaning was four LARGE BLACK GARBAGE BAGS FULL of rubbish, and two big cardboard boxes, all thrown away...:( ...

Anyways, I'll live knowing that I now have alot more space to store my shit in!!!!! But for tjhe first time in months I have a huge sense of relief and a feeling of space in my room...Now i'll go and enjoy my new found space and clutter it up so it feels like home!

Adios

Amr Diab Live in Dubai

Many of you are wondering where the hell I've been for the past few months. Well...here's the answer



Amr Diab and Nicole Saba...LIVE in DUBAI...on the 16th of November 2006......

What does this have to do with me? Sundance Events is an Entrepreneurial venture with my friends from High School...If you're in Dubai, or flying in around tha ttime (Don't forget may people are coming for GITEX 2006 on the 18th) ... make sure you bought your ticket ...

More soon...promise to blog more often!

Adios