The year in review

Tempted by what Raghoooda and Juka did I decided to do the same list


Best Arabic Movie: I’m not really big on Arabic movies but I liked Ouija
Best English Movie: The Holiday and Crash as far as I remember
Newcomer of the year: Sick puppies or Zuzana Smatnova (I’m not sure if they are newcomers)
Album of the Year: Justin Timberlake’s and Cheb Mami’s are playing a lot on my ipod
Most played Song: 1) Distractions by Zero 7
2) In the Waiting Line by Zero 7
3) Hallili By Cheb Mami
4) Pocestny By Zuzana Smatanova
5) Sexy by Black Eyed Peas

Best Clip: Arabic: Al Asmarani by the love of my life Maya Nasri (Ya Mozza)
English: “Here It Goes Again” By Ok Go (funny and simple)

Books Read and Loved: Haunted By Chuck palahnuik, the unbearable lightness of being by Milan Kundera, Zakerat al Jasad by Ahlam Mostaghnami, I’ll update with the rest as I remember them

Best Outing: Slovakia in August with Andrea, our buddies’s I and L’s place, Lucille’s, and sometimes the late nights with the guys at cilantro (it’s the only place open after 1am in Maadi, or was until recently)

Soccer Mania: I’m not really into soccer, I attended the semi final of the African cup of nations, it was awesome, and some nice ladies too



Things I had never done prior to 2006/ 2006 firsts

• Accused of trying to hit on my best friend’s girlfriend (at the time)
  
• Started a blog
  
• Attended a Football Match at a stadium
  
• Had lies spread about me (by those closest to me)
  
• Almost died/ Had a bomb explode a couple of meters away from me
  
• Had a friend get scarred for life as a result of that explosion
• Became main suspect in a terrorist act.
• 
  Been interrogated by the police force (peacefully) (for about 24 hours though)
  
• Had my Name Published in the First Page of El Ahram Newspaper (the most circulated newspaper in Egypt) (right below the pic of el rayes kamaan) along with yahoonews, aljazira.com, and Cnn
  
• Was Cleared of all those accusations
  
• Became the only single friend in my group (all are engaged or married)
  
• Kissed a Lesbian (who was willing and Enjoyed it) (I’m guessing enjoyed it since we kissed again on several other occasions) (not a very good lesbian huh?)
• Traveled to Slovakia
  
• Kissed a Woman who was 10 years older than I was (on our first date)
  
• Spent an entire night in a strange Woman’s Bed (yes she was in it at the time) (and no, I didn’t hire her)
  
• Kissed 3 girls in one week, in 2 different continents (2 on the same day)
  
• Inhaled Helium (that was cool)
  
• Met someone online
  
• Became Good Friends with that someone(s)
  
• Had a Friend almost OD on me and the other one fall asleep after one of our friends engagement parties (for about half an hour I was drunk and responsible of taking care of both, before backup came)
  
• Joined a Belly Dancer in her routine in London (not by Choice)
  
• Became somewhat involved with a Girl 2 years my senior
  
• Traveled 6 times in 8 months
  
• Went to Cardiff, Wales
  
• Became Good Friends with a Spanish girl (love you too Chio)
  
• Dealt with 2 Japanese Women (that was fun too)
  
• Read more than all I read combined in the past 3 years
  
  
  On the Political Arena: I’m not into politics awy, I do remember the Lebanon incident, saddam’s execution, the numerous protests in Egypt, The arrest of protesters including bloggers, the mention of Egypt building a nuclear Reactor, Darfur, the democrats getting majority of seats and the Voting Incidents
  
  
  
  Cheers
  
  K

Funny

ME: Ma32oola mesh 2ayleen lel 3arees?

Him: haye3raf keda keda, aslaha tany Gawaza...... haykhosh mesh hayla2y balona yefar2a3ha


i rolled on the floor at the balona expression

Bitter coffee and cigarettes

I like the taste of sugarless coffee, I like the way bitter coffee tastes, the way it makes me feel, the way you can channel that bitterness into something creative to write, I never drink mocha frappes when i’m trying to write, and although I haven’t been doing that lately, I did get to do some writing today, and only when I had my cup of plunger coffee with skimmed milk did I get to writing.

Some people think I only write depressing stuff, I’m not so sure that I only write depressing stuff, but I do think the better stuff I wrote was more depressing than the normal/less depressing stuff I wrote

I have a healthy imagination, not superstar caliber yet, but the older I get the better I become (I think so)


Now coffee aside

You never understand writers block until you get it, I never sympathized with blocked writers and I don’t expect sympathy from non-writers.

The way I deal with it is that I write about anything and everything, like what I’m doing now, to grease/ oil the machine, maybe if you write long enough this will steer you in the right direction, and maybe just maybe you will have something worth writing.

Having time helps though, being distracted with normal everyday stuff is a sure way to stop writing.

I tried a lot of things to get me to write, some songs help, particularly K’s choice songs, and out of all their songs “in your room” does miracles to me.

One more thing I tried and am happy to report that it has worked is scribbling incoherent random shapes on a piece of paper, and repeating that shape over and over (for example a half circle) and connecting those half circles with each other, I take a step back and look at the shape and sometimes I see something in that end result drawing that inspires me to write.

Anyway good luck with what you are doing in 2007

On blogs

How many people do you know follow blogs?

People you might write about?

Sometimes that question comes up to mind, wouldn’t that be a bitch?


My sister found my blog a long while ago, back when I used to write regularly (I think around May), part of that was because I had pointed out some blogs that were worth checking out. (even before I started one myself) eventually she found mine, especially after I wrote about the dahab incident, all she had to do was search for dahab, kareem and arrested, and I came as one of the top matches.

Now I love my sister more than I love any other person in this world, seriously, I’m not saying that just cuz she might be reading this (I’m not sure if she still follows this blog or not), and while some might argue that the tone of this blog is a little bit shocking (to some people, my sister included) her finding out about my blog has affected my writing, ok not to a great deal but still, I usually tell my sister everything, but I leave out the graphic details and I feel the need to write about those details here (everyone loves details, me included)

I’m not saying I write my posts for her or even with her in mind as my audience but it hangs in there at the back of my mind when I do write.

Heartbroken

As I was preparing my backpack for the London trip I stumbled across two short stories I had written back in 2003, and they were as good as what I write now, maybe even better, I was in a zone when I wrote them

So I went to Cardiff (wales) on my second day in london, it rained like hell that day, and I discovered that the water seeped through my backpack and ruined my manuscripts.



And now they are gone, forever




I was almost too devastated to chat up the two Lebanese girls on the bus ride back :)

I remained devastated for about 24 hours

Then I met Marwa (soft music plays in the background)

Selective memory

As I got to reading some of the stuff I had written in 1999, I was shocked at how I truly felt at the time, one might have claimed that he never felt that way towards someone or about something if he hadn’t written it with his own hand


Never knew my memory could be that selective

Note to self about London

It was my first time to meet (Heba) so we were sitting next to each other, chatting about her work and other random stuff, about 10 minutes after that her brother comes to pick her up and he gives me a very strong (borderline BRUTAL) handshake, big brother acting all macho… ( I asked the other guys if they got that handshake, they said no, even the effeminate guy who shakes hands in a girly way didn’t feel that his handshake was on the strong side)

It seems I can be quite annoying to brothers even if I do nothing.

We interupt our usual program with the following words from our sponsor

K** OM BLOGGER 3ALA K** OKHTO

Why my women freak out/ why I have relationship problems

It’s partially due to the fact that I can be extra romantic/ gentle to the point of freaking them out, but then I can be too detached a few days later on

Now the reason I do this is because I’m afraid a girl will get too attached or invest a lot emotionally in me, and while that might be good in some cases yet it’s not what I want now.


You see, I traveled to Alex. last Monday, to clear my mind, to use that time to self reflect.

It helped a lot, I broke free of what was bothering me, I wrote a lot, I finally took a look at the story I was writing (i had been ignoring it for the past 6 months) I feel a lot better and I love the sea, Alex. in winter is a special place, it helped that I was relatively alone in that place, and that I didn’t answer my mobile phone.



Part of the things I realized is my need for a casual relationship, something to help me remember the good parts about being in a relationship and not the ugly parts and the fights.


I am going through a good patch in my life, while everyone around me seems to be in some form of trouble. For example: the former asshole, but that’s a different post altogether




And it’s only during these times that I start to worry about the future.

only ask questions that you know the answer to

"Lie to a girl, make her feel special"


The weird things is I’ve been told throughout my entire life that you should not lie to a girl, and I agree


Last Saturday night we were kissing, we kissed till the sun came out, then we kissed some more.

She asked me when was the last time I kissed a girl and I told her last Monday, she wasn’t really fond of that.


I always say never ask a question you don’t know the answer to (I’m talking about personal questions here), now someone might ask, why would you ask a question if you already know the answer to it?

Good question.

But that’s not exactly what I meant, I mean only ask a question that you think you know where the answer might be, for example: ask him if he thinks you are fat (cuz he will most definitely say no) however don’t ask him if he thinks your nose is too big (cuz he might say yes) and so on.

Now moving back to meeeee

I don’t know if that was the answer she expected or what answer she expected, but I didn’t want to weasel out on her, I thought I should answer that question.

The night was still saved afterwards, my answer didn’t absolutely butcher the moment as I thought it might, she did tell me “lie to a girl, make her feel special”
I guess if I say that she is special a lot of people won’t believe me, but she is

I’m not saying I never lied to a girl in one of those moments, but somehow I thought she would be able to handle the “last Monday” answer


Anyway…

perfect timing

I guess she caught me at a very good time, you know (when you’re so lonely your ribs are closing in on you every single moment you spend alone) when you’re all alone, when there’s nobody, anybody to distract you from how desperate you’ve become, the few moments you get to spend with yourself you’d hate the most, yet you needed more of those


And there she was
A relief from all that


And I knew it was wrong, I mean i knew we couldn’t be anything in the future and that we have no future, she was just convenient, and it kills me to admit that (well I wouldn’t say it kills me but it pains me to say that) and now I feel guilty about her



Shit….

About my Favorite "2arashana"

As a result of writing about (NH) that got me thinking about what I like about another girl, the one with the three names, the one that puts a smile on my face


I like the fact that she makes me smile
I like the fact that she can be such a “2arashana”
I like the way she greets me with the mini calls in the morning so as not to bother me at work
I like hearing her voice
I like how she closes her eyes and bites her lips when I touch her
I love the way she smells
I love how her eyes widen when she smiles about a compliment I gave her


I don’t like how she makes me feel like I’m her boyfriend when I’m not and can’t/shouldn’t be

about (NH)

(N H) asked me why I found her interesting, the truth is I think she knows, at least she has one or two clues

so… as a result I thought I’d write it down, to document how she makes me feel

but it’s only fair to write what I don’t like about her as well :p


I like the fact that she isn’t afraid to say how she feels
I like the fact that she enjoys my shameless flirting
I like the fact that she shamelessly flirts back ;)
I like how she looks at me when I get her with one of my compliments
I like how she can be one of the guys and yet remain the girl she is
I like the fact that she is two years older than me
I like the fact that she is single
I like how I can excessively compliment her body without her taking it the wrong way
I like the fact that we got to be so close in so little time
I like her because she got me to say the expression “random” a lot
I like how she kisses
I like the fact that she calls me on my bullshit

I Don’t like the fact that she calls me on ALL my bullshit attempts
I Don’t like the fact that she asks too many questions that she already knows the answer to
I don’t like the fact that she is making me write this list

quotes from the holiday

Amanda: You know Graham, I just broke up with someone and considering you just showed up and you’re insanely good-looking and probably won't remember me anyway... I'm thinking we should have sex... If you want

Graham: Is that a trick question?


And the other one that I vividly could relate to:



I don’t remember the actual quote but it’s something along those lines

Graham: Women tend to get hurt just by me being myself.