I love fd's Flickr Toys - and Warholizer is one of my favourites. It was inspired by Warhol's silkscreen paintings of Marilyn. Make one using your best headshot and feel like a movie star! ;-)


Funny fact: In "Desperate Housewives" saucy Gabrielle owns portraits of herself done in distinctively Warhol-esque style. Andy Warhol died in 1987; Gaby must have been 11 at the time.

Here's some eye candy for those who couldn't care less about tennis otherwise (that makes all of my readers).

Anyways yesterday unseeded (but very much in-form) David Nalbandian beat Rodge to the Madrid Masters Series title, which pushed David 7 places up in the rankings. Rodge is so high up in the rankings, this result did not affect his rating at all. Still, it was nice to see Rodge bite the dust for a change. He's an awesome player, no question, but he is just a little too machine-like for my taste. Those who remember THE Schumacher of F1 - Rodge is Schumey of tennis. Rarely does he display any sign of emotion on court. Well yesterday he did roar a few times, which makes me believe he's not such a dreadful cold fish as he seems, after all, and there's hope left for him.

But Bandy.. he humiliated Rafa (number 2 in the world), demolished Djokovic (number 3) and then simply outfought Federer and got himself a shiny trophy (his first since Estoril in April 2006 and 6th overall). I don't like him much, but much is forgotten now that he has given me the pleasure of watching Federer lose. That was a rare feat indeed ;-)

Now if only Baghdatis would get his s**t together and start playing a little better, that would be great.

PS. Ammaro, this is what I mean by tennis post. So now you know.

Dedicated to my friend Dot, who asked me to post more songs in Greek ;-)



For those who haven't heard about holidays in Greece - this one is a must see. Greece, and certain Greek islands in particular, are very famous for their summer lifestyle and "special offers". Lots of girls from Europe travel to Greece every summer looking for tan, fun and holiday romance ;-) Sadly for tourist boys, Greek girls aren't that easy to get, therefore foreign boys are mostly restricted in their advances to foreign girls in Greece. But if you are a blond foreign girl and you are looking for some holiday action - pack your bikini and head to Greek islands for a summer experience to remember! And this hilarious (albeit very realistic) video is a typical example. As they say in the video: Like here - nowhere! LOL

Check out the gorgeous scenery and gorgeous people.


Lyrics (with Greek parts translated):

Greek man:

From thousand faces
I chose you
Because you've got something
That I like
You are not like me at all
Wherever you're from
You look so different
You must be a dream

I ask about you everywhere, nobody has seen you
Must be your first time on the island
I ask you what's your name
And you just smile at me
And answer me in your language

Foreign girl:

I like your country very much
I like the way you people touch
Cause baby I am a foreign girl
So do you wanna rock my world
Rock my world baby

Greek man:

I see you looking (at me)
And turning the other way
You pretend you don't care
But you look (at me) again
The night has its way
To bring us closer together
It brings the wave of love
Towards me

In this country the nights are very long
As the sea gets the sun drunk with wine
To confuse the sun and make it shine elsewhere
But I've talked too much, now "talk me about you"

Foreign girl:

I like your Greek mentality
Your country's hospitality
I like your salty lips on mine
Your sandy beaches are divine
So baby come and get me drunk
Like raider loot me and get me sunk
Surrender to your victory
I like your country's history

Oh George this is the best summer in my life
Summer in Greece

George:

I told you, baby
Like here nowhere

I would like to point out that the blue eyed hunk in the video, George, is Giorgos Mazonakis, one of my favourite Greek singers.

So girls, you know what to expect when you travel to Greek islands in the summer.

I guess my blog makes sense only to me lately, and I like it this way. From now on all my readers (yes, all five of you) are excused if they find more interesting things to read and comment on. Really, I wouldn't read my blog if I were you! I can't write about anything that really interests me because:

1. I am not anonymous (yeah big surprise)
2. I am married (self explanatory)
3. It seems like everyone knows about this blog (therefore I can't bitch about anybody)
4. I live in a Muslim country... and I would like to continue living here (if you don't know what I mean, you never lived in a Muslim country)
5. The person who is the reason and inspiration behind most of what I post couldn't give a flying mushroom
6. I am too old to try and be funny when it doesn't come naturally
7. Most of the things I would like to blog about will inevitably piss someone off, and I just can't be bothered, honestly.
8. I am so far gone I don't even need an audience anymore, lol.
9. Tennis posts will make the sad current situation even worse.

So... I will risk being labelled as an airhead, and post stupid irrelevant things until I get fed up and take up skydiving or something like that. Until the laptop becomes redundant and I forget my own URL. Ta da.

Irrelevant thing for today: how Cat got her nickname.




It was secondary school, and boys only just started trying to attract the girls' attentions. We had this silly game going around that gives a description of a person based on their eye colour. In my class we had all sorts - at least 10 different shades of grey, plenty blues, browns, hazels, and I was the only one with green eyes. Green wasn't so common even where I come from. The list of characteristics given to my particular eye colour implied feline qualities - so to play it up a little I started meowing, lol. Well that was the only feline quality I could think of at that age, haha. It was, apparently, cat-like enough and the name stuck. From there on I started getting all sorts of Cat paraphernalia as presents, I have an enormous collection of cat mugs, cat figurines, cat pics and all stuff "cat", and I don't even like cats! But I got used to my friends calling me Cat ;-)

I had a lovely Eid break in Muscat, just what I needed: a room with a balcony that opens up towards the sunset over the sea. I didn't go around much since I've already seen most of what the place has to offer during my two previous trips, so I took the time to relax and read my book (Lord of the Rings - for the twenty third time), listen to the piano in the lobby and to the jazz duo in the bar. I soaked in the pool and enjoyed long quiet hours reading in the lobby and watching people. I met Kaza, my blogger friend, and I liked her in real life even more than online ;-)

I hope you all had a good time!

The new trick on the block is to mix two (or more) songs together to make a new one. There are competitions for the best mash-up apparently. One of the results caught my eye (and ear) - it's a combination of Chicane's "Saltwater" and Natasha Bedingfield's "I bruise easily". I think it came out quite nice.





And this is another song that I came across recently and really liked, it got a nice beat to it and the lyrics are below.




Dogzilla - Without You

I hear you calling me,
Haunting me
There's nothing I can do
without you, without you...

I stand here paralyzed
I've realised
There's nothing
without you, without you...


If I could talk to you
Embrace you
Whisper in your ear
I would tell you

That, you are
The only,
The only thing I need


The only only only...
The only thing I need

I hear you calling me...
Haunting me...


I am hypnotised
Mesmerized
As I walk towards the fire

The fear comes over me
And then I see
The meaning of desire

If I could talk to you
Embrace you
Whisper in your ear
I would tell you

That, you are
The only,
The only thing I need

The only only only...
The only thing I need


If you could see my face
Hold my hands
Look into my eyes
I would show you

That, you are
The only
The only thing I need

The only only only...
The only thing I need

You are
The only
The only thing I need

Now I just HAD to blog this.

Sometime during my last year in Doha I bought a pretty Landcruiser Prado. I love my car, it was one of very few 3-door Prado SUVs in Doha. The car is awesome, it's not too flashy, it is compact yet has ample space for the passengers and for luggage. Strong engine, great off road qualities, reliable in the sand dunes, good CD player, decent A/C... In other words, my car was perfect. The only (substantial) drawback was the service in Doha. Anybody who has a Toyota in Qatar and who prefers to maintain it at the dealer's knows what I am talking about. With an average of what seems to be 1,5 Toyota/Lexus cars per person in Doha and with one service centre you can imagine what a madhouse that was!

Stuck in the Industrial area, with one access road, no parking space to speak of and no order of any kind it was an ordeal from hell. Cars were literally parked one on top of the other, and the place was swamped at any time of the day. It generally took a good few days to have the car serviced, and that was just a routine service!

So it's no surprise that I wasn't excited when I was faced with the prospect of taking my car (which I brought with me from Doha) for service here in Dubai, I just had flashbacks of the horrible Toyota service centre in Doha and I kind of expected it to be the same here.

I couldn't have been more wrong.

Here to take your Toyota for service I had to call and make an appointment. I was allocated a time slot (down to half hour) and an engineer in charge who will take care of the paperwork and the service. About half an hour prior to my appointment this engineer called me to make sure I was on my way and told me that he was expecting me.

I drove up to Toyota service centre, entered a clearly marked gate, everything was clean and not packed up with cars, ample parking space, I was guided by the gate warden who showed me where to leave my car near the entrance of the service centre. I entered the building, and at the reception the lady looked up my name and car number in her log and called my engineer in charge who appeared within a minute. We walked to my car while he asked me all the relevant questions (any problems? when was the last service? any requests? did you remove the valuables? will you wait or would you prefer to come back later? since you want to wait, please give me your mobile number and I'll call you to come down when the car is ready. Should be ready in about 30 minutes, blah blah..)

He then directed me to the "waiting room" upstairs. I expected something like what I was used to in Qatar - dusty rooms with government leaflets and prayer rugs, mens area and ladies area nonsense - but I was pleasantly surprised. A nice clean common room with small tables and chairs, a flat screen telly, vending machines for hot drinks, water and munchies, and massive windows where you could look down onto the service area and see the work in progress! Ladies' and Gents' toilets were right outside the waiting room, and there were praying rooms also. There were about 10 people in the waiting room, some concentrated on their laptops and books, some watching their cars being fixed, some just relaxing. I brought a book but I was mostly watching the mechanics working on my car ;-)

Although there was no mayhem at the gates and there was a lot of parking space available in and around the service centre, the garage itself was full with plenty of mechanics working on the cars. I guess the appointment system really works.

Since all I wanted was a routine service, it took about 30 minutes and I watched my car lowered down and driven out. I got a phone call within 2 minutes, my engineer telling me that the car is ready. I went down and he was there with all the papers for me to sign, and the bill I payed right there. The car was parked exactly where I left it when I came in.

The entire procedure took an hour (with the driving time).

Thumbs up!

... pretty much every time I encounter something new, interesting, exciting and unexpected. I sit and fantasize for hours (days, months, even years) of how much better my life would be if only it could change to accommodate my latest addiction.

Then, of course, the weight of the rest of my life forces me down from the clouds.



But really, wouldn't it be awesome to be able to change your life at a whim, regardless? And in changing your life, change the lives of those who are directly and indirectly involved in whatever it is you want the most, at the moment? You would be making it better for all involved, right?

Wrong.

I shouldn't be complaining, really, I have a great life. But such is human nature that enough is never enough and we only stop wishing for more when we die. And I am still alive.






It's been a while to check Post Secret, I always liked peeking into other people's lives through it. Somehow it always made me feel better about myself. Or at least, in way, not so alone.

1. You realise that people born in the eighties can have solid work experience.

2. You seriously consider buying Good Housekeeping instead of Cosmopolitan.

3. You spend your wedding anniversary flirting with your high school sweetheart on sms while your spouse enjoys a silly show on TV.

4. You make a mushroom pie and it comes out pretty good.

5. You catch yourself saying "when you're MY age..."

6. People you fancy are all married with kids.

7. You are shocked that teenagers nowadays have no idea who Billy Idol is.

8. You cry at the movies.

9. Hot stuff that makes your heart race is sold at Starbucks.

10. You buy garden furniture.

11. You invite friends over for home cooked dinner and actually use garden furniture.


Yes, people, Cat is getting old. But as they say, I may be old enough to know better, but I am still too young to care! :P