Danderma's Blog, page 151

Esma3il Yassin is on Google's Logo!

I was trying to google something just now when I noticed the Google Logo showcasing Esma3il Yassin! Is it the day he was born or dead? I am not sure I am not an Esma3il Yassin fan AT ALL. Although both my husband and my father are huge fans. I usually get agitated if someone puts his movies on.

I suppose the two left most pictures of him are depicting him in his movies Esma3il Yassin Fe Eljaysh and Esma3il Yassin Fe Elba7riya respectively. I have seen Esma3il Yassi Fe Eljaish endless times because my father loved it. I could probably recite the movie scene by scene.

By the way I think that even though Esma3il Yassin was a Black & White Comedy Legend back in the day he died sick, very poor, and totally neglected. Like many other Arabic movie legends. Though I am not a fan I am glad Google had recognized him. If only he was alive to see this maskeen. Thank you Google.

Weird Email Asking for Money on My Contact Form…

Every single person with email on earth must have received a scam email at least once where a person with an internet and email access is posing as poor and in need for money. Usually those spammers are pretty easy to point out and ignored at once.

However I had received this very weird email from someone who didn't email it to me directly. They went to the contact form on my blog, filled out their information, and asked me for $1500 so she could finish her last year in college to become an architect because she is an orphan and can't work anymore to put herself through college because she is too tired and school is so demanding and she sold out all her jewelry!

Did anyone else get the same on their contact form? This is no generalized email sent by some auto bot sitting somewhere. This is an actual person who went to my blog, looked around for the contact form, and decided that I have $1500 to give out. It scares me a little. Also it angers me. Yet it also produced some guilt in my chest: what if its real? She is a real person in need and here I am accusing her of being a thief?

What do you think?

Review: Divine's Basboosa Cups

My dear FourMe passed by my house today and she wasn't empty handed. She brought with her something for me to try. It was a nice compact white and pink box which I have opened to take a look and when I did an amazing basboosa aroma wafted up and tickled my nose.

I refrained from taking a bite until I was alone with the box later on. I grabbed my camera and started shooting. away. The box contains a dozen mini basboosa cups, all in different flavors. I had a hard time choosing which one to start with.

The one that looked the most delicious was the one with the vermicelli on top.

Chocolate basboosa topped with coconut.

There was this chocolate one… topped with Zaatar! Yes Zaatar!

It might taste good but I wouldn't dare try it. It is just too weird for my taste to be frank.

One of the basboosa's looked innocent enough. I broke it into half and guess what I found inside?

That was TASTY.

This was even better. Berry & white chocolate basboosa.

It was goood! The best one I tried.

O the good thing about them is that they are tiny! You can eat the whole box and it would amount to one big cupcake in size.

I found their information on their box. If you are interested you know where to grab a box. I will go back for sure! Thank you FourMe for the lovely box :*

10 Reasons Why Someone Won't Reply 2 Ur Email Immediately

1- If you send an email it might very well be dilevered to the SPAM folder, even if you are a frequent contact of that person. Not everyone checks their SPAM folder. I don't.

2- If you send an email with a request, and you get no reply, try and send it again. Maybe it went to SPAM or Failed to be delivered in the first place. There is no guarantee it would be dilevered.

3- If you resend your request, or you are sure that your email was received but you still have got no reply then check the way your email was written and make sure you have your request quite coherent, clear, and politely blunt.

4- If you sent a very clear request, and it was received, yet you still got no reply, don't get all hefty. It might not be something personal or the receiver is to ignore you on purpose. People have lives, they get busy. They get sick, travel, have personal problems,swamped with work or personal obligations. Always make excuses before accusing others.

5- If you insist that you are being ignored on purpose, check your email again and imagine yourself receiving it. Is the language used appropriate? Have you asked nicely or were you rude and condescending? Does your email look more like an ORDER than a request? There is a big difference, look it up before you complain.

6- Check that you have sent the email to the correct address. It is NOT the receiver's fault that you have decided to send the email to an email account that hasn't been used since 1998!

7- Sometimes people try to reply, get technical difficulties and the email is either not sent correctly or sent to the Draft folder than times passes and its forgotten.

8- Maybe you did get your reply, but it was sent to the SPAM folder. It happens.

9- Sometimes people cannot access their email for a few days: Lost laptop or phone, hacked email account, upgrading email servers, etc. Then when they are able to do so emails can come back with such volume that it needs to be sorted out which take time.

10- Not everyone is interested in what you send, you are not Obama after all.  Lets say that the receiver purposefully didn't reply to you, for one reason or another. There is no need to retaliate and lash back. Have a bit of class and move on.

Therefore, if you sent an email and didn't get your reply within less then an hour don't go on writing a post ranting about people who don't reply back to their emails and how conceited and snobby they are. Be reasonable, make excuses, check your information, and have some class. All righty?

Things 2 Do in London: a Stroll in Notting Hill Gate

One of the most important and vital parts of any London trip is having a stroll in Notting Hill Gate's famous streets and markets. There is also the Notting Hill Carnival in August which is said to be spectacular but I've never been able to attend it before. Here is a glimpse of what you may see while strolling down Portebello Road via my camera lens.

Those are old Victorian porcelain dolls! They are at least 80 years old *cries from happiness*.  

No trip to Notting Hill is complete without visiting the famous Hummingbird Bakery loved dearly by our fellow Kuwaiti's.

Any underground would take you to Notting Hill. It has its on stop on the central line (red line).

Pictures of Dathra's Book in Kinokuniya in Dubai

F6aim, a dear reader of my blog from Dubai, was kind enough to go to shoot thoese pictures of my humble book placed proudly in Kinokuniya Dubai. It is under the Local interests section right below 'I am Nejoud' book which is highly acclaimed.

My book. My lovely book! I still cannot wrap my head around it! If you are in Dubai or you are visiting Dubai I want more pictures please! Thank you F6aim so much! These pictures made my day sweetheart :*

Can you spot it below? Minaaak y7leelah

The Thieves of Our Neighbourhood

It amazes me that at this time and age I am writing this rant. But it is there and its happening and its pissing me off! Simply unbelievable!

The most basic thing that happens when someone knocks on your door to deliver something is to check who is it for, right? If it is not for someone you know in the household then you won't accept it. Or if its taken by mistake you try and contact the sender to take it back to be dilevered to its rightful owners. Basic human ineraction.

Unfortunately we are plagued by a neighboring house who is constantly mistaken for ours since both our houses are in the same street with the same number. Many many MANY times we have gotten their deliveries, magazines, invites, or food noqsas by mistake. Every time we redirect the deliveries to their house. We do not accept and indulge in deliveries that are not meant for us.

Once the delivery person had moved on before we directed it so my mother called all the neighbours to try and get their number to let them know that their "Frozen Ramadan Kubba" was at our house. Only to have a raging woman scream at her that we are causing all this trouble for them and we should go to the baladiya to change our house number. My mother calmly asks the lady to go to the baladiya and change their house number if they had to, and that if they want their frozen kubba -two days before ramadan- they should come and collect it.

Guess what? Many have told us that they delivered this item or that item to our house, only to discover it had never made it. Not once, not twice, many times! They simply take our deliveries for themselves. How could they? I don't know in what world are we living in but its simply called stealing! People who steal are called thieves. This is neither very ethical nor very neighborly at all.

I guess some diseases are not curable, one of them is the lack of manners in our stealing neighbors. What can we say or do? My parents have a strict "neighbors are a red untouchable line let them be" rule. Even though they steal our stuff maykhalif yeraan o yeraan! Ma9arat yeraan! 3tawyat el freej mo yeeran

7esbya Allah wa ne3ma el wakeel! Mako ella chithee! Maybe one day they'll move o neftak minhom! With neighbors like these who needs enemies?

Do you have bad neighbors? How do you deal with them?

Picture of the Week: Time Goes By So Slowly

Still playing around with my new Macro lens and here I am shooting my favorite watch which I always keep on Kuwait's time no matter where I travel. The time was 21:05

Movie Review: Apollo 18

I had high hopes regarding this movie. The trailers specify that this is why the moon missions have stopped, it was intriguing and my kind of movie. When it started it said something about a website that had these movies uploaded to tell the truth about the last mission to the moon, Apollo 18, and now they are going to sow those movies.

OK, I became a bit weary but then I said if they are true movies let me see how it goes. I hoped from the bottom of my heart it was not filmed as a reality movie, like for example Blaire witch project. But it was. I hate those kinds of movies. Mostly because I cannot hear clearly what they are mumbling about. But i patiently waited to give the movie the benefit of the doubt.

Only the movie was so boring. The story line so silly. It was not worth it. I don't know what's wrong lately but I've seen a streak of really bad really boring movies one after the other! To top the misery off I googled the movie -during the movie, that's how bored i was- and I found out that it was not a true story. Just fiction *bangs head against wall*.

One day hollywood is going back on track to make great movies again. Maybe the good movie writers are on a strike?

10 Reasons Why I miss Kuwait when I am in the UK

1- Your hair starts drying in the shower even before you are done showering, with the water being so hot and the air even hotter. It takes forever for your hair to dry in the damp UK weather :p

2- The UK water and my hair DO NOT go along. Period. My hair become a frizzy loofa. Kuwait's water restores my hair immediately.

3- We have Qaymar, Khobiz Irani, KDD Mango Juice, Cocktail Juice, darabeel, and Liban. They are all not available in the UK -except in specialty shops y3ni-.and I miss them dearly.

4- Pizza Qaysar! I miss it! I also miss our local restaurants: The Burger Hub, Pizzetta, Prime & Toast, The Cocoa Room, Lenotre, The Chocolate Bar, Cafe Bazza! Truly miss them! Why won't they open in the UK? Cilantro did!

5- Believe it or not I miss Cinescape. Its just the collection of movies in Kuwait is better than the ones in the UK and movies tend to open up in Kuwait before the UK for some reason. Not happy about the crowds, screaming babies, burnt popcorn, and the censorship though.

6- I miss the independence of having my very own car and not having to share it with anyone. I miss my long drives with my own songs blaring.

7- I miss the smell of Bukhoor. Even though I have my own bukhoor kit that goes wherever I go but I am always too afraid of lighting up bukhoor and having the smoke of incense set of the Smoke detector. I've been told several times that its OK but I still am too chicken to light bukhoor. Mali kholg loya.

8- I miss how normal daily stuff we need and require are I normally priced in Kuwait. Gasoline, Soft Drinks, Groceries, Fruits, Sandwiches, etc. Also that we have no taxes and how we have free dental facilities especially for emergencies.

9- I miss the sound of prayers Athan, especially when its maghrib time and if the mo2athen had a beautiful voice, so serene! Its just different when you hear the athan and you get up to pray than when a clock ticks and you know its time for athan.

10- Sometime, not always but sometimes, especially when I've been gone for over a month, I miss the Arabic language and Kuwaiti accent: Arabic news, Arabic TV, Arabic radio, hearing Arabic chatter here and there.

See, there is a silver lining in returning back home even if its hotter and less fun :p What do you miss most about Kuwait when you are abroad?