Danderma's Blog, page 94

A New Cover for Dathra’s Book, Volume I

Speaking of books, what you are seeing above is the book cover of Dathra’s book, Volume I. Not the new book to be released, no, the first book. Here is a better look b3d.

Everyone I met had gushed about the book content, complained about the syntax and grammatical errors, and hated the book cover! Literally hated the book cover, its what irritated most Dathra fans most for some reason. I wanted the book cover to be something of me that is relevant to the story, a black duck swimming all alone,  I guess that message wasn’t portrayed correctly.

So I thought to myself, which artist do I like the most in Kuwait? After my father that is who -sadly- stopped designing stuff a long time ago? Well, no one other than my beloved f2o of course!  You can see she did a brilliant job masha2 Allah!

Anyway, this is my weekend treat for all Dathra fans, I hope you like this book cover. The cover of book 2 which I won’t show you until the book is ready to be sold will look even better and will match book one and insha2 Allah book three, so stay tuned

Book Review: Change of Heart by Jodi Picoult

I was in Jarir the other day trying to find books to read when I stumbled into an entire shelf of Jodi Picoult’s novels. I’m not really the biggest fan of her books, they need a lot of concentration and a box of tissue -my sister’s keeper for example?-.But then I found this one, Change of Heart, published in 2007, and it caught my attention.

A man is convicted of a double murder of a girl and her father, leaving her pregnant mother with nothing to hold on but the baby she’s holding.

The baby grows up with a heart defect, needs a heart transplant, and the murdered who is on death row wants to donate his heart for her to make up for what he took. What kind of mother would allow her daughter to take her family’s murderer’s heart, but it is a heart, how can she say no when her daughter is out of time?

Its a very very VERY good book. Definitely going on my shelf. 460 pages long, not an easy read at all as you need to concentrate and pause every few minute to contemplate what you have just read and discuss it in your head with yourself, but it is quite a page turner! It was in my bag going everywhere with me, that’s how good it was.

It is heart-wrenching though. One must be of a very strong heart when reading it, or else they might simply put it down for somethings are overwhelming. It provides a lot of issues to contemplate, issues regarding religion and faith and humanity and fairness. Most issues concern Christianity though with a sprinkling of other religions in the mix.

A lot of legal talk is there as well with many pages of court room scenes. You now when an American movie starts out very good then in the middle of the movie onwards its all in the court room with legal talk? I don’t like that part, but this book has a very similar tendency to drag the story line into the court room. If you are a fan of law and order you will love it though.

Again, this book is not very everyone. Only those with a really strong heart. There is a nice couple of twists in there as well plus a blooming love story on the side, very cleverly woven indeed, I liked that. I have a few more -newer- Jodi Picoult books to read in my shelf but I need to first recover from the buzz left in my head from this one first with a very light read. Recommended? Yes, if you can handle that much pain and confusion, then highly recommended.

Confession: I Like Baby Food

I have a little secret to confess… I love baby food!

I love the sweet baby food that is. I love the tiny little jars with pureed fruits and fruit mixes. I love Farley’s biscuits! They are one of most tasteful biscuits ever, especially if you suck on them slowly. I don’t know about celerac but I love to dunk a packet of mary biscuits into a tiny tea estekana, pushing and shoving until it becomes celerac like in consistency and then eat it with a spoon. Its like a family tradition!

I posted the picture above in instagram and I got varying comments, surprisingly most comments were indeed confessing the same :p So I am not the only freak in the world eyeing tiny baby’s food apparently. I wonder if we can go on a baby food diet with the tiny portions?

Do you know anyone who likes baby food like me?

How to Protect Your Blog Against Stealth?

How to protect your little blog’s content from being stolen?

Do you know how many time someone had borrowed my entire posts and had them displayed on their blogs WITHOUT asking? La e7em wala destoor? Sometimes they would add a small little notice on their post stating the source, 3nd el7safa y3ni, and sometimes they don’t. Its not really fair for start up blogs to leech on other bloggers who spent hours working hard to put together a blog posts and then they just come and take it just like that.

Do you know how many forums have I hunted down and fought with, because they stole my entire posts? Do you know how many users in Instagram have I reported because they stole my pictures and posted them as their own without mention? I don’t mine if its one of my fellow bloggers whom I trust and respect borrow my pictures to reference me in their blog posts, I do mind when its a stranger who will crop out my blogs name and use it for their gain in forums, blogs, instagram, twitter, facebook, or as a whatsapp broadcast.

Before, we used to say la tboog la tkhaf. Now, lel asaf, it seems like people are bitten by the stealth bug and its becoming a frenzy of stolen contents here and there. Bs 3ad, malaina!

How to protect yourself?

1- Watermark every single picture you take and post and reduce their size, don’t use the full resolution wella 3adi tomorrow you see a billboard on the street with your picture on. Watermark is a pain bs b3d shensawi.

2- Install the “WordPress Protection, Security for your wordpress site”. My dear Jacquis just posted about it (post) and 3 minutes later I was on the Plugin page looking for it. Now its installed, look at my protected blog. You cannot copy the text, and if you try to right click on a picture this is the message you will get.

3- If all else fails or it was too late to protect your posts, you can always report the thief. Internet is open and free but there is no such thing as absolute freedom. There are rules! You can always report them and action will be taken immediately, on all social media elements. Check what 7aji Dude’s blog did (post) to another blog who took their posts and various other bloggers posts and used them as if they are their own. 3afiya 3lekom! This is what started this whole thing btw.

This, sadly, will not stop thieves completely. Others can still steal your ideas, those are named copycats, a nicer term for the word thief. Others can still put up entire blogs based on your ideas and then make sure there is no mention of you there, just because they can as a way of getting back at you, and other blogs will be more than happy to clap for them and parade them around.

Yes, you know exactly what I’m talking about. If you went there and saw that injustice and didn’t say anything but instead you were more than happy with it and began advertising for it, then good for you wallah. But I will never forgive you for it. Being a copycat is one thing, being a cheeky vengeful unfair copycat is totally another, and assisting them to deliver his injustice and help him get what they exactly want is making you as bad as they are yourself. E96eflo 3ad.

B3d shino?

That’s about it I guess. If you want my picture or my post and I have no idea who you are, there are certain channels you can go through, include asking me first.

Eshda3wa, you say? Well, if you are team eshda3wa then its obvious you’ve never had anyone steal anything you’ve worked hard for from you before. Wait till someone does and then see the rage that consumes you. Until that happens to you, please spare us your diplomatic thoughts on the matter.

Again, recap, DO NOT TAKE SOMETHING THAT IS NOT YOURS WITHOUT ASKING, ELDENIYA MO FAWTHA, COMPRENDE?

Once Upon a Habba: Alaska Cake

I was watching the food network when I saw a show regarding a bakery in the USA that makes baked Alaska with a twist. Beeeeh, I thought to my self, where did they unearth the Alaska from!?

In the mid 1990′s, perhaps 1994 or 1996, Al-Alamiya bakery in Salmiya was selling Alaska cakes, basically a white cake with ice cream and covered with burned meringue. People went crazy over it, wherever you went there was the Alaska cake, sitting proudly beside the tea trays and people munching happily on it. I had one aunt who was so in love with it, I cannot remember Alaska cake without remembering her face. I remember once Ansam saying she was craving it last year, so I borrowed her picture from that post.

Me? I never liked it, even thought it had ice cream but the flavors didn’t do it for me. In fact I was a little sad when all they brought was the Alaska cake which I wasn’t very happy about. I was very glad when the “habba” of Alaska cake was over in about a year or so. The Alaska made more appearances later on but then suddenly it disappeared. Alamiya cake however still sold them up until 2007? Maybe 2009? Then they stopped selling them all together.

I’ve never tried any other Alaska cake but theirs which I didn’t like, but the one I saw being prepared on TV looked divine! I wonder if I should try it myself? I need a blow torch though and a recipe for meringue -or an alternative all together-.

Btw I found a picture I took of Alalamiya where the Alaska fridge was still visible

So now you know, Alaska was a big big habba back in the day. If you liked it back then, do you still miss it? Would you still eat it?

Review: Alban Dairy’s Cheese Factory Cafe

Ever since Alban Dairy’s products appeared in TSC and they’v  taken Kuwait by storm. Their quality is unbelievable, so fresh and delicious. I’ve posted about their akawi cheese (post), their labna (post), and their qaymar (post). Their low fat laban and low fat milk are awesome too.

Naturally being a crazy Alban dairy fan I’ve been following them on Instagram. One day they posted about a Cheese store they are opening and ever since I’ve been agitated, waiting for it to open. Guess what? Its finally open and as soon as I realized that I headed over there to check it out!

Imagine yourself, a cheese obsessed person, walking into a store filled with good fresh cheese? Its like finding a cheese treasure!

The decor of the store is very fitting indeed, like this cauldron on the long wooden table, you look at it and you imagine many scenarios involving melted cheese, including a childhood fantasy of eating Heidi’s melted cheese sandwiches prepared by her grandfather!

Check out the huge bells, like the ones cows wear abroad.

Now, the cheese display.

There was this huge block of fresh golden butter in the middle. It took all my willpower not to try and sink my hands into its surface :p

Check out those beautiful milk bottles! Ooooh imagine if we have fresh milk and liban delivered to our houses in these bottled, just like in the UK? And when we are done we would give them back the next morning, reducing the use of plastic? Why not? It could happen and these are so cute!

Other products include fresh eggs as well. I never tried their eggs before, I must do insha2 Allah.

What did I buy? A nice block of Raclette cheese of course, I’m planning to use my Raclette oven for a lovely Raclette lunch like this one (post).

I was told I was their first customer yesterday. I wonder if I was the first customer ever?

By the way, their Liban (buttermilk) is so unbelievably good! My husband almost claps in joy whenever I buy it for him and it never lasts more than a couple of day in the fridge. Taste? Not very salty but the acidity of it is just perfectly right, yum!

The Cheese Factory Cafe is in its soft opening phase and will include more products by the time they are officially open.Given the word cafe in the title, I wonder if they will be making cheese dishes and serving them customers at some point in the future? I truly hope so. Best of Luck Alban Dairy, keep up the good work

Alban Dairy’s Cheese Factory Cafe is located inside TSC Sha’ab, right by Mcdonalds and Taco Bell. For more information you can follow them on Twitter (@albandairy) or instagram (@albandairy)

Looking for: Back Issues of Ikea Cataloges

Yesterday morning I was checking instagram when a picture by dear fellow blogger 3ateeja caught my attention. The picture was of a couple of old Ikea catalog dating back to 1985 masha2 Allah! Mamma mia!

I kept staring at the orange couch, ever since I could remember I’ve been fascinated with Ikea. As a little kid in the 80′s I never ever went into the kids area to play, rather walked around the store, looking at the furniture in awe and promising myself that one day when I grow up I will have a similar house -probably why 3/4 my furniture does come from Ikea-.

I dug out my cherished collection of Ikea catalogs, I have almost every issue since 2002, ten years back! Thumbing through the 2002 catalog made me smile fondly, imagine how thumbing through the 1990 catalog would feel? or the 1980? The designs of that era? New age retro!

I went online searching and to my surprise I wasn’t the only one looking for back copies of the Ikea catalog. Apparently they are sought after and you can make money off selling them in ebay. I even went to ebay and looked for them but there were only ones back to 2004. I have several copies of the years I have, I wonder if I can sell them too :p

So, if you happen to know, or see, or have any back issues of the catalogs and willing to sell it, please let me know. A scan of the pages would ease my curiosity -and many many others!-. Maybe I should try Friday market? Ikea should put together a book of their styles throughout the ages and sell it for people!!!

Picture of the Week: Old Wood

Old and traditional is beautiful, just make sure you are not trapped in its beauty forever. Evolve and you will bring out its beauty even more.

Cookies & Liban?

My dear Jacqui was grocery shopping and posted her grocery basket via Instagram, there was a packet of Chips Ahoy! chocolate chip cookies in the basket! I remember that blue packet being a stable in our pantry for years on end when we were kids! We used to love it. I also believe I’ve stopped eating them in 1994. They were just too fattening and -later on- too dry and packety for my taste.

However, Jacqui said something about heating them up in the microwave and having them with “Liban” -buttermilk. At first the idea recoiled my pallets, Liban? really? People have cookies with milk usually, or in my case with a tall dark americano, but Liban?

But then I thought, why not? The saltiness of the Liban would bring out the sweetness of the cookies! But I don’t know, it just sounds too weird still.

Have you ever tried cookies and liban? Would you ever try it?

Diet Care’s Cute Zumba Invitation

Last week I received a tiny wicker basket that served as as a very cute invitation from Diet Care.

The invitation is for a workshop regarding body shapes (apple and pear) followed by a Zumba session to be held tonight.

Inside the basket there are an actual apple and pear, only the pear has a ribbon on her head while the apple had a ghetra and 3qal (traditional headdress) his head. How cute!

Unfortunately I will not be able to make it tonight, I still am working on releasing book II of Dathra which is virtually eating up my entire time but I truly appreciate the gesture and couldn’t stop laughing at the cuteness of the invitation! Great idea Diet Care, and thank you!