Presenting the blogging premier of.....

I am ridiculously proud to present a short production by a very dear friend of mine Nada Aboudahab. A young fashionista taking trend out of the box and giving it a courageous kick up the behind. This is her awesome contemporary vision representing one of the edgy shoulder pieces by designer Dean Sideway.

VERR from Volt Magazine on Vimeo.

....yep! I know her :D

Even a smile is charity

I have often tried to keep business and pleasure seperate but have made a huge mistake in doing so with this blog and my involvement (over the past year plus) with Draw a Smile.

Draw A Smile is forever keeping us all busy and what with the encroaching deadlines at uni I have often needed a productive distraction for breaks in reading. Essentially for me, thats where the Draw a Smile blog emerged from. However it has long been apparent to the founder (Ahmed Ali) and I that alot more can be said for what we (smilers) do on a day to day basis. Although we have the web site and the facebook page they are often used as a marketing or advertising tool where as every vollunteer that works at DAS has thousands of experiences to share. Experiences that have changed our lives and shaped our memories.

Please check us out, you don't know what your missing!

Website: http://www.drawasmile.org.uk/

Blog: http://evenasmileischarity.blogspot.com/ (still in progress)

Aid EGYPT - the quest to help our heroes

As some of you that pass through my blog may know, I am a very proud and devout member and one of the managers to Draw a Smile. Draw a smile is now a registered charity raising thousands of pounds week by week by the invaluable effort of young people in the UK. It aims to do one thing only which is to Draw a Smile onto the faces of orphans worldwide. The majority of the group, self excluded are Egyptian which is why it made sense to start this astronomical task within a country they were familiar with. Draw A Smile now has a sister organisation called aidEGYPT which, of course was fuelled by the protests that started and ended this month.

Last Sunday I had the rare opportunity to attend a Draw A Smile/Aid Egypt function as a guest and experience the impact of the message myself and others strive so hard to deliver; that Together We Can!

The charity Dinner was held at Assaha restaurant renowned for its ambient interior and high standard food although none of the 100+ attendees that Sunday night noticed a bit of it. Along with a fantastic speech given by a young UK Egyptian male that decided to go over during the crisis and see what was going on for himself, was this video made by a fellow DAS member and friend.

It is my pleasure to share it with you all, whom ever may be watching and hope that it breeds the same level of consciousness into you that it did in me.

Allahu Akbar

Words to make you seem smart

I have never understood the real reason for writers/scholars etc to use such In-pronounceable, long-winded, phrasing/wording when such a simpler universal word always seems to exist within its shadow. I seem to find myself reducing paragraphs down to sentences that make far more sense from these convoluted texts;

con-vo-lut-ed

kon-vuh-loo-ted

-adjective

complicated, intricately involved.

My point entirely! why not just say complex? Sure, it could just be my lack in intellectualism and I would accept that if it wasn't for the fact that I KNOW I am not the only one to complain about this!

Yes I am ranting on and yes I love language! But come on, I have 10,000 words to write by the end of 2 months time (shouldn't really be using them all up on here either :/) do you know how much reading that is! Aye-Kerrumba!

So, I am going to build up a little vocab list hoping it will help to make words like convoluted hold the same value in my pea-brain as its counter part 'complicated'.

I guess the best way would be to start it on its own page so as not to disturb any light reading (which is often than not all my blog offers). And please don't judge if my ignorance becomes oh too evident on such a page :s

BE WITH THE REVOLUTION!

Where is she now?

So once again I have landed on my feet, and here is a brief update for those that want to know;



A friend offered me her house after I realised that the budget my flat was giving me would result in an earlier departure then wanted (due to limited funds).



When I say offered me her house I mean a 2 bedroom flat along with her sister her brother and both her parents.

Hmmmm....6 people in 2 rooms?, how does that work you may ask! very nicely actually. Her and her sister share a bed whilst I get the bed of the other in their room, her parents and her brother share between the other room and the sofa bed in the front-room. Sounds tight I know but it works and Im comfortable her mum doesn't want me to leave because...



A) she wants to learn English and has the chance to conversate with me

B) apparently her children are acting better since I've arrived,



Her father is an easy man to talk to speaks English well and loves that typical slapstic egyptian comedy. It was he who hooked me up with the job Im at now. A patient of his owns a travel and tourism company and is expanding at the moment by planning to offer boat trips from egypt to Saudi quicker than a plane journey.

And so here I am over looking the purchase of some very large ships for this very kind man called Abu Hassan in his late 70's lives between here and Saudi Arabia and is treating me like his daughter.

His whole family are doing everything to help me. He gave me a lump of money before I started as a good will gesture, invites me into his office to eat with his family every day at the end of work, sends me home in his Merc with his driver, and gave me some money yesterday 'as a father to a daughter' his daughter said as I protested to take it. His daughter passes by the office almost every day with her daughter. His 3 sons all grown and married work within the business.



They ask me every day what I need, to the point that I feel I should make something up, untill finally I mentioned that I needed an arabic teacher. Within secconds his son was on the phone and after I finnished my food I was called into the office where a teacher sat and they discussed my schedule for study to be 4 days a week here at work for 2 hours all paid for by the company.



It has overwhelmed me the generosity from both these families just as I was about to write off all egyptians as cunning con artists, ok not all but most. And I feel greatly indebted to both a debt that Im worried I will not be able to repay.



Although it has put me in a bit of a pickle, I don't know my sallary and all these kind gestures have made it almost impossible for me to ask...but I need to know if it is suitable for what I am able to live on. I also work 6days a week something I learned the day before my presumed 2-day weekend, another thing that I want to talk to him about but feel like I don't have a right to almost! 1day is not enough for me to enjoy my life, I usually go horse riding every Friday but sometimes the people I go with change it to a Satuirday being the other common day from there weekend here in Egypt and I go swimming on Saturdays which is the only day available for many reasons and I have Friday off only..... Insallah I'l sort this after a week or two.

1st day

DAMN

I immerse myself in my 'work',
I put the radio on my phone and plug in the hands-free and blare the thoughts out of my head,
I try to ignore my erratic heart beat,
my fever all over my body,
I clench my fist, my toes.
I worry for anyone that crosses me at this moment,
I want to scream, in many ways!
It's so unnatural and yet so natural?,
my eyebrows are dented in the middle giving me a pleading look!
I need a release!
I gulp,
I sigh heavily,
I grit my teeth,
I laugh at myself.

It's still there,
for another day!

DAMN!

elo elo elo

As soon as the Sun comes out we all go a little bit crazy....
....But what a lovely long weekend

Hmmmm

Seriously more-ish

which is

slightly dangerous

ObAmA, oBaMa, ObAmA!!!!

I'd obliterate Iran...


....if there was a launched nuclea attack against Isreal. Said Hilary, once she was president.

Na NAKON!!!!!

here we go again, weapons of mass destruction.

VOTE BARACK OBAMA!!!!!!

New event 12/04/08

CLICK ON THE PIC FOR AN ENLARGED VIEW

Today I bumped into spring

As I looked over the wet concrete landscape I spotted the 1st Cherry Blossom tree in bloom hidden in its urban surroundings it adorned it's place like a single star in a night black sky

I never did get his name

He was French.

He was currently residing in Dorking, which he liked, contrary to Sheffield and Southampton.

He knew a person who was charged 75p a text from England to wales

He disagreed it was a different country.

He uses Cd's as mirrors

He enjoys cycling, however he was not doing so on his trip to Windsor.

He worked as a night security officer, and the hour in which he started work was the worst of them all.

He believed that the English could look after themselves, when they weren't busy drinking.

He had a dog, she died 2 years ago.

He then discovered himself as a 'Dog Whisperer'.

He took 45 minutes max to rehabilitate a dog.

He took 3 weeks to re-train a human.

He told me I could find him at someplace in Boxhill.

20th Century theft!!

Event

MK

Career

Just met Sam Roddick (daughter of the former owner of body shop) owner of 'Coco De Mar', who is heavily involved in NGO stuffs so I told her about some of my ideas and she gave me a great contact who could help me out when the time comes! so maybe it's not so whimsical.

Some up-comming events for you all around London, let me know in the comments if you need more info

Bismillahi Rahmanir Raheem

The new up-coming member of my extended family

Sub7anallah!

mabrook Mary and Shakir