+961

A Lebanese Blog

Tag: Beirut

  • iPhone app to keep track of electricity cut-offs in Beirut

    I guess I’m lucky to have a good memory and almost always remember the electricity cut-off schedule in my area of Beirut, but I know a lot of people who keep on forgetting it and can definitely make use of this new iPhone application by Mustafa Baalbaki.

    Only those living in Beirut would appreciate “Beirut Electricity” because they daily suffer forgetting when electricity is off.

    You need to know that electricity in Beirut city (capital of Lebanon) is off everyday for three hours, and each day these three hours are withdrawn backwards. For example, if the power today is off from 3:00 PM till 6:00 PM, so tomorrow it will be off from 12:00 PM till 3:00 PM and so forth until reaching 06:00 AM to 09:00 AM, and then it switches back to be off from 03:00 PM to 06:00 PM. It’s weird and this App is here to solve the calculation problem for you.

    When you first launch the App, you need to configure it by specifying the day and time cut range, and based on your input you can find when the electricity will be off at your location any time and on any day.

    The application works on iPhone, iPod touch, and iPad but requires iOS 4.0 or later, and you can of course get it via the iTunes store.

    I don’t have an idea about the schedule of areas outside Beirut, but if they also follow a certain system then we’ll probably see some similar releases soon, or maybe an upgrade of the current application.

    Via Bilal Houri.

  • Zaatar W Zeit and the missing Z’s

    I just got this in my e-mail:

    Other than a few photos and short videos of the “kidnap”, missingz.com account contained the following manifesto:

    We, the Z liberation cell, claim the responsibility behind the kidnapping of all the Zs from the Zaatar W Zeit signs.

    The Z Liberation cell has no affiliation to any political leader, military or religious group.

    Our cause is solely to liberate every single Z we find in town.

    We want change and we aim to evolve.

    More info to the public in due time. #MissingZ

    “change” could be a hint to probably new items on their menu… and I expect the whole thing to turn into a competition the find the missing Z’s… Let’s wait and see!

  • Breakfast at Bonheur du Pain Verdun

    Bonheur du pain is located in Verdun’s main street right next to Leila. Their breakfast menu is basically very close to what Paul offers but at a less price.

    The cheese omelet I had was very good, but if there’s one thing I could improve it would have been their croissant, which are really not bad, but you usually expect pastries to taste no less than excellent at places like Bonheur du Pain.

    My overall experience there was good even though their staff were acting clumsy… which is probably because my visit was shortly after their opening…

  • Nokia E7 flash mob at City Mall


    I personally liked the one performed by the Beirut Duty Free more. I salute the efforts made by the organizers for Nokia’s flash mob, but I would have preferred it to be more natural. It’s not like I’m an expert in making viral videos and stuff, but there’s really no need to perform sophisticated dances, keep it simple like the Dabke in the airport, and allow people to join instead of stressing on the security guards to keep them away of the dancers.

  • This menu will leave you in awe!

    I really can’t believe someone can be that bad in English… the menu items are just unreal!

    Tabboush snack is a proof that sucking at translation is not exclusive to Egyptians and Syrians (with all due respect), apparently Lebanese too can do a terrible job sometimes. The place offers Urination, Bebse, Duonas, Zaluoaa, Flesh, Black chickens, and a lot more… check for yourself.

    According to my friend who provided the photos, Tabboush made 25,000 copies of the menu… so there’s 25,000 copies of this thing possibly roaming the streets of Beirut and ready to massacre your brain at anytime!

  • Roadster’s placemat for Mother’s day

    The placemat that Roadster is using for Mother’s day is quite funny and impressive!

    Motherboard
    You don’t need to know how she gets things done. Just be thankful.
    Happy Mother’s Day.

  • Footages of the internal security forces breaking into a BMW

    An anonymous reader sent me these 2 videos showing members of the Lebanese internal security forces breaking into a BMW and driving it away to probably clear the street for a convoy or something…

    Knowing that the authorities collect the phone number of all car owners in Lebanon, couldn’t they have looked up the owner’s phone number through his plate number and told him to just come and park it somewhere else? Or why not using a car carrier to move it away instead of breaking into it?

    Also, notice how easy it is to steal a car, the whole thing doesn’t take more than a couple of minutes!

  • Amusing flash mob at Beirut Airport

    Two friends of mine just shared this video on Facebook! Looks like some of Beirut airport staff performed on March 5th 2011 a dabke dance inside the airport premises to the rythm of a Houwwara song, and it turned out pretty cool!

    I have no idea why did they do it, but I loved how people of all ages were participating, kudos!

    Update:
    Here’s another video, shot on March 4th, of a rehearsal for the dance. According to Biba from +961’s page on Facebook, the dance was done for an ad for Beirut Duty Free.

  • Dahieh’s best pizza

    Why in Dahieh specifically? Why not “The best pizza in Lebanon” instead?

    And why don’t we see similar billboards in other places like Jounieh or Tripoli for example?

  • Ahwet Leila to replace Ahwet El Ezez in Gemmayze

    After all the rumors (that proved to be wrong later) about the possibility of a bank replacing Ahwet El Ezez in Gemmayze, it turned out it’s actually a 4th branch for Leila that will be replacing the old cafe.

    Leila already has 3 branches in ABC Achrafieh, ABC Dbayeh, and Verdun. This new branch will be called “Ahwet Leila” to probably maintain the feel of its predecessor…