Natasha says: fadi
The Observer says: yes
Natasha says: would you ever do a nose job?
The Observer says: yes i would
Natasha says: really?
Natasha says: why ?
Natasha says: why yes?
Natasha says: why no?
The Observer says: because my nose is big
Natasha says: but remeber when you where talking that it has to do with personality?
The Observer says: yes
The Observer says: i will have a better personality then
Natasha says: and that playing with it might …
The Observer says: 🙂
Natasha says: hehe
Natasha says: how come?
The Observer says: because i will be having a better nose
Natasha says: the sharp nose is better that the small one
Natasha says: personality wise
Natasha says: hehe
The Observer says: is mine sharp?
Natasha says: you think i should do it ?
Natasha says: yeah
The Observer says: it depends on how much it annoys you
Natasha says: i don’t know
Natasha says: i don’t look good all the time because of it
Natasha says: ma ba3ref
Natasha says: in serbia , i don’t see it
Natasha says: her i do
The Observer says: you look good to me all the time
Natasha says: because all ppl here have done it
Natasha says: thanks fufu
The Observer says: but all people here have big noses, fa 3adi
Natasha says: small noses here became an obssession
Natasha says: in serbia things are different
Natasha says: here when there is a trend … khalas ..
Natasha says: ya3ni in our sociaty only small noses are accepted
Natasha says: mish 3arfeh
Natasha says: u mish 3arfeh keef momken yisser shekli
The Observer says: it is because small noses are different
Natasha says: but i’d like to have a nice nose
The Observer says: try photoshop first
The Observer says: your nose is nice
Natasha says: you are my only photoshop fiend
Natasha says: hehe
The Observer says: i dont want to make it so that i wont end up with the big nose alone
Natasha says: hehe
Natasha says: yeah and one more thing
Natasha says: my all my family has big noses
Natasha says: keef ya3ni ana la7li akuun gher !
Natasha says: hehe
The Observer says: May I post this chat on my blog?
Natasha says: hehe
Natasha says: i don’t know
Natasha says: ok you can
The Observer says: it is fun
The Observer says: thx xxxx
Natasha says: ma ra7 abayen tafha ?
The Observer says: heheheh, no you won’t
Natasha says: hehe

Natasha’s nose

My nose

What really impressed me by meeting those young designers and have been seeing in my friend Haitham for a while now is their real passion for fashion. It is almost like you can read their future in their eyes. They are much aware of were they are heading and they are so determined to achieve their dreams regardless of how hard it seems to be at this point in their life and how much of a hard work they have to put.

I always quote Paulo Coelho when I talk to Haitham. I tell him that when someone wants something really bad, everything in this world conspires to make it happen. Now I believe in that quote more than ever as I have a real example in front of me.
I can feel how the world conspires to grant him his dream.

A year ago, he seized that chance offered by LBC to join their mission fashion program. He didn’t think that he has a chance because he doesn’t have a degree in fashion, but his passion for it pushed him to apply, and so he was granted the first chance to enter the world of his dream.

When he left the program, he went back to his normal life. He had to work in IT because that is what he studies in college, and he has to make some money to support himself, but he also didn’t forget about his passion, not a single minute. He made several dresses in the past year and he kept his eyes opened to seize any possible chance to make his dream comes true.

Lancome contacted him in Decemeber. At first it seemed that a degree in fashion would step in his way once again. He had to fight in order to convince people in charge that he can do as good as the other designers. He proved that he can.

I just feel proud of him for his persistance when it comes to achieving his dream.

Talking with him about how this passion grew in him since childhood makes me wonder how much a person is meant to be what he is or what he is going to be? How much are we born to be what we are? Why his hands caught the pencil to draw a dress rather than a natural scene when he was young? Why did his eyes caught the dresses colors and fashion runways instead of anything else? Why does he have this obsession in fashion magazines?

His eyes sparkles when ever he talks about fashion as if he is living the glamourous future right now, as if he is living the moment of success on the stage between his designs and models, as if knows where he is heading and how he is going to make it.

It is really inspiring meeting people with this strong well to achieve their dreams. I once heard Oprah talking in an interview how she has always known that she is meant to be what she is now.

What I also find interesting is the common interest of the designers in Queen Rania. She does represents class and elegance to them. They talk about her in a very highly manner. Haitham in particular talks about her as if she is one of his family. He admires her a lot. He dreams of the day he is going to give her a dress, actually his dream is bigger than that, he dreams of being her personal designer. He shies from talking about that. I hope he wont get upset of me exposing his dream to you. I know that one day he will achieve it. He is determined and talented. I wish him the best.

And wish anyone who has a dream to achieve it. I know that with persistance we can achieve anything…

On my first day in Dubai, I had to go with Haitham in order to do the fitting of his dresses on the models. I had the chance to meet the designers participating in this Lancome competition. I have seen most of them before on Tv when they were participating on Mission Fashion on LBC, but now I had the chance to meet them in person. They were so friendly and nice.

In this picture you can see most of them 3 other competitors are missing from the picture. The ones showing from left to right: Dania – Iraq, Solafa – Saudi Arabia, Baleegh – Tunis, Abdallah – Kwait, Haitham – Jordan, Mohammad – Egypt, Razan – Jordan, Crystal – Lebanon.

After doing there fitting, which took several hours, we were starving, and so we head down to one of the restaurants in the Jumera city. We picked chinese food at The Noodle House.

Next day they were all in a rush to make everything perfect for the show. They had to leave the hotel early in the morning in order to show their dresses in front the Jury committe who had to pick the winners before the fashion show.

These pictures are taken at the backstage of the fashion show minutes before it begun.

Me and Haitham

Here is how things were messed up at the backstage.

Haitham, Elian (lebanon), Razan and Dania: All Designers.

Mishel – An American model seems to fall in love with Haitham. She is VERY beautiful, and so nice when you talk to her. She is really an angel.

Haitham’s dresses:
1. Blue dress.

2. Gold dress.

3. Green dress.

4. Pink dress.

Unfortunatly Haitham didn’t win the competition although I personally think he has the best dresses. You wont be able to judge as I am not posting the other dresses picutres. We were so disappointed, but tried to forget about it and enjoy the after party at the Trilogy rooftop night club. The weather was great, and the place was awsome. There has been a lot of press, a lot of models, and a lot of Lancome staff.

Mishel again hugging Haitham 🙂

Finally this is a picture infront of the hotel that shows some of the towers of Dubai. The city is beautiful. If you havent been there, you have to.

I feel a bit guilty when I check my blog stats and find people still checking it after a couple of days of not posting anything. Actually I feel happy as well to know that there are people who do anticipate my new posts. Thank you.

I came back from Dubai two days ago. It has been a very nice trip. I will be posting about more details about the trip and the fashion show I attended in the coming days when I get the pictures we took from my friend.

Now I will start from the beginning.

In my way to Dubai, I was happy to have my seat next to plane window as I do like looking from the window and checking the ground below getting smaller and smaller, then looking into the clouds and feel the height we are flying in.

Unfortunatly, it was night. I could only see the wing of the plane. I couldn’t even see any star, only pure darkness covering the horizon.

I kept on staring out of the window. I wanted to see anything. Maybe I even hoped to see a vision, an angel, or anything spiritual that would restore the faith that I have lost in a spiritual world.

The idea of the father living in the sky that has been injected into my mind at childhood is still there in me. In old days, they used to believe that heavens are in the sky. Today, and regardless of all the scientific achievments we have acquired, a lot of us still look up to the sky in order to approach the God we believe in.

And so, even knowing that religion has evolved to say that the father is everywhere – which means that he can be in my room at my house on earth as much as he can be sitting next to me on the seat of the plane in the sky – I stood there in the plane trying to catch any sign of heavens.

After 3 hours, the plane reached its distination. I was disappointed because I got no sign from heavens. The scenes of the buildings of Dubai started to appear. The life of the city started to show itself. The lights were everywhere in the middle of the night. The workers in the airport where rushing in the middle of the night to serve the passangers who arrived from around the world.

I find myself feeling happy for the life existing in a far away city from my home. People seem different. Buildings seem different. There are new sights to see. There are new people to look at. There are new experiences to go through. There are many things that yet I have to check in my life.

In a second, it came clear to me the absurd idea of me looking for another life on plance while I still have so much to learn in this life. Why do I keep on bothering myself of looking for an evidence for a spiritual life when it can be hidden from be because I am not really ready for it? I have yet a long journey to take on this earth before leaving. A journey that I am looking forward to unfold and live.

I am so excited today.

I am heading to Dubai this afternoon to attend Lancome Color Designs Award Fasion Show.

I will be supporting my fashion designer friend Haitham Al Dawoud in this competition.

He participated in Missio Fashion on LBC last year.

He is very talented and ambition young man. He has a strong passion for fashion.

Hope this time he will make it and head to Paris for the international competition.

Wish him luck.

Today’s quote of Veronika Decides to Die is a bit long. This would be shocking to many people, but I like what the psychiatrist in the Novel, Dr. Igor, said about each one of us sexual’s profile.

I quote:

During his medical studies, Dr Igor had read an interesting treastise on sexual dissidence: sadism, masochism, homosexuality, coprophagy, coprolalia, voyeurism, the list was endless. At first, he considered these things examples of deviant behaviour in a few maladjusted people incapable of having a healthy relationship with their partners.

However, as he advanced in his profession as psychiatrist and talked to his patients, he realized that everyone has an unusual story to tell. His patients would sit down in the comfortable armchair in his office, stare hard at the floor, and being a long dissertation on what they called ‘illness’ (as if he were not the doctor) or perversions (as if he were not the psychiatrist charged with deciding what was and wasn’t perverse).

And one by one, these normal people would describe fantasies that were all to be found in that famous treatise on erotic minorities, a book, in fact, that defended the right of everyone to have the orgasm they chose, as long as it did not violate the rights of their partner.

Women who had studied in convent schools dreamed of being sexually humilated; men in suits and ties, high-ranking civil servants, told him of the fortunes they spent on Rumanian prostitutes just so that they could lick their feet. Boys in love with boys, girls in love with their fellow school girls. Husbands who wanted to watch their wives having sex with strangers, women who masturbated every time they found some hint that their men had committed adultery. Mothers who had to suppress an impulse to give themselves to the first dilevery man who rang the doorbell, fathers who recounted secret adventures with the bizarre transvestites who managed to slip through the strict border controls.

And orgies. It seemed that everyone, at least once in their life, wanted to take part in an orgy.

Later on he continued describing how every human being has a unique sexual profile like everyone of us has a unique finger print.

I like this passage because many have been struggling with their fantasize of what they percieve as sexual illness or perversion while it seems each one of us suffer from a certain thing. While we can’t always act on our sexual fantasizes, I think that knowing that we are not alone would give a sense of comfort to us.

It is not easy to talk about sex in this part of the world, but I guess people should start learning and be more easy on themselves.

Sorry RedRose for the delay in replying to your tag.

1. If there was a fire at your house and you could save only one thing (item) what would that be?

The first thing that comes to my mind is the painting which I drew last month and is hanging on the wall of my room.

2. What is the most embarrassing situation you have been in?

when I was about 10 years old, I had a fight with another boy in the street who was picking on me with a stick. I had a stick as well, and I hit him on his eyes. When he started to cry, I fled, and then disappreared for sometimes from going to visit my friend who lives near by.

After sometime, I went to visit my friend again. I can’t remember clearly, but I remember my friend asking me if I am the one who hit the guy or not. I remember myself denying it! I don’t know why I felt so much embarrassed that I hated myself for not being able to admit what I have done.

3. If you can do over a part of your life, what will you change?

I am not sure, if I have the chance, that I would change anything of my past, unless I would know that it would turn better in the future. For now, I don’t regret anything. I am happy where I am. Maybe I would like to re-live some old days, but not the entire thing all over again.

I would like to tag VAS, Tala, Saadna and 7aki Fadi.

One of the passages that stopped me in Veronika Decides to Die is the explanation Edwardo came with about the painting of The Lady (Virgin Mary) standing poised above the world, with her hands outstreched to the Earth and with rays of light streaming from her fingertips while standing on a live snake.

His explanation:

The Virgin equals female energy and is the mistress of the snake, which signifies wisdom. Love is above wisdom, just as the Virgin is above the snake. For her, everything is Inspiration. She doesn’t bother judging what is Good and what Evil.

Love is above wisdom

This sentence says it all.

Looking back to last week’s heated debate about homosexuality, and seeing people fighting each other on what is good and what is bad, then reading this sentence which stopped me and made me realize that it doesn’t really matter. No one knows what is good and what is bad, what really matters is love, because Love is above all..

In a second, Eduard remembered everything that had happened the previous night. There was a woman lying curled in his arms.

‘She… she’s dead.’
But the woman moved and opened her eyes.
‘What’s going on?’ asked Veronika.
‘Nothing,’ said Eduard, helping her to her feet. ‘Or rather, a miracle happened: another day of life.’

I finally finished this amazing novel of Paulo’s Coelho. I personally think that this one is his best ever. It kept me hooked till the ending. It gave me a new perspective on who we call *Mad* people. It made me more interesting in psychology, and it gave me a better insight on how important our brains are, and how a simple distortion in our brain chemicals would affect a great deal of our life.

When I reached to the above versus. I was expecting Veronika to be dead. When she opened her eyes. I was glad that she was granted another day of life. I was reading this page in the early morning, yesterday in bed. When I reached the line of a miracle, another day of life. I opened my eyes and took a deep breath. I looked at the window, and suddenly, a the dimmed clouded weather turned brighter. A light just filled the room for seconds. It reminded me that I am granted a miracle as well. Another day of life gift…

Some people refuse to see the sun even when its rays hurts their faces.

I know that many refuse to hear science when it conflicts with their own set of beliefs. Like in religion, people take a selective approach in believing what they want to belive.

I will do what I have to do and end the homosexuality series posts with scientific point of you. Hope that all, who beleive in science, and those who dont, go and read the article.

I picked the American Psychological Association (APA):

About APA
Based in Washington, DC, the American Psychological Association (APA) is a scientific and professional organization that represents psychology in the United States. With 150,000 members, APA is the largest association of psychologists worldwide.

Here is their stand on homosexuality:
http://www.apa.org/topics/orientation.html

I quote:

Is Sexual Orientation a Choice?

No, human beings can not choose to be either gay or straight. Sexual orientation emerges for most people in early adolescence without any prior sexual experience. Although we can choose whether to act on our feelings, psychologists do not consider sexual orientation to be a conscious choice that can be voluntarily changed.

Can Therapy Change Sexual Orientation?

No. Even though most homosexuals live successful, happy lives, some homosexual or bisexual people may seek to change their sexual orientation through therapy, sometimes pressured by the influence of family members or religious groups to try and do so. The reality is that homosexuality is not an illness. It does not require treatment and is not changeable.

However, not all gay, lesbian, and bisexual people who seek assistance from a mental health professional want to change their sexual orientation. Gay, lesbian, and bisexual people may seek psychological help with the coming out process or for strategies to deal with prejudice, but most go into therapy for the same reasons and life issues that bring straight people to mental health professionals