Cakes Galore!

"For every beautiful woman, there is a man who is bored of looking at her"

There comes a stage beyond the bliss of relaxation where I must take a good hard look around, and truly compare and contrast the foundations of the extremely different societies I am being immersed in. And I would say that the basic man to woman relationship is a very broad and global foundation on which homes and societies are built, before we throw in our individual and societal rules and regulations, morals and ethics, do's and don'ts.

It may be a sign from the universe pulling my attention, or it may just be coincidence (although if you ask me there is no such thing), but it seems women all around the world in many various aspects of life are currently one of the main focus of attention. No ladies, I am not referring to the FACT that we pull the gentlemen's attention with the individual beauty which we ALL possess. I am referring to being propositioned into a "better" life back home by a man I have strong distaste for, going to church and being invited to celebrate being a woman, watching previously suppressed women flood into revolution with strong, loud voices, being surrounded here by the women who accepted the "better" life which I firmly turned down, and finally, hearing of my aunt dropping her life for a week to go and join those women in revolt and take a stance against the cruelty and injustice the people have suffered for 29 years. Need I clarify? Egypt. 

As it stands my post makes no sense, my aspects are all very scattered, and perhaps my phrasing is not helping either. All of these thoughts being tied together however, occurred to me from the very awful quote that is the title of this post. This was said however, by a woman, in response to a man saying:

 "I am wrong? You are all beautiful. Every single one of you has something about her, down to the cruelest woman, it could be just a simple smile that does it. That twinkle in her eye. Can you blame me for falling in love with every woman I see?"

The confusion that may be seeping through my writing as a type is entirely accurate to how I feel. It seems to me the role of women has further changed, and this is no feminist stance. To feminists I say: Please buy a bra. And for the sake of all my feminist friends, I will keep the rest to myself. However, the "better" life that I turned down due to my view of it being an oppressed life has proved me wrong. It seems these women have far more control than I knew. This also applies to the women revolting, to my aunt, to the women of the church celebrating these newly discovered strong women who fight for what is right (both Muslim and Christian TOGETHER... again I'd like to make note that I can only speak about what I am surrounded by, and those two religions are dominating my surroundings). By no means was I trying to start a religious, feminist, and political blog. These are just the things that I am impregnated in here, that we perhaps overlook in the mall culture society we live in back home. 

I am born to a mother who is nothing but feminine. With all that she does, she maintains elegance and classiness, even in her angriest moments, and I absolutely admire her. She has enough tolerance and love  to go around the world and back again. But at times I am shocked that she stands for the things she does. On a daily basis I watch her get put down, verbally walked on, and it breaks my heart. And when I say something about it, she responds with "They will not get to me, I will not allow them to. And I will not waste my energy feeling bad on their account. They will get what's coming to them, for they do it to themselves. We all make our own beds..." The revolution is not just physically in these countries. It's in our hearts, our decisions, our relationships. She has shown me that in bad situations it is so easy for a woman to calmly make a decision within your own heart to separate and disconnecting yourself emotionally from a man who continuously hurts you, without causing physical friction or tension. Sure women are emotional, but with all the emotion we possess we are stronger. For all the suffering women out there need to remember, all men have made their beds the same way women have. Now they must lie in them, as we will lie in ours.

You will never know I wrote this about you. You disgust me on so many different levels you'll never know. If I wanted saliva all over my face I would go play with a dog. Even in their animalistic nature, at least there I would do without the bite. I hope your bed is comfortable. And I'll still pray for you, in my "overly emotional" state. 

Don't ever ask how it turned out this way, just look deep inside yourself.

Goodnight world <3 

Beautiful Day

For the first time in 9 years I am getting to celebrate my birthday with my parents and we started a day early. Breakfast at Fouchon, shopping, Atlantis, dinner and drinks at the Buddha Bar, followed by lovely conversation with my favourite back home :) Thank you for singing to me, that was the greatest birthday song EVER! The funny part is the actual birthDAY hasn't even started yet.

Dad raised a very good point at the Buddha Bar though, as this Buddha was peering down at us about 2 stories high, and the little mini Buddhas were scattered around this phenomenally designed bar, he said "I wonder how a buddhist would feel walking in here". I said, I imagine it would feel quite similar to a Christian walking in here to find a 2 story high crucifix with Jesus on it, surrounded by lots of mini versions of it scattered around. And I imagine that would be a feeling of offense, considering the establishment. Nonetheless, it made for an amazing and indescribable candle lit atmosphere, by FAR one of the best restaurants/bars I have set foot in. (if anyone can tell me how to post pictures on this, I can show you what I mean)

Well I have not been posting anything for the past few days as I haven't got much to say at the moment. I have been spending my time writing and drawing in the sun, and slowly making my way through the many amazing albums I recently acquired. Today however I did realize that at some stage in the past few years, one of my paintings got stolen (probably during one of the parties). I forgot I even had it until today, as I was sorting through my pictures and I saw it, it dawned on me it had been years since I had last seen it. It was definitely not one of my best pieces so I'm not too upset, not to mention: it's quite flattering. To the mystery person who is now the owner of my creation, I'm sure if you had asked nicely enough I probably would have just given it to you. But the effort is flattering nonetheless, and enjoy!

I still cannot get used to the manner in which people cater to you here. Random people do not say "hello Madame" and smile at you for no reason whatsoever in Canada. It kind of makes my day. Just a simple hello and a smile.

I am 23 in the Middle East, but still 22 back home :)
Goodnight world <3

"On the note of happy endings, what if the person just doesn't deliver, if they just keep letting you down? I guess eventually, you just have to say fuck you.... Or words to that effect"
Well said little 12 year old. Well said. 

Adjust

Ok so I made it to the other side of the world in one piece and somewhat sane. First flight was great because my family was awesome enough to get me quite drunk before the flight and I ended up with a whole row to myself (because who travels at this time of year). I must say, there is nothing quite like passing out on a plane after a few drinks, spread out across 3 seats. When I landed in Germany I got rushed off the plane by flight crew, out some random door and into a bus and into the next plane. I think I only had 20 minutes to make it there or something and for anyone who knows the airport in Germany, you will know how impossible that is. So my stay in Germany was minimal to say the least but on the way back should be a bit longer, so to all the people I had promised random things to from Germany, you'll get it on the way back :) The second flight SUCKED. The only good part was that I spilt my wine (by accident) on this douchebag next to me coz I laughed so hard at the movie I was watching. He was not amused. And 18 hours (or so) later I got here.

Well tonight is my third night in Dubai, and as it was pointed out to me upon arrival, in order to fully take in and appreciate the entirely different lifestyle that is the way of life here, you must switch your brain off from wherever you came from. This is not my first trip here, so I knew what to expect. For me this means switching off my dearly missed Tim Hortons, switching off a certain enjoyable habit, switching off my Blackberry (although admittedly I turn it on a couple times a day to check on my lovelies back home), switching off any kind of adopted daily patterns, and unfortunately switching off caring about any issues back home that may arise (bills, letters that need your attention, forgetting the recycling bins outside... ahem). You become immersed in having to accept such grand and obvious social hierarchy, to a point where it's heartbreaking. The people at the bottom of the pyramid are probably the first people you will run into, because as soon as you get off the plane, they will try to help you with your bags etc in order to get a tip. Giving them a dollar for us is like giving them food for the day. These people are the foundation of this disgusting fantastic place. On my first night here it put me in tears, to see human to human interaction as if it were human to animal.

This may not be drawing the prettiest picture of Dubai for all of you back home, and on that front, it isn't. But it is what it is, it just comes as a shock initially. Seems I got more upset about it than they do. To put it in perspective for all the ladies who watched Sex and the City 2, it's like Carrie's servant said, for them this is luxury and survival compared to what they would face back home. And it also means their families can eat.

My previous trips here were different in that the Middle East was not undergoing a revolution as it is now, and my thoughts and prayers go out to those countries who are still in a state of emergency. On that note, God bless my home Masr (Egypt), and I'll leave it at that because I could go on about this for way too long (and I probably will in a separate entry at some stage when we can reach a more solid conclusion).The other side of landing in Dubai is having to immerse yourself in the obsession with politics, political correctness, racial groupings, not to mention religious cause and effect on all the states in the UAE. On the note of something you can relate to, in order to keep fanatics from causing local chaos in drunken states, alcohol is only served in hotels, or restaurants linked to hotels. It is possible but hard to attain a personal liquor license.

It is very different and very strange coming here as a non tourist this time, and for an extended period of time (possibly extended further but we'll talk about that later). The smaller details of the way the country is run seem to pop out more, although it could also be that I am older now and more knowledgeable to look for these things, and unfortunately see them.

On my first night here as I was being driven to our apartment, I saw a boy being beat with bats by about 5 other guys. I guess that would also explain why I felt so sad the whole night. I didn't sleep until 6:30am.

Believe it or not though it's not all bad guys (lol). I think I just can't seem to focus on the good yet as I am still adjusting back to the cultural differences and norms. Now Canada starts to seems just as strange to me (although it always sort of was in a funny entertaining and confusing way). Maybe a nice massage tomorrow will bring out the good. There is a lot of (man made) beauty to be seen, just a lot of wow factors really. Architecture here is sometimes out of this world, even in malls! I will post pictures soon. However a lot of big projects were stopped due to the economy, so this left a few scattered unfinished buildings.

Anyway, the architecture of my bed is looking perfect right now.
Goodnight world <3

To all the lovelies who would like to know what I'm up to across the globe...

I am beginning a new documentation of my day to day life, artistic developments, and travels as of February 16th 2011, the day of my departure of Canada. I can't honestly say there is much I will miss while I'm away, aside from the obvious people who make my experience of life a beautiful thing. The weather sucks, and I am considerably fed up with pouring people's beers and mixing their drinks. Bartending: The secret destiny of Emilie McCleod? I think not. Time to start packing.

<3