Life & Style | Gadgets & Tech
Blogosphere: February 12
Gulf News web deputy editor Florence Pia G. Yu plunges headlong into the blogosphere to find out what bloggers from the Middle East and beyond have on their minds.
- By Florence Pia G. Yu, Deputy Web Editor
- Published: 23:55 February 11, 2008
- Image Credit: AP
- The Egyptian national football team celebrate after winning the African Nations Cup 2008.
Pick of the week: Football blogs
A well-deserved win
On Sunday evening, with a little help from a mistake by the Cameroonian captain Rigobert Song, defending champion Egypt defeated Cameroon 1-0 and won the trophy of the Africa Nations Cup for the sixth time!
The Egyptians, as always, were controlled, organised and continuously kept attacking. And they won despite being unfancied to win in Ghana.
What is most admirable of the Egyptians is, unlike all major soccer teams in Africa and the Arab world who depend on expensive, foreign coaches, Egypt has one of their own as the coach: the shrewd Hassan Shehata.
Shehata has succeeded in winning the African Nations Cup after failing three times as a player for his country.
Congratulations to Shehata and to Egypt! Hopefully Egypt will take their dominance and keep their momentum into the build up towards the 2010 World Cup in South Africa.
http://hadhramouts.blogspot.com
Drinking Qasab in the balad
After a lengthy discussion with friends last night about the craziness of prices in the country, courtesy of recent oil subsidy disappearances, we decided there was a need to do something inexpensive, just to feel that the world still made sense.
Hence we drove down to the balad in search of qasab sukar (sugar cane drink) at 12am. For those who are unfamiliar with it, qasab is a very common drink in the balad.
Made purely out of sugar cane and water, qasab is akin to a liquid glucose injection and is famously cheap.
While it's in season these days and still incredibly tasty, it was unfortunately not immune to inflation and price hikes. It has gone up from roughly 25 piasters to 40 piasters in a span of one year.
Whoever said "the best things in life are free" was not Jordanian.
http://www.black-iris.com
R.I.P. Roy Scheider
I just found out that Roy Scheider has passed away. He wasn't one of my favourite actors, but I never minded him and he actually was the lead star on many of my favourite movies and TV shows including Jaws and 2010: The Year We Make Contact. Sucks.
http://www.248am.com/mark
Singles Awareness Day
It used to be that I was just a member of Samahan ng Atenistang Walang Iniibig (SAWI), but now I think it's so much more comforting that there's actually an official Singles' Awareness Day (SAD).
For more information, see the "official" Singles' Awareness website and the Singles Awareness Day entry on Wikipedia.
If you would like to celebrate it yourself, you may wish to attend some of the seminars, including: Advanced cross-stitching (for singles since birth only), speed-dating for dummies, among others. I don't really know where I'll be on February 14, but I don't think I'll be blogging. So advanced happy SAD!
http://filipinolibrarian.blogspot.com/2008
Tarja Halonen
Arabic media have been paying a lot of attention to the American presidential race. Particularly to the democrats. And the big issue is: Can a woman run a country?
When I called a friend on it a few weeks ago, she admitted that she thought women were good at some things, men at other things (like leading a country).
Typical nonsense from an unexpected source. People never cease to surprise me. "What about the president of Finland?" I asked. She is a woman, after all. It angers me how it is 2008 and our educated 20 year olds do not think a woman can run a country.
http://ubergirl87.blogspot.com
Back in the desert
The first time I set foot in the UAE I felt like I was brought back to my good old Riyadh - the place where I grew up; the place I called home. As I felt the cool dry air that surrounded me the night I arrived, I was happy and excited. Little did I know that in this place I too will be all alone. I thought I was strong enough.
I'm in my third week here now. And the place that felt like Riyadh at first, now feels like a strange land with strangers all around. Today, on my day off, I woke up with a lump in my throat.
The same feeling I used to get when I was a little girl in the Philippines and I would wake up and not see my mama beside me.
http://jenniferorena.spaces
.live.com/Blog
Jolly at Jollibee
While at MacWorld this year, I didn't have the luxury of time so I headed to get some fast food. I did not get Burger King, McDonald's, KFC, Taco Bell or a slew of countless other well-known places. I went to Jollibee.
It turns out that Jollibee is the Philippines No 1 fast food restaurant even beating out McDonald's. It was entertaining to see countless of MacWorld attendees stumbling in with strange looks perusing the unfamiliar menu.
Jollibee does have the standard burger, but it also has fried chicken, noodles and spaghetti.
http://30films.wordpress.com/2008
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