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Blink My Car – The Latest On-Demand Car Wash Service

By on January 28, 2016 in Lebanon

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“Blink My Car” is a new mobile app that allows people in Beirut to book a car wash for their car or motorbike wherever they are around the city. All they have to do is place an order through the app and a team will show up at their place to clean the vehicle using waterless products.

The idea is not new to the market since two similar services were previously launched in 2010 (Yara Service) and 2014 (Just Wash), but Blink My Car seems easier to use since it doesn’t involve calling any phone number.

I actually downloaded the app and it required me to register and enter basic details about my car in order for them to identify it once they arrive (car model, color, and plate number). I’m not sure though how much helpful will these info be in crowded areas, but anyway I was mostly curious to know how much is their fees. It turned out they charge $10 per car/motorbike and an additional $2 for the car interior, so that’s a total of $12 of 18,000L.L to properly clean your car.

I honestly found the fare a bit too high since I usually can get my car cleaned for anything between 5,000L.L and 10,000L.L. But then again, if I ever felt like I really really need to wash my car ad was unable to go out, then I will probably consider using “Blink My Car” and will be willing to pay the extra 8,000L.L.

I wish their team all the luck anyway!

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Seven Lebanese Among The World’s 50 Richest Arabs in 2016

By on January 27, 2016 in Lebanon

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Arabian Business released their list of The World’s 50 Richest Arabs for the year 2016 and 7 Lebanese made it this year.

2- Joseph Safra ($12bn)
23- Najib Mikati ($3bn)
24- Taha Mikati ($3bn)
30- The Hayek Family (3bn)
43- Saad Hariri ($2bn)
45- Fouad Makhzoumi ($2bn)
46- Robert Mouawad ($2bn)

The richest Arab is unsurprisingly Prince AlWaleed Bin Talal with $25 billions, but if Carlos Slim had the Lebanese citizenship then he would have definitely topped the list with his $77 billions.

Needless to say, 4 out of the 7 mentioned are into politics, which logically makes it the most profitable “business” in this country!

You can check the full list here.

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Things to Do This Week in Lebanon – January 27th 2016

By on January 27, 2016 in Lebanon

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Here are my picks from Lebtivity for this week. Movie buffs may be interest in the 22nd European film festival taking place at Metropolis cinema for the next 10 days. You can check the full festival program here.

  1. 22nd European Film Festival in Lebanon
  2. Stress Management workshop at Skillz
  3. Vicente Guallart at BDD: Prototyping the City of the future
  4. La Nuit des idées
  5. DOCUMENTARY NIGHT: WONDERS OF THE UNIVERSE / PART 2
  6. Iyad Sfeir and The Proud Music Society at Junkyard Beirut
  7. Launching the New Collection of Blown Glass from the GREEN GLASS RECYCLING INITIATIVE-LEBANON
  8. InterNations Beirut – A Fiery 80’s Night @ Smoking Barrels!
  9. Burns Night at Eau De Vie under the patronage of the Caledonian Society
  10. Semaine de l’Orgue au Liban – Lebanese Pipe Organ Week – SOL 2016
  11. Discover / Découvrez Mtein & Khonchara avec Tourleb
  12. Les Caves de La Creperie Opening

Make sure to check Lebtivity.com for much more options.

 

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Lebanon’s Pablo Escobar is Making Rounds on TV Stations

By on January 23, 2016 in Lebanon

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Noah Zaiter, the infamous drug lord living in Bekaa, has for some reason started to make rounds on Lebanese TV stations the same way you see some singers moving from one show to another over a short period of time. A  few days ago he was interviewed by one of Tele Liban’s comic shows, and he’s also set to appear on Aljadeed next week with the super dramatic Tammam Bleik.

The guy can seriously be compared to Colombia’s Pablo Escobar as he claims to be helping the poor people out of the drug money he earns. I’m not sure though about the messages he’s trying to deliver through his appearances now…!

What puzzles me the most however  is that TV stations can easily reach Noah Zaiter for interviews while the Lebanese authorities will probably never be able to arrest him.

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Things to Do This Week in Lebanon – January 20th 2016

By on January 20, 2016 in Lebanon

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Here are my selection from Lebtivity for this week. I recommend you check on the PecheKucha gathering happening tonight as it has some pretty cool speakers attending.

  1. PechaKucha Night Vol.24
  2. Souk El Tayeb in Gefinor – Every Wednesday
  3. Social Media & Internet Workshop for Moms
  4. Festival Photomed Liban 2016
  5. #RecycleLebanon Beach Clean Up Days
  6. Film program | Monumentum: Screening and Q&A with Fadi Yeni Turk
  7. Fitness Challenge Drop a Jeans Size in 21 Days
  8. FOCUS ON YOU
  9. The Art of Wine and Beer Making – Batroun Tour & Tastings with Lunch
  10. 50 days at 50% OFF in downtown Beirut

Don’t forget to check Lebtivity.com for much more options.

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Some Lebanese Movies Are Available for Streaming

By on January 19, 2016 in Lebanon

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Everytime I landed on M Media’s website I never went beyond watching the trailer they have of Bennesbeh Labokra Chou, but I recently browsed their film section and was surprised that they actually made several Lebanese films available for streaming.

Among the titles you will see Blind Intersection, One Man Village, Cash Flow and many others, in addition to some foreign movies as well such as “A Separation”.

Playback is available in HD, and if your connection doesn’t help then you can avoid buffering problems by using some browser extension to download the movies and watch them later.

You can check M Media’s film section by clicking here.

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3 Reasons to Avoid The Early Screenings of Bennesbeh Labokra Chou

By on January 14, 2016 in Lebanon

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Don’t get me wrong, just as you guys probably felt, I was also super excited to learn that Ziad is finally releasing Bennesbeh Labokra Chou in cinemas and I’m already planning to go see it but I personally really prefer to skip to the first few screenings for these reasons.

  1. Ziad fanatics

    We all have that one annoying friend who literally worships Ziad Rahbani and takes every possible opportunity to quote a line from his plays. Some even take it a bit further and imitate the way Ziad speaks. These guys have definitely already booked their tickets and will be all present at the early screenings. Chances are no one wants to be present wherever these people gather and start talking to each other… at least I dont!

  2. The joke spoilers

    Some people can recite the play like the alphabet since they know it by heart. To prove their skills, they will be spoiling every single joke before the actors even start with it. These ones will also be there for the early shows and you probably don’t want to be with them in the same theater!

  3. We all know the ending anyway

    There’s no way for someone to ruin the play for you since we’ve almost all heard it a thousand times and know how it ends. I personally want to go see it because it’s a privilege seeing Ziad Rahbani and Joseph Sakr performing together after 35 years of hearing them on the radio, so waiting a little until the craze cools down a little bit won’t hurt.

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Things to Do This Week in Lebanon – January 13th 2016

By on January 13, 2016 in Lebanon

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There’s something for everybody in this week’s selection from Lebtivity. The old souk in Jbeil is hosting a food festival, Nemr is performing at Junkyard, and Dr. Alban will be at Factory Fridays! And if there’s one thing you should not miss then it’s definitely the “Regards sur Beyrouth” exhibition at Sursock Museum which is bringing more than 200 rarely seen photographs and paintings of old Beirut.

  1. JAZZ NIGHT AT INDIE
  2. Wind and Art Don’t Care About Border – Art Exhibition
  3. FuckUp Nights Beirut VOL. III
  4. Le Souk “Food Festival”
  5. Nemr Abou Nassar Live at Junkyard
  6. FREE Week of Group Personal Training Classes at Le Gym
  7. Exhibition | Regards sur Beyrouth: 160 ans d’images 1800-1960 at Sursock Museum
  8. Resolution Headstand Workshop with Lougal Jazzar
  9. DR. ALBAN Live At Factory Fridays
  10. The Blues Express at The Hangout Beirut

Make sure to check Lebtivity.com for much more options.

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Here’s How Netflix Fails in Lebanon

By on January 12, 2016 in Lebanon

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Soon after Netflix launched its service worldwide I quickly signed up for a free trial to see how good will the streaming be over our lousy internet connection, and I was unsurprisingly very disappointed with the experience.

I have a 2Mb connection, and I was never able to stream a show in HD, the maximum resolution I was getting was probably 360 or 480p despite setting the playback parameters in my account to only play shows in HD. A friend of mine who has a 4Mb was also failing to load anything in high quality. And judging by the figures Netflix posted on their data usage, the results seemed pretty reasonable since 1 hour of HD streaming consumes up to 3GB, so there’s no way you can get that quality unless you probably have an 8Mb subscription.

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Therefore until the internet infrastructure gets a massive upgrade here in Lebanon you’re better off without a Netflix subscription. And even if you managed to get a super fast connection, you should know that the Middle East’s catalog is different than that of the USA and lacks some of our favorite shows like House of Cards for example due to licensing issues. To get over that you’ll have to resort to using some VPN service all over again to cheat the geographical restrictions.

So basically just ditch the idea of subscribing to the service and keep that torrent client installed in your PC for the time being.

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Not Only Airboards Are Banned at Beirut Souks

By on January 10, 2016 in Lebanon

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So I went today to Beirut Souks and noticed the above sign all around the district. It turned out the management did not only ban airboards but also skateboards, scooters, bicycles, and balls as well.

I was all for banning airboards since everybody was annoyed at them, and I also understand if everything else was also prohibited inside the shopping areas in order not to disturb the clients. However, the space next to Cosmocity and Starbucks is all empty and people enjoyed taking their kids there for some fresh air and outdoor fun. So it’s quite weird to ban all kind of activities in that area especially that everybody is winning… I mean Beirut Souks is attracting a lot of people especially on weekends just because kids can play there, the restaurants and coffee shops are happy with the additional customers, and Beirut By Bike on L1 is making a fortune renting all those scooters! So the ban doesn’t really make much sense now and I hope it gets reconsidered…

Anyway, it’s worth mentioning that the new policy doesn’t seem to be enforced yet because kids were playing with their airboards and scooters as usual today and the security guard did not even bother warning them.

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