Today’s giveaway is presented by Virgin Megastore and consists of a 3D Printing Pen (3Doodler Start Essentials Pen Set). This 3D Pen is most suitable for kids as it inspires creativity, design, planning, building and spatial understanding. It is also quite safe to use since the pen nozzle and plastic can safely be touched with no burn risks.
To qualify for the draw, go to +961’s page on Facebook, answer the giveaway post, and I will randomly select one winners tomorrow morning.
Today’s giveaway is once again aimed at parent readers and mainly the ones with very young children. Early Learning Centre is on-board to provide a gift for one lucky reader, and as was the case with JouéClub, the gift will be determined to suit the age of the winner’s kid.
What I love most about ELC is that they have a lot of toys made of wood among their wide product range that serve to develop the child’s motor skills, in addition to being made in a way to withstand bumps and collision since toddlers just have a thing for throwing everything anywhere. (At least mine does!)
To qualify for the draw, go to +961’s page on Facebook, like the giveaway post and tag your friends in a comment. One winners will be randomly chosen and announced tomorrow morning, and I will make sure to coordinate with ELC in order to choose the right toy depending on his/her kid’s age.
Today’s giveaway is presented by Superga, one of my favorite shoe brands in town. My friends there are generously providing a pair of sneakers from the Superga Classic 2750 collection (image below) and you get to choose the color you desire. Aside from their trendy designs, what I love about Superga is how comfy they are. I know this is the least you should get from a pair of sneakers but they’re seriously super comfortable. I bought a pair last year before going on a trip and they got me through full days of walking and sightseeing.
Few weeks ago they released a cool new model, the Superga Sport Lendl, in honor of the world tennis legend Ivan Lendl. The white ones have a color part of the back with Lendl’s signature in gold and I’m honestly having a hard time resisting getting one!
Anyway, to qualify for the draw, go to +961’s page on Facebook, like the giveaway post and tag your friends in a comment. A winner will be randomly chosen and announced tomorrow morning, and I will message him/her for instructions on how to claim his/her pair of sneakers.
Would you ever say no to burgers? Today’s giveaway consist of two dine-in vouchers from Classic Burger Joint! ($30 value)
If you’re a true burger addict, then you might be interested in one of CBJ’s latest offerings, “Yellow Wednesdays”, which consists of open handy-size burgers for $18 at their following branches: ABC Ashrafieh, Zouk, Jbeil, Mansourieh, Downtown, Sodeco, Hamra, Tripoli, Amioun, Zgharta.
To qualify for the draw, go to +961’s page on Facebook, like the giveaway post and tag your friends in a comment. One winner will be randomly chosen and announced tomorrow morning, and I will message him/her for instructions on how to claim the vouchers.
I know a lot of the blog readers are married with children (my circle of friends at least!), that’s why I decided to reach out to JouéClub and was so glad to have them participating in the giveaway series. Settling on the gift/toy to offer however wasn’t an easy task for us since they vary so much from one age to another, so we decided to leave it till after I do the draw, and the awesome staff at JouéClub will then pick a suitable gift depending on the age of the winner’s kid.
JouéClub of course needs no introduction as it is the go to place for everything toys related and is with no doubt the dream store for every kid! What some people probably don’t know though is that they also have many toys and gadgets for adults as well. In addition to the popular Parrot drones for example, you can also find some cool board games such as the Game of Thrones edition of Risk and Monopoly. So basically it has something for almost anyone!
To qualify for the draw, go to +961’s page on Facebook, like the giveaway post and tag your friends in a comment. One winners will be randomly chosen and announced tomorrow morning, and I will make sure to coordinate with JouéClub in order to choose the right toy depending on his/her kid’s age.
It’s the second day of the giveaway series and Roadster Diner are pitching in today with a couple of $50 vouchers to be spent at any of their branches. For this giveaway I will be randomly choosing two winners to get one voucher each.
What I love the most about Roadster is the homie feeling you find at their outlets, it’s more like a comfort place for me and I guess a lot of people my age feel the same way.
For lent season by the way, Roadster Diner is offering two types of value meals, the delivery meal for two ($20) with a variety of seafood and vegetarian sandwiches, and the dine-in meal ($15) with also a variety of non-meat items. Both options are served with a half appetizer portion per person and are quite fulfilling.
To qualify for the draw, go to +961’s page on Facebook, like the giveaway post and tag your friends in a comment. Two winners will be randomly chosen and announced tomorrow morning, and I will message them for instructions on how to claim their vouchers.
For the first day of the giveaway series, Kempinski Summerland Hotel & Resort was kind enough to provide a voucher for 2 persons for a dinner at their Mediterranean restaurant Pier 78 ($150 value).
I personally have experienced Kempinski Summmerland’s service on several occasions and they impressed everytime. Aside from the programs they present on Thursdays, Fridays, and Saturdays evenings at Pier 78, I specifically love the family brunch they also offer on Sundays. The open buffet has a lot of variety and is nothing less than what you would expect from a 5-star venue, but what really makes them stand out from other hotels offering similar formulas is that they also provide free kids entertainment so that parents can enjoy their meal at ease.
So, to qualify for the draw, go to +961’s page on Facebook, like the giveaway post and tag your friends in a comment. A winner will be randomly chosen and announced tomorrow morning, and I will message him/her for instructions on how to claim the voucher.
The two most popular options for home shoppers in Lebanon in order to finance their purchases is to either get a loan from the General Organization for Housing in case the apartment price is relatively low, or from the Housing Bank if the price is on the higher end.
However, earlier this month the Central Bank of Lebanon issued a new circular with amendments on subsidized loans, and as a result the Housing Bank increased its the interest rate from 3% to 3.75% while lowering the payment period from 30 to 20 years and toughening the lending terms in general.
To give you an idea of how these amendments impacted the monthly payments, a loan of $250,000 used to cost ~$1,050 on the previous conditions, but currently cost ~$1,500 based on the new terms and rate (refer to their loan calculator). Needless to say, this 50% increase means that a lot of home shoppers now can no longer afford the apartments they were previously aiming for!
I, for example, have been searching for an apartment in Beirut for a while now and the new terms mean that I have two options, to either settle for a significantly smaller one in space, or simply look for one of the same size outside the city. The latter is unfortunately a deal breaker for me so I just decided to halt everything now in hope for the prices to go down maybe… I guess it is only logical for this to happen now that the demand is expected to take a hit.
Things are by the way also quite ugly now for people who are already engaged by contracts with real estate developers. Those usually pay monthly installments directly to the developers until the project is fully complete, and then apply for a loan to finance the remaining amount, but they definitely didn’t see a 50% increase on their future payments coming! And while people like me can simply stop searching, others who are bound with contracts can do nothing but go for the loan anyway or pull out of the whole thing and pay a certain penalty to the developer for doing so.
I’m not an expert in economics but things seriously don’t seem right with the new Housing Bank decision, I mean you can’t simply cut down the people’s purchasing power just like that. I just hope this isn’t an indication of the Lebanese Lira being in a bad situation now and I also hope these amendments are only a temporary measure. Otherwise, I guess the real estate market is expected to go into stagnation no matter how developers try to convince the public that it is a resilient sector!
Last weekend, I surprised my significant other with a getaway at Kempinski Summerland Hotel & Resort. Previously, I enjoyed their luxurious services with dinner at Candelabra, so I was enthusiastic about experiencing a one night stay in one of the rooms.
Needless to say, the service during our stay was impeccable, but what really stood out was the floating dinner we had in their private heated covered pool accompanied by your personal butler. I’ve previously seen a lot of Instagram posts of floating breakfast trays at Kempinski Summerland last summer but little did I know it was served all year long. I did not think twice about upgrading our experience the minute the Lady In Red suggested that wonderful experience.
For Valentine, Kempinski Summerland is also offering several packages, of which, a romantic one night stay and the exceptional floating dinner, a seafood dinner at Pier 78 with famous singer Manel Mallat and a set menu dinner with singer Paola Ibrahim at Candelabra. My recommendation? Surprise your loved one with something out of the ordinary!
You can get more information about their offerings here.
Check out this cool shoebox apartment up in Achrafieh up for rent on Airbnb that recently made it to dezeen.com. While 15 sqm are barely enough space to cater for a bedroom or a living room in some modern apartments nowadays, Lebanese architect and designer Elie Metni squeezed everything a person could need into a mini apartment of the same size.
To make it feel relatively spacious, the apartment was all painted white and fitted with custom made space saving furniture including a queen size bed and folding tables to keep the 2 meters wide room as neat as possible the whole time. A kitchenette and a bathroom are also available and separated by a glass door, in addition to an outdoor roof terrace overlooking Beirut.
Practically speaking, the apartment can sleep 2 people but accommodate around 5. You can read all about it on dezeen and if interested rent it through Airbnb.
