GOD LOVES ME

Hey guys,
I just spent a really long day with my mom. It was so fun. And she likes Sonic Youth's 'Superstar' cover so we're practically best friends now. Anyways I can tell you all about it later with pictures but right now GOD LOVES ME! He loves me so much that when he heard me moaning about the London Philharmonic Orchestra Concert today featuring renowned violinist Nikolaj Znaider being sold out, he made these two women friends of my mom's get food poisoning so they had to give up their tickets. Luckily my mom is uber nice and perfect and shits ice cream so they called her up first! AND THEY'RE V.I.FUCKING.P! WOHOOO!!!! It's at the fantastic Emirates Palace (Palace featured in the movie The Kingdom. More later, I gotta go. Show starts in 40 minutes.

TODAY THINGS

Salaam from Abu Dhabi, and Happy Good Friday to those who care; because no one here does. I finally ventured out today so I have things to talk about.

1.BREAKING NEWS! My ex-boyfriend has finally conformed to the Blogosphere and now has his own rant corner called the mind of a eu-phe-mism. Nothing up yet except this hilarious 'About Me' passage:


A site where we try to find the euphemism's of the world. I plan to talk about Politics, Food, Films,Travel, Science and Technology... basically things that interest me. This site is called Euphemism, because I think the word defines who/what I am. An offensive and blunt person with the charming exterior of a choir boy.


Exterior of a fuckin' choir boy. Tis all on that.
YA, so check it out. I'm adding it to my Link List like...now...


2. Went to Egypt today to do some shopping for respectable internship clothes at Forever 21. Also got my sushi and starbuck's fix; no, not at the same time. That would be ventricular suicide. Okay, so in case you didn't catch that, no I didn't breezily go to Egypt for the day to shop. I went to the Egypt Section of Ibn Battuta mall in Dubai, which is a mall split up into different parts of the world and decorated in their theme. For our family, 2pm means 5pm and it takes about an hour and a half to two hours to get to Dubai from Abu Dhabi, so we got there at 10pm and didn't get to visit the rest of the world. But I think shopping at Forever 21, while slurping Starbucks and then my family and I indulging in sushi and sashimi, kebabs, and sweet and sour chicken with chop suey means we pretty much got a taste of a ton of cultures anyways so it doesn't matter. It would've been great to have pictures of the rest of the place for you guys but personally I didn't miss out because I've walked through the whole place already on my first visit. I'm too tired to go trying on outfits now for you so that will have to wait another day but here are some Abu Dhabi/Dubai pictures.

ABOVE THREE: Egypt Court at Ibn Battuta Mall, Dubai

BEHOLD: the stupidest name for a mexican restaurant IN.THE.WORLD.

A massive billboard in homage to the late Father of the Nation, Sheikh Zayed Bin Sultan Al Nahyan.

A...coat monument on the Corniche taken from my car window.

3. My mom and I are waking bright and early tomorrow to go to 'the white pearl of the Gulf'', the newly finished Sheikh Zayed Mosque. After 12 years of construction, with an estimated spendage of 2.167 billion Durhams, the mosque opened last year for Ramadan. It's one of the 10 largest mosques in the world and can house 40,000 worshippers. It only opens from 9am-11:30am apparently so...gotta catch an early night tonight. And by early I mean 2-ish? I can't do early. My body clock is fucked to bits. This is the best I can do so far, picture-wise (from google) but hopefully tomorrow I'll have a good picture day.

4. According to my ridiculously whacky and fun sources, this month, among other things, is 'National Talk to Your Teen About Sex' month. Now, I like to think that my 17 year old brother, and soon-to-be-in-a-month 13 year old sister, are my teens. I know I am still one, but barely. I am ONE OVER-PROTECTIVE BIG SISTER. You would NOT believe. Today, as the family drove through a highway of nothingness on our way to Dubai, my mother snapping her little fingers to her brazilian music on the 5 track, my brother informed us that tomorrow was him and his girlfriend's monthiversary, marking four happy months together. My sister laughed along with him and blurted "That's all?! I..." She punched feverishly at her Motorola keypad a short and sweet message that read '5 months'. WHAT. THE. HELL. Well, anyways, as crazy as that is for me, the world is heading that way. I'm old. I'll get over it. So, back to my brother. I came home from the gym the other day and found he had a handful of friends over, including this ...GIRL, wearing his hoodie. He tickled her chin when I came in the door and said, "Isn't she gorgeous?"

"Uh huh," I managed.

The two of them usually congregate in his room for hours, and I CAN'T STAND how loud the air conditioning is in this house and how thick and expensive the doors are. I couldn't get an inch of a decibel of sound back to me from that room. All I know is that later, my brother did something clean I have never seen him do. He changed his sheets. OH, TAKE ME BACK! TAKE ME BACK TO MY CAREFREE DAYS! I feel an old crone. My neck hurts and I have knots in my back from all this. He is now on the Corniche (the waterside) fishing with friends, one of whom is THAT GIRL. Fishing my ass...

5. My mother decided to tell me today that she just remembered that the London Philharmonic Orchestra is playing at the Emirates Palace this weekend and next week is Swan Lake. I love how breezily on-dope she is about remembering. Naturally, they are exaggeratedly sold out. And OH YEAH, Dubai Fashion Week ends tomorrow and I already missed Abu Dhabi Fashion Week *mopes*

WHILE SCRATCHING MY ASS

As all I've done today is eat take-out, watch unheard-of movies where the kissing is cut out in true Middle Eastern style, and scratched my ass, I decided to fiddle with Polyvore. Here ya go.

'T'd Off'

'Elegantly Lost at Sea' (INSPIRED BY A FOUND PICTURE OF MY GRANDFATHER, WHO WAS A FAMOUS LOCAL SEA CAPTAIN)

'First day on the Internship' (I HAVE NOTHING TO WEAR FOR MY INTERNSHIP!)

*PULLS HAIR OUT*

They can show a man's head getting chopped off clean on TV but they ban my daily dose of The Cobra Snake and Flickr? Oh no you DIDN'T ABU DHABI!

HOLD THAT THOUGHT

I started bitching to my mom about cheerleaders and ambition and short stories, and while she was plucking on same fake eyelashes in front of her full wall bathroom mirror, she said, "Why don't you write about cheerleaders, then?"

*rolls eyes* Why do moms do ingenious shit like that?

WHAT IS AMBITION?

SO, in order to win a wad of cash (£1000 actually) from Harper's Bazaar, I have to write a short story about Ambition by April 11th, the same day I am handing in my entries for the Vogue Young Talent Contest for Young Writers.

I decided to look up the word Ambition, as a starting point, to see what pops up in my head. Dictionary.com says:

am·bi·tion /æmˈbɪʃən/ Pronunciation Key - Show Spelled Pronunciation[am-bish-uhn] Pronunciation Key - Show IPA Pronunciation
–noun
1.
an earnest desire for some type of achievement or distinction, as power, honor, fame, or wealth, and the willingness to strive for its attainment: Too much ambition caused him to be disliked by his colleagues.
2.
the object, state, or result desired or sought after: The crown was his ambition.
3.
desire for work or activity; energy: I awoke feeling tired and utterly lacking in ambition. –verb (used with object)
4.
to seek after earnestly; aspire to.

I also decided to do some research on the competition and I'll be damned what came up on google. SOMEONE HAILING FROM MY UNIVERSITY WON THE 2006 PRIZE! AND I knew her. She's a very well known erotic writer in London, Debra Mehta, and she did a reading at our University's first major literary event last year (where I sadly won Best Dressed. Whatever happened to winning something for writing? But actually there were no prizes for writing anyways so no biggie.) Anyways, I guess the topic changes every year because I don't see how erotica can be classed ambition.

WHO THE FUCK CAN SAY ANYTHING GOOD ON AMBITION BESIDES CHEERLEADERS?! You guys have to help me. Give me some ideas, some sparks, some starting points. I really need this money*cough* I mean, this recognition. Okay jokes aside, I think daily readers of my blog know I would kill to make it as a successful writer. It's not really about money for me, or else my parents would've forced me to study medicine like I had originally planned. But you gotta admit, winning this competition and that money is a GREAT place to start. One of my favourite authors Zadie Smith won this (if you haven't read White Teeth and On Beauty yet, GET ON IT!). I actually wrote about Zadie Smith in my admittance essay for my University.Anyway, this website is really good for any and everything short and reader worthy (short stories). They've got upcoming competitions and lists of magazines that publish stories etc. You can also download some short stories here for reading pleasure.

I KNOW COOL PEOPLE!

SO, my friend Trisha in L.A. who I lived with for a while, is now a writer for LA Splash and just sent me her coverage article on Nicky Hilton's Fall 2008 line for 'Nicholai', where bondage meets equestrian. Isn't that awesome? (The Trisha bit AND the trend bit lol). I'm posting the article because I am oh so proud of herrr, and because aspects of Nicky's line aren't half bad. I mean, it isn't in the slightest ground-breaking stuff but I would LOVE to be able to pull off latex leggings (you have to be skinny in an almost dead way to pull that off) and I love the equestrian chic trend; riding boots, riding hats, whips...

Reminds me of my horseback riding days back in Trinidad. I used to ride a cute white mare called Starsky. One day, I realised she was all fat, and they said she was severely pregnant and I needed to choose another horse for a while. So I chose one called Pumpkin, who was also white, and very freckly; also very mischievous. Kinda like Lindsay Lohan, huh?

ANYWAY, I SPY RANDOM TANGENTS! HERE ARE SOME OF NICHOLAI'S SPRING OUTFITS (because Trisha's article already shows you some Fall pictures)

I definitely prefer the Fall line but yellow is nice.