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What do you dress a six-month old in for a funeral?
Blog: ginger beirut - 28 May 2012
What do you dress a six-month old in for a funeral? Sadly, several friends have lost family members in the time we have been here in Lebanon. Since we did not know the people personally we stayed away at first. In our culture mourning is something done in private with close family and we had [...]
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When one prejudice hides another
Blog: ginger beirut - 23 May 2012
Yet again Lebanon is split by pro-Syrian and anti-Syrian feeling. Which reminds me of a joke I was told here. A Lebanese, a Syrian, and a black man are in a hospital waiting room. All of their wives are in labour. The men are talking anxiously to one another trying to stay calm. Then the [...]
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Fishing boats
Blog: ginger beirut - 21 January 2012
I love the guy in the white vest and shorts. I bet he has a moustache. It was a lot warmer a couple of weeks ago when I took this shot. Looking at it now makes me shiver.
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A mezze just for me?
Blog: ginger beirut - 17 January 2012
I love having visitors here. It’s a wonderful thing to share Lebanon with them, especially when they are first-time visitors with so many surprises in store. Apart from helping them discover a fantastic new country, I also enjoy the whiff of a former home they bring with them. It has been over ten years since [...]
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Beirut in miniature
Blog: ginger beirut - 24 December 2011
As I write, half of Beirut is in the supermarket stocking up for the weekend. The experience will be hurried and crowded and reminiscent of this time last year and every big holiday before that, when the same shoppers swore, “Never again.” But there are a couple of variations on the theme, because there are [...]
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By the sea
Blog: ginger beirut - 14 December 2011
The cold bright weather has been fantastic for walks – like this wonderful coastal promenade near Solidere that my in-laws introduced us to. Just head north of the Beirut Souks across a bit of wasteland and some heaps of gravel, past the little guard hut with the guard feeding a cat, until you get to [...]
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Slatey stripy sky
Blog: ginger beirut - 25 November 2011
Looking over the port. A great day to wrap yourself in a blanket and watch the horizon.
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Weighing in on weight
Blog: ginger beirut - 19 November 2011
A fellow mummy blogger recently raised the prickly question of whether being told you’ve put on weight is a good or a bad thing in Lebanon. In my decidedly bump-shaped past 12 months I’ve certainly had my fair share of comments about weight gain, weight loss and a surprising number of stages in between. Yet [...]
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Goodbye summer
Blog: ginger beirut - 5 November 2011
Autumn moved in on the Levant with great aplomb last week. No hesitation, no second thoughts. Just gusty winds and earth-shaking thunderstorms. So I thought I’d take a moment to celebrate the tail end of the summer sun just a couple of weeks ago. Strictly speaking this was already autumn, but as it was warmer [...]
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Mundane luxuries
Blog: ginger beirut - 20 October 2011
And here’s the text of the piece the BBC aired in September, or you can listen here. There is an old saying here in the Middle East that a woman’s grave remains open for forty days after childbirth; so I guess now is a good time to reflect on my recent experience of the maternity [...]
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Public space and personal questions
Blog: ginger beirut - 19 October 2011
Here’s the text of the piece I had broadcast by the BBC back in May. You can also listen to it here. In a city like Beirut where road intersections are a free-for-all, it is only to be expected that any attempt to regulate public behaviour is regarded by locals with ambivalence. In a country [...]
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FOOC take 2
Blog: ginger beirut - 21 September 2011
Just heard from the BBC that my piece on the rapport the Lebanese have with luxury will be aired today, Thursday, at 11am (UK time) on Radio 4 as part of the programme From our Own Correspondent. It will also go out on the World Service several times. I’ll update with a direct link after [...]
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Eye balm at Barouk
Blog: ginger beirut - 9 September 2011
The oldest cedars in Lebanon are Arz el Rab, in the north near Bcharre and Wadi Qadisha, but Barouk has bigger forests, at about an hour from Beirut. It’s the perfect place to escape the summer heat of the capital and soothe the eyes after an overdose of concrete and construction. Cedars are particular in [...]
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BBC’s From Our Own Correspondent
Blog: ginger beirut - 10 May 2011
I am delighted to share with you a short piece I wrote and recorded for the programme From Our Own Correspondent, which was broadcast on BBC World Service this morning. There are repeat broadcasts until Wednesday morning, depending on where you are in the world, and you can listen to it online here.
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Free ebook by 40 Lonely Planet bloggers
Blog: ginger beirut - 3 May 2011
It’s finally here: the very first project produced by an amazing group of travel bloggers, all featured by Lonely Planet. The eminent travel guide publisher has, over the past few years, been selecting certain bloggers to be featured on its web site. In 2010, I was invited to join this fortunate band, dubbed the BlogSherpas, [...]
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Now you see it…
Blog: ginger beirut - 30 April 2011
Over the past year I have often gazed at a lone house on the slopes of Achrafieh. It is only a lone house by a matter of a few meters, but the tufts of green undergrowth separate it out from the background of concrete colour blocks of flats which flank it. And while bright laundry [...]
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Social graces in Lebanon
Blog: ginger beirut - 17 April 2011
As a newcomer in a foreign culture, the last thing you want is to make some major gaffe that shocks the social sensibilities of your host country. In France I soon learnt to keep my hands on the table rather than my lap at dinner and to wait for the hostess to start for each [...]
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Photo of the Week – Saida Souks
Blog: Ottsworld - 8 April 2011
I traveled south of Beirut to the old city of Saida along the Mediteranean. Luckily I had a personal tour guide in my friend Mark, a local friend I had made during my stay in Beirut. We drove through the flooded streets of Beirut and an hour later when we arrived in Saida the sun [...]
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The Food of Lebanon
Blog: Ottsworld - 7 April 2011
Even in times of peace in Lebanon there is still a war raging. Lebanon battles it’s Arab neighbors for the title of ‘Creator of Hummus’. They even went as far as trying to copyright it! This battle has raged on for years, and still no real resolution as to who the real creator of hummus [...]
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Streets of Beirut XXXIV
Blog: ginger beirut - 3 April 2011
Like the Phoenicians, the Lebanese are specialists in the import-export business. If you want to live in Lebanon but bake with American cake mix, wear Italian sunglasses and drive the latest BMW, it’s all there – at a price.
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The patriarch and the pecking order
Blog: ginger beirut - 22 March 2011
Beyond the obvious differences in the traditional roles of men and women, living in a society where basic rights depend on gender holds the occasional eyeopener. I have become accustomed to people assuming I don’t work, don’t drive, and do 100% of the cooking. I wasn’t overly surprised to be receive consoling comments about expecting [...]
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Photo of the Week – Lebanon Landscapes
Blog: Ottsworld - 18 March 2011
Lebanon is a country of contrasts and nothing displays that more than the landscapes around the country. I was lucky enough to stay in the country for an entire month and moved around outside of the hub of Beirut. My travels took me to old, ancient cities and ruins of Saida, Tripoli, Byblos, Anjar, and [...]
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Culture Up in Smoke
Blog: Ottsworld - 15 March 2011
“Put, Put, Puuuut, Putttttt, Puttttt, Purrrrrttttttt….”The slurping, whirring, bubble noise broke through the background lounge music startling me. Next came the sweet smell of apple wafting through the air, hanging there enveloping the entire area in a haze. This same scene went on ever night in ever corner of Lebanon. Lebanon was always smoking; smoking [...]
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My new-found paranoia
Blog: ginger beirut - 14 March 2011
Each stage in life provides a very different window on the world. I am sure as a child I would have found Beirut to be a fantastic playground – all those empty properties to explore, the crumbling stairways to nowhere, the tightrope impressions to be had from the occasional remaining beam in a first floor. [...]
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In Search of Souks
Blog: Ottsworld - 8 March 2011
One of my favorite things about Arabic culture is the souk culture. I was first introduced to souks on my first trip abroad to Turkey. I still remember walking through the Grand Bazaar thinking that it was the most bizarre place I had ever been. Then I traveled to Morocco and was introduced to Fes [...]
