Battling intense mood swings and depressive episodes is not easy — and it’s harder when we forget the little things that made us dream and look forward to a better tomorrow. Even worse, we tend to discard and leave behind the small habits that keep us connected to the “now” — which is the more… [Read more…]
August 27, 2011
Experimental Sketches, a set on Flickr. What remains of that old talent — I thought it had died. Turns out it’s alive, and it’s promising to heal me.
June 12, 2011
By Amr Bassiouny Along The Watchtower Guest Writer This is a companion post to Amr’s account of his solo sand adventure where he unveils another side of him. Follow him via @AmrBassiouny This is a recipe I learned from one of the Bedouins of South Sinai, a kind fellow and a cook named Saleh. If you’re… [Read more…]
June 12, 2011
By Amr Bassiouny Along the Watchtower Guest Writer Amr is a dear friend, a revolutionary (by night) and a traveller who believes in the Bedouin traditions, the power of vast deserts, and in talking to fire and the stars (even if he’s too macho to admit it). This is a post he has written several… [Read more…]
December 31, 2010
Download the PDF version of this story with pictures here: The Petrified Forest – pdf In this city, sometimes I feel like I’m watching people through a giant fish tank, one that I’m trapped in. Through the glass, I can see their lips move but I can’t hear a word. Other times, I feel like a… [Read more…]
December 28, 2010
Time is at its most beautiful when you’re spending it in the arms of your special person, or lying on your back, on the grass or sand, early in the evening watching the stars twinkle into being as you whisper sweet nothings into the ears of your loved one — your fingers interlocked. At those… [Read more…]
December 28, 2010
… for falling off the grid recently. I have no excuse. But I must confess I have been turning more to writing letters to beings above and on the Earth, some of them dear friends, others are gods, and this has distracted me from the Watchtower (i.e. this blog). I promise to be less sporadic… [Read more…]
November 16, 2010
… and lose myself in thought about the journeys we make. Journeys. Such a loaded word. As I read Eat, Pray, Love –a book which I was fiercely cynical of until I started leafing through and relating to the author Elizabeth Gilbert– I wondered about my own personal journey. During a ride back from a… [Read more…]
October 5, 2010
At least three people I know got married or got into committed relationships less than six months of their break-up with ex-boyfriends. A friend seemed to find this surprising. I, on the other hand, think it’s natural since time in some relationships and their aftermath is an irrelevant element. Do girls forget easy? Do they… [Read more…]
October 5, 2010
With the help of a friend, I have suggested and conceptualized a travel series for Al-Masry Al-Youm’s English portal, where I’m currently travel editor, that explores the question of why people travel. Inspired by two similar articles in Salon.com and The Observer, the series was launched and every week a new writer spoke of what… [Read more…]
September 26, 2010
Some people seem to be born natural motivators; they’re go-getters themselves, they’re full of life, and their imagination is always strong and ripe. They’re miracle-makers. They move the wheels. They’re lucky, and they often make things happen. They’re touched by magic, and everything they lay a finger on turns to gold. Paradoxically, these people carry… [Read more…]
September 24, 2010
This is a blogpost I began in July, did not publish and never revisited until this moment. Back then I was reading this Arabic book called Love in Saudi — a text that is both sexual and daring from Page 1. The most creative bit in the storytelling, for me, was how both the author… [Read more…]
September 13, 2010
Warning: This blogpost makes blatant generalizations about travel writing, and spends an awful lot contemplating why death and travel have much in common. The thoughts may be incoherent at times, and conclusions are loose. There’s much recycled from emails to a particular unlucky friend, and the beginning and ending may not tie together. You see,… [Read more…]
August 28, 2010
This the curtain-raiser for a series that Al-Masry Al-Youm Travel, which I’m heading, has recently launched. With a new voice every week, writers offer their reflections on the reasons why people leave behind familiar settings, friends, and perhaps even family members and beloved pets, to explore new places, away from home. I jumped on the… [Read more…]
August 13, 2010
“Here at last I was plunging into the untraversed and the unknown. What lay ahead? It was not the possible dangers of the journey which made my nerves tingle and caused my spirits to mount with exhilaration — dangers are merely a part of the day’s work in the desert. It was the realization that… [Read more…]
July 29, 2010
“Overheard on the Radio” – Check this out: Amr El Beleidy (@beleidy) and I (@pakinamamer) came across this one. Amr, of course (THE GUY!) thought that every girl is finding it more and more difficult to get married these days, “and for a good reason” so this makes sense (the audacity). He said, and yes I’m… [Read more…]
July 8, 2010
What I noticed about my cat is that when she fears something or someone, she never gives them her back. When she’s afraid, she turns around to face exactly what scares her, always keeping her eyes on it with unwavering attention and vigilance. Sometimes in her watchfulness, you can see that she’s ready to pounce.… [Read more…]
July 3, 2010
Because of all the freedom and the potential that it carries, because I’m still young and because I have big dreams, because everything is changing, I think I’m safe to say: this is the best time of my life. Listening to: nothing Mood: indescribable Wants from the Universe: More pink & white fluffy thoughts (for… [Read more…]
July 1, 2010
Since sleep hasn’t come yet and it’s almost 3:30 am (I have to be up by 9:00!!), I decided to pay a tribute to some of my favourite men: all aviators, all a bit cuckoo in the head with an affinity for suffering, open air, impressing people and breaking the hearts of those they love.… [Read more…]
June 29, 2010
“Sovereign of my heart, Regina, kept safe and secret in the deepest corner of my breast.” I’m big on psychology theorists these days, and while searching for e-books for Rollo Reese May (since I failed to find any hardcopies in our distinguished book-stores across Cairo), I came across works by Soren Kierkegaard, Danish philosopher, psychologist and theologian. I… [Read more…]
June 27, 2010
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June 27, 2010
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June 27, 2010
On Thursday I had a wedding. Don’t like them. They’re noisy, packed, impersonal, pretentious and showy. And watching the sweat-drenched attendees wriggle and dance themselves dizzy, all the questions of “Why are we here? Who made the world?” come rushing into my head. It’s safe to say I haven’t attended a wedding that I liked in years.… [Read more…]
June 22, 2010
At the third acting workshop this week, light was the star. We’d moved to a theater in downtown for our training, which is the venue we’ll using from now on. The blackbox we used yesterday is definitely much more equipped and spacious than the studio in Mohandiseen. I’d been moved to a new group, mostly all younger… [Read more…]
June 20, 2010
“Voluntary memory, the memory of the intellect and the eyes, [gives] us only imprecise facsimiles of the past which no more resemble it than pictures by bad painters resemble the spring … So we don’t believe that life is beautiful because we don’t recall it, but if we get a whiff of a long-forgotten smell… [Read more…]
June 18, 2010
On the Zaafrana road, the darkness over the Red Sea brings back memories that I thought were far away. Time is a mysterious thing. And you become responsible forever for what you tame. Listening to: Muhamed Munir and Aida el-Ayouby Mood: Dreamy p.s. A shooting star just fell into the sea. p.s.s. I love being… [Read more…]
June 18, 2010
This Amy Mowafi girl! What a character! I read her booklet Fe-mail last night, and then dozed off, thinking “Must, must, must blog about it.” And I will do write a proper blog entry — since I’m posting this one from my cell phone, on the go, getting out of Cairo for fresh air- and… [Read more…]
June 17, 2010
“He, who is not touched by love, walks in darkness” This is to me, at 19 and at 29 Listening to عبادي الجوهر – أحب فيك الوقت Mood: Absent-minded, sedate
June 16, 2010
I was reading through some of the posts on Evolver.net and www.realitysandwich.com, and this post reminded me of an old dream: discovering that I really don’t belong to this world, for some reason or another. Or at least that I don’t belong to the mundane version of it, which I’m living through right now. Looking… [Read more…]
June 15, 2010
Glad to announce that Don Young quoted in my blog post Young Reflections has been convinced by someone (couldn’t resist bragging really) to create a blog and share his thoughts with the world. I personally became his first follower, and I love his words. Take a look: http://sleeplessdisorder.wordpress.com/ It’s a new born but it’s worth watching! Let… [Read more…]
June 15, 2010
If you suffer, and you will (because who doesn’t?), then do it successfully, according to both Marcel Proust and Alain de Botton. It’s not the easiest thing in the world. Drenched in sorrows, it’s easier of course to stay in bed, jump off a bridge than write a philosophy book. If you plan on ending… [Read more…]
June 15, 2010
… in nature. And it even has a scientific name: the “biophilia hypothesis” which says that there is an “an instinctive bond between human beings and other living systems,” between man and nature. According to wikipedia, it’s Edward O. Wilson who introduced and popularized the hypothesis in his book entitled Biophilia – meaning “love of… [Read more…]
June 14, 2010
This is not an earthquake. This is Atlantis sinking. Listening to: water drops Mood: Dark
June 14, 2010
A friend of a friend called Don Young wrote the following words and I found them to be an immaculate rendition of thoughts that haunt most of us, they touched me … Young says, “We come up with rules, regulations and social norms for everything. We create these imagined realities for ourselves and then we… [Read more…]
June 14, 2010
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June 14, 2010
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June 13, 2010
I have no patience for revolutions – unless they’re of the mind, or silent, and don’t involve bringing down walls, waving new flags or shouting in the streets. Listening to the Voice in my head, yawning Mood: Sleepy
June 13, 2010
It’s like discovering a new toy, this love business. For most of the 29 years I’ve lived on this Earth, save a year in college and two in high school, I really was never sentimental, in the romantic sense. No one impressed me, dramatic displays of love made me feel like puking and I poked… [Read more…]
June 13, 2010
This morning, I found a grape in my shoes. It was a red grape. And I had a suspect in mind: my youngest cat. He likes to play with our food. It made me smile, because it was one of those small things that reminds me I’m not alone. I remember when I lived on… [Read more…]
June 12, 2010
“I never expressed a desire to break up with her except when I was unable to do without her,” Marcel Proust, In Search of Lost Time. I came across this quote in Alain de Botton‘s book How Proust Can Change You Life which I’d just begun reading. In the second chapter, titled How to Read… [Read more…]
August 27, 2011
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