Bonjour Londres

Today I awoke to the crisp gloom of London and actually welcomed it with a smile. Considering the tan I managed to get working at the Volvo Ocean Race, I’ve been craving that true winter shiver again (I won’t be writing so poetically about it in a couple days).

Not sure what the next couple weeks here have in store for me, but it’ll mainly be a family trip. Since my brother and his wife live all the way in San Francisco, being all together is always a blessing, especially with the amazing family friends we have here too.
I definitely think no matter what sort of crazy family you have, being with them is priceless and should never be taken for granted. I also know that it's beautiful how some friendships grow so strong that their genuine love and support binds you to them stronger than blood does. Cheers to that!

Happy Wednesday xx

LISTEN TO ME: Take Care of You, a la Florence

her voice her voice HER VOICE!

Spiritual Thought of the Day

To be a true friend to myself or to anyone else, I must be comfortable with myself, comfortable enough to share silence and good feelings. When I am comfortable in silence I am able to share space with another person. This sharing is the deepest connection of two souls. Today let me be a good friend by enjoying comfortable silence.

*Thank you Mama*

Note to all Boys Out There

you're smiling cuz it's true... 

LISTEN TO ME: Higher Love mmmmm

This tune just makes me wanna roll around in a comfy bed of white feathers, without a care in the world.. *sigh*

Happy Tuesday xx

Last Day at the Volvo Ocean Race

I brought a couple friends with me my second to last day at the Volvo Ocean Race, I convinced them it was wild. They're probably not listening to me again, but at least they got tans in the sun.  

Paparazzi shot. The fame that comes with sharing Marmo's story is really tiring.

 The first read was fun, but I'm just not understanding the weather; I'm pretty sure it was a regular summers day, I could hardly breathe while I was reading. The little girl in front of me was blinking so much I thought she was having some sort of fit. 

 What a fella

 Irish dancing - not really my thing but interesting to watch I guess. I thought it was enough to have it at the Sanya activation. Then they decided to have the girls dance on stage for what felt like 2 hours. Who watches Irish dancing for that long?! 

 It's hard not to get attached to Marmo.

 Getting ready to MC for the Puma Faas Test. Everyone was encouraged to try the Puma Faas shoes and see how fast they could run but it was mainly children. These two brothers wouldn't leave, they just kept trying over and over again. Unfortunately their scores didn't really change much. 

 Aiysha and I putting on a lil show for you on how to win 1st place... when you're 2nd. It really made sense to do at the time. 

 And that's how it's done :)

 Yeyaaa

 Even Marmo tried out... he sucked

 Trying the virtual ride, and completely miserable about the thought of getting wet, at least that's the look I was going for. Aiysha looks like a lost orphan. 

 It felt like such a long week reading that story over and over, but I think I like kids a bit more, just a bit though. 

 It's Marmo bitch

I honestly did not see that kid get in that photo, and he's posing like us also

Ahh, so adventure 1 of 2012 has been completed (so crazy I know), stay tuned for the second one xx

Volvo Ocean Race Day 4

I knew nothing about the Volvo Ocean Race before accepting this job, so it makes me happy that I'm learning something new. The first couple days were spent with me pretty much dilly-dallying around, as you can see from the photo above. Yesterday I started playing ping pong with this adorable girl, must have been around 7 years old, who wouldn't stop talking about the race. I had nothing to say about it... tres embarrassing. So I made an effort to learn a bit more. Yesterday the boats came in around 4pm, with the following scores: Team Telefonica 66, Camper with Emirates Team 58, Groupama Sailing Team 42, Puma Ocean Racing 28, Abu Dhabi Ocean Racing 19, Team Sanya 4.

A little info for those of you are just as confused as I was. Each team is made up of 11 professional crew members. As for the scoring, for each leg, the winner is awarded 30 points - number of entries (six) multiplied by five. Then there's also the scoring of the in-port races which is number of entries by one (the image on the left makes more sense). The race takes nine months with nine legs, starting in Alicante, Spain in October 2011 and ending in Galway, Ireland early July 2012. The teams sail over 39,000 nautical miles via Cape Town, Abu Dhabi, Sanya, Auckland, around Cape Horn to Itajai, Miami, Lisbon, and Lorient. 

Sounds exciting and fun doesn't it! I'd love to see all those places. Then I read this description: "During the race the crews will experience life at the extreme: no fresh food is taken onboard so they live off freeze dried fare, they will experience temperature variations from -5 to +40 degrees Celsius and will only take one change of clothes. They will trust their lives to the boat and the skipper and experience hunger and sleep deprivation." 

That sounds just as bad as the worst experience I can think of. I'm sure though that despite it all, it's invigorating, worth every minute, and a life changing experience. 

For more information click here.  

Everyone waiting for the Team Telefonica!

I wonder what that high feels like to be in the lead of this specific race. 

Creepy men on stilts. 

LISTEN TO ME: Blue Jeans

***
Blue jeans, White shirt
Walked into the room you know you made my eyes burn
It was like James Dean, for sure
You so fresh to death & sick as ca-cancer
You were sorta punk rock, I grew up on hip hop
But you fit me better than my favourite sweater, and I know
That love is mean, and love hurts
But I still remember that day we met in December
***
How beautiful is she!

1st Job of '12 at the Volvo Ocean Race!

I'm not sure what I was thinking when I agreed to be a storyteller to children at the Volvo Ocean Race on the 1st of January. It definitely hit me when I was out on NYE debating whether I should drink more or not. I was nervous the whole time aware I had to be up at 8 am to drive to the location in Abu Dhabi. I really pushed myself to new limits there. I could have cried when I woke up after just 3 hours of sleep. Then I decided to save the energy. You know when you’re so tired and your eyes literally burn every time you blink, and you’re feeling dizzy and confused with life. 

Somehow I managed to get to Abu Dhabi alive and was so relieved at how chilled the atmosphere was. It’s right on the water, weather is perfect with a beautiful breeze, music is great, happy faces all around and lots of entertainment. One of the six sailboats in the Volvo Race is Puma's and I’m working at their activation. Have to admit it’s the coolest and most inviting one in my opinion. When I’m not reading to the children about Marmo (Puma’s mascot) I’m getting back on speed with my table tennis obsession, meeting people, or chilling in the Puma lounge. I’ve got the beautiful blue water in front of me; it really feels like I’m on a vacation. 

Reading to children isn't that bad, keeping their attention is what sucks; it lasts about 10 seconds. I thought I was doing a great job until I saw a little girl in her own world, digging her head into the bean bag. I've started giving out tattoos to make them like me more. Fortunately, I haven't had to read in Arabic. The story is pretty long and repetitive and in Arabic it's been translated classically. No one would be awake by the end of it. 

Below are some more photos from day 1. 

The air show was fantastic. I get really excited about air shows so this woke me up a bit more as well (probably cuz of the heart attack I almost experienced when I first heard them fly over us). 

I wonder how long it takes to practice. Not like we'd really know if they messed up though... unless one of them fell. That would be awkward.

This little curly fry in the air was so cute, wonder how it feels for the pilot.

War is coming. 

When they busted the colors out everyone went wild!

 So, it was the first time I witnessed this Khaleeji performance... I took it seriously until they started doing their thing to what sounded like the cheesiest boy band song you've ever heard that was never released for fear that someone would murder each member. Very very bad.

 This is one half of the Puma activation - the store. (You get a free Marmo Saves the Seas book with any Marmo purchase just sayin)

 That's the second part where the live entertainment and games take place. The lounge with all the beanbags where I storytell is on top, heeey :)

 I LOVE ping pong! We used to have a table at home in Bahrain but that was ditched when we moved, so sad. Anyone wanna challenge me? I'm not that good anyway... but I become a machine, there's no stopping me.

 Marmo and I getting acquainted on our first day... I wasn't sure what the boundaries of our friendship were.

 It didn't take me long to cross them... oh well, he always has that damn smile on his face! It's hot... I just told him to keep his arms where I could see em ha ha ha (it sounded better in my head)

It's so sweet how the children love him! There was this one adorable boy who wouldn't stop hugging Marmo throughout the story. He just wouldn't let go. Then one girl came up and had to share her two cents that there was a man in that suit. What do you say to that? I just gave her a Marmo tattoo and told her not to be mean, he had feelings too. 

 Looking forward to the next couple days. Unfortunately I'm only going to be able to work until the 7th, so if you have time, come down - don't worry there's much more to do than hear me storytell, although, it is quite the exciting read xx 

Finally, 2012

I woke up today and remembered I had a blog :) It's been a while since I've let that happen.

So it’s 2012, and I know I don’t only speak for myself when I say 2011 was sort of a bitch of a year despite the good. I’m looking forward to a new year and really do hope the best of '11 will only match up to the worst of '12.

I’m not sure how I managed to party every single night during the two weeks leading up to the new year. I made sure that no matter what, I’d end the year with a bang, and that involved being exhausted.. and intoxicated. One drink does it for me believe it or not. Yesterday was the first night I slept before 5 am. I blame Beirut.  I was there for a wedding and a couple engagements, and each event had a pre-party that drained my energy. I actually cut my stay short because my body couldn’t handle it. I had some stuff to deal with back home, which is mainly the reason. You’d think I’d come back and rest, I didn’t even sleep after getting 4 hours of rest before my flight- I just showered, changed and went out. In my defense, two good friends were visiting and stayed with me, so we were excited. Resting on the 30^th didn’t happen either; but I’m pretty glad I was reckless and irresponsible in that respect; it was worth it. In the past two weeks I’ve managed to see most of my oldest and dearest friends from all over. It was nice to have the old and new in one place. 

I had no idea what to expect of New Years Eve (which imo is the better way to celebrate it) and so I had a lot of fun, the venue was great – at Park Hyatt Creek Hotel at Legends. There was yummy food (I'm still questioning the date with foie gras though), lots of space to lounge around, and a dance floor to go wild on. It’s not always easy to find that balance. Most importantly I was in good company. The photo on the left is of me and two very special friends of mine at the party. 

I still haven’t thought about all my resolutions. I’m trying to be realistic this year. The first one I’ve already prepped myself for is to be more adventurous. I’m thinking, spend less time in Dubai and more time in new places. We’ll see. We should all stop picking on the small insignificant details- that doesn’t get old does it? Stop complaining and force ourselves to find a happy place, be surrounded by people who inspire us-not bring us down. Meet new people. Put ourselves in challenging positions (not talking about in bed, but sure) to build that muscle in us that helps us adapt to changes in life. Get in touch with ourselves-meditate. Ditch the comfort zone. Work on a new sport/talent. Stop trying to find our soul mate (don't cringe you know it's a subconscious thought)-I don’t believe we have just one. Do more charity work at least once a month-give something away that we really like. Spend more time with family. So many more to think about!

I hope you all enjoyed your New Years Eve and wish you all a fresh new start. Make this year a memorable one. I wish you all good health, happiness, love and success xx