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So my favourite thing in the world right now is when I come home from work, pop the key in the lock and open the front door, and Mitchell (who is invariably in the family room) yells out “Daddy!” and charges up, flying into my arms to give me a big hug.

It just about busts my heart every time.

Gemayzeh villa

So we had a lovely day yesterday. After a relaxing breakfast at home we headed over to City Mall (one of the two big modern malls in Beirut). Fina came with us, and she and Mitchie had some Maccas lunch before they ventured into the wild and crazy kidszone for a couple of hours of intense childsplay in the ball pits etc.

Mummy and Daddy then had a lovely time exploring the shops and taking advantage of sales without the little man in tow. Oh it was so peaceful! We had a delicious lunch at Casper and Gambini’s, which was concluded with a chocolate fondue for two - a bowl of steaming molten dark chocolate and a separate bowl of marshmallows, strawberries, bananas and kiwifruit. Mega delicious and a great way to get our daily quota of fruit!

When we were completely full and ready to face the boy again, we picked up Mitchell and Fina and headed off to the hairdresser for Mitchell to get a long overdue cut. Of course they insisted on loading him up with product, just like Daddy!

“Na’iman!” the hairdressers cried. Only in Lebanon, the land of hairdressers and all things vain, would there be a special word in Arabic which means “congratulations on your haircut” (and I’m not taking the piss here).

After returning home Mitchie and Daddy went for a long walk around Ashrafieh and Gemmayzeh (to walk off the fondue…).

Then a barbecue dinner, some hubbly bubbly on the balcony and a DVD, then eventually off to a lovely night’s sleep!

Yay!

There’s something fishy going on

After mooching around the house all day yesterday we decided to check out Lebanon’s ski slopes, so we headed up to Faraya. Located less than an hour’s drive north-east of Beirut, Faraya is the most commercial of Lebanon’s ski areas. The town of Faraya itself is pretty horrible and run-down, but the ski resort above is much nicer. The snow there is great, soft and powdery and really deep. There was a huge dump a few weeks back (see here) and when we got there it was snowing lightly.

Amazingly, despite being less than an hour away and it being Sunday, there was hardly anyone there. In Australia ski fields with snow like this would be absolutely packed in the height of winter. Friends tell me it’s usually much busier. I can only assume that the threat of overcast weather, and the current security situation, might have encouraged people to stay home this weekend.

Nonetheless, we had a good time. Unfortunately mummy had to stay in the car while Mitchie and I checked out the snow, which was a bit sad for her. This was Mitchell’s first visit to the snow, and as you can tell from the photos, he was a bit non-plused with the whole snowflakes falling from the sky and freezing cold wind thing. We made up for it with a nice lunch and then excellent hot chocolate at the Intercontinental Hotel. Yummo.

Well, as if the uncertain political and security environment isn’t enough, today we had a 5.1 richter earthquake in Beirut. I was sitting at work talking to some colleagues and all of a sudden the whole building shook. Rang Sheridan and she was working away on the treadmill, hadn’t noticed until Fina came in and told her (Sheridan’s excuse is that she’s shaky enough as it is).

There was a little bit of damage around town, but nothing significant. This is the third tremor to hit Lebanon this week, with the first two focusing on the southern coastal city of Tyre.

Beirut and the Lebanese coast has had its fair share of tectonic activity over the years. Beirut was completely destroyed by earthquake in 1759, and previously destroyed in 551 AD and 349 AD. Tsunamis have hit the coast in 306 AD, 881, 1752 and 1952.

It’s been a while since the last big quake - I wonder if this means we’re overdue? (How’s that for a cheery thought)

February 14 is the anniversary of the assassination of former Prime Minister Rafik Hariri. In response to the 2005 bomb attack a massive number of Lebanese people turned out in Beirut to mark the event. It has now become a significant anniversary, particularly for Hariri’s son Saad and his followers.

So what better way to spend a free day in Lebanon than to take a wander down to Martyr’s Square and hobnob with fellow ralliers? The organisers claim that more than one million people were there. In my professional opinion the number’s much closer to 100,000, but that’s still a lot of flag waving footy fans!

Oh, and I’m not sure what purpose an RPG (second photo, guy on the left) has to do with crowd control though… (RPG = rocket propelled grenade, used for destroying tanks)

Apples are Mitchell’s favourite fruit at the moment. He likes them peeled (none of that yukky skin!) and we also have to core them, or else he eats the core, pips and all.

Five favourite new Mitchell traits:

1. The way when Mummy asks “Mitchell, how old are you?”. The reply: “Mitchie. Two.”
2. The way the little guy sits on the floor cross-legged, which he’s presumably picked up at daycare.
3. The way his toy cars talk to each other at the dinner table, and there’s a “mummy” car, a “daddy” car and a “Mitchie” car. And sometimes a “bubby” car too.
4. The way the absolute first thing he has to do in the morning when he wakes up is put on some socks.
5. The way when Daddy pretends to be asleep, Mitchell sneaks up next to his ear and says in an initially quiet voice: “Two … three … WAKE!!”

Although we’ve been living in our apartment for almost a year now, the building as a whole is still unfinished. The owner of the building is in the process of fitting out a gucci megaflash duplex apartment on the top two floors. The pad will include a horizon pool looking out to the Mediterranean, two separate elevators, and sloping panoramic windows looking out across Achrafieh to the snow-capped Mount Lebanon chain in the distance.

It’s really quite impressive and I like popping up there occasionally (on Sunday when the workers are away) to see how the fit-out is progressing. “Slowly” is the answer.

Last week I jumped in the lift and headed up, spent a while exploring around taking a few pictures. It was only then that I realised there was no button to call the lift back, just some wires sticking out of the wall, and all the fire escape doors were locked. The dude was stuck eleven storeys up.  Luckily after a plaintive phone call Sheridan got into the lift at our floor and came to the rescue.

Anyway, when this joint is finally finished I’d love to live there.