Urban Birds

It's interesting to see animals adapt to their surroundings, finding ways to live in a habitat that can be harsh, ill-suited, punishing.

Birds adapt better than most, or so it seems to me as I watch them come and go between buildings. They perch on lines, build nests where they will, take flight when it suits them. They seem quite at ease in their urban home, so much so that they don't even look out of place.

Tiles, A Retrospective

I've wanted to post this for some time; a retrospective of some of the decorative tile designs on West-Beirut facades. These have all appeared here on Beirut Pursuit in the past.

It's neat to see them side by side.

Tiles Downtown

Downtown Beirut is squeaky-clean, new or newly renovated, full of high-end living, shopping and dining. Tucked in there with all the sleek, new, well-kept buildings is this one:

See it? See the mini-tiles on the facade?

I never would have expected to find a tiled building in that neighborhood; surprising that it survived intact, more surprising still that it survived reconstruction.

Chances are, if I hadn't gone looking for tiled facades I never would have noticed this building.  But when I consider how many tiled buildings there are in Beirut it makes me smile to know that there's one downtown too.

Patch

What do you do when your wall of concrete blocks gets a hole blown in it?

Patch it with other blocks of course.

Magic

A flying carpet?

Wishing you all a little bit of magic this weekend.

Catering

Each morning, the caterers fill their trucks and deliver tasty bites of delicious stuff all over town.

Socrate is best known for catering. In Hamra they have this distribution location on Bliss street and a restaurant on the street one block to the south.

Like Home

This is a photo that for many reasons feels like home. It looks welcoming, it looks peaceful.

I'd walk through the door, climb the stairs, turn the key, call out salutations, and there I would stay.

Break Time

I walked past this truck a little while ago and was delighted by it. It was on-site where a crew was filming a movie, something you see more and more of these days on the streets of Beirut. Inside the truck I could see a little kitchen and there were also bathrooms (see the door marked for men, just to the right of the logo?).

A brilliant idea. If I were filming a movie, I'd definitely want this truck there. Creature comforts matter.

In Monot

At night, the Monot neighborhood is alive with pubs and music, people, laughter, traffic. Oh yes, a crush of traffic.

But in the early evening it's calm there, quiet too. And it's beautiful.

Weekend, weekend

There's nothing better on a Friday afternoon. Think of the sea, think of relaxing with friends. Think of shade and a cold drink. Think of watching the sun go down.

It's the weekend, everyone. Hope it's a good one.