I turned on the soundtrack to Drive and I was pretending I was as cool as Ryan Gosling.
The only problems were:
Yeah…
A brand spanking new Hyundai Elantra 2012. I literally peeled all the stickers off the car and it has that brand new car smell.
The steering is so smooth! Gotta love it.
We leave for Mecca right after Fajr. Hopefully we’ll get there at around Asr time. I can’t wait. I’m so excited!
and I’m actually pretty impressed with him as an actor.
I have to admit, I never ever gave him a chance when I first came across him. I watched ‘The Notebook’ a long time ago and wasn’t very impressed. Maybe I just wasn’t in the mood when I watched it.
Anyway, I recently watched “Crazy, Stupid, Love”, “Drive”, and “The Ides of March”. The first was a pretty terrible film (it was too cheesy) but Ryan Gosling was actually really good in it. I got a whole bunch of fashion tips that I’m going to incorporate in to my wardrobe when I go back home. I’m going to buy a whole bunch of suits.
The second film was really excellent. There were so many wonderful things about “Drive”. He is about as different as a character can get from anything he’s done before. The character was brutal and really intense. The film was tight and sharp. The music was incredible. You really can’t beat it.
Then I watched “The Ides of March” and I realised why I loved George Clooney as an actor and director. It’s a tale of political idealism and how dreams and illusions can be shattered. The writing is tight and the acting is fantastic all around. Ryan Gosling really carries the movie.
I’ve been really impressed with him as an actor these last few weeks. It’s pretty good going.
(I’m not a teenage girl, I promise!)
The last one from the Drive soundtrack, I promise.
A new video blog where I talk about a little bit of this and a little bit of that.
It’s a total GPOY.
Also.. Ryan Gosling… :O
Anonymous asked: I've gone through about ten pages or so of your blog and love everything so far. Sorry if you've been asked this or something similar before (I haven't been through everything just yet) but could you tell me what life really is like for women in Saudi Arabia? I mean you here all these things in the US, where I live, but what is actually true if you don't mind sharing? Thanks a lot in advance :)
Oh my God! I love it when I get messages like this. It means so much when a person takes time out to go through my little blog.
Well… it’s strange here for women. I mean, they can go out and do whatever they want but they all have to wear an abaya. Muslim women really have to wear hijabs too but not all do. They’re not allowed to drive. When they go to restaurants they have a separate area for women and families and a different area for single men/groups of men. In all honesty, life here is pretty boring for men and women but people find things to do. You either get used to it or leave. If you have any specific questions then I’ll try my very best to answer from my knowledge.
xonly4months asked: I didn't get your email ! Oh happy b-day!!! Wish you the best ! So when will we go to Palestine ? I will go if you drive me there haha
You got my email months ago but you never replied. It’s because you don’t love me, I know the truth! I guess Brazil isn’t the place for me to be :P
Thank you for the birthday wishes. It means so much to me.
Well… the Palestine plan is a little bit up in the air right now. I honestly don’t know when I’ll end up there. All I know is that I’m going to be there at some point for sure over the next few years. You might have to wait a while for me…
I hit the Saudi roads today and I’m actually feeling good about being behind the wheel of a car. It’s been nearly three months since I last drove a car so I was a little bit hesitant at first but I was able to get it together pretty quickly. I drifted a tiny bit on the lanes when I lost concentration but I hit 50mph and kept it fairly constant on one of the bigger roads in Riyadh.
I think I might have another couple of lessons next week and once I have them out of the way I’ll be ready to take my drivers’ test. The thing is that the car registration authority in Saudi is fairly lax (at best) and they’re quickly confused so they might even accept my UK provisional licence (learner’s permit) as a full licence and I might be able to get one without even taking a test. Of course, it might be that I have to take the test… it consists of going around in a big circle and reversing in a straight line for 3 meters. I think I could pass that today.
My idea is that I’ll hire a car in October and as soon as I have my Saudi licence in place I’ll have it converted to an international licence. It’ll come in handy if I’m elsewhere in the world. I’m almost 100% certain that there aren’t many places in the world with driving more extreme than Saudi Arabia.
Talk about baptism of fire.
My friend from work is back from his holidays and he said that he’ll give me a lesson or two next week, once things at work have settled down.
I think I’ll be ready to take a test in Saudi Arabia within a couple of weeks. That means I’ll have a real, honest-to-God licence in my hands! That means… I could get an international licence and DRIVE IN ENGLAND OR ANYWHERE IN THE WORLD!!!! How awesome is that?!
So I was thinking for a couple of months now that I was going to make a solid effort to visit Mecca during the month of Ramadan as many times as humanly possible. I figured, logically speaking, it would be able to visit it twice in the course of the month. The first time, I thought, would be at the start of the month and the second would be at the end of Ramadan. Well, the start of the month came and I got a trip planned for, not only, Mecca but Medina too… Let me tell you how it was.
During the last one my friend who was helping me out was very impressed with my progress so today he decided to take me on one of the main roads in Riyadh, Imam Saud. It’s basically a long, straight road that runs from work to home. It’s also the road where my friend had that crazy car crash last week which I still don’t know how he survived.
I want to buy a Chevy Camaro. I’ve mentioned it on this blog a couple of times and it’s something that I really, really want. The only problem is that I don’t know how to drive. That doesn’t help so much when the car you want is a 6.1L, V8, 430BHP muscle car capable of 0-60MPH in 4.4ish seconds.
Well, to remedy the first problem, and take the first step towards buying it, I had my very first *proper* driving lesson today and let me tell you how it went…
