Monday, August 28, 2006

Eye Candy

I sat in a meeting a couple of days ago to assess an environmental action plan to address the oil slick pollution caused by the bombardment of the fuel tanks of the Jiyyeh power plant.

It was an ad-hoc committee meeting assembled to “brain-storm” on actions to be taken to clean up the oil that washed on the shores all along the Lebanese coast.
Needless to say, I abhor such meetings or such activities, especially that 90% of the time the people on such committees who are supposed to brain-storm often come with nothing to “storm with”. But, the person who called for this meeting is a good friend of mine and I didn’t want to upset her, so I was among the first people to show up.

People started trickling in little by little and soon we were about 7 or 8 persons sitting around a nice, modern furniture table in one of those fancy new buildings in Downtown Beirut where the NGO in question has offices. Then a young woman entered the room as if she’s walking on a modeling isle.

The guy sitting next to me leaned over and whispered:
- “Isn’t she an eye candy!”
I felt like leaning back towards him and saying that for the last six months I’m on a strict “sugar-free” diet but then decided against it and just nodded in “fake” agreement.

The meeting started and conversation soon turned into the details of the action to be taken to clean up the oil that washed on the rocks of the shore. The most effective way it seems is to manually clean the rocks using a special solvent agent which reacts with the oil and dilutes it.

The conversation was going on on how and where to get the solvent and what quantities were needed.

At this point, about 40 minutes into the meeting, “Candy” has said nothing and showed pretty much no interest in what was going on.

I asked to speak and drawing on my background in chemical engineering, I warned that although solvents could be very effective in such cases, a special attention should be drawn to the fact that we are operating in a sea environment and the high level of salt in the waters could hinder the solvent’s efficiency and care should be taken to order solvents capable in working in salty environments. Naturally, these solvents are much more expensive then the regular ones I added.

The discussion livened and arguments were advanced on how much should the budget be to cover the extra expense for the solvents. Another 10 to 15 minutes passed by.

Then, Ms. “M&M Mars” motioned to speak. There was silence around the table and then she said:
-“Isn’t there a way to take the salt out of the water?”

There was silence around the table and I think I heard a few chuckles.

I leaned towards the guy sitting next to me and whispered:
“Beware of eye candy, it causes intellectual diarrhea!”

15 comments:

Anonymous said...

hm, what can i say. unfortunately there is too much eye candy all over the place.

gitanes legeres said...

leih ma menfaddeh el ba7er, men nadd'fo. w ba3den men 3abbi may w mele7 ndaf?
bass shou mna3mel bil samak!!

Ana Min Beirut - أنا من بيروت said...

Takkeh ra7 Iss2al Candy ...Akeed 3inda 7all ...

gitanes legeres said...

fee aquarium kbeer bese3 e'ssamak kelloun?
sallem 3a candy.. i like her already.

inmotion said...

mmhmm

sho mna3mil bil samak

I really like your blog btw

Ana Min Beirut - أنا من بيروت said...

BK, thanks ...
Your blog kept me company during the bombardments night last month ...I love it. We are all routing for you ....Good Luck ;-)

Eve said...

ta3a neghsel el ba7er w nenshero 3ala 7abl el ghasseel!

inmotion said...

routing for me?

ya 3ammeh .. I don't know what to say ..

It's just a crush!!!

hehehe

and you're saying you read my entire blog?

WOW

Ana Min Beirut - أنا من بيروت said...

Eve !!! if I saw you with my own eyes and heard you with my own ears, I can't believe you measure up against Candy.
You are in a different league my friend & a rare one if you would accept the compliment (sincerely no ego catering here ;-) )

Ana Min Beirut - أنا من بيروت said...

BK, call it chou ma baddik it does not take away that tingling effect from it ...and I'm telling you just let go and enjoy it ...

More on your blog later...

inmotion said...

hehehe

ok more later ..

hehehe

Ana Min Beirut - أنا من بيروت said...

May, Ahla. walla Ya sitti to quote a very famous sayyed darwich song:
A Hu Da Li Sar !!!!

gitanes legeres said...

toi qui connais si bien les femmes, "ultimate chick magent", help me out. please. how do u deal with an annoying, pretentious, useless, vaniteuse, mean and rude candy?
i'm a very pretty, smart, sexy and nice person, with a great career ahead of me. and i don't understand why i'm so damn upset about it. and it's not a man thing. and nothing to do with hormones, just in case u were thinking about mentioning anything related. (my hormones r very well under control and my neurones always fire in total harmony).
thank u dear chick magnet
allah ykhallik ya rab...
fan#001
(i need an answer. i'm seriously pissed off.)

Unknown said...

lol that's great :)
Eye Candy was one of my old screen names... it's good i don't use it anymore :)

Charles Malik said...

Ouf! I seen such things happen many times, but never in such a formal setting!