Tonight, my sweets, the legendary German rock band The Scorpions will perform hits like "Wind of Change" and "Still Loving You", at the Panorama Theatre next to the Giza Pyramids, as part of the band's Middle East tour 2005 entitled "Peace for All". The ravishing Lebanese singer Nicole Saba will perform along with The Scorpions during their first tour in the Middle East. They are scheduled to perform in Doha, Dubai, Abu Dhabi and Cairo. Their last stop will be surprise, surprise... magical Sharm El-Sheikh. Oh how exciting my darlings. On Sunday, our dear friend the British ambassador in Egypt, Sir Derek Plumbly, hosted a ceremony at his residence to present eight awards of up to LE10,000 each to Egyptian PhD students. The President of Cairo University Ali Abdel-Rahman ; Director of the British Council Paul Smith and a number of British and Egyptian university professors attended the most inspiring ceremony. These awards are offered by the British Council to assist Egyptian PhD students in completing their research through a research competition in collaboration with four British universities: Manchester, Nottingham, Newcastle and Exeter. The best eight proposals were selected from amongst 114 research proposals submitted to the British Council during September 2005. The eight winners are Ahmed Abdel-Alim ; El-Sayed Helal ; Fatma Ali, Ahmed Aref ; Khaled Youssef ; Ahmed El-Refaai ; Asmaa Ali and Sayed Abul-Yazeed. Good luck ambitious ones. Celebrating the Tunisian National Day, Tunisian Ambassador to Cairo Al-Shazli Al-Nafati held a reception party that gathered a galaxy of luminaries. Among guests were head of the Egyptian Olympic Committee Munir Thabet ; First Undersecretary for Foreign Cultural Relations Cherif El-Shoubashi ; versatile artist Samir Sabri ; budding actress Mena Fadali and the gorgeous Tunisian actress Sana Taher. A number of media and journalism figures including Mona Ragab and Mahmoud Murad as well as IT expert Hisham El-Sherif were also present. It is not often that you find Egypt's top marketing and media experts dining together, but we were lucky enough to witness such an august gathering recently at Sequoia restaurant in Zamalek. Amidst much glitz and live music, the International Advertisement Association Young Professionals Chapter (IAAYPC) invited 70 of its most dynamic members to share an evening with high- profile experts in the marketing and advertising businesses including the head of Al-Ahram Advertising Department Hassan Hamdi ; Loula Zaklama of RADA PR Research Company; Magdi El-Meligi of Al-Ahram; Look owner Hazem Derg ; Leo Burnette Advertising Agency General Manager Amgad Sabri and Ibrahim Hegazi, editor-in- chief of the sports magazine Al-Ahram Al-Riyadi. Hosting the event were the IAAYPC's Taymour Hamdi and Kamal Fathi. It was such a refreshingly different event which provided an ideal opportunity to discuss business in an engaging atmosphere. Congratulations to Iraqi oud master Nasseer Shamma ! The German Ministry of Culture decided to bestow the title of The Messenger of The Islamic Arabic Culture in the West on undoubtedly the most talented oud player in the entire Arab world. Shamma toured 18 German cities last Ramadan. Upon his return, he will be flying with his band Ouyon to Montreal, Canada, to take part in its First Arab Music Festival. The gifted Iraqi artist is also due to fly to Brussels to participate in the city's artistic dialogue between Eastern and Western musicians called the "East and West Dialogue". Among other participants will be Said Sharaiby of Morocco and Lebanon's Marcel Khalifa. Our dear friends at the Indonesian Embassy in Cairo are staging what promises to be a delightful party celebrating Indonesian day. There would be appetising delicacies, dazzling traditional costumes and enchanting Indonesian music to commemorate the island- nation's 60th Independence Day. My lovelies I am so excited. The Indonesia Day, I can tell, is going to be rich with cultural performances, fashion shows and lots more my dears. The event will take place on 19-20 November at the Indonesian Embassy in Garden City, Cairo. Do not miss the fun, lovelies. Do you get highly anxious about meeting new people or facing new situations? If the answer is yes, my darlings, then you must attend this interesting workshop "A Life Recipe For Extremely Sensitive People". I, for one, am terribly sensitive and I will surely show up for the workshop which will be conducted by the Director of Standards and Assessment Centre and Assistant Professor of Research and Methodology at the German University in Cairo (GUC) Ahmed Dwidar. The workshop commences on 23 November 2005 at the Pyramisa Hotel, Giza. Participation fee is LE80 -- but it is well worth it my lovelies. Earlier this month, the former president of Cairo University and member of Shura Council, Farouk Ismail was awarded "The Order of the Rising Sun, Gold and Silver Star" by the Japanese government. The Japanese bestowed the award on Ismail in recognition of his contribution to the promotion of academic exchange between Japan and Egypt. This impressive decoration by the Japanese government, my darlings, is announced twice a year in spring and autumn. This autumn 31 foreigners, including Ismail, were decorated. He is the first Egyptian to be decorated by the Japanese in eight years. Ismail obtained his doctoral degree from the Engineering Department at Tokyo University in January 1969. Well done. For the second time the Asian Diplomats Wives Association (ADWA) held their annual bazaar at the Nile Hilton Hotel. The inspiring event was held on Saturday. The Asian embassies sold a variety of traditional crafts, toys, cosmetics and accessories. More than 1,000 people visited the bazaar and were highly impressed by the Asian dance performance. Yes, my lovelies, those graceful Asian dancers wowed the audience. On Sunday, India's new Ambassador to Egypt A Gopinathan, presented his credentials . Ambassador Gopinathan was until recently, the deputy permanent representative of India to the United Nations in New York. We welcome him to Egypt and hope he has a wonderful stay. Seductive Lebanese singer Haifa Wahbi will be Pepsi's new star in the upcoming campaign. This choice, my darlings, means that Pepsi doesn't want to be upstaged by Coca Cola's choice of Nancy Agram to be their commercial star. Never has it been so good for beautiful Lebanese stars in Egypt, my friends.
