Undersecretary of State at the Ministry of Culture responsible for foreign relations Sherif El-Choubachi, officially inaugurated the exhibition of Wahad at Egyptian Centre for International Cultural Cooperation. The artist exhibited no less than 50 of her works of traditional hand-made jewellery, silver and precious stones. The event was graced with the presence of the head of the Yemeni Information Centre, Aisha Al-Alouqi, and a coterie of artistic characters. Among those present were Sameh Al-Sereiti, Amal Ramzi, director Hani Ismail, and lawyer Rita Badreddin. Magda Moussa, the deputy executive chairman of the Special Olympics in Egypt hosted a lavish dinner at the Egyptian Diplomatic Club in honour of the stunningly beautiful African- American actress Vanessa Williams, Miss America 1983. Williams is a member of the International Special Olympics. Among the guests were General Monir Thabet, the head of Egypt's Olympics Committee; Jihan El-Sadat, the late president's daughter; Hoda Ahmed Maher, Jihan Halawa and Shahinaz Shehata. Oh my lovelies, what a joy it was to watch the very talented Ahmed Mustafa Serag receive the first prize of the Mohamed Taymour for Creativity. Serag won the prize for his novel Amn Al-Hessar, (The Security of the Siege) . The distribution of the Mohamed Taymour Prize is invariably an exciting event. The sumptuous event was staged at the Hanager Theatre, the Cairo Opera House. The second prize went to the budding Iraqi novelist Jawwad Al-Hassab, whose novel Al-Seif Al-Thaqil, (the Heavy Sword), won many accolades and is very highly acclaimed in the Arab literary world. The prizes were handed out by Rashida Taymour, the grand-daughter of Mohamed Taymour. She was most elegantly dressed in a dazzling white attire. Among the judges were Wahid Abdel-Maguid, the deputy head of the General Book Organisation; Heba Wasfi, the director of Al-Hanager Theatre, and art critic Rafia Al-Sabban. A host of Cairo's literary and intellectual characters were present. Soon after the awards were given out, last year's winning play -- Dawn at Twilight -- was staged. The play was written by Mohamed Nassef. Among the actors in the play were Ashraf Abdel-Ghaffar, Manal Zaki, Inas Nour and Nasser Seif. Darwish El-Barrawi, head of the Plastic Arts Syndicate in Alexandria, inaugurated an exhibition of plastic arts in Egypt's beautiful Mediterranean metropolis. Laila Fahmi, the head of the central and western Delta department of the syndicate attended the exhibition of arts and supervised the arts competition which was organised by Hanan Shalabi and entitled "Alexandria in the Eyes of its Children". The exhibition took place in the Mohamed Nagui Hall in the Anfoushi Cultural Centre, Alexandria. My dearest colleague Nesmahar Sayed delivered a beautiful baby boy, Abdel-Rahman, last month. He is so cute and lovable, and like his mother, Nesma, Abdel-Rahman looks radiant, happy and brimming with health. God bless them both. Well, he resembles his proud dad, Ayman, and his sister Shahd. photos: Ayman Barayez
