Chez Lui
Thrilled that all the girls are back in town for Christmas and what not, the eccentric morbid queen and her friends kept thinking 'what shall we do for New Year's Eve?'
Saved from a potential quagmire, a dear friend kindly invited us for a New Year's Eve dinner with a possibility of a party afterwards.
And the general mood was, 'lets enjoy dinner first, then party hop later!'.
And while families are peculiar phenomenons and a structure that usually necessitate disaster, my sisters and me, are no different.
Incest, sibling rivalry, inferiority complex are few among many ailments that every family is subject to.
Ours too as well.
So in an atmosphere of anticipation and ghosts let loose and past traumas, I got dressed and headed to the other side of midnight, namely Cairo.
Arriving on time, I was received with Champagne, and exquisite hors d'oeuvres!
What more could a girl ask for?!
I didn't!
I just asked for more Champagne.
But all good things come to an end, and one is never truly free from his/her past. And I had one evil diva in mine.
Long friends in our late adolescence, now silent enemies, in many ways than one.
And the diva decided to throw a party.
I flatly refused to go. He might be a diva alright, but this is as far as attitude. The rest is severely lacking.
Charm, grace or good hors d'oeuvres.
And not wanting to upset my other sisters, I decided to give in and go.
Little did we know it will end up like a scene from Victor Victoria! The cult classic, where Julie Andrews cross-dresses like a male, cabaret singer. Hence the name of the post.
The bar where she tried to audition, was a gay bar in Paris, called Chez Lui, famous for frequent riots and rows by queens and non-queens, the police regularly raids the bar and gets everyone arrested all throughout the film.
So, Chez le Diva, we ended up going, in a place he was sharing with another friend, in an area a little conservative to a full blown, "happy" party, and just as we are about to get in the mood and dance, neighbors upset by the noise came at the door, knocking.
Now, a little note about the neighbors, as I understood later on, and read the signs on the doors, many of them either openly belonged to a conservative religious movement or worked in a religious university.
It came as no surprise that they were "displeased" with the sound and the commotion.
Not wanting to go down without a fight le Diva and his friend refused to be put down by such infringement on personal privacy and freedom.
While I salute this liberal gesture, I strongly disapprove.
When outnumbered by religious fanatics, the best thing to do is to smile and say, 'you're right, I am wrong,....' and then continue whatever it is you were doing.
Self-righteous behavior will only get you so far.
And it didn't.
The next thing we know, they reported the entire incident to the cops.
It was official.
The party was over and this was very reminiscent of Chez Lui.
The moment the word was out, all the queens hit the road and everyone ran for dear life.
Its one thing to have angry neighbors knock at your door and its another being dragged to the police station and harassed by abusive police officers.
Me and Kiki staid behind, but only for too long, then we decided the evil Diva has to fend for himself. A mistake we will pay dearly for later.
On to the next party! Another expat, another embassy!
God bless foreign service!
But this time it was a "straight" party. And I could sense the hostility the moment I stepped in.
Although there was a real bar, with a real bartender, the music lacked something and the people were just different.
Before the police busted the other party, I asked the evil Diva, whats the best thing to drink after Champagne, the answer was "Vodka".
Well, be careful who you ask next time.
Wasting no time, and not wanting to lose my buzz, I had one big screwdriver, and headed for the balcony with the stunning view of the Nile.
But still, something was missing, and Kiki Jr. joined me in a heart to heart conversation while I was getting officially intoxicated.
The memory of the evil Diva and the party bust were distant thoughts now and I felt more and more uncomfortable in my surroundings.
Reading my mind, and having a curfew herself, Kiki Jr. joined me in wanting to leave ASAP.
I went I told my sisters I am done for the night and that I wanted to go home, they can stay if they want, but I am heading out.
I secretly wanted them to tag along, I felt it was our first time together to party and it was the New Year's Eve, they wouldn't let their sister go home all by herself and trashed.
But they did.
And I was sent with enough resentment to poison the happiness of cherubs flying in heaven.
Far from heaven, and back to Earth, I was poisoned and I got sicker by the minute.I barely made it home in one piece, and I felt like some trashy chick in a tragic drama series, without the nice hair or the right make up.
And the inevitable happened. And I threw up my heart out.
I finally collapsed in bed cursing my sisters, those selfish, mean bitches, all they care about is their fucking party!
Then comes daylight.
And in daylight, things look mighty different.
It looks like a hangover.
While in Chez Lui Julie Andrew finally summons the courage to tell the man she loves that she is actually a woman, and while he finally decides that he really doesn't care what she is, at the busted party I realized people are really not what we think they are or like to think they are and they perceive just the way we project ourselves. And their biggest fear and ours is that we might turn out to be different in any way.
Like a woman pretending to be a man, pretending to be a woman.
Saved from a potential quagmire, a dear friend kindly invited us for a New Year's Eve dinner with a possibility of a party afterwards.
And the general mood was, 'lets enjoy dinner first, then party hop later!'.
And while families are peculiar phenomenons and a structure that usually necessitate disaster, my sisters and me, are no different.
Incest, sibling rivalry, inferiority complex are few among many ailments that every family is subject to.
Ours too as well.
So in an atmosphere of anticipation and ghosts let loose and past traumas, I got dressed and headed to the other side of midnight, namely Cairo.
Arriving on time, I was received with Champagne, and exquisite hors d'oeuvres!
What more could a girl ask for?!
I didn't!
I just asked for more Champagne.
But all good things come to an end, and one is never truly free from his/her past. And I had one evil diva in mine.
Long friends in our late adolescence, now silent enemies, in many ways than one.
And the diva decided to throw a party.
I flatly refused to go. He might be a diva alright, but this is as far as attitude. The rest is severely lacking.
Charm, grace or good hors d'oeuvres.
And not wanting to upset my other sisters, I decided to give in and go.
Little did we know it will end up like a scene from Victor Victoria! The cult classic, where Julie Andrews cross-dresses like a male, cabaret singer. Hence the name of the post.
The bar where she tried to audition, was a gay bar in Paris, called Chez Lui, famous for frequent riots and rows by queens and non-queens, the police regularly raids the bar and gets everyone arrested all throughout the film.
So, Chez le Diva, we ended up going, in a place he was sharing with another friend, in an area a little conservative to a full blown, "happy" party, and just as we are about to get in the mood and dance, neighbors upset by the noise came at the door, knocking.
Now, a little note about the neighbors, as I understood later on, and read the signs on the doors, many of them either openly belonged to a conservative religious movement or worked in a religious university.
It came as no surprise that they were "displeased" with the sound and the commotion.
Not wanting to go down without a fight le Diva and his friend refused to be put down by such infringement on personal privacy and freedom.
While I salute this liberal gesture, I strongly disapprove.
When outnumbered by religious fanatics, the best thing to do is to smile and say, 'you're right, I am wrong,....' and then continue whatever it is you were doing.
Self-righteous behavior will only get you so far.
And it didn't.
The next thing we know, they reported the entire incident to the cops.
It was official.
The party was over and this was very reminiscent of Chez Lui.
The moment the word was out, all the queens hit the road and everyone ran for dear life.
Its one thing to have angry neighbors knock at your door and its another being dragged to the police station and harassed by abusive police officers.
Me and Kiki staid behind, but only for too long, then we decided the evil Diva has to fend for himself. A mistake we will pay dearly for later.
On to the next party! Another expat, another embassy!
God bless foreign service!
But this time it was a "straight" party. And I could sense the hostility the moment I stepped in.
Although there was a real bar, with a real bartender, the music lacked something and the people were just different.
Before the police busted the other party, I asked the evil Diva, whats the best thing to drink after Champagne, the answer was "Vodka".
Well, be careful who you ask next time.
Wasting no time, and not wanting to lose my buzz, I had one big screwdriver, and headed for the balcony with the stunning view of the Nile.
But still, something was missing, and Kiki Jr. joined me in a heart to heart conversation while I was getting officially intoxicated.
The memory of the evil Diva and the party bust were distant thoughts now and I felt more and more uncomfortable in my surroundings.
Reading my mind, and having a curfew herself, Kiki Jr. joined me in wanting to leave ASAP.
I went I told my sisters I am done for the night and that I wanted to go home, they can stay if they want, but I am heading out.
I secretly wanted them to tag along, I felt it was our first time together to party and it was the New Year's Eve, they wouldn't let their sister go home all by herself and trashed.
But they did.
And I was sent with enough resentment to poison the happiness of cherubs flying in heaven.
Far from heaven, and back to Earth, I was poisoned and I got sicker by the minute.I barely made it home in one piece, and I felt like some trashy chick in a tragic drama series, without the nice hair or the right make up.
And the inevitable happened. And I threw up my heart out.
I finally collapsed in bed cursing my sisters, those selfish, mean bitches, all they care about is their fucking party!
Then comes daylight.
And in daylight, things look mighty different.
It looks like a hangover.
While in Chez Lui Julie Andrew finally summons the courage to tell the man she loves that she is actually a woman, and while he finally decides that he really doesn't care what she is, at the busted party I realized people are really not what we think they are or like to think they are and they perceive just the way we project ourselves. And their biggest fear and ours is that we might turn out to be different in any way.
Like a woman pretending to be a man, pretending to be a woman.
Comments
I just want to point out 2 things though, the first is the constant "blame it on the devil" syndrome, i don't know, it must be inherently egyptian, be it a religious puritan that blames his every secret wish or slip on the "nafs el 2amara bel soo2"if it is ramadan or on the highly over rated devil in any other day of the year, or be it in this case, our good old morbid queen, blaming his wish to get totally drunk on a previous friend now rated as evil diva.(vodka after champagne is a good advice if u can handle alcohol, and as u admitted yourself, U "not wanting to lose my buzz" CHOSE to get trashed.
Point 2 would be about the sisters, I just want to propose a couple of different perspectives, think how the sisters wanted all to party together after a long time and were let down by a fellow one who tailed away (and secretly wished to put his own welfare ahead of that of the collectivity) or more simply, how they took the sister's words for their actual meaning, the night was over for him and he was heading home to sleep, so their presence or absence with him wouldn't have made much of a difference.
As you said yourself, people are not really what we think they are and our biggest fear is that they might turn out to be different in any way, but it's not really their fault that we can't accept them and like them for who they are, It's not their fault that the way we expect them to be is as dull planets rotating around us, centers of the whole universe.
So my question is who are you I am going through the night trying to remembr who u r @ both parties but can't seem to remember