warm in the summer...

I love this exchange, for several reasons, one of which is that it's Hala. Complaining. Again.

Friday, 24. June 2005

Hala: Alright, time now for a look at the international weather forecast. Guillermo Arduino joins us now from the weather center. And, Guillermo, are we starting with Europe this hour?
Guillermo: Yeah, finally.
Hala: OK. Swinging back, I just, I did e-mail you; swinging back from assignment. It was really hot in Paris. I wonder if it's gotten better.
Guillermo: Hala, let me tell viewers I got an e-mail from you saying, Guillermo it's unbearable the heat here. But Hala...
Hala: Nothing makes Paris unbearable, but this was a close as it can to making it unbearable. It was stifling.
Guillermo: You know what happened after you left?
Hala: Did it get cooler?
Guillermo: Take a look.
Hala: Okay.
Guillermo: We're gonna show you exactly what happened in Paris. Let’s go and show Hala what was going on there and ah it rained (weather forecast.) You jet setter, Hala Gorani. I feel envious of all your travelings around.
Hala: Alright thanks very much Guillermo.
Guillermo: Thank you.
Hala: I’ll try to fly back straight to Atlanta next time.
(thanks to Hala'sbiggestfan for the transcript!)

Did you get that? Hala, who used to complain about the London weather all the time, this time complaining about warm weather in Paris.
I love her love for Paris: "Nothing makes Paris unbearable." Now that's a soundbite for tourism, don't you think?
And Hala sending Guillermo email. Hmmn... *overactive imagination*
I do believe Hala was in Paris on a vacation. A break, a breather. Because if she was supposed to fly back straight to Atlanta, she was deviating from the plan. Bad Hala, bad.
Oh, what I'd do to have the right to complain about Parisian weather...


Saw the ITME promo. Love the hair. *giggle*
¡¡¡ITME this weekend!!!

Shihab's back

Friday got me all excited, because I braved the bad rain, and when I got home, I found Hala telling me the day's headlines (okay, World News, but still). Black really offsets her fair features, don't you think? I love how Guillermo spilled the beans on where Hala's been when he noted that she was part of the warm weather in Paris. Heh. Trust the weather anchors to reveal the dirty secrets of our anchors.

Then Saturday came along, and I switch the TV set on to find Mr.Personality. Shihab, you've been on vacation and I can't tell. Did you not have a good time?

Suffering mild insomnia, so got to see Hala for the Saturday shift. Wearing blue! Setting off her lovely eyes. Is it me or was one cheek's blush-on darker than the other?

Hala's back!
sadly, Shihab's back, as well.

so insanely shallow

My heart (and bloated, inflated ego) expands at these words, posted by Spitfire in the "shallow" Hala Gorani thread at The Forum:

I feel Marcus (sic) should put the Looking For Hala Gorani blog on the links page. With the self-deprecating humour found there I feels it deserves a place there.

I'm going to go gloat now. :)


Now, back to more important matters: if calculations are correct, Hala should be completing the taping of ITME. That should take a week and a half. So here I am, hoping she'll be back at least by this weekend. Colleen McEdwards at 3AM HKT just doesn't quite work for me. The sooner Hala gets back, the happier I'll be.


My friend's going to kill me for this, but I am still joyous over the absence of Shihab.

Suzanne Simons' hair.

With Hala going MIA, I had to settle for two things: Michael Holmes doing World News duties, and Suzanne Simons(!!!).

Suzanne Simons. So pretty. But, Suzanne, what have you done to your hair? It used to be so nice, all dark and shiny of it. Now it's all toned and with those highlights... It's not my favorite thing, I can tell you that.


And, MainSail was on, too. Oh, Liz. I miss you in the studio.
I miss Hala. Bring her back already.

Thorough Shallowness

July 3. July 3. July 3.

Hala's got herself a new blazer for Sunday. Wearing those chunky glasses again.

*disgruntlement for the day*
The new rules for the forum. Yes, we border on the shallow, but that's because we love our anchors/reporters so much, the smallest things make us happy.

For example, when Hala is wearing those glasses that don't flatter her, we hurt for her. Or when the blazer is being worn again, it's funny because we recognize it so.

The shallowness of our obsessive behavior is so thorough it almost passes as depth.

Heh. I wonder if that excuse will fly when I post something pointless on the Hala thread.

Three day weekend, so I got to see CNN Today and BI live.
Andrea: still pretty. So dignified, she's making me feel like Hala's move to Atlanta may have been for the best. Especially since Andrea seems to get along well with all her co-anchors (no snappy comments like Hala and Quest).
Aww. Max. So pretty. But you need to take lessons on how to be a proper anchor, my boy.

And who else is happy that Shihab's away? I actually sat through non-Hala World News broadcasts.

Sigh. I'm just sad that Colleen took over the Sunday shift sooner than I would've wanted.

if this CNN thing doesn't work out...

I saw this, and couldn't stop myself: If Hala's day job doesn't quite work out, she can be a spokesperson for Nokia phones:

hey, that's Todd Benjamin in the background.

Which, of course, won't happen, because Hala's brilliant at what she does.

Thanks for that pic (as posted on the forum).

I knew it!!! Well, whomever took that still, thanks. To whomever posted it, thanks as well. And thanks to the CNN person who allowed Hala to go through her bag. :)

@Vic: You know what they say: great minds... :) And, yeah, I thought that too the first time I saw it, but I was too lazy at the time to make the remark public.

Mad Lunatic Fan

I hate the internet connection at home, so I will gloat about Hala's presence ex post facto.

So pretty. With her hair up like that, the jacket making her seem even more vibrant than usual...

Mr. Anonymous , I think I've figured out why Hala has more female fans than male: Based on my research (read as: bugging all my male friends), it seems that CNN is, quote, "the last place guys will turn to" for a pretty face. Mindless jackanapes. Leaving people like Hala, Andrea, Zain and even Liz for more intellectual individuals like yourself.

And me. And us. And everybody else who belongs to the forum.

Likewise, while some of my friends drool over people like Orlando Bloom and, oh I don't know... (damn. I really don't know who else is being drooled over)
Anyway. We get Anderson Cooper and (for others) Michael Holmes. Questy (whatever floats your boat) and even Shihab (...). For Vic (and some others), it's that nice Italian man (who can't surf). And --Icantbelieveiforgotabouthim-- Max Foster.

Point is, they can have their mainstream idols. We have CNN.


If this post sounds a tad defensive, it's because the guy I just quoted just had to add, "I mean, how desperate do you have to be to watch CNN like a mad lunatic fan? And you rushed home for, what, an anchor?" He was answered with a vicious glare (by phone, but he knows. He can hear me glaring). Obviously he was not aware of this blog. He is now.

notes

I'm sick. I'm sleepy, it's raining outside, and is Zain Verjee's blue-and-cream 2-piece suit trying to beat Hala's blazer in the most-used clothing item ever?

Good lord. I sincerely hope Hala's taking a shift later, because that would be nice.

I love Andrea's hair.

Shihab, I don't like you anymore. Smiling seems like such a hurdle for you.

Anderson Cooper, will you be my new spiritual boyfriend?
and, to live up to my rep as a bad girlfriend, I forgot your birthday. (Belated) Happy Birthday.

when in oman

Hala with baby sea turtles. So cute.
Except for this shot:

because that's just scary.
And not wearing blue jeans. Must be in the wash.
The heart pendant, the top, the denim jacket... they all look familiar, all she needed was the immortal blazer that she wore on Sunday:

Yes, I know, I'm stealing Liz's pix, but when someone does a much better job at it, why bother trying? ;)

And last Saturday she demonstrated why I latched on to this CNN anchor in the first place: Hala's abuse of sarcasm is greater than mine. She's my sarcasm hero (for more information see Liz's quips, and some of the things she had to say about that Michael Jackson fan).

And I'm guessing she's seen Alessio Vinci's surfing report, because I do believe our girl was on the brink of laughing when she was introducing the report.

Oh, and, Hala: next time check your microphone. Sometimes we can still hear you when you laugh out loud into a break.
What is it with Hala and the end of her shifts? She keeps on breaking down, forgetting what she's saying, messing up names and things... to quote Richard, "you're thrilled to be off, are you?"

about last night...

lovely pic, Liz. just lovely.

Last night was a good night to be someone who doesn't have a social life. :)

Getting home from work, I was expecting Andrea to be the one to tell me about the headlines and an update on business news from London, but, instead, it's Questy, and I miss him (and I thought that would be impossible, with the way he's usually all over CNNi).

Then came the best part: HALA!!! Oh, how lovely it would've been if Questy crossed over to Atlanta to ask about the headlines as he signed off... *sigh*

Then there's the Defining Moments broadcast, which I missed the first few minutes off because of the World Report Conference thingy (I wasn't paying attention, obviously. Andy Cooper or not).
Luckily, there was a replay of Defining Moments this AM, which I saw, and, wow. Christiane REALLY deserves to be CHIEF international correspondent. But it must be annoying to be so associated with war crimes and such.
Oh well.

HALA!!!

oh, and what's with all the whining about two ITME promos? More Hala, I say.

CNN 25

Because if you read this blog, you too are a CNN junkie:

CNN, the pioneer of 24-hour news, marks its 25th anniversary on June 1 with a special programme offering a front row seat to history while looking back at events that have touched the lives of people around the world over the last quarter century.

“Defining Moments: Stories that Touched Our Lives” is an intimate recounting of the biggest television news events from the past 25 years as told by the newsmakers and journalists who lived through them, from Christiane Amanpour in the Balkans, Brent Sadler in Beirut or Matthew Chance in Beslan.


“Defining Moments: Stories that Touched Our Lives” airs:
Wednesday June 1 at 1500, 2100 and 0200 CET
Saturday June 4 at 1300, 2300 and 0500 CET
Sunday June 5 at 1400 and 1900 CET
CNN Be the first to know


my concern: I haven't done the time zone calculations yet (no, that's not an attack on Hala), but I think some of these airdates will mess with Hala's shift.


edit: So I've gone, and I've checked the schedules, and Hala's shift is clear. Yay.