Month: January 2011

I’m currently in Beirut and supposed to get back to Kuwait tomorrow (Jan 25, my flight is at 2PM with Wataniya Airways) but for those of you following the news all hell has broken loose here in Lebanon due to politics. Tonight while I was out shopping they people started blocking the main roads with burning tires including the main airport road. Hopefully its going to be cleared by tomorrow although I doubt that is the case. I can’t wait to get out of here, have another flight on the 26th to Bahrain for Gulf Run and would rather be there then stuck here with all this crap going on.

Update: Just got to Kuwait. I left to the airport early this morning which was a good thing since I managed to get there before they blocked the main airport road. Now I’m back home and catching up on all my emails before I head off tomorrow to Bahrain for Gulf Run.

Picture by hibrme

Brett Jordan is still scanning and uploading pictures of Kuwait from the early 60s. So far he has uploaded over 100 pictures and he’s still uploading. What I like about his collection of photos other than the fact they’re being scanned in super high resolution revealing some amazing details but also the fact some of them show Kuwait in a way I hadn’t seen it before.

He’s got some really great stuff there, the three pictures here are just some of the new one’s he’s uploaded. Here is the link to his collection [Link]

This is the latest GulfRun 6 video and although it’s short it still kicks ass . I’m currently in Lebanon and get back to Kuwait on the 25th and then the following day will head out to Bahrain to catch up with the guys. If you’ve never been to a GulfRun event you should at least once. [YouTube]

The luxurious car show Concours d’Elegance is going to be held for the second time in Kuwait early next month. Like last year, it going to be an important and prestigious event that will attract people from both inside and outside Kuwait.

What is the Concours d’Elegance?
Concours is a French word meaning competition. The concept of Concours originates in 17th C. France when aristocrats used to choose their best horse carriages to parade around parks of Paris during the summer week ends and holidays. Later these traditions changed to automobiles from the 20th C. Concours today have strict regulations and cars are inspected by qualified judges. Trophy winners are carefully chosen. Each year there are numerous events which take place across the world, many of which are world famous, including Villa d’Este in Italy, Goodwood in UK, and Pebble Beach in USA. The Kuwait Concours d’Elegance is rapidly becoming a fixture in this international programme, able to attract some of the world’s rarest and exotic motorcars.

Date
February 2nd to the 6th 2011
10:00AM – 10:00PM

Location
Marina Mall interior, Marina Crescent and Marina Lawn.

That’s one large kite and a very trippy one. The video description says the largest spinner but I am not sure if they mean in Kuwait or the world. Based on the fact we’ve got the largest kite in the world it wouldn’t be a surprise if we’ve got the largest spinning kite as well. [YouTube]

There is a Ford Driving Experience taking place today (Jan 22nd) at the Kuwait International Fair Grounds. They will have brand new 2011 Mustangs which anyone can test drive. The even is open to the public from 10:30AM till 5:00PM.

Last week I posted about how Go Sport at The Avenues was strangely selling Abercrombie & Fitch and Hollister clothing. Well I was emailed some more information regarding this. Turns out the A&F and Hollister items at Go Sport are 100% authentic. Go Sport was given rights by the host brands to sell both A&F and Hollister clothing. The only thing is that their merchandise is last seasons not the latest. Another thing I found out is that Go Sport falls under one of the companies of Al Homaizi Group. I am assuming they will be bringing both those brands to Kuwait in the near future.

Yesterday I noticed a truck pulled up behind my house and around 10 street cleaners got out and instantly started cleaning up the streets. I then looked further down the street and noticed another 10 street cleaners were already busy cleaning up as well. I thought that was pretty cool since the neighborhood needed this clean up but sadly the people in my area managed to trash it again by the time I was walking my dog at night. It’s very depressing. The streets were all rubbish free in the morning but by nightfall the trash was back again everywhere. Not really sure what I can do about it, I was thinking about putting up signs telling people not to throw trash on the floor but I doubt anybody would care. This morning the army was back cleaning the streets again but I doubt it will remain clean by the time I get back home.

Last week X-Cite sent me a Kinect to review for the blog. I had been reading a lot about it online (mostly all the cool hacks people were doing) and was interested to try it out. The Kinect is Microsoft’s answer to the Wii and the Sony Move except unlike either of those two, the Kinect doesn’t use a physical controller, you become a controller. When I first opened the box I was surprised by the size, I was expecting it to be smaller but the Kinect is pretty big. I struggled to find a place to put it (you’re supposed to have it either on top of your tv or below). The second issue I ran into was space, the Kinect requires you to be standing at least 1.8 meters away from it. My living room is pretty small so it was having trouble detecting me. Finally I moved the Kinect to my other TV where I had more space in front of it and managed to get it working there.

The Kinect is freaky, it recognizes you, your hands, your head, your legs… your whole body. With the Wii and PS3 you need to actually hold a controller in your hand and move that around but with the Kinect you don’t need any of that. It’s like a much more advanced version of the PlayStation Eye. In the games I was playing, if I put my hand on my head so would my character in the game, if I clapped my hands or started stomping my feet so would my character. It felt like I was inside the game.

The Kinect comes with a game called Kinect Adventures. Inside it there are five different games that show off the Kinect’s abilities. The games are:

20,000 Leaks – In this game you’re basically standing in a glass room under the sea and fish and sharks come and bang the glass to create leaks. You need to try and cover the leaks as they happen. In some cases you get 5 leaks at the same time so you have a hand on every leak, your head covering another leak and each foot on a leak as well. It’s fun for a few minutes but gets boring quickly. In two player mode it’s slightly more fun.

River Rush – You’re on a raft going down the river and you should avoid obstacles by either shifting your weight to one side of the raft or by jumping. I didn’t find this fun even when playing it two players.

Rally Ball – This was my favorite game, it’s a mixture between the classic breakout game and dodge ball. You have to throw a ball towards objects down a hallway and try to get rid of them. Sometimes you hit objects that doubles or triples the amount of balls so you have to start moving quickly trying to throw them all back at the objects. Me and my brother enjoyed playing this the most.

Reflex Ridge – The most physically exhausting game of the bunch since it’s kinda like a track and field game. You’re standing on a moving railway cart and you need to avoid objects by other jumping, ducking, moving left or moving right. Video games shouldn’t be this physically active and after one round I was all sweaty and out of breath.

Space Pop – The most boring game of the bunch, you’re in space and you need to float up and pop balloons all around. Not fun, didn’t even bother playing it two players.

Playing the games two players is more fun than alone. You only need one Kinect to play games two players but you need to stand at least 2.2meters away from the Kinect device. The games that come with the Kinect aren’t that great but since they’re free you can’t complain that much. There are more games you can buy that work with Kinect but I didn’t have a chance to try them. The PlayStation Move is more advanced than the Wii and sometimes like in a first person shooter it would be cool to physically hold an assault riffle, but the Microsoft Kinect is a more advanced system than the Move and because your whole body becomes a controller it really opens up a lot of doors. I’m giving it a 4.5 out of 5. I just wish the games that came with it were more fun.

The Kinect is available at X-Cite as either a standalone for KD54.9 or with the Xbox Slim 4GB for KD126 or with an Xbox Slim 250GB for KD148.

A reader made me aware of this cool deal. You can get a $20 Amazon gift voucher for just $10. I just bought one since I shop on Amazon a lot. Just visit the link here and put NYC as your city. This offer is just valid for today. [Link]

The one thousand dinars grant is causing a lot of controversy. Yesterdays post already surpassed 200 comments and the conversation still hasn’t stopped. One impression you might get by reading all the comments in that post is that people will only be using the money for superficial things. That’s not the case for everyone. Below is a story of a Kuwaiti girl who wants to remain anonymous. She won’t be using the money to buy a new phone or go on a shopping spree, instead she will be using the one thousand dinars grant for something much more important to her. Please take the time to read her story below.

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Hi, I am a 27 years old Kuwaiti girl, I am not privileged and I need an operation to be able to speak and eat.

I was born with a defect called underbite which means my top jaw is very very small. It would be easy to fix at a young age but I am very unfortunate to have ignorant and illiterate parents. I didn’t know what I had was a defect, I only thought I was ugly as that’s what my mother kept telling me.

I have very severe underbite, it is so bad that I can’t breath with my nose and so I have to keep my mouth open all the time to be able to breath. I can’t chew solids because my teeth don’t meet so I only enjoy chocolate since it easily melts in my mouth.

I can’t pronounce many letters and all my life people have avoided me. People seem to think I am mentally retarded when I speak. I’m not, I am just like you. I am smart and a graduate of Kuwait University. I even used to have a job before I had to quit because of the none-stop teasing.

I reached to a point where I had enough of all this so I begged my family to help but they refuse to even talk to me. My mother thinks I’m ugly and not like my sisters and no one will marry me so why bother even speak to me? (I know this is stupid but what can i do? This is how my family thinks). So I took action all by myself. I figured I can do it, I am a Kuwaiti living in Kuwait so it should be easy. I went to a public clinic that transferred me to another one that also transferred me to a dentist who removed 2 of my healthy teeth and told me that was it and that I was fine. After that I saved up money and went to a private clinic, the doctor told me the teeth that got pulled out had nothing to do with my problem and that everything could be fixed with an underbite correction surgery. He told me the first thing I needed to do was get dental implants to replace the two pulled teeth, so I did that. Then I needed braces for a year and I did that too.

After one year of work, the surgery is all I have left, so I went again and tried the clinic, I thought after all these years maybe they have an idea about my condition. But once again the public clinic transferred me to a hospital which transferred me to a dentist but this time I got yelled at by the receptionist telling me I shouldn’t be here.

I gave up on them, I researched online about doing this operation in Kuwait and all I found was one doctor that could fix me at a cost of KD5,000 and another doctor but in Lebanon that can also fix me but for $12,000. So this is what I am doing now, I am saving up to do this operation and hopefully look, speak, and eat normally.

The KD1,000 Amir grant is bringing me closer to my dream, so thank you Amir of Kuwait.

I am only sharing my story with all of you so that maybe someone in charge can read it and fix the public health care system in my country, Kuwait. I have never used this iPhone or Blackberry everyone is having, we live a very simple life and no matter how many times we fight at home, I am grateful and thankful for my family and country. I would never change them, maybe I’d change the way they see me, but not them.

This looks like it’s going to be one hell of a show. The Ahmadi Music Group & Orchestra will be presenting one of the most famous and exciting choral works ever performed in Kuwait with a large orchestra of 40 musicians… Carl Orff’s Carmina Burana.

Location: Boy Scout Association Theatre, Beirut Street, Hawalli, Opposite Centre Point.
Time: All shows start at 7pm

Dates & Prices:
Tuesday 18 January, 2011 – Preview night for students KD4
Wednesday 19 January, 2011 – Gala, Black Tie followed by buffet, KD10
Thursday 20 January, 2011 – Adults KD8, Students/Children KD4
Friday 21 January, 2011 – Adults KD8, Students/Children KD4

Secure your invitations in advance to avoid disappointment by calling 66184192 or sending an email to [email protected]
For more information visit the Ahmadi Music Group website [Here]

Thanks Ridwan

Before my slightly deceiving title gets your hopes up, A&F and Hollister are not opening up at the Avenues, or at least I am not aware of it. But, for some odd reason, Go Sport has a small section of Abercrombie & Fitch and Hollister clothing.

Some of the items are on sale and they have stuff both for guys and girls. Weird.

Last week I posted about the new order here intercom system at the Gulf Road McDonalds thinking it was something new in Kuwait (sorry I don’t use drive-thru much) and it turned out to be something old… very old. BUT, now that the system is setup I noticed the McDonalds one has a screen right under the mic where you place your order. How it works is you place your order by talking into the mic and then the employee at the other end punches in your order into their system and you get to see what you are ordering on the screen in front of you. So say you ordered a Big Mac combo and she heard it as a Quarter Pounder combo, you would be able to see that on the screen and correct her mistake. Now don’t shoot me if it turns out this system is available at every bakala in Kuwait, I haven’t seen it before myself.

Judging by the picture it looks like the Al-Zayani garage in Al-Rai is on fire. Zayani = Bugatti, Bentley, Ferrari, Jaguar and Maserati.

Thanks Nibaq

Update: It seems its the building next to Al-Zayani garage that caught fire, Al Baghali Sponge. Your Ferraris and Bentleys are safe.

Update2: And here is a video of the fire.

[YouTube]