Author: Mark

Not sure how I missed this yesterday but it was open day at the Ali Al Salem Air Force base and anyone could get in and check the planes and helicopters they had on display. They even had drones on display!

Marzouq visited the base and took a ton of photos which he’s uploaded onto his blog and you can check out [Here]

The documentary is now out and has made it’s way to YouTube. Here is a description:

For many Londoners, the summer is a chance to escape the noise and bustle of the capital in search of relaxation and sun overseas, but as the Brits hit the beaches, London becomes the top destination for super-rich Arab tourists and their supercars.

This documentary provides an insight into the influx of supercars and their wealthy owners in central London each summer.

Swapping the searing heat of their homes in the Middle East for the cool of the UK, increasing numbers of super-rich Arabs are packing their bags and cars for their annual vacation in the capital.

Million-pound Bugatti Veyrons and extravagant Koenigsegg supercars have become a common sight on the streets of London but it has divided the opinion of the residents.

These elite supercar owners, often young Arabs in their twenties, enjoy showing off their motors but many of those living in Knightsbridge and Chelsea are less enthusiastic; they say summer in the city has become unbearable.

The locals are complaining about sleepless nights caused by revving engines and speeding cars racing down the narrow streets, leaving the police with no choice but to clamp down on noise offences and reprimand those driving without the correct insurance, tax and number plates.

The supercar phenomenon has also sparked a fan base of ‘carparazzi’: young – mostly male – Brits are tracking down the latest arrivals so that they can photograph and film the cars and post them online: the noisier and shinier the supercar, the better.

[YouTube]

Michel Hayek is an extremely popular fortune teller in Lebanon who comes on TV at the end of the year to share his predictions for the coming year. Embarrassingly, he’s so popular that according to him, 35% of the Lebanese politicians see him in private and most have started basing their decisions on his predictions.

Anyway, Michel Hayek has made a number of predictions about Kuwait I’ve listed below. Please don’t take these seriously:

– Kuwait’s Emir will be subjected to a few attacks and health problems
– A political crisis could lead to a siege around a highly symbolic and important building
– The earths crust displacement will result in cracks to a few buildings
– Kuwait’s mediation in a regional affair proves to be successful

So there you have it, Michel Hayek’s predictions for Kuwait. You can watch him read the predictions in Arabic on TV by following this [Link]

Thanks Najib

A reader spotted the above melon at Sultan Center.

Thanks Paul

The British Daily Mail have an article on all the Arab motorists who flock to London with their super cars. The locals hate them due to their unruly driving, lack of respect for local laws and general hooliganism on the British streets. The Daily Mail also had the video below attached to the article although it seems like it was shot this past summer. You can read the whole article on the Daily Mail [Here]

Thanks Abdullah and Anon

Aramex have yet again increased their shipping prices. The first half kilo is now KD3.250 when it used to be KD3.150 and each additional half kg is now KD2.750 compared to 2.650 last year. I’ve noticed they no longer even try to explain the price increases anymore. [Source]

The Gulf Cup starts on Saturday and local iPhone App developer Mobibus have released an App for the tournament.

Gulf Cup 21 mobile application allows you to stay up to date with the Gulf Cup Tournaments , News and Standings.You can check scores for live matches, latest results and upcoming matches. Also you can check all the Teams information (Squad , Ranking, Coach, … etc)

The App is free and if you’re interested you can download it from the Apple Store by searching for Gulf Cup 21 or by clicking [Here]

Thanks Musaed

A fire took place late last night at Souk Mubarkiya. I don’t have any info on it just the pictures I was sent which I’ve attached to this post. Judging by these two photos the fire damage looks pretty extensive.

Update: Kuwait Times have published more details on the fire. It started around 9AM yesterday (Tuesday 1/1/2013) and it engulfed around 35 shops. [Link]

The video above was featured on the main page of Live Leak. Supposedly this happened in Kuwait and from the video looks like the driver was trying to slow down his car by scrapping in on the side wall. [Link]

According to Aboflan this fight took place awhile ago at The Avenues. [YouTube]

It’s going to take place on January 26 and be a mixture of a trail run, off-road cycling and and an obstacle course. You can sign up individually or a team (max 3) but you should be part of a gym since this competition is going to be a challenge between local clubs. I’m signing up to this for sure since it sounds like it’s going to be a lot of fun. They told me there will be mud!

If you want to sign up you can call the following number: 65778598

Mr Babu is a website that belongs to a friend of mine and I think it’s an interesting idea that should make shopping much easier for a lot of people. It’s an online shop but the way it works is different from other local online shops. Mr Babu is connected to a bunch of international online shopping databases and when you search for an item on their website it will find it for you, convert the price to Kuwaiti Dinars, add a shipping fee to Kuwait and then displays the price. You then place an order and they’ll get it for you. The price you see on their website is the price you pay for the item including shipping to Kuwait. There are no extra hidden shipping costs or anything of the sort.

I ordered the Bug-A-Salt (video above) from their website and since they had some local stock it was delivered to me the next businesses day. Most items though will take a week or more similar to when ordering using Shop & Ship or Borderlinx. The website is still in beta so it’s running a little slow but other than that its working fine. You can check it out [Here]

Update: In case the website isn’t working here is an explanation from Mr Babu:

We are overwhelmed by the traffic generated by your post which caused our site to crash (as you mentioned being in Beta stage we learn a thing everyday). Our team is working on the issue and will resolve it very soon. Thank you for using Mrbabu

GulfRun 7 takes over the Bahrain International Circuit from GulfRun

Since GulfRun 8 is approaching next month the team decided to release a video highlighting last years event. GulfRun is an event in which guys from Kuwait send their cars to Bahrain and spend two days racing on the Formula 1 circuit with other drivers. For more information on GulfRun you can check out their website [Here]

That’s a nasty accident. [YouTube]

Last night I got to discover and try Mandi for the first time. I hadn’t heard about it before so was pretty intrigued when my friend told me about it. Mandi is a traditional dish of lamb and rice. The way they cook the lamb is they lower it into a pit in the ground filled with hot coal. Right underneath the hanging lamb is a large pot of rice. They then close the hole and cover it with sand so that the smoke doesn’t escape. The lamb then starts to cook slowly with all the fat dripping into the rice underneath. Finally once the lamb is ready it’s raised from the ground and served. The meat was super tender and absolutely delicious. Even the rice was just incredible.

Below are some pictures I took when they were pulling the lamb up from the ground. If you ever get the chance I highly recommend you try Mandi out.