Author: Mark

Maybe it’s because its 3AM right now but I found the clock above super cool. It was taken by a friend of mine at The Zoo Concept in Dubai. [Link]

The map above is of all the roads that will be closed to day because of the First Asian Cooperation Dialogue (ACD) summit which is being hosted in Kuwait from October 15th to the 17th.

The roads will be closed from 10:00am to 2:00pm and from 4:30pm to 9:00pm today.

Expect traffic. A lot of traffic. I have a flight at 9PM tonight so no idea what time I should leave and what roads to take.

Thanks Rula

Update: Left my house around 6PM. Fahaheel Expressway was packed so I took the 4th Ring Road all the way to the 60th to get to the Airport. Took nearly an hour because of the amount of traffic.

Is it only me or do these rats actually sound cute? But on a serious note, it looks like we need bigger cats.

Unless an immediate plan was drawn and followed strictly to get rid of the Norwegian rats, the rodents will keep on multiplying, causing an epidemic by the end of 2014 that the state will not be able to fight, Dr Samiya Al-Tobaikh, the head of the pests and rodents combat department at the Health Ministry, has warned.

Dr Al-Tobaikh said that this dangerous breed of rats was spreading at an alarming rate in various areas around Kuwait, namely Jleeb (74 per cent), Sulaibiya industrial area (71 per cent), Ardiya industrial area, Req’ee, Jahra industrial area and across the beaches at the Chalets area. Al-Tobaikh also warned that this particular species of rodents as big as a cat was highly dangerous since it carries and spreads plague, is clever and cannot be killed easily as it can quickly recognize many kinds of poisons.

“Seeing any food, they usually send a smaller younger volunteer to eat it and if the volunteer dies, the rats never approach that food,” she said, adding that these rats were such ‘good actors’ that they can fake death when hunted and wait it out till they are thrown out. She said if one rat is spotted in a house, that means that there could be 50 others hiding in and around that house.[Source]

My friend sent me the image above which he’s seen a number of times under various bridges in Kuwait. Does anyone know what these are? Is it a viral campaign of some sort?

This happens under my building a few times a week. I think its time to move out. [YouTube]

GoSport at Tilal Complex opened up a few days ago. It’s not as large as their Avenues location but it’s two floors and looks nicer since it doesn’t have the warehouse look.

Don’t think they had anything at the Tilal location that they didn’t have at their Avenues one. The camping section and MMA section is a bit better but other than that I think Avenues has more stuff. Biggest advantage of this location is the fact that it’s not located inside a mall.

The Flying Start Triathlon is taking place this coming Friday October the 19th. They have two levels of competition, The Sprint and The Olympic with the Olympic being the more difficult of the two as you can see below.

If you haven’t registered for the event you still can by following this [Link]

Big D released a new music video yesterday directed towards all the people on 248AM that have hated him. The music video starts off with Big D reading the comments about him on this blog and then goes into an angry fit. The music then starts and while he’s rapping, various quotes from different commentators flash up on the screen. So if you’ve left a negative comment about Big D before you might see your comment in this video. [YouTube]

The Kuwait Scorpions who are probably one of the oldest sports clubs in Kuwait are looking to recruit men and women for their rugby team. If you’re interested keep reading below for a small brief on who they are along with some other information.

Kuwait Scorpions is one of the founding clubs of Gulf rugby. The club originally consisted of a group of expats training together as a hobby. They then started playing similar groups in neighbouring countries and formally became the Kuwait Scorions Rugby Footballl Club in 1946. For years rugby in Kuwait continued in this way. Following the Invasion and surrounding events the rugby club gradually reformed (after most of it’s members returned to Kuwait after the unrest) and were renamed as the Kuwait Nomads (mainly due to the style in which they reunited). We played as the Nomads until a few years ago when we returned to our original name and re launched the club as the Kuwait Scorpions.

We have several teams: Mens XV, Vets X and Ladies (who play 7s). The men play in both the Gulf Premiership and Conference Leagues, the women play in the Arabian Gulf Women’s League and the Vets form for specific events and tournaments. All teams enter the Dubai 7s competition annually, where our men have reached both the final and semi final in recent years. We currently have players of a variety of nationalities and are truly a global group.

We are currently without an official pitch and training ground as KOC (our ground sponsor) have recently started a large renovation project that includes rebuilding our usual sand pitch and facilities in Ahmadi. Regardless of this our teams are still training twice a week and we are still playing in all of the above leagues. This is not the only exciting new development in Kuwait rugby this season – as Tron mentioned previously, we currently have a female Chairperson, which, we are informed, is a first in the history of rugby in this region. We also have a recently elected Kuwaiti Club Captain also, who is hoping to lead our teams to some well earned victories this year.

Last week saw us officially kick off our season with our annual fundraiser (Masquerade Ball) at the British Embassy, which was a great success. We are currently gearing up for upcoming matches for both the men and women in Doha in a few weeks time, which is alway a great trip.

We are about to embark on a big recruitment drive and are hoping to awaken some new interest in both the sport and our team. We welcome newcomers and those with experience and any member of the club will be happy to answer any questions or give directions to the next training session. Our website was unfortunately hacked over the summer and all of the informatiion wiped so it is currently under construction, but for now we are easy to find on Facebook or I can be contacted directly for more information ([email protected]).

The BBC show Big Meets Bigger came to Kuwait a couple of years back and when the episode was finally aired it was uploaded online to the BBC website but no one outside the UK could watch it. Today though someone uploaded the video onto YouTube and it’s now finally available for everyone to watch. The episode is divded into four parts, the first part is above and I’ve listed the rest below.

Big Meets Bigger – Kuwait 1
Big Meets Bigger – Kuwait 2
Big Meets Bigger – Kuwait 3
Big Meets Bigger – Kuwait 4

GulfRun have opened registration for GulfRun 8 which will take place at the Bahrain International GP Circuit at the end of January 2013. If you’ve never heard of GulfRun before it’s an event in which people send their car to Bahrain and spend two days racing on the Formula 1 circuit with other drivers from Kuwait. I’ve been to a few of them and it’s a great way to meet new people and speed as much as you want. Below is a video from a previous GulfRun event and it should give you an idea of what to expect.

[YouTube]

For more information on GulfRun 8 and to sign up click [Here]

[YouTube]

NOMADIC 2, the latest album by Kuwaiti musician BigMo just got released yesterday. The album features the popular single Wake Up (video above) along with new previously unreleased songs. You can stream the album or download it for free from [Here]

You can also support the artist by purchasing a tshirt from the same website as well. I’ve just been listening to a few tracks off NOMADIC 2 really and this guy is good.

BigMo on Twitter
BigMo on Facebook

Harley Davidson are holding an open house this coming Friday as a way for them to introduce their new range of bikes for 2013. Additionally, the event will help raise funds for the United Nation’s World Food Programme (WFP) to feed school children.

The open day is for both riders and non-riders and if you’re a rider and have a bike you’ll be able to take part in the parade which starts at the Harley Dealership at 4PM and then returns back at around 5:30PM where the 110th anniversary bikes will be revealed.

For more information click [Here]

An abandoned building in Fahaheel started collapsing earlier tonight at around 8:30pm. The building is currently leaning forward and looks like it’s going to collapse on the adjacent apartment building. According to a reader, the surrounding buildings have been evacuated and the area has been cordoned off.

Thanks Hansel
Photos taken by Mohamed Harsath

Yesterday a friend of mine told me a bunch of UFC fighters as well as a couple of ring girls were coming to Kuwait this weekend to visit the US troops and while ago I got confirmation from another friend who represents one of the fighters that they are in fact coming to Kuwait this weekend. The UFC fighters and ring girls will be arriving to Kuwait early morning this Thursday the 11th and they’ll be staying in Kuwait for 2 nights.

Sadly I am traveling that same morning so I won’t be able to stalk them but I might leave my UFC tshirt (pictured above) filled with with my friend so he could get me some more signatures. So far my shirt has signatures from Dan Henderson, Brian Stan, Rashad Evans, Michael Bisping and a few other fighters.

Right now I know Mike Pierce and Charlie Brenneman (who just got cut from the UFC) are coming but no idea who else.