Author: Mark

Graham who? Thats what I was thinking a few minutes ago when someone mentioned he was in Kuwait. After a quick google it turns out Graham is trying to visit every country in the world in one epic journey, without flying or driving. So far he’s already broken the Guinness World Record by visiting 133 countries within one year. According to his twitter feed and blog, Graham is now in Kuwait and he might be here for awhile because he’s kinda stuck.

Before he got here he figured he would be able to take a ferry to Bahrain the same way he was able to take a ferry from Iran to Kuwait (I didn’t think that was possible). Once he arrived to Kuwait he realized there weren’t any ferries to Bahrain so he applied for a transit visa to Saudi and he got rejected. He then tried applying for a Iranian transit visa but they also rejected him so now he’s trying to get a full proper visa to Saudi Arabia. I’m not sure if he has a plan D.

Check out his website [Here]
Check out his travel time line with updates [Here]
Here is a link to his twitter feed [Link]

Thanks Amber

This is an event I have been eagerly awaiting ever since I heard about it back in 2008. I stated back then that this would be perfect in Kuwait and now Red Bull have finally brought it here.

The event will take place on Friday, May 14th 2010 at the Jaber Al-Ahmad International Drifting circuit in Farwaniya area located at the sixth ring road behind the Car Driving School. This is a local qualification and the winner will have the chance to compete in the final round taking place in Lebanon on Friday, July 16th 2010.

Date: May 14, 2010.
Time: 2:00pm
Location: Jaber Al Ahmed International Circuit, Farwaniya (6th ring road)
Categories: 2WD and 4WD Saloon/Sports cars
Hotline: 66406020

Just saw these pictures taken in Saudi Arabia. Looks like they had some serious flooding because of the rain. [Link]

Update: The pictures above are from yesterday. You can see more pictures, videos and even read up on it via a Saudi blog dedicated to the torrential rains [Here]

The video below on the other hand is from last year and it shows a dramatic rescue of a woman from a car that was just about to get swept away by a flood. [YouTube]

This is a horrible story that happened here in Kuwait. A guy had a bunch of puppies and got really upset that he couldn’t sell them so he started abusing the puppies and throwing them into the wall. All the puppies died except for one little survivor. It’s really terrible the way animals are abused in Kuwait and I wish there was more awareness about this. [YouTube]

This happened last night at 7:20, the guy started making donuts in the middle of the 40th blocking traffic for nearly 20 minutes! [YouTube]

Thanks Ayman

There is a Snoop-Dogg remix competition currently taking place and there is a Kuwaiti hip-hop producer called Faisal who entered the competition and was in first place out of the thousands of entries submitted until today when he dropped down to second place. He needs your support so visit the link at the end of this post and vote for him. Voting will be open for 2 weeks and it already started on the 30th so hurry up. Here is the [Link]

I started getting a lot of emails after my Zinio post asking me how I am getting my apps from the iPad app store without using a US credit card. Well, in case you missed it, I already posted a step by step guide [Here]

Update: Here is a step by step walk-through…

1) Go to maximuscards.com and purchase an iTunes card
2) Open up iTunes and go to the iTunes store
3) Make sure you’re not signed in to your Kuwait account
4) Scroll to the bottom of the store and make sure the US flag is showing on the bottom right. If its not click the flag and choose US.
5) On the bottom of the iTunes store you will find a bunch of text links
6) Click on “Redeem”
7) Copy and paste the code Maximus Cards emailed you
8) Then choose create new account and follow the instructions (enter a US address)
9) When it comes to payment options there should now be an option called “none”, click that
10) Continue till the end and you should end up with a US account without having to use a credit card

When you run out of credits in your account you need to follow steps 1 to 7 and then for step 8 sign in the account you previously created. Below are screenshots showing the steps above.

Now if you aren’t interested in purchasing anything from the US app store but instead just want to download free apps that aren’t available in the Kuwait store (like CNN, Amazon and eBay) you can follow the steps below:

1) Make sure you’re not signed in to your Kuwait account
2) Scroll to the bottom of the store and make sure the US flag is showing on the bottom right. If its not click the flag and choose US.
3) Buy any free iPhone or iPad app from the US store
4) When you are asked to login create a new account
5) Enter a US address and choose “None” for payment method

After reading Fahad’s post below I felt like finally passing by Baking Tray in Kuwait City and trying it out. I had heard a lot about the place but hadn’t had the chance to try it out yet. The place is located in Kuwait City near the Wataniya Telecom building and opposite Saso Lounge (Google Map). The interior is cozy and the display of food was very appetizing. They have pies, sandwiches, pizza’s, pastas and a variety of pastries and desserts.

Everything looked really good but I managed to stay away from all the sweets and ordered some sandwiches. I was with Nat and so we ordered two sandwiches to share. She had the garlic chicken avocado sandwich with rye bread while I tried the Philly steak also with rye bread. The sandwiches took around 20 minutes to reach us and they looked very good. I tried both sandwiches and I have to say the garlic chicken avocado was really good and the garlic flavor was very light. The Philly steak on the other hand I didn’t like at all. In the menu it mentioned all the ingredients except for one which is Dijon mustard. I am not a fan of Dijon mustard and the whole sandwich was just plastered with it. I couldn’t taste anything except the mustard, the sandwich was just literally dripping with mustard and I hated it. Not sure why they didn’t mention it as an ingredient. Even the Philly steak picture on their website doesn’t look like it had any Dijon mustard in it so I am guessing its something they decided to add at a later stage after the menus were printed and pictures taken. Below you can see my sandwich on the left with the Dijon mustard dripping out while the one on the right is taken from their website.

Even though I was disappointed with the Philly steak I would still go back. I liked the atmosphere and I liked the large variety of healthy dishes they had. Prices are very reasonable except for the Philly steak. The garlic chicken avocado sandwich was KD2 which I think was the average price for their sandwiches. The Philly steak on the other hand was KD3.3 which was not worth it. For 500 more fils I could have had my favorite “NY Thing” sandwich from Napket. But as I mentioned, they had a whole bunch of items I still want to try so I’m going back again. Here is a link to their website [Link]

Update: Went back today for lunch. Ordered the EBT which according to their menu online says that it contains Fried eggs, Bacon, tomatoes (roasted). This time the order took under 10 minutes to get to me but when I took my first bite it turned out the sandwich contained Dijon mustard as well! Not really sure whats going on and why Dijon mustard is never mentioned in their menu but this time I sent it back and asked for an EBT without mustard. When I got the sandwich back it turned out to be really really good. It’s three simple ingredients but it tasted great and the place has now officially become my favorite lunch spot. I just need to remember to tell them no Dijon mustard every time I order something.

The very stylish Octium Jewelry is holding a special exhibit at their 360 mall boutique from Sunday May 2nd to the 5th. They’ve invited some world renowned designers who will be showcasing some of their latest work. The designers who will be visiting are:

Selim Mouzannar
Bochic
Crivell
Verdi Gioielli

The event will be from 10AM to 10PM except for today (Sunday) it will be from 6PM to 10PM. What I like about this event is the fact that people will be able to interact with the talented designers.

Amazing first-person shooter view footage of Dutch marines boarding and capturing a hijacked container ship. [YouTube]

via

The Discovery show Build it Bigger aired an episode featuring the Al Hamra Tower and I’m downloading it now from my favorite torrent site as I am typing this. The reason it featured Al Hamra Tower is because it’s the world’s tallest twisting structure and so makes it very unique. You can watch a snippet from the show [Here]

Thanks misz

Update: The full episode is on YouTube divided into 8 parts, here is a link to part 1 [YouTube]

If I was forced to keep just one app on my iPad it would have to be Zinio. Zinio has made me owning an iPad logical. I’ve already posted previously about the fact that I didn’t know what exactly I would use the iPad for but with Zinio its become very clear… magazines. I love magazines and I hate books (short stories are fine). Maybe if I was stuck on an Island with just a library I would take up reading but with my already hectic life I need to make the best of my time and books just take too much of it. It’s the same reason I don’t watch many movies, for the same amount of time it takes me to watch 1 movie I could watch 4 episodes from my favorite TV show. The problem we have in Kuwait is magazines are expensive costing KD3 and up per issue every month. In the US you could subscribe to a full year for the same price we pay for just a single issue here. I’ve tried subscribing to US magazines and having them shipped with Aramex but magazines can be heavy and in the end I was paying 10$ a year to subscribe to 12 issues of a magazine and then paying KD3 or KD5.500 to ship a single issue to Kuwait.

With Zinio I no longer have that problem. Zinio originally was a website which allowed you to subscribe to digital versions of magazines so you could view them on your computer. Now they’ve created an iPad app which allows you to view the magazines on your iPad. The magazines on the iPad look like the print version except it has a few advantages. For example I was flipping through an article in Car & Driver about a car and on one of the pages I noticed an icon, when I clicked the icon it opened up a gallery full of pictures of the car.. ones that weren’t available in the print version. Other nifty features is the ability to open the contents page and then click on the headline of the article you want to go to or view all the spreads as thumbnails and then select the spread you want to see. There was a Honda ad in the magazine with a button click here for a test drive, when I clicked the button it played a video commercial of the ad (which was actually a good one). You can also view the magazine as a spread (two pages side by side) or if you hold the iPad vertically you can view the magazine page by page. You can zoom into the page to enlarge the copy by other double tapping a location or by pinching the screen. Another cool feature is the fact that you can view a purely text version of the magazine in case you’re having issues for some reason reading the regular print version. Articles in the text format can also be emailed to friends or to yourself to print out and you can even control the font size.

When you run the app you have three main sections, featured articles, your library and shop. Featured articles is basically samples of articles from some of the popular magazines which you could read for free. Your Library is where all your magazine issues are stored. You can view your magazines either by titles or by date. It’s very organized and easy to navigate. Finally the shop section is where you can flip through the magazines available to subscribe to and order them. Once you download a magazine you don’t need Internet access to view them. Magazine sizes vary from around 20MB to 40MB per issue. The prices for most US magazines like Car & Driver, Maxim, Cosmopolitan etc.. are around $10 to $15 for a yearly subscription (similar to their print counterparts) while some magazines that are European imports cost a lot more. You can use your Kuwaiti credit card without any problems.

The Zinio app is free and available in the App Store (on both the iPhone and iPad). Here is a link to the Zinio website where you can check all the magazines they have available with their prices. [Link]

In Lebanon there currently is a campaign for Crest toothpaste where they’ve setup a website in which girls could upload their pictures smiling and the girl that gets the most votes wins and ends up on the cover of a magazine called Femme. I was checking the most popular list and notice the girl currently in first place has just 2,700 votes and realized we can have some fun with this. Basically 2,700 votes is nothing, I think with your help we could make any girl win this competition easily. So after a friend of mine spent some time flipping through the contestants we found the girl above with the red hat and we’re going to help her win.

Take 5 seconds of your time and vote for this girl. You don’t need to sign up or anything just visit the link at the end of this post and then click on “Like” under the girls picture and that’s it. You can do this once a day. Lets have some fun and make this girl with the red hat win. Here is the [Link]

As part of Slider Station’s 3rd Anniversary celebrations they’ve introduced a special menu made up of dishes taken from the soon to open B+F Open Flame Kitchen. This is just a temporary menu thats just there until Friday, after that it goes back to the regular Slider Station menu.

I passed by for lunch and had the Swiss Guard burger along with some other dishes and it was great. For one thing it doesn’t have a girly thin patty but a nice juicy thick one which I prefer. They also have a new chocolate brownie pudding which I was told is even better than their regular chocolate pudding but since I am on a no sugar/chocolate diet I couldn’t try it. Anyway if you want to try out the new dishes the menu is there up until Friday.

They must have upgraded the emergency services in Kuwait because recently I’ve just been hearing great stuff about them. I previously posted about how a girl who was getting kidnapped by a taxi driver was able to SMS 112 for help and have them respond very quickly and today zDistrict posted about his experience with 112 which was also as impressive. Check out his post [Here]