Author: Mark

I saw a BMW X6 for the first time on the road yesterday. The V6 is selling for KD24,000 while the V8 version isn’t available yet. I like the way it looks, its like a sports car with big wheels.

Found these two signs today and thought I would take pictures.

Blinds in English is plural for window shades.

B as in Bebsi.

Update: In case you didn’t get it, the first picture says Blinds which doesn’t mean blind as in the person can’t see. Blinds means window shades so instead of the sign saying the Kuwait Association for blind people its saying the Kuwait Association for window shades. The second picture, bump is misspelled as bumb.

I got a new car over the weekend and today I went to transfer it into my name but like everything dealing with the government, it always turns out to be a complicated and adventurous process.

Me and the previous owner of the car who’s a friend of mine first went to the Government Mall (thats what its called) to do the transfer there. Once we went in they told us if the car has old plates we need to go to 3aseema branch and do the transfer from there.

So we drive all the way to the end of the 4th ring road where the 3aseema branch is located and after running around from window to window, they told us because I live in Salmiya we need to go to the Meidan Hawalli branch.

So we turn around and drive back all the way to the other end of the 4th ring road to the Median Hawalli branch. After signing a paper the car got transfered into my name and we went to collect the new plates. I don’t know how the system works but my plate number turned out to be 11617 which I am guessing means the person 6 places ahead of me ended up getting 11611 which would have been a pretty cool number to have. If I was one place ahead even I would have ended up with 11616 which would still have been pretty nice.

On my way back to the car there were a bunch of people outside that offered me the service of installing the plates for me. The plates don’t come with any holes so for KD1 they will make the holes and fit the plate on to the car. This whole process of running around from place to place took around 2 hours and a half!

I was looking for an ATM machine today morning when I stumbled up this new Alghanim branch in Kuwait City. Its in the mall underneath the new KFH building next to Ahli Bank. The design is very similar to the branch in the Avenues which I’ve mentioned before I really liked. I guess this is their new look which is pretty cool.

This video best shows how powerful yesterdays storm was. Watch till the end where all hell breaks loose. [YouTube]

This is the best video so far showing the amount of chaos and flooding that happened at Souk Sharq. Really good quality video also. [YouTube]

I just drove in to work since I have some stuff I need to finish up. On the Gulf Road the hardest hit area was from where Fuddruckers starts to Souk Sharq. There you can see trees that had fallen and street lights that had toppled over. Once I got to Kuwait City the new blue glass tower adjacent to Muthana Complex housing Starbucks and Boots seemed to have gotten hit pretty badly. There was glass all over the street and most of the area around the building is surrounded by yellow warning tape. When I got to my office I was expecting it to have flooded but instead I was greeted with a physically devastated reception area. That was one hell of a storm last night.

Lots of videos are showing up on YouTube of Hurricane Kuwaitina. Here are the best so far:

Souk Sharq, Tornado Day (embedded above)
الماي داخل مركز السلطان سوق شرق
غرقت سوق شرق
hani rain 1
Kuwait
Snow in Kuwait
Kuwait First Twister
Holding ice in Kuwait
Hurricane Sibeecha
Hurricane Kuwaitina

Looks like Souk Sharq got pretty messed up.

A lot of people have started sending in some pictures of the Hurricane Kuwaitina aftermath. You can check them by clicking [Here]

If you have any pictures send them to [email protected]

Update: Found this news article by AFP

Gale-force storm, hail showers hit Kuwait
KUWAIT CITY (AFP) — One person was killed and several wounded on Friday when a strong sandstorm triggered by gale-force winds and hail lashed the desert state of Kuwait, officials said.

The victim, a man, drowned in the sea while several people were injured at a shopping mall where glass shattered and fell on shoppers, a security official said.

The meteorological department said the storm was caused by gale-force winds that blew in “semi-tornado” fashion at around 90 kilometres (56 miles) per hour and warned that a similar storm is expected to hit the emirate on Saturday.

The violent winds also uprooted hundreds of traffic signposts, billboards, and trees and damaged many cars in several parts of Kuwait, witnesses reported.

Authorities appealed to people to stay indoors.

I am finding Mishaal’s predictions pretty inaccurate at the moment. [Link]

Ok, I got the power back on in my flat. Although my windows were all closed dust still managed to come into the house and now EVERYTHING has a layer of sand on it. I couldn’t see ANYTHING outside my window. When I first heard the wind I looked outside and I saw a cloud of sand literally sweep into my block like a huge wave, something I’ve only seen in movies. Within second visibility dropped down to like 10cm, I couldn’t see ANYTHING outside. That extremely powerful wind with dust continued for a couple of minutes before I started hearing a banging sound on my window. I stepped back thinking whatever was hitting my window was going to break it but then I noticed it was rain drops. In a few seconds it started raining really strong and the dust cleared up but then I noticed the rain was so powerful and in such large quantity that water started pouring into my apartment like a waterfall from the window sill. I quickly grabbed a ton of towels and started to do what I can to hold back the water. Once I got that under control I called Nat up to see if she was ok.

Nat was at the gym when the storm hit and she was extremely pissed. The power shutdown at her gym and when they tried to exit the building all exits were locked. The elevators stopped working so when they took the fire escape all the exits were blocked. Her and the other gym members are EXTREMELY pissed off now because if there had been a fire they would all have been fucked. And its not some small shabby gym, this happened at Flex!

Anyway I would like to thank susheeh for naming this storm Hurricane Kuwaitina. How hard were you guys hit? Post your experience in the comments below.

If you have any pictures email them to me: [email protected]

Update: I am uploading all the pictures I get to a photo album which you can view by clicking [Here]

What the hell happened?? My block looks like New Orleans after Katrina! (Posted from my Nokia E61i)

What the fuck is going on outside. Suddenly there was super strength wind like a hurricane and its still happening. Fucking DUST STORM WITH RAIN, FUCK. Never seen anything like this before!!

A few blogs got mentioned in Abwab magazine’s latest issue. I’ve never seen the magazine before but Forzaq8 has a scan of the page on his blog. [Link]

I was just checking Q8car and I couldn’t access it, when I tried Q8showroom I also couldn’t access them. Can’t be a coincidence that both sites are down. They’re both hosted in different places so I am guessing they’ve been hacked?

Update: Q8car is now back up, Q8showroom is still down.

Update 2: Both sites working fine now.