Category: Information

As you know by now the Animal Friends shelter was engulfed by fire and so they now need help rebuilding it again. Animal Friends are going to hold a meeting on Friday to discuss the next steps in this rebuilding process. This is the email I received from them on this subject:

The outpouring of support and generosity since the fire has been overwhelming. Whether it is volunteering, donating, fundraising or fostering, your offers of help are hugely appreciated and will go a long way to help us get the AFL shelter back up and running as soon as possible. We are holding a meeting to give everyone the latest information, to discuss what the next steps are and how we can work together to help the animals.

When: Friday 26th March
Time: 4.00pm to 6.00pm
Location: Moevenpick Al Bida’a. Gulf Road Salmiya
Room Slaysell 2 & 3

Please email Olivia at [email protected] or call on 9737 7867 if you have any questions.

A big thank you to the Moevenpick Al Bida’a who are big supporters of Animal Friends and are allowing us the use of the meeting room and equipment free of charge.

Last night I posted about the second fire at the Animal Friends shelter and I now just gotthis email which they sent out on their mailing list that contains more information on the fire and on how you can help:

There has been a second much more devastating fire at Animal Friends. This fire was in the main building and 39 animals perished. Several more are struggling to hold on.

Two fire investigations have shown that the fires were caused by a surge of electricity from the main lines. After the first fire, an inspection of the shelter elecrical system was conducted and smoke detectors and fire extinguishers were puchased and donated enmasse. Despite these precautions, a massive surge occured to the now weakened main electrical lines. All staff were sleeping nearby when the fire started. The fire was not discovered until aerosol cans near the source of the fire began to explode. At this point, the fire was fully involved and too dangerous for anyone but the fire department to fight. Our shelter staff acted herroically to save as many animals as possible, and the fire rescue team also showed great courage as they entered the building to release the dogs from their firey prisons while the fire was still burning. Despite these acts of bravery, at least ten animals died in the fire and many were so badly injured that the arriving shelter staff had to work frantically and desperately to triage them and provide euthanasia where necessary. Thus far, the fire has cost the lives of 8 dogs and 31 cats.

One whole section of the shelter is completely destroyed the entire building will require extensive repairs from smoke and fire damage. Animal Friends and the animals we care for have never needed your help more. Animal Friends simply will not survive without help from all of you. Below is a list of things we need in order of priority.

1. CASH! The rebuilding is going to cost KD50,000. Please donate what you can, hold small fundraisers and get as many people involved as possible. Checks should be made payable to: Ayeshah Waleed Al-Humaidhi and below is our bank information for a direct transfer. If you need further information please call 97377867 or e-mail [email protected].

Bank Name: Bank of Kuwait and the Middle East (BKME)
Branch: South Surra
Name: Ayeshah Waleed Al-Humaidhi
Address Line 1: P.O.Box 71, Safat 13001
Address Line 2: Kuwait
Account: 42043311
SWIFT: BKMEKWKW

2. Foster Homes. We have no shelter and currently have the animals housed at the Royal Animal Hospital and in outdoor enclosures at the shelter. These are obviously temporary fixes. The construction is going to take about 3 months and we are appealing to all of you to house an animal until it can be adopted or returned to the rebuilt shelter. If you are able to foster an animal please call 66187301 or e-mail [email protected].

3. Volunteers. We need help with clean-up and helping care for the animals. We need to salvage anything and everything we can from the building before the demolition starts. This weekend, Friday-Saturday (26-27) are going to be huge clean-up days. Your help would be hugely appreciated. The map will be uploaded to the website shortly.

4. In Kind Donations. We will be putting together an extensive list of items we need in the next few days and will send it out to the list as well as post to our website.

Thank you in advance for your help and support and we hope to rise out of the ashes bigger and better.

Just 10 days ago I posted that the staff building at the Animal Friends shelter caught fire and today I found out that last night there was another bigger fire that engulfed the main animal shelter this time killing 30 cats, 3 dogs and 4 puppies. Two fires in 10 days, it sounds very suspicious but they’re saying both were electrical fires. It’s very sad that some animals died but many more were rescued and are currently being held at the Royal Animal Hospital next to the Friday Market. I’m curious to why they were not placed at the International Veterinarian Hospital (IVH) which is A LOT closer than RAH since it’s located right before Wafra.

They’re now in need of more help and donations than ever so please if you can spare some time they desperately need volunteers tomorrow to help box all items that have not been fire damaged so it can be moved to storage while the shelter is rebuilt. If you are able to help, please call Olivia on 97377867.

If you can donate some money here is the bank account information:

Bank Name: Bank of Kuwait and the Middle East (BKME)
Branch: South Surra
Name: Ayeshah Waleed Al-Humaidhi
Address Line 1: P.O.Box 71, Safat 13001
Address Line 2: Kuwait
Account: 42043311
SWIFT: BKMEKWKW

Here is a link to their Facebook group where I’m getting all their updates. [Link] and here is a link to their website. [Link]

Update: Here are some pictures of the damage which were taken by Areej Al Sultan

This Friday a drift track will be officially opening up in Kuwait called Auto Test. The track is located off the 6th Ring Road and will be open every Friday for anyone interested in either drifting or just making donuts. Later on things will be more organized and competitions (dirft/autocross/auto-x) will be held there. For now anyone one can go and have fun, all you need is a car and a driving license. There are also places for spectators to sit and watch the action. Here is how you find the place:

Take the 6th Ring Road towards Dajeej Area past 360 Mall and then take the right exit that takes you to Dajeej. The road will turn and you should then be passing under the 6th Ring Road heading towards Dajeej. Don’t exit to the main road, stay on your right and head back onto the 6th as if you’re heading towards Messila. Stay on the right side and continue ahead. You should then see the exit to the Airport and as soon as do take the exit. You should see a dirt road on your right, go on the dirt road and continue straight ahead until you see a bunch of small hills and dirt. That’s where all the tracks are (rally/motocross/karting/ATV and drift tracks).

The official website for the track is www.q8racing.com. At the moment you can see the Auto Test logo on the bottom right but the link isn’t clickable. I am guessing the section will be open once the track opens this weekend.

Thanks Othman!

Axis of Evil are going to be in Kuwait for the “So you think you can laugh” comedy show that will be taking place at AUK on March 29 @ 7:00 PM.

The performers are: Sugar Sammy, Dean Edwards, Maz Jobrani and Ahmed Ahmed

Tickets are sold at AUK
For more info you can call 9999-1008
Limited Capacity.
Regular tickets are 20 KWD and VIP are 40 KWD

The Boston Globe as usual have a great display of photographs, this time the subject is record setters. The one pictured above had the following caption:

Egyptian Mohammed Ali Zinhom, 25, attempts a new Guinness World Record for doing push ups on the 2 fingers of his right hand only, in front of the historical site of the Giza Pyramids, Egypt, Monday, March 8, 2010. Zinhom recorded 46 push ups in 49 seconds. (AP Photo/Amr Nabil)

Here is a link to all the photos and the records. [Link]

In the post below I was just testing to see if I could broadcast live footage and it worked! For the people who were able to catch my live act I was just broadcasting video of my dog sleeping on the floor so you didn’t miss out on much. I got this idea for live broadcasting from P0ach and wanted to see if there was an easy way to do it and it turned out there was. I signed up for a free account on ustream.tv and downloaded the iPhone app for Ustream called Ustream Live Broadcaster and thats it. All you need is your iPhone’s 3G connection or WiFi and you can broadcast live video from anywhere to the blog. So next time I witness a fire or fight I can just broadcast the video live for everyone to watch. Pretty cool!

Today I heard a really freaky story but one that ended with a happy ending. A receptionist I know nearly got kidnapped by a taxi driver. She took a cab to go home but instead the taxi cab driver started driving in a different direction. He then closed all the windows and locked the doors and started shouting at the receptionist whenever she said anything.

So she decided to SMS for help since she didn’t know how the driver would react if he saw her on the phone. She sent an SMS to the emergency number 112 with the taxi driver details which she got off the back of the seat. She told them she was being kidnapped and she needed help. 112 then called her up and straight away told her to pretend she’s talking to a friend so the driver doesn’t suspect anything. They told her to stay calm and that they would send help. They asked her to SMS them her location and to keep them posted by SMS on which road they were on. She did that and 112 were able to set up a police check point and catch the taxi driver.

It’s really scary the stories you hear about taxi drivers in Kuwait. Awhile back I read in the paper where a bunch of taxi drivers were capturing woman and taking them to this building where they would be locked up and forced into prostitution. Luckily for the receptionist she managed to escape. I was really surprised that 112 actually receive and react to SMS’s. I think that’s incredible and the speed and the way they reacted to this situation was spot on.

Great job!

I recently purchased a Garmin GPS device from Amazon, it was a really good deal costing me under KD40 with shipping to Kuwait via Aramex. I know most of the roads in Kuwait but every now and then I need to go somewhere I haven’t been to before and a GPS device would come in handy. Turns out its actually a lot more handy then I was expecting since a forum user (Burhan) made me realize I could use the device as a radar detector.

All you need is a Garmin GPS unit and the following file which you need to download and copy onto it [POI File]

What this file does is tell the GPS unit where all the speeding and red light cameras are located. When you get near a radar camera the device alerts you with a beep. If you’re driving below the speed limit you get a gray box alerting you of the camera ahead and just a single beep. If you’re driving over the speed limit you get a red box alerting you that you’re speeding and the device beeps frequently until you either pass the camera or drop your speed below that roads speed limit.

It’s very cool and practical and it cost me under KD40. If you’re interested in the same device I have which is pictured above, its called the Garmin Nuvi 255 and it’s available on Amazon for around KD30. [Amazon Link]

I passed by Discovery Mall with some friends from work to have lunch and noticed they had an archery section set up. Turns out for this month only you can go and shoot arrows at fake deers, beavers and bears. The setup is pretty nice and the price is KD1 for 6 arrows. Discovery Mall is located right next to the ice skating rink.

I found this radio station this morning by mistake. How long has this been around? It’s a US military station and unlike 96.9 it doesn’t have the annoying English 101 courses.

Back in January I posted 3D renderings of the Avenues phase III project and today iLSuL6ana uncovered the video presentation above. Simply put phase III is going to be jaw dropping. [YouTube]

Oula just sent us this email in response to the previous post:

Dear All;
This incident was just brought to our attention by this blog. We are very grateful for this effort from your side to point out any deficiency on our side as we always aim to be the best employer we could be. we are currently investigating the issue and whoever denied him treatment in the first place will not be ignored and will be accountable for this violation. We at Oula Fuel are very clear with our contractors that we require the most fair treatment for the employees and that is why we pay even more than the market price to the contractor just to make sure that these employees are treated as best as possible. As long as we require the employees to be on their best while serving our customers, then it’s only fair to treat them well in the first place.

We here at Oula Fuel extend our best regards and wishes to everyone who provided us with a chance to correct a violation and whoever would point out misunderstandings that might go un-noticed without the collective effort from all concerned citizens who aim to make Kuwait the best country ever.

Please don’t hesitate to contact us on 1800111 or [email protected].

Regards,

Mohammad Al-Khareji
Sales Supervisor
Marketing & Sales & PR Dept.
Oula Fuel

Tel: (965) 2 2321 709
Fax: (965) 2 2321 333
Hotline: 1 800 111
m.alkhareji @oula1.com
www.oula1.com

As I mentioned last week I am getting my veneers done at Bayan Dental. I also said I would explain what veneers were in a different post so here it is.

A veneer is a very thin material that is placed over the tooth either to visually enhance/fix the teeth or in some cases to protect a damaged tooth. It requires very minimal tooth preparation which means they don’t drill a lot to get them to fit on your teeth. They’re nicknamed the Hollywood smile since veneers are used by actors to get the perfect smile. I asked Bayan Dental to send me some cases they’ve worked on so I can share it with my readers and they sent me a zip file containing around 10 different cases which you can download from [Here]

Anyway I passed by my dentist (Dr Samer Khaddour) today and got my teeth prepped for the veneers. I have temporary dental veneers on right now while my proper ones get made. These temporary veneers do help give an idea of how the finished outcome will look like and so far I’m finding them pretty cool although a bit tall so he is going to shorten my actual veneers for me by just a bit. You also get to choose the color of your veneers (don’t get any ideas no bling bling colors just different shades of white) and I ended up going with a shade that’s slightly lighter than the original. My next session is next week so will post again after that.

Like last time if you have any dental questions ask below and someone from Bayan Dental will reply back. They’re actually very quick to reply and also helpful so take advantage of this.

I passed by Salad Creations today and it turns out they started serving panini’s. I had the turkey, cheddar and bacon with ranch sauce which was amazing. I’m definitely going to start passing by more often now, I prefer hot toasted sandwiches over cold wraps. Check out their panini menu [Here]