Category: Kuwait

From The Exhibition:

My Q8
Date: February 24th
Time: 6PM-10PM
Location: The Exhibition

As you all know, February 25th and 26th are days for celebrating.

Come and join us in celebrating Kuwait’s National and Liberation Days at The Exhibition! We’re all here to show our love of Kuwait.

‘My Q8’ is night where these talented photographers and poets can display their beautiful and personal photographs and poems at The Exhibition.

They want to make you see what Kuwait means to them and they will be doing that by expressing their love of this country the best way they can: through their art and poetry!

Artists and poets will be donating a percentage of their profits to various charities.

A reader spotted a car on fire early morning in the evening while out cycling and managed to capture some pictures to share it with everyone. Looks like there was a big crowd.

Thanks Hamad!

I got the following in my email:

Campus Activities Board, a university funded organization at the American University of Kuwait is creating a charity carnival to help children in need. Whether they have down syndrome or autism, are orphans or in foster care, or are disabled– this day is for them.

All the money from the tickets and all donations will be spent in buying toys and gifts for the children that were not able to attend. The week after the event will be to take volunteers and go to five of the centers here in Kuwait.

The Charity Carnival will include:
Carnival Games
Raffle
Art Corner
Prizes
Face painting
Pony Ride
Bouncy Castle
Charlie and the Chocolate Factory room with movie
Free Candy
Toys
and much more

People are invited to bring friends and family to enjoy this day!

Tickets will be sold at the American University of Kuwait from in the liberal arts lobby from:

Saturday, February 21, 2009
From 11:00 to 6:00

Ticket Prices:
3 KD for adults
1 KD for children

Tickets will also be sold at the door!
If you want to volunteer for this event contact: [email protected]

They also have a facebook account which you can check [Here]

They’re big. I think that summarizes my experience with the Beats. As I said in my first impression I would post about the Beats after my experience with them traveling so here it is. Basically they are extremely comfortable, they sound amazing and the noise reduction is pretty impressive. The biggest and only problem I have with the Beats is the size. They barely fit into my messenger bag! If I had my backpack it wouldn’t be such a problem but I am now mostly traveling with my messenger bag and the Beats are too big to fit comfortably in them.

While on the plane watching an episode of Boston Legal on my iPod, a guy sitting across me in the isle tapped my shoulder. Turned out he had the Bose QuietComfort 3 and wanted to know if the headphones I had on my head had noise reduction. I gave him the headphones to try on and according to him the Beats had better noise reduction than the QuietComfort 3 which actually impressed me since I am not a big fan of Bose. He also commented on the fact how the Beats fit around the ear giving a perfect seal while the Bose fit over the ear. He thinks thats why they offer better noise reduction which makes sense.

Anyway although I really love these headphones I highly doubt I will end up buying them. I need travel headphones and although these are very comfortable they just aren’t practical to lug around because of their size. If only they folded down flatter…

Amazon is currently offering a $50 discount on the Beats by Dre. Click here to check it out. [Amazon Link]

One of the newspaper today published an article explaining the meaning of a dream if it contains a pink ring in it. Nothing out of the ordinary except for the fact that whoever looked for an image of a “pink ring” to attach to that article ended up finding a vibrating ring used as a sex toy. Now that’s funny!

Here is a link to a larger version of the above image. [Picture]

Sorry I forgot to wish everyone a Happy Shani Day yesterday. Have you gotten your loved one a Shani today?

A friend recommended I try The Butcher Shop burger for my Burger Challenge so I passed by a few nights ago to give it a shot. I’ve been to the Dubai branch before but haven’t been to the Kuwait branch one since they launched so I was looking forward to it especially since my friend told me their burger was “amazing”.

I passed by The Butcher Shop the night there was the big dust storm so they only had two tables occupied. All of Avenues was empty which I actually found pretty cool. I quickly flipped through their menu looking for the burger section and then told the waitress I would have the cheese burger medium well and a coke to go with it. It was around 8pm and I hadn’t eaten a single thing all day since I was busy with work so I was really looking forward to the burger.

The burger arrived shortly thereafter and to my disappointment it didn’t look very appetizing. The presentation was pretty dull and I actually had a hard time taking a good shot to use with this post. Looks aren’t everything of course and I was hoping the taste would make up for the presentation. It didn’t surprisingly. The bottom of the bun was very soggy while the top bun was dry. The patty although thick and tender didn’t have any flavor. It was a really boring burger even though it was the only thing I had eaten that day.

The cost of the burger is KD2.950 which is fairly decent for a place like The Butcher Shop but I wouldn’t have it again. I was thinking of giving it a 3 out of 5 but the fact that I was extremely hungry without food all day and still managed to find the burger unsatisfying and flavorless dropped it down another half point to 2.5 out of 5. If you’re at the Avenues and are looking for a good burger have Johnny Rockets or Ruby Tuesday instead.

The Butcher Shop is located at The Avenues
The cost of the Cheese Burger is KD2.950

Here are the burger places I’ve reviewed so far:
Applebee’s
Bredz
Burger Boutique
Fuddruckers
Hashi
Gaucho Gril
Gourmet Burger Kitchen
Johnny Rockets
Munch
Papa John’s Burgers
Prime & Toast
Ruby Tuesday
Slider Station
Sheraton Hotel
The Burger Hub
The Little Oven
Wimpy

Today I went off-roading with some friends. First in our real cars and then in our radio controlled ones. We had three Tamiya FJ Cruisers, my Tamiya Lunchbox and my Tamiya Frog. It was extremely fun, I bashed the hell out of my Lunchbox and it now needs a major paint job but I don’t care. I took a ton of pictures and so did my brother but I couldn’t put all of them here. There are a few more pictures below though if you hit continue.

Update: My brother just uploaded some photos to his flickr account [Here]

I was in Bnaider Mina Abdullah today with some friends when we decided to pass by the radio controlled planes runway. Its a small runway in Bnaider Mina Abdullah built by some hobbyist who use it to fly their radio controlled jets. You need to see and hear the planes in action because they’re just amazing. They’re extremely realistic and the flybys are incredible. [YouTube]

Update: Here is another video of a flyby [YouTube]

And here is another video of a landing. [YouTube]

A reader of the blog sent me pictures of Dean & Deluca so if you haven’t been there yet click on continue below to check the place out. By the way, if you’re a salami fan I think they’ve got the best salami in Kuwait… but thats probably because they don’t have ANY competition!

Its going to be one crappy year…
For those of you out of Kuwait, check out this video to get an idea about how bad the weather was today. [YouTube]

I got an email the other day from Alghanim Electronics asking me if there was anything they had I would be interested in trying out and reviewing. I thought about it for a bit and decided to ask for the Beats by Dr.Dre headphones. I’ve been thinking about getting them but really wanted to try them out first before spending the big bucks. I already have a lot of head/ear phones: Bang & Olufsen A8, Shure E2, Sennheiser PX100, AKG K81 DJ and the Ultimate Ears Super.fi 5 Pro. So I really needed a good reason to get another and I think I just found it.

THE BASS!

Damn, I was just listening to random stuff from my itunes list, Nine Inch Nails, Paul Oakenfold, Warren G, Pet Shop Boys, Chemical Brothers.. just anything I clicked on and everything was sounding really great. Then I put Touch It by Busta Rhymes and my jaw hit the floor. I am still in shock on how something so small (ok they aren’t really small but they are smaller than my full sized speakers) could put out this much bass. It just sounded incredible, makes me want to keep listening to music all day.

The headphones cost KD99 at Alghanim Electronics which surprisingly makes it cheaper than Amazon. On Amazon.com they cost KD95 (with tax) plus factor in KD5.5 for shipping and you end up paying at least KD100. Will post more about these headphones once I get to properly test them out.

Update: Amazon is currently offering a $50 discount on the Beats by Dre. Click here to check it out. [Amazon Link]

Thats the Ministry of Information building decorated for National Day. Only thing missing is a giant disco ball on the roof! [Video]

Thanks Holla

Al Sadu Society cordially invites you to an exhibition of Kuwaiti fashion:

ZAY
Traditions & Innovation

6:00 pm Sunday 15 Feb. to 22 Feb.
Al Sadu House – Arabian Gulf Road
Contact 22432395
www.alsadu.org.kw

Here is a personal note on how the exhibition came to be:

ZAY
A showcase of various interpretations of the traditional dress, to invigorate and revive its wear.

Nafnouf and Zeboun
In my book Traditions, I had researched and passionately documented aspects of the traditional arts and textiles of Kuwait. I recognized and focused on some beautiful and significant examples of the traditional dress. Today I carry this interest and fascination a step further, into the realm of actual design. I take the zeboun, the robe worn by women and men in the past and the nafnouf dress, and try to revitalize their wear. To give both a modern line with a traditional essence.

I appreciate cooperation of Kaveri Agarwal, a young designer from India who I met through the Textile Art Association meetings. Kaveri has worked for some time in manufacturing and reviving the traditional Indian dress and textiles in her country, India, and thus understood my enthusiasm and vision and could execute it well.

ZAY is also an interesting attempt at cultural exchange. In the past the Kuwaiti merchants sailed to India in search of fine silks and gold thread for their dress and embroidery. It may be that again we follow that ancient cultural route.

I hope this artistic and cultural endeavor will give you the joy and pleasure it did for me.

Celebrating traditions…
Altaf Salem A. Al Sabah
Kuwait 2009

Proceeds of the sales go to the HAYAT Charity, caring for cancer patients in Kuwait.

Yesterday the American International School of Kuwait had a bomb scare when they got a phone call from someone in Spain telling them there was a bomb in their school. After all the students were evacuated it turned out to be a hoax. Today they had another bomb scare. It isn’t confirmed yet if it was another phone call but the rumor is, and again I want to highlight the word RUMOR here, is that a school teacher found the bomb today on the way to the bathroom and that’s why they were evacuated. Hopefully that doesn’t turn out to be true and stays a rumor.

Update: Looks like they did find something at the school, a box with a clock and random wires. Turns out it was a senior prank.

Update2: Here is suposedly a leaked photo of the fake bomb taken from Al Rai newspaper. Thanks Armani Exchanger!