Category: Kuwait

Has anyone by any chance seen a store still selling the original iPods? I suddenly have the urge to get one. I found one still shrink wrapped in the box on eBay but I think its going to end up selling for over $300 easily which is more than what I am willing to pay for one. If a store in Kuwait still has one though they might be willing to let it go for cheap. I remember back in the day Eureka was selling the 5GB one for KD220. I wonder if they still have them in stock somewhere gathering dust?

Update: Wow, found an old post on Gizmodo where there was a competition called “Show us your iPod”. I don’t remember this but it seems I submitted a photo of my iPod mini autographed by the iPod inventor Tony Fadell and it actually was a finalist in their giveaway competition. Don’t know how I missed that, its from back in 2006.

Update 2: While I am being all retro here. The picture above is of Nibaq taken back in November 2002. I took the picture so we could submit it to iLounge for their iPods around the world gallery. Back then they didn’t have any submission from Kuwait. [Link]

At work I’ve got a Fasttelco connection and today I noticed that Skype was blocked. I don’t know how long its been blocked for but I found it strange that it was. Then someone posted a comment on the blog saying that United Networks have also blocked Skype. I’ve got a Qualitynet connection at home and at the moment Skype is still not blocked here but now I’m wondering if Qualitynet will start blocking skype to.

Update: Its also blocked on KEMS/Zajil

Update2: As of today morning the site is no longer blocked by Fasttelco

I just found a post in the coolq8y forum that contains vintage pictures of the Kuwaiti police force. Click the link for more pictures. [Link]

While I was in Thailand I spotted the Acer Aspire One at one of the electronic stores. The Aspire One was recently released to compete with the likes of the Eee PC and I think its got a pretty good shot at it. For one thing the Acer is around $150 cheaper, I just checked Amazon and the Aspire One is selling for KD100 which is pretty darn cheap. It also comes in different colors, the one I saw was navy blue but if I was going to get one I would probably get the white one pictured above.

Also today while I was at Carrefour I spotted the MSI Wind which is also competing in the same category. Carrefour had it priced at KD185 but its cheaper on Amazon although its currently out of stock. Here is the link to the Acer Aspire One on Amazon. [Amazon Link]

It seems ProntoWash is popping up everywhere. I first saw them in the parking lot of Muthana Complex, I then spotted them in the parking lot of Salhiya, SomeContrast spotted them at Mishref Coop and now they’re also in the Marina Mall parking. It seems like a good idea to have them wash your car while you shop but I wonder how long the queue gets if they can only handle two cars at a time?

Just found out from q8loco’s blog that there is a new radio station launching in Kuwait called Mix FM 98.4. No one get their hopes up though its an Arabic station so BBC and VOA News are still our only other options over 99.7 for now. [Link]

A few days ago there was a news article that took many by surprise. A young Kuwaiti football player called Ibrahim Al Faresi got signed to a top Italian football team, the problem is no one had heard of him before. Well by sheer coincidence my good friend choowy goowy guy turned out to be friends with Ibrahim and was involved in the organization of the signing event that took place here in Kuwait. So who exactly is Ibrahim Al Faresi?

A couple of years ago Ibrahim was playing football with his friends in front of the Bulgarian embassy here in Kuwait when an employee at the embassy took notice of Ibrahim and told him he should go play football in the Bulgarian league. He offered to help him and hook him up with the right people so Ibrahim decided to take the chance and traveled to Bulgaria where he tried out for a football team and ended up joining them.

After awhile Ibrahim realized he wanted more and so went to the FIFA website and sent an email to a licensed agent so he would be able to travel and play in any club without issues. His new agent took him to England first where he was going to get signed to Crystal Palace F.C. But due to the fact that if you want to play in the English Premiership you need to have a work permit and also need to have played in your countries league at one point, Ibrahim couldn’t join them.

His agent then took him to try out at A.C. Siena in Italy. While there a very famous goalkeeper scout called Senior Silvano who had previously discovered the worlds best goalkeeper Gianluigi “Gigi” Buffon told him not to sign up with A.C. Siena and instead offered to have him trained more so he could get him signed up in a better team. Ibrahim accepted and went and trained under the guidance of Senior. After a short period Senior took him to try out for A.C. Milan and ACF Fiorentina. Fiorentina where right away impressed and instantly offered him a spot on their team.

And thats basically the story of Ibrahim. In a weeks time he is leaving Kuwait and heading to Italy for some medical test and some more training before officially signing for the club. Its a great story and it just goes to show that there are a lot of untapped talents here in Kuwait. I’ve always believed that there are some amazing football players here in Kuwait but I think the football league here is just not as strong as it used to be to draw in these talents. Hopefully this story will prove to be an eyeopener.

Picture from Al Azraq

If I hadn’t taken this picture myself I would have definitely thought it was a fake because no way on earth would I have ever imagined that someone would call a juice shop “Love Life Boost”. The place is located in the Marina Mall food court.

I had breakfast at Johnny Rockets today and when I came to pay they told me Knet wasn’t working. Now after having lunch at Wasabi I came to pay and they again told me Knet wasn’t working. I am concluding from this that today is not Knet’s best day.

note: I am talking about Knet point of sales not the atm machines.

Found some pictures on ads2blog of a fire at the new Salmiya Citybus depot. According to the person who took the pictures “It started off with 1 bus and then the rest; I guess 3 buses went up in Flames� Flames were at a height of approximately 3 floors�”. Check ads2blog for more picture. [Link]

Just found a bunch of videos that show the horrifying living conditions of some workers in Kuwait. The video above is of their sleeping quarters, they are ten to a room and it doesn’t look like they have AC. Here is a link to the rest of the videos. [Link]

Don’t recognize the school but it seems like a regular occurrence in this class. Someone is going to get in trouble now… [YouTube]

I was just reading a post from a blogger in Beirut and I found out two interesting things about Sultan Center.

The first which was a surprise is that Sultan Center is now operating the large supermarket chain in Lebanon called Geant. Geant is a large French based supermarket chain like Carrefour which is why I found that interesting. Could Sultan possibly open Geant in Kuwait? Or will they rebrand Geant’s to Sultan Center in Lebanon? I don’t know if Sultan operating Geant in Lebanon will have any effect here in Kuwait but nevertheless a lot of interesting things could happen.

Now the second thing which I found funny actually is that it seems the problem Sultan has in Kuwait with expired produce has worn off onto Geant in Lebanon. The Lebanese blogger purchased rotten meat from the supermarket and had a bad experience with the management there which is why he posted about Sultan and Geant in the first place. This blog by the way is my favorite Lebanese blog so it has some pretty interesting stuff. [Link]

Update: I just found out about another local blogger who found expired food at Sultan Center and was able to document his finding with pictures. He took it up with management and when they found out about his blog they threatened to sue him if he didn’t remove the post. I think thats extremely bad for their image. Threatening a blogger for posting about expired food he found at their supermarket. If anything they should thank him for highlighting the problem. Here are his posts on his experience with Sultan Center…

Sultan center in trouble!
Sultan center did It AGAIN!!!!
Sultan center STRIKE 3!

Note: Please take into account that the above information might not be true. There is no way for us to verify that the bloggers above are telling the truth and we haven’t heard Sultan Center’s side of the story. I for one only shop at Sultan Center.

The stylish British cafe Napket is going to open at the Avenues phase 2 before the end of the year. I’ve never tried Napket but I passed by it a few times while in London and the place was packed. supposedly they’ve got amazing sandwiches. Now if only Pret a Manger would open up…

Q8 Loco has posted images and information on Dhiafa Village which is the new location near the Kuwait Towers that has Trader Vic’s. I was wondering what the other two restaurants were and it turns out they are going to be French and Italian. The Italian (pictured above) seems like its going to be pretty cool. Check out Q8 Loco’s website for more pictures and details. [Link]

Picture above taken by Q8 Loco