Category: Kuwait

On my way to work today there was a demonstration in front of the House of Parliament. I didn’t have my camera with me so I couldn’t take pictures but the demonstrators where of both sexes and I would say young and aged around 18-28. They were all wearing white t-shirts and a lot of them were holding white umbrellas. Unlike most of the demonstrations I see every so often on my way to work, this one was getting a lot of coverage by journalists. Some of the signs they were holding were in Arabic while others in English (for international media?) and I think they were talking about their voices being heard and their constitution rights… My memory is really bad so I couldn’t memorize any of the banners. Anyone know what its all about and why the white umbrellas?

Aramex Shop&Ship are following in the foot steps of USWS and are going to start accepting online payments. A few people recently got the following email from Aramex:

Dear Valued Customer,

Thank you for using our SHOP&SHIP service. Our aim is to continuously enhance your shopping experience with us. We are about to launch a new feature on www.aramex.com which would allow you to make online payments for your shipping charges. We would like to offer this feature first to our VIP clients in order to eliminate delays in delivery due to cash unavailability. We hope that this new feature will be to your satisfaction, and we welcome your feedback on the service. We want to assure you that our most important objective is to continue providing you with quality transportation services that meet your needs effectively.

Sincerely,
SHOP&SHIP Customer Account Manager

Since the delivery guys started carrying Knet machines online payment isn’t that important anymore. Personally I would like to see their payment system upgraded where as one user mentioned, instead of charging per half KG they should start charging per 100grams. That way their recent price increase will seem more reasonable.

Thanks K!

My bakala finally got the new Lulu ice cream and I decided I would try it since I heard a lot of good things about it. My favorite ice cream is by far KDD Silver so thats obviously its main competition for me. Now that I tried the Chocolate Lulu its clear Silver is the better of the two. The Lulu ice cream although not bad was just too boring for me. It doesn’t have caramel but instead has nougat which some people might prefer since its less sweeter but not me.

Silver is still my favorite and I don’t think I will be trying Lulu again since there is no reason to. I don’t know why they created a new line for cones, they should have just called the Lulu Bronze or Plastic, something lame like that. The Lulu costs 250 fils while Silver costs 200.

Back in May I posted about the new digital signs that are popping up all over the place and a local blogger now has a picture of whats looks like a sign undergoing testing. The question still remains what are they going to be used for?

When I was in Munich traveling on the highway they had similar signs with the speed limit on it. The speed limit changed depending on the amount of traffic, when the sign was off I think it meant you had no limit but when the sign was on it meant follow whatever speed limit is displayed until the next sign. I doubt its going to be used like this here but to just display the speed limit like in the picture above which everyone already knows anyway is a waste. Anyone know what these signs are going to be used for or anyone have a theory?

Thanks DLC

Update: I replaced the original picture I posted with a better one I took myself on the Gulf Road.

Animal Care is a local online pet shop that sells pet stuff including toys, food and accessories. They even deliver items to your doorstep. I think its a great idea specially since the only place that sells decent stuff is Sultan Center and they always seem to run out of stuff. [Link]

Thanks Rayboy

This is a video presentation of The Mall of Kuwait which is currently being built. Judging by the video it looks pretty big but the most impressive thing has to be the 750 seat performance hall. The mall was originally scheduled to open this year but I don’t know if thats still the target time. [YouTube]

I just got an email from Aramex regarding their new prices for Shop&Ship. Starting July 1st the new prices are as follows:

First ½ kg K.D. 3.000
Each additional ½ kg K.D. 2.500

Thats nearly a 25% increase! I also noticed Aramex launched a new identity with the prices, perfect timing. Welcome to the new revamped and more expensive Aramex… I am sticking to U Shop We Ship for my packages.

In May my Macbook stopped working and it pissed me off. Around two weeks ago I decided to take it to Digits (used to be called Mac&More) in Marina Mall to have them check it out. I wanted to find out exactly what was wrong with it and how much it would cost to fix. Well today I found out that my MacBook will be repaired for free under Apple’s global warranty program. Even though I purchased my MacBook from Amazon my warranty it still being honored here in Kuwait which is really cool. Now I have to wait 2-4 weeks for the part to arrive but that isn’t a problem since I have my Eee PC to keep me company.

There are advantages to the weather we are having at the moment. The first positive thing is that it isn’t getting that hot. Since there is no sun the weather is cooler than usual which is great. The other positive thing is I think it adds character to Kuwait. London is known for the rain, Dubai for the humidity and now Kuwait for the dust!

Doesn’t look very safe to me… [YouTube]

D*lush opened up a new branch in Salmiya yesterday behind Al Bustan mall. Also a new cookie store opened up at The Avenues food court called Crumbs and supposedly their cookies are really good.

I was at Kout Mall tonight and noticed that Marble Slab had opened up there. I first tried it when I was in Dubai at the Mall of Emirates and they now have a branch here in Kuwait. For those of you who don’t know what Marble Slab is, its an ice cream shop in which you choose the flavor of ice cream you want and then you get to choose what kind of topping you want mixed in with your ice cream. They have a gigantic collection of toppings to choose from but I always go for chocolate ice cream mixed with mini marshmallows. [Link]

The other day I posted a picture of the first Nissan Skyline GT-R in Kuwait filling up at a gas station. Turns out the Nissan dealership Al-Babtain got their first shipment of Skylines which consisted of 3 cars, 2 being red and 1 a dark grey. The picture I posted the other day was of the grey one and my friend just sent me the picture above of the two red ones. The cars from this shipment and the next two shipments have already all been sold. Each car went for KD30,000.

Someone finally managed to record the really really cheesy radio commercial warning people not to talk on the phone and drive. If you haven’t heard it yet now you can. [Listen Here]

Thanks Mishari!

We always read about Jleeb Al-Shuyoukh in the papers but we never really get to see it. Luckily I met these two photographers the other day called Faisal and Jamal and they had some extraordinary shots of Jleeb Al-Shuyoukh which I found incredible. While browsing their website now I noticed they had 6 of those shots in their portfolio. They had more but I guess they couldn’t post them all online. The 6 they do have online are still interesting and give a glimpse of the living conditions in Jleeb. So check it out, its pretty sad. [Pictures]