Category: Kuwait

A reader sent me the following email:

Dear Mark,
I am personally aware of a very sad story about an American teacher in Kuwait. The teacher, Katherine Phillips, is an Al-Bayan Bilingual School Middle School Deputy Principal. She is the victim of an influential parent who has effectively detained her in Kuwait. Her only crime was to suspend the influential parent’s son for fighting! This is a normal procedure but the parent threatened her and is carrying out his threat. Her full story can be found in International Schools Review site.

She is crying for help. It would be great if you mentioned it.

Regards,
bu ziyad

You can read her story by clicking [Here]

During lunch I went with a bunch of coworkers to the ice skating rink. I was expecting the place to be packed with kids since school is out and the weather is extremely hot but instead the place was deserted! I am such a bad skater but I love the place since its freezing cold and in this heat I can’t think of any place I would rather be except for the frozen isle section at Sultan Center but thats about it.

For people who haven’t been there before the entrance is KD1.500 and that includes entrance and rental of the skates. Its also easy to find, look for a yellow building in Kuwait City.

The best thing about summer is KDD Silver ice cream.
The second best thing about summer is Faloda sorbet.
The third best thing about summer is Sunkist orange drink.

Faloda, also spelt Faloodeh or Faludeh and is a Persian sorbet made of thin frozen noodles. Its pretty strange but tastes amazing. Really refreshing plus you can add either lemon or rose water to it for extra flavor.

The place I get my Faloda from is located in Kuwait City, opposite Al Rayya mall and under the Baba Taher Iranian restaurant. I think the place that sells it is called Marafie. A small sized portion will set you back 250fils which is the same cost as regular ice cream.

According to Wikipedia, Faloda is one of the earliest forms of frozen desserts, existing as early as 400 BCE.

Today I had a flat tire AND a flat spare! The worst part though was trying to find four tires for my car. I went to the Canada Dry street and went to all the main dealers and they were mostly out of stock with the good stuff. In the end I managed to get the last two Michelin Pilot Sport PS2 available and I reserved two more that should arrive to Kuwait sometime in July. I reserved two tires, thats like the most ridiculous thing!

A while back I noticed some girls were wearing their hijab in a way that makes them look like coneheads. A friend told me it was a new trend and that the way the girls got their “conehead look” was by using cans of Pringles and toilet paper rolls.

Today while browsing I found this funny post on Erzulie’s blog where she drew a girl in hijab and lets us guess whats under it. I guessed option (D). [Link]

A silly video thats being passed about by bluetooth.. and now YouTube. By the way whats up with all the secret service lookalike security guards at Virgin? First time I saw them I thought there was a VIP in the store.

[YouTube]

Some guys in Kuwait figured out how to get free candy from a vending machine. In short, shake the hell out of the machine. Pretty silly but funny video.

[YouTube]

I was checking a blog called Truth or Dare Q8 when I found a post on t-shirts with the following messages on them:

I love GzZz
Queen of GzZz
Sushi Lover from Kuwait
I love Bniader
I love Muchboos Deyay
I love 7adaag
I love Gahwa
I love Chai 7aleeb
I hate Dawaam
I hate Rejeem
3zooby & lovin’ it!

I thought they were pretty funny so I emailed the owner for some pictures of the shirts since I was curious to how they looked like. The owner emailed me back with the pictures so I thought I would share them with everyone.

The store is called Truth or Dare and is owned by a young Kuwaiti female. Its located in Beit el Mazar which I think is in the same block as Casper & Gambini is in Kuwait City behind the Church. You can check out her blog by clicking [Here]

Nibaq just finished setting up KuwaitBlogs Search and even created a googlish logo so try it out.

https://search.kuwaitblogs.com/

In 1988 a Kuwait Airways Boeing was hijacked and diverted to Algiers while on its way to Kuwait from Bangkok. The hijacking lasted 16 days and ended with a Naval Officer from the Kuwaiti Royal Family being killed along with another Kuwaiti military person. The Algerian authorities allowed the hijackers to escape in exchange for the remainder of the 110 people aboard to be set free. (Wikipedia)

This is a video sporty4ever uploaded on to YouTube which is of the plane returning back to Kuwait after the hijacking.

[YouTube]

Has anyone tried the recently opened Burger Bar in Kuwait City? I haven’t been to it yet but I heard they had a soft opening and the place is located next to Holiday Inn downtown.

Here are a couple of cool watches that I like and their prices in Kuwait:

Part of the Bvlgari Ergon line, it comes in two models, with and without the chronograph… but I prefer it with. The case is made of steel, the bracelet is a steel and rubber combo while the dial is made from black carbon fiber. Only the non-chrono version is on display in Kuwait but you can order the chrono version and its priced at around KD1,500.

Bvlgari
Location: Salhiya Complex.
Telephone: 2415360

The Panerai Luminor Chrono Daylight is definitely my favorite Panerai watch ever made. Sadly though its no longer available in Kuwait and according to the dealer you can’t even order it. Its a big watch made from steel and the diameter of the dial is 44mm. The price when available was around KD3,300.

Panerai
Location: Salhiya Complex.
Telephone: 2421907

Audemars Piguet Royal Oak Offshore. The most expensive of the three coming in at KD7,000 for the steel version and KD7,500 for the titanium model. This is the ultimate watch to get. Its both classy and sporty at the same time and its distinctive octagon face makes the watch recognizable from a mile away. The dealer does offer a 25% discount which brings the price down to a mid sized car.

Audemars Piguet
Location: Salhiya Complex.
Telephone: 2441716

Today morning I found out from Confashions that Villa Moda was having a one day 50% sale at their Fanar and Mubarikiya branches. So during lunch I went with some friends to the Mubarikiya branch which is extremely close to my office. It was my first time there and was pretty impressed at the size of the branch but kinda shocked at the location since its in a pretty old and beat up neighborhood.

The choice of clothing in the mens section was pretty poor. The stuff on display I would never wear and I can’t imagine anyone else wearing. Now take what I say with a grain of salt since I wouldn’t call myself stylish being that all I wear throughout the summer are Zoo York and Hurley t-shirts with Hurley jeans on the bottom. I did find a pair of Prada sneakers though that were pretty OK but after discount they were KD60 which I would rather put on a pair of Camper’s.

The womens section had a lot more items but the cool stuff (like Juicy Couture) were not on sale and their collection of accessories was pretty weak. Anyway if you have nothing else better to do it might be worth the trip to check it out. The Mubarikiya branch is larger then the Fanar one plus the interior is a lot more interesting.

update: I caved in and got the shoes after work.

Just a reminder, today is the last day to sign up for the Red Bull Flugtag that is going to be held at Marina Waves on November 2nd. I am teaming up with Nibaq and Marzouq on this and our plane will be built using a tried, tested and successful design, the Nintendo DS. Our plane will be a giant Nintendo DS that uses its folding design to flap us towards the winning line.

Check out the Red Bull site for more details. [Link]

update: K.theKuwaiti is now part of the team.

My MEA plane was supposed to take off at 11:15AM but after boarding the plane turns out there was going to be a delay. After 2 hours of waiting on the plane with no AC we were taken back to the airport transit area where we are now waiting for the plane to either get fixed or something. It really sucks.

note: on the bright side The 4 Cats are with us on the same flight.