Category: Kuwait

Sounds like gunfire, should be fireworks but I couldn’t find any trace in the sky. Anybody here or see anything?

When paying with a credit card or Knet card at Sultan Center you might have noticed that once the transaction goes through the employee swipes your card into their computer and your credit card number and other information gets dumped into their system. Cajie a reader of the blog sent them an email complaining about this, here is what he sent them:

I have been a frequent shopper of Sultan Center for quiet some time. However, I have become increasingly concerned about your procedure of scanning and storing customer’s credit card numbers in your sales system. This is a highly risky and unacceptable IT process, especially for such a leading retailer such as Sultan Center. Other leading merchants store only the last 4 digits of the credit card for verification purpose, which is just fine. It is my strong recommendation that your systems be reconfigured not to store sensitive customer data – especially in these days of increase rise in electronic fraud.

To his surprise the MIS manager at Sultan Center called him on the phone and assured him they made changes in their system to protect the customers financial data. After the phone call they sent him the following email with more details:

It was a pleasure talking to you over the phone, and we are really glad to have your comments and suggestions which will help us service our customers better. I would like to assure you that our Point of Sales system doesn’t hold or store the Full Credit card details, in fact this was rectified longtime back based on our Internal Audit department report. Now the transactions which are stored in our systems will only carry the last four digits of the credit card number XXXX XXXX XXXX 9021.

I hope that you are satisfied with this and Please don’t hesitate to contact us or me directly for any further queries. Wish you a very pleasant time in our stores and everywhere else.

It still doesn’t make me comfortable having them scan my card but at least now I know the information they do keep from the scan is very minimal.

Looks like Yan Yan have a guerrilla campaign going on. Ok maybe not. Its only one poster I saw on a wall outside a supermarket but still its a pretty cool poster. The best part is the tag line which is “The Fun Dip-Stick” (closer look).

Here are two definitions of Dip-Stick taken from UrbanDictionary.com all though I know it simply as another word for idiot:

1. Dip Stick
One who’s brain capacity is less than a long thin piece of metal used to check oil levels.

2. Dip Stick
The usage of fingers during sexual activities to gage the moistness of a woman’s vagina.

Now thats pretty cool.

Was talking to some friends today and I remembered the Bony sign at the zoo so I figured I would reshare it with everyone. Here are more pictures taken at the zoo in case anyone is interested. [Pictures]

Kuwait’s first short film festival at Shaab park.
Date: Wednesday, December 13th and Thursday, December 14th
Price: Tickets are for free.

Below is the running order of the movies from the festival. Book your tickets at [email protected]

Sweden is famous for their meatballs so when IKEA started making and selling shawermas I was eager to try it.

First time I had the shawerma in the new IKEA branch at The Avenues mall I didn’t like it. They mixed vegetables with my shawerma and I hate places that do that. The vegetables which is usually made up of onions and some green stuff (I don’t know what its called) over powers the chicken flavor. So next time I passed by IKEA I ordered the shawerma plain with just garlic.

How was it? Its edible.

The biggest problem I had with their shawerma is the bread. I think there is too much bread for the shawerma. The solution I would recommend is to either increase the quantity of chicken in the bread or decrease the size of the bread itself. The chicken tasted good and the garlics presence was felt but not over done. If only they weren’t so stingy.

Final score I settled for was 3 out of 5. The shawerma costs 250fils which is great specially since the place is extremely clean. They also have an offer combo, coke plus shawerma for 350fils. The location is crap, no one is going to drive up to IKEA just for their shawerma of course. Overall its not bad for their first try. I just hope they start filling up the bread with more chicken.

Just added the song Beladona Il Kuwait to the Kuwait national songs list.

Maybe its just my head playing mind games but I feel this year in Kuwait there is a lack of Christmas spirit. Usually a lot of places would have Christmas decorations and music playing but this year there are very few. I was at Marina Mall the other day and I didn’t notice any Christmas decorations done by the mall. On the other hand (and surprisingly) Souk Sharq have Christmas decorations. Kuwait is so unchristmassy.

I had my riding test today and I passed! Like last time my test was easy. The cop just told me to do a large circle and when I came back he told me I had passed. The whole process took like 10 minutes.

Nat on the other hand like last time ended up having problems. She went in and they made her wait behind cars for like 30 minutes. Then when it was her turn the cop told her to make a couple of 8’s with the bike. Once she was done the cop told her she had passed and she drove out.

We then left the testing area and went inside to the offices to pick up our papers. After waiting for another 30 minutes we got them. I had passed, Nat had failed. She was completely shocked, she went back into the room to talk to one of the cops and she told him the guy had told her she had passed. He just took her learners permit and gave her another date for the test.

I am happy, she is really pissed as you can imagine.

The picture above is of Nat on the Bajaj training bike while leaving the testing area.

I got a bunch of old Kuwaiti National Songs from Delicately Realistic. I still need Beladona Il Kuwait. If anyone has it please pass it to me.

Shadi Al Khaleej – Kaseeroh Dalah
Sana Al Kharaz – I7na IlKha6awi AlAkeeda
Sana Al Kharaz – 6ig Ya Mu6ar 6ig
Sana Al Kharaz – Al Azrag
Sana Al Kharaz – Salam Ya Wa6ani
7naina Il Ayadi
Il Wa7id Allah (Om A7med – Wainich Yal Ibra)
Imbarak 3alaik il3id
Abdul Kareem Abdul Qader – Wa6an Al Nahar
Abdullah Al-Ruwaishid – 3ashat Lina Il Kuwait (Original)
Hussien Al Jasmi – La Telomoni (Hala February)
Nabeel Sh3ail – Ya Dar (Hala February)
Rashid Al-Majid – 6ayir Men El Far7a
BBS Kids – Wa6ani 7abeebi
Kuwaiti TV Band – Ya Wardity Ya Nidiya
Kuwaiti TV Band – Al Ziman Dawar
Haydoo

Update: Here is Beladona Il Kuwait

Anyone remember in the early 90’s the music the DJ at the ice skating ring rink would play? These are the songs I remember:

I’ve got the power – Snap
Rhythm is a dancer – Snap
Back to Life – Soul II Soul
2 Legit 2 Quit – Mc Hammer
Wiggle It – 2 In A Room
Now that we found love – Heavy D and the Boyz
Everybody – Black Box

Just a small peak into The Avenues mall. Maybe I should email Mabanee and see if they would let me go in and take some shots for the blog.

Went Christmas tree shopping tonight. Found a gorgeous Nordmann Fir tree which we ended up getting. The place I went to just got the trees two days ago, he had a couple of cheap Norway Spruce trees but the majority of them where Nordmann Fir. I forgot what the place is called but its up in Al-Rai, on the 4th ring road where all the plant stores are located. He has a couple on display outside but the rest are all inside. Prices range from KD45 and up, depending on the size of the tree.

Someone just sent me this link which shows a Kuwaiti cop dancing with a bottle of whisky in his hand. Notice how many topics involving alcohol this week? It must be a sign. [Video]

update: here is a link to another older video of a girl dressed in a copy uniform and dancing. [Link]

update 2: it seems Iraqi police can do it better (thanks moayad) [Video]

I was going to post about this for awhile now but never got around to it. Doesn’t matter though, Brand New has a write up about PWC’s rebranding into Agility. It was done by Siegel+Gale and I heard it cost them 1.5 million dollars. [Link]