Category: Kuwait

I just got info that the Villa Moda sale starts tomorrow. The last one held in May basically cleared out the store within two days so if you want to buy something you got to make it there early tomorrow morning. They open at 10AM and expect it to be really crowded. Everything is 50% off.

Today I met with a person from Wataniya. They wanted me to try out their new W-Net router based system so they hooked me up with a device and a 6 month subscription plan.

It runs on the HDSPA network and right out of the box on a busy Thursday night I am downloading at 51.6kb. I will post more pictures and details after I play with it some more this weekend. So far this Internet connection seems as fast as my Qualitynet 512 DSL connection.

(IMAGE REMOVED AT THE REQUEST OF AFL)

Today morning Rayboy posted in the forum on how while walking his dog in a public park he found a dalmatian dog that was locked up in a small cage all alone and freezing to death. Once he got home he called both PAWs and the Animal Friends League of Kuwait (AFL) to get some help.

The AFL ended up organizing a “Seek and Rescue” party later in the day. Their mission was to see the state of the dog and if possible contact the owners. If the owners were not found and the dog was in bad shape, they would then break the lock and take the dog.

The AFL arrived at the location and found that the dog was in really bad condition. After desperately trying to find the owners they took the decision to break the lock and free the dog. They then took the dalmatian to their animal shelter in Wafra where the dog is now being taken care of.

I think thats just an amazing story. To have a group like the AFL here in Kuwait who actually take action when an animal is being abused is really amazing. I really hate people who get pets but then end up treating them like shit. Locking up a beautiful dog like the dalmatian in a public garden in this weather in a small cage is just horrible. I imagine the dog would have remained in the cage even during the summer. Thank you AFL for freeing the dalmatian.

If anyone would like to find out more about the AFL, donate to the AFL or even adopt one of their pets then you can visit their website animalfriendskuwait.org

Just passed the House of Parliament today morning and noticed high fences were placed alongside the roads in front of the parliament building plus there were a ton of cops parked and walking about. Riot trucks and buses were also parked including the large one that fires water and has a huge pole with a camera mounted on top. I couldn’t see any demonstrators though, I guess they are planning on coming by later.

Here is a video from the demonstration today again outside the House of Parliament. The demonstrators are requesting that every Kuwaitis debts be dropped. Today around twenty percent of the demonstrators were woman. The last demonstration it was around twenty percent high school kids. [Video]

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