Category: Kuwait

I passed by IKEA earlier tonight, the new one which is located at the Avenues Mall. It IS huge, very huge. I really liked the new place, the whole mall although still closed looks massive. The most noticable update at IKEA has to be the restaurant, its now around 4 or 5 times larger then it was before. Actually what am I saying, the whole place is like 4 times larger. Its now a really long walk from the beginning till the end.

I had dinner at the IKEA restaurant, Chicken Masala with Rice. It was pretty good but to help paint a picture on how big the new IKEA is, by the time I got to the exit I was hungry again and ended up ordering food from the snack stand near the exit. The new snack stand by the way is a huge improvement over the old one. Other then corn, ice cream, and hotdogs they now have shawerma. I decided to order one just to try it, I would probably give it a 3 out of 5, still need to pass by and try it one more time before I can give my final score though.

The biggest change in the new IKEA is that you now have to pick up your packages yourself just before you get to the cashier. You enter this huge warehouse like room and its just shelves and shelves of packed goods. Someone told me IKEA did this to bring down the prices of the products by 10%. Whatever their reason I know many people will not like the fact that they now have to do manual labor. I took a picture of one of the shelves which you can view by clicking [Here]

Overall I think its a really great improvement. Although I really liked the old IKEA I think the new one is better in every way.

Marzouq posted pictures and prices of the PS3 and Wii in Rihab Complex. As you can imagine the prices at the moment are extremely high.

Sony PS3 60 GB (Jap Version)
Price: 450KD

Sony PS3 60 GB (US Version)
Price: 750KD

Nintendo Wii
Price: 250KD

1KD = $3.45 / €2.68

Yeah I know I just posted that I wouldn’t post today but then I remembered I needed to post this. LG have a 71inch plasma TV with home theater setup thats gold plated. Its currently displayed at their Salmiya branch adjacent to Alghanim Electronics. Its a really ugly setup as you can see and in person it also looks pretty cheap.

Can you guess how much it costs?

The LG setup you see in the picture above costs KD25,000! Its just ridiculous, not only that but its a display model. If I was the store manager I wouldn’t have a KD25,000 TV on display where everyone can come in and touch it, that would depreciate its value. If I a buyer on the other hand and was planning on splashing out KD25,000 I wouldn’t want a display model.. I wouldn’t want an LG either!

So me and some friends from work were leaving Souk Sharq at 2 after lunch to get back to the office when it turned out the cops had closed all the exits. The cop told us no one would be allowed to leave the Souk Sharq parking lot for around an hour because the Doha Asian Games torch was passing by on the Gulf Road.

So we parked the car and just hung out next to the cops on the side of the road. Nibaq was with us since he had met up with us for lunch. We just hung around chilling for like 15 minutes before we noticed a bus and an Hummer stop by us and drop off a guy with an unlit torch. Then a few minutes later down the road we noticed a huge convoy coming closer slowly. Nibaq had a camera and he took some pictures of what we saw. Basically there was some guy running with a lit torch and all the cars around him were driving slow and cheering him on. Once the guy got to the other guy with the unlit torch, he passed on the flame and then the other guy started running. It was basically a torch relay but it looked like they were dropping guys off every 100 meters.

After they passed, the Gulf Road remained closed for another 30 minutes. It was crazy, most of the people at Souk Sharq wanted to get back to work but like us they were just stuck there for a full hour. Finally at 3PM they opened the roads and we drove back to the office.

The shot above was taken by Nibaq, he also took more shots which you can see by clicking [Here]

Late last month I posted about how Showtime were still taking money from me every month even though I canceled my account. Well I finally spoke to a guy at Showtime who told me he would solve my problem by making sure they cancel my subscription and then refund me two months worth of subscription fees by the next day. I was like fine, great.

A few days later I call the guy up again telling him that I still hadn’t received the refund. He told me he had deposited the money into my account and it should be there. After further investigation it turns out the guy deposited my refund in the wrong account! He told me that its too late now and he couldn’t take it back and that I should contact the other person and try to get my money off of him. I told him I wouldn’t do that and that he should solve the problem. He then sarcastically told me fine, he would pay me the refund from his salary. I was like whatever you want to do, do it. I just want my refund.

Since that day I haven’t been able to get a hold of the guy again. He won’t return my calls and I have been leaving messages on his voice mail and still no reply. I don’t think my troubles with Showtime will ever finish.

update: I just got off the phone with the COO of Global Direct. He told me I will get my refund within the next 2 days. I told him that it wasn’t about the money but the actual process I had to go through to get my account canceled. He assured me that Showtime was going through a major restructuring of the customer service department and all the problems I faced will be fixed.

A friend just told me that Al-Zayani has 3 Bugatti’s for sale in Kuwait. Can’t wait to see one out on the streets. It would be pretty cool if the Gulf Road gets flooded with Bugatti’s the same way Lamborghini’s are currently seen everywhere.

Note: Picture taken by bo9agr

Just finished checking in to my flight. Airport security today is just overboard. Jazeera Airways and British Airways check in stations are located in the same area and it seems because of British Airways security was extremely tough… not the usual laid back chatting with friends while ignoring the metal detector beeps. I had to actually take off my belt while some other guys were told to remove their shoes. Had to wait over 30 minutes in the security check line. Usually the lack of decent security at the Kuwait Airport pisses me off, but after seeing what good security involves, I am glad we lack security “most of the time”.

Both GAP and Banana Republic will be opening up at the new Avenues mall early next year. Although I am not a fan of either of them but at least they are new brands in Kuwait.

zMacShop got the new iPod Shuffles in stock. They are selling them for KD35 each. I pre-ordered mine from Amazon 2 weeks ago and I am still waiting for it to ship.

update: clicknbuy are also selling the shuffle for KD35. Mac&More were selling the shuffle for KD35 but they ran out of stock. Mac City on the other hand is selling the Shuffle for KD43.

Since I am not a big fan of Mac City because of their extremely high prices I like picking on them a lot. The other day I posted about how Mac&More honor the warranty on Apple products purchased abroad and I decided to see if Mac City also honored the warranty.

Well I just got off the phone with Mac City and it turns out although they are official resellers in Kuwait they do not honor the Apple warranty unless you purchase the Mac from them. The guy I spoke to told me I should call Dubai and see if they would fix my laptop under warranty or I should send it back to Amazon.

I told him no thanks and closed the phone. One more reason not to deal with Mac City.

Both me and Nat had our riding test today and it was a disaster. We both failed!

While Nat waited outside I went in first on the motorbike. After waiting in line behind 5 cars it was my turn to go next.

Now to follow what I am about to say next you need to view the map above.

Once I got to the starting line the cop told me I should drive up in lane 1 then turn and come down lane 3, and then go into lane 2 and go back up and then turn into lane 3 again and come back down. I was like fine. I drove into lane 1 and as I was about to turn into lane 3 the car that was parked behind me in the starting line had driven forward and was now parked in lane 3. So I stopped the bike and put my foot down and waited for the car to leave lane 3. As soon as I put my foot down the cop was like aha! I was like what aha?! He was like you aren’t allowed to put your foot down. I was like but there is a chick parked in lane 3 and I am just waiting for her to leave. He was like fine continue. So I continue and I finish the first test.

The cop then tells me to keep turning in lane 1 and 2. I did that like 3 times and the cop was like ok you passed. He then said something I didn’t understand and pointed me to the other lane. So I stopped the bike and put my foot down and turned around to ask him what he had just said because I couldn’t hear him over the sound of the motorbike engine, plus I had my helmet on and plus he was standing like far away. As soon as I put my leg down the cop pointed at my foot and was like AHA!!! I was like what the fuck?! Whats wrong now? By then he was talking to the other cops who were sitting and having tea, he was like you see you see he put his foot down. I was like dude I stopped on purpose to ask you what you had just said because I couldn’t hear you. He then replied telling me “bara bara” meaning out out. He had failed me.

I drove out of the testing area and saw Nat waiting outside. I told her I had failed and she thought I was kidding. I told her no I really failed. She laughed and got on the bike and went inside. Five minutes later Nat drove back out, got off her bike and started screaming out loud. She was really fucking pissed. Turns out when she first got to the starting line the cop started asking her questions like why do you want to bike and girls shouldn’t bike. He then told her to ride around in circles which she did but then he asked her to do a figure 8 between the 3 squares. She couldn’t believe he had asked her to do that because the space between the squares is extremely tight and can barely fit a bike. While she was turning through the squares she put her foot down on the side of the curb and the cop was like AHA!!! And he failed her instantly. She was super pissed because she felt that they made the test impossible for her to pass because she was a girl.

Basically it turns out you need wasta even for a bike test.

Today me and Nat had our motorbike license test. I will talk about what happened in a separate post but for now I want to focus on the written exam. If you are planning on getting a driving license or riding license you need to pass a written exam. Problem is the written exam is just a mess. Other then the fact that the English half the time makes no sense, Nat spotted a bigger problem.

Nat and I were taking the written exam at the same time in the same room. So, they gave us different tests which contained different questions. I ended up passing the test with 3 wrong answers while Nat passed with just 2 wrong answers. After we left we were comparing our tests when Nat noticed that one of my questions didn’t have a right answer. If you look at the picture above or the larger version located at the end of this post, you will notice that the correct answer to the sign on the left is “Road Narrows”. Problem is the 3 answers I was given to choose from were wrong. No matter what I would have answered I would have gotten it wrong! Its as if they wanted me to fail! Anyway I might scan the whole test later and post it online. For now here is a larger picture of what I am talking about. [Picture]

K.theKuwaiti conducted a survey on Kuwait ISP’s by asking people what provider they were with, how much they were paying and what download speed they were getting. Using the results he plugged them into an Excel sheet and calculated which ISP gives you the best bang for the buck.

So what is the best deal? Turns out its Qualitynet followed closely by Zajil. Fasttelco came in last. For a more detailed analysis check out K’s post. [Link]

I just got back from Mac&More in Marina Mall. Both me and Nat have problems with our MacBooks. She had a random shutdown problem plus issues with her keyboard. Me on the other hand I had the infamous MacBook discoloration plus my trackpad button was extremely messed up. Turns out if you purchased your Mac from Amazon or Apple.com they will honor the warranty. All you need to do is take the invoice with your MacBook and they will fix your problem.

Tonight we left Nats MacBook with them, it should be ready to pick up tomorrow. Also tomorrow if the technician is still there he will replace my MacBook keyboard and palmrest while I wait. I will try to take a before and after picture of my MacBook and post it here.

I finally went to the charity photography exhibition yesterday at Beit Lothan and I was really impressed. The pictures on display were really fascinating. For some reason I was expecting to see photos of Cambodia as if taken by a tourist but practically all the photos on display were works of art. I am glad I went.