Category: Kuwait

Yesterday evening we took Geo to the Marina Crescent park to meet up with Fadibou and his puppy Mikki. Turns out Geo and Mikki really liked each other and they spent most of the evening playing together on the grass and sand. Only problem is that Geo is 13KG while Mikki is 1.5KG. So Geo was like hurting Mikki accidentally while playing. Anyway we walked further up the beach and met with 3 other puppies. the oldest being 3 months old. All 5 dogs spent around an hour running around playing with each other in the sand. They were 4 males and 1 female but Mikki was the star, all the dogs seemed to want to play with him. Geo had a lot of fun and I was hoping all this playing would get him tired enough to put him to sleep early and I was right.. for a while. Geo ended up going to sleep at 10PM in his fenced off area and we went to sleep right after since both me and Nat hadn’t gotten any sleep the night before. Everything was fine until around 12:30AM we woke up to Geo’s whining and barking. He must have woken up in the middle of the night and realized he was all alone downstairs and he just went ballistic. The book we read said this would happen and that we should leave him alone but he was just too loud. I called up my brother next door and asked him if he could hear Geo and he told me he could very clearly. So not to get in trouble with the neighbours we solved the problem by Nat sleeping on the couch in the living room with Geo on the floor next to her. The living room has hardwood floors so in case Geo decided to “go” during the night it wouldn’t be that a big a problem while our bedroom is carpeted and would be a lot more difficult to clean. So now hopefully next week we will be replacing the carpet in the bedroom with hardwood, that way Geo can sleep with us in the bedroom, the only way we will ever get some sleep..

Geo arrived yesterday night at 12:05AM via KLM. When I had spoken to a KLM representative earlier in the day he told me I needed only 30 minutes to clear Geo once he arrives.. what bullshit. After 2 hours of running around to 6 different locations at the airport cargo terminal and after going and coming between these 6 offices a total of 11 times, I was finally able to clear Geo and take him home. Mind you I was the only one there clearing anything and it took me over 2 hours so you could imagine how painfully long the process would be during the day when every trader in Kuwait is at the cargo terminal clearing their products. All the employees were very nice and tried their best to get all our papers completed asap but its just a lot of stuff that needed to be signed and at full speed it just wasn’t possible to take less then 2 hours. Oh a strange thing, we were sitting at the vets office at the terminal and one guy there was like did you check on your dog, is he alive? I was like no I hadn’t seen my dog yet but what the fuck, do dogs arrive here dead? The guy was like yeah, many times the dog arrives to Kuwait and its dead. I am guessing this happens often during the summer when they keep the dogs locked up in their tiny travel cages for over 2 hours in the hot summer heat waiting for their owners to get all their paperwork done.

Anyway we get home and Geo is all active and shit and wants to play. So we play. We figured he probably just was so bored trapped in his cage and he just wants to let off some steam. So we played with him until 4AM and Geo was still jumping around all excited. We decide to lock him up in his area downstairs and go up and sleep. His area consists of half the bottom floor of our apartment separated by a 1 meter high fence. His area is around 4×6 meters and the floor is covered in vinyl in case he goes to the bathroom indoors the mess would be easier to clean up. So we lock him up and go upstairs and Geo starts to whine which we were expecting. Suddenly he stops and I was thinking wow that was easier then I expected and so I decided to sneak downstairs quietly to watch Geo sleep. So I am standing in the stairway trying to sneak a peak at Geo sleeping but I couldn’t find him in his area. Suddenly I see Geo walking out of the first floor bathroom casually.. he had escaped from his area! So I realized there was a weakness in my fence design and Geo was able to squeeze out from the far side of the fence. I solve that issue by blocking his escape route with his travel cage. I go back upstairs and I am about to go to sleep when suddenly Nat is like “Mark, Geo is here”. He had escaped again! So I went back down and realized he had climbed over his travel cage and then over the fence. So I solved that problem also and on my way up the stairs I look back and I see Geo squeezing out from between two fences. Fucking A thats like 3 prison breaks in 15 minutes. Good thing I don’t design prisons for a living. We decided to solve the fence issue the next day and for the night he could sleep with us in our bedroom. That didn’t work out the way we planned it either. Geo spent the whole night whining wanting to play with us. At around 7AM we all fell asleep. 9AM I wake up to realize Nat and Geo were missing, seemed they both had woken up at 8AM and Nat made him breakfast and took him down for a walk. It was a totally sleepless night.

We spent most of today fixing his fence issue and taking naps whenever we could. I wasn’t able to post more details earlier because I was dead tired but I just woke up from a 30 minute nap and I feel a bit more energized. I spoke to Fadibou on the phone and we will be meeting up with him and his dog Mikki at Marina Crescent later tonight.

Overall I am really glad we got Geo. He turned out to be much more cuter then his pictures had shown him to be and he is also a lot bigger then I expected. He is silly and dumb at times (like yesterday he got introduced to the concept of a glass door after ramming into it 2 times) and loves playing with Amazon boxes. He doesn’t bark and he’s extremely playful. I will record a video of him soon and upload it once I get my DSL connection back at home. For now I just have the picture I posted earlier today.

I just got a phone call from the Choowy Goowy delivery guy. I am getting 5 jars of cookies delivered to me before 5:30 courtesy of the Choowy Goowy owner. I will try all five flavors and then write a mini review of each and post them here on the blog. Could the readers who ordered some cookies after I posted about them last time leave some comments below on how they found them. Thanks.

Read the Choowy Goowy Review

Update: The cookies are here! They look nice and colorful in their packaging. Can’t touch them though until I go home and take a picture of them.

I past by Fantasy World at Souk Sharq today to see if they were still selling LEGO and it turned out they were. So I told them if they refused to sell me the LEGO Guy which I have been after for months I would tell everyone they were still selling Danish products. They ignored my threat and still refused to sell me LEGO Guy, so I decided I would tell on them. FANTASY WORLD STILL SELL LEGO!!

Remember how last week I was hoping they weren’t going to ban LEGO from the market because its a Danish product? Well yesterday I past by Sultan Center and went upstairs to the LEGO section and guess what? All the shelves where the LEGO used to be are empty now! They banned LEGO!! The dairy section downstairs also had no more Danish products that includes Lurpak, Puck and Three Cows. Whats next? Will they start banning products from countries who supported the Danish like the French and Germans? Would that mean no more BMWs and Mercedes? That would be really silly.

Internet addict that is. I realized in the past few days that I can’t be stuck in Kuwait without Internet. When I go on vacation its not that big a problem since I psychologically prepare myself that I will be without Internet for a certain amount of days. Being suddenly stuck without Internet at home though has turned me into a wreck. I feel stupid without being up to date on the latest news, gadgets and gossip. I feel disoriented and grumpy without Internet. I am also losing my temper quicker and getting stressed out a lot easier. I hope I get Internet back at home soon or I think I am really going to lose it.

Can anyone guess whats in the box and bags above? Answer: 150 Pancakes (divided into 50 packs), 100 mayple syrup packs, 100 mini Lurpak butter packs and 50 knives and forks. I past by McDonalds today to get breakfast for everyone at my agency. I swear I think I got high on the pancake fumes on my way to work.

Two days ago I tasted the best cookies I had ever had. A friend at work had received these cookies in a glass jar as a gift and I asked if I could taste them. The jar looked interesting and the cookies inside looked tasty so I took a cookie and tried it. It was soft, fresh, inviting and just fucking heavenly. I asked my friend where I could find these cookies since I never noticed them at Sultan Center or any other supermarket and she replied telling me she would ask her friend who sent them to her. A few minutes later I found out that Choowy Goowy is a place in Kuwait that makes and delivers cookies to your home or office. She showed me the glass jar the cookies came in and pointed towards a tiny message on the label which said “For a refill call 2626559”. I quickly picked up the phone and dialed the number to find out all I could about this interesting service.

This is basically what I found out. Choowy Goowy is a local creation, 100% made in Kuwait. I spoke to the owner who’s recipes the cookies are made from and he was very nice and polite. He spoke good English and explained to me how they originally started off in 2002 with Arabic icecream. They created a service called Booza Booza which delivered iceream to your home but since icecream is a summer product they needed a winter one also and this why in September of last year they started Choowy Goowy. Choowy Goowy makes 5 kinds of cookies, the regular Chocolate Chip, Peanut Butter Cookies, Cinnamon Cookies, Cookies with Macadamia and finally double chocolate cookies. A jar with a dozen cookies inside costs KD2.5 except for the double chocolate which costs KD3.5. If you have a jar and want a refill its 500fils cheaper so KD2 or KD3 depending on which cookies you order. They deliver two times a day, before lunch and in the afternoon, that way you get a fresh batch of cookies whenever you order them.

I placed my order yesterday night and told them I wanted my cookies the next day at 7PM since I would have come home from work by then. You don’t have to call a day ahead though, a fellow employee called them up in the morning and asked to have the cookies by noon and they were delivered to her without a problem. I ordered the regular chocolate chip for KD2.5 since I think the double chocolate at KD3.5 is over my cookie budget. The driver had some problems finding my building (I actually had to run down the street after his van when he missed my house) but since it was his first time I didn’t mind. I told him to remember my place the next time because I would definitely be ordering again.

We were in the middle of episode 13 of Prison Break when the cookies arrived so the timing was perfect. I quickly snapped a few pictures of the jar and then proceeded to quickly open it and let Nat have a taste of these cookies since she had only heard about them from me but never tasted them yet. Within 10 minutes I had eaten 6 cookies while Nat had eaten 2, I would have eaten more but there were only 4 left and I wanted to save some for later. The cookies were amazing. They taste similar to the Fuddruckers cookies except without the nutty flavor which I really dislike. The Choowy Goowy cookies are the best cookies I have ever tasted and the fact that this is a local creation makes me appreciate it a lot more.

Even though these cookies are the best in Kuwait I would have to give them a 4 out of 5 because of the price. Without the jar a dozen cookies cost KD2, thats double the price of the Fuddruckers cookies. On the other hand you are having the cookies delivered right to you which is a big plus and I would have to say these cookies taste atleast twice as good as the Fuddruckers ones. I would really really recommend everyone to try these cookies, they are seriously amazing. Choowy Goowy have the best cookies in Kuwait, give them a call on 2626559.

Update: The owner sent me a message saying that the reason the cookies cost more then your average cookies is because they are made with the best quality ingredients. He also stated that in Fifth Avenue New York there are some places that sell a dozen cookies for $50 and they are always sold out. Finally the cookies are also trans fats free.

I just realized something, with all this boycotting of Danish products in Kuwait and around the Arab world I hope they won’t end up taking LEGO off the market. That would suck big time so please leave LEGO alone.

I am at work and I am online using Qualitynet dialup again. It turns out that although Fasttelco brought back online most of its services yesterday night, their Kuwait City users will remain without Internet for another day or two. All phone numbers starting with 24 still do not have Internet access.

Dear Mark,
We would like to extend our sincere apologies for the difficulties you may have encountered with our Internet and Data services on 28th Jan 2006.

The problem was due to a major failure at Ministry of Communication Building that impacted our services.

We would like to assure you that series of measures have been taken to avoid such incident in the future, while a total restoration was carried to have our service back to normal..

If you are still encountering any problems please do not hesitate to contact us.

We regret any inconvenience caused to you in this regard and take this opportunity to thank you for your understanding and patience.

Best Regards
Customer Service
Qualitynet
For Support Call 804444

What a day, my Internet stopped working last night and I figured it was something with my account. Today morning I came to work all ready to check my email and turned out we didn’t have Internet here. At first the word was our internal server was down but then the word reached to us that everyone in Kuwait was having Internet issues. As many bloggers have posted it turned out that there was a fire in the building hosting the servers of the 3 main ISP’s in Kuwait and this disrupted the service. Things are better now though and both Qualitynet and Zajil/KEMS have their services back up. The bad news is that our agencies ISP, Fasttelco, got hit the worst and according to TivoGuy they had most of their stuff burn down. Fasttelco has assured us though Internet would be back up in 3 days time but I think it might take longer.

So until we get Internet back up I will most probably be connecting online from work using a qualitynet dialup account like I am doing now. Its a bit retro but better then nothing.

One interesting thing I realized was without Internet I did stuff I used to do before when I never had Internet. For example I read 3 newspapers today morning and then spoke to Nibaq on the phone for at least 20 minutes… the longest I had spoken to him on the phone since back when we were in high school trying to setup a Duke Nukem multiplayer session!

Yesterday I went with Nat for lunch at Le Relais de l’Entrecote in Al Fanar mall. I’ve past by the place from outside numerous times before but I was never interested in going in because the place looked really boring. Nat had been there before and both Nibaq and Rampurple seem to frequent it often so I figured I would give the place a shot.

Firstly its important to note that l’Entrecote serve only one dish and its steak with fries, so if you are expecting a menu with a sellection of dishes you will be disappointed. When I first went in and sat down I felt kind of let down. I was expecting l’Entrecote for some reason to be a lavish restaurant (I guess because of its name and location) but it actually felt cheap. The tables were small, light and flimsy, and they were covered in white paper sheets similar to the ones used at those sea food places in Fisherman’s Wharf. The only thing is that at the sea food places you are smashing crabs open on the table, at l’Entrecote you are not doing anything close to that so I don’t see the need for the cheap looking paper sheets. First impressions weren’t that good.

The head waiter came to our table after we were seated and asked us how we liked our meat to be done, we both said well done and he then asked for our drinks, I had a coke and Nat had a small bottle of water. He scribbled down our order on the paper sheet on the table and left… so thats why they use paper sheets, how creative (I’m being sarcastic here). Two minutes pass by when the waitress comes with 2 bottles of coke and no water, we tell her its supposed to be 1 coke and 1 water (pointing at the scribble on our table for proof) so she goes and gets the water. A few minutes later our salad arrives and its the most boring salad ever, its just lettuce, nothing else. I dig into it since I was hungry and surprisingly the salad dressing was pretty good. When we were done the waitress asked us if she should serve our main meal. I was bit surprised again, that was pretty quick, it had only been 15 minutes since we came in and ordered, how did our steak get done so quickly? I guess since they only serve one meal they can always be preparing the food non stop even before someone orders a dish.

The main dish arrived and it was a pretty simple setup. Half the plate was fries, the other half sliced up steak with some sauce on it (See picture above). I liked the arrangement, and the food looked pretty appetizing so I dug in. The food was good, the meat was tender and the sauce was really tasty. Even though I had ordered my meat well done it was a bit pink on the inside, I didn’t mind it but I know some people wouldn’t eat the meat if its a bit pink and thats why they order it well done, so, they kinda fucked up there. The fries was good specially if eaten with the sauce. When we were done with our plates the waitress came and gave us a refill. Everyone gets one refill, its like when you order the milkshake at Johnny Rockets. They bring you your glass filled with milkshake plus an extra steel container with more milkshake in case you need one more refill. At l’Entrecote they bring you a steel dish with extra fries and meat in case you need one more refill, pretty cool.

Finally we were done with our lunch. The whole process took less then an hour which was pretty impressive since I hate staying long at a restaurant (I am a come in, eat and then leave type of guy). We get the bill the total was around KD14 including the two drinks, but I am having a hard time figuring out if thats a decent price or not. The location of the place being Fanar Mall and the name being French gives the place a bit of elegance. But the setup inside and the presentation of the food and even the food itself points more towards casual dining. I think a total of KD12 might have fit the bill better.

Overall I didn’t find the place that interesting or special. I didn’t enjoy the seating inside, the table setup looked very cheap and the fact that the place only has one dish really makes it hard for me to give this place a really high rating. The food was good and filling so thats where the majority of the points will be coming from but it won’t be enough to give it anything higher then a 3.5 out of 5.

I found a website yesterday that sells pirated DVD’s and CD’s online here in Kuwait.. and they deliver! The website sells DVD’s for KD1.5 ($5) each and they seem to have a decent collection. I don’t know how much the CD’s go for but I am guessing either the same or less. Payment is made on delivery and the delivery is free of charge. [Link]

Update: There is another site that will also deliver DVD’s to your home, but they require you to buy atleast 3 DVD’s at KD2 ($6) each. You also place the order by phone and they seem to have a large collection. [Link]