Category: Kuwait

Bader, a friend of mine who also won the Tamiya 501x buggy from the My Toy Facebook competition uploaded a video of his car in action around the My Toy offroad track. It looks very cool, I’m nearly finished building my car as well, just waiting for my motor and batteries to get delivered by Aramex. I don’t know what camera Bader mounted on the small 1/10 scale buggy but I already asked him and once he emails me a response will post it here. [YouTube]

My Toy have ended their 501x giveaway and have started a new competition in which you need to send them an edited RC car video. I sent them the one I made of my FJ Cruiser (below) which I think is a pretty cool video specially since it was my first.

Tamiya FJ CR-01 in Kuwait

Update: He used the GoPro Hero HD motorsports version with 3M mounts which you can find on Amazon [Here]

I got a nasty chip in my windshield the other day from a flying pebble and if that wasn’t bad enough the chip happened right up in the middle of my line of sight. It was extremely annoying and I wanted to fix it right away so I ended up taking it to our friends at Al Falah Car Wash since they recently started repairing windshields.

It took them around half and hour to repair two chips in my windshield (the new one and an older tiny one) and now my windshield looks new again. It cost me around KD5 plus I tipped the repair guy. They did a great job so I highly recommend them plus you can get your car washed when you’re done.

They’ve activated the new clock road sign near McDonalds on the Gulf Road and it turns out they’re using a new screen for it. Unlike the first generation signs in which they used two smaller screens, the new sign uses one larger higher resolution screen which is much better. No more squinting trying to read the messages, they should be much larger and clearer from now on.

Last weekend I decided to try and walk home from work. The distance was around 12KM and took me 2 hours and 20 minutes. Today I decided to try and beat the time and try to get home in 2 hours or less. So I ran, and ran and ran. I don’t think I’ve ever ran as much or as far as I did. It wasn’t non stop running since I’m not that fit but I ran a lot more than I walked. To my surprise, I managed to cover the exact same distance but this time in 1 hour and 39 minutes! Not bad for a guy who can barely make it on a treadmill for 30 minutes. The above time is todays run while the below time is from last week.

According to the Freedom of the Press 2011 survey release, Kuwait no longer tops the Arab world in freedom of the press, that position now goes to Lebanon. Previously Kuwait was always on top but this year it dropped from a global position of 115th last year to 124th place in 2011. You can check out the full results and press releases [Here]

Below is the freedom of the press ranking for the Middle East and North Africa:

1- Israel
2- Lebanon
3- Kuwait
4- Algeria
5- Jordan
6- Egypt
7- Qatar
8- Iraq / Morocco
10- Oman / UAE
12- Bahrain
13- Palestine / Saudi Arabia / Yemen
16- Syria
17- Tunisia
18- Iran
19- Libya

There seems to be some kind of miscommunication going around or maybe it’s me that is wrong. All the news sites are reporting the courier that led to the capture of bin Laden was a Kuwaiti.

Aide Who Led to Bin Laden Was Kuwaiti-Born Courier

A diplomatic source told CNN that the courier who was in close contact with Osama bin Laden and who eventually led the United States to him was a Kuwaiti named Abu Ahmad.

Phone call by Kuwaiti courier led to bin Laden

The guy’s nickname was “al Kuwaiti” but from what I’ve read he wasn’t a Kuwaiti but instead a Pakistani national who was born in Kuwait which doesn’t make him a Kuwaiti.

It took years of work before the CIA identified the courier’s real name: Sheikh Abu Ahmed, a Pakistani man born in Kuwait. [Source]

I wonder if the Kuwait PR department will kick in to correct this bit of information since right now its giving Kuwait a bad image.

Update: The main headline right now on CNN.com is “U.S. tracked Kuwaiti courier since 2007”

I just found out we have a KitchenAid dealer in Kuwait. I never knew there was one locally since I never saw their products in any store but it seems that’s because in Kuwait they cater mostly to businesses. KitchenAid is an extremely popular brand for kitchen mixers which are used a lot in cooking shows. According to the dealer the mixer costs KD130 after discount which when compared to the KD75 selling price on Amazon… it’s nearly double. But ordering from Amazon isn’t an option since it’s pretty heavy and you have the voltage difference.

The KitchenAid dealer turned out to be the Blendtec dealer as well. Blendtec is a very popular blender and they’re the same ones used on the website Will It Blend? in which they try to blend random everyday objects.The prices of the Blendtec blenders start at KD370 which is more than double the prices on Amazon. Ouch!

In any case if you’re interested to know, the dealer is called Mabrook and their phone number is 24818242

The Dalsan Women Association are having a book donation campaign to collect books to send off to universities and other educational institutions in war torn Somalia. Students in Somalia have a severe shortage of books in university libraries especially scientific ones and donating at least one book will help students get a better education and a brighter future. I know a lot of people have books they finished reading or haven’t opened in years and now there is a way these books can help people. So if you have books you don’t need then drop them off at the Kuwait Writer’s Association located in Adeliya opposite Kazema Club or if you prefer you can send them to the Somali Embassy in Bayan Block 7 avenue/jaddah 8 street 1. You have the whole month of May to drop of books!

[YouTube]

The managing director of the AC Milan Soccer School in Kuwait sent me some information regarding their participation last week in the 24th International Youth Tournament in Rovereto, Italy. It turns out it was the first time in the tournament’s history, a team from out of the EU participates in it. Even though the Kuwaiti team did not win the tournament they still had a great performance. For those of you who don’t know, the AC Milan Soccer School in Kuwait is in collaboration with Loyac and is a non-profit program designed to support the youth and improve football in Kuwait. Fore more information visit their website [Here]

Way to go guys!

When I was walking back home from work the other day I spotted this shawerma place called Dandosh. What grabbed my attention was a red skewer of chicken which according to a friend of mine I met there was their “mexican mix”. So since I was taking a day off from my diet I decided to pass by tonight and try out their shawermas.

I didn’t try their meat but I ended up having three different combinations of chicken shawerma which are:

– Mexican chicken shawerma with regular garlic and fries
– Regular chicken shawerma with red spicy garlic and fries
– Regular chicken shawerma with regular garlic and fries

I had all the above without their onion/greens mix.

The Mexican shawerma was a bit too strange for me. It had a lot of different spices and I tasted a hint of green pepper which I don’t like. The regular chicken shawerma with their special red spicy garlic was good although I thought it was a bit too spicy. My favorite shawerma turned out to be the classic, regular chicken with regular garlic. The garlic wasn’t too strong and the overall combination I think might be better than Badar Al Badoor although I would need to go back and try it one more time just to be sure. They also have benches outside if you want to sit and eat.

I would definitely recommend the place and if you want to know how to get there here is a link to [Google Maps]. For those of you who know where Badar Al Badoor is then it’s very easy to get to Dandosh. Just go straight instead of taking the right turn that takes you towards Badar Al Badoor.

I used to be a big fan of the raft race when it used to be held at Messila Beach in the late 80s but haven’t really been to any ever since. This weekend though the annual raft race is going to be held at Shaab Sea Club in Salmiya so depending on the weather I might end up passing by.

I couldn’t find any details regarding the timings but their website does mention the following activities that will be available on the day:

Children playground
Beach volleyball
Beach football
DJ
Costume show
Face painting

Ticket prices are KD4 for adults and KD2 for children. For more information visit their website [Here]

Update: Sorry I forgot to mention the date which is May 6th. I also found out the start time of the event which is 9AM. (Thanks Rashed)

Over the weekend I spotted the new KDD ice cream package designs and names on iLSul6ana’s blog and I found them depressing. Gone are our Burgan’s and Failaka’s, gone are the cute little Kuwaiti kids on the package, they’ve now been replaced with generic Blitz. Maybe if we all complain loud enough we can get back the old names and package designs?

So Thursday after work I decided to walk home as a bit of exercise. My office is located in Kuwait City near Muthana Complex and my apartment at the beginning of Salmiya. I estimated the distance would be around 15km and I wanted to try and make the trip in 3 hours or less. Well the whole trip turned out to be 12km and took me around 2 hours and 20 minutes to complete. I thought that was disappointing because my regular walks around Salmiya are 11km long and Kuwait City to Salmiya sounded a lot longer than that. I didn’t feel tired or exhausted and it really wasn’t challenging enough. What was even more depressing was when I got home and was checking Facebook I noticed pictures of a friend of mine who had just gotten back to Kuwait after participating at the Marathon des Sables… a 6 day long 243km endurance race. I guess I’m taking baby steps? On the bright side at least it’s something I can do more often now. I took some pictures during the walk and was uploading them to twitter but in case you missed it you can see them at the bottom of this post.

On a different note I measured my body fat percentage today and it’s 13%. That means I dropped down 1.6% since the beginning of the month (I was 14.6) and I lost 1.2kg of body weight and all of it was fat, no muscle loss. So not what I was hoping for but still better off from where I was earlier in the month.

The progress on my XRAY 808E RC buggy build has been pretty slow since I’m taking my time with it. My brother has also started his first build ever (pictured above), he’s putting together the Tamiya 501x he won from the My Toy competition on Facebook.

An advantage I have over him though is the fact I’ve already started buying the electronics for my car while he hasn’t which means my car will probably finish before him. I ended up ordering the Tekin T8 1900kv motor with the RX8 electronic speed controller (both pictured above) as well as two 4s 4500mAh hard case batteries. I ended up ordering the motor/esc combo online since I couldn’t find it locally and I ordered the batteries online because they’re a lot cheaper than here. I still need to get a servo (the small motor that steers the car) and tires which I will most probably get from Pro-Hobbies since that’s where I got the XRAY from.

Now the aim of posts like this is to try and introduce people to new activities or hobbies to my readers. Building cars is a great way to kill time and it’s an activity that is heavily supported by the local RC shops and a hobby that I really love. I am by no means an RC expert, I’m learning as I am going along and the people who work and run the RC shops are extremely helpful. So don’t be scared to build a car if you haven’t before, it’s as easy as LEGO. I didn’t know the difference between LiPo batteries were a few days ago or even the difference between a 1900kv motor and a 2650kv motor for example. I’m still learning! But if anyone has any questions about RC cars post them below and I’ll answer them.

I thought April would bethe final month for Cinemagic’s rooftop movies since they usually stop playing movies once the weather gets really hot but they’re still on for May and they’ve got some very cool movies lined up for everyone.

Thursday, May 5th at 7:30pm
CUBE
Director: Vincenzo Natali
Country: USA
Release: 1997
Genre: Horror | Mystery | Sci-Fi
Running time: 90 minutes Language: English | English Subtitle Awards: Best Director, , Best Cinematography
Rated: R

Saturday, May 7th at 7:30pm
LADY VENDETTA
Director: Park Chan Wook
Country: South Korea
Release: 2005
Genre: Crime | Drama | Thriller
Running time: 112 minutes
Language: Korean | English Subtitle
Awards: Best Film, Best Director…
Rated: R

Thursday, May 12th at 7:30pm
DANCER IN THE DARK
Director: Lars Von Trier
Country: Denmark
Release: 2000
Genre: Drama | Musical
Running time: 140 minutes
Language: Danish | English Subtitle
Awards: Palm D,or and Best Actress
Rated: R

Saturday, May 14th at 7:30pm
VOLVER
Director: Pedro Almodovar
Country: Spain
Release: 2006
Genre: Drama
Running time: 121 minutes
Language: Spanish | English Subtitle
Awards: Nominated Palm D,or, Winner Best Actresses
Rated: R

Thursday, May 19th at 7:30pm
UZAK
Director: Nuri-bilge Ceylan
Country: Turkey
Release: 2002
Genre: Drama
Running time: 110 minutes
Language: Turkish | English Subtitle
Awards: Grand Prize of the Jury, Best Actor
Rated: PG

Saturday, May 21st at 7:30pm
OF GODS AND MEN
Director: Xavier Beauvois
Country: France
Release: 2010
Genre: Drama
Running time: 122 minutes
Language: French | English Subtitle
Awards: Grand Prize of the Jury, Best Director
Rated: R

Thursday, May 26th at 7:30pm
THE HUNTER
Director: Rafi Pitts
Country: Iran – Germany
Release: 2010
Genre: Drama
Running time: 90 minutes
Language: Persian | English Subtitle
Awards: Nominated at Berlin festival for Best Film
Rated: PG

Saturday, May 28th at 7:30pm
BEFORE THE DEVIL KNOWS YOU’RE DEAD
Director: Sidney Lumet
Country: USA
Release: 2007
Genre: Crime | Drama | Thriller
Running time: 117 minutes
Language: English | English Subtitle
Rated: R

Cinemagic Kuwait, is organizing these events as part of its efforts to contribute to the development of an internationally competitive Kuwaiti audio-visual production industry, partly by bringing the filmmakers and audiences together and by Increasing the public’s interest in – and appreciation for – the art of film-making. Cinemagic movies are screened in the old Salmiya, on the roof on top of Alghanim Electronics and LG. There is a KD1 charge for the venue fees which includes refreshments, popcorn and much more. Here is a link to their Facebook group [Link]