Category: Personal

Negative Effect lent me his Toyata FJ Cruiser for the night and it only took the ride back home in it to be convinced about getting one. It felt really cozy, comfortable and just well built. Now its just about choosing a color and finding a good deal on a second hand one. I guess I have to prepare a farewell party for my Wrangler.

Have you gotten your loved one a Shani today?

Eliss – trailer from steph thirion on Vimeo.

Eliss is currently my favorite iPhone game. It’s got retro graphics, a great soundtrack and an extremely strange and new style of play. It’s hard to explain so its best to watch the video above to get an idea. Once you start getting into it people watching you play will have no idea what the hell is going on and how the hell you’re playing it because visually there are soo many things going on at the same time. The game costs $2.99 but they have a free version in case you want to try it out. Here is the [Link]

I went back to Tamiya today to try out their crawling trail which is made for RC cars that are meant for rock climbing. The trail was made with a combination of plaster and wood and although challenging in some places I found it a bit tiny and too easy. It’s a great idea but too short a trail so I am hoping they have plans to extend it or make a larger one. For now will stick to Bnaider for crawling.

One of my best friends bought a Tamiya car so we went over to the Tamiya track at the Tilal Complex in Shuwaikh to race our cars on their track. I wouldn’t call what we did racing since it was more like a destruction derby but it was the most fun I’ve had in a long time.

It was my first time using their new outdoor track and it’s amazing. A lot of nice curves, a good long straight and best of all they have 4 charging stations for our batteries. That means if you have two batteries you could race with one while charging the other and keep swapping for unlimited fun. It costs KD1 to use their track but its really worth it. I later noticed they have a small trail for the Tamiya crawlers so I will pass by tomorrow to try that out. It also turns out tomorrow is an off-road day which means they turn the track into an off-road one with jumps and stuff. I will be taking my Tamiya Frog to try that out as well.

My car shell has taken a lot of abuse from me so I decided to pick one up on the way out. I picked up a Ford Escort Cosworth which is actually my 4th favorite car ever (the first is the Lancia Delta Integrale), Going to paint it this week and hopefully race it next Friday.

Over the weekend I picked up an iJacket while I was shopping in Bahrain. I originally posted about it back in 2007 and then totally forgot about it until I saw it at the store.

Firstly just to be clear, I got the jacket because the jacket looks good. I was not interested in the iPod connectivity, thats just an extra benefit for me but not the reason I bought the jacket. I am not the type of person that walks around listening to music and so I won’t be using the controls on the jacket a lot. Now since I did get the jacket and I do own a number of iPods I figured I might as well give my feedback.

The iPod has a special transparent and water proof pocket on the inside of the jacket. There is a regular iPod connector in that pocket and you connect your ipod to it. The pocket also has a small opening for your headphone cable to pass through. The controls on the jacket sleeve are fairly basic, volume up and down, pause/play forward and reverse. The idea is that when its cold outside you don’t want to unzip your jacket and pull out your iPod every time you want to perform a simple command and that’s where the controls on your sleeve come to play. Without unzipping your jacket or removing your gloves you can control your iPod by just touching the buttons on the sleeve. Although I call them buttons they’re not really buttons. The part of the sleeve where the buttons are located feels exactly the same as any other part of the sleeve. No bulge or anything of that sort just the shapes of the buttons imprinted on the sleeve.

When I first tried using the controls I thought I had a malfunctioning jacket since the buttons didn’t work. Then I found out that the jacket auto-locks the controls after 8 seconds of no use and to unlock the controls you have to hold down on the unlock button for 5 seconds. That’s the biggest issue I have with the jacket… the auto-lock feature. It makes the jacket unpractical. Imagine you’re listening to music and then a friend wants to tell you something. To pause the iPod you need to hold down on the unlock button for 5 seconds and then hit the pause button. So it takes at least 6 seconds to pause the iPod which is silly. You know how sometimes one track plays a lot louder than others? Well you need to wait 5 seconds for the buttons to unlock before you could quickly lower the volume to a decent listening level.

That’s why I’m giving the jacket a 2 out of 5. The auto-lock feature is the dumbest idea ever. There is no reason to have it since I can’t imagine the buttons being pressed accidentally unless someone grabs you from your arm and how often does that happen? I’ve already emailed Zegna asking if there is a way to disable the auto-lock but I doubt there is. As a jacket the iJacket is very comfortable and great looking. As an iPod controller it sucks big time because the auto-lock makes it impossible to use. Now a cool feature I would use a lot if it was included would be iPod/iPhone charging. I know there are a few jackets out there that do that but currently the iJacket doesn’t which sucks. I’m hoping if there will ever be an iJacket 2.0 it will.

Just finished what has to be a 5 out of 5 burger. I’m staying at the Ritz Carlton here in Bahrain and just tried the room service burger and now I am regretting not having it yesterday or the day before. Luckily it’s still 8:30PM so I think I can fit another dinner before I go to sleep. I can’t wait…

Update: Had a second burger and was able to take a picture this time which I just added to the post above. I am full.

GulfRun5 starts tomorrow so I am at the airport now waiting for my flight to Bahrain. I think a few bloggers are going to be there as well since Blushberry posted that he’s already there and p0ach posted that he is driving there. It’s going to be a lot of fun.

Well this post was going to be the ultimate water review but after drinking around 2 liters of water I threw in the towel. Other than the fact that I think I overdosed on water, they all started tasting the same after the third bottle. BUT, it didn’t go all to waste. I was able to answer the most important question… Does a KD5 bottle of water taste better than a 100fils bottle?

I picked up my bottles of water from four different sources, Dean & Deluca, Carrefour, Sultan Center Souk Sharq and Sultan Center Salmiya and I paid a total of KD17.330 for 19 bottles of water. I actually spent the bulk of that at Dean & Deluca purchasing 4 bottles of water which came out to KD11. I’ve listed all the bottles below with their prices but the KD5 bottle I will be reviewing is the one I got from Dean & Deluca called 10 Thousand BC. This is what it says on the back of the bottle:

Locked in an icy vault for over 10,000 years, this water comes from the remote and sheltered Coastal Glacier Range, that literally vibrates with the rich fragrance of health and vitality. Experience the pure, natural taste captured in 10 THOUSAND BC.

The competition? Our very own locally produced Al Rawdatain. It’s my favorite water and I like the brand a lot probably because it reminds me of my childhood. So how was it going to do against the water that comes from the beautiful coastal glacier range of British Columbia, Canada? Not very good.

You can take what I am about to say with a grain of salt since I am no water expert but the 10 Thousand BC water did taste better. I really felt like I was drinking snow, it smelled like snow and tasted like snow. Nat thinks I am losing it but I still have a bit of water left in the bottle (saving it for a special occasion like when Prince Charles comes over) to prove her wrong. The bottle looks great and the story behind the water is breathtaking. Al Rawdatain on the other hand tasted pretty normal but at 60fils its over 500 times cheaper. The Al Rawdatain water also came in a plastic bottle which although not as pretty as the 10 Thousand BC glass bottle can at least handle a fall without breaking.

So 10 Thousand BC tasted better but seriously who would buy a KD5 bottle of water to drink regularly? It’s actually one of the most expensive bottles of water in the world. I mean KD5 is an affordable luxury, anyone can afford it if they want to try it but does anyone drink it casually?

Check out the list of prices below.

I am about 20 years late but I finally got myself a label maker. I never owned one before but I picked one up today from Ace Hardware. I’ve been making and sticking random labels on anything and everything. At around KD3 its pretty affordable.

I got an email yesterday from someone at Aston Martin and one thing led to another and I was invited to test drive one of their cars. So, after work I passed by the dealership which is located in the same place where Auto City used to be before they closed down. When I walked in I was completely surprised at how big the dealership was. According to them its actually the largest Aston Martin dealership in the world which I thought was pretty cool. The dealership is divided into three floors. On the top floor they have a collection of vintage Aston Martins including a very rare station wagon and an Aston Martin DB5 similar to the one from the James Bond movie Goldfinger. One the ground floor they have a large display of new cars and also a small Aston Martin boutique while the basement contained some pre-owned vehicles. After the tour I was finally led to my test vehicle, the Aston Martin Vantage. Sigh… what a beautiful car.

After a quick tour of how everything works I took off for a drive. The first thing I needed to get used to was the speedometer. With my Wrangler, when the speedometer needle is up in the middle it means I am going 100KM/h. In my Z4 when the speedometer is up in the middle it means I am going around 140KM/h. In the Aston Martin when the needle is pointing straight up you’re going 300KM/h. So I was driving thinking I was going maybe 60 or 80KM/h because the needle was still very low but then I took a look at the number next to the needle and I wish I could say how fast I was going but I don’t think I can without getting into trouble. It was very cool. Another thing I liked about the car is that it’s pretty quiet and comfortable when driving normally but as soon as you hit 4000RPM it turns into a beast like a werewolf under a full moon. Actually I think that’s what I liked most about the car, its a very comfortable day to day car when you want it to be and then step on it and you’re suddenly in a loud and aggressive sports car. I now totally understand why Jeremy Clarkson loves the Aston Martins so much.

Just before I took the car back to the dealership I decided to pass by the Avenues parking lot to take some pictures. I wish I had the car for at least a day or even a weekend but I am not going to be too greedy. They did promise me that I would get to test drive their other cars as well. So maybe the DB9 next and then a DBS after that.

Anyway if you want to check out their cars they will be on display at the Concours d’Elegance which I posted about 2 weeks back. The Concours d’Elegance is going to be held at Marina Mall and Crescent from the 20th to the 23rd. The Aston Martins will be on display near Le Notre. It’s the first time the Concours d’Elegance is being held in Kuwait so don’t miss out.

Update: Forgot to mention but the One-77 was in Kuwait 2 weeks ago!

I love burgers and I’m glad my new nutrition plan includes burgers once a week because I don’t think I could have stuck to a plan that didn’t allow room for burgers. This past weekend I headed to 360 Mall for the Gulf Run 5 car show but first I decided to have lunch at The Meat Co. I had been wanting to try their burgers ever since my first visit but I never got the chance until now. I have to say, this was the hardest burger to review and I’ll explain why below.

I got to The Meat Co. early and decided to sit on the balcony overlooking Life with Cacao and Lorenzo. The friendly waiter gave me the menu and I flipped right away to their burger section. They had 6 burgers to choose from, the Classic Burger, the Cheese Burger, the Gourmet Burger (who the hell puts pineapple on a burger, totally gross), Rib Meat Burger, Lamb Burger and Chicken Burger. I went with the Cheese Burger although next time I will most probably go with their Rib Meat Burger and then maybe their Lamb Burger after that. I ordered my burger medium which is cool because when I first started this burger challenge I used to have my burgers well done but then as I started reading more about burgers and really getting into it I started having it medium well. To move to medium is a step in the right direction although I don’t think I would have a medium burger just anywhere.

The burger arrived and it looked beautiful. The shape, the size, the way everything was very tidy it just looked like the perfect burger. I took my first bite and in under a minute or two max I had finished the burger. It was the healthiest burger I’ve ever had and I’m talking about the actual beef patty here. It just tasted like it was made with really great quality meat. It wasn’t heavy, it didn’t have a bad after taste, it wasn’t fatty and it was very light on the stomach. It had the makings of a perfect burger which is why it was very difficult to review. There was very little flavor. It was lacking oomph which is why maybe next time I would get rid of the vegetables and put some mustard to see if that helps.

If I want to be extra nitpicky I would talk about how I am not a big fan of powdery buns but I in this case it didn’t bother me that much. My burger was very juicy and the bun didn’t have any trouble holding up, it didn’t get soggy which is always great. Speaking of juiciness, my burger arrived medium well instead of medium but that was fine. The final score is going to be a 4 out of 5. I would highly recommend it, it’s a near perfect classic burger. At KD5.500 its actually a steal.

The Meat Co. is located in 360 Mall
The cost of the Cheese Burger was KD5.500

Here are the burger places I’ve reviewed so far:
Applebee’s
Bredz
Burger Boutique
Fuddruckers
Hashi
Gaucho Gril
Gourmet Burger Kitchen
Johnny Rockets
Munch
Napket
Papa John’s Burgers
Prime & Toast
Ruby Tuesday
Slider Station
Sheraton Hotel
Smoke House
The Burger Hub
The Butcher Shop
The Little Oven
Wimpy

Just got back from my first 20 minute session at Core Fitness… it was grueling, really tough and I realized I am more out of shape than Homer Simpson. The scariest part was when it came to my last exercise which was for my abs. My trainer wanted me to do 150 different types of crunches, 150! I couldn’t go through with it, at 60 I was dead or at least wished I was dead. But, on a positive note, I didn’t puke although I was really close at one point. Anyway I got my stats and final diet plan which I will share with everyone below. Once I am done with my 7 weeks we’ll go back to these stats to see how much I changed. The diet plan below was created for me. It might look a bit strange but it was created around my daily routine, the places I usually go eat at and based on what I like to eat. I don’t cook at home so 90% of it is based on restaurant food. Before I share the stats and diet plan, here is a message from the owner of Core Fitness explaining what you will be seeing.

Mark is not fat. This may surprise a lot of you due to his hunger for really greasy food, but he’s actually good in respect to his weight and height. What we’re trying to do is achieve “re-composition”. Simply put, we’re exchanging fat with muscle. For an individual his height (6’1), anything below 80kg is too light. Our goal is to stay within the 80-85kg range, shed some fat and gain some muscle. Since Mark’s been inactive for a while, any short intense activity will suffice in order to reach his goals.

Nutritionally, his eating patterns were [slightly] healthy to begin with:
1) He ate breakfast early, but ditched healthy protein and splurged on McDonald’s pancakes and maple syrup.
2) He didn’t eat frequently, which in turn slowed down his metabolism.
3) He ate dinner early due to the acid reflux he was suffering from.

Like I said earlier, Mark isn’t fat; he just needs a metabolic boost. Not much was done in terms of nutrition since he already has been taking care of himself by avoiding heavily greased foods such as french fries. Core Fitness does not have one nutrition program that everyone can use; we sit with each individual and review their daily routines. Many people actually eat right, but fail in terms of nutrition timing which include eating breakfast too late, skimping on metabolism boosting snacks or eating one meal a day. I’ve based the diet on Mark’s preferences, which is what we accomplish with all clients.

Lastly, we’ve enrolled Mark in a Fat-loss program that includes weight-lifting, body-weight training and aerobics; all packaged into 20 minutes of training.

Regards,
Fahad Khalid AlYehya

I should have posted this earlier but completely forgot. Anyway British Airways have a sale until January 19th. Ticket to London is KD157 including taxes and KD254 to New York which is what I am probably going to book for myself. [Link]

I’ve had the Canon G11 for just over a month now and after using it practically on a daily basis. I did a lot of research before choosing to go with the G11 and I don’t regret my decision. I have mostly great things to say about this camera and will go through the different categories one by one.

Battery Life
I got my Canon G11 on December 11th and I charged it that same day. Its now January 15th and I still haven’t charged the camera since then. Not only that but the battery meter is still showing that the battery is full. This is perfect because it means when I travel I don’t need to pack the charger or buy an extra battery.

Usability and Feel
The camera doesn’t fit in my pocket so I spend most of the time either carrying it in my hand or in my bag if I am carrying one. It comes with a strap but it isn’t long enough to wear across the shoulder just around the neck which isn’t practical for me. The camera feels very solid and it’s also a bit heavy so it gives it a very durable feel. I love the dials on top and I use them a lot. I always keep the camera on “P” (Program Mode) which automatically adjusts the aperture and shutter speed but control the exposure (make the shot brighter or darker) I use the dial on the left to control that. On the right there are two other dials, one for the ISO which I also use a lot and the second to swap between the different programs. Other than the regular programs which you find on most cameras like aperture priority, shutter priority, automatic mode etc.. there are two custom modes called C1 and C2. These two positions contain your custom camera settings. For example I have C1 set the camera to “P”, change the format of the image to JPG, the dimensions to wide shot and the color setting to vivid. That’s the mode I use mostly when taking shots for my blog. C2 on the other hand sets the camera to “P” but then changes the image format to RAW+JPG and at full resolution (not wide). I use that setting in case there is a beautiful shot I want to capture at the highest quality. There are a ton of other settings you could also set for each mode as well but I won’t get into them here. I really wish my Nikon D90 had a custom mode feature and dials on top to control the iso and exposure.

Image Quality
It’s great for a point and shoot camera but no competition next to a good DSLR. The noise at fairly high ISO’s is pretty decent and I find myself often using ISO800 with no worries about the image coming out noisy with ISO1600 also being very usable. The only issue I have is with the white balance. Sometimes when indoors the images come out a bit too cold for my taste and that’s actually the only issue I have with the camera.

Swivel Screen
One of the coolest features in the camera for me is the swivel screen. It allows me to take pictures without having to hold the camera up to my face. I also like the fact that when the camera is not in use I fold the screen to face inwards which protects the screen while in my bag. For people who don’t like the swivel feature they can rotate the screen towards them and fold it in and keep it that way like a regular camera.

So overall I really love this camera. There were a lot of occasions where I wished I had purchased the Panasonic GF1 but in the end I realized the reason I got the Canon G11 is to use for my blog and when I travel and the GF1 although a great camera isn’t as practical (and also twice more expensive). I highly recommend this camera to anyone that is looking for small highly controllable and fully featured camera. I am going to give it a 4.5 out of 5, it looses points for the white balance issue I faced and the fact that it doesn’t fit in my jeans pocket.

If you’re interested in this camera it’s available in Kuwait for KD228 but I purchased mine from Amazon for just KD127.
Here is the link to the Canon G11 on Amazon [Link]