Category: Personal

Today I went riding with Marzouq in the morning as I have been doing practically every Friday. Today though it was a completely different ride then our usual. Today we took the Fahaheel Expressway and rode down to Mina Abdullah. Once we got to there we took the inside rode and rode down all the way to Julia’a, then to Bnaider and finally to Al Zoor gas station.

The road we took was amazing. It was a narrow newly paved two lane road and it had a lot of twists and turns. It was also really long which was great since the weather was perfect and the road really fun. I got some good practice taking turns while trying to lean the bike really low thanks to Marzouq coaching skills. Now, after todays experience I trust my bike a lot more then I did before.

Before we left the south and got back onto the Fahaheel express way, I told Marzouq I had a problem when we were riding on it earlier in the day. Whenever I hit speeds exceeding 120km my jacket (which I now believe is a size too big for me) fluttered from the wind like crazy and it was painful. He told me I should just move as far back on the seat as I can and then lean over low so that my chest is touching the gas tank. That would bring me down really low behind my front faring which would protect me from the wind. I tried it and it worked! I was able to reach much much higher speeds without any side effects from the wind.

Anyway hopefully we will be riding their again since its such a beautiful place. And whats up with all these challets with cool names. I found one called “South Beach” and I figured it was some funky private beach but it turned out to be just a name of a challet.

So I woke up today morning and realized it had been raining outside. I had two options to get to work, either take my Wrangler which currently has no roof on, or take a cab. After yesterdays experience with cabs I decided I would take the Wrangler. I put on a cap and a weather proof jacket and headed to work and although it rained kind of heavy part of the way it really wasn’t bad. As long as I was moving I didn’t get wet and it was definitely more enjoyable then taking cabs.

The weather is getting pretty hot. I went out riding with Marzouq today and I took the picture above when we stopped for ice cream. Later we stopped at Starbucks in Marina for some icy frappuccinos.

I was chatting with a friend the other day who is a Harley rider when I noticed something interesting. When Harley riders upgrade their bikes they usually end up making them a lot heavier since all the chrome and accessories add weight to the bike. When sports bike riders upgrade their bikes they usually end up making them lighter since most of the parts weigh less then the stock ones. We are like complete opposites.

Kabab Al Hajat are know in Kuwait for their Kababs but recently they started making shawerma and I was curious to know how well it faired up.

Anyone who has ever been to Kabab Al Hajat and tried ordering food will know that there usually its extremely crowded and wait is long. Thankfully the shawerma station there has its own cashier and so is never full. When I passed by they only had chicken shawerma but the guy told me they were going to add meat also soon. I ordered two chicken and a coke, each shawerma costs 250fils and the coke 100fils.

Firstly it is important to point out I had my shawerma at lunch time. Very very few places serve shawerma during the day for some reason, I can only think of maybe 2 or 3 places max that serve shawerma for lunch so Kabab Al Hajat don’t have much competition while the sun is still out.

How did the shawerma taste? Well the garlic wasn’t strong which I usually mark as a bad thing. This time though I actually appreciated it because I was having shawerma during my lunch break and I didn’t want to get back to the office stinking of garlic. The overall flavor of the shawerma though was average, nothing in it stuck out as being amazing and there was no flavor that tasted weird or out of place. They use small Arabic bread not the hot dog one (samoon).

For the final score I would give it a 3.5 out of 5. Since they serve shawerma for lunch I think thats a great thing and I would pass by again for sure. At night though I would rather drive a bit further and get a shawerma from Badar Al Badoor.

Today on our lunch break me and my friend decided to pass by Marina Waves and try wall climbing and it turned out to be a lot of fun.

After some short instructions we decided to climb the beginners wall first. It looks easy when you see someone climbing but its really not. After some minor struggling we both raced to the top but then we didn’t know how to come back down. We both looked down and it was the scariest sight, we were like hanging from the top and the bottom looked really far. In the end we decided we would climb back down the wall and not try and see if the safety rope worked. Around half way down I decided to let go though and the safety rope did end up bringing me down. Turns out to come down you just rappel down with the rope.

We spent 40 minutes trying to climb different difficulties, I managed to climb two thirds up the medium side while my friend managed to hit the top. Thats as far as we got ranking wise. Other then that the whole thing was a struggle for both of us since we both aren’t very fit, me less fit then him of course. After 40 minutes I couldn’t even make it half way up the easy side yet alone attempt to climb the difficult one.

The whole thing was a lot of fun and I am definitely going back again. It costs KD4 for an hour of climbing, gear included. They open from 12PM to 12AM except for weekends its 10AM to 12PM. I now appreciate the extreme climber a lot more.

I got back from Lebanon yesterday night. My flight arrived at around 11:30PM which was around the same time Star Academy Prime was on LBC. I wanted to watch it to see if we made it on the program since they were going to talk about the making of the MTC commercial. According to k.thekuwaiti I did make it on the program but only for around 4 seconds and I was like in the background behind Shada. Not bad considering I was the only one from my agency that actually made the final cut and appeared on the show.

I am currently in a studio up in the mountains where they are working on the color grading of the MTC Atheer commercial. Yesterday after the commercial shoot they dropped the films here where they were developed and converted to video, a process called telecine. Now we are working on the color grading of the video which is the process of altering or enhancing the colors of the video. When you pull the video off the film its in very raw form and needs to be color graded before use. The commercial director and director of photography are both present for this process.

I have a few pictures and a short video I want to post hopefully today from yesterdays shoot but I am waiting to get permission from LBC. Once I do I will put them up.

Today I had the MTC Atheer commercial shoot with Ilham Al Madfai and Shada from Star Academy. I woke up at 7AM and was on the set by 8. The whole shoot took place in an old house/museum here in Lebanon and it was a really beautiful location. The shoot started at 8:30AM and ended 16 hours later at 12:30AM. It was extremely exhausting with only 1 short break for lunch.

Its now 2:15AM and I just got back to the hotel room. I am posting three pictures from todays shoot for now but will try to post more pictures tomorrow with more details.

We were done with the music recording at around 7PM and so I came back to my friends place where we played some Nintendo Wii. I think I am over the Wii, its not as fun as I imagined it to be and its really exhausting to play. When I pick up a joystick to play a video game its because I want to relax and chill out in front of the TV. The Wii on the other hand demands physical effort which I really don’t want to give. I think I am going to get the Xbox 360 instead. Forza Motorsport 2 is coming out in May and thats all I really need, oh and an NHL game.

I just got to the recording studio awhile ago, they have wifi here which is pretty cool. I am in Lebanon on an MTC Atheer (Iraq) commercial shoot involving Shada from Star Academy and Ilham Al Madfai. Currently Shada is inside recording and we are just waiting outside until she is done. This studio is really huge, so huge they actually have their own restaurant inside.

Today we are recording the soundtrack to the commercial but tomorrow we will be actually shooting it. The picture above is of the large set at this recording studio.

update: Ilham just arrived and said hi to everyone. He seems like a cool and down to earth guy.

I arrived to Lebanon I think around 1:30PM Lebanon time, left the airport and came straight to the hotel where I just lazed it out. Today is the only day where I can relax and do nothing so I am taking advantage of it. In a bit my brother is coming to pick me up and I will probably go have a drink and a bite to eat with him somewhere.

My rooms view is pretty sweet, I got the sea view this time around which is great. One thing I forgot to pack is a swimsuit, the hotel here has a roof top pool which overlooks Beirut, its an incredible view which makes swimming very tempting. Oh yeah, the weather here is like Kuwait… winter is over.

Best thing about this hotel is the location, its near the American University of Beirut which means there are a lot of things to do here when I have free time. By a lot of things I mostly mean food.

I need to go down to Beirut for a few days to shoot a commercial and I should be back Friday night. My flight leaves at noon so I have to pack everything tonight. I will have Internet access from my hotel room so I will continue to blog from there.

Just came back from my morning ride awhile ago and the new exhausts sound ridiculous! They are unbelievably good!! Its like a completely different bike, they are loud, mean and look much better then the stock ones. The whole bike feels lighter since the new carbon exhausts are much much lighter then the old aluminum ones. Anyway below I have pictures of the bike with the new exhausts and front fairing. If you want to see how the bike looked like before click [Here]

Today morning I got 24 cup cakes from Little Treats. The delivery guy came early in the morning to my office, I paid him and then hurried back to my desk so I could dig in. I spent the first 5 minutes just staring at the cupcakes, they were just so beautifully decorated I didn’t know if I should eat them or just look at them. Finally I opened up the package and tried the cupcakes.

The Little Treat cupcakes are much better then Juju’s. Everyone at my office who tried them gave the same comment “these are better then yesterdays”. Yesterday being Juju’s cupcakes. Other then the fact that the cupcakes are bigger and better decorated then Juju’s, they also taste better.

My biggest issue with Little Treats is the packaging. Its difficult to take out one cupcake without damaging the decoration on it or on the cupcakes adjacent to it. Other then that after trying both Juju’s and Little Treats cupcakes I have realized I prefer muffins over cupcakes and cookies over muffins.

If you are interested in Little Treats check out their website by clicking [Here]

Yesterday night Tristar came and picked up my bike so they could install my new slip-ons. While the bike was being put on the truck I realized I still haven’t come up with a name for the bike. So after some thinking I have decided to call my bike Starscream.