Category: Personal

Got up at 9, gave Marzouq a call and woke him up. We decided to meet at Marina Crescent at 9:45. I got dressed and left the house at 9:15 and to kill time I rode all the way to the end of the Gulf Road passed Kuwait City and then came back down Marina Crescent to wait for Marzouk.

Once he came he was like we are going to Hilton in Mangaf. I was like sounds cool and we headed out. After a quick stop for gas we hit the Fahaheel expressway. It was my first time on a highway so I was pretty excited.

The roads were practically empty and the weather was just amazing. Since the expressway is just a long straight line I opened up the throttle to see how fast I could go. I hit 170KM/h before I decided to go back down to the our cruising speed of 140KM/h. The bike could easily have flown past 170, I was only in 4th gear (out of 6) and the more throttle I gave it the more the bike would pull away. In the end I decided to throttle down because the wind resistance was just too much. The speed cameras all didn’t seem to be working today. I tried to get one to fire (no front license plate on bikes) but none wanted to go off.

After getting to Hilton we decided to head back to Marina and have breakfast. The road back was pretty quick and when we finally got to Marina it was a lot more packed. We parked our bikes and had breakfast at Le Pain Quotidien. First thing we ordered was hot chocolate to warm us up a bit. That was quickly followed by a bread basket and omelets.

It was 12PM by the time I got home.I am off work now for 2 weeks starting tomorrow so I think I will be riding every morning. Its really a lot of fun.

Picture by Marzouq

Yesterday I got an Ericsson 388 and today I started using it as my primary phone. I have been getting a lot of ooooooohs and ahhhhhhhs everytime someone sees the phone. Everyone owned one and everyone seemed to have positive things to say about the phone and good memories to go along with it. The phone simply rocks.

Now the bad thing. The battery isn’t as good as I thought it was. On standbye the phone lasts long but after 4 or 5 phone calls the phone beeps with a “Low Battery” warning and the happy green blinking LED on the top of the phone turns red. To solve it I just remove the battery, shake it and then place it back again. Suddenly my battery is full again until the next phone call.

Other then that though the phone is just fantastic. I have an extra battery with me which I think I will charge now. This way when one dies I just swap in the other.

I posted before that my favorite phone I ever owned was an Ericsson 337 and 388. They both looked the same except the biggest difference was that the 337 had a metal front cover while the 388 had a plastic one. Also the 388 allowed me to send SMS while with the 337 I could only accept.

Anyway thanks to Jens a blog reader I now have in my possession an excellent condition Ericsson 388 with a perfectly working battery and home charger. Its gorgeous. Back when I had it the phone looked really tiny since its main competitor back then was the bulky Nokia 2110. Now the phone looks big compared to current phones. I still love the way the phone looks like and I love the green back light and the blinking green light on top of the phone telling me I have signal. Its all very retro.

The phone does lack some things. It doesn’t have a camera, no bluetooth, no infrared, no mp3 ringtones, no colored screen and no 3G. But I can make and receive phone calls and I can also send and receive SMS.

The Ericsson 388 is replacing my Motorola V3x which I have been hating more and more every day. Now I need to go and enter all my phone numbers manually into my phone. Its going to be a long night.

Note: To access the 388 service menu press right then * then left left * and left * one more time.

Its Friday morning and I just got to work. Its been one hectic week. Actually its only 11AM and its already been a busy day. Nat went off in the morning riding with some Harley bikers. She will be posting about it later today plus she has some really cool pictures.

I also took Geo to the Marina Crescent beach. He spent the whole time jumping into the sea and me yelling at him to get out. Now I am at work, I rode in on my bike which was fun.

Its going to be a busy busy day.

Just booked a flight for me and Nat to Beirut. Will be leaving on the 27th and coming back January 1st. I booked with Jazeera Airways and was expecting not to find any places but it seems the current political situation in Lebanon has led to a lot of cancellations. Last time I celebrated New Years in Lebanon was in 2000 so it should be fun.

So I am coming back home after work on the Gulf Road and I notice there was a huge fire behind Texas Chicken. So made a detour, passed Texas Chicken and parked my car just as the fire truck was arriving. I take my camera, locked the car and walked towards the fire. The fire looked huge and still fresh so I turn on my camera to shoot and turns out I had no battery! This was the first time I ever ran out of battery when I needed to shoot something. I felt naked.

I love Montreal. Its my favorite place on the planet. Since Christmas is nonexistent in Kuwait and since Nat has never been anywhere other then Lebanon and Kuwait I figured we would spend Christmas and New Years in Montreal. I was looking forward to binging on Labatt Blue while stuffing myself with poutine. Nat on the other hand was looking forward to the Tiesto concert on New Years night. We had everything planned and ready, only thing missing was Nats visa to Canada. I don’t need a visa because I have the Canadian citizenship.

Around a week ago we sent Nats passport and all the forms and papers needed to the Canadian Embassy in Abu Dhabi (local embassy don’t do visas). Visa costs like KD18 while DHL with a return airway bill costs KD55. So thats KD73 for a one time entry visa.

Today Nat got her passport back and guess what? They refused to give her a visa! Their reason was the following:

You have not satisfied me that you meet the requirements of Regulation 179; that you would leave Canada at the end of the temporary period if you were authorized to enter. In reaching this decision I considered your ties to your country of residence/citzenship balanced against factors which might motivate you to stay in Canada.

In summary, they think Nat will basically go to Canada, tear up her passport and request asylum. How did they come up with this conclusion? Its because she is Lebanese. How much more discriminating can they be? No one called her to talk to her, no one called her in for an interview, they didn’t even care that her husband is a Canadian.

I am extremely pissed off now because it basically means I can no longer go to Canada unless I am alone, which isn’t going to happen as long as I am married. Tomorrow I will be calling up the embassy and giving someone there a piece of my mind. No way am I gonna accept the fact that some stranger all the way in the UAE is going to ruin my Christmas!

What I realized today (its probably a generalization but still) is that before the invasion the people who came to work in Kuwait liked living in Kuwait. Today most of the people who come to work in Kuwait really don’t like living here.

After going to sleep early last night I woke up around 9AM today and decided I would go out for a ride. By 9:30 I was downstairs in full gear warming up my bike. Today I even put on my Alpinestars Knee Guard which I should have worn the day I had my crash because it would have saved my knee from getting road rash. Its kind of bulky but its not about the looks, its about the protection. One thing I forgot to do with all my excitement was brush my teeth which was a big mistake because I ended up spending the whole ride smelling my Friday morning breath inside the helmet.

I had 3 rules for my ride today:
(1) Keep off the Gulf Road
(2) On traffic lights, go straight or right but not left (since I had my accident while going left)
(3) Stay clear of roundabouts

Well I broke one of the rules. I ended up going out onto the Gulf Road but just for a tiny bit. My bikes gas light came on and I figured I might as well fill it up with gas, something I hadn’t done before. But before I got onto the Gulf Road I rode into the AUK parking lot and decided to do some riding exercises which involved lots of driving around in circles and braking and accelerating. Once I felt comfortable with the bike I rode out of the parking lot and headed towards the Gulf Road. I ended up going to the gas station opposite Pizza Hut. I was hoping I would find some of that ultra super high octane gas (the green one) but turned out they only had the regular and super versions. It was my first time filling up gas in my bike and I felt awkward. First I didn’t know how to open the gas gasket, the key wasn’t turning in the gasket lock so I called up Marzouq who told me I needed to push the key in and turn which worked. Second I didn’t know how much gas the bike would take but I kept filling it slowly until I could see the gas line in the tank. I filled up 550fils worth of super gas and rode back out onto the Gulf Road and then back into Salmiya.

In total today I rode for around an hour and a half. I would have stayed out longer but my wrist started hurting so I had to come back home. The weather was amazing and I spent most of my ride riding with the helmet visor open so that the wind blew in onto my face . I really had a lot of fun, can’t wait for my next ride.

I just came back from a short ride on my Ducati. It was my first time back out on the public roads since my crash 2 months ago. I was kind of nervous which is natural but not afraid which is a very good thing especially after a crash. I rode in Salmiya in the area around my building but there was a bit more traffic then I thought there would be. For my first ride I think I did fine.

Before I rode out on the streets I rode my bike a bit in my buildings underground parking. I did some 8’s with the bike and also some braking and moving, braking and moving. I still need to get the hang of my bike.

My wrist by the way still hasn’t heeled healed. I passed by Razzi Hospital two days ago and they told me I had a torn ligament in my wrist and still needed two months to heel heal. They told me I should rest my wrist for these two months and I shouldn’t ride the bike. Thing is in Kuwait there are only like two months of the year where you can actually ride the bike so I am not going to waste them giving my wrist a rest.

I am going to do a bit of riding everyday, small sessions not to kill my wrist but also just enough to get me the hang of the bike and give me some practice before I decide to go back out onto the main road again. Can’t believe I am riding again, it feels amazing..

I don’t know how many cookies exactly I had today but I know I had toooooo many. Final results are in though and here are the cookie rankings:

First Place: Oreo Cookies
Second Place: White chocolate chunks cookie mixed with Nutella
Third Place: Plain cookies with a Nutella core

The results were based on my personal favorites and the reaction of fellow employees

Tonight me and Nat passed by the Choowy Goowy bakery to make our own cookies. Originally I had planned a whole variety of cookies to make but due to the fact I am extremely lazy I didn’t get all the ingredients I needed plus the lack of a deep fryer at Choowy Goowy meant I couldn’t fry any cookies anyway.

The result of two hours of baking were the following types of cookies:

– Chocolate chunks cookie
– Chocolate and white chocolate chunks cookie
– Rice Krispies with marshmallow cookies
– Oreo cookies
– Cookies with smacks and a Nutella core
– Plain cookie with a Nutella core
– Cookies mixed with Nutella and white chocolate chunks
– Cookies mixed with Nutella and Frosties cornflakes
– Plain cookies with chocolate fudge on top

I tried a couple of them and they are really really good. Its going to be hard to choose only one to produce. I got a whole bunch of jars filled with cookies I am going to take to work tomorrow and share them. Really delicious cookies.

Geo our dog turns one today. We didn’t know what to get him as a gift at first but in the end we settled for honey roasted turkey breast from Sultan Center. My previous dog was easier to shop for, he would like anything to do with cheese. Geo on the other hand is very picky and has no patience so his gift had to be something he doesn’t have too often but wishes he did and something that he could eat quickly. He loved his gift, I think its his favorite treat.

Yesterday Geo gave us a bit of a scare. It got really swollen under his left eye and we had to take him to the vet. Luckily it turned out to be an insect bite and nothing major. While there we saw a huge Saint Bernard and when he came towards Geo I thought he was either gonna eat him or step on him. Geo isn’t small but the Saint Bernard is just really big and heavy.

I was also checking out Geo’s breeders website and it turned out 10 days ago new puppies were born. I was really tempted on getting another one but I didn’t, if I had a garden I would probably have ordered another dog but the way things are now, one is all I have room for. Whats cool is Geo got an email from his breeders back in Belgium wishing him a Happy Birthday. Such friendly and caring people. You can check out their site but its not in English. Lots of pictures though. [Link]

I was talking to one of the owners of Choowy Goowy when we ended up talking about different kinds of cookies and what cookies I would make if I had a bakery. One thing led to another and basically me and Nat are now invited to create our own cookies. Tomorrow evening we will be visiting the Choowy Goowy bakery and with their help we will be creating our own cookies. We will experiment with a variety of flavors and ideas and our best creation will be sold by Choowy Goowy for a limited time.

Now I have a lot of ideas for cookies but I thought I would share them with you guys first. Some sound strange but I want to do them out of curiosity and they might even end up tasting good:

– Cookie with a soft nutella chocolate core
– Pizza Cookies. Cookie dough mixed with tomato paste and stuffed with mushrooms and olives
– 4 Cheese cookies
– Chocolate chip cookie dipped in chocolate sauce
– Rice krispy cookies
– Plain cookie dipped in chocolate sauce topped with cornflakes
– Tempura cookies
– A healthy cookie probably stuffed with broccoli and something
– Bubblegum flavored cookies
– Zaatar cookies
– Cookies with cocopuffs
– Oreo cookies
– Choco-Banana cookies

After sharing my ideas with the Choowy Goowy guy I felt he was going to take his invite back. Luckily he didn’t or should I say hasn’t yet. I will continue brainstorming on some cookie ideas and might add more to the list.

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.