Category: Personal

Back in Kuwait and feels really good.

Mobile phone prices are like the same price as Kuwait. Rent is wayyyyy more expensive. They don’t build one building, they build them in large clusters all at once. Drivers are worst then Kuwait. Girls are all like half naked. Kuwait is greener. Emirates mall is like Marina Mall times ten. They have larger variety of restaurants. Finally, consumers are not treated like idiots, they are valued.

So internet in the room is like 3KD an hour but internet in the lobby is free, so you can guess where I am sitting. Flight was great. Emirates have like 400 or something channels of on demand video. By the time I figured out what I wanted to watch we had already landed. Think I am going to go to “The Agency” now drink some wine and order some sushi from the Japanese restaurant next door.

The walk from the long term parking to the main airport felt like a triathlon. I really need to start working out.

Two nights stay in Dubai, taking my Eastpak backpack, so whats in the bag?

– PSP with Grand Theft Auto
– iPod Video
– Shure E2 earphones
– Canon A530 camera
– Apple MacBook
– Tooth brush & tooth paste
– Gillete Cool wave antiperspirant
– Cool Water perfume
– 2 tshirts
– 1 pant
– 2 pairs of socks
– 2 CK briefs
– PJs
– Powercables for electronics
– Pills and bandage for my motorbike wounds
– 2 pens
– moleskine notebook

and I think thats all of it. I love this bag.

I am going to be leaving to Dubai tonight for a photoshoot. Should be back Wednesday night. I believe the hotel has internet access so I should be able to post from there.

So I end my night eating 4 Krispy Kreme donuts (and thats in the car from Marina Mall to my house) only to wake up and come to work and have 4 boxes of Krispy Kreme donuts delivered to my desk. Someone working with Krispy Kreme read my blog and noticed I mentioned I only had the regular glazed donuts so I just got an assortment of various flavors.

I don’t know why I bother trying to diet..

So I tried Krispy Kreme, and I have already tried Dunkin Donuts and honestly I have to say I prefer Go Nuts Donuts. Actually to be truthful I have only tried one donut from Go Nuts and its the “Choco Mallow Frost” and its just my favorite donut ever. Its not greasy like Krispy Kreme and its not heavy like Dunkin Donuts, its actually better then both combined. Hard to believe I know but its true.

This is my list of my top 5 favorite phones I have owned:

1- Ericsson 337 and 388
2- Nokia 3110
3- Siemens C55
4- Ericsson 688
5- Nokia Communicator 9110i

I just found out how much my bike is gonna cost to fix.

I just got back from Razzi Hospital. Turned out Mubarek Hospital messed up my hand cast and my fingers ended up swelling. The doctor today also told me I didn’t have a fracture which is very good news. He had yesterdays cast removed and they put me another better one instead. He told me to come back next week to have it removed. Now I just need to find out when my bike will be ready. Thanks to all the well wishers. My First Crash post didn’t get more comments then the Shark of Kuwait post but never the less it was close enough.

Oh and they finally gave me some pain killers!

Today I met up with Marzouq again to go riding. We met in front of Galleria 2000 like yesterday and we headed off onto the Gulf road. As we were getting onto the gulf road from Salmiya I fucked up and ended up crashing onto the ground and sliding towards the curb.

I am still not sure exactly what happened. I have played the scene over and over in my head and my current conclusion is I was taking the curb at a speed faster than I was comfortable with and I stupidly pulled the brakes too hard and locked up the front wheel making it slide under me. I crashed on to the ground and me and the bike both slid towards the curb.

It all happened really fast except one part felt like it was in slow motion. The view suddenly shifted to inside the helmet and I was on the floor sliding towards the black and yellow curb and I can very clearly see my helmet visor getting scratched and finally I stopped.

I got up, and looked around to see if any cars were coming. I saw Marzouq had already stopped his bike behind me so that the cars could drive around us. I then proceeded to lift my bike up when Marzouq came and took over and told me to go sit down. He asked me if I was hurt and I looked down and saw my jeans had torn at my knees and I was bleeding. I went sat down, took out my camera and started taking pictures of Marzouq moving my bike and then of my injuries.

My left knee was scraped, the left side of my waist also, I had a tiny scrape on my left elbow and another scratch on my right leg. Finally my left wrist was hurting me a bit.

We parked the bike and noticed the left foot rest had brkoen off so we called TriStar to come pick up the bike. They told us they already had found out about the crash and the bike truck was on its way. Talk about excellent customer service. Marzouq wanted to take me to the hospital but I told him to pass by my place first so I could change and take Nats car.

I got home, took off my watch (knew I needed to take it off for the xtray), got into shorts and a tshirt and left again with Nat and Marzouq. We got to the hospital and two hours later I left with bandages everywhere and my left hand in a cast. Yes, I have been typing this post with one hand, its a pain!

I am back home now. I am disappointed my hand is in a cast because it means I won’t be riding for a while. My favorite jeans are ripped which totally messed up my wardrobe. But, I am glad I came out of the fall with minor injuries. If I was an unsafe rider wearing shorts, tshirt and no helmet you can bet I wouldn’t be here typing this post. I regret not having gotten biking jeans. I was actually gonna post about Draggin Jeans the other day. If I was wearing them me knee wouldn’t have gotten messed up.

Here are some pictures, the ones marked GRAPHIC are you guessed it, graphic pictures.

Marzouq moving my bike
My busted knee (GRAPHIC)
My waist (GRAPHIC)
My leg (GRAPHIC)
My elbow (GRAPHIC)
My scratched helmet
Me waiting to have my cast put on

I have to end this post with a special thanks to Marzouq who was a true friend today. Thanks dude!

Last year I posted pictures of the old Apple Store in Kuwait City. Their were three banners in the display from Apple’s old ad campaign called Think Different which I really wanted. I tried my best to get them and even offered to buy them but the Apple dealer (AlSane Group) refused. Finally I gave up and forgot about them.

A few days ago I was at Starbucks with the Mac&More store owner, I had met him a few years back when I had purchased his Twentieth Anniversary Mac. We were talking about Macs in the pre-ipod days and I told him about the posters I had wanted from the other Apple Dealer. He told me he would check and see if he had any left in their warehouse and would call me. Well turns out he found 3 banners and the 3 banners he found are exactly the same 3 banners I had wanted from the other dealer!

The posters are dusty but other then that they are in excellent shape. I can’t wait to put them up and once I do will take more pictures.

On a side note, I just noticed if you do a google search for Apple Kuwait the first few links are all related to me. Can’t get any cooler then that…

At 4PM today I met up with Marzouq in front of Galleria 2000. I was talking to him online at around 3:30 and he asked me if I wanted to go riding and I was like fine. I hadn’t really been out on the roads yet, only twice around my block but that was it. I was nervous but excited at the same time. I quickly got dressed and took my bike and rode down to Galleria 2000.

Once I got to Galleria Marzouq was already there waiting for me, he told me to follow him and off we went out onto the Gulf Road. Originally I was hoping my first time out on the Gulf Road would be when it was empty, like a Friday morning or something. At 4PM today the Gulf Road wasn’t empty as I was hoping instead it was kinda packed. We rode on the Gulf Road from Salmiya all the way to Shuwaikh. At first I was a really nervous but once we hit TGIF I had gotten the hang of driving in traffic and was weaving through it with no problems. After we passed Kuwait Towers I started to feel even more comfortable on the road. The road also had less cars by then and we were zooming by really fast.

When we got to the end of the Gulf Road in Shuwaikh, we parked our bikes and started taking pictures when another blogger, iDip happened to be passing by. He parked his car and we had a little bloggers meetup before he took off again. Marzouq and I finished taking pictures and then headed back to Salmiya. The ride back was pretty cool. There was a lot of traffic but I wasn’t nervous anymore. Its not that bad riding in traffic, as long as you don’t get an asshole on your tail blinking and honking wanting you to get out of the way. I think the max speed I hit was 130km/h. I know Marzouq hit like 160 with his bike.

It was a lot of fun and I can’t wait to go back out tomorrow. There shouldn’t be any traffic in the morning so the ride should be even more fun.

A video of Geo (my dog) fetching a tennis ball. [Video]