2:48AM - Entertaining Kuwait since 2003

Spotted the above at Sultan Center Shaab. It’s for Alban Dairy and I’m guessing they’ll be selling cheese there but no idea how it’s going to be a cafe. Coffee and cheese? Not sure about that…

For my last post on my trip to Audemars Piguet I’m going to take you inside their facilities and show you their environment and some of the people behind the watches. By looking at some of the pictures you could easily mistake it for a scientific laboratory since all the watchmakers wear white coats and majority of them are looking through magnifiers and even microscopes.

For some parts of the tour we were required to enter a sterilized room, put on coats and even wear plastic bags over our shoes so that we wouldn’t bring any external contamination inside their sterile work spaces. The watchmakers are all very talented and experienced craftsman and not just random people sitting at an assembly line slapping parts together. There is no assembly line, each watch is hand built and decorated by professionals.

A watchmaker at work. [YouTube]

A lot of time goes into every watch and into every single part that is inside the watch. To give you an idea of how extreme their craftsmanship is we spotted one guy working on a part so small I couldn’t take a picture of it. It was part literally the size of a pixel and it turned out it was an extremely tiny screw and he was busy polishing it. Imagine a part so tiny you could barely see it and yet he was polishing it. Keep in mind that’s also a part no one other than him would probably every see again since it will be hidden inside the watch. That’s extreme detailing and really lets you appreciate the amount of work and crafting that goes into every watch.

Video showing how the Royal Oak face dial is made. [YouTube]

We were mostly allowed to take pictures of whatever we wanted except for the area where they make the carbon forged watch cases. They’re the only watchmaker that makes carbon forged watches and I guess they didn’t want us snapping shots of secretive information like oven temperatures or specific machinery. But you can watch a video of the process on YouTube if you’re interested [Here]

After visiting the main AP building the following day we headed to their other division called Renaud & Papi located around 2 hours from Geneva by car. That’s where majority of their extremely complicated movements get developed and built. Those guys are ridiculously smart and talented which is why they’re considered the best in the industry and work on complicated movements for other high end brands like Richard Mille and Harry Winstone. I saw one girl who was working on a Tourbillon using a microscope and I still don’t understand how they can do it. The Tourbillon is smaller than a 1 fils coin and is a very complicated movement to build with lots of different parts and layers that go into making it and here she was building it using just tiny tweezers and very, very steady hands. Amazing talent.

I spotted two Richard Mille watches while we were there that were being built, the Jackie Chan Dragon edition which costs over a million bucks and my favorite the skull watch which costs around $700,000. I love it because the watch has a huge skull in the middle with a Tourbillon hidden in the mouth and also because it costs seven hundred freakin’ thousand dollars. That’s so in your face I have billions and billions of dollars that I can afford to buy a watch with a skull head inside that costs nearly a million bucks so I could wear it with my cool ripped jeans and nike sneakers on weekends. Unfair and unbalanced world? Most likely, but that doesn’t bother me.

One last thing I need to mention. When we were done with the tour of their facilities we were taken into this large conference room with cabinets stretching from one side to the other and filled with rows and rows of all their watches. We got to check them all out and try them on and my favorite from the bunch has to be the new Sebastien Buemi watch (pictured above). We were also given a sneak peek at the new Schumacher watch thats going to launch at the end of the year but I’m not allowed to describe it or say anything about it. Maybe I can mention one tidbit and say that it’s going to be a 44mm but that’s all I can say.

It was a great trip and it was something that was on my things to do before I die list so I now get to cross it off. I’m really grateful to AP for inviting me on this trip. All the AP employees and watchmakers were very profesional and patient with us. Their work environment is a very tranquil and peaceful place and we were definitely not a quiet group yet they were all very friendly and focused even though at some points I had my camera very rudely close to their heads trying to get my shots. Great people, beautiful country and a wonderful experience.

The National Youth Project website has been updated and it’s now available in English. Most importantly what this means is that if your Arabic isn’t that great you can now submit your own initiative idea in English via their website. Check out their English website [Here]

The National Youth Project have also uploaded their new commercial to their YouTube page which you could watch below.

[YouTube]

On his regular cruise to the Kubbar Islands, Sheikh Mishal noticed that the beach is in a very bad state due to the litter & trash left over by the visitors and needed to be cleaned up. Teaming up and taking the initiative he organized this event to mark the “EARTH DAY”, they used bags to collect all the refuse dumped along the sand. Soon enough, everyone around at the beach at that time started joining in.

This video shows the exact condition of the beach before the clean-up began and how it looked after this campaign. More and more people in Kuwait are showing initiative in keeping Kuwait clean, safe, and beautiful for the future generations. This was an experience worth sharing and we encourage “one & all” to keep & maintain the heritage of Kuwait beaches.

That’s a lot of garbage for an island with no inhabitants. [YouTube]

A reader sent me a link to this video of an accident that took place on the Gulf Road sometime last month. I’m not sure what the cause was and I really hope no one got badly hurt. The video doesn’t contain anything graphic but it’s might be difficult for some viewers to watch. [YouTube]

via Tuan

The photo above was taken by Ahmad Alnusif’s father and shows the Fatma Mosque being built back in 1972. I found the shot below taken by Cajie also on Flickr showing the mosque today.

I think these two shots work really well as a before and after since the angles match up pretty closely. I’ve actually cropped into Ahmad’s photo above so that it matches todays photo (I hope he doesn’t mind) but you can see the full image in high resolution on his Flickr page [Here]

Last week I got the iControlPad to use with my iPad and after playing with it over the weekend I think it’s a great gadget for gamers. The iControlPad is a Bluetooth controller designed by the same guys behind the Open Pandora gaming device so you should know it was designed by gamers for gamers.

I was originally a bit worried that there would be a bit of lag between the control pad and the game but from my short experience with the device there doesn’t seem to be any lag whatsoever. It felt as if I was playing with a wired controller which is great, similar to the wireless Xbox and PS3 controllers.

The iControlPad works with a bunch of official games in the App Store but I actually got it so I could play SNES games using an emulator. Since I got an iPad 3 I’ve gone ahead and jailbroken my original iPad 1 into a gaming device. I’ve installed a SNES emulator on the iPad as well as some games and now with the iControlPad it’s a great portable Super Nintendo. The iControlPad actually has 6 buttons similar to the SNES except the top shoulder buttons (L and R) are located on the bottom of the back of the device which will take a bit of getting used to. Other than that I didn’t have any issues with it, it has a built in battery and charges via USB so it’s very practical.

The iControlPad I ordered came with a phone holder that attached to the rear of the controller. The holder fits not only iPhones but other phones as well including Android phones since the iControlPad works basically with both operating systems. The price of the controller is $74.99 and I ordered it from ThinkGeek but they’re out of stock right now. Your other option is to get it directly from the iControlPad website [Here]

I’ve previously test driven the Fiat 500 and loved it which is why I decided to rent the convertible version this weekend while I’m here in Lebanon. But, while the Fiat 500 was a lot of fun to drive on flat roads, it’s horrible to drive up a mountain.

I don’t think it’s the lack of power but more the crappy automatic gearbox. The car will just not shift down into the right gear when you really need it. It actually stalled with me TWICE on a tight steep corner which is why I’m now driving the car in manual mode not auto so I could choose the gears I want when I want them.

The version of the car I’m driving is the 500c where “c” stands for cabriolet. Since the weather is fantastic right now in Lebanon driving around in a convertible is the way to go about it. The car I’m in also has a black leather interior which looks a lot nicer than the beige interior of the car I test drove in Kuwait. But, I don’t think I could recommend anyone to get a Fiat 500 if they live in a mountainous country unless they get the manual version (or drive the auto gearbox in manual mode).

Just found out that they’re planning on solving the Al-Bidaa roundabout congestion by building an overpass over the roundabout. According to the article in Al Jarida, this project will take around two years to complete after all the approvals are given.

Now if someone can also solve the parking issue that would be great. [Link]

Kuwait will have exhausted all its oil savings by 2017 if it keeps on spending money at the current rate, the International Monetary Fund said in a report published on Tuesday.

The IMF, which held a regular consultation with the OPEC member state in the last two weeks of April, said Kuwait would not be able to save oil receipts into its future generations fund.

Not sure what all that means or how it will affect us directly but according to my Magic 8 Ball, the outlook doesn’t seem good. [Link]

On the bright side, at least they’re rapping in Arabic. [YouTube]

Note: Contains offensive language

I have a lot of information to share about my trip to Audemars Piguet and I’m going to try and keep it interesting and informative since I know not everyone is into watches like I am.

First just a bit of history on how that Swiss valley where AP is located became such a hotspot for all the watchmakers. The Audemars Piguet facilities are located in Vallée de Joux which is considered to be “the heart of Swiss watchmaking”. In the early 1800’s a watchmaker moved into the valley and started producing watches and when his business started booming he needed to hire help. The valley was full of farmers who spent the summers busy outdoors farming but the winters indoor not doing much. So, the farmers got into watchmaking since the basic tools to get started didn’t cost much and even their children started learning and working with watches at a young age. In other parts of Switzerland farmers were making music boxes during the winter months but they were making watches.

Once we arrived to Vallée de Joux which is just over an hour drive from Geneva, we were taken to the AP Restoration Department followed by the Museum. The restoration department is where they work to restore old watches back to working condition while trying to preserve all their original parts. A lot of the watch parts aren’t available anymore so if anything is missing or needs replacing not only do they have to hand make the parts but they always try to remake them using the same technique they were originally made with. While we were there we were lucky that the head of the department was working on a vintage pocket watch that contained a Grand Complication movement dating back to 1899 (pictured above). A simple watch movement is a watch that indicates the hours, minutes and seconds. On the other hand a calendar is a complicated movement, a moon phase, an alarm, a minute repeater (tells time using chimes) are all complicated movements. A Grand Complication is a movement that contains a whole bunch of complicated movements all together in one watch. I’ll try to list everything the watch above does so here it goes: It has clock watch with grand and small strike, minute-repeater, split seconds chronograph with minutes counter, alarm, jumping seconds, flying seconds and perpetual calendar. Yeah that’s a lot of things and this is a watch that was created back in 1899. It’s currently valued at around 3 million Euros.

After leaving the restoration department we headed to the museum. We weren’t allowed to take pictures inside but I did manage to take the one below of a poster that I saw hanging on the wall (I want it). The museum is housed in the original AP building from the late 1800’s. Although it’s full of interesting pieces, this was probably the most boring part of the whole trip for me because I couldn’t wait to get out and head over to their main production facility. If anyone knows where I can find the Ali with Arnold poster please let me know.

The website Home Design Lover have information and pictures of this beautiful house in Al-Nuzha called The Mop House. I hadn’t seen or heard of this house before but I think it looks amazing. [Link]

Back in February I signed up to a 10Mbps connection with WiMD and just over 3 months have passed since then so I figured I’d post a second impression. For those of you who missed my previous posts, WiMD is a local wireless internet provider that uses technology similar to WiFi and WiMAX except theirs works using the 5 GHz wavelength.

Since installing WiMD I got rid of all my other internet connections and have put all my trust in them. That might not sound like a big deal but you have to consider the fact I live my life online and if I don’t have access to internet I start experiencing withdrawal symptoms. Ok maybe that’s a bit extreme but you get the idea.

So how’s the connection speed 3 months later? Browsing websites everything is still super fast, pages load instantly and there is no lag of any sort. Downloading torrents I also don’t have any issues, if I let it download without any limitations it can easily bypass 1,000Kbps. YouTube on the other hand is horrible with WiMD. I’m not sure what exactly is the problem but I can stream an HD video from Vimeo instantly but I can’t watch a non-HD video on YouTube without having to wait ages for it to load. Running speed tests has also provided me with vastly different results than when I first started with WiMD. When I last ran the speed tests 3 months back I was getting results of around 10Mb/s, this time around I was having trouble getting half that. Check out the results below:

But really if it wasn’t for the YouTube issue I wouldn’t have noticed anything out of the ordinary. My biggest issue really is the YouTube problem since it’s ridiculous to have to wait for a low res video to load on a 10Mbps connection. I’ve already contacted support and they told me they’re working on a fix for it and I trust that they are. The speed test results have dropped considerably and what gets affected by this the most is downloads from a single source like say downloading an update or video from an Apple server. Since most of my downloads take place while I’m out of the house or asleep I’m not affected by this but I’m sure it does other people.

The best thing about WiMD and something I make great use of is the upload speed, it’s fast! What this allows me to do is upload files onto the server a lot quicker compared to my previous DSL connection. Nat takes advantage of this the most since she spends a lot of time emailing her clients large files and what used to take her a couple of hours now takes around 20 minutes.

But, like I previously mentioned, I’ve given up all my other internet connections including my very reliable DSL connection because I trust WiMD. I know they’re busy right now working to fix whatever needs to be fixing so I’m not concerned too much. They’ve just started catering to consumers recently and I know for a fact they’ve been overwhelmed with subscribers so it’s only a matter of time before things get back to normal. I’ll have to wait and see but so far I have no regrets signing up with them. They’re the best available option for me right now.

If you’re interested in a connection you can call them on 22475841 and 22475842 or visit their website [Here]

Update: Turns out the problem was the connection from my house to the tower. It’s been fixed and new speedtest results are posted [Here]

While in Geneva we stayed at a hotel overlooking the Geneva fountain called Beau Rivage. It’s an old hotel that dates back to 1865 and I doubt the general look of the hotel has changed much since then and that’s actually what I loved about the hotel.

It’s a very posh hotel and you feel that as soon as you walk in. It’s not Dubai style posh where everything is gold and shiny, it’s a lot more understated here with pastel pink colored marble pillars and ceiling decoration that dates back most likely over a hundred years. Of course the fact that everyone speaks English with a French accent doesn’t hurt.

The hotel is 5 floors high and my room was on the 4th floor which was great since I usually prefer the higher floors since they’re quieter. Once I walked in I was amazed at how big the room was. I think it’s probably the largest hotel room I’ve ever stayed in and it was beautifully decorated. I’m not really into this classical style but it worked really well in this case. The room was decorated very tastefully and I had 2 large windows that were bringing in a lot of natural daylight and more importantly I had an incredible view. I also had a fireplace, a real one not just for decoration. No idea if they actually use them in winter (I doubt) but the idea is great. Each room in the hotel is also individually decorated so no two rooms are the same.

The hotel has a couple of restaurants including one that has a Michelin star.They also have a bar with a really great outdoor seating area that also overlooks the famous Geneva fountain. I didn’t pay for the room but according to the rate card, my room rate was 1,600CHF a night which is around KD480. The hotel is located walking distance from the main shopping streets and is also just a 15 minute ride from the airport without traffic. It’s definitely one of the best hotels I’ve stayed in.