2:48AM - Entertaining Kuwait since 2003

All the shops that are located under the streets adjacent to Safat Square have now been closed down. The shops used to sell random items from counterfeit perfumes with funny names to cheap toys and clothes. I always thought the shops didn’t fit very nicely with the location and it looks like they’ve now been closed down as part of the renovation process Safat Square will be undergoing.

Safat Square is actually surrounded by fences at the moment which I thought were set up because the construction work was going to begin but turns out the fences are there because of the demonstrations that have been taking place.

Mupi Signs are the outdoor adverts you see usually in the middle bank between two roads. I noticed they’re replacing the old tacky looking ones with the newer and I think cooler looking black versions. This should help both the ads and the roads look better.

Two Atlanteans for export to Kuwait at Northern Counties, Pemberton. 9 May 1983. [original]

Found these two pictures of the old KPTC double decker busses. Turns out they were built by the Northern Counties Motor and Engineering Company in England. The picture above is of the buses before they were shipped to Kuwait while the picture below is of the buses unpainted being taken for a test drive to make sure they’re working fine.

Turning into Enfield Street, Pemberton, heading for Northern Counties, a unpainted Leyland Atlantean for Kuwait. 28 April 1983. [original]

[YouTube]

I had been using the WaterField ultimate sleeve case ever since I got it in May of last year and it’s been really great. Only issue I had with it is that it was sometimes to bulky to fit into my smaller messenger bag and Nat couldn’t fit it into her purse unless the purse was also pretty big. So I looked for a thinner case I could use on occasions I didn’t need as much protection and decided to go with WaterField again. They had a model called the suede jacket (video above) which is extremely thin and just allows you to protect the iPad from scratches it might get being carried around freely in your bag or purse. I’ve been using it for awhile now and I love it as well. The material of the sleeve actually cleans your iPad as you pull it in or out which is a great way to get rid of all the smudges. Price wise it’s not that expensive at $19 but when you add shipping and then Aramex’s fee to ship to Kuwait it does become a bit over priced. It’s still a great buy for someone looking for something as unobtrusive as this. [Link]

This was in today’s newspaper.

If you’re looking for an activity to do this summer then the Kuwait for Kenya (K4K) project by LoYAC might be one to consider:

The K4K trip will take place in Mombasa, Kenya as usual. The duration of the trip will be 3 weeks, from 02 July 2011 to 23 July 2011.

The objectives of this year’s trip will be slightly different from the previous years. We’re looking at 2 projects to conduct during the trip; an agricultural project in Barani community and starting the infrastructure for the MYCC (youth center) building.

During the trip, we will have two weekends, which we’ve planned a safari trip and a rafting trip respectively. Both should be plenty of fun.

For those of you that are interested in joining us, please keep in mind that the age criteria is 18-28 years old. Also, the trip will be self-funded with an estimated total cost of KD 800 (excluding Safari and Rafting activities). Interested volunteers should review the pre-field manual, to be aware of the trip’s process and risks.

If you’re interested then you can contact Aisha Alsayegh ([email protected]) or Sara Al Ansari ([email protected]) for more information. Here is a link to the K4K website with info and picture of their previous projects [Link]

Seriously?

Thanks Hamad

Earlier in the week someone from the KitchenAid dealer in Kuwait sent me an email thanking me for my post on their mixer. They person also asked me if I would be interested in trying the mixer out and since I like to bake I was like sure why not. So the next day they had a delivery guy drop off a pretty black mixer for me to try out.

There are two things that grabbed my attention right away. The first is how heavy the damn thing is. The mixer not only has a solid metal base but the upper body is also made of metal and even all the switches. The second thing I noticed was the Made in USA marking. I knew KitchenAid was an American company but I didn’t think they actually made the mixers in the US.

I was originally planning to bake a triple layered chocolate cake but decided instead to bake cookies since I’ve made cookies a lot of times before and so would be able to compare this mixer to previous mixers I’ve used. Instead of my usual cookie recipe I decided to try a new one from The Hummingbird Bakery cookbook. I’m not going to share the recipe here, if you want it then buy the book and support them. Anyway, those of you who follow me on twitter know by now that the cookies I baked turned out to be delicious! Even though The Hummingbird Bakery recipe was pretty similar to my old recipe the little changes they made were enough to turn my fairly good cookies into amazingly good ones. I was originally planning to eat just one cookie but ended up eating like a dozen!

Working with the KitchenAid mixer was very easy. I’m pretty aggressive when I mix (I like mixing at full blast) and by the time I add in all the flour and sugar the mixer usually starts to bounce around and I need to kinda hold it down or lower the speed to stabilize it again. With the KitchenAid it just breezed through the process without a sweat. It didn’t even do a little hop or shake a bit. The mixer is just really well built and I love how it looks. They come in a ton of colors but the most popular one I’ve seen is the Empire Red. The black one is nice and evil looking though.

I really loved the cookies and I really love the KitchenAid Mixer so it’s going to be sad to give it back. If you’re interested, the dealer is called Mabrook and their phone number is 24818242.

If you want the cookbook I used it’s available on [Amazon]

Still alive… just not kicking.
Tapes are for 500fils while CDs are for KD1.

I’ve been thinking about swapping my halogen bulbs with LED versions and so after a bit of research I found two bulbs that were reasonably priced and highly recommended. Since I couldn’t find the specific bulbs I wanted locally I decided to order them from Amazon UK.

I got the bulbs, I tried them out and I’m disappointed.

The major benefit of LED bulbs is energy saving. Halogens are usually 35w or 50w while the LED replacements are either 3w or 6w. The 3w is supposed to be comparable in output to the 35 and the 6 to the 50. The bulbs I ordered were 6w and compared to the 35w halogens they replaced the 6w were considerably brighter.

As you can see in the picture above I ordered two different style of bulbs. The one on the left contains 3 LEDs with each one being 2w in strength. The one on the right is made up of 80 lower powered LEDs. The two bulbs turned out to be very different, the one on the left for example takes a second to light up once you turn the switch on and the beam of light it gives out is concentrated like a spot light. The one on the right on the other hand comes on instantly with a light beam that’s much wider. Both bulbs can not be dimmed.

Now what I hate about both bulbs is the color of the light. Halogens are pretty warm and even though I ordered these two bulbs as warm they turned out to be much cooler in color. By cooler I mean when compared to regular halogens, both these LED bulbs were more bluish than yellowish. They really don’t light up the room nicely which is why I found them very disappointing.

Who should buy LED bulbs? They’re for people who want to make the world a better place by consuming less electricity. Personally I wanted to try them out for my apartment in Lebanon. We don’t have 24/7 electricity in Lebanon so when the power goes off the backup generators come on and with the generators you have a limit to how much power you can consume. For the power of one 50w light bulb I could power eight LED bulbs of similar strength and still save electricity. That’s a big difference.

Here are the prices and models if you’re interested
Left: EDISON 6W LED GU10 – KD6.200
Right: 6W 80LED GU10 – KD6.000

I just found out an interesting fact. I originally thought that Google was the one that was adding more details to the Kuwait map like new streets and highways but it turns out it’s people around Kuwait who are doing the updates. The video above is a timelapse showing how Kuwait City originally used to be and how it’s become more and more detailed over time. The details are added using Map Maker and basically anyone can add updates but once they are added a moderator has to approve it and then it takes a month or two to show up. Interesting to know. [YouTube]

Thanks Yousef

I was at Al Bader Stationary randomly walking around when I noticed some amazingly designed Lyra brand coloring pencils called ColorStripe. I know it sounds strange.. what the hell is an amazingly designed coloring pencil? Well that’s what I thought was the best part about it, someone actually decided to redesign the coloring pencil as we know it and did such an incredible job the coloring pencils won a gold in the iF product design awards as well as a reddot design award for best of the best. These are simple coloring pencils we’re talking about here.

They look like no other pencil I had ever seen before and that’s probably because these are how coloring pencils would look like in the future except they’re here right now. I of course picked up a box right away along with a matching sharpener. Not sure what I am going to do with them but I just couldn’t resist not getting them, if anything just to say thank you to Lyra for creating something so beautiful. The box of 8 coloring pencils cost me KD2.750 while the sharpener cost me 900fils. [Link]

A friend of mine shot the picture above while he was at the Lego store in New York. Cute. [Link]

I was passing through Zahra Complex the other day and noticed a bunch of No Smoking signs. Not sure if they smoking ban is being enforced but at least they sound serious about it.

Aramex Shop & Ship have now set up Chinese mailboxes for all their customers which sounds great but what exactly can we get from China and where do we order it from?

The first thing that comes into my mind is buying stuff from Hong Kong sellers on eBay. A lot of times when I am looking for Tamiya parts and cars on eBay, the sellers with the good stuff are based in Hong Kong. Another thing I can think of but still hobby related is websites like HobbyKing.com who have most of their stock based in Hong Kong as well. You can now order stuff from there HongKong warehouse and have them ship the items by EMS to your Chinese mailbox.

Does anyone have any other ideas? Did you know there is a Chinese Amazon?

Note: If the Chinese mailbox hasn’t shown up in your shopandship.com page be patient, they’re currently in the process of generating accounts for all their clients in all 26 Shop & Ship countries.