2:48AM - Entertaining Kuwait since 2003

The weather is getting hotter and biking season will soon be over. Before it is though there is something I’ve been wanting to do for awhile now and that is ride my bicycle to work and back. Since my car is at the dealer getting serviced plus I’m trying to burn some fat before the end of the month I figured it’s the perfect time to try this. I wiped the dust off my bike this past weekend and walked to Extreme Sports at the end of my street in Salmiya to get some new tires. The service guy there was pretty helpful, ended up getting some meaner wider tires for my bike, plus some new inner tubes as well as a pump in case I get a flat. It cost me KD15 per tire, KD4 per inner tube (comes with slime inside them) and another KD17 for the air pump. Not sure if these prices are good or not since it’s my first time replacing my tires.

My bike is now ready to ride to work and I’ve basically planned the route in my head already. I live in the old Salmiya and my office is near Muthana Complex in the city. I’m going to be going out onto the Gulf Road and ride my bike on the seaside pathway from in front of Shaab Park all the way till Souk Sharq. If I remember correctly the path ends once you hit Seef Palaace. From that point I’m not sure what route I will take. There is no way I am going to ride my bike on the street and I don’t recall there being a sidewalk. So I might end up cutting across towards the Kuwait Stock Exchange and head to Fahad Al Salem street and continue on the sidewalk from there. It’s around 8KM from my house to the Kuwait Towers and I would say less than 8KM from the Kuwait Towers to Muthana so I think it should take me under an hour if I take my time.

It really sucks how we don’t have any bike paths in the city. I know the weather gets very hot in the summer but this year there were at least 6 months of nice weather. In Salmiya we have sidewalks but if it’s crowded you can’t really ride your bike on them and then you have problems with the curb (check picture above) where you have a slope on one side of the street but no slope on the other. That’s not wheel chair friendly yet alone bike friendly. Anyway the plan is to ride to work tomorrow so will post again once I actually do it.

Update: Does anyone remember the yellow siren below? I used to have one on my bike as a kid, I wonder if they still sell them in Kuwait…

I’m not a big Harley fan since I prefer sports bikes and Vespas but I know a lot of you might be interested in this. According to a reader it seems you can rent Harleys from the Harley Davidson dealer. This is the email I received with minor editing:

I am sure you might be knowing about this, but just wanted to add in your activities, renting a Harley Davidson. The 2011 models are out and I rented a Fatboy this weekend for only KD72 (KD36 a day for a KD6,895 bike is really good). There are three other bikes available for rent as well: The Sportster Nightster for KD54, Street Glide and Road King Classic for KD81.

Please note these prices are for 2 day rental since they are closed on Fridays. You need to rent the bikes on Thursday and return them on Saturday and you get these special rates. Or you can rent on a daily bases and the rates are: Nightster – KD30, Fatboy – KD40, Street Glide and Road King Classic – KD45.

It was the best experience with friends having different bikes like Ducati, MV Agusta, Kawasaki, Honda, however the Harley stood out and was an amazing and comfortable ride throughout the day. Looking forward to rent another one again and try out all their models.

The staff at Harley Davidson is also very friendly and helped me select the best ride. You can contact Mr. Marlon, he will help you in the best way possible – 24823041 /2 / 3.

To rent a bike all you need to have is a valid bike license, your civil ID, the rental amount and KD250 on your credit card (or cash) as a deposit. All bikes are fully insured and they also provide you with a helmet (6 different helmets to choose from).

That’s actually not a bad activity especially with this great weather. So I’ve gone ahead and added this post on renting Harleys to the activities page.

Thanks Fahad

I try not to post lost pets on the blog due to the high amount of requests I get but this one is an exception. The lost pet is an Emotional Support Animal belonging to a disabled boy who has had a severe relapse since the loss of his dog. The dog also has a medical condition that requires him to be on a special diet so the family are very concerned for his welfare as well.

Dog Name: Vinnie (male)
Status: Lost in Rawda on April 21st
Description: Brown & white medium sized Boxer with distinctive brown and white markings and very floppy jowls. He has one ear that looks as if it has been chewed off at the tip. (He came from a Boxer rescue shelter in the US) He is VERY friendly and will go with anyone, that’s why they think some boys or young guys might have picked him up. If you see him with people, please make note of exact whereabouts, their description and if possible, maybe snap a photo from your mobile phone. You can contact the owners on 99835252 or 99147373

There is a KD200 reward.

For all my hardware needs I usually pass by Ace Hardware since their location is convenient and there’s always a lot of parking. But the hardware section at Ace is pretty small and there are a lot of things I either can’t find or if I do find they just don’t have enough variety. That’s where Bin Nisf comes in.

Bin Nisf is located in Shuwaikh in the street behind where the old IKEA used to be located. I believe it’s the largest hardware store in Kuwait. The place is HUGE. They have everything from screw drivers to car jacks to construction boots. There isn’t anything really they don’t have and the best part is the fact they carry a number of brands. This means if you find an item lets say a drill, you’re not just stuck with that one brand but you can actually compare it to other drills from different brands.

Price wise they’re similar to the rest of the market but unlike the smaller hardware shops on the same street the prices at Bin Nisf are usually fixed unless it’s something that costs over KD25 and then there “might” be room for negotiation depending on what you’re getting. The biggest disadvantage they have is location. There barely is any parking around them and don’t even think about going there in the middle of the week since it’s traffic hell. But, you could do what I do which is park on the same street where A2Z and True Values are located and then just walk 5 minutes to Bin Nisf or pass by on Saturdays. For contact information and a map check out the very outdated Bin Nisf website [Here]

This is a video of the fire that happened on Thursday in Shuwaikh. I passed by the area today and it looks like the fire damaged around 4 stores on the ground floor and burned across the whole top floors. [YouTube]

After building the amazing Tamiya 502x last week I got back into the RC cars mood again. So, over the weekend I decided to get another car to build and passed by Pro Hobbies and purchased the Xray 808e. I’ve had my eye on the Xray 808 since 2009 but back then they only came in nitro versions until last year when Xray released the electric version of the same car and called it the 808e. Xray is a high-end radio controlled car company and they’re sometimes called the Rolls Royce of RC cars. As soon as I opened the box I understood why, everything looked just incredible and felt top notch. From the thick plastic bags the parts are placed in to the glossy fully colored manual and the “authenticity certificate” it comes with. Makes the whole package feel more expensive than what I paid for it.

[YouTube]

One of the main reasons I wanted the Xray 808e is because it’s a 1/8 scale car which means I will finally be able to take it to the Radio Control Car Club of Kuwait (RCCCK) off-road track near 360 Mall. It’s one of the largest tracks in the world and it would be a real shame not to take advantage of it. You can watch the video above of the track which I shot last year.

Usually when I start building these cars I zone out and ignore everything around me (including the blog) but this time I am going to take my time by dedicated only 2 or 3 hours a day to work on the car. Hopefully it will be ready sometime next month before it gets too hot. Still need to think of a color scheme, the wheels are white and the spoiler is white so not sure what color I am going to paint the body yet.

As you guys know I spend the whole week on a very strict diet and then Friday get to have whatever I want. This month it’s been extra difficult since my diet has been extremely boring and tough so this Friday I had a plan in mind. Basil, the owner of OFK had been posting pictures on twitter of various burgers he was experimenting with. So when I spotted the Cheeseburger Eggsplosion on the blog A Hamburger Today (yeah I am religious follower of that blog) I sent him a message telling him he should try making that as well. He told me he’d make it if I ate it so I set a date to have lunch at OFK today on my cheat day. I spent the last 2 days thinking about the Eggsplosion and another burger he had been working on called the Manhattan. When I got to OFK though I found out I was actually going to be having those 2 burgers in addition to 2 more! So below are the 4 burgers I had for lunch today in the order listed below.

This was the first burger I had called the Manhattan. Supposedly the most popular of the four but for me it came in third place.

This is the Cheeseburger Eggsplosion, it looks innocent until you take a bite and the egg bursts as you can see in the picture below.

Super delicious, I ranked this burger my second favorite from the four.

This burger was my least favorite, it was a double patty burger with chopped onions, lettuce, pickles, cheese and a yellow mustard sauce. Ranked last out of the four I tried.

Now this burger was the last burger I tried and I was originally planning to only have one bite since I wanted to leave room for dessert but ended up eating it all. It’s a very thick burger that just crumbled when I took a bite. My favorite of the bunch and I ended up eating it all. It just has caramelized onions inside but I personally think all it needs is cheese since the beef patty just tasted so good. The last burger I tried today and I ranked it #1 from the four.

I ate all the burgers above except for the double patty burger which I ate just half of. I then had a chocolate brownie pudding for dessert since I was looking forward to it all week. Good lunch but now I’ve got to walk indefinitely until I burn all these calories off. These burgers are still not on the menu since they are still in the testing phase. Full disclosure I didn’t end up paying for the burgers just the drinks and dessert. OFK is short for Open Flame Kitchen and they’re located at 360 Mall.

GulfRun, along with HuperOptik Kuwait and Abdulmohsen Abdulaziz Al-Babtain Co., have sponsored Mubarak Al-Rumaidhi’s Nissan 350Z to participate in the Red Bull Car Park drift tomorrow. The car has been fixed, modded and tuned to burn some serious rubber. Make sure to be there tomorrow at 3:30pm at the Kuwait International Fair in Meshrif to watch the event. We hope the best of luck for Mubarak and all of the contestants. See you there.

I know the guy and he’s basically going to kick everyone’s ass tomorrow. [Link]

There is a huge blaze right now in the Shuwaikh industrial area, I can actually see it from my office window in Kuwait City. A friend of mine sent me the two pictures attached to this post.

If you have better pictures [send it in]

Just a reminder, the Red Bull car park drift is going to be held this Friday. I’m going to pass by after lunch and take pictures so hopefully the weather is going to be clear.

Location: Kuwait International Fair
Date: Friday April 22, 2011
Time: 3:30pm

Last month I posted on 248PM about these oreo stuffed cookies I had seen online and I quickly messaged my best friend Essa from Choowy Goowy and told him he HAD to make them as well. So he made some for me, after a bit of changes namely getting the size of the cookie right he’s now gone ahead and started producing them. He’s also started making stuffed brownie cookies which I haven’t tried yet. So if you’re interested in trying out the stuffed oreo cookies or stuffed brownie cookies you can order them by calling them on 22626559 or 22620011 or 99431177.

Sorry about all these food posts but whenever I get close to my cheat day (Fridays) all I think about is food.

I was just checking the blog ArtKuwait when I found out that there was an article on Art in Kuwait yesterday in The Economist. Turns out there is an artist who currently has his work exhibited on four billboards in Hawalli (who would have thought) and they’re going to be up there until the end of the month (check pic above). Here are some excerpts from the article:

ABOVE a busy roundabout in Hawalli, a suburb of Kuwait, loom four giant but subtle photographs about Arab identity and placelessness by Tarek Al-Ghoussein. A Palestinian photographer originally from Kuwait, Mr Al-Ghoussein has exhibited widely, but this is the first time his work has been seen in the country of his birth. Kuwaitis and Palestinians have a chequered past. Decades of relative harmony between the two peoples were soured when Yasser Arafat, as head of the Palestine Liberation Organisation, applauded Saddam Hussein’s invasion of Kuwait in 1990. Since then, the Palestinian population in Kuwait has dwindled from nearly half a million to around 40,000.

…

Mr Al-Ghoussein’s billboards will be on view in Kuwait until the end of April. They are the second instalment in a series of four art projects by Palestinians that includes Khalil Rabah, Jack Persekian and Tarek Atoui. Instigated and underwritten by Rana Sadik, a collector and philanthropist of Palestinian descent, the series is arranged to coincide with the 50th anniversary of Kuwait’s independence and the 20th anniversary of its liberation from Iraq.

“The billboards are a way to remind people on both sides of the positive historical relationship between Palestinians and Kuwaitis,” said Abdulaziz Al-Mulla, a board member of the Kuwait Graduates Society, an organisation of some 5,000 members. Interestingly, the artist’s father was Ambassador to America in the 1960s and instrumental in getting Kuwait into the United Nations. So it is apposite that Mr Al-Ghoussein’s photographs have been given such a cordial diplomatic role.

You can read the full article on The Economist [Here]

via ArtKuwait

The Kuwait Heart Foundation (KHF) has mobile stations which they move around from one area to another offering to test your cholesterol and blood glucose for free (maybe other things as well). Currently they’re stationed outside the Khaldiya Co-op if anyone is interested. I tried to get more information regarding these mobile stations from the KHF website which although is fairly well designed compared to other local government websites… majority of the links don’t work. [Link]

Thanks AbdulRahman

Note: Just noticed the irony of the post coming right after the McGangbang

This month I’m on an incredibly strict diet so I’ve been craving a lot of random things including the McGangBang (pictured above and below). What is it? It’s when you take a chicken burger and shove it inside a double cheeseburger. I posted about it back in 2009 and from what I am remembering now it tasted pretty good.

I understand when it’s plastered on the back of a car, the message there is “hey, drive up next to me, if you like what you see that’s my BB pin just add me”. But spray painting it on a billboard? This I don’t understand.