2:48AM - Entertaining Kuwait since 2003

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I passed by the RC track near 360 Mall today to check out some of the races. The Radio Control Car Club of Kuwait (RCCCK) had an official point race today and I was really hoping to spend all day there watching the races but ended up leaving early due to other engagements. But I did manage to shoot two videos which show the full track, prep area and a start of a race. It’s very organized and very proper and I wish I had a car to participate in the races since it looks like a lot of fun.

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*I just updated this post with another dog that went missing yesterday*

I got this from a reader, if anyone spots the dog please call them:

This is Papsy (Breed:German Spitz with a red and black harness). My parents were strolling with her by Marina Mall today 8 and were attacked by two big without a leash-on dogs. My mom fell (fractured her right arm) and let loose her leash by mistake. The two dogs chased and scared Papsy away. My parents have been searching for her frantically all day by Marina Mall area. There are still there. Please help us find her. if you have any information, please call us on 99575828 or 25632613.

I got the following email today:

Our dog is lost in Jabriya. His name is Snowy and he is a Maltese male around 5 yrs old. He had no leash on him when he escaped from our house accidently. Please contact me on the following numbers 99871650 or 66695462. I’m offering a KD150 reward to anyone that finds him.

Update: Snowy was found.

I’ve been wanting to pass by Poshcafe at the 360 Mall for sometime now since the place looked trendy and interesting and today I finally did for lunch. They don’t have a large menu but they do mix it up with variety like salads, soups, pastas, burgers, sandwiches and desserts. Their burgers are actually sliders made with Angus beef and I was really tempted to try it but decided instead to start with a Mushroom & Gruyère soup followed by a healthy Posh Club sandwich. Nat had a salad as usual.

The mushroom soup came first and it looked good but although the soup looked like it contained herbs, I couldn’t taste them and the whole thing turned out to be a bit bland. It wasn’t bad but I think it just tasted very average. The Posh Club which is their club sandwich was served once I had finished my soup. Presentation wise it looked really good and when I took my first bite I tasted something that seemed interesting. They use a “special” sauce with their club sandwich which I think is similar to the tahina sauce you get with meat shawermas. Although it tasted interesting at first by the third sandwich I realized the sauce was too heavy and turned what was supposed to be a light lunch into a heavy one and I didn’t like that since I might as well have gone with the sliders.

For the final score I am going to give them a 3.5 out of 5. I really liked the style of the place, the waitress was very friendly and they have a huge selection of desserts (which I didn’t try) that looked really good. My only issue is with the food I ordered, both of which I wouldn’t have again because they were just so average. Price wise they’re decent but maybe a bit on the high side with some items. Nat thought her salad was expensive since for the same price she could have had the salad bar at Le Notre. I thought the soup could have been a bit cheaper but the club sandwich was priced just right. The next time I go back I would probably try their slider and have a dessert instead of a starter.

Small mixed salad: KD2.750
Mushroom & Gruyère: KD2.450
Posh Club: KD2.750
Here is their [Menu]

Are they ever going to fix the mistakes on the Kuwait Airport website? The mistakes were highlighted back in 2007 when they launched the new site and its been nearly 3 years and the same mistakes are still there. [Link]

I vote hot. [Link]

I just found out that UFC 112 is going to take place in Abu Dhabi. Not only that but BJ Penn, Matt Hughes, Anderson Silva, Vitor Belfort and Renzo Gracie are all scheduled to fight! I’ve been wanting to watch a UFC fight for ages but always found it too expensive to travel to the US or Europe just to watch a fight and come back but Abu Dhabi is right next door. I would really have liked to watch a Frank Mir or GSP fight but Anderson Silva is the next best thing and BJ Penn and Matt Hughes are also really fun to watch so it should be a blast.

UFC 112 is taking place on April 10th. Can’t wait to get my tickets, I really want something on the floor around the octagon. [Link]

Note: If anyone knows where I can get tickets from (like super good blood splatter zone seats) please tell me.

Whats the best way to get to New York? I checked out British Airways and Qatar Airways, both are similarly priced. I then figured I would check Kuwait Airways since I assumed they had a direct flight to NY but turns out they don’t. Emirates is like double the price of everything else for some odd reason. So whats the best airlines to get to New York with? Do any offer direct flights from Kuwait?

Since I’m asking, whats a good hotel to stay in? Last time I was there was back in 2003 and I stayed in Milford Plaza which I read isn’t that great now (and it wasn’t great back then).

I was just checking out the Arab Times website and noticed they had a pretty cool and practical to use online edition of the actual printed newspaper. I don’t mind reading the news online but I always feel I am missing out on articles or ads that are in the print version of the newspaper but not online. Some newspapers have PDF files you can download but that isn’t very practical to view and the file sizes can be pretty big.

What Arab Times has is a pretty nice tool that will allow you to view the printed newspaper in full screen on your computer and flip through it like a regular paper. When you find an article you want to read you click on it and zooms in. To try it out just go to their website and click on the PDF link on the main page. [Link]

Blogger Feryah managed to get pictures of the interior of Planet Hollywood which I posted about last month. He also confirms that they will be opening in March but also adds that Sylvester Stallone, Bruce Willis, Demi Moore, and Arnold Schwarzenegger will be attending the grand opening as per their contract. I don’t see how Arnold is attending considering the fact he severed all ties with the chain in early 2000 according to Wikipedia. In any case if Demi Moore is coming I would assume Ashton Kutcher is as well unless he will stay home and babysit the kids. All I care about though is meeting Sylvester Stallone, so if anyone is reading this, hook me up! [Link]

So I’ve been pushing DHL EasyShop a lot recently as a replacement to Aramex’s Shop&Ship but now it looks like I am going to start pushing Aramex again.

I received an email earlier today from a reader telling me about how DHL has new calculations for the weight. So I called them up and spent 20 minutes trying to understand how to calculate my shipping weight and honestly I still don’t know exactly how it works. The DHL employee told me its simple mathematics, I told him the last thing I want to do with my life is start plugging in formulas and make calculations to try and figure out how much my shipping cost will be. Here is what I understood:

If you get a package that weighs 2KG but it comes in a big box that gives you a volumetric weight of 8KG then you do the following:

8 – 2 = 6
6 > 5 = charged based on volumetric weight

So the formula looks something like

v: volumetric weight
w: actual weight

v – w = x
if x > 5 then you will be charged based on volumetric wieght
if x < 5 then you will be charged on actual weight Lets try it again. I have a shipment that is 6KG but the volumetric weight is 10kG the answer is? 10 - 6 = 4 4 < 5 so I pay based on actual weight The biggest problem is you can't figure out what the volumetric weight (v) of your package is until it arrives to your DHL mailbox which means you can't estimate the shipping cost. Seriously who at DHL came up with this smart idea? They had a chance here to gain customers that were pissed off with Aramex and now with this new change I think other customers like me will move back to Aramex. Update: I just passed by the Kuwait City DHL branch to pick up my package. What can I say, its hard not to like them. They’ve increased the amount of staff at that branch to 2 which is a good move since 1 guy wasn’t enough and I paid the regular shipping fee for my package which was based on actual weight since it was 2.5KG. I guess I will keep using DHL for everything under 5KG. I will use Aramex for items that are over 5KG but under 13KG and I will use MyUS for items 13KG and up. Life is complicated like that.

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Before I left on vacation I got an email telling me about how beautifully lit Ahmadi is at night because of the KOC 75th anniversary. I didn’t have time to pass by and now that I am back I still haven’t been able to pass by (I’m too lazy and Ahmadi is far) but I found some videos on YouTube that show some of the light decorations. According to a friend the lights are still up so if you want to pass by you probably should hurry up before they taken them down.

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And here is one more [YouTube]

That’s a side by side comparison of the new Zain MiFi next to my BlackBerry. It’s pretty tiny.

Update: The Zain MiFi is a portable wireless internet router that runs on battery. The price is KD30 with a 1 year internet subscription.

For the first time ever the Concours d’Elegance is going to be held in Kuwait this month. I honestly never heard about Concours d’Elegance before today but after doing some research it turns out to be a pretty important and prestigious event. Here is some information which I took from the official event website:

What is the Concours d’Elegance?
Concours is a French word meaning competition. The concept of Concours originates in 17th C. France when aristocrats used to choose their best horse carriages to parade around parks of Paris during the summer week ends and holidays. Later these traditions changed to automobiles from the 20th C. Concours today have strict regulations and cars are inspected by qualified judges. Trophy winners are carefully chosen.

Kuwait Concours d’Elegance Highlight
The first Kuwait Concours d’Elegance set to take place on January 2010 will highlight the great passion for automobiles that the country has had ever since the 1910’s decade when the first car, a Belgium-made Minerva, arrived on its shores. In fact, the year 2010 marks the 100th anniversary since the first car entered Kuwait thanks to Sheik Mubarak bin Sabah Al Sabah (1896-1915).

Date
January 20th to 23rd 2010
10:00AM – 10:00PM

Location
Marina Mall interior, Marina Crescent and Marina Lawn.

It should be a very cool event and its taking place right next to my house so I will definitely be passing by. The designer of the Nissan GTR will also be at this event, Shirō Nakamura who is the Senior VP of Nissan and Infiniti.

For more information here are some links:
Concours d’Elegance – Kuwait
Concours d’Elegance on Wikipedia

Thanks Rita!

According to this list Kuwait has a extremely low unemployment figure of 2.2% which is one of lowest unemployment rates in the world. The issue is the figure was last updated in 2004. UAE has an unemployment rate of 12.7% but I think that’s actually low. Thing is I don’t think these numbers for the GCC are accurate because if you don’t have a job here you can’t stay if I am not mistaken. Other interesting numbers, Zimbabwe has the highest unemployment rate which is 90%. Iraq has an unemployment rate of 18% but 83% of the woman in Iraq are unemployed. Thats probably related to the security situation there. Qatar has the third lowest unemployment rate with just 0.6% and in Andorra everyone is employed because they have a 0% unemployment rate. Here is the full list [Link]

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I was at Avenues two nights back and spotted a girl wearing a Free Kuwait sweatshirt and since then I’ve had the Nabil Sheal song stuck in my head. So I thought I would look for it on YouTube when I accidenty found the videos above and below. I don’t remember ever hearing them before and the one below has a guy that looks like Borat singing. Very weird. Anyway here is the link to the Nabil Sheal version of the song. [Link]

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