Categories
Food & Drinks Gossip & Rumors Kuwait

P. F. Chang’s China Bistro opening in December

Back in March I posted that P. F. Chang’s China Bistro will be opening up in Kuwait. Well I just found out that it will be opening up in December at Avenues in the same location the H&M’s male store was located opposite to Al Forno.

Note: Alshaya are the ones who are bringing P.F. Chang to Kuwait.




Categories
Complaints Personal

Dear Aramex

There is one thing I find very frustrating with Aramex Shop & Ship and that’s their formula for which package ships out first and which package stays behind until their next flight. It doesn’t look they have a formula but more like it’s completely random. I could have 5 packages in my mailbox and they would ship one, the third package that arrived, something random like that. So I sent them the following email today:

Dear Aramex,
I have 4 packages that arrived in my mailbox in the following order

1) Private Mail 08/29/2009
2) Amazon 4255 Anson Blvd 08/31/2009
3) HONGKONG SERVICES PO 09/01/2009
4) Mail & Magazines 09/02/2009

They all weigh less than 0.5lb which qualifies them for the daily flight from New York to Kuwait.

This is the order that the packages were shipped:

1) Private Mail 09/02/2009 (early morning Kuwait time)
4) Mail & Magazines 09/02/2009 (evening Kuwait time)
2) Amazon 4255 Anson Blvd 09/02/2009 (late evening Kuwait time)
3) HONGKONG SERVICES PO 09/02/2009 (late evening Kuwait time)

All four packages were shipped on the same day but on three different flights!
Package (1) got shipped in your regular slow shipping
Package (4) the least important because its a magazine got shipped with overnight shipping and I am expecting it this morning
Packages (2) and (3) got shipped regular slow shipping

What I would like know is what is your formula for deciding which shipment goes out and when? Why weren’t ALL my packages placed on the same flight as my magazines since they all weigh less than 0.50lb which I was told was the requirement to be on that flight and they would have ALL arrive today? Why wasn’t package #2 shipped before my magazines since it arrived before?

This complete random and unorganized (at least to us consumers it looks like that) is very frustrating. For example shipment #3 has an item which I could have used while traveling later tonight so its very frustrating for me to see a magazine arrive before something I really wanted to get here first.

thanks
mark

Now while looking through my previous Aramex posts I found one dating back to January 2008 when Aramex said it was going to introduce online payments. What happened to that?




Categories
Automotive Kuwait

New 2010 Camaro now in Kuwait

I don’t know how old the video is above but I think its pretty new. It’s taken at the Cheverolet dealer and it’s of the new 2010 Camaro. Not a fan of yellow. [YouTube]




Categories
Animals & Wildlife Personal

BETA – Beirut for the Ethical Treatment of Animals

I knew things were bad in Lebanon when it came to the treatment of animals but I didn’t think it was this bad. I just found out about BETA which is the Lebanese equivalent of Animal Friends except with a lot less resources. Just to give you an idea of how bad things are there, here are four links [Link], [Link], [Link] and [Link]

It’s a very sad state and BETA are trying their best but they need a lot of help. I know I have some readers who check this blog from Lebanon but this also applies to anyone in Kuwait that cares about animals and can help out financially. As little as $10 a month can make a difference, that’s just KD3! They also have an automated payment system which you can set to charge your credit card monthly which is what I did because its a lot more convenient. So please if you can help out even if its a little amount it would be really great. Here is the page with info on how you can help. [Link]

Thank you!




Categories
Automotive Kuwait R/C Shopping Toys

My Toy, the Tamiya dealer in Kuwait

I passed by Tilal Complex tonight to check out the new Tamiya store. They opened up in Tilal back in December 2008 but recently they moved to a larger store on the first floor. I was expecting the new store to be bigger than the previous but it turned out to be like 10 times bigger and looked amazing! Seriously I was in shock. It was very nicely organized, they have stations in the back where you could go and build your car, they even rent tools. They also have a painting room with exhausts for the fumes, a small photography studio where you can take pictures of your car and my favorite section, the spare parts! They have hundreds and hundreds of parts occupying the whole right side of the shop. What I used to hate about their old store was the fact that you had to know what part you wanted and then ask the salesman to get it for you from behind the counter but now I can just browse and find parts and accessories myself.

I really really love their new store and I highly recommend anyone that is interested in radio controlled cars or plastic models to visit it. They’re located on the first floor of Tilal Complex, opposite their older store. Oh and they have this HUGE space right by the shop where they are currently building a race track.

Here is a link to their website [Link]
Their phone number is 22256707




Categories
Funny Sports

Andy Roddick and Will Arnett vs Andy Murray and Will Ferrell

I don’t like tennis but this was cool. [YouTube]




Categories
Internet Kuwait Personal

Qualitynet was here!

Last week I posted about my problems with Qualitynet and since then they’ve contacted me a number of times to see how they can solve my problem. Tonight they finally sent over the head of corporate support with a small KD5,000 device to see if they can fix my problem.. and they did!

The picture above is the readout on the devices screen before he fixed it while the one below is after. They were able to double the speed my line can handle from 1.5MB to 3MB. So will I be leaving Qualitynet? No I won’t. They read my blog and they care that I stay happy which is fantastic for me.




Categories
Travel

Saudi Arabia Travel Advice

If you’re traveling to Saudi make sure you delete all the porn from your laptop!

The British Embassy in Riyadh received reports in July 2009 that Saudi Arabian Customs officials have authority to screen all electronic devices (laptops, mobile phones, PDAs etc) entering or leaving Saudi Arabia. If requested, all passengers will be submitted to a thorough verification and inspection at international airports. Anyone found to be carrying pirated or explicit materials will have their equipment confiscated. The report adds that refusal to comply with this rule will result in detention and/or deportation. [Source]

Thanks Michael




Categories
Automotive Kuwait Personal R/C Toys

RC Season Soon

Last time I took out my radio controlled cars out was back in February when the weather was good and my brother took the picture above. Since then my cars have been hibernating due to the bad weather. But, I just took my Tamiya Lancia out with the upgraded Super Stock RZ motor and was having a good time until the stock electronic control unit (ECU) overheated. And thats when I remembered what I liked about these cars. I like upgrading the different parts and I like the fact that when something breaks I can fix it.

This season I think I want to get the Tamiya Unimog although I am still dreaming of the Mammoth truck but its just too expensive. The Tamiya dealer My Toy has also opened a larger store in Tilal Complex which I still need to pass by and check out. They’ve also set up a large race track in the basement for people to race their cars on. This RC season should turn out to be a lot of fun.




Categories
Food & Drinks

World’s largest kebbe dish

Lebanese women cut the biggest kebbe dish after entering the Guinness World Records in the town of Ehden in Lebanon.

Doesn’t look very appetizing but I don’t like kebbe anyway. [Link]

via ouwet




Categories
Automotive Kuwait

GulfRun 5 Trailer

GulfRun this year will be held on Thursday and Friday the 28th and 29th of January 2010. GulfRun 5 will mark the official shift from November to January for the annual event. For more information you can check out the GulfRun website [Link]

I want to know who won in the end… [YouTube]

via zdistrict




Categories
Shopping Travel

British Airways sale

Was checking out the ticket prices to London with British Airways and turns out they’re having a sale. Round trip ticket with taxes comes out to KD143.500. The cheapest I’ve previously gotten with them is KD140. [Link]




Categories
Videos

Indian host gets slapped, contestant gets beaten up

A funny and sad video at the same time. Poor guy got his ass kicked. [YouTube]




Categories
Apple Apps

Snow Leopard just shipped

My order for Snow Leopard just shipped from Amazon. Its supposed to be performance improvement over version 10.5 and also has a lot of small improvements here and there. If you have a Mac (Intels only) and you haven’t ordered your copy yet you should, its just KD7.250! [Amazon Link]




Categories
Animals & Wildlife Kuwait

2 dogs, 1 dead battery

I was sitting at home all cozy watching tv when Nat calls me up on her way back from the gym. She had spotted a dog near our house playing with a cat by the side of the road and she was worried the dog might run into the street and get hit by a car. So I put on some shorts, got a towel, dog bowl and leesh and then waited for her to come home so we could go together in the Wrangler to rescue it.

When we got there it turned out what she had thought was a cat was actually another dog. They were both medium sized dogs and when they saw us they started barking and wagging their tails as if they were happy to get some company. They were playing on the grass near a puddle of water on one of those islands that are located near intersections (see picture below) and they seemed to be very friendly. When we got close one of the dogs came up to us and we started petting him but the other one kept his distance. I went back to the car to get a leash and the other dog that was keeping his distance crossed the road behind me and then ran off towards some buildings and disappeared. Nat was still petting the other dog and so I was able to get close and put the leash on him and then made him cross the road where we fed him some treats and gave him some water. We called Animal Friends and arranged a drop off location but as we were about to take off the car wouldn’t start. My Jeeps battery had died (I had just done a full service a week ago in which I would think they would have checked the battery condition at least).

Its always an awkward position to be in when the car doesn’t start but now I had a dog with me which made things more complicated. Luckily I was in my neighborhood so I called up this car electrician who is located near my place (thats what I love about Salmiya everything is near my place) and he came 5 minutes later and jump started my car. I then had to drive to his place and swap out my car battery while the poor dog waited in my trunk confused and scared with all these things going on around him. Finally around midnight I was able to get to the Animal Friends drop off point and hand them over the dog.

As always I would like to remind everyone that Animal Friends is a non-profit organization and they need donations to be able to keep rescuing all the animals. If you would like to donate click on the following link to find out how. [Donation Link]