2:48AM - Entertaining Kuwait since 2003

I’m going to be leaving to Jordan in a couple of hours on a work related trip and I will be back Saturday night. Its my first time in Jordan not counting the cross country drive I had to take during the 1990 invasion. Not sure what to expect of the place, hows the night life?

Nataly should actually be writing this post but since she doesn’t post much anymore I am going to post about it. We passed by LUSH tonight in Central Plaza which opened not too long ago and the place honestly makes The Body Shop feel like McDonalds. They have some really cool soaps that all smell amazingly good and are very natural and handmade. You buy the soaps per gram and although the prices aren’t cheap its kinda understandable why they cost this much. Although there isn’t anything else in Central Plaza to check out its worth passing by just for LUSH. [Link]

Not the best location for a Jazeera Airways ad… right under a picture of a crashed airliner.

Thanks Kamatcho80

I am at The Avenues now and they have flowers and greenary all over the place sponsored by different companies for a Blooming for Life charity thing where all proceeds go to the Red Crescent. I think the mall looks much much better with these flowers everywhere, they should consider keeping them permanantly. (Posted from my Nokia E61i)

I went to Johnny Rockets tonight and noticed they had the word “fresh” before the word “patty” covered with a sticker. I guess they stopped using fresh patties?

Note: The first “fresh” came before “ground beef” the second fresh removed was before the word “patties”.

I got the following in my email today:

Gear up to save lives!

Dar Al Shifa Hospital and the Kuwait BMW Motorcycles Club are delighted to cordially invite you to the first annual Ride-to-Save Drive 2008. Kuwait’s first ever motorcycling event committed to raising blood donation awareness.

The event will be held on Saturday, 19th April, 2008 starting 3:00 pm at the Green Island parking lot.

Join motorcycling enthusiasts as they ride from Green Island to Dar Al Shifa Hospital, Hawally to symbolically demonstrate their support towards the importance and benefits of blood donation. To practise what they preach, the participants will also donate blood at the Hospital after the ride.

www.bmwmotoclubkw.com

I saw a BMW X6 for the first time on the road yesterday. The V6 is selling for KD24,000 while the V8 version isn’t available yet. I like the way it looks, its like a sports car with big wheels.

Found these two signs today and thought I would take pictures.

Blinds in English is plural for window shades.

B as in Bebsi.

Update: In case you didn’t get it, the first picture says Blinds which doesn’t mean blind as in the person can’t see. Blinds means window shades so instead of the sign saying the Kuwait Association for blind people its saying the Kuwait Association for window shades. The second picture, bump is misspelled as bumb.

I got a new car over the weekend and today I went to transfer it into my name but like everything dealing with the government, it always turns out to be a complicated and adventurous process.

Me and the previous owner of the car who’s a friend of mine first went to the Government Mall (thats what its called) to do the transfer there. Once we went in they told us if the car has old plates we need to go to 3aseema branch and do the transfer from there.

So we drive all the way to the end of the 4th ring road where the 3aseema branch is located and after running around from window to window, they told us because I live in Salmiya we need to go to the Meidan Hawalli branch.

So we turn around and drive back all the way to the other end of the 4th ring road to the Median Hawalli branch. After signing a paper the car got transfered into my name and we went to collect the new plates. I don’t know how the system works but my plate number turned out to be 11617 which I am guessing means the person 6 places ahead of me ended up getting 11611 which would have been a pretty cool number to have. If I was one place ahead even I would have ended up with 11616 which would still have been pretty nice.

On my way back to the car there were a bunch of people outside that offered me the service of installing the plates for me. The plates don’t come with any holes so for KD1 they will make the holes and fit the plate on to the car. This whole process of running around from place to place took around 2 hours and a half!

I was looking for an ATM machine today morning when I stumbled up this new Alghanim branch in Kuwait City. Its in the mall underneath the new KFH building next to Ahli Bank. The design is very similar to the branch in the Avenues which I’ve mentioned before I really liked. I guess this is their new look which is pretty cool.

This video best shows how powerful yesterdays storm was. Watch till the end where all hell breaks loose. [YouTube]

This is the best video so far showing the amount of chaos and flooding that happened at Souk Sharq. Really good quality video also. [YouTube]

I just drove in to work since I have some stuff I need to finish up. On the Gulf Road the hardest hit area was from where Fuddruckers starts to Souk Sharq. There you can see trees that had fallen and street lights that had toppled over. Once I got to Kuwait City the new blue glass tower adjacent to Muthana Complex housing Starbucks and Boots seemed to have gotten hit pretty badly. There was glass all over the street and most of the area around the building is surrounded by yellow warning tape. When I got to my office I was expecting it to have flooded but instead I was greeted with a physically devastated reception area. That was one hell of a storm last night.

Lots of videos are showing up on YouTube of Hurricane Kuwaitina. Here are the best so far:

Souk Sharq, Tornado Day (embedded above)
الماي داخل مركز السلطان سوق شرق
غرقت سوق شرق
hani rain 1
Kuwait
Snow in Kuwait
Kuwait First Twister
Holding ice in Kuwait
Hurricane Sibeecha
Hurricane Kuwaitina

Looks like Souk Sharq got pretty messed up.

A lot of people have started sending in some pictures of the Hurricane Kuwaitina aftermath. You can check them by clicking [Here]

If you have any pictures send them to [email protected]

Update: Found this news article by AFP

Gale-force storm, hail showers hit Kuwait
KUWAIT CITY (AFP) — One person was killed and several wounded on Friday when a strong sandstorm triggered by gale-force winds and hail lashed the desert state of Kuwait, officials said.

The victim, a man, drowned in the sea while several people were injured at a shopping mall where glass shattered and fell on shoppers, a security official said.

The meteorological department said the storm was caused by gale-force winds that blew in “semi-tornado” fashion at around 90 kilometres (56 miles) per hour and warned that a similar storm is expected to hit the emirate on Saturday.

The violent winds also uprooted hundreds of traffic signposts, billboards, and trees and damaged many cars in several parts of Kuwait, witnesses reported.

Authorities appealed to people to stay indoors.