2:48AM - Entertaining Kuwait since 2003
I thought I sent a post earlier in the day from my phone saying I was in Paris but I just checked and it didn’t get posted. We arrived here today morning and we will be leaving tomorrow night. Its kinda like speed shopping/tourism. Being here makes me miss the London Underground. The Metro here in Paris is moldy and fugly.
Optimus Designs is a an entrepreneurial architecture company which is established by three young Kuwaiti architects. Last year they had an event called Funkyture where they displayed and sold furniture that they designed and manufactured themselves. They have some really creative original designs with a taste of their own. It was a very successful event last year and it is being repeated this year, I really recommend everyone to go check it out if you want to see something different. They can even design some furniture for you if you have something specific in mind. They have done houses and offices, interior design and architectural design. Take a look at the link for pictures of their previous event.
Date:
27 Oct – 6pm
28 Oct to Nov 1 – 10 am to 1pm & 5 pm to 10 pm
Location:
Qadsiya
Block1
Bader Street
House 11
Link: Optimus Designs
Lately I been playing lots of Halo 3 and been staring at that image as I wait for my games to load. It really astonished me since I am very familiar with the picture the world at night showing the world’s continents lit up.
Yet on Halo 3 Africa and South America are dark spots with a dots compared to the rest of the world.
It reminded me of my post Google Per Capita on how many people have access to Google. Yet the Halo Per Capita is even more telling. Just a quick glance of the map you can see which countries have access to high speed internet and disposable income to pay for a XBox.
Update: The lights on Halo3 map lighting up on the day of the game’s launch
We were at the supermarket picking up some munchies when on our way to the cashier we noticed a bunch of self checkout counters. It was hard to grasp the concept at first, I check out my stuff? Who will check and see if I was honest and didn’t skip anything? I still don’t know how they make sure people don’t cheat (probably monitor them with CCTV’s) but the idea of having customers check themselves out is unreal.
Its a pretty easy process, you take your items one by one, scan them on the machine and place them in the bag. Then you have a number of ways to pay, I chose credit card and just placed my card in the machine and that was it. Its the coolest thing ever.
The coins! So many fucking coins! The smallest note is like 5 pounds and everything else below is just coins. My wallet doesn’t even have a coin pocket so I am walking around with all these coins in my jeans and I am jingling the whole time like one of Santas reindeer’s.
Seriously there is a blog for everything. [Link]
I watched The Kingdom yesterday at what has to be the worst movie theater here in London. Seriously what theater actually leaves the lights on during a movie? The movie itself was pretty decent but now that I watched it I am really surprised it was banned in Kuwait. Watching the movie you can tell that the producers tried their best not to make Muslims look bad and the Saudi police actually were heroes in this movie so why was it banned?
On paper it doesn’t take much to open a store in Kuwait, the business process is comprised of the following: get money, get franchise, get location. The same store you visited a few years back on your summer vacation to an Arab hotspot (London, California, DC) has now shown up in your neighborhood avenue. In the past ten years, most Kuwaitis have grown accustomed to the growth of shopping malls and their associated brand names. The Midases of Kuwait who do come up with their own names are merely an amalgamation of other brands.
So what is one to do if the franchises (or combination of them under a local name) do not carry the products you are looking for?
You make it yourself.
Well, that is what one company recently did with Baroue… The concept was realized by Fahed Al-Mutawa after a bout of frustration finding items for his then newborn. After realizing the need for a child superstore; the idea behind Baroue was hatched, and it came to life through MS (Mutawa/Sayer) Retail (Restaurateurs in previous ventures).
What differs Baroue from any other children’s’ store?
Baroue has gone beyond the cookie-cutter approach of reselling items and retaining franchises; They have created a complete brand/franchise from zero. Their design studio (clothes) is based in London, their factories are in India and their head office is home sweet home, Kuwait.
Their first store is the third largest at the Avenues and carries everything from clothes and toys to a huge dragon that is a playpen in itself. And they have plans of expanding to other countries shortly.
For those who have had the theme song playing endlessly in their head (Baroue, Baroue, Baroue) .. You can blame Yuri Mrakdi, who originally came onboard as a Marketing director (and later sang the song). For the techies, you can track your children (RFID armbands) playing in the dragon through the kiosks scattered around the store.
Oh my god its really as good as people said it would be!! (Posted from my Nokia e61i)
update: Here is a link to their website. [Link]
A blog with loads of airline related design displayed, just flip through the different sections on the site. [Link]
Today is the final race for Formula 1 with the rookie favorite McLaren’s Lewis Hamilton (107 points) and just mere points separate him from his own team mate Fernando Alonso (103) and Ferrari’s Kimi Räikkönen (100).
Also include the drama that has been happening between Alonso and Hamilton then the spy scandal with Ferrari and McLaren it just extra spicing for what looks like will be an great race.
You can catch it tonight on Jazeera Sports at 7pm local time.
Personally I am cheering for Hamiliton, I like what he has done for the sport and is a new face and really got me into the sport this year.
Who do you think will win?
We just got evacuated from the subway due to some emergency. Pretty weird, I think I heard something about an electric fire. (Posted from my Nokia e61i)
Cheese burger, Ceaser salad, fries, onion rings, 2 beers and a coke.
Total: KD17
Its 2007 and we are still traveling by planes? Why hasn’t anyone invented a teleporter yet like the one from Star Trek. Hi sir can I see your ticket please? Thank you have a safe trip. Voooooyoooooop. Hi sir welcome to London.
Well not really cheap but cheaper than what a lot of people are selling their iPhones for. Click n Buy are selling the 8GB iPhone for KD219. Compared to Eureka’s KD399 price and compared to individuals who are selling their phones for KD230-KD250, suddenly Click n Buy looks like a good deal. [Link]
