2:48AM - Entertaining Kuwait since 2003A man gets home, screeches his car into the driveway, runs into the house, slams the door and shouts at the top of his lungs:
“Honey, pack your bags. I won the lottery!”
The wife says, “UNBELIEVABLE! What should I pack, beach stuff or mountain stuff?”
“I don’t care. Just pack and leave!!!”
I just noticed that a9.com is using Windows Live instead of Google for their results.. sucks.. [Link]
On Friday I picked up my friend and we went and had lunch at IKEA before heading off to the H3 Ride & Drive event. When we got to the location it was like arriving in the middle of no where, we couldn’t see anything it was all desert and hills. Then we noticed some dust coming up from behind one of the hills and we decided to go and investigate. Luckily I was in my Wrangler because there was no paved road, its like you needed an H3 to get to the H3 event. I didn’t mind that since it felt like a true off road event even before I got to the place. When we reached the top we found the H3 camp, it was located at the bottom of the hill surrounded by a ton of Hummers and random visitor cars. We drove down to the camp and parked the Jeep… first impression was very positive so far.
We walked into the tent where we were greeted by some cute girls who took our names and made us sign a disclaimer stating if we got hurt they wouldn’t be responsible. I found that odd since its supposed to be just a test drive.. how bad could things go you know? Once we signed the papers they gave us a goodie bag and pointed us to another person who would put us into a Hummer.
This is where the fun starts. We get into the Hummer and drive off a hundred meters down the road where the Hummer driver tells me to swap seats so I could drive. I get into the drivers seat, adjust everything to my liking and then drive off towards a Hummer flag further down the road. When I first was told about the event, they told me that there were two tracks, a soft one and a hard one. I would be allowed to drive on the soft one while a professional driver would drive on the hard one. So automatically I assumed the soft track would be a stupid flat circle where I would safely drive around looking like an idiot. Well that turned out to be a completely wrong assumption. When I got to the Hummer flag I saw a deep fucking ditch in the ground filled with water. I figured that was the end of the test drive and I probably need to swap seats with the Pro driver so he could take me around the hard track. To my surprise the driver was like ok go in. I was like where, in that ditch? He was like yeah so I was like fucking cool. At first I thought this was a privilege I got because I knew the organizers but it turns out it wasn’t a privilege but in fact this was actually the start of the soft course! I got down the ditch and drove through the water till the end where I reached to a wall. I am not exaggerating here it was a nearly vertical sand wall that was soo high up I couldn’t see out of the ditch. The driver told me to step on the gas and not to press the brakes. I thought for sure the front end of the car would hit the wall before the tires but it didn’t. Up the wall I went and out of the ditch I drove. It was very cool and kinda unreal. I drove down to the next check point and this time the road ahead turned into holes. Each hole was maybe around 40cm deep and they were placed on both the left and right sides of the track. We drove through the track without any problems and very smoothly. Sure the car was moving up and down like a fishing boat in a perfect storm but we were driving through a track filled with 40cm deep pot holes! The whole time I was thinking shit my Wrangler can’t do this…
When we were done from the soft track which involved numerous impossible to climb looking obstacles, it was time to give the control back to the pro. He drove us to the hard track and put the H3 on 4x4low and told us to fasten our seat-belts. The first obstacle involved the H3 driving across two small dunes where half way through the driver stops and explains to us how the H3 at this point has only 2 wheels touching the ground. We then continue off to what I can only describe as a roller-coaster ride. We went up and down so many obstacles that were so high up and so steep it was just unbelievable. I tried to take pictures out of the window but all I could capture was either the sky or the ground. It was seriously jaw dropping. Once the drive was over I called up Nat and told her to get ready because I was going to come and pick her up. I drove all the way to Salmiya and back just so she could experience the drive. That ofcourse was a big mistake because now she can’t stopped nagging me about how she wants an H3 and when I could take her to the showroom.
I took a lot of pictures that day but something happened to the memorystick and all my pictures got erased. But, Alghanim sent me pictures yesterday that were taken by a photographer who came in from Dubai and they are way better pictures then the ones I had taken. Check them out, they are all from the Ride & Drive event here in Kuwait. The H3’s have Dubai numbers because they were brought in from Dubai. [Pictures]
I had a lot of fun.
My eyes have recently started burning when I sit in front of the computer screen because I think I need to update my eye glass subscription perscription prescription. I spend too much time working in front of the computer screen so when I found this page on how to exercise my eyes I was like cool shit. Its not something I would do at work since I would look really weird doing these exercises but maybe when I am alone at home.. [Link]
I don’t care much about the movie, and I really didn’t find any of these pictures interesting.. except for Spider Man’s costume. Now thats just fucking amazing, this is the shot I am talking about [Pic]. If I had that suit I would walk around Salmiya on a Thursday night picking fights with strangers. [Link]
[source digg]
Cajetan Barretto has been taking some amazing HDR shots here in Kuwait and a few days ago he posted a step by step guide on how to achieve photos of similar caliber. Its fairly easy but I haven’t been able to replicate anything as good as his stuff. Will keep trying.
Cajetan’s HDR guide [Link]
Cajetan’s Kuwait HDR pictures [Link]
Note: The picture above is by Cajetan
I don’t what the fuck happened but yesterday I took Nat’s camera to the H3 Ride & Drive event and shot a whole bunch of pictures and everything was fine the last time I checked the pictures last night. Then today morning when I conneceted the camera to copy the pictures onto my computer I couldn’t find the pictures. Not only that I couldn’t find a single folder or file on the camera’s memorystick. I even used Data Rescue I and II to try and recover the files but it also couldn’t find anything. Something really got fucked here…
If anyone is interested in getting a puppy or kitten then I would recommend checking with PAWS. They have a lot of cute dogs and kittens that need homes and you can check and see whats available by checking their gallery on their website. [Link]
I posted about the “My Puppy” store back in November and I talked about how the store was animal cruel locking the dogs and cats up in tiny stinky cages with very little room to move. Well TwaiF a regular reader of the blog had an experience with the place he she would like to share with everyone:
Last week I got a cute white kitten for my freinds birthday from the “My Puppy” shop. The shop smells like shit and there was no electricity or air conditioning. I saw this little cute kitten in a dirty cage and I couldn’t leave her there in that stinky shop so I took her with me for KD70. Guess what? Today she passed away!! She hadn’t been eating and when we took her to the vet the Dr said that she was too small to be taken away from her mother. She was 2 months old according to the My Puppy shop keeper although we now think she was a lot smaller. I called the guy who owns “My Puppy” and told him what had happened and he replied telling me that it was my fault becouse of the weather she passed away! I hope Mark you write about this stupid shop and how dirty it is and how cruel the owner is to the animals. -TwaiF
I think local organizations like PAWS or local vets should do something about this place. Its sickening.
Update: extinct.dodo another reader had a similar experience which makes you wonder how many people have purchased puppies and kittens from that store only to have them die on them??
I bought a puppy from that place last year for KD250, and it died less than 2 weeks later..
What I did was that I took my pup to the vet, got papers to prove that the dog was terminally ill (distemper) and went back to the shop. Although they wouldn’t give me my money back, they did however get me another dog, although by that time I was emotionally devastated over my sweet baby pup that I’d gotten so attached to in the days that it had been with me.
Update 2: I emailed PAWS today morning about the above and this is what they just replied:
Hi Mark, I don’t know if you’ve seen today’s press coverage (Arab Times and Daily Star) on WSPA’s visit to Kuwait. Coincidentally the reps from World Society for the Protection of Animals visited My Puppy just yesterday with officials from PAAF and our PAWS Chairperson. Though meeting no international humane pet shop regulations whatsoever, they did not actually witness the worst of what WE (PAWS and you) know goes on at this place.
Please be assured that WSPA and PAWS are working with the ministry of animal health to enforce current legislation and bring in new laws regarding pet shop regulations and standards. Sadly, these won’t happen overnight. We will report your findings to both WSPA and PAAF and ask them to send regular inspection teams.
Please keep the reports coming in….they are very useful and will be acted upon in due course if not immediately.
We also took the WSPA officials to Little Jungle…..words fail me, but please, please use the power of your blog to report on the horrendous conditions which exist at this so called ‘fun family’ spot…..It’s off the 207 from the Fahaheel Express way and if you haven’t visited….do so, at least once…it might make My Puppy look like an ok sort of place,
Best regards, and use that Blog to keep animal welfare issues front and centre, PLEASE!
Barbara
for PAWS
Seems like I need to pass by Little Jungle and check out how bad it is. If its worse then My Puppy then thats some scary stuff…
Pictures of Paris Hilton looking really cool next to her SLR. [Link]
This past week I have been having Booza Booza icecream for dinner. When I last posted about Booza Booza I spoke about how good their sorbet was but now I want to talk about how good their regular icecream is. Actually, what I think would be perfect is a combination of both. I really love their chocolate and pistachio icecream and I really love their strawberry and mango sorbet. I think thats what I am going to be ordering from now on, half icecream half sorbet. This is going to be a really good summer.
I am going to try the Special Forces technique tonight. [Link]
