2:48AM - Entertaining Kuwait since 2003I was checking the top views for my pictures at my flickr account and the results are pretty strange, here is the top 5:
#1 Where Apple’s Go to Die 1325 views
#2 Fuck Me Boots 1261 views
#3 Incest 842 views
#4 The Red Light District 461 views
#5 I See Dead People 441 views
OK, I left the office with everyone else around 10:30AM and got to the marina near the Sultan Center restaurant at around 10:45AM. I saw the yacht and it was pretty big. But I also noticed that while the boat was parked inside the marina in very calm waters it was still bouncing up and down and sideways. So I decided not to get on the yacht. No way you know. If it was bouncing while parked I am sure it was gonna be bouncing a lot more out in the open sea. So now I am back at the office, I am the only one here and I am gonna catch up on some work. I would rather be stuck here in the office then be out at sea.
I am at the office now, we are all gathering up here to leave at 10AM towards the marina. The plan is at11AM we will bard the boat for a 11:30AM departure. At 4PM we will come back. I already popped 2 pills earlier but I don’t think it will have any effect. We wil see. If I see a single wave in the sea I don’t think I will get on the boat.
Recently you might have noticed these ads on some buses advertising this restaurant called Wildfire. Well yesterday evening me and nat decided to pass by and give it a try. The place is located in Kuwait City in Mubarak Al Kabeer Street opposite the “Blockat” shops and the Chamber of Commerce building. The first impression wasn’t very good. The signage outside was in lime green and looked very cheap. When we got closer we saw the inside from the large window next to the door and the place looked small and like a hotel lobby with a small bar and small tables. Once we went in though we realized that it WAS actually a lobby / coffee shop for the restaurant which is located upstairs. Once we went in we were greeted with very friendly faces and led to the restaurant upstairs. When we reached the top we were once again greeted with smiles and they asked if we would like a private cabin. We said yes.. the first mistake. The restaurant on the inside is much bigger then i expected. Its clean, dimly lit and the furniture all new as it should be expected since the place just opened at the end of ramadan. The private cabin though was claustrophobic. The table was long and very slim like an oversized ironing table and the benches were very uncomfortable. It was also getting stuffy inside so we decided to keep the cabin door open. Then they brought us the menu which was the biggest surprise of the evening. Wildfire has simply the largest menu I have ever seen in Kuwait with nearly 200 dishes to choose from. Their menu has everything from extravagant cocktails and milkshakes to all types of dishes from Indian, Chinese and even Fish & Chips and Club Sandwiches. They even have lobster and crab for sea food lovers. The menu has 20 pages of everything you could imagine. We decided to have shrimp spring-rolls, kindu prawns, mongolian chicken and egg fried rice. We decided to skip the soup because weren’t that hungry but they did have shark fin soup which is usually my favorite. The shrimp spring rolls arrived first. They were too crunchy, had green peppers and weren’t very tasty. I hate green pepper in my food so my vote shouldn’t count here but nat doesn’t mind them and she also thought the spring-rolls were bland. The main course arrived soon after we finished. When he first put the food on the table I noticed the mongolian chicken was bright red. Thats the first time I see it like that, usually its dark brown, the kindu prawns also looked like normal prawns with a bit of light brownish sauce, again its not supposed to look like that. The food tasted as good as they looked, not very good. My mongolian chicken was not spicy at all and its supposed to be very spicy. Natalys kindu prawns tasted like normal prawns, the kindu part of it was tasteless. The rice was one of the worst I have tried, very boring in flavor and dry. We were very disappointed. The large menu led us to believe that we would keep coming back to try different things but after our meal we knew this would be the last time we would ever come back. The bill turned out to be 8KD, that also included 1 coke and 2 bottles of water. We left a 1KD tip and left. The waiters asked us how good the food was and I lied and told them it was great.. I couldn’t be bothered to explain why I didn’t enjoy the whole meal. The final score for the place is 3 out of 5. I would have given it 2 but the extremely large menu and the very friendly service helped raise the score. Maybe the Indian menu is better then the Chinese, maybe our dishes were not their speciality, whatever the case is, we didn’t enjoy our meal and we will most probably never go back.
Their website is wildfirekwt.com but it wasn’t working when I tried it now. Their phone numbers are 2476886 and 2476996. Below are 2 pictures from the outside.
Today I filled up my brand new Case Logic CD wallet with some really good music. I went through my CD collection and added some great classics, stuff I haven’t heard in a while and stuff that I should be hearing more often. Here is a list of all 48 CDs in the same order as they are in the wallet.
Jimi Hendrix – The Ultimate Experience
Korn – Life is Peachy
Korn – Korn
Nine Inch Nails – And All That Could Have Been
Nirvana – Bleach
Rage Against the Machine – The Battle of Los Angeles
Smashing Pumpkins – Adore
Tool – Aenima
U2 – Best of 1980 – 1990
Theater of Tragedy – Velvet Darkness they Fear
Lost Highway – Soundtrack
Nine Inch Nails – Downward Spiral
Nirvana – Nevermind
Nirvana In Utero
LF – Home Made Mix
Rage Against the Machine – Renegade
Nine Inch Nails – The Fragile (Double CD)
Audioslave – Audioslave
Velvet Revolver – Contraband
Rage Against the Machine – Evil Empire
Ministry – Filth Pig
Pet Shop Boys – Complete Singles Collection
Pink Floyd – The Wall (Disc 2)
Pearl Jam – Ten
Dj Danger Mouse – The Grey Album
Stereo MC’s – Dj Kicks
Kid Loco – Kill Our Darlings
Kid Loco – A Grand Love Story (Double CD)
Ian Simmonds – Return of X
Ian Simmonds – Last States of Nature
Tosca – Opera
Tosca – Suzuki
Comfort Zone Volume 3 – Various
Comfort Zone Volume 4 – Various
Lounge Conjunction – Various
Lemon Jelly – lemonjelly.ky
Dzihan & Kamien – Freaks & Icons
Dzihan & Kamien – Grand Riserva
Underworld – Beaucoup Fish
Dj Shadow – Entroducing…
Vikter Duplaix – Dj Kicks
Thievery Corporation – Dj Kicks
Thievery Corporation – Abductions & Reconstructions
Thievery Corporation – Sounds From The Thievery Hi-Fi
Lounge Conjuction 2 – Various
Truby Trio – Dj Kicks
From the above list the CDs I would like to highlight as simply the best ever are both the Tosca CDs and the Dzihan & Kamien CDs, plus the Nirvana Nevermind Album and Audioslave.
How much do people tip in general here? I know in the States people generally go by the 15% rule. Here I usually give a tip of around 10%. If the bill is over 5KD but under 10KD I would tip 1/2 a dinar. If the bill is between 10KD and 30KD, I would tip between 1 to 2KD. If the waiter is Lebanese I double the tip. If I know the waiter for many years like at Ceasers where I have been visiting for over 20 years, then the tip is usually 2KD for a 10KD bill. The reason I don’t go with the 15% rule is because 10% is easier to calculate. How much do you tip?
I was reading Puss-In-Boots blog and she said she loves to collect rare stuff. But she didn’t say what stuff she collected. I know Nibaq likes to collect toy figurines, but what else does everyone collect? I personally collect 2 things. Wired Magazines (I have every issue since 5.01 and my oldest is 3.12), and also videogame systems. So since today is cleaning Firday, I decided to take out and shoot all my systems and then wipe the dust off before I put them back into the cabinets. Below is a list of all the systems I currently own and they link to their pictures.
Atari Jaguar
Atari Lynx
Coleco Vision
Commodore 64
Commodore VIC 20
Dingoo A320
Game & Watch – Chef
Game & Watch – Donkey Kong Jr.
Game & Watch – Mario Bros.
Microsoft Xbox
Microsoft Xbox 360
MSX2 (Sakhr)
NEO-GEO AES
Nintendo 64
Nintendo DS
Nintendo DS Lite
Nintendo Gameboy SP
Nintendo Gamecube
Nintendo Wii
Panasonic 3DO
Sega Dreamcast
Sega Gamegear
Sony Playstation 1
Sony Playstation 2
Sony Playstation 3
Sony PSP
Speak & Spell
Super Nintendo
Super Simon
I still have a couple of systems I would like to own, mainly a Nintendo Virtual Boy, a Sega Nomad and a Sega Saturn.
Before I got married and moved into my own apartment, I didn’t have any room to display the stuff in my old room so I had them all under my bed. Now though since I have my own place I have them all displayed in my cabinet (1,2) with the boxes and some accessories in the drawers and closests (1,2,3,4).
So what do you guys collect?
I am soooo jealous. Puss-In-Boots just got a brand new Grendizer GX-40S complete set. To make things worst she took some really nice pictures just to tease us all with!
I can’t believe my luck. Around a month ago, a guy took some lego people, painted them black, gave them tiny ipods and then put them on a bright green background and sold these displays for 17$. He was copying the iPod ads and it came out really good. He only made 300 so by the time I got to the site they were sold out. No problem, he said I could sign up to his mailing list and once he makes some new ones he will send out and email and I can buy them. So I just woke up and I am checking my mail and I find one from podbrix. So I go to the website and this times theme is Steve Jobs giving a Keynote speech. Most of you won’t know what this is but basically Steve Jobs (the top guy at Apple) gives speeches and introduces new Apple products at these Keynotes during Apple Expos. So this time the guy is mimicking Steve Jobs giving a speech. So I click on buy now and turns out the guy already sold out all 300 pieces! Now I have to wait for his next version. Sucks.
I was at Sultan Center today doing some shopping when we passed by the CD wallet stand upstairs in the electronics section. I currently have 2 Case Logic CD wallets. One fits 20CDs and the other I think 200. I bought them ages ago and I remember they weren’t cheap. The 200CD one I bought from a shop that was closing down in Lebanon and he was selling everything like really cheap, I paid $40 for it and I remember that was a really good deal for it back then. So I am standing at the stand and I check the prices, KD1.5 for a Case Logic wallet that holds 16CDs and KD2.5 for a wallet that holds 48CDs. I was a bit shocked, I always passed by the Case Logic stands in stores like Virgin and stuff but I never really stopped to check out the prices. And now I am standing there wondering why I am using my very old 20CDs wallet that has pockets inside that are ripped and shit when for KD2.5 I could have a brand new wallet that holds more then double the amount of CDs. So I went ahead and bought it. Now I am gonna check out bigger sized wallets for my computer CDs. I have hundreds of CDs stacked up, fuck knows whats on them but I cant bare myself to throw them out. So now I might just put them in a case and shove them into the back of the closet. I took a picture of my 2 old Case Logic wallets and my new one next to each other. Note that all 3 cases have different logos. Here is the picture.
On Monday it will be my agencies 140th year anniversary. All the agencies branches all over the world will be celebrating the anniversary together. It will be a 24 hour event, every agency in every timezone will celebrate at 12:00PM their local time. Rumors have it that our whole agency here will be going on a boat trip and having lunch on board. Sounds nice.. except I fucking have motion sickness. I get sick if I am sitting in a back seat of a car, on a plane, and especially on a boat! I need to pop a few pills of some anti motion sickness drugs. Anyone got a recommended brand? Its got to be strong and I will probably take 3 times the recommended dosage just to be safe.
Passed by Salmiya’s Jewels (Jawharet Salmiya) yesterday night for dinner. Its a Shawerma place I frequent often because of the lack of other decent Shawerma places in the area. The Shawerma place is located on a corner of the building next to the Lime Light boutique in Salem Al Mubarek street. Its not a big place but the Shawerma guy is very friendly and nice. They don’t have meat Shawerma only chicken. They give you two options for the bread, you can either have a hot dog bun which is my favorite or the regular bread. Price of the Shawerma is 250fils and they sell cans of softdrinks for 100fils. They have Shani available. The garlic is pretty good and strong and be-worn, it will leave your breath stinky for the next couple of hours unless taken care of. The place although doesnt look it, is pretty safe and clean to eat at. I have eaten there numerous of times and never gotten sick. There is a small seating place outside but its not very comfortable. The place doesnt have much competition around if any. The closest Shawerma places to him are Kurdo which is down the road towards McDonalds, and this other unknown place in an alley accross the street from Marina Mall. Over all the place gets a 3 out of 5. Its a decent score for a shawerma place in this range.
Here are two pictures of the place:
Picture 1
Picture 2
Thanks to BusyNow for the heads up. Amazon.com is now allowing you to preorder your Sony PSP value pack for a price of $250 (KD73). The value pack includes a 32MB Memory Stick Duo, headphones with a remote control, a battery pack, and a movie/music/video game sample UMD. Sony is also tossing in a special UMD-version of the film Spider-Man 2 with the first one million PSP Value Packs sold. So preorder your PSP now, this is the link.
This is my order:
1 of Sony Playstation Portable (PSP) Value Pack
Sony Computer Entertainment; @ $249.99 each
1 of PSP Ridge Racer
Namco; @ $39.99 each
——-
Item(s) Subtotal: $289.98
Shipping & Handling: $5.48
Total Before Tax: $295.46
Tax: $25.48
TOTAL: $320.94
Update: Amazon has stopped the preordering. It seems the first batch of PSPs on Amazon have already been preordered.
Wooohooo, this was a bit of a shock to me but today I got an email from FILE Magazine telling me one of my photos will be added to their collection. So I go to their website and their it is, my photo of the Kuwait Towers on their website.. as a featured file! Thats such a compliment since the pictures on that site are really beautiful and having one of my pictures up with them in the collection is seriously the best.
Here is a screenshot of their main page
Here is a permanant link to my picture in their file
Here is a link to FILE Magazine
How could I forget to post about this. Apple announced new iPods today as expected. The new iPods include:
iPod Mini
– New 6GB Model. $249
– 4GB Model. $199
– Up to 18hrs Battery Life
– 4 Colors. No more gold, and the pink, blue and green are still there but they are now more vibrant. Silver still the same.
iPod Photo
– 30GB. $349
– 60GB. $449
20GB iPods ($299) remain. The 40GB iPod appears to have been discontinued.
So sadly, no extremely new colors for the ipod mini, and no color screen also. For more details visit Apple.com.
