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I have been looking for an alternative to Aramex Shop and Ship for a long time now and haven’t been able to find one. Don’t misunderstand me, there are other options to Aramex which I have even mentioned before, but none provided me with everything I needed. They were either cheap but slow or fast but expensive, or even lacked some of Aramex’s basic features like package tracking. Now though I think I found another better option and its called U Shop We Ship.

I found out about it from a user who commented on one of my older posts and I decided to check it out. The first thing I did was check out how much the shipping would cost for an item that weighed 1KG and I compared it to Aramex and they both turned out to be priced identical. I then started to read more about their service and it turns out not only do they have all the features of Aramex but they also have additional stuff. Here are my favorites:

You have the option to destroy unwanted mail
You know how sometimes you get a stupid envelope which is just a bill for some magazine and you end up paying like KD2.5 for it. Well with U Shop We Ship (USWS) if you find junk mail in your mailbox you can have them destroy it for you.

They offer immediate shipping
You can have them check your mailbox and mail you stuff either once a week, twice a month or once a month AND you also have an option to have an item shipped immediately no matter what your shipping frequency is by paying a certain fee. This could be worth it when ordering a big item like an ipod or laptop and you really want it as quickly as possible. Just to clear what this means is say you have your shipping frequency set to once a week and it turns out they check your mailbox every Monday but your item arrived to your mailbox on Tuesday, instead of waiting till next Monday to have them ship your item you can have them ship it right away on Tuesday.

You can pay for your packages online
This is the coolest feature, something I have been wishing Aramex would do. I hate carrying cash with me, I am a plastic type of guy and so I hate it when Aramex delivers a package and I need to have an unknown amount ready to pay the guy. With USWS you pay for your packages online using either Knet or Visa. This feature sold me instantly.

I just got my account setup with them and I am going to try it by buying the Philips Bodygroom and mailing it to my new mailbox. Oh and you can change the shipping frequency yourself from the prefrences menu once you login and you can also change your login password, two things you also can’t do with Aramex. Their Kuwait office number is 4724673 but you can only sign up from their website. [Link]

Note: You not only get a US mailbox but also a UK and UAE mailbox. They also use Skynet Worldwide Express to ship the packages.

update: BusyNow pointed out to me that in their FAQ they have a discount section which mentions a variety of ways of getting discounts on shipping, something which you would never get with Aramex. [FAQ]

I am soooo fucking pissed now. I was just reading the Kuwait Times newspaper from a few days ago where they talked about the Beach Spike event that took place on the weekend and it turns out Kid Loco was the DJ at the event. KID FUCKING LOCO! He is like one of my favorite artists and this is the second time I missed him. The first time he came to Lebanon to play at one of my favorite pubs (Bongos) but I was here in Kuwait and couldn’t go down see him play cuz of my Army papers and now this. I didn’t go to the event because I couldn’t leave Geo alone all day neither could he spend the whole day under the sun but if I had know Kid Loco was going to be there I would have atleast taken all his CDs with me to get them autographed. This is totally unfair, I am extremely pissed. Kid Loco was in Kuwait from all places! Kid Loco!!

Here is a link to some of his albums on Amazon. My favorite is a A Grand Love Story. [Link]

The past few days I was hearing a lot about this application on the Mac called Macsaber that worked with the latest Apple notebooks by replicating the Star Wars light saber sound everytime you swung your Mac around. Anyway I couldn’t try it myself and I couldn’t find any videos or pictures of it in action so I ignored it.. until now. I present you with Macbook Man! [Link]

Has to be the coolest adverts I have seen this year. [Link]

Super, Unleaded and Diesel. [Link]

I first found out about F4T from q8techdrive‘s blog a few days ago and then yesterday out of the blue they delivered their menu to my office. So today morning me and some friends ordered some food from them and it turned out to be pretty good. Their menu was a turn off, its too cluttered, hard to navigate and full of useless text on the history of each food item when they could have used that space to put the ingredients. After finally figuring out what to order we gave them a call and they told us they would be over within 40 minutes, 30 minutes later the food arrived. I ordered the Halloumi Heaven which was recommended by q8techdrive and Entrepreneur, while my friends ordered the Tender Turkey Sandwich, Fries and the Sweetcorn Chicken Salad. I found the Halloumi Heaven not bad, like a 7/10. The Tender Turkey was supposingly really tasty while the Sweetcorn Salad not that good. The fries is regular fried fries but was really good also. Unlike LoFat, F4T does provide you with nutritional values although they are a rough estimate. Anyway I can’t give it a full review based on one sandwich I had but atleast you get some idea. It seems like better food then LoFat although not as healthy. Then again healthy food is usually no match for unhealthy food.

I really dislike F4T’s menu and website style, its like wannabe cool/trendy which is a disaster. They have a website where you can download their menu from. The link to the menu is on the far right just incase you couldn’t find it. [Link]

Here is a review round up of LoFat from various blogs including mine:

Calmness: LoFat Food
q8techdrive: My LoFat Lunch
K.thekuwaiti: LoFat Restraurant Review
2:48AM: Review: LoFat Restaurant

Yesterday evening two large bags filled with food were delivered to my home. A new place opened up called LoFat and they wanted me and Nat to try out their food and maybe post about it on the blog so they could get some publicity. I don’t think I have ever refused free food and I wasn’t going to begin now so I agreed and a few hours later their delivery guy delivered 2 large brown bags filled with goodies.

They sent us a lot of food which was really cool, they sent us beef wraps, veggie wraps, turkey wraps, a grilled chicken sandwich with cheese, unfried fries, 2 Tiramisu’s, 2 brownies, 2 chocolate chip cookies and 2 oatmeal cookies.

The first thing I did when I set the food on the table was to take a look at the prices in the menu. I was expecting to see some ridiculously high prices for food items of very small quantity but surprisingly everything cost under KD1.750. Nat came into the room and the first thing she noticed was how good everything smelled. Even though the delivery guy had lost his way to my apartment the food still arrived warm and fresh.

The biggest delima now was where to start from, so many choices to choose from but in the end I decided to start off with the unfried fries. 30 minutes later and more then half way through Desperate Housewives (Season 2 Episode 22) we had finished eating. I think we overate, you know you hear low fat food and you just can’t stop eating. I loved their fries, I don’t know how they are made, I think they are steamed and then grilled or something, they tasted really good and the best part about them is they are not fried. The grilled chicken sandwich was also really good and Hard Rock Cafe should take their recipe since they can’t seem to make a simple thing like a grilled sandwich taste good. I really didn’t like the veggie wrap since I am not into this weird stuff, I don’t even know what it was, I think it tasted a bit like falafel or something. I also didn’t like the low carb turkey wrap since it was wrapped in lettuce, a concept I don’t believe in. I think lettuce wraps should be banned. The beef wrap was ok, Nat liked them more then me but the deserts were the best. I didn’t try the Tiramisu since I don’t like coffee but the brownies.. wow… thats some really good stuff. I really loved their brownies and I can’t believe they are low fat. Their cookies were also good but the oatmeal cookie costs 500fils which I find too expensive.

I really wasn’t expecting the food to turn out good because when I think healthy and low fat I think of stuff like the veggie wrap and lettuce wrapped sandwiches which I don’t find appetizing at all. But the grilled chicken sandwich with the hot melted cheese is definitely the thing I would order the next time. The brownies I think are the best I have had and knowing that they were low fat doesn’t make me feel guilty for having them. The cookies… well you know where my heart is on that one. I think Nat enjoyed the food more since she ate more then me (a first). I always get pissed at her since she doesn’t eat much and now I know her secret, just add the word low fat to her meal and watch it all disappear.

I will scan their menu later on and upload it to the blog but for now I just have their delivery number which is 7666733. I will try to have the menu up tonight. (check below)

For the final score I will have to give them 3.5 out of 5. The grilled chicken sandwich and the Brownies were really good and the unfried fries should be available in more places. I really didn’t like neither the veggie wrap nor the lettuce wrapped turkey wrap, but I won’t include them in the review since I hate them in general and not only in this restaurant. If anyone decides to order from them make sure to order the fries and the brownies. Finally their prices are also very decent.. except for the 500fils oatmeal cookie, I still don’t get that.

The menu is available [Here]. Their delivery number is 7666733

update: I droped the score down to 3.5 because as some people brought it to my attention, they don’t mention any kind of nutritional information nor the amount of calories in the food. Something that is important for their target customers.

I was just reading a recent issue of Campaign ME magazine (April 30) in which they have a section dedicated to Kuwait and I got to the part where they talk about Internet in Kuwait and to my surprise they mention my blog. The funny thing is the way they mentioned it and it went something like “…there is 248AM.com which is run by Nataly and her husband”. Nataly and her husband?! It should be like Mark and his wife who posts only once every 4 weeks. I am sure she is going to enjoy this when she reads it. She comes back from Beirut tonight btw so you can expect a post from her sometime this week about her trip.. then you have to wait till next month for another one.

I was at Marina Crescent yesterday with Geo when I noticed a guy setting up a large telescope. I then remembered Astronaut Girl’s post on Astronomy Day at Marina Crescent. They had two large telescopes located at Marina Crescent and passerby’s were encouraged to look through it. I wasn’t able to since I was with Geo and I didn’t want to bother the crowd but most of the reactions from people who tried it was of amazement. I would have posted about the event before it happened but it had totally slipped my mind…

Update: Tonight at Ujeri Observatory, Science Club there will be some presentations by Ujri himself, amateur astronomers, and Astronaut Girl. Astronaut Girl will be giving a presentation about Space Science and the opening of the new branch of Space at the Science Club. Visitors will also be able to observe the sky with the big telescope. Time: 7:00PM to 10:00PM

If you are interested in modeling and making some quick easy money then follow the link and sign up (you must be in Kuwait). You don’t have to be a super model or a certain age or gender and most of the modeling is for advertising. You have nothing to lose, try it. [Link]

Update: It seems Romeo fixed the spelling mistake under the client section and also posted the following message:

Hey Guys Take it easy on us with your blogs we are still under construction…. But I got five model applications because of you so thanks for free advertising …. (LOL)

Funny stuff 🙂

Lucas to Release Original Unaltered Trilogy on DVD [Link]
A cool bag. Its both a camera and laptop backpack. [Link]
U.S. DS Lite Price and Date Announced [Link]
Macbooks Tuesday, May 9? (I hope!) [Link]
You Can’t Make It Up: 50 ANIMALS DRIVING [Link]
Watch 70 legal TV stations for free [Link]
Paris Hilton lookalike [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]

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…

The best spy shots I have seen so far. The car looks cool from the back but like a civic from the side.. [Link]