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Not sure how I missed this yesterday but it was open day at the Ali Al Salem Air Force base and anyone could get in and check the planes and helicopters they had on display. They even had drones on display!

Marzouq visited the base and took a ton of photos which he’s uploaded onto his blog and you can check out [Here]

Michel Hayek is an extremely popular fortune teller in Lebanon who comes on TV at the end of the year to share his predictions for the coming year. Embarrassingly, he’s so popular that according to him, 35% of the Lebanese politicians see him in private and most have started basing their decisions on his predictions.

Anyway, Michel Hayek has made a number of predictions about Kuwait I’ve listed below. Please don’t take these seriously:

– Kuwait’s Emir will be subjected to a few attacks and health problems
– A political crisis could lead to a siege around a highly symbolic and important building
– The earths crust displacement will result in cracks to a few buildings
– Kuwait’s mediation in a regional affair proves to be successful

So there you have it, Michel Hayek’s predictions for Kuwait. You can watch him read the predictions in Arabic on TV by following this [Link]

Thanks Najib

I never got to call the Baladiya hotline about the garbage issue behind my building since mysteriously the garbage was cleaned up and the garbage dumpsters brought back. But, a reader called 139 to complain about the garbage situation near his building and it got sorted out very quickly (picture above).

So if your neihborhood has a garbage problem call the Baladiya on 139 and they’ll get the mess sorted right away. Very impressive.

Thanks Mathai

Long time photo blogger BuYousef (real name Mohammad Abdullah) has taken his favorite blog posts about Kuwait and put them all in a photo book format. The posts range in subject like gardening, home life, local events, walks, photography and more. According to BuYousef it really is about nothing and everything with a theme of photography. Best of all it’s free so if you’re interested in checking it out you can download it from the Apple Store [Here]

The winners of the 2011 Emporis Skyscraper Award was recently announced and Kuwait’s Hamra Tower came in second place. The Emporis Skyscraper Award is a renowned architecture prize for new skyscrapers and the winners were chosen from over 220 skyscrapers completed in 2011. The tower that came in first place was the 8 Spruce Street which looks pretty impressive as well. [Link]

‘Inside the Middle East’ meets chop shop owner Hussain Salmeen, who builds and customizes bikes in Kuwait.

I’ve seen their bikes in person before and their customization is pretty extreme. [Link]

Thanks Andrew

[Stream Removed]

I will hopefully be streaming Kim Kardashian launching Millions of Milkshake live on this blog at around 4PM. The reason I am saying hopefully is because the 3G connection in this part of The Avenues is very dodgy and keeps going and coming. No 3G means no stream. Anyway check back at 4 for the stream. If she’s going to be late I’ll update you guys with the timing.

Update: connection here is horrible so am killing the stream and instead will record a video and upload it right after the event.

Update2: it’s 5pm and Kim still hasn’t arrived

Me and a friend went through all the questions submitted in the giveaway held a couple of days ago on the blog and managed to choose 4 really good questions which we will be asking Kim this week when we interview her. I will be contacting the winners soon but this means there is still 1 more ticket I need giveaway.

So, if you want to meet Kim Kardashian and get photos taken with her at the Millions of Milkshakes grand opening this coming Thursday, all you need to do is leave a comment below with your favorite milkshake flavor and using random.org I will randomly choose a winner.

Rules: Only one entry per person and please make sure you use a working email since the winner will be contacted by email. If winner doesn’t respond within 24 hours another winner will be randomly chosen.

Update: I’ve closed commenting

Update2: The number that won is comment #204 which is Dima DaveyWalker. Someone will contact you soon.

Update3: A reader made me realize I made a mistake with the counting. I was counting from inside wordpress which turns out displays the comments from new to old while on the blog its old to new. So the actual winner is DaveyWalker.

As I mentioned a couple of days back I have 5 “Meet & Greet” tickets to giveaway. These tickets will allow you to meet Kim Kardashian at Millions of Milkshakes during the opening as well as take pictures with her. Since I will be interviewing Kim Kardashian for this blog I’ve decided the competition will be as follows:

What would you ask Kim Kardashian if you could ask her just one question? Leave your question in the comments below. The five people with the best questions will each win a ticket. I will decide which questions are the best.

Make sure you use your correct email address because I will be emailing the winners.

Update: Here’s a video of Kim talking about her upcoming visit


[YouTube]

Update: I’ve closed the post for comments so I can go through the questions. I was so not expecting to get 400+ comments I have no idea how I am going to go through them all…

Update2: And the four winners are…
Roy
Rehab
Q8 Teacher
~LE~

It’s been awhile since I’ve linked to the blog re:kuwait but Barrak has an interesting post about the Jaber Bridge, the bridge that will link Kuwait City to Silk City in the North. Barrak is not in favor of the bridge and wants the idea to be scrapped completely. He does have an interesting case which you can read [Here]

It’s been quiet here the past few days but it’s because I’ve been working on a bunch of stuff for the blog. As most of you know Kim Kardashian is coming to Kuwait next week for the launch of Millions of Milkshakes which will be opening in Avenues Phase III (picture above). Kim will be arriving to Kuwait on the 28th and then leave on December 1st to Bahrain.

I’m trying to get as much content as I can regarding her visit and right now I’ve managed to score 5 tickets to giveaway here on the blog. These 5 tickets are for a “meet and greet”, so 5 lucky readers will be able to meet and talk to Kim Kardashian as well as get their photos taken with her.

I’m still trying to figure out how to give away these tickets so if anyone has any ideas let me know. It will have to be some sort of competition and I already have an idea in mind but I’m hoping someone can come up with a better one.

I was on the first ring road earlier this evening when I noticed lights and music coming out of the huge Kuwait City park across from the Tijaria Tower. Turns out there was a big event taking place where the new golden jubilee monument of Kuwait’s constitution was revealed. Buz Fairy has pictures and more information on the monument and event which you can check out on her blog [Here]

Cheick Kongo, Cyrille Diabate, Greg Babene, Mishal Abul

Every now and then I like to highlight Kuwaiti talent and achievements and I believe that Mishal Abul fits the bill. He is a partner at Paradigm Sports Management, a US based company that manages Football, Baseball and MMA athletes. I met Mishal through my blog sometime back and since I’m a huge UFC fan I was shocked to find out he was managing UFC stars like Michael Bisping and Chris Lytle among others.

Mishal was always into combat sports, he wrestled in high school back in the US as well as college. He got into MMA in 1998 because of the UFC and because of his trainer John “The Machine” Lober who was a pioneer of the MMA scene with a background in Jeet Kun Do, Grappling and BJJ. Mishal is probably the first Kuwaiti to train in MMA.

Jake Shields, Mishal Abul, Tareq Azim

I asked him about MMA in the region and if the UFC is considering bring The Ultimate Fighter to the Middle East like how they did TUF Brazil and the upcoming TUF India. This is what he had to say:

MMA is still way too young for the entire Middle East to recognize it, understand it and accept it. Fighting from a professional position is already here with Karate, Boxing, Muay Thai now they need to learn MMA, the best form of martial arts. There are already some locals or in the region who have trained and are becoming teachers.

Sending TUF to the Middle East is in the plans but not right now that’s because the mentality of the population within the Middle East is not the same as elsewhere with a history of combat sports which usually belongs to other large countries where it would boom immediately like Brazil, Russia and parts of Asia. But, I do believe the Middle East as a whole has some huge potential of breeding the best MMA competitors in the world. Parts of the Middle East strongly train in Karate, some other parts in wrestling or even Judo. Countries like Iran who are naturally strong could develop some amazing wrestlers which is the best base to begin with to enter MMA.

As a UFC fan I think it’s very cool to have a Kuwaiti managing UFC fighters. If you want to find out more about Paradigm Sports Management you can visit their website [Here]

Big D released a new music video yesterday directed towards all the people on 248AM that have hated him. The music video starts off with Big D reading the comments about him on this blog and then goes into an angry fit. The music then starts and while he’s rapping, various quotes from different commentators flash up on the screen. So if you’ve left a negative comment about Big D before you might see your comment in this video. [YouTube]

According to the blog Qortuba Valley, Kuwait’s approved LTE frequency is 1800 MHz which means iPhone 5’s purchased from the UK will work in Kuwait while ones purchased from the US will not. [Link]

Update: Arab Times also confirms the approved frequency is 1800 MHz [Link]