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Every time the garbage in the empty lot behind my building catches fire I take a picture and document it on my blog. This is now the fourth time its caught on fire.

First time
Second time
Third time

Today’s giveaway is starting later than usual because I want the readers who check the blog in the evening to have a chance to participate. The giveaway today is courtesy of The Chocolate Bar which as many of you know have an incredibly large menu filled with chocolate based desserts. I always have a difficult time trying to figure out what to order but with today’s giveaway you shouldn’t have that problem because The Chocolate Bar is giving away an invite for 4 so you can go with your friends and enjoy their desserts at their newly reopened Marina Crescent branch.

They have a few branches around Kuwait but for the past few months the Marina Crescent one had been closed for renovation. It had been open for five years and needed an update but the renovations have been completed and tonight is the reopening.

All you need to do to win The Chocolate Bar invite for 4 is to leave a comment below and later on in the evening I will use random.org to select a winner.

For more information about The Chocolate Bar visit their website [Here]
Starting Eid their opening hours will be from 9AM till midnight.

Rules: You need to put your proper email in the email field while commenting since the winner will be contacted by email. You also need to respond to my “You Won” email within 24 hours or I will have to make another draw and choose another winner. You can only comment once, anyone caught commenting more than once will get disqualified.

Update: The post was closed for commenting at around 9:30PM.
The winner is…

[YouTube]

Comment #207, you’ve got mail!
Everyone else check back tomorrow for another giveaway.

According to the blog 360 Dewan, Sultan Center are about to start delivering groceries to your home. Would come in handy if I run out of Lucky Charms at 2 in the morning.[Link]

Today’s giveaway is for the ladies and its courtesy of the fashion boutique Pink Moon. I’ve mentioned them a few times on my blog before and some of you might have noticed their trendy shop on the Gulf Road opposite Seef Palace near Slider Station. They also have an online store which is very popular and doesn’t only serve Kuwait but they also deliver world wide.

They are giving away one item from their best-selling ‘Free City’ collection which actually has a long waiting list. The winner will get to choose any one item from the ‘Free City’ collection which includes t-shirts, hoodies and sweatpants worn by tons of celebrities. Their newest collection arrives tomorrow and the winner will get to choose whatever 1 item they want for free.

All you need to do to win is to leave a comment below and later on in the evening I will use random.org to select a winner. To check out Pink Moon’s current ‘Free City’ collection online click [Here]

Today’s giveaway is for women only but don’t worry there’s still a lot more left. Last night I finalized all the giveaways and their are some really great stuff coming up. So enjoy!

Rules: You need to put your proper email in the email field while commenting since the winner will be contacted by email. You can only comment once, anyone caught commenting more than once will get disqualified.

Update: The post was closed for commenting at around 9PM. The winner is…

[YouTube]

Comment #122, you’ve got mail!
Everyone else check back tomorrow for another giveaway.

I was reading an article in WIRED magazine about Patrick Blanc and his famous vertical wall gardens when I read the following:

Forty-five years on, the French botanist’s gardens have grown massive in scale. One inside a Portuguese shopping mall is larger than four tennis courts, and there’s one in Kuwait that’s almost as big. [Source]

So I did a bit of googling and found this article from January of this year that says:

360 MALL announced the latest addition to its unique retail offer, with the creation of the world’s largest indoor living wall. This innovative vertical garden marks a new eco-friendly element to the 360 Mall on offer…

…Patric Blanc, a botanist and the inventor of the Vertical Garden said: “This vertical garden is set to become a must-see destination for people in Kuwait and beyond. It is something people will want to see and experience for themselves. [Source]

I’ve been to 360 Mall a few times and never noticed the vertical garden so I checked for some images of the mall online and found the picture above on Ansam’s blog showing the vertical garden. I don’t think a lot of people have noticed it before, maybe they should add a plaque or something in front of it. It’s interesting.

Here is a link to Patrick Blanc’s website. [Link]

A blog reader just emailed me saying that my blog is blocked by KEMS. Can anyone confirm that?

Update: It seems this isn’t true, my site isn’t blocked with KEMS. Must be a fluke?

Update2: The error message the blog reader is getting is

This site is blocked according to the goverment filtering policy. If you feel this page has been blocked in errors kindly fill out the form and we will investigate thank you.

Very strange, is this because I said the bollards were ugly?

Update3: My site is now no longer blocked on KEMS.

I don’t understand why they would demolish it. Couldn’t they leave it standing there all alone? It’s very sad. [YouTube]

via Q8GEEKS

The other day I posted about the new bollards (poles) that were being installed in the area around my office in Kuwait City. They really didn’t fit in with their environment and it looked like a lot of money was wasted on them. Well one of my blog readers just made me realize that they’re not there anymore. I saw some guys working on them this morning when I was coming in to work and figured they were just properly fixing them but it seems they were removing them. Strange, just like that they’re gone, not a single one left behind. Hmmmm…

I know a lot of bloggers have been posting their views on Apple’s Snow Leopard and here is my addition. While getting my shots for my next post I noticed the image capture software has been updated and improved. Pretty cool.

Probably the nicest looking Mercedes in a very long time. [Link]

Update: Here is a nicer picture I found on Uncrate

I just read on Frankom’s blog that the Sony dealer in Kuwait has an incredible offer on the new PS3 Slim. For a limited time offer they’re selling it for KD69. If they don’t have a decent amount of stock available then they’re probably already sold out by the time you read this.

Note: This deal is just available at their newly opened Avenues branch. It’s located near D*Lush and Nokia.

Update: This is what one reader had to say about his experience trying to get the PS3 Slim:

OK everyone I got it, its 120 GB euro, plays all region games, but the sony shop was horreendous i went at 11:00 am and was # 84 out of 120, it was a big mess, people shouting and old women begging for numbers. two kids even fingered the sales guy back side for a number which caused an even bigger delay, completly dis-organized , but cant blame them selling its for nearly half price, al ghanim is getting it in october for 100kd pre order, sony selling it for 69 is gonna cause chaos, but they should have been prepared to be honest. only good thing is that women dont have to wait for a number, by 12:00 i recieved mine and they had stopped giving numbers out so if you want to go in the evening i dont think there will be any left

Update2: According to Cajie a blog reader, when he passed by at 1PM the stock had already been finished.

Picture taken by Cajie

I got a phone call yesterday from a friend at Zain. He wanted me to try out their new e-GO which can hit speeds of up to 21.6Mbps. Sadly I couldn’t pass by to pick it up since I had to catch a flight to Lebanon but I was just catching up on some blogs and it seems some other bloggers managed to get the e-GO and try it out. So far the reviews have been positive. Here are some blogger reviews on the new 21.6Mbps e-GO:

zDistrict
Review: Zain E-Go 21.6 MB/s

4th Ring Road
Zain e-go 21.6 mbps…. we like.

Some Contrast
Exclusive: Zain’s latest E-GO 21.6 Mb/s

Blushberry
Review : Zain 21.6 Mbps Internet

I should get my hands on the new e-GO once I get back to Kuwait in a couple of days. The picture above is taken by zDistrict.

Update: According to Some Contrast, the new e-GO and 21.6Mbps connection is available right now at every Zain branch. The new e-GO sells for KD45 and the monthly membership is KD32 but if you sign up for 1 year you get the new e-GO for free.

Update2: 360Dewan tried his 7.2Mbps connection after Zain upgraded the network to 21.6Mbps and he was able to achieve download speeds of up to 758kb through a connection via his iPhone 3GS. So it looks like everyone’s connection has benefited from this upgrade. [Link]

I knew things were bad in Lebanon when it came to the treatment of animals but I didn’t think it was this bad. I just found out about BETA which is the Lebanese equivalent of Animal Friends except with a lot less resources. Just to give you an idea of how bad things are there, here are four links [Link], [Link], [Link] and [Link]

It’s a very sad state and BETA are trying their best but they need a lot of help. I know I have some readers who check this blog from Lebanon but this also applies to anyone in Kuwait that cares about animals and can help out financially. As little as $10 a month can make a difference, that’s just KD3! They also have an automated payment system which you can set to charge your credit card monthly which is what I did because its a lot more convenient. So please if you can help out even if its a little amount it would be really great. Here is the page with info on how you can help. [Link]

Thank you!

Last week I posted about my problems with Qualitynet and since then they’ve contacted me a number of times to see how they can solve my problem. Tonight they finally sent over the head of corporate support with a small KD5,000 device to see if they can fix my problem.. and they did!

The picture above is the readout on the devices screen before he fixed it while the one below is after. They were able to double the speed my line can handle from 1.5MB to 3MB. So will I be leaving Qualitynet? No I won’t. They read my blog and they care that I stay happy which is fantastic for me.

I am really getting frustrated with my Qualitynet connection. It’s like every week they have some kind of major problem and their DSL connection either crawls to a halt or just stops working completely. Currently I can barely load websites because the connection is so bad. I am trying to call qualitynet support but they keep hanging up. After around 9 or 10 minutes being on hold the music stops and I think someone is finally going to pick up when they end up hanging up on me. This happened 3 times now. Last week they had issues and the week before that. Qualitynet are you reading this? This is frustrating!

Anyone else having problems with their internet provider?

Update: Ok I am definitely changing providers. I just had my worst experience with customer support in my 3 5 year history with them. I finally got through to customer support and a guy picks up. I tell him I have a major issue with my connection. He goes uhum. I am like yeah its been like this since 5pm. He was like is this Patrick? I was like WTF? No I am not Patrick. I then proceed to give him my DSL phone number and he then replies you have a problem with your internal building line. I was like dude are you reading random notes off your computer screen? The building line problem is a completely different issue, yesterday the engineer was over trying to see if I could install 4MB and the internal line issue is that the building gets 4MB but by the time it gets to my apartment the max is 2MB. He then proceeds to explain to me I can only get 512kb. I was like what are you talking about? I was using 2MB until a month ago and up until 5 minutes ago I was on 1.5 what do you mean I can only get 512kb? Anyway long story short he had to be the most incompetent customer support person I had ever dealt with. In the end I ended up closing the phone with him and calling them back up again to talk to another support guy. Everything is back to normal now finally.

Update2: Called Kems (Zajil) and spoke to a guy who sounded like he was asleep. I asked him a few questions and he answered but he didn’t sound too confident. He told me if want to get 2MB for KD200 I need to act now because their offer expires on September 5th. So I need to make my decision in the next couple of days if I want to move either to Fasttelco or Kems. Kems I think would be more practical since our new office is going to be located right next to their head office which makes it easier in case I need to pass by them.

Update3: Qualitynet just called me and told me my problem is my internal building/house wiring and because I was a loyal customer they would send a technician to swap out the whole wiring at their expense. I told the guy that I live in a huge complex and it’s not possible to swap out the line or I would have paid for it myself. I told him I had been using 2MB for 8 months and 1.5MB for like 2 months and yesterday I was told my line could only handle 512kb. He insisted to send someone over so I agreed. Will see what happens.

Update4: Well just an update, I don’t think I will be moving over to Kems. Ever since my post multiple people have been calling me from qualitynet to see what problems i have and trying to solve it. They even offered to rewire my phone line throughout the building! Qualitynet reads my blog and they want to keep me happy so that’s more than enough to convince me to stay with them.