I just found out about Blouzaat from Moeys blog and they have some really cool t-shirts there. They all look really funky and are all beautifully designed. You can tell they’ve put a lot of effort and thought into the designs and the result is just some really trendy looking shirts. The designers (I think they are a group) are based in Jordan and their store link says coming soon but hopefully it won’t be that long before we can start placing orders. Check out their collection, they have a ton of different designs. [Link]
Ruby Tuesday have redesigned their identity and it was handled by Pentagram, the same agency who were responsible for the Commercial Bank of Kuwait identity back in the 70s. I prefer the new logo and how its being applied but I know a lot of people think type based identities are the lazy way out. What I also find interesting is that Appleebee’s just rebranded, so now I am wondering if Chilis or TGIF could be next. [Link]
A bunch of motorbike riders from Kuwait have left on a long road trip to Beirut. One of the riders is Hellraiser, a fellow blogger whos actually gone and setup a blog specifically for this journey. He has a digital camera and Internet access and will be updating the blog often. Its an interesting trip so check out his blog for updates. [Link]
Earlier I posted about the paper bags at the Co-op’s, well the group behind it turned out to be CEC, a local environmentally friendly company. Seems they are running a one month campaign called Environment Friends Campaign which involves different activities including the paper bags at the Co-op’s. So sadly I am assuming that once this one month campaign is over the Co-op’s will be going back to plastic bags. [Link]
I just found out from Gringo in Kuwait’s blog that Ducati have just released two new bikes, the 848 and the new Monster 696. They both look incredibly stunning and I soooo have my eyes on the 848, its like a 1098 which I can afford.
Check out the Ducati 848 [Here]
Check out the Ducati Monster 696 [Here]
Just booked my tickets to Bahrain via Jazeera Airways. They are practically giving them away, it cost me only KD23. Weird thing is after I booked I was checking the passenger name and it was written TESTTT, TESTT. I called Jazeera Airways up a few minutes ago to fix it and I am actually still on hold waiting for someone to pick up while I am writing this post.
So anyways, Gulf Run is next week, I am going to be taking both my video cam and digital camera so I can take a ton of shots. Marzouq, Bader and Khalid are also going and I don’t know if there are any other bloggers also going. If you want to find out more about Gulf Run you can check out their website on www.thegulfrun.com
And Remember, Magic is the Natural Energy Drink 😉
By the way, I am done writing this post and I am still on hold! update: After waiting for like 10 minutes they hung up on me, I called again and I am now still on hold
update2: Finally got a hold of someone who was very professional and straight to the point. Fixed my problem instantly. I guess they just need more operators.
Today was such a blast! We got to Marina Waves around 9AM in the morning and first thing we had to do was move our plane to the proper location which was the front of the line. One team ahead of us had withdrawn from the event so we became team #3 instead of #4.
Our friends started to come one by one until our station resembled a large diwaniya then judges started passing by to judge and ask questions about our plane. Every time a judge would see our plane they would get this shocked look on their faces but they all had sense of humors and cracked jokes with us. They all agreed though that our plane was the most comfortable one to sit in, kinda like a lazy boy version of a plane. Later that we found out one of the teams had a large helium canister which we quickly took advantage of. We kept filling balloons with helium and passing them around to everyone to inhale, that cracked everyone up for a while.
Finally around 2PM they started the event and we were the third plane to jump off. We were dressed as traditional Kuwaiti fisherman which didn’t make sense at all but its not like anything else did. Every team had to play a song and have a dance before they pushed the plane off the ramp and our song was Sabo7a. I think that and our dance which was also traditional Kuwaiti cracked up people the most. For me I think the dancing was the worst part, I hadn’t danced the traditional Kuwaiti dance since I was like 10 years old in school so I was just a mess but who cared it was still fun. The rest of the team, Khalid, Bader and Marzouq were naturals though as you can see in the video at the end of this post.
Once we were done with the dance we got behind the plane and Bader who was our pilot got into it and we started to push. We pushed as hard and fast as we could and just before the end we let go and stood and watched. All I saw was our plane fly out a few meters and then slam hard into the water with Bader lying on his back and this look of horror and pain on his face. It was priceless! It was then our turn to jump in, we didn’t have to but we wanted to. The only reason we participated in Flugtag was to have some fun and jumping in was the last thing we had to do.
When you look down from the edge the water looks really far but I thought about that for just a second before I just went ahead and jumped in. For some reason I decided to land on my ass so I landed pretty hard and it was kinda painful but not as bad as landing on your back which Khalid and Bader did. The water was amazing and it was just an incredible rush jumping off after such a long and amazing day. I could hear the crowds cheering and laughing and I could also hear Bader, Khalid and Marzouq all laughing. We then got on the jet skis that came to rescue us to take us back to shore, me and Khalid got on behind this one guy and just as he was taking off the whole jet ski flipped on its side and we landed on an adjacent jet ski which was pretty hilarious at the time I don’t know why.
When we got back to the shore we met up with the other teams and they congratulated us and we shared with them our experience. After that we just packed up and left since we were all wet and tired.
I have to say all the other teams we met and interacted with were also a lot of fun. Majority of the guys there were there just like us to have a lot of fun. If you actually saw the planes at the event you can tell most didn’t care about winning, everyone just wanted to enjoy the day and crash land with style. From the teams, to the Red Bull staff and even the judges, everyone was very positive, super friendly and a lot of fun. I would definitely want to participate again next year maybe even with an updated plane although I love ours the way it is. After this event I actually suggested we convert our plane to a raft and just join the yearly raft race with it.
The pictures above were taken by Nicole except for the picture of goatse (we had spray painted it at the rear of our plane), that was taken by me. The video below was shot by Nat. Special thanks to Hashem (he doesn’t have a blog so I could link to) for helping us out by being our ground crew and helium supplier.
I read about this earlier today on Forza’s blog and a reader (Lexicon) awhile ago sent me another link with a bit more info. It really sucks to see Kuwait fall back like this from its glory days in the 70s and 80s. [Link]
Just got back from London today morning and I think I need a vacation. Thanks to Nibaq, k.thekuwaiti and Z District for guest writing on the blog while I was away. Everything should get back to normal from tomorrow.
After I accepted Mark‘s invitation to be a guest writer in the week +1 span of his ‘vacation’ .. I came to the realization that If I were to post here as often as I posted on my personal blog .. my next post would be in a couple months.
However, you can be assured that in the span of my absence (and Marks); Marzouq will post about cartoons and toys, while Nibaq links you directly to the original content.
I haven’t blogged with Mark since back in the qHate.com days. It feels like a velvet glove cast in iron.
Well the plane is almost done. We had the technical guy come over yesterday for a safety check and some other advice. It is looking good based on his view. He suggests that we cut more weight from it as possible to help the lift. Seems that every little bit helps.
All is left is our secret weapon that Mark is brining with him from his trip, and the color of it. I really hope we don’t have the same incident as last time. Huge fight broke out about which color the plane should be. We didn’t talk to each other for a week…
I will be out of the country from the 19th of October to the 27th on vacation. Me and Nat will be heading to London and Paris and so I don’t know how often I will be updating the blog through out this trip. If I don’t update it daily I am sure you can understand why. This is my first proper vacation in a long time.
