Search: “ace”

A reader scanned the car ad above from a 1965 Kuwait Little Theatre show programme. I love how the dealerships phone number is just 5 digits. Check out the larger version of the picture above [Here]

Thanks Westwood Heritage

The GulfRun 8 car show is going to take place this weekend at 360 Mall and a lot of super cars will be on display including a McLaren MP4-12C, Ferrari 458, Lamborghini Aventador and two KTM X-Bow’s. The cars will be on display for two days, Friday the 11th and Saturday 12th so make sure you pass by and check them out. Below is the full list of cars (and their quantities) that will be on display at 360 Mall:

2010 Porsche GT3RS (x5)
2013 BMW M6
2007 BMW M6
2013 BMW M5
2011 Audi R8 V10 (x2)
2010 Audi R8 V8
2008 Mitsubishi Evo 10
2009 Mitsubishi Evo 10
2006 Mitsubishi Evo 9
2005 Mitsubishi Evo 8
2007 Subaru STi
2009 Nissan GTR (x2)
2010 Nissan GTR (x2)
2009 Nissan GTR
2012 McLaren MP4-12C
2011 Mercedes SLS
2012 Ferrari 458
2012 Lamborghini Aventador
2011 Ferrari 599
2009 Chevrolet ZR1
2012 Lamborghini LP1500-4
2012 KTM X-Bow R
2011 KTM X-Bow ClubSport

Finally here is a video of the recent Karting event that was held at Mishref by the GulfRun team. [Video]

Over a year ago the owner of 965 Flowers contacted me wanting me to write about his website. It’s basically a website similar to 6alabat except instead of ordering food you order flowers. I’m not a flower kind of guy so the website really didn’t interest me at all. I then kept getting emails from him every few months and even phone calls but I still wasn’t interested and it was kind of getting annoying. But, one thing he did achieve was implant the website into my head so I wouldn’t forget it.

Finally the day came where I needed to send flowers and 965flowers.com popped into my head. The website has 10 flower shops listed which combined means I had hundreds of different flower options to choose from with a lot of different prices. After painstakingly hunting through all the thumbnails I finally found what I wanted and ordered it. I placed the order around 9AM and asked it to be delivered between 11AM and 2PM of the same day. At 12:18PM I get a confirmation email telling me the flowers were delivered.

So yeah it works and I thought it was easy to use and practical. Only thing I would have liked is the ability to view all the flowers from all the stores on one page since it was pretty annoying going into every store one by one and then flipping through pages and pages of thumbnails. Other than that I had no issues at all.

Here is the link to the website if you want to check it out. [Link]

Update: Based on my feedback they’ve now added the option to view all the flowers from all the store at the same time, but you’re still limited to viewing just 15 thumbnails at once.

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

A reader spotted the above melon at Sultan Center.

Thanks Paul

A fire took place late last night at Souk Mubarkiya. I don’t have any info on it just the pictures I was sent which I’ve attached to this post. Judging by these two photos the fire damage looks pretty extensive.

Update: Kuwait Times have published more details on the fire. It started around 9AM yesterday (Tuesday 1/1/2013) and it engulfed around 35 shops. [Link]

According to Aboflan this fight took place awhile ago at The Avenues. [YouTube]

Mr Babu is a website that belongs to a friend of mine and I think it’s an interesting idea that should make shopping much easier for a lot of people. It’s an online shop but the way it works is different from other local online shops. Mr Babu is connected to a bunch of international online shopping databases and when you search for an item on their website it will find it for you, convert the price to Kuwaiti Dinars, add a shipping fee to Kuwait and then displays the price. You then place an order and they’ll get it for you. The price you see on their website is the price you pay for the item including shipping to Kuwait. There are no extra hidden shipping costs or anything of the sort.

I ordered the Bug-A-Salt (video above) from their website and since they had some local stock it was delivered to me the next businesses day. Most items though will take a week or more similar to when ordering using Shop & Ship or Borderlinx. The website is still in beta so it’s running a little slow but other than that its working fine. You can check it out [Here]

Update: In case the website isn’t working here is an explanation from Mr Babu:

We are overwhelmed by the traffic generated by your post which caused our site to crash (as you mentioned being in Beta stage we learn a thing everyday). Our team is working on the issue and will resolve it very soon. Thank you for using Mrbabu

I was contacted by Alghanim Automotive asking me if I’d be interested in reviewing the new Camaro ZL1. I’m honestly not a big fan of American cars and if they were asking me to review the regular Camaro I would have most likely said no, but… the ZL1 is a different kind of Camaro, it’s a Camaro with a V8 6.2L 580-freakin-HP monster engine. So I said yes.

There’s a popular saying that people don’t change, well that’s not true. I’m usually a law abiding, non-agressive and courteous driver, but once I started driving the ZL1 I changed. In my neighborhood I became the asshole down the street with the loud car who tries to run down all the cats. On the highway I became the jerk that cuts everyone off, at u-turns I became the douche that slides his car at full thrust and at red traffic lights I was the dipstick who kept revving his engine loudly. This car is dark and evil. It changes people. All I wanted to do is drive around with my middle finger sticking out the window while doing donuts in the middle of every intersection on the Gulf Road. Oh and a large FUCK YOU sticker on the rear window would have been nice as well. I really loved this car.

The ZL1 I picked up was pretty aggressive looking. The color was a very dark gray (jet black), the 20inch wheels were black and the interior was also black. If I was to choose a color combination for my car this would have been exactly it. I am really thankful to Alghanim for not providing me with a bright yellow Camaro with black stripes running down the middle since I would have most likely puked all over it. The interior as I mentioned was also black but they also used Alcantara (suede like material) for the steering wheel, gear stick and dash which made the interior very sporty looking. I had a choice between an auto and manual but since my stick shift skills are as good as Kim Kardashians acting skills, I chose the auto to the dismay of all my friends. I don’t regret I did. Although the automatic gearbox has a lot to be desired in term of responsiveness and speed, it didn’t really matter to me since I wasn’t on the track and I was just having too much fun with the car to notice. The car really is a lot of fun to drive. The first two days when I picked up the car it was raining so obviously the roads were wet and a 580HP rear wheel drive car on a wet surface is asking for trouble (the good kind). You really do need to respect the power which I wasn’t really doing hence why I got the scare of my life when I was driving at around 110KM/H and gave the car a kick down which to my surprise slid the ass sideways so much I nearly hit the car on my right. This car is a beast. It’s loud, it’s angry and it wants to kill you. I have no idea how I didn’t get stopped by the cops and deported in the five days I had the car. It was crazy good times.

I do have a bunch of negatives about the car though. For one thing the seats aren’t sporty enough. I would have wanted them to be deeper bucket seats and tighter since I was sliding left and right on my seat without much side support. The stereo was also a disappointment even though it was a 250w Boston Acoustics sound system, it just didn’t have the oomph. Externally, the front and sides of the car look pretty aggressive but the rear not so much. If I bought this car the first thing I’d do is replace the rear wing with a carbon version to match the carbon on the front hood, I’d also black out the chrome around the rear lights and more importantly replace the rear bumper with one more aggressive looking and possibly one with a rear carbon skirt. Finally gas consumption. If you drive the car like an old women the gas consumption is actually not that bad. On the other hand if you drive the car like it’s meant to be driven then you’re going to consume a lot of gas, and I mean A LOT of gas. There was one day where I filled the gas tank full three freakin times! I’ve never done that with ANY car before not even on long road trips.

The price of the auto ZL1 in Kuwait is KD19,695. The manual version is for slightly less at KD19,195. If you’re looking for a very fun monster but one that’s still comfortable as an everyday car then I can’t think of anything better than this. I want this car.

Note: No cats were harmed during the making of this review

Gallup measured positive emotions in 148 countries and areas using the following five questions:

– Did you feel well-rested yesterday?
– Where you treated with respect all day yesterday?
– Did you smile or laugh a lot yesterday?
– Did you lear or do something interesting yesterday?
– Did you experience the following feelings during a lot of the day yesterday? How about enjoyment?

The percentage in Kuwait who answered yes to all the questions above was 79% placing Kuwait in 17th place. Impressive. [Link]

Thanks Othman

This time it took place at a gas station. I don’t have any details on why the altercation took place or what happened to the victim. If I find out anything will update this post. [YouTube]

Note: Sorry for the bloody photos below but The Avenues cleaners weren’t available to mop up the mess.

Update: I added a second video below

Update2: Kuwait Times has “some” information on this attack. [Link]

Update3: The attackers were arrested. [Link]

I got an email from a reader saying that KDD products are now available at the Qurtuba Co-op. Only at the Qurtuba Co-op and not any other Co-ops as of this post. Usually the Co-ops are all united with their decisions but it seems there is some sort of internal conflict taking place right now and the Qurtuba Co-op was the first one to breakaway from the Co-ops KDD boycott and put KDD back on the shelves. I’m curious to see where this is going.

Thanks Kuwait Lover

[YouTube]

The video above is a TV interview with Colonel Adel Alhashash who shared facts regarding the stabbing that took place last night at The Avenues. According to the Colonel the incident started over a parking spot at around 10PM. The victim and the killer got into a heated argument over a parking spot in the basement and the confrontation then continued inside the mall. The victim was a Lebanese citizen, Dr Jaber Yousef who’s a dentist while the killer was with three other friends. During the confrontation in the mall the killer went and purchased a knife from Carrefour and then headed towards the victim and proceeded to stab him. Dr Jaber Yousef passed away an hour after arriving to the hospital.

According to the Colonel, The Avenues helped the investigators out a lot by providing them photos and CCTV footage of the aggressor. Because of those images the investigators were able to identify the killer but when they went to his home they didn’t find him there. They finally found him at a campsite in Bnaider where he was arrested. He’s 22 years old. The three friends who were with him have still not been caught but they will be soon.

When the Colonel was asked about the lack of presence of police officers at the mall the Colonel responded saying that with private locations such as malls the security is provided by the malls themselves and not the police. But, from what I understood in the interview this might change soon because of this incident and previous violent incidents that have taken place at malls.

There is a memorial page set up for the victim on Facebook and you can visit it by clicking [Here]

Update: Below is the photo of the killer

It’s pretty impressive that a company founded back in 1889 still exists today and is considered one of the most innovative and creative companies in their field. Nintendo has survived throughout these years not by sheer luck, but by being able to adapt to markets and get ahead of the game. Nintendo didn’t always make video games – it started out making playing cards and when that business was waning the CEO of the time Hiroshi Yamauchis decided to move into other businesses like instant noodles, a taxi company, and even a TV network. Eventually, Nintendo made its way in the video game business and released the NES; 27 years later, Nintendo has finally released its sixth console, the Wii U.

Nintendo’s philosophy has never been about creating the most powerful console with the best graphics, but to create a console that anyone could enjoy, developers could create fun games for, and is affordable. They constantly try to innovate without going overboard. The Nintendo 64 was the first console to introduce analogue sticks and 4 player controller ports right out of the box that competitors adapted in the future. We’re seeing similar advancements with motion controls that Nintendo introduced with the Wii and now Nintendo has taken another step forward by introducing the Wii U and the Game Pad.

Mark was able to hook me up with a Wii U from X-cite to review and I got the chance to test it out by playing Super Mario Bros U, ZombiU, Nintendo Land and Batman Arkham City.

The first thing I was curious about was Nintendo’s new social network called the Miiverse and so far it’s been informative, entertaining, and pretty promising. For those who don’t know, the Miiverse is where you interact with other Wii U users through a community for every app or game out for the Wii U. So if you want to discuss some Youtube videos, you can go to the Youtube community and post about it there and other users can reply or give you a “Yeah!” (equivalent to a Facebook “Like”). If you want to discuss a specific game and you’re unsure about buying it, you can go to that game’s community and ask them about it. Other times, people will draw some really elaborate drawings using the Wii U’s gamepad and the community walls turn into a temporary art exhibit. And it works well – comments are posted instantly without delay. People will comment and try to solve things. For example, I was going through the ZombiU community and found a thread with over 25 comments of gamers trying to decipher some code someone found spray-painted on a wall in the game. I wouldn’t be surprised if communities like this sprang up in the next iteration of consoles Microsoft and Sony release.

[YouTube]

I’m going to take part in a Spartan Race. [Link]

Update: Just found out about the Tough Guy competition (video below) which is based in the UK. Here is a exceprt from Wikipedia:

It has been widely described as “the toughest race in the world”, with up to one-third of the starters failing to finish in a typical year.

After 25 stagings of the winter event, Wilson still claimed nobody had ever finished the course according to his extremely demanding rules. The race, and its summer equivalent, has suffered two fatalities during its history.

Tough Guy™ from Mr Mouse on Vimeo.

Sounds like a lot of fun and the UK version of anything is usually more hardcore than the US one (Dirty Sanchez vs Jackass).