Search: “ace”

I take the Gulf Road every morning to work and every evening back home. I also take the Gulf Road on my way to the gym and back. Every single freakin day I have to put up with jerks on the road trying to hit on chicks. The Gulf Road is just 3 lanes and if there is a car with a girl in it then you find a car on the left of hers and a car on the right of hers filled with a guy or two driving at the exact same speed as the girl (or girls). It’s ridiculous! Sometimes there would be a car in front of her as well and maybe a car or two behind also trying to get some action. These idiots block the whole Gulf Road driving at a slow pace hoping to get the girls number or whatever (I have no clue how that works) while everyone else is forced to drive at an abnormally slow pace behind them.

It’s not just guys that are the problem, sometimes you get these group of girls with a ton of makeup on giggling and laughing in the car with the windows open driving slow actually wanting the guys to hit on them. It really pisses me off. Where are the cops? Why don’t the cops do anything? Why don’t they assign the female cops (pictured above) to the Gulf Road and have them take vengeance?? Instead of installing new speed cameras on the Gulf Road they should figure out a way to stop these morons.

Sorry I’m venting but I just got home after getting stuck in traffic because of some jerks.

Dasman Diabetes Institute is having a big event this Thursday for World Diabetes Day, check the below for more information:

——————————————

How much do you know about diabetes? Did you know that Kuwait has one of the highest rates of diabetics in the world? You know that beautiful glass building in front of Souq Sharq? Ever wondered what it was? Be it “yes” or “no” you are invited to join us at the Dasman Diabetes Institute to celebrate World Diabetes Day.

When: Thursday, 25th November
Time: 4:00PM to 9:00PM
What: A jam packed event of educational and entertainment including:
– A cooking class by celebrity Kuwaiti chef Adlah Al-Sharhan who will show us how to make healthy machos
– Interactive gallery where you can learn, feel and explore modern ways of healthy living
– Outdoor performances by Traditional Kuwaiti Musical Band and Takht Sharqi
– A special performance by Electrik Crew, a local Kuwaiti urban dance group
– In house doctors and nurses performing free medical screenings and health stats and personalized nutrition consultations

For kids:
– Nintendo Wii tournaments
– Fas9la fitness un
– Face painting
– Nutrition knock-outs
– Magic show
– Balloon art

Snacks and refreshments included. The purpose of this event is to promote awareness, education and prevention of diabetes.

For more information contact: 22242999 ext 1160
Here is a link to the [Invite]
and here is a link to the [Facebook Page]

It looks like Al Salasil will be opening their bookstore at the Avenues soon. It’s supposed to be the largest bookstore in Kuwait, yes you read right… BOOKSTORE! Over the Eid they placed transparent boxes filled with books at the airport with a teaser message “Heading to the biggest bookstore in Kuwait”. I hope it turns out to be cool.

I’m not a big fan of True Value (I prefer Ace) but I was there over the weekend looking for something when I found two interesting items.

The first is this fire safe/waterproof external hard drive. The idea is that you back your stuff onto it and in case your apartment catches on fire your data would be safe. Price was expensive at around KD180. It costs KD113 on Amazon without shipping and the thing is heavy but I doubt that shipping with Aramex would cost more than KD30 or KD40.

The second interesting thing I found were Daisy brand air rifles. They had the Daisy 840 Grizzly rifle for KD39 (KD12 on Amazon) and the Daisy 880 with Scope for KD49 (KD16 on Amazon). They looked pretty nice.

[YouTube]

I don’t know how many people remember Abdullah Al-Moussawi or know who he is but two years ago a video popped up on YouTube of this young charismatic Kuwaiti 9 year old playing football against older kids and outplaying them. He had long curly hair and people were saying he was the next Maradonna and watching the video above you could understand why. Well anyway a reader emailed me a story about Abdullah he wanted to share, it’s kinda long but it’s interesting to read.

[YouTube]

The story talks about how a talent scout in Holland saw Abdullah’s video on YouTube and came to Kuwait to watch him live. Abdullah was then given an opportunity to go to Holland and compete in a few trials where he proved to be extremely talented and one of the top young players they had ever seen. He was then accepted into one of the best football academy’s on a scholarship without any binding contracts or strings attached. Problem was Abdullah couldn’t move to Holland without his family so they asked for help from Kuwaiti officials who agreed which prompted the family to move with Abdullah to Holland so he could attend school there and join the football academy. They even made a documentary about Abdullah which was broadcasted on Dutch TV and also screened in the Gulf Film Festival held in Dubai last year (promo clip above). Problem is Kuwait never ended up helping out and so the parents were forced to move back to Kuwait after 2 months with Abdullah ending what could have been an incredible experience for him.

That’s basically a quick summary but I recommend you read the full story. It’s very sad how Abdullah was extremely popular and big in the Dutch media while no one gave him any attention locally. It’s also sad how things turned out in the end and I wonder how Abdullah is doing right now. Check the full story below.

It seems the ministry has banned the use of DSLR cameras (pictured above) in public places, streets and malls. You can take pictures with regular camera’s and camera phones but not with DSLR’s? That’s the stupidest thing I’ve heard.

I mean seriously whats the difference between a DSLR and Point & Shoot? Both can take pictures and both can have zoom lenses. Why ban the use of DSLR’s in public and not Point & Shoot cameras? I am not saying they should ban P&S cameras I’m just trying to highlight how ridiculous this new law is.

Maybe if someone from the ministry takes a few moments to go to flickr.com and search for the word Kuwait they can see exactly the kind of talented work they will be killing with this law. Maybe then they will realize how big a mistake this is.

You can read more about this on Kuwait Times [Here]

This sounds like an interesting and different event to go to:

“Winter Story From The Land Of Northern Lights” by a Finnish Puppet Theater

This performance tells a story of a girl and a reindeer who were both born on the night of the shooting star. This story is about friendship and courage. The performance is mostly without words and accompanied by beautiful music.

To find out what happened to the girl and the reindeer, who they met and what they experienced, get your tickets now at Radisson Blu Hotel – Viking Club reception.

For booking call 25673888 or 65718000
The ticket price is KD6
The shows will be on the 25th, 26th and 27th of November from 7:00pm to 8:00pm.

For more details head to the Radisson Blu Kuwait Facebook page. [Link]

965 Malls is an interesting new blog that’s basically about all the malls in Kuwait. They post information on the latest shop offers, activities taking place at malls and random tidbits like who shut down, who’s opening up and even about internal mall quarrels. It’s interesting stuff. [Link]

The first professional Kuwaiti racing driver Khaled Al Mudhaf is participating in the Porsche GT3 Cup Challenge this Saturday and Sunday. I found out about him recently and think what he’s doing is very cool. The GT3 Cup Challenge is the biggest motor sport challenge in the Middle East and Khaled will be representing Kuwait with his black Porsche pictured above. The two rounds of the race will be shown live on Abu Dhabi Sports Channel on both free-to-air Channel 2 and Channel 6. Round 1 will be shown tomorrow (Saturday) at 15:25 while Round 2 will be broadcasted at 14:45 on Sunday. I wish him the best of luck.

For more information here is the GT3 Cup Facebook page [Link]

Recently they’ve started putting up new speed cameras on the Gulf Road. They’ve started installing cameras in new locations and they’ve also started replacing some old cameras including the red light cameras and speed cameras with newer models. The new cameras differ from the older ones in that the radar, flash and camera are no longer located all together in one housing (like this) but instead divided into two separate pieces. Currently the large box housing (better pictures below) doesn’t have any openings in the front but I am guessing that’s because the system is still being set up and installed. Judging by the pictures on the manufacturers website, the housing called the TraffiTower can hold all the systems internally including the camera so not sure why they’re installing the camera separately. Also I am guessing there must be something new, a new feature that previously wasn’t available that they will be installing in the housing or else why would they replace the reliable and practical single housing units? I took a few pictures of the new speed cameras which you can check out above and below.

For those of you who’ve been following the story of the old photographer you will be happy to know he just left to hajj today. As I mentioned in my previous post on the old photographer, a very kind reader offered to help send him to hajj at her expense. Not only did she finance the whole trip but she also helped find a hemla that would take him and she even helped him pack and take him to the airport. I really can’t thank her enough for her kindness, what she did was beyond nice. She sent me a picture of the old man at the airport today dressed in the traditional white cloths with an expression on his face that looks like he can’t believe this is all really happening and not just a dream.

There is another reader I would also like to thank for helping with the Saudi visa. If it wasn’t for his help the old man wouldn’t have been able to get a visa and he wouldn’t have been able to travel. But the old man was lucky since the visa was issued last night which was just in the nick of time because the last group from the old man’s hemla was leaving today.

So thank you to the both of you for making this old man’s wish come true.

For those of you who missed the story of the old man I’m talking about above, here are the previous posts:
In Kuwait since 1959
Update on the old photographer
What would help the old photographer
Quick update on the old photographer

Today I got my first MRI and it was the freakiest thing ever. I’ve seen MRI’s on TV a lot, on the TV show HOUSE for example a lot of important scenes play out in the MRI room but what they don’t show you on TV is the fact you have to stay really still in these machines for around 45 to 60 minutes! What they also don’t show you is how claustrophobic an MRI machine actually is.

Before going into the MRI room I had to remove all the metal objects on me including my watch, coins, belt and wallet. I didn’t have any metal in my wallet but the magnetic strip on the credit cards get wiped out in an MRI machine. After I removed all the metal I went into the MRI room and was told to lie down on my back while the doctor gave me some ear plugs to help with the sound. She then proceeded to lock my head into place so that it didn’t move and handed me a button to hold which I should use in case I need anything. She then pressed a button on the machine and the area I was lying on started slowly going inside the machine. Once I went in maybe 30cm I stopped her and told her no way I could do this. She asked me if I was claustrophobic I told her I wasn’t but this was just too much. It’s uncomfortable lying on my back and getting shoved inside a tight space made me feel extremely uneasy. I kept thinking random thoughts like what if there was an earthquake and the ceiling fell in and I got stuck in this machine. It would be like getting buried alive, very freaky. I asked her if there was any other option other than an MRI she told me there wasn’t. Not much I could do so I figured I would try going back into the machine with my eyes closed.

It worked, or at least it helped a lot. She told me if I stayed very still we could be done in 45 minutes, if I moved then things would take longer. I was now lying inside the machine with my eyes closed and grasping the emergency button in my hands. I figured I could use this time to think about stuff when suddenly the machine started to work and I lost all thought. The machine emitted very electronic sounds mostly but in some occasions the sounds were very industrial similar to stuff Trent Reznor from Nine Inch Nails would use.

To kill time I decided to count the length of each scan since the machine would start for a bit and then shut off for a minute or two before starting again. There wasn’t much to do sitting still in the machine so I figured by counting the length of the sessions I could maybe figure out a pattern or at least get an idea of how long I was in the machine for and how much time might be remaining. I opened my eyes every now and then and honestly it just felt really horrible and extremely uncomfortable being in the machine.

I had no idea how long had gone by or how much time I had left. Every now and then the doctor would ask me via an intercom system if I was ok and that I should continue to remain still. Then suddenly I noticed I was being taken out of the machine, I was relieved it was finally over when to my horror I noticed a male doctor at the other end telling me not to move and that he was just going to inject me and send me back into the machine. I was like what??! What injection?! Are you sure? Am I not done?? He told me I still needed a few more minutes. He gave me the injection and sent me back in. Once inside I noticed he took the emergency button from me and forgot to give it back to me. That freaked me out. I started to panic a bit since there was now no way to get in touch with anyone in case something went wrong. What did I get injected with? What if I got a negative reaction to it? I started to feel there was something wrong with my breathing. It was very difficult to breath and I was freaking out. Then the machine started again and I had to stay still, I figured I would try to control my breathing and get this whole episode over with.

Around 10 or 15 minutes later I got pulled out of the machine. What a relief. When I got outside Nataly was waiting for me, I thought the whole procedure had taken maybe 20 or 30 minutes since it didn’t feel too long but to my surprise it had taken a full hour. I found that very weird, usually time goes by really slowly in a situation like that but I guess since I had no clue on how much time was in fact passing things just moved quicker. I hope I never have to get another MRI done again. What an experience…

[YouTube]

Since we are on the subject of massages, seems at some shisha places you can have a guy give you a massage for just one Dinar.

I’ve always thought my barber should have that option on the list as well.
Shave + Haircut + Massage = KD3.
That would be a combo I would pay for.

I am going to be in Lebanon for the next few days. I got here around 1pm and first thing I did after dropping my bags home was to head up to Faraya and have lunch at a place called Jalset El Erzal.

The weather was really great and the food was amazing. The strangest thing though is the fact the sun set at 4:30pm here. It’s 5:20 now as I write this post and it’s pitch black out side. Very weird…

Taco Bell is opening up their first branch in Kuwait next Thursday at The Avenues. It’s about time! The list of places still left to open keeps shrinking… Wendy’s, A&W, Five Guys, Jack in the Box, White Castle, Arby’s, Cheese Cake Factory and In-N-Out.