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My Wrangler’s battery died today while trying to leave the Avenues. Its not the first time this has happened, the first time was two years ago when I was trying to leave Souk Sharq. That same day I posted about it on my blog on how Jeep’s Road Assist was amazing, that was on June 4, 2006. Thats nearly exactly two years later (off by just two days) except this time Jeep’s Road Assist wasn’t there to save me. The Road Assist number wouldn’t connect me to anyone, I would call and it would ring twice then I would get a beep and the line would die. I tried over and over and it wouldn’t work.

I didn’t even have jumper cables so I just walked back into Avenues and headed to Carrefour and bought some cheap ass cables for like KD1.300 (they sucked, need to get a better pair). When I got back to the car I asked the parking security if they had a plan for a situation like this, I figured they might have a tow truck number or maybe an emergency jump starter kit but turned out they didn’t have anything of that sort. Instead the security guard was kind enough to help me find a car that was willing to help me jump start my Jeep.

After jump starting the car it turned out if I removed my foot from the gas pedal the car would die on me instantly so after restarting the car again I had to drive with two feet, one on the brakes and the other constantly holding down the throttle. Luckily I didn’t have to drive too far, I was planning on taking my Jeep to service it at the dealer tomorrow so I just drove the car to the garage which was just 5 minutes away. Once I parked the Jeep outside and removed my foot of the gas pedal the car died again, perfect timing. I found a cab passing by and just took it back home. Tomorrow will pass by the dealer and have them replaced my battery. I am kinda glad I purchased the extended warranty back then. What I now regret is not actually going ahead and purchasing the Emergency Jumper Starter which I posted about in March!

Read at Work is a website full of stories ranging from short ones to classic which you can read while at work. Now the cool part is that the interface of the site is designed to look like you are working so when you enter the site it launches in full screen and resembles Windows XP. Then when you find a story you like it will open up in what looks like a powerpoint presentation. That way you could read your story while pretending you are flipping through a presentation. Its brilliant! [Link]

One thing I haven’t mentioned yet about Munich is the weather. It’s FREEZING, the temperature during the day is like 9 degrees and ever since I came its been raining a lot. Thats why when I passed by Puma in the evening and found their official Volvo Ocean Race gear I had to get a jacket. Pictured above is the official PUMA Race Team jacket which has a Gortex shell, a high collar and a packable hood. I wore it on the way back home in the rain and it was just fantastic.

I also managed to find Adidas Jeans by Diesel. Diesel and Adidas teamed up for this new line of jeans and the Adidas Originals store next to my hotel had some in stock. I ended up getting the pair pictured above. I am having a hard time shopping in Munich since everything closes early (8PM). By the time I finish with work and decide to do some shopping I don’t have time. Even supermarkets close at 8!

A reader of the blog sent an email to inform me that Dean & Deluca will be opening in Kuwait before the end of the year. According to the reader the upscale gourmet food grocery store will be brought to Kuwait by Alshaya and that they are working overtime to try and have the place opened by Q4 of this year. I don’t know the accuracy of this information but if its true it would be something to look forward to. Alshaya launched the Dean & Deluca Cafe in Dubai early this year but they haven’t opened their store yet.

Thanks SJM MUKI

Its such a beautiful place, I was soooo not expecting Munich to be like this. The streets, the weather, the people, the buildings everything I’ve been experiencing in Munich has just been perfect. I am staying at a hotel called H’Otello, its a small boutique hotel but one thats super affordable and seriously excellent value for money. Its the trendiest hotel I’ve stayed in and I love my room, again because of the minimilism.

I found this place in the local market that has like a million kinds of olives. I love olives so I will probably have to try as much of them as I can. Internet is free at the hotel so I will be posting from here but probably late in the evening and early in the morning since I will be trying my best NOT to spend my trip here in the hotel.

Just got to the Munich Airport and so far I think its the nicest airport I have ever been to design wise. It’s very minamilistic, no clutter and a lot of empty space. (Posted from my Nokia E61i)

Yesterday I posted about the HP 2133 and just awhile ago my partner at work brought his friends HP 2133 into the office. First impressions, its a lot bigger and heavier than I expected. The Asus Eee feels tiny and very light compared to the HP. Windows XP was installed on the HP which was running pretty smoothly. I wasn’t able to test out videos but XP booted up at a decent speed and all the applications seem to open instantaneously. The system I had was the 1.6ghz with 1.75GB of RAM, this version I think costs like $800 which isn’t cheap.

The screen is really great and the keyboard felt like a regular laptop keyboard, big keys and all spaced out nicely. But, the size and weight of this thing has really pushed me towards the Asus Eee 900.

Update: I forgot to mention, the trackpad with the trackpad buttons are the worst I have ever used.

I signed up for the Cinemizer newsletter early in the year and I just got an email from them now telling me that the Cinemizer is now on sale in Germany.

The Cinemizer for those of you who don’t know is a wearable video display. According to Carl Zeiss the creators, watching movies on the Cinemizer is like sitting in front of a 46″ TV from 6 feet away. What interested me the most in the Cinemizer is the fact that it works with my iPod Video which would make it perfect for watching movies and TV shows while on the plane. Also, if I am lucky I could be mistaken for a blind person and get special treatment from the stewardess since the glasses wouldn’t look out of place on Ray Charles.

Since I am going to be in Germany next week I am going to try and see if I could test the device out before I purchase it. For more info on the Cinemizer click [Here]

Just found this cool site while researching on what kind of seats will be on my next flight. The site has pictures and reviews by people on various seats and classes on different airlines. The site also has reviews and pictures of different airports, lounges and even airline meals! Its pretty helpful and its little things like this that makes the Internet such a wonderful place. [Link]

I’ve had a ton of people ask me what I thought of Syria so I figured I would dedicate a post to it. I had heard sooo much negative stuff about Syria that I arrived expecting the worst but it wasn’t that bad. Border security didn’t give me any issues even though I had a Canadian passport. No one asked for a bribe or even hinted to wanting something. The road from the borders to Damascus was gorgeous and reminded me of the drive from LA to Vegas. Damascus is and looks really old and everyone seems very poor but one things for sure, they sure know how to make the most amazing kebabs. The first night I had dinner at a restaurant called Abu Kamal and they had the best kebab’s I ever tried. The restaurant had been around for over 60 years so I figured they had time to get the formula right but next day for lunch I stopped by this random kebab place on the street and again I had the best kebab I’ve ever had! How the hell is it so easy for them to get kebab so perfect?? I could probably walk into a bakala and ask for kebab and it would be the best kebab in the world. The prices are also sooo cheap!

The hotel I stayed in was called Semiramis Hotel. The website says its 5 stars but I don’t know how thats possible. The hotel was decent, I am guessing for Syrian standards its like superb but it really was just standard. The room was big and the location of the hotel was right in the city, walking distance from a lot of things. I had some free time the next morning and headed to the famous Syrian souk (forgot the name) which was ok I guess, not my style.

The airport was the biggest disappointment. Its old, small, unorganized, dirty and boring. But my Damascus stay wasn’t bad, I wouldn’t go there on a vacation but I didn’t mind passing through.

Varouj is an incredible Armenian restaurant located in a tight backstreet of Bourj Hammoud in Lebanon. The place is tiny on the inside with only 4 tables and the restaurant is run by a father and son, the son cooks while the father takes care of the guests. Anyone who’s watched the Seinfeld episode with the soup Nazi will feel right at home in Varouj because the father is Lebanon’s version of the soup Nazi.

What makes Varouj unique other than the really good food is the character of the father. We were five people having lunch and we were ordering the cold appetizers when the father decided we had enough appetizers and walked away. He wouldn’t let us order any more. Then when he felt it was time he came to us and asked us what hot dishes we wanted and while we were ordering he again told us that he thought we had enough and walked off. We wanted frogs for example but he refused telling us we already had enough dishes. Then later he even decided to cancel one of our other dishes. So we ordered frogs again and again but he kept telling us we didn’t need it. The table behind us called the father and told him they wanted some soujouk and makanek (kinds of sausages) and he told them not now later. Its crazy. He also wouldn’t remove a dish from the table unless it was wiped clean.

The food was delicious, we ordered: hommos, moutabal, fattoush, loubyeh, batata harra, labneh, tongue, spleen, kibeh neyeh, sheep balls, little birds, chicken liver, chicken wings, basterma, soujouk and makanek. All the dishes were the best I have ever tasted.

The way everything is priced is also interesting. Basically nothing is priced and there is no menu. You go in, you order what you want and in the end he will tell you how much you need to pay and you don’t even get a receipt. Our bill came out exactly 100$ but according to my friend if we had ordered less or more the bill would have still come out the same. If you are planning a trip to Lebanon this is a place you need to try if you want a taste of local cuisine. The best way to find the place is to ask a taxi driver in Bourj Hammoud to take you or give the father a call on 03-882933

The people from FASTtelco have responded to our post ‘FASTtelco hates bloggers’; We have included FT’s response (and our reply) below. As it is a fairly long post (contrary to usual 248am postings), you will need to click ‘Continue reading‘ for the rest of the post.

From Cinemagic:

Cinemagic is delighted to announce the return of our weekly screening program. Screenings will continue to take place at our new location in Old Salmiya, above LG Electronics.

This week, we will be screening “The Kite Runner“.

Based one on of the most acclaimed novels in recent memory, ‘The Kite Runner’ is a profoundly emotional tale of friendship, family, devastating mistakes and redeeming love. In a divided country on the verge of war, two childhood friends, Amir and Hassan, are about to be torn apart forever. It’s a glorious afternoon in Kabul and the skies are bursting with the exhilarating joy of a kite-fighting tournament. But in the aftermath of the day’s victory, one boy’s fearful act of betrayal will mark their lives forever and set in motion an epic quest for redemption. Now, after 20 years of living in America, Amir returns to a perilous Afghanistan under the Taliban’s iron-fisted rule to face the secrets that still haunt him and take one last daring chance to set things right.

For its part, Cinemagic Kuwait, is organizing these events as part of its efforts to contribute to the development of an internationally competitive Kuwaiti audio-visual production industry, partly by bringing the filmmakers and audiences together and by Increasing the public’s interest in – and appreciation for – the art of filmmaking.

As always, attendance is free of charge (but seating is limited). Snacks and refreshments will be served. The Kite Runner screening will take place on Thursday, May 1st, at 7 p.m.

I got my Nokia E61i last July so its been with me for nearly 10 months and through this time its been really abused. Whats surprised me the most is how well its held up. It must be the metal casing because I’ve dropped it soo many times, had it slammed into the wall and really not much has happened. Now I did manage to crack the screen slightly when I accidentally dropped the phone from nearly two stories high but thats really superficial compared to the damage that would have inflicted lets say an iPhone.

Yesterday I managed to inflict more damage to the phone after dropping it for like the millionth time. Basically the phone stopped charging when plugged in. The new version of the phone isn’t going to be out for a few months and I didn’t want to get another phone so I decided to pass by the doctor in Khalid Bin Waleed street in Sharq to see if he could fix my phone.

The doctor is a popular guy in Sharq who is an expert in repairing phones. He has a small shop in the same building as the store “My Phone” except his store is in the back side. I showed him my phone and told him what was wrong an he quickly opened it up, checked the phone’s board and found the culprit. A tiny resistor was missing and he could replace it for just KD4 (probably cheaper if I haggled). I told him to go ahead and it took him just another 5 minutes to unsolder a resistor from another broken Nokia phone and then solder it onto my phone and voilà, my phone started charging again.

It’s like a drive through phone repair shop. Since the guy is very nice and a real pro I figured I would help send business his way. So if you need to repair a phone, just pass by the doctor, the store is called Life Style (don’t ask) and his phone number is 4455692.

The new Grand Theft Auto is already out in some places and probably the most important question people are going to ask is which version is better, the PS3 or the 360? Kotaku tried both versions and have gone ahead and compared the two and the results seem very close. I’ve been wanting to get a PS3 for a while now but it looks like there isn’t a game out yet that makes it worth getting over my 360. [Link]

Update: Game Center in Rihab Complex in Hawalli are selling Grand Theft Auto IV for KD25