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Here are the statistics for 2006 but I am telling you from now, 2007 is going to be a lot more fun thats for sure. I already have a couple of cool things lined up including new sponsors and new stuff for the blog, one which I am hoping works out soon because it will involve me and a couple of super cars. Thank you everyone for being part of this blog either by contributing with the comments or even just by visiting. Thank you!

Total amount of unique visitors for 2006: 901,989
Total amount of page impressions for 2006: 7,863,277
Highest amount of unique visitors per month: December – 117,943
Highest amount of page impressions per month: November – 1,224,453

If you haven’t checked the Forum yet then you are missing out on a lot. With over 21,000 articles and 635 users its really an informative place. There is even a section for buying and selling stuff where people have sold things ranging from mobile phones and Nintendo Wii’s to laptops and cars. So pass by and check it out. [Forum]

I hadn’t been out clubbing since I graduated from university back in 2001 until last night. Me and Nat went to this club in Beirut called Basement. Its literally a basement located in a really old building. There was a long line outside but we went with Nats sister who works for Red Bull and she managed to get us some last minute seat reservations at the bar.

We got there at 11PM when the place barely had 30 people. We left at 3AM when we barely were able to pass through the crowd to get to the exit.

It was a lot of fun, I had 6 glasses of vodka with ice and 3 shots of I don’t know what and now I have a really bad hangover. I hate hangovers.

Although I am Lebanese people here in Lebanon when they hear you are coming from Kuwait they think you are fully loaded. It doesn’t matter if you are Lebanese, Kuwaiti or whatever, if you are coming from the Gulf then you have money to spend.

I was supposed to rent a Peugeot 307 from this local rental place here in Lebanon for like $40 a day. So yesterday at 9PM we call the guy to confirm and he is like yeah don’t worry when you come here if we don’t have the 307 you will have a whole range of cars to choose from. i was like cool. So I am now in Lebanon, I call the guy and guess what? He only has a BMW X5 available for $150 a day. Yeah right fucker I am going to rent an X5 from you instead of a Peugeot. Whatever. At least if you are going to rip me off do it gently. Go up 1 level to like $60. Tell me sorry we don’t have a Peugeot but for just $20 more you can get a BMW 1-series. Maybe then I would have considered it but don’t triple my budget up to an X5!

We made a few calls and I just scored a 2007 Renault Megane for $45 a day. Hopefully its the hatchback version and in black.

I spent all day today getting some paperwork done. First I went in the morning to get my motorbike driving license. I passed the test like 2 weeks ago but I never got around to exchanging my learners permit for the actual license. When I got to the place in Jabriya it turned out I had a lot of papers missing, so I had to go back home, get the papers and drive back to Jabriya. The whole process took over 2 hours but I now have my motorbike license.

One thing I found strange is I now have to separate driving licenses, one for riding and one for driving. The new redesigned license has icons in the back for riding, truck driving, car driving etc.. and they mark under each what you are qualified to operate. I figured they would print me out a new card stating I can drive a car and ride a motorbike but instead they printed me a card that says that I can ride a motorbike. Now I have two licenses which are exactly the same except for the little marking in the back. It would have been more practical to just combine the two in one card.. weird why they don’t do that.

Later in the afternoon I had to go to this other place in Shuwaikh to transfer my car into my name. I just finished paying the installments for it and I had to meet a mandoob (the person who does the paperwork) there to transfer the car in my name. That operation also took 2 hours. It would have finished a lot sooner if the employees actually came to work on time. My mandoob had to wait 45 minutes in line waiting for the employee to come in. When the employee finally arrived the line was super long but he didn’t seem to care, he sat down, ordered his tea, spoke to his friend on the phone and THEN started signing the papers. Mandoobs have a lot of patience.

So now I am home, my flight to Lebanon leaves early tomorrow morning so I am packing my bag. We are going for 6 days but Nat is taking practically all her winter and summer clothes. Whenever I say anything about it she yells at me telling me girls are not like guys and she can’t just take just 2 t-shirts and a jeans. “She has to be prepared for any scenario”.

Anyway, I am checking the site statistics and I might hit 100,000 unique users for this month by tonight. Thats 5 days ahead of schedule, pretty cool.

note: thats not my real date of birth in the picture, its their own creation.

I was parking my car outside Sultan Center in Salmiya when I first spotted this place. Its located in the backside area near the clinic and because of the name I felt I had to try their shawermas.

After I was done shopping I put the bags in the trunk of my car and walked over to Shoo? Shawerma to order some food. I ordered two chicken shawermas with no pickles and a coke. Total price? 800fils. I was like “fuckin A” this must be some seriously good shawerma if they are charging 350 a piece for it. So, I picked up my two shawermas and headed to the car where I started eating them.

After my first bite I turned around and told Nat this was a 2.5, but the more I ate it the more I hated it. The shawerma was really bad, like really bad. It tasted really greasy and the garlic flavor was no where to be found so there was nothing to cover up the god awful taste of the chicken. It was so bad that once I was done with my first shawerma I threw the second one away. I had NEVER done that before!

Now if this was any ordinary crappy place selling shawermas for 200fils then I might expect something this bad, but 350fils for a shawerma, thats the big league, fuck that, thats the super league. Most top scoring shawerma places charge 300 fils for a shawerma and this joint was charging 350 for the worst shawermas I have ever had. Even the Pepsi can was the small 250ml one, who still sells these, even Bader Al Badoor sells the 330ml Coke cans!

So super high price, small Pepsi can, and most importantly the worst shawerma I have ever experienced in my life earned this place half a star out of a possible five. It only got that half star because if I was stuck in the desert with no food except for their shawerma then I would consider eating it.

On Amazon.com users can “tag” items with keywords to ease the search process. Here are some tags which people have placed for Kevin Federline’s (Britney Spears Ex Husband) album Playing with Fire (note there are 4 pages worth of tags):

talentless (28) garbage (18) idiot (17) laughable (16) music to make you long for the sweet release of death (15) hack (13) crap (12) loser (10) terrible (8) clown (7) aka vogon poetry (6) bad joke (2) cant understand what hes saying (1) should be working at wendys (2) as good as socks with sandals (1)”

You can check out the rest by clicking [Here]

Yesterday I got an Ericsson 388 and today I started using it as my primary phone. I have been getting a lot of ooooooohs and ahhhhhhhs everytime someone sees the phone. Everyone owned one and everyone seemed to have positive things to say about the phone and good memories to go along with it. The phone simply rocks.

Now the bad thing. The battery isn’t as good as I thought it was. On standbye the phone lasts long but after 4 or 5 phone calls the phone beeps with a “Low Battery” warning and the happy green blinking LED on the top of the phone turns red. To solve it I just remove the battery, shake it and then place it back again. Suddenly my battery is full again until the next phone call.

Other then that though the phone is just fantastic. I have an extra battery with me which I think I will charge now. This way when one dies I just swap in the other.

An Indian runner who won silver in the womans 800 meters race at the Asian Games in Doha failed a gender test. Meaning the woman who won turned out to be actually a guy. [Link]

Thanks Sunny

Just passed the House of Parliament today morning and noticed high fences were placed alongside the roads in front of the parliament building plus there were a ton of cops parked and walking about. Riot trucks and buses were also parked including the large one that fires water and has a huge pole with a camera mounted on top. I couldn’t see any demonstrators though, I guess they are planning on coming by later.

Sounds like gunfire, should be fireworks but I couldn’t find any trace in the sky. Anybody here or see anything?

Sweden is famous for their meatballs so when IKEA started making and selling shawermas I was eager to try it.

First time I had the shawerma in the new IKEA branch at The Avenues mall I didn’t like it. They mixed vegetables with my shawerma and I hate places that do that. The vegetables which is usually made up of onions and some green stuff (I don’t know what its called) over powers the chicken flavor. So next time I passed by IKEA I ordered the shawerma plain with just garlic.

How was it? Its edible.

The biggest problem I had with their shawerma is the bread. I think there is too much bread for the shawerma. The solution I would recommend is to either increase the quantity of chicken in the bread or decrease the size of the bread itself. The chicken tasted good and the garlics presence was felt but not over done. If only they weren’t so stingy.

Final score I settled for was 3 out of 5. The shawerma costs 250fils which is great specially since the place is extremely clean. They also have an offer combo, coke plus shawerma for 350fils. The location is crap, no one is going to drive up to IKEA just for their shawerma of course. Overall its not bad for their first try. I just hope they start filling up the bread with more chicken.

Maybe its just my head playing mind games but I feel this year in Kuwait there is a lack of Christmas spirit. Usually a lot of places would have Christmas decorations and music playing but this year there are very few. I was at Marina Mall the other day and I didn’t notice any Christmas decorations done by the mall. On the other hand (and surprisingly) Souk Sharq have Christmas decorations. Kuwait is so unchristmassy.

Went Christmas tree shopping tonight. Found a gorgeous Nordmann Fir tree which we ended up getting. The place I went to just got the trees two days ago, he had a couple of cheap Norway Spruce trees but the majority of them where Nordmann Fir. I forgot what the place is called but its up in Al-Rai, on the 4th ring road where all the plant stores are located. He has a couple on display outside but the rest are all inside. Prices range from KD45 and up, depending on the size of the tree.

Just booked a flight for me and Nat to Beirut. Will be leaving on the 27th and coming back January 1st. I booked with Jazeera Airways and was expecting not to find any places but it seems the current political situation in Lebanon has led to a lot of cancellations. Last time I celebrated New Years in Lebanon was in 2000 so it should be fun.

I love Montreal. Its my favorite place on the planet. Since Christmas is nonexistent in Kuwait and since Nat has never been anywhere other then Lebanon and Kuwait I figured we would spend Christmas and New Years in Montreal. I was looking forward to binging on Labatt Blue while stuffing myself with poutine. Nat on the other hand was looking forward to the Tiesto concert on New Years night. We had everything planned and ready, only thing missing was Nats visa to Canada. I don’t need a visa because I have the Canadian citizenship.

Around a week ago we sent Nats passport and all the forms and papers needed to the Canadian Embassy in Abu Dhabi (local embassy don’t do visas). Visa costs like KD18 while DHL with a return airway bill costs KD55. So thats KD73 for a one time entry visa.

Today Nat got her passport back and guess what? They refused to give her a visa! Their reason was the following:

You have not satisfied me that you meet the requirements of Regulation 179; that you would leave Canada at the end of the temporary period if you were authorized to enter. In reaching this decision I considered your ties to your country of residence/citzenship balanced against factors which might motivate you to stay in Canada.

In summary, they think Nat will basically go to Canada, tear up her passport and request asylum. How did they come up with this conclusion? Its because she is Lebanese. How much more discriminating can they be? No one called her to talk to her, no one called her in for an interview, they didn’t even care that her husband is a Canadian.

I am extremely pissed off now because it basically means I can no longer go to Canada unless I am alone, which isn’t going to happen as long as I am married. Tomorrow I will be calling up the embassy and giving someone there a piece of my mind. No way am I gonna accept the fact that some stranger all the way in the UAE is going to ruin my Christmas!