Search: “kuwait”

According to a news article dated June of this year, the Arby’s and Wendy’s franchises for the Middle East and North Africa were taken by a Saudi conglomerate. This sadly means the first branches which are scheduled to open early 2010 won’t be in Kuwait but will be in Saudi.

Wendy’s/Arby’s Group, Inc. (NYSE: WEN) today announced an agreement with Saudi Arabia-based Al Jammaz Group to build 135 dual-branded Wendy’s® and Arby’s® restaurants in nine countries in the Middle East and North Africa over the next decade.

Here is the link to the article. [Link]

Thanks ElHaddad

Sultan is now carrying Pepsi cans with the new logo and design. They are imported not the locally produced ones and they’re also caffeine free but they look very cool. I know a lot of people hate the new designs but I think its a nice direction away from all the clutter and junk that’s currently around.

I sadly don’t have much info on this event only what I found on the Facebook page which is:

This is the very first car show to be hosted by the U.S. Embassy Kuwait, come enjoy the latest and greatest in automobile technology and modification.

Date: Tuesday, October 6, 2009
Time: 6:00pm – 9:00pm
Location: U.S. Embassy Kuwait
Street: Masjid Al-Aqsa St.
City/Town: Bayan, Kuwait

Here is the link to the Facebook page but there isn’t much else there. An event like this should have been better advertised… only 11 confirmed guests on their Facebook page. I don’t even have a logo or picture to attach with this post since there doesn’t seem to be a flier or anything of the sort. [Link]

The creator of Grendizer will be holding a lecture this month here in Kuwait. I found the following on the blog electronish:

Go Nagai, is a Japanese manga artist and a prolific author of science fiction, fantasy and horror. He made his professional debut in 1967 with Meakashi Polikichi, but is best known for creating the seminal works UFO Grendizer, Cutie Honey and Mazinger Z in the 1970’s.”

Mr. Go Nagai will visit the middle east in October, he will be visiting Jordan, Kuwait and Egypt!! I’m glad to be nominated to be one of the coordination team members for this event. The event will be held on two days the 10th and the 11th of Oct. ‘09. The 10th will be exclusive for VIP “LIMITED SEATS”, to have the opportunity in attending the VIP event you should register with Mr. Wael Abdulsamad ‘cos you need to pass a certain contest/draw managed by him under the supervision of the Embassy of Japan. For the second day, 11th of Oct., the event will be for PUBLIC, everyone can attend. So you don’t have to contact Mr. Wael Abdulsamad for a registration to attend the second event. However, the attendance will be taken in a FIRST-COME-FIRST-SERVED basis, the capacity of the hall will be approximately 330-350. Anyhow, more details will be announced during Aug. and Sep., so if you’re really concerned just contact The Embassy of Japan in Kuwait or email Mr. Wael Abdulsamad ([email protected]) for further information.

Special thanks to the Embassy of Japan in Kuwait for hosting this event and for the opportunity in meeting Mr. Go Nagai in JAPAN KUWAIT!

Sydney got hit by a dust storm and it’s all over the news so I checked out the pictures and it just looks like one of the regular storms that hits Kuwait. Not a big deal but I guess they just never got one before. [Pictures]

This post is for the Lebanese living in Kuwait. If you want Bonjus they sell it at Lama, the small shop that sells Lebanese imported goods. If you don’t know where Lama is, find Dodo and then take the right at Dodo, its in that small street. The price of each one is 150 fils. For those of you who don’t know what Bonjus is, its the Lebanese equivalent of Sunkist.

I’ve always wanted Craigslist to open a Kuwait section and it looks like they just did. Check kuwait.craigslist.org, they’ve even kept the erotic section which should be interesting!

I was reading an article in WIRED magazine about Patrick Blanc and his famous vertical wall gardens when I read the following:

Forty-five years on, the French botanist’s gardens have grown massive in scale. One inside a Portuguese shopping mall is larger than four tennis courts, and there’s one in Kuwait that’s almost as big. [Source]

So I did a bit of googling and found this article from January of this year that says:

360 MALL announced the latest addition to its unique retail offer, with the creation of the world’s largest indoor living wall. This innovative vertical garden marks a new eco-friendly element to the 360 Mall on offer…

…Patric Blanc, a botanist and the inventor of the Vertical Garden said: “This vertical garden is set to become a must-see destination for people in Kuwait and beyond. It is something people will want to see and experience for themselves. [Source]

I’ve been to 360 Mall a few times and never noticed the vertical garden so I checked for some images of the mall online and found the picture above on Ansam’s blog showing the vertical garden. I don’t think a lot of people have noticed it before, maybe they should add a plaque or something in front of it. It’s interesting.

Here is a link to Patrick Blanc’s website. [Link]

I was at the Tamiya dealer in Tilal Complex and on my way out I decided to take a different route than usual. So I am driving when suddenly on my right I see all these scooters parked outside a store. So I park the Jeep, go down and realize I was standing outside the Vespa dealer.

Turns out they’ve only been open for 3 months and they’re also the new dealers for Aprilia, Piaggio and Moto Guzzi. If you’re interested, they’re located in the block across from Tilal Complex. If Explorers Base is on your right keep going straight past the intersection and they should be on your right.

I left Marina Crescent after meeting up with a friend and was on my way home when I decided to pass by Brands for Less. I hadn’t been there in ages and since Nat was at the gym I could kill a bit of time there checking out what they had. I got lucky!

While browsing through all their electronics section I noticed something, the MUJI CD player! Its a beautifully designed CD player designed by the famous Japanese designer Naoto Fukasawa back in 1999. It has built in speakers and just two buttons on the top, very minimalistic. I had originally seen it at a MUJI store in Munich and although I found it beautiful, at nearly $200 it was too expensive for me to justify the purchase. So here out of the blue I was at Brands for Less standing in front of an item that no one around me had a clue what it was. I looked at the price and it was just KD7.850!

So I picked up the box and headed to the cashier. Before I paid the employee asked me if I wanted to try it out to make sure it works. He plugged it in and we put a CD but nothing happened. After a few minutes we declared it dead until I remembered that the CD player design was influenced by a kitchen fan and to turn on a kitchen fan you tug on the cable underneath which I did and the player came to life. I then decided to see if I could get the price reduced to KD5 because the package was ripped but I only managed to get the price dropped down to KD6. Basically, I bought a $180 MUJI CD player for just $20! I am going to drill it into my kitchen wall and use it to listen to Radiohead while I bake.

For those of you who were interested in the “Ethernet over Power” adapters I had posted about previously. They had some more in stock and they’re still selling a box that comes with 3 adapters for KD13.700.

Yesterday I posted about how pissed I was Shake Shack was opening up in Dubai and Saudi Arabia and not in Kuwait. Well a very reliable source called me up a couple of hours ago and I managed to get some more information.

Alshaya are bringing Shake Shack to the whole Middle East and not just Saudi Arabia and Dubai. Not only that but the first branch of Shake Shack will be opening up right here in Kuwait! The launch date is currently set for first quarter of 2010. So in your face Dubai and Saudi!

I don’t know how old the video is above but I think its pretty new. It’s taken at the Cheverolet dealer and it’s of the new 2010 Camaro. Not a fan of yellow. [YouTube]

I passed by Tilal Complex tonight to check out the new Tamiya store. They opened up in Tilal back in December 2008 but recently they moved to a larger store on the first floor. I was expecting the new store to be bigger than the previous but it turned out to be like 10 times bigger and looked amazing! Seriously I was in shock. It was very nicely organized, they have stations in the back where you could go and build your car, they even rent tools. They also have a painting room with exhausts for the fumes, a small photography studio where you can take pictures of your car and my favorite section, the spare parts! They have hundreds and hundreds of parts occupying the whole right side of the shop. What I used to hate about their old store was the fact that you had to know what part you wanted and then ask the salesman to get it for you from behind the counter but now I can just browse and find parts and accessories myself.

I really really love their new store and I highly recommend anyone that is interested in radio controlled cars or plastic models to visit it. They’re located on the first floor of Tilal Complex, opposite their older store. Oh and they have this HUGE space right by the shop where they are currently building a race track.

Here is a link to their website [Link]
Their phone number is 22256707

This is a pretty messed up incident. A British soldier in civilian clothing got ambushed by five guys in Kuwait City and then held captive. Luckily he managed to escape by jumping out of a first story balcony. [Article]

Update: According to Al-Rai newspaper the British government is denying this incident took place. Here is the article (it’s in Arabic). [Article]

I posted a video of the Aston Martin Rapide in Kuwait before but here is better footage. I can imagine they would have a hard time explaining to hotel security what the box with all the wires in the trunk is for. [YouTube]

Update: Here is an article to go with the video above that talks about the testing that went on in Kuwait. [Link]

With the hottest part of the day approaching and temperatures now exceeding 50 deg C, the next test involved leaving the car parked outside in the intense midday sun for an hour – typical of an everyday lunch stop.

Sixty minutes later, the team measured what’s called the solar load placed on the car during the break using a device on the roof. To give an idea of how hot the sun in the Middle East can get, a typical solar test in a factory is usually limited to 1,000kW/h, as values higher than this rarely occur in habitable climates.

But after returning from lunch, the laptop was reading a peak value of 1,100kW/h! [Source]

Thanks AndyQ8