Search: “kuwait”

Around 20 days ago I posted about my trip to the post office and how I sent a package to the States using EMS. It was a positive post that encouraged people to use the EMS service since it was easy to use, not expensive and packages would arrive to the States in under a week.

Well it’s been nearly 20 days since I mailed out my package and has yet to arrive to it’s destination. I also can’t track the package for some odd reason and so I have no idea where it currently is. Going to pass by the post office after Eid and see what they have to say about this.

I just read that the Public Authority for Agriculture and Fish Resources is planning to build a Safari Zoo in Jahra. It’s going to be a drive-thru zoo where you will only be able to travel through it by car or specially designed trains. The fact they admit that the current zoo is inhumane is a good sign and is actually part of their reason for building the new zoo so I have high hopes for this project.

The funny part is it seems we have an animal exchange program with the Korean Zoo where we sent them deer in return for a leopard. I thought that was a pretty good deal. Check out the full article [Here]

The Avenues have responded in regards to the notice in today’s paper on not being allowed to use the Avenues name, pictures or anything related. Basically that notice was for people who were using the Avenues brand for commercial purposes.

We would like to affirm to our friends and followers on social media networks that your efforts to follow activities of The Avenues Mall are greatly appreciated, and we always stand ready to provide you with the latest news.

With regard to the ad published in some of the newspapers, it refers to the use of the name and the logo of The Avenues Mall in some of the programs and projects on the World Wide Web, as well as to websites that are using the logo of The Avenues as their own logo when in fact they do not represent the company. This is in violation of intellectual property rights. The ad is in no way making reference to your coverage of our activities on social media networks, which is an aspect that we are always keen on further enhancing with you.

We thank you for your interest and we express appreciation for your efforts.

This is very odd. On the front page of Al Rai newspaper there is a notice from Avenues saying that we can no longer mention Avenues, talk about Avenues or post pictures of Avenues without getting written permission first. That includes, newspapers, magazines, blogs etc…

I’m not sure why they would release something like this. I guess from now on I’ll refer to Avenues as Alshaya Mall?

Thanks Salah

Update: The Avenues have responded [Link]

When I first heard that the orange Chihuly sculpture at 360 Mall got damaged I got really upset since I imagined a large chunk of it had fallen to the ground. Luckily my imagination had run wild and the damage turned out to be barely visible. I passed by 360 Mall earlier tonight and actually had a hard time spotting the damage which is great.

If you’re curious to know how both the Chihuly sculptures were built check out these pictures that were taken during the installation. [Link]

Just an update on whats going on with the Benihana lawsuit. Back in late April I posted about how I won the lawsuit against Benihana and how I thought it was a great victory since it reinforced the right for us bloggers in Kuwait to state our personal opinions. Well around a month after the victory Benihana appealed the courts decision which is their right to do and we headed to court once again. Except the second time it didn’t go so well.

Yesterday I found out that the court ruled in favor of Benihana and have ordered me to now pay them the sum of KD1,000. The court still hasn’t released their decision for this ruling and I have to wait around 2 weeks to find that out. I of course will be appealing the decision and be heading back to court to defend our right of freedom of expression. Once I have anymore updates will post them here.

If you have no idea what lawsuit I am talking about click [Here]

I’ve started getting SPAM on my phone and I don’t know how to stop it. Some company is sending me around 4 or 5 SMS’s a day containing sports news from the number 50122 and I don’t know how to stop it. I replied saying REMOVE but I got back an SMS telling me if I send a reply back containing certain letters I can also receive news on celebrities, the world and I don’t know what else. Anyone know how I could unsubscribe? Is there a universal reply back I need to send to get off the list that I’m not aware of?

Update: Below is what I get when I send “stop” “remove” or “unsubscribe”

Update2: I noticed with a number of readers that we started getting SPAM after entering the Alfa gas station draw I posted about last week. If you also started receiving SPAM after participating in the Alfa gas station draw leave a comment below.

Although I’ve been trying out burgers on this trip, I rarely have any when I come to Lebanon since the burgers here aren’t good at all. Instead I usually have other things:

Salads
I think the salads in Lebanon are better than the ones I have in Kuwait. The salads are lighter and taste better, probably because restaurants have access to better produce. I had the one pictured above yesterday and it came with goat cheese, walnuts, baby tomatoes, lettuce and figs for a bit of sweetness. It was great.

Pizza
For some odd reason pizza is extremely popular in Lebanon in the same way burger joints are popular in Kuwait. It seems every place around the corner makes pizza and most of them are pretty good. I end up having pizza maybe every other day and every time at a different place.

The Healthy Alternative
When I’m on vacation I’m off my regular diet but I also don’t like overdoing it since I end up feeling guilty. Other than salads there is one healthy dish that I love having and it’s the one above called the light grilled chicken. It’s delicious and very tender grilled chicken that comes with steamed carrots, mushrooms, broccoli and corn. I also order a side of honey mustard with it and I end up wiping the plate clean since everything on it including the broccoli just tastes amazing.

In the first incident of its kind, a traffic policeman issued a citation against an Arab motorist for having bad breath, reports Al-Anba daily.

A police source said it is a very strange incident and problematic too because the penalty is not known. “Will the motorist be fined; if so, how much will he have to pay and if his car is impounded, how long will it be in the police garage?” he asked.
Incidentally, it is also mentioned on the citation that the motorist admitted that his mouth smells. [Source]

If they’re issuing tickets for bad breath then my previous joke about how sunglasses should be banned might actually happen.

Update: I added the picture of the ticket to the post

Update2: The MOI is denying such a ticket was issued [Link]

Turns out the bull/cow (we’re still undecided) I posted about the other day who was roaming the Gulf Road ended up going for a swim. [YouTube]

A reader emailed me to tell me that the Taj Mahal Mosque in Kuwait which I posted about before [Here] is now open. Looks like a palace out of Aladdin.

Thanks Yousuf

Our friends over at GulfRun are setting up a 26 hour endurance karting race. The race is going to be held on the 25th of November but registration has started already. Since it’s a 26 hour race each team is required to have at least 4 drivers or a maximum of 12. They’ll be building their own track in Kuwait City for this race which will be regulated by UK marshalls according to FIA regulations.

If you’re interested here is the link with more information [Here]

Blink has a one day deal on iPad 2 smart covers, they’re selling them for KD8.9 which is the cheapest I’ve seen in Kuwait so far. [Link]

9ura.com is a Kuwait-based group that was created to showcase talents and educate people about the Middle East through photography.

They just launched a few days ago and they’re holding their first photography competition with the theme “Environments in the GCC”. There will be three categories: Culture, Nature, and Urban and I think I already have a photograph that I will be submitting.

If you want to take part in this competition you need to upload your photo to their website some time between August 15th and October 15th, 2011.

Here is a link to their website [Link]

Photo above taken by Bader Al-Ajeel

IMPORTANT: I just read the fine print and there is an important point that I previously missed. According to their fine print, by submitting your photographs to 6ura.com each of your submissions becomes THEIR property. They will have free, permanent, non-exclusive, and royalty-free rights to use, reproduce, and/or display your photos in any format they please. Personally, this means I won’t be submitting anything to them since I want to remain the owner of my photographs.

I had to pass by the post office to mail some defected RAM back to the States and I have to say the place was as weird as I was expecting it to be. I went to the Safat post office in Kuwait City and I only managed to find it by asking passers by since there wasn’t any sign outside the place.

Once I walked in I thought I took the wrong door and stepped inside the post office museum since there were cabinets with old stamps lining up the wall on my right and I could see more cabinets ahead in a large hallway.

I saw stamps in the cabinet that dated back to the 60’s and figured I might as well check out this museum first and then head to the post office.

After checking out a couple of cabinets the room opened up and I realized I was actually in the post office and not the museum.

I went up to the counter and asked the employee there about bareed mumtaz which is what they call EMS in Kuwait. He took my items, weighed them and told me it would cost KD6 to mail it to the States and that it would get there in under a week. In comparison, Aramex wanted KD10.5 to mail it in addition to another KD20 as a deposit in case US customs charged a duty.

Although the post office does look very outdated I didn’t mind it since the place was deserted which meant no lines. The employee I also dealt with was friendly and most importantly the EMS service seems pretty reliable and reasonably fast. Not bad.