Search: “kuwait”

A reader spotted the yellow Kid ‘R’ Us koala bear at the Friday Market shoved underneath a foosball table. It doesn’t look too happy.

Thanks Valencia!

Choowy Goowy will be opening up at the Avenues hopefully this Wednesday. This will be Choowy Goowys first store and they’ve really come a long way since I first reviewed them over three years ago back in January 2006. They will be baking cookies at the Avenues store so you should be able to pick some up as they come out of the oven. The pictures above and below are just sneak peak shots of the store taken with a Nokia E71. They still haven’t removed the wooden paneling that currently surrounds the store so it was pretty hard to get anything wider than these shots.

Update: I just realized that a lot of readers might not be aware of the fact that Choowy Goowy have cookies called Mark&Nat. Back in November 2006 Nat and I were invited to Choowy Goowy to create our own cookies. After some experimenting and having some friends try out our creations, the oreo cookies were voted as being the best and so Choowy Goowy decided to make these cookies and call them Mark&Nat with jar labels matching our blog. You can read about our experience [Here]

I’ve got a friend who works at the Commercial Bank of Kuwait and according to him CBK terminated the contracts of all their employees. Supposedly they are now going to have to sign new contracts but no one knows yet what to expect. No bonuses? Salary Cuts? No one has been told what the new contracts will state…

Update: Buzberry just posted a letter from a CBK employee which you can read [Here]

A local blogger called Ansam found rotten tomatoes in her Whopper at Burger King. If that wasn’t bad enough the manager there didn’t even apologize for it! Last month it was Hardees with their bug sandwich and now its Burger King with their rotten tomatoes. I guess I am only going to be eating at McDonalds from now on. [Link]

Update: The marketing manager responds, you can read about it [Here]

I noticed something recently with my Aramex Shop&Ship mailbox which actually pissed me off until I got a phone call awhile ago explaining to me what was going on. For the past two weeks I’ve been buying a lot of stuff from Amazon and eBay. The problem I was facing was that I would have lets say four packages in my US mailbox waiting to be shipped to Kuwait but then Aramex would only ship one of them. This usually happens during periods of time when people shop online a lot like before Christmas or Eid so it didn’t make sense why it was happening now. Now what confused me with all of this is that the rest of the packages ended up shipping the next day but then all four of my packages arrived to Kuwait at the same time. It didn’t really make any sense.

So after a few emails complaining I got a phone call today from Aramex and it turns out they’ve done something new. Basically they only have two cargo flights a week out of the US. This is why they ship the stuff to Kuwait twice a week. Two weeks ago they struck a deal with Kuwait Airways where they are now able to ship some items to Kuwait on their planes which from what I understood are daily flights. Aramex is limited by the kind of mail and the amount of mail they can ship on those flights so thats why they were “choosing” what to send from my packages. Anything that can’t be sent on those daily Kuwait Airways flights remains in the mailbox until a cargo plane is available to take them to Kuwait which is twice a week.

In short, some of the packages from now on will ship the day after they arrive to the box while others will continue to be shipped only twice a week. Thats pretty cool.

Note: For those of you who don’t know what Aramex Shop&Ship is, its a forwarding mailbox which Aramex sets up for you in the US or the UK and any package that gets sent to that mailbox gets forwarded to you here in Kuwait.

A body of a student was found in the parking lot of the Australian College of Kuwait. No cause of death has been disclosed but the following email was sent out to ACK students:

Dear All,

I am sad to inform you that a student was found deceased in his car on campus. It is extremely unfortunate and disheartening to see this incident happen to this young student with a bright future. Appropriate measures were taken including reporting to the police.

Investigators from the Department of Criminal Investigation and the Ambulance Department were notified immediately. The police at this stage could not confirm the nature of death; however, in due course they will inform the college on the details of the investigation.The police were extremely cooperative in attending to this emergency on the campus and worked in conjunction with the ambulance and other members of the college including our security. We extend our deepest condolences and prayers to the grieving family.

Vishy Karri

A friend of mine told me the other day that Caribou Coffee got the rights to Cheese Cake Factory cheese cakes in the Middle East and today I got an email confirming this. In total, Caribou Coffee will be bringing in 15 different types of cakes. They will be introducing this partnership on April 6 at the Kuwait City branch (next to Johnny Rocket’s across from Salhiya). The slice of cake will be priced at KD1.950.

Thanks David!

Note: The cheese cakes are currently available at Caribou Coffee but I guess the official launch is April 6..

Update: 4thringroad posted it first [Here]

A few people emailed me a link to this video on YouTube where two AIS school teachers trash Kuwait. Judging by the viewers comments the two teachers should probably go into hiding. [YouTube]

Thanks to everyone who emailed this in.

Update: Video has been removed from YouTube

Asking price? A ridiculous KD20,000! You could probably buy two from eBay for that price and ship them to Kuwait (ok maybe not two but still) or just wait until the local dealer gets them and sells them for around KD11,000. [Link]

I first spotted this on Some Contrast and then this weekend I ended up driving by it on the way to Marzouqs place so I decided to stop and take a picture of it with my Yashica. If you want to see the previous artwork that was on display there click [Here]

I was at Smoke House with Nat having lunch when a friend of ours called up saying her friends had rescued 3 puppies and didn’t know what to do with them. We finished up our lunch and headed towards Adan area where we met up with our friend, Jasem from the Six-K Club and his best friend. Jasem and his friend rescued the three puppies after finding them locked up without food or water.

Turns out the owner of these dogs went insane and the cops came to take him away. When they came and found the three puppies they locked one up in the bathroom and then shoved the other two into a small pigeon cage in the back yard. No water, no food, just left there to die. They had been left like that for 6 days before Jasem and his friend found them. The puppies were very dehydrated and starving.

We first called Animal Friends League and no one picked up, so we then called PAWs and as usual no one picked up from their side. Once we hung up we got a call back from Animal Friends who asked us if we could drop the puppies off at their farm in Wafra which we agreed to. After giving the dogs some water and food we took off to Wafra.

Its extremely extremely disappointing and sad to hear how the cops treated the puppies. I don’t know what to say, maybe they should just ban dogs in Kuwait once and for all. At least that way the dogs won’t suffer in the hands of abusive kids or get left to die in tiny cages under the scorching sun. Thanks Animal Friends for taking in the dogs. They need all the help they can get so if you want to know how you can help them out click [Here]

Can we get solar farms instead??

The Ministry of Electricity and Water in Kuwait has confirmed its participation in Earth Hour 2009. The ministry will provide the campaign with all the required consumption statistics before, during, and after the event. Also, the streets’ lights management in the ministry has confirmed switching off two light bulbs per street light in about 11.6 Km of the total length of the Arabian Gulf Street, one of the most famous streets in Kuwait, without affecting the public safety. This length represents around 60% of the total street’s length.

The Ministry of Electricity and Water find this event a good opportunity to show the bad consequences of over energy consumption in the community and its effects on the environment.

Thanks Yousef!

A reader of the blog called Pete took this picture of what looks like a new radar camera here in Kuwait. I’ve never see one these before so not really sure what it is. Here is the original link to this shot [Link]

Starting from the 26th of March The Scientific Center will be playing the new IMAX film called Journey to Mecca. I first heard about this movie from a blogger called Ahmad who posted about his experience on the movie set as a camera assist. Well the movie is now completed and it will be premiering in Kuwait on Thursday. Here is the synopsis I was sent:

Journey to Mecca is an IMAX dramatic and documentary feature that tells the amazing story of Ibn Battuta, the greatest explorer of the Old World, following his first pilgrimage between 1325 and 1326 from Tangier to Mecca. His perilous journey resonates with adventure while presenting an unforgettable picture of Islamic civilization during the 14th century, culminating with Ibn Battuta’s first Hajj. The story is book-ended by a close-up look at the contemporary Hajj, a pilgrimage to Mecca that draws three million Muslims from around the world. English narration of the film is done by Ben Kingsley, the acclaimed and internationally renowned actor.

I was also sent a timetable for the movie times which you can download as a pdf by clicking [Here]
Here is a link to the trailer. [Link]

The price of the ticket is KD3 for adults and KD2 for children.

I’ve never been to an IMAX movie yet but one movie I do want to watch that luckily is still playing at The Scientific Center is Fires of Kuwait. I’ve been wanting to watch the documentary ever since it got released back in 1992 and I still haven’t watched it!

Thanks Hind!

Justine Orme from Innovative Foods in New Zealand is one of the suppliers for the Dean & Deluca store in Kuwait and he just posted a comment under one of my Dean & Deluca posts. Basically he’s been asked by Dean & Deluca to supply them with more products and he wants to know what you guys think is missing or what you would want to see more of? For example he is already looking for Salami, Venison and other cold cuts in New Zealand to supply to Dean & Deluca along with Brie and a wine substitute to use in cooking like the one served on Emirates. Is there any other gourmet item you are interested in or want but can’t find? Just leave a comment below.

Personally I would like to see Camembert cheese (not prepacked), more choices of black olives, a good premium chocolate spread and some good Turkey salami.