Search: “kuwait”

I passed by the Salmiya clinic in the morning to get the H1N1 flu paper I got from the airport signed. It was my first time there and I have to say the place is disgusting. Can’t believe that’s actually a medical center, it looks more like a big kitchen or bathroom. I even found a big dead bug on a dirty and stained floor, gross!

Anyway went to the proper department where this woman with a really large book took down my name and travel information. She asked me if I was sick, I told her no so she told me to come back on Sunday and that was it.

Someone in Kuwait is selling a bear, isn’t that illegal? Where are the authorities, I can understand they don’t care about dogs or cats but at least when it comes to bears you would think they would give a damn. [Link]

Thanks GeordieLass!

I’ve been having such an incredible lucky streak with mangoes recently. The last two boxes I got from Sultan Center turned out to be INCREDIBLE but tonight I might have discovered the “ultimate” mangoes. A friend of mine dropped off a fresh box of Indian Alphonso Mangoes and I just had some… wow they just melted in my mouth. Turns out a friend of his imports these premium mangoes directly from India and has a delivery service here in Kuwait. Its called “Gourmet Mangoes” and you just call them up and order a box of mangoes and get them delivered to you.

They’ve got two kinds of mangoes, a box of regular sized ones is for KD8 while the jumbo sized mangoes are for KD9. That’s just slightly more expensive than Sultan Center which go for KD7.450 and these guys deliver so its worth trying out.

If you’re interested contact them on 99880008

Yesterday some magazines arrived to my Aramex Shop&Ship mailbox in the US and now the magazines are with me. Thats US to Kuwait in under 24 hours!

I just tried the Ancho Ribs Slider this weekend at Slider Station and now I’m addicted to it. Its by far my favorite slider at the moment. I just had it again for lunch awhile ago and now I can’t wait to have it again. One thing I notice while having lunch was that the place was packed… with girls. Me and my friend were the only guys there which I thought was interesting since I always regarded burgers more of a guy thing than a girl thing.

I passed by the Red Bull event last night and I really don’t understand how companies can have events at Souk Sharq. On a weekend night its nearly impossible to find parking spot there yet alone when there is some kind of event going on. Souq Sharq has what has to be the worst parking planning in Kuwait.

Anyway I shot a couple of videos (above) and also took some pictures which you can check out below. The graffiti wasn’t that great but the dancing was much better than I was expecting.

I just found out that there are three people (2 guys 1 girl) at the ministry who’s job is to test video games all day. They play every game that needs to be brought into Kuwait to make sure they don’t contain anything illegal like nudity.

I passed by Pizza Rustica tonight at the Avenues after reading some positive reviews about it on a couple of blogs. Supposedly they have the best pizza in Kuwait but I don’t think that’s true. Firstly I had a hard time finding a pizza I liked, my usual favorite is ham (veal) with olives and mushrooms but I managed to kinda solve that by ordering a mushroom pizza and asking for olives as an extra topping. Well the pizza turned out to be fairly decent but nothing close to being the best pizza in Kuwait. I didn’t like the taste of the tomato sauce and the cheese was also not that great. Pizza Rustica is owned by Alshaya who also own Pizza Express and Al Forno both of which make better pizzas I think. The service on the other hand was pretty good but that’s not enough to take me back. Want a good pizza while at the Avenues? Then pass by Al Forno instead or even Le Notre.

I noticed today that the Kuwait National Petroleum Co. (KNPC) office in Kuwait City got re-branded to SOOR Fuel Marketing Company. So I guess this means their gas stations will also soon be re-branded to SOOR. Personally, I don’t like their new identity but at least they have a logo unlike their competitor Oula. [Link]

I got an email today at 4PM from a reader about a dog that was stuck on a roof of a building in Khaitan. The dog had been stuck up there for a few days and it looked like it was nearing its end and needed to be rescued right away. Here is a snippet from the email:

I’ve got a stray dog emergency on my hands and thought you might be the right man for the job. Im not super good at explaining directions in Kuwait which is why I have not already placed a call to Animal Friends or PAWS.

There is a dog stuck on the roof of a building. I can see him from my kitchen window.

I really pray that you can help. Several residents have tried climbing up the wall below the roof to reach him. But he backs off. My own 12 year old son tried and he almost fell off the wall.

The dog barks all night. I just checked on him and I can see his chest rising fast. His breathing is labored. I don’t think he has much time left.

Here is how you can find him, but please keep my address details private.

XXXXXADDRESS REMOVEDXXXXX

Now the haris of this building has a reputation (so I have heard) for throwing live kittens from the top of the roof! It’s only a matter of time before the barking at night gets on his nerves and he kills this dog.

So I quickly forwarded the email to Animal Friends and sent one to Nataly as well who ended up calling them up and explaining the situation. Within two hours of getting the email Animal Friends not only managed to rescue the dog that was stuck on top of the roof but also managed to rescue a second dog which they found nearby.

Animal Friends are an incredible organization in Kuwait but really do need as much help as they can get. I know many of you have emailed me asking how you could help out financially so I got their bank account information so you can now easily transfer to them your donations. Any amount will make a difference so please if you care about animals help them out. By the way they don’t just save dogs they save all kinds of animals. They’ve got a 4 month old baboon for example whom they’re building an enclosure for which you can check [Here]

So please help them out, here is their bank information:

Name: Ayeshah Waleed Al-Humaidhi
Address Line 1: P.O.Box 71, Safat 13001
Address Line 2: Kuwait
Account: 16205133
SWIFT: BKMEKWKW
Bank of Kuwait and the Middle East (BKME)

I passed by the Choowy Goowy opening today at the Avenues. They opened up in place of where Starbucks used to be located just outside the food court. They’ve got their cheesecakes, brownies and cookies all available there and all freshly baked in front of you. Now some bad news, I found out tonight that Arby’s will NOT be opening at the Avenues. It seems they pulled out which sucks!

I was checking the blog 4th Ring Road today when I spotted their post on the new Electrozan offer so I decided to pass by them and pick up a BlackBerry Curve for Nat. When I got to the Electrozan showroom I found out the BlackBerry’s were sold out already. The employee told me they will be getting more tomorrow afternoon but I also found out why the Curve’s were being sold for cheap… they are T-Mobile branded. That automatically turned what sounded like a really good deal into a bad deal. Let me explain:

– An unlocked unbranded BlackBerry Curve costs KD135 on Amazon [Link]. With shipping to Kuwait via Aramex the total would amount to KD142. Sorry this was for the QWERTZ keyboard.

– An unlocked unbranded BlackBerry Curve costs KD145 on Amazon [Link]. After tax and shipping to Kuwait via Aramex the total would amount to KD165.

– Now on the other hand a new unlocked T-Mobile branded BlackBerry Curve from eBay costs KD124 [Link]. With shipping to Kuwait via Aramex the total would amount to KD129 which is KD30 cheaper than Electrozan.

So to summarize things, its still a much better deal to order a BlackBerry Curve online since a saving of KD30 is a pretty big chunk.

Update: Just picked up a Curve from Electrozan for Nat. Paypal locked up my account because I logged in and paid for something through my VPN and they assumed someone else got into my account. So now I can’t use eBay for awhile. The BlackBerry is T-Mobile branded and comes with T-Mobile literature. Employee said its officially unlocked so I can do the software updates. Comes with 6 months warranty so it will be interesting to see what exactly that means if something does go wrong from now to 6 months time. They’re out of Bolds at the moment.

Update 2: The Curve’s sold at Electrozan are from T-Mobile Germany which means the keyboard is a QWERTZ and not the regular QWERTY. Simply put, the locations of the letters Z and Y are swapped.

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]