Search: “kuwait”

Just got back from the Kuwait Advertising Arab Awards, it was better then last years event but it was still extremely poor. The way the categories were divided and the way the ads were nominated didn’t make any sense. Our agency submitted work to some categories for example but during tonights event those categories didn’t exist. I heard the same feedback from other agencies who participated, everyone was just confused to what the hell was going on. The actual presentation of the awards was also a mess, they couldn’t get the TV commercials playing right (how hard is it to press play and pause) and the woman announcer had the most cheesiest one liners. The event was also supposed to start at 7PM according to our tickets (which had a major mistake btw), but according to their website the event was supposed to start at 7:30PM but in reality the event actually started at 8. There were also less agencies participating this year probably because after last years fiasco no one wanted to be involved with the KAAA.

On a positive note the stage looked good, BUT it was a near copy of the KREA awards. Compare the picture above to the picture [Here]. Notice the starry backdrop?

Anyway my agency ended up collecting the most awards (I think), with a total of 12 bronze, silver and gold trophy’s but it really doesn’t mean much since the KAAA doesn’t have any credibility internationally. One of my favorite TV commercials ever which was created by our Beirut office won a Gold in the food category. The version of the ad they played wasn’t the one I liked though, it has a different soundtrack and editing so I figured I would share with everyone the version I like which I uploaded to YouTube a while back. The commercial was for the product Zwan, if you haven’t checked it out you can by clicking [Here]. And thats it basically, I got to see a lot of old friends and I got to wear a suit so everything else didn’t matter much. Hopefully next year I won’t go.

update: here is another review of the event [Link]

update2: Just found out that they canceled one of our categories because we were the only ones who entered it. So according to the KAAA logic if you are successful and have no competition you can’t win. Now lets play along with that for a moment, how about you call us and tell us that you canceled that category, at least then we could have told the client not to come to the event. No professionalism whatsoever.

Starting Saturday, Kuwait will be issuing new license plates for the cars. I just saw an article in the Daily Star newspaper about it and I think the new plates look better then the current ones we have, but I don’t think they are better then Dubai’s. I just hope the new plates come in the really wide size also because this squarish one looks really weird on my Beemer.

The M45 is a nice car but its not a G35. The car isn’t as fun or as cool, its a family car. Its got a powerful V8 engine and all, but unlike the Infiniti G35 which they lent me last week, I don’t want to speed in this car. The G35 actually made me want to trade in my car for it but so far I haven’t clicked with the M45 like that. Maybe if I was older and had kids I would prefer the M45 over the G35 but at the moment I am not swinging that way. Its pretty comfortable though and I love how smooth and quiet it is on the highway.

On my way to work yesterday I saw some blue banners and something like a stage outside the House of Parliament. Thanks to a reader in the forum (RJV) I found out there was a demonstration yesterday asking for football reform in Kuwait. The full article is available on Kuwait Times if anyone wants to read it. [Article]

I personally haven’t watched that many soccer matches after 1990. Most of the games I watched were all pre-1990 and my favorites then were whenever Kuwait played against Saudi Arabia. Since I play the goal keeper position my favorite player then was Samir Saeed which is why I am now a big fan of Mr Baker (he owns it). I feel like playing football now.

Anyway in case you missed it, here is my post on
Haydoo, Kuwait’s lovely camel. [Link]

Anyone heard of or been to Burger Company? I first heard about it 10 days ago in the forum but today someone else mentioned it to me. Its supposed to be a 24 hour diner, the first in Kuwait. The place is located in Hawalli opposite “the college of business studies”.

Picture by vampire

In my W-net review I mentioned that W-net at full speed was only available in some locations. Over the weekend Wataniya sent me a list of the locations that have 3G. If you want to know if it works in your area or not download the file and see if your area is listed. [PDF]

Just got back from my ride today morning. I first cruised around Salmiya for a little bit and then headed off to Marina Crescent to see if their were any bikers there I knew. I ended up finding Marzouq who earlier in the morning had been out biking with Nat. We decided we would ride to Green Island where a bunch of Ducati and BMW bikers were gathering up for a ride out to the desert which was organized by TriStar.

As we were approaching the gathering area I spotted the new Ducati 1098s from far. There was no way to miss it, it was parked away from the rest of the bikers and it was sparkling under the sun. We parked our bikes, said hi to some friends and then me and Marzouq went over to the 1098. Its a really tiny and light bike weighing around 170KG and producing around 160HP! Thats nearly one horse power for every kilogram.

Anyway we hung out for a little while and then headed out for a ride. One thing I did today was go back to the intersection I had my first crash in and take the same route I took that day. Might not sound like much but after I had my accident I went through the whole incident in my head over and over and then I kept visiting that route with my car just to go over the spot and try to figure out how I messed up. So today I decided I couldn’t avoid that intersection for ever and I took it with my bike. I think going through the turn gave me a boost of confidence which is what I needed.

One issue I realized I had today was accelerating from a traffic light while I am with Marzouq. I usually know how much throttle to give and how much clutch to let go of using the sound of my bikes engine. But the problem is Marzouqs bike is bigger and much louder and so when I am with him I can’t hear my bikes engine anymore. I swear I think I messed up at like 6 traffic lights today, it made me feel like such a newbie. This is why I decided I am going to either upgrade the mufflers with some really cool louder ones by Termignoni or, try and convince Nat I “need” a Ducati 749.

The Sony Ericsson dealer in Kuwait (Barrak) has a website online with all the Sony Ericsson models available and their prices. Its not a pretty website but it gets the job done. [Link]

I have gotten a lot of things to try out because of my blog but I don’t think I have ever gotten anything like this… water. I came in today morning to find a box of OGO Oxygen Water on my desk. At first I thought it was a new client of ours but then I found out that a company who imports OGO to Kuwait wanted me to try it out and get my feedback on it.

According to the label and website, OGO water contains up to 35 times more oxygen then regular bottled water. What I was more interested in was the actual bottle. It reminded me of the magic potions Asterix and Obelix used to carry around with them which is a cool thing.

Anyway, if anyone is interested you can place an order by phone. Minimum 5 boxes, each box holds twelve 330ml bottles and costs KD6. So thats 500fils per bottle. The number to call is 4341209 or 7242595.

www.OGOlife.com

Was just flipping through the Watan TV website and I found some interesting short video clips. The site is like a video blog, just a bunch of random clips related to Kuwait. [Link]

K.TheKuwaiti sent me a note that the Gulf Run pictures are now all online. There are tons and tons of pictures and a lot of very hot cars but my favorite is the Noble of course. [Link]

There is this guy who is always running on the Gulf Road no matter how bad the weather is. The other day when it was raining, he was running, when its 50 degrees in the middle of summer he is out running. He is always running. So I decided next time I see him I would ask him if I could interview him like I did with Shark of Kuwait.

Well today while parked in one of the parking spots on the Gulf Road taking pictures of the Infiniti I saw him run by me. I quickly gave Nat my camera and told her to wait there while I ran after him. I must have ran behind him for a minute yelling out for him to stop before I was able to overtake him and make him stop. By then I was completely out of breath. The guy looked at me waiting to say something and then he fucking yelled out extremely loud in Kuwaiti “Tabi shay mini?” meaning “Do you want anything from me?” By the time I could catch my breath to say anything he yelled out something else and ran off.

I stood there still trying to catch my breath and wondering why he was so aggressive and why the hell was he shouting at me even though I was standing right next to him. Someone previously commented that he was a champion runner does anyone have information on him?

Think Gumball but on a local level and you have Gulf Run 2007. From the first couple of pictures on the Official Gulf Run website I can see 2 Porsches, a Ferrari, 2 Nobles, 2 Lancers, a 350z, and a Corvette but in total there are 22 cars participating this year. The drivers will be heading from Kuwait to Bahrain where they’ve booked the Bahrain International Circuit for a full day. I didn’t get any invitation to participate this year (must have been lost in the mail) so for now I will just keep checking their site for picture updates. K.TheKuwaiti is participating in the race this year. [Link]

We were supposed to get a real live snake today but for some reason we didn’t. On a positive not we did get a large stuffed mountain goat delivered to our office. We’ve named him Simon.

Last year on this day the Amir of Kuwait, Sheikh Jaber Al-Ahmad Al-Sabah passed away. Today on the Gulf Road opposite the House of Parliament there is an extremely long condolence letter stretching from a bit after Seef Palace all the way past the House of Parliament. I read on one of the banners that this is the longest condolence letter in the world.

There are a few tents setup and a lot of people are gathered there. Here is a larger picture of part of the condolence letter. [Picture]