Search: “mis”

The video above was shot outside Oxygen Gym Al-Adeiliya. Not sure how I missed the storm. [YouTube]

As you already know by now I am currently being sued by the Las Palmas Restaurant Company who own Benihana and Subway in Kuwait. They’re suing me over my review which you can read [Here] in case you missed it. Anyway today was the first hearing and this is just an update of what happened.

My lawyer went to the court but I didn’t since it turned out I didn’t have to. At the court the Benihana lawyer basically stated their accusation which is the same one as the court order which is that I conspired with the company I work for against Benihana to benefit my company and their competitors which I mentioned in my post; Chocolate Bar, Maki, Wasabi and Pinkberry. They also submitted documents related to the case and now my lawyer has a month to study the documents and prepare our defense for the next session which is April 12th.

So there currently isn’t much to share other than that. Thank you everyone again for your support.

Note: I created a new category on the right which will contain all my posts related to the lawsuit.

Proud to be Kuwaiti is a foundation that was formed to recognize and encourage the youth of Kuwait to depend on themselves and establish their own business by giving their skills and talent a chance to shine. This year will be the third fourth year for the P2BK event.

Date: 16, 17, 18 and 19 March 2011
Location: Kuwait International Fairgrounds Mishref Hall 8
Time: 10:00am – 2:00pm and 5:00pm – 9:30pm

via Desert Girl

For more information you can visit their website [Here]

Just to give you an idea on how much K’S PATH (Animal Friends) cares for animals in Kuwait this is a story I just received in their latest newsletter on a recent rescue:

Around the beginning of March, K’S PATH was notified that there was a stray Saluki in front of the UN building in Mishrif. When John, our Lead Capture Specialist, arrived to assess the situation, he discovered that the dog was suffering from the worst embedded collar he had ever seen. The wound was severe and was starting to rot.

Unfortunately, the Saluki proved to be a stealthy guy and not looking to be captured. The poor dog was clearly in a tremendous amount of pain and completely terrified. John spent many days setting traps, attempting to dart him and missing and sometimes just attempting to chase him down with no luck. The Saluki then went missing. About a week later, we received an e-mail from a supporter describing a dog that sounded exactly like our stealth Saluki a little bit South of where he was before. John was on vacation at the time but as soon as he got back, he went straight out to see if he could find the dog and there he was. On this occasion we were in luck and John was able to capture the dog. However, in process of rescue, the Saluki was hit by a car. John rushed the dog to the Royal Animal Hospital and amazingly he was deemed to have no broken bones or any other damage from the hit. Dr. Jill and her team then focused on removing the collar and treating the horrendous wound around his neck. The Saluki remained in hospital for 2 days and was then cleared to go home. He has come home with John and Ayeshah for some extra TLC while he is on his very long road to recovery.

They’re really doing an amazing job in Kuwait and if you would like to help them out they have a page setup on their website with information on how you can donate. You can even donate with Paypal if you want. [Link]

A few days back I posted about the fact that the architects Foster+Partners will be designing the new Kuwait Airport terminal. Some of you had questions which I didn’t have any answers to but an architect working on the airport project at the Ministry of Public Works emailed me with some more information regarding the project. This is hot off the grill since she had just come out of a meeting with Foster+Partners, the last meeting in the design development phase.

– The new airport terminal is a completely new construction and is designed fully by Foster+Partners while Gulf Consultants are only the local sub-consultant for the project

– The completion of the design stage is scheduled to be completed by the end of March 2012 and the construction completion of the terminal and the soft opening by Mid 2016

They promised to send me renderings of the new terminal building as soon as the design phase ends but for now… below is a passenger that had just arrived to the new terminal (scale 1:5000 1:200 model) and below that is the A380 he boarded.

Just found out by mistake that there is a mini Olympics of a sort just for women that being held in Abu Dhabi for the next six days. Not sure if it’s been publicized or not but I just found out about it now and not sure if the games will be broadcasted on television or not. Kuwait is participating in the games as well as female athletes from Oman, Bahrain, Qatar and UAE. They will be competing in athletics, volleyball, equestrian, taekwondo, bowling and shooting. Not sure who or how many from Kuwait are participating so if anyone has more information on this I will gladly post it. Here is a link to an article about the games. [Link]

The Kuwait Chamber Philharmonia is organizing the 1st Kuwait International Music Festival to celebrate the 50th Anniversary of the founding of The State of Kuwait. The festival is going to be held under the patronage of H.E.Shaikh Nasser Sabah Al-Ahmed Al-Jaber Al -Sabah, Minister of Al Diwan Al Amiri Affairs. The Polish Minister of Culture Bogdan Zdrojewski (who is one of the sponsors of the event) will be a special honor guest of the festival.

QATAR CLASSICAL ENSEMBLE
Consists of virtuoso members of Qatar Philharmonic Orchestra
Program: Rachmaninoff & Schoenberg
Date & Time: Friday, March 11th 2011 at 8pm
Location: Al Hashemii II Grand Ballroom at Radisson Blu Hotel

SINFONIETTA CRACOVIA ORCHESTRA
One of the leading European orchestra from Poland with soloist Robert Kabara (violin)
Program: Mozart -Symphony No. 40 in G minor (KV 550), Violin concerto D-Major KV 218, Karlowicz, Kilar, Gorecki,
Date & Time: Saturday, March 12th 2011 at 8pm
Location: Al Hashemi II Grand Ballroom at Radisson Blu Hotel
and
Date & Time: Sunday, March 13th 2011 at 8pm
Location: Mishref Theater

YOUNG MUSICIANS OF THE GULF
Date & Time: Sunday, March 14th 2011 at 7pm
Location: Mishref Theater

Tickets: KD5 and KD10 (available at Radisson Blu tel 25673000 and Virgin)

For more information visit www.kuwaitcp.com

I just read that the incredibly fantastic architects Foster+Partners will be designing the new Kuwait Airport terminal. That’s basically amazing news because I was just recently starting to wonder when we would go back to awarding great designers with large landmark projects. I can’t wait to see a rendering of the new terminal and I can’t wait for it to be built. [Link]

Note: Picture above is of the Beijing airport which was designed by F+P

Update: In case you’ve missed my older post, the current airport (before all the ugly updates made to it) was designed by the legendary Japanese architect Kenzo Tange. Here is a link with some pictures of the airport in it’s original state. [Link]

In addition to the videos of the fireworks I posted about earlier, Cajie a photographer posted some great shots of the fireworks display in his flickr page which you can see [Here]

Update: Here is another link to photos taken by Bu Yousef. My favorite one is below. [Link]

In case you missed it. [YouTube]

I received an email yesterday from a reader who told me that his internet provider had limited his DSL download bandwidth to just 1.6GB a day. He told me that according to his provider every internet provider in Kuwait will be doing the same thing to their customers in the next coming weeks as well. I thought he might have misunderstood and it could have been a problem he was having but I just read in the forum that another person also ran into a similar problem. His internet provider downgraded his speed from 2MB to 512kb because he was downloading on average 3GB a day.

This freaked me out so I called up my provider (Qualitynet) and asked them if they had implemented the same system and according to the customer support guy I spoke to they haven’t. He actually told me I could relax and download the whole Internet if I wanted to and I would be fine.

Anyone have any more information on this?

re:kuwait posted an updated map of the yet to be built Kuwait Metro. It seems there were some major changes done to it but nothing that effects me. According to the new map I still have a metro stop 5 minutes from my house in Salmiya and one across the street from my office building in Kuwait City. Should be super convenient except it currently takes me around 15-20 minutes from my house to work every morning and back every evening so I doubt I would use the metro for my daily commute. What I would use the metro for is Avenues on a weekend. Should be more convenient than trying to find a parking spot. [Link]

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Update: I got the following email from a reader, I can’t verify if its accurate or not

Hi Mark,

In relation to the latest post about Kuwait Metro Project, and since your blog gets a lot of hits, i just want to bring to your attention that the information provided by re:kuwait which they got from KOTU is totally not true.

There is a new governmental entity in Kuwait called the Partnerships Technical Bureau established sometime in 08/09 if my memory serves me right to execute a very ambitious development program namely the first IWPP power plan in Kuwait operated by the private sector, the metro project and Failaka Island development.
The below links are proof of what actually is happening now with regard to the metro. There is no map deveopled or finalized everything is still under study and they should finalize it very soon.

1. E&Y kicks off work on ‘Kuwait Metro’

2. Kuwait Metropolitan Rapid Transit System Project in Kuwait: Consulting Services for Transaction Advisor

Anyways just wanted to clear this misunderstanding in Kuwait i know alot of people read your blog.

Anyway great job keep up the great posts.

Bayt Lothan have an event that started a couple of days back and will last every night up until the 23rd. The event showcases craftsmen working like they used to in the past and then at night they have traditional live music hosted by a variety of famous Kuwaiti artist like Basem al Radhan and Ferqat el Television amongst others.

Date: February 19th to February 23rd
Time: 9am to 1pm and 5pm to 9pm
Location: Bayt Lothan

Here is the flier for the event [Link]
Do not miss this!

Update: Here is the music schedule for the next few days
Monday – Laylat Haban
Tuesday – Bassem alRadhan,
Wednesday – Hamad Bin Hussein
They’re playing from 7pm to 9pm

As part of a series of events to celebrate the 50th Anniversary of Kuwait’s independence and the 20th Anniversary of the liberation of Kuwait after the first Gulf War, the British Council brings the Arun Ghosh Quintet to Kuwait for two live music performances.

First Show
Date: Thursday, 17 February 2011
Time: 7:30pm
Location: The Performing Arts Centre, The English School

Second Show
Date: Friday, 18 February 2011
Time: 1:30pm to 3:30pm
Location: The Avenues, Phase 2 outside Dean & Deluca

Admission is free to both events but for The English School performance it’s strictly on a first-come, first-served basis and you should arrive in good time in order to secure a seat. For more information visit this [Link]

Thanks Guy

I just found out from local blog Brake Banzeen that Valentino Balboni, the famous Lamborghini test driver was in Kuwait during the Concours d’Elegance. I also found out Wayne Carini from Discovery Channel’s Chasing Classic Cars was also there. Not sure how I missed them since I was there that day. Luckily Brake Banzeen spotted them and you can check out his two posts below:

Chasing Wayne Carini on Brake Banzeen
Valentino Balboni at Concours d’Elegance