Search: “mis”

I promise this will be the last photography related post for this week but I’ve really been wanting to post this ever since I saw the pictures on Nibaqs blog. Someone Verity Cridland scanned and restored photos they she had taken of Kuwait back in the early 1960’s and then uploaded all the photos onto her flickr account. There are a lot of great pictures there so please check them out. [Pictures]

Thanks Nibaq!

When I first started this blog over 4 years ago I was getting only a handful of visitors a day. Since then the site hasn’t stopped growing and I’m now averaging over 10,000 visitors a day. From day 1 the blog was being hosted by a good friend but now it’s time for me to move the blog to its own dedicated server.

I just signed up with Rackspace, a leading web hosting provider hosting sites like Threadless, 37signals, Liquid Web Laughing Squid, ESPN, Disney Online, Motorola, Canon USA and more. They gave me a really good deal and promised to have my server up and running by Tuesday. This means I would probably start moving my blog to the new server sometime late next week.

If you’re interested my new server will have the following specs:

Dell 2850
Dual socket = 2 Xeon 3.2 GHz performance CPU’s
Two 146GB 10,000 rpm Hard drives (Raid 1)
4GB RAM
1 x Cisco 506 Firewall
24x7x365 Unlimited live person support
Guaranteed 1 hour hardware replacement
100% network uptime (Backbone = 65GB throughput)
1000 GB High Performance, Tier 1 Redundant Bandwidth
Constant network monitoring for latencies and intrusion

During the move there should be some downtime but I will post about it ahead of time.

I am at the Beirut Airport waiting for my flight back to Kuwait. I think its been 10 days exactly since I left and I can’t wait to get back although I am soooo going to miss the beautiful skies here…

Note: The picture above is of Jounieh.

This happened last week at a Celtics game. Its cool depending on if you like the song or not. [YouTube]

Thats the Ministry of Information building decorated for National Day. Only thing missing is a giant disco ball on the roof! [Video]

Thanks Holla

If Improv Everywhere did this in the States they would have gotten their asses sued. [YouTube]

I just found out today that there was a fire at Al Mayass. I don’t know how I missed this but I guess it happened while I was in London. Hope it wasn’t too bad.

We just checked in to our BA flight to London and to our surprise they upgraded our seats to business! The guy at the counter didn’t know why but figured maybe because the flight is overbooked. It’s Nats birthday today so that turned out to be a nice gift from British Airways. Anyway if you haven’t booked a ticket yet today is the last day of their offer so don’t miss out! [Link]

I just wanted to give a shout-out to my sponsors and introduce them to everyone. You’ve got Saso Lounge who I’ve posted about before [Here]. Zain which everyone knows about already. D*Lush which make the best Cookies N Cream milkshake in Kuwait and I’ve previously reviewed them [Here]. Pink Moon I’ve actually never posted about before because its a girly store. They’ve got an online store [Here] and a physical store on the Gulf Road opposite Seef Palace next to Slider Station and The Burger Hub. The Exhibition is also located next to Pink Moon and they’ve just started advertising with us this month, they’re a trendy place where people can exhibit whatever they want. Revive is a new juice bar concept with a location at Souk Sharq and Mishref Coop. Finally Lola et moi is a new kids store that’s launching in the Discovery Mall next month but are currently temporarily located at IRIS.

Kuwait ranked 31st in the world in computer ownership. Doesn’t sound that bad until you realize Estonia, Slovania Slovenia, Slovakia, Czech Republic and Latvia scored higher than Kuwait. Not that I have anything against those countries mind you! [Link]

Update: I just purchased the ebook version of The Pocket World in Figures 2008 and here are some interesting facts I found related to Kuwait…

– Kuwait ranks second in lowest death rate per capita. UAE is first, Qatar is third.

– Kuwait ranks 20th in most deaths in road accidents, I used to think we were first?

– Kuwait ranks 2nd in most injured in road accidents, Qatar is first with more than 3 times the amount!

– Kuwait ranks 3rd in death by diabetes, UAE is first, Saudi is second.

– Kuwait ranks 2nd in largest amount of carbon dioxide emissions per person. UAE is first.

– Kuwait ranks 4th in “Proportion of a country’s population residing in a single city”. That city being Kuwait City which doesn’t make sense since not many people live in Kuwait City.

– Kuwait ranks 3rd in Least economically dependent on agriculture. I don’t know if thats a good thing, I doubt.

– Kuwait ranks 1st in Largest consumption of energy per head (oil). UAE is second, the US is 5th.

– Finally, Kuwait ranks 5th in most crowded road networks. Qatar is first, Hong Kong second and Germany third.

It seems Starbucks is having a Toys Drive where all toys collected will be donated to the orphans at Dar Al-Atfal. A reader spotted the sign above with a basket full of toys at the Starbucks branch located at The Palms so I don’t know if this is something that’s exclusively being done at that branch or if all branches are participating in this. If someone can clear that up it would be great and also does anyone know when will this toys drive end?

Thanks Someday Red!

Update: The following email was sent to me from Alshaya containing more details on the Toys Drive…

Thank you for your interest in Starbucks “Holiday Joy” toys drive. I am happy to share with you an overview of the toys drive, the first time to launch in the Starbucks Middle East Markets, in selected stores in Kuwait, UAE & Lebanon.

Participating stores in Kuwait are:
Al Kout, Palms, Mishref, Jabriya, Behbehani, Keifan Sporting Club, Flagship, Hilton Hawally Plaza, Souk Sharq, Shamiyeh and Free Zone.

Duration of the drive is from 1st week of Dec. till 1st week of January.

The idea originated mainly as we were looking for ways to give back to our communities, especially during the holiday season, so we are inviting our customers to join our partners (employees) in sharing the joy of the season, by donating a toy to an orphan.

Warm regards,

This looks like an interesting place to try out. Amaya Seafood as you can guess from the name is a seafood restaurant which is located at the Mishref Coop. I haven’t been there but judging by the picture above it looks like a cozy place. Amaya also seems very affordable, KD1.900 for sweet & sour prawns or prawn curry is actually really cheap. They have a website with more details on what they offer including the prices. I am going to try and pass by this weekend. [Link]

Thanks miss ghesquiere!

A cool toy by Playmobil, the user reviews on Amazon are hilarious:

From the Manufacturer
The woman traveler stops by the security checkpoint. After placing her luggage on the screening machine, the airport employee checks her baggage. The traveler hands her spare change and watch to the security guard and proceeds through the metal detector. With no time to spare, she picks up her luggage and hurries to board her flight!

Here is an example of a user review:

From M. MCKNIGHT
This toy would be a lot more realistic with about 350 people standing in line for an average of an hour. It still makes a nice set with the interrogation room.

Check out what other people are saying about it [Here]

I posted just over a week ago about my kitchen from IKEA. Originally when I posted they were over installing my kitchen and it was a positive post but as the workers progressed with the installation things took a turn. In short they installed my kitchen bar crooked and had to fill the space on the side with a ton of silicon, also 2 panels were installed crooked and 2 major parts still weren’t in stock.

Surprisingly I got a call a few days later from a manager asking if everything was ok and if I had any feedback. He was a very nice guy and when I told him about my problems he offered to come by and check the kitchen which he did. He told us he would solve our problems and make sure the remaining items (two horizontal wall cabinets and two pull out corners) would be released from customs as soon as possible.

Today IKEA was back in my kitchen finishing up the install and fixing the problems from last time. When they were done I went to check the kitchen to make sure everything was fine. I opened the horizontal wall cabinet upward and the door came crashing down. I was like isn’t this supposed to stay open like the ones at display in IKEA? The employee was like this is the new model it doesn’t stay open. So every time I need to get something big from the cabinet I need to hold the door open with the top of my head while I use my two hands to take out an item? I didn’t get a response. I then opened the corner cabinets and to my surprise they had installed a rotating shelving system instead of the pullout I had chosen at IKEA. When I asked why they told me the pullout doesn’t fit in my cabinet, it needed a bigger cabinet. Fine but why didn’t the salesman tell me that instead of misleading me to believe I was getting the pullout? Not only that but we were really excited about the pullout shelves and we could have gone with larger corners if we had known.

A quick call to IKEA resulted in no help. There isn’t anything we can do about the corners, we were screwed by the salesman and to solve my wall cabinet problem they would replace our cabinet hinges with the older model off a display cabinet from the showroom.

The employees left and I was confused. The wall cabinet hinges are huge (pictured above) which doesn’t make sense if their only job is to open and close the doors. I also figured IKEA wasn’t stupid enough to make cabinet doors that don’t stay open so I took out the cabinet instruction manual and tried to see if I could fix it myself and guess what? I did! Turns out there was a screw they needed to rotate to the right like 30 times and that adjusted the door to stay open. The doors work perfectly now and stay open when lifted which means IKEA needs to start hiring people that read the goddamn manuals! My kitchen corners are screwed up but at least I don’t have to bang my head every time I take out a plate from the cabinet.

In conclusion, IKEA kitchens are affordable but you get what you pay for and that’s terrible finishing and sneaky salesman. If you do decide to get a kitchen from them make sure you not only go through the list of items one by one but also have the salesman show you each item one by one. A friend of mine had warned me about this based on his experience with IKEA and so I was careful but it seems not careful enough.

Here is more proof that Arby’s is going to open up at The Avenues. If you check the map at The Avenues various entrances, Arby’s is listed under restaurants. Don’t know how I missed that! Its going to open in front of Starbucks at the food court.