Search: “mis”

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.

I missed out on GulfRun this year but from what I’ve heard it was even more fun than last years. Lots of action and I am just waiting for everyone to start posting their pictures. Tonight at 11PM Watan TV is actually going to broadcast GulfRun 4 so if you want to check it out just tune in.

Update: Pictures are [Here]!

Update2: Its 11:12PM and it still hasn’t started, there is another show on so I guess the timing I got was wrong.

Food wise there were only two things that stuck out for me in Cairo. The first is the burger at the Four Seasons, the second is the spicy chicken fillet at McDonalds.

When I first had the burger at the Four Seasons tea lounge in Cairo (opposite the Zoo), it came with blue cheese which I thought overpowered the burger. So when I went to have it the second time I asked them to replace the blue cheese with cheddar and it made a world of difference. The burger turned out to be great and if I was to rate it I would probably give it anywhere between 3.5 and a 4 out of a 5. Highly recommended. (Burger picture above)

The spicy chicken fillet at McDonalds was another surprise. I don’t know why we don’t have it here in Kuwait but we should since we’re missing out on a great chicken sandwich. Unlike the McChicken, the spicy chicken fillet kinda looks like Burger King’s Chicken Royale but tastes like KFC’s chicken Zinger. So basically its the best of both worlds and honestly everything else I had in McDonalds in Cairo tasted terrible so the chicken fillet is the only way to go.

And that’s about it, there wasn’t anything else I had in Cairo that stuck out.

I purchased an oven from Abyat a few days ago. Yeah it sounds strange buying an oven from Abyat and not a place like Alghanim or Eureka but I was looking for a built in oven for my new kitchen and I found a really great looking Gorenje oven from the Ora-Ito collection and for a really competitive price at Abyat.

So yesterday they call me up to deliver the oven. I tell the driver how to get to my place and within 30 minutes he comes over with the new oven and leaves.

So today Abyat call me up to deliver the oven. I tell the driver how to get to my place and within 30 minutes he comes over with the new oven and leaves.

I didn’t mistype, it was déjà vu. It seems they made a mistake and they delivered my oven twice. I now have two beautiful ovens in my kitchen but not for long. I called them up and told them about the mistake they made. They were surprised but very apologetic and will be coming by tomorrow to pick up the extra oven. I like Abyat, its no Home Depot but its close enough.

Legendary Kuwaiti actor Ali Al-Mufidi passed away today morning in Jordan. He originally used to work in television before he moved to acting and quickly rose to fame after staring in the popular show Darb Al Zalag.

Here is a link to YouTube where you can over 200 clips of him. [Ali Al-Mufdi on YouTube]

He will be missed.

Back when I was taking pictures for my Miskan project I passed by the Kuwait Stock Exchange and ended up taking some cool pictures. Since the stock market is a popular topic at the moment I figured I would upload all the pictures I had taken that day so people can download them and use them. I’ve gotten a lot of emails from magazines and newspapers asking for the hi-res pictures so here they are all compressed into one zip file.

Download stock market pictures (4.8MB)

In return, please credit the blog if you end up using any of the photos.

Alain Robert (Spiderman) who is famous for climbing famous skyscrapers around the world was in Beirut last week. He climbed the famous Phoenicia Hotel but the whole thing was too commercialized. He had permission from the hotel and the whole event was staged as a publicity stunt for Gillette. Not as interesting as his other climbs, very disappointing. [YouTube]

Just found this interesting photoset on Flickr which contains photographs that were taken in Kuwait around 1950. All the pictures were scanned by David C. Foster from the photograph album of Francis Hadden Andrus. The picture above is of Yousef Ahmad Al-Ghanim on the left and Tom G. Mohney on the right. [Pictures]

Update: In case you missed it the shot below was featured on SomeContrast.com awhile back. Its a picture that dates back to 1956 and is of the first Porsche in Kuwait. The owner Murad Behbahani is sitting behind the wheel, and his brothers Mohammed and Redha Behbahani next to him. In a way it’s kinda similar to the shot above. [Link]

Miss Ghesquiere sent me a link to this video 5 days ago of a teacher in one of the local schools singing the Bird song but I didn’t find it funny until I watched the latest Family Guy episode below. Pretty cool teacher.

My friend had her Yahoo account taken over (her mistake) and now all her friends are getting the following email from her:

hello,
I hope this message meets you in best of health, Pardon my mistakes because I am in a hurry writing this, I had traveled to Nigeria for official purposes, Unfortunately for me all my money was stolen at the hotel where I lodged, I am so confused right now,I do not know what to do or where to go,I did not bring my phone here,I have access to only emails, please can you send me $3000

I find that really funny but on a serious note has anyone ever had their Yahoo email taken over and then had the password reset again by Yahoo?

Aramex just delivered my D90 camera. I ordered it once it got released late last month as a replacement for my Nikon D70 which had started showing its age. I originally purchased the D70 for my Miskan project back in November 2004 to replace my aging Sony F717. I still love my D70 and it still performs really great but its developed a problem that’s common to the D70’s where it has trouble reading the memory card. Although I hate zoom lenses I ordered the D90 with the kit lens. Since I will be trying to shoot short movies I figured a zoom lens would definitely come in handy. I still have my eyes on the Nikon 20mm f2.8 lens and the Nikon 85mm 1.8f lens. Maybe for Christmas…

Note: The Nikon D90 w/ kit lens is available on Amazon for KD350 [Link]

I just found out about this and think its amazing news for Villa Moda and all the other local start ups. It just goes to show that great local ideas are great ideas anywhere in the world.

Majed al-Sabah, the Kuwaiti lifestyle retailer known in the fashion world as the “Sheik of Chic,” has teamed up with the government of Dubai to create a global brand development strategy for his Villa Moda enterprise.

The Dubai International Finance Center, or DIFC, was to announce Monday that it had taken a majority investment in the multibrand high fashion retailer, where Sabah will remain as chairman and creative director. The exact amount of the investment was not disclosed.

I think Dubai is a perfect partner for Villa Moda but its depressing because Villa Moda is a Kuwaiti based idea and operation and it would have meant more to have Kuwait finance Villa Moda. But I guess its not only about the money, Dubai have a vision, Kuwait’s vision is… Dubai? [Link]

Thanks Mish!