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Deera Chat found an article online which talks about how Kuwait last month purchased nearly 6 million anti-nuclear radiation drugs. The question here is WHY? What exactly are they expecting to happen in the near future??? Here is the link to the news article. [Link] Here is a link to NukePills.com, the website which sells these pills. [Link]

What do these Potassium Iodide pills do? According to NukePills.com:

Potassium Iodide (KI) is used by health officials worldwide to prevent thyroid cancer in people who are exposed to radioactive iodides caused by nuclear reactor accidents and nuclear bombs. It protects against radioactive iodine by preventing its absorption by the thyroid gland located in the neck…

We don’t have any nuclear reactors in the region (I don’t think we do) so that only leaves a nuclear bomb, who would want to nuke us?

I always knew hotel security was just a gimmick of a sort to let guests feel more secure but I didn’t think they sucked this much. The picture above is of a large container I had in my trunk last night when I drove through a hotel check point at a major hotel here in Kuwait. The hotel had the large metal door that comes out of the ground and security guards with the mirror on a pole checking underneath the car while another one checks the trunk. When I was asked to open my trunk I was like shit now they are going to tell me to remove the case from the back of my car to open it and I really wasn’t in the mood. Surprisingly even though they checked the trunk and saw the container they didn’t even ask me what was in it (it was camera equipment if you want to know). Me and my friend were dumbfounded! Why do they even bother to look in the trunk? How do they expect a bomb to look like, a few red dynamite sticks with a golden colored clock like in the cartoons?

Flooded McDonald’s is a film work by Superflex in which a convincing life-size replica of the interior of a McDonald’s burger bar, without any customers or staff present, gradually floods with water. Furniture is lifted up by the water, trays of food and drinks start to float around, electrics short circuit and eventually the space becomes completely submerged.

Yeah I know it sounds like a strange idea for a movie but thats what makes it interesting. Here is the link to the official site of the movie. [Link]

As I mentioned in my previous post I flew with Wataniya Airways to Dubai tonight. It was a very comfy flight since I flew first class. They are my clients so if I say they’re amazing many of you won’t believe me so I will just talk about some of their features.

When you get to the Wataniya Airways airport (Sheikh Saad Terminal) you will be greeted by a Wataniya Airways employee that will check you in while you wait in the first class lounge. When its time for you to board a Wataniya Airways employee will come to you and take you through emigration and then a private car will drive you to the plane. It feels like you’re traveling on a private jet basically.

The seats of the plane are very comfy, look great and are designed by Recaro who are known for their racing seats. First class have a very cool inflight entertainment system which consists of a huge 10.6inch touchscreen. Other than the on demand video the coolest feature has to be the fact you can plug in your iPod or any video device and watch your movies on the planes 10.6inch screen since it has RCA inputs which are located on the side of the seat. A power socket is also available. Finally you can currently send SMS’s and use your phones Internet connection while on the plane which was the first time I experience that. This is a feature available to everyone on board not just first class. Also by next month you should be able to make voice calls with your phone from the plane.

When you land in Dubai you are then guided through the airport by Marhaba employees. They are hired by Wataniya Airways for all their passengers not just first class to offer any kind of assistance needed. Overall a pretty great experience, I love their private airport. Because its just for Wataniya Airways there isn’t any kind of crowd and everything works a lot quicker. Will post pictures of the airport in a few days. If anyone has any questions regarding my experience you can post them in the comments and I will try my best to answer them.

Oh and one more thing. The duty free shop is digital, you flip through the products available for sale on your touch screen and you add whatever product you want into your cart. The flight attendants then bring you your items. I thought that was also pretty cool.

Update: Turns out in flight voice calls WON’T be available next month.

I am at the airport leaving to Dubai. I get back tomorrow morning but the interesting part is I am travelling first class on Wataniya Airways. I already know what to expect on the flight since they are my clients and so I am mostly looking forward to try their on flight features like smsing from my phone while in the air or checking my email with my blackberry. The inflight entertainment system also should be really cool. Will post pics once I get to my hotel room later tonight.

I finally spotted a Banksy work while in London. I should find out where the rest of his stuff is located and go check them out live since I find this more interesting then visiting boring museums. For more details on the above work and better shots check this [Link]

Last year when I traveled to London and Paris I found the hotels to be very expensive. They ate away a large chunk of the vacation money along with the plane tickets. This year with the cheap British Airways tickets there was a good chance the hotel budget would even exceed the cost of the plane tickets so I started searching for a solution. I needed an affordable hotel that had the following:

– Internet Access
– Location close to Oxford Street
– Location close to underground
– Cleanliness
– Security
– Modern looking

I found a ton of cheap hotels in London but none fit all my criteria and majority had gotten negative reviews on TripAdvisor.com. By chance I found out about a new easyHotel branch that had opened up in Paddington late last year and most if not all the reviews online were positive.

easyHotel is a no frills super budget hotel. To keep its prices down the rooms contain only two very essential things.. a bed and a bathroom. Thats it. No closet, side table, shelves, carpet, phone, mini bar, or anything else non essential. There is a flat screen TV but you have to pay for the remote control and thats the only amenity. According to the reviews online the hotel was very clean and in an excellent location so I decided to give it a shot. Four nights cost me only KD79 which is around KD20 a night. Compared to KD60 a night I paid for a normal room in an average 3 star hotel last year, this was a steal.

I took the regular subway from the airport to the hotel. It was around a 45 minute journey. I had an Oyster card which I recharged to use for a whole week (zone 1 & 2) so I paid only 1.5 pounds to take me from Heathrow to Paddington station which is a 2 minute walk from the hotel. If you don’t have an Oyster card the cost is around 4 pounds for a ticket.

When I arrived to the hotel I was given a choice of either a room on the 3rd floor or one in the basement. Since I wanted a bit of sun light I opted for the 3rd floor room. This meant I had to carry two bags (mine and Nat’s) up 3 flights of stairs since the hotel doesn’t have a lift. The bags were light on arrival so that wasn’t a problem but after all the shopping the bags more than doubled in weight so carrying them back down was exhausting and I nearly busted my knee. Once we got to the room I was actually impressed. Yes, the room is very tiny but it was spotless and bright. There was barely enough room to fit two bags side by side on the floor at the foot of the bed but even without any bags two people can’t move around the room very freely.

I liked the room and I really liked the hotel. I don’t think I can stay in the room for more than five days and with all the shopping we practically filled up all the floor space with bags but it was actually fun. We would get to the room late, watch a bit of TV, sleep, wake up early, leave the room and not come back until it was very late again. So really the room was serving its purpose. They had a special offer and gave us the TV remote control for free, there was also cheap wifi at 20pounds for a weeks use, AC/Heating was available surprisingly and best of all the hotel is a 2 minute walk from Paddington station and around 6 buses from Oxford Street stop right in front of the hotel. The hotel staff were also very friendly and helpful. Last day we were planning to take the Heathrow Express to the airport (16 pounds for a one way ticket) when the hotel employee advised us to take the Heathrow Connect (approx 6 pounds for a one way ticket). Turns out the Heathrow Connect is around 15 minutes slower but less than half the price so even more savings!

The final score I would give the hotel is a 4 out of 5. Its a very very excellent value hotel, just be prepared not to expect much from it in terms of size and amenities. I highly recommend it and will definitely be staying there again myself.

Everything is on sale but even without the sale London is cheap. Last year when I was here 1KD made I think like 1.6 pounds but now it’s like 2.6 although I’ve noticed when I use my credit card the exchange rate is like 2.3 pounds. Our hotel room is tiny as expected but will post pics and more once I get back to Kuwait since I am posting from my iPhone now. There was barely enough room for our luggage but with all our shopping bags things have gotten more… interesting. I think two more bags and we won’t be able to get into our room but I am loving it.

For some reason the wifi on my laptop isn’t working. I turned it off while on the plane to save battery and now it won’t turn on. This means I don’t have Internet which sucks. I am posting this from my iPhone at the moment, not very practical.

AMU, a blogger from Kuwait found out about easyHotel from my blog post awhile back and decided to give it a shot. He just got to London and this is what he had to say:

..the hotel is beyond my expectation for its price. It extremely clean and 2 minutes walk from the station. I have a double bed single room with a window. Nice and friendly staff and they have all the information available if you would like to do some site seeing.

I wonder if there is anyone else also from Kuwait going to be staying there with us. I get to London on Tuesday and will also be staying at the same easyHotel in Paddingtone so I will be posting my own review too. For now you can check out his review [Here]

Just a blast from the past. I used to play this game back in 1991 in my computer class when I was still in Kuwait English School. In the video above the game actually starts at the 2 minute mark. [YouTube]

I took my Tamiya Lunchbox out for the first time today. After all the hard work with the paint job I ironically managed to scratch it while it was still in the trunk of my Wrangler. If that wasn’t bad enough, 10 minutes into my run the Lunchbox lost died on me. It was performing really well, taking some great jumps while my dog was busy trying to catch it when suddenly it just stopped moving. When I got closer I realized the motor was working but the wheels weren’t spinning which meant something was wrong with the gears.

I got home, took apart the car again and turned out it was a problem with one of the gears, the pinion gear which is the one thats connected to the motor was loose. I tightened it back again and used some blue thread locker and its now working perfectly again. I think I am going to spend most of my time breaking my cars and then try and fix them… I love that.

If anyone is wondering where the place is in the pictures above its the huge park off the first ring road.

It seems a fire fighter shot a video of the Esprit store in the Avenues after the fire and the video is now floating around the Internet. Someone already uploaded the short clip to YouTube and you can watch the video above. I still haven’t heard anything about what started the fire though. [YouTube]

Thanks Moey!

Although I got my Tamiya Lunch Box truck early in the month I had a faster motor and metal ball bearings I still hadn’t received from eBay so I couldn’t start the build until today. Aramex dropped off my parts in the morning and once I got home I started work on the Lunch Box right away. Five hours later it was done. I only managed to drive the truck for a few minutes under my building in the dark but it was great. Tomorrow I need to pick up a white spray can so I could stencil in some type on the side. Will post more pictures once I am done, I love how its turned out so far.

Interesting fact. The reason the US Airways plane stayed afloat in the river for so long is partly because the Airbus A320 is equipped with a “ditch switch”. The ditch switch is a button in the cockpit that when activated, seals all ports and openings on the lower fuselage, so that once the aircraft enters the water, it doesn’t take on water as quickly as it would normally (via vents, drains, etc). I think that’s pretty cool. [Link]

Picture from [Here]