Search: “sti”

I passed by the MV Agusta dealer today for the first time. My friend is looking to buy a naked bike and he wanted to check out the MV Agusta Brutale. The dealership is pretty cool and like TriStar very friendly and passionate about bikes. They have a limited edition Brutale, number 222 out of 300 called the Brutale America. They also had a limited edition F4-1000 Senna on display, again limited to just 300 pieces worldwide. The coolest bike there though was the pearl white and black F4 R312. The 312 is the max speed the bike can hit and it just looks amazing and its not to expensive either at around KD7,600. The Brutale 750s (not the limited edition one) costs around KD4,950 before discount. Pretty cool prices for such beautiful bikes.

I think I spent around 2 hours there with my friend, even Marzouq ended up joining near the end and I think he will end up posting a bunch of pictures since he had his camera with him. The picture above is of the pearl white and black F4 R312 which I took off the MV Agusta website.

Here is a link to the local dealers website. [Link]

Here is also a video of an MV Agusta owner in Kuwait trying to reach the max speed of his bike but only managed to hit 295KM. He had a tank mounted camera which is pretty cool.

[YouTube]

Melanie Phillips, a British neoconservative claims the following:

WMDs really were found in Iraq after the invasion, they were located in vast underground bunkers which contained “nuclear, chemical and biological materials”, but the U.S., through negligence, failed to secure those sites and, as a result, the WMDs were stolen by The Terrorists and/or Syrian agents, who now have them and are actively plotting (along with China, Russia and North Korea) to use them against the West, but —

because the Bush administration is so embarrassed by their failure to prevent the theft of all these dastardly weapons, and because Democrats are embarrassed by this discovery because it proves that Saddam really did have WMDs all along, they have all jointly created a vast conspiracy where they conceal the discovery of WMDs in order to cover up for their negligence.

The thing is this other guy called Dave Gaubatz, a civilian agent who worked for The U.S. Air Force’s Office of Special Investigations confirms her report. It sounds like an episode of 24 but if it is true and the WMDs are in the hand of terrorists then we better hope there is a real life Jack Bauer somewhere. You can read the full article on Salon. [Link]

via digg

Its been a long time since I last posted about Geo (our dog). Geo is doing ok, he is a year and a half old but still thinks he is a 4 month old puppy who wants to play the whole time none stop. On Friday afternoons we are taking him to this desert like area so he could run around and stretch his legs. If I had a garden I would have definitely gotten another puppy, a mini Geo that way he would have someone to play with the whole time. He is so dopey.

Delta Farce looks like its going to be the funniest movie of the year. Actually second funniest, the funniest is still Black Sheep. [Trailer]

As some of you already know, I am currently driving a Toyota Corolla rental car until my cars repairs get completed. I am extremely shocked and surprised by the Corolla. I was in no way expecting it to be like this. The car is in a league of its own, its right on top of my list as the worst car I have ever driven!

First of all to be honest I didn’t know they still made cars this slow. The acceleration from 0 to 100 in the Corolla takes like 30 minutes, its unbearably slow. It also feels like an electric car because the engine it so tiny and weak it makes practically no sound. Lets not even talk about the max speed of the car which I am assuming I would require a 500km long traffic free drag strip to be able to hit.

Another big problem with the car is that no other car respects it. In the past three days I have been cut off more times then the past 6 years combined! People just don’t care if I am occupying a lane or not its as if the Corolla is just invisible, and it is! If you are planning on tailing someone this is the car to be in, it has no personality at all and such a generic look that no way will you be spotted!

Fuel consumption is good, KD1 fills up half the tank and that has lasted me like 3 days now but who cares about fuel consumption when you have an oil refinery in your back yard. The cars ergonomics are also terrible, I am 186cm tall and yet have to stretch really far out all the way just so I can increase or decrease the volume on the radio. I don’t think I can even reach the right side of the radio without unbuckling my seatbelt and moving into the passenger seat!

Yes its a Toyota and I am sure a lot of you are going to defend the Corolla by saying its a very reliable car and its cheap but thats no excuse, there are a lot of other cars similarly priced with more power and better looks (Honda Civic, Ford Focus, Mazda3). Renting the car is cheap at KD6 a day so thats why I am stuck with it but I would never ever buy this car or recommend it to anyone. No offense to anyone who owns this car already, I am guessing you bought it because of reliability and high resale value, two factors that don’t interest me.

Everyone is blasting this song in the office. [MP3 3.1MB]

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Someone posted a link to a website the other day when I was looking to rent a car and I thought it was spam. Why? Because the comment said I could rent a Hummer for KD10 and then sent me to a website which looked like a second hand car dealership called Gallardo.

Fast forward to today, I am flipping through an Al-Waseet clone when I found an advert for a car rental agency called Gallardo where you can rent an H3 or a Mini convertible for only KD10. Not only that but I could rent a Ferrari F430 or a Lamborghini Gallardo for KD150 a day which is less then half the price of competitors.

So I called them up to see if there were any strings attached and so far it seems there aren’t any. The cars are fully insured and you can rent them for 1 day if you want there is no minimum. Currently they only had a Bentley, Gallardo and 6-series BMW available but the guy said to call back at 7PM because thats when some of the other cars will be back in. It still sounds too good to be true so something must be up. How is it possible to rent an H3 for KD10 a day when a Corolla is for KD7?

Here is a scan of their advert with prices [Link]
Here is a link to their website [Link]

A friend told me about this earlier (Rand) and I wasn’t interested but as it turns out there is an actual video of the robbery which suddenly made it a lot more interesting. Turns out 2 cars drove into Wafi Mall and the occupents got out, robbed a jewellery store and then escaped in the 2 vehicles.

You can watch the video [here]

Thanks LE!

Today morning I returned the Lumina to Europcar. I had found a better deal on another car with another rental agency so I no longer wanted the Lumina. The employee at Europcar was extremely friendly and even though I had rented the car for only 1 day she still gave me the same rate as the weekly one which is KD10 a day.

After that I walked over to Al Sayer rental which was very close by. I had passed by yesterday evening to check out a Toyota Echo he had and I was planning on renting it. The car wasn’t in great condition with hub caps missing and some weird stains on the seat. I figured I could haggle the price down a bit but the guy refused. He wanted KD5.750 per day if I wanted the car for a week but if I brought the car earlier he would charge me KD7 a day. I told him Automax was renting a Corolla for KD6 a day and I was sure it was in better condition. He refused to lower the price and I left the place.

Once I got to work I called Automax and asked for a Corolla. Guy told me if I have the car for less then a week its KD7 a day but if its more then a week its KD6. I asked if they could drop the car off to me and they said it wouldn’t be a problem and it would be at no extra charge.

So now I am driving a 2006 black Corolla. Its not in the best condition either and I have no clue where the car papers are because I couldn’t find them in the car but it’s cheap. I just paid them KD30 deposit and thats it, they didn’t take my Visa card number or anything. I actually don’t think I would have trusted them with my credit card details anyway, the whole thing feels fishy to me. This is why I would rather deal with international franchises but of course those cost more.

I really have to say though renting from Europcar was really great and the service very friendly. If anyone needs to rent a car from them you can call Lisa on +965 6540248. She was very helpful and probably the best person I have ever rented a car from.

Around two weeks ago I took my BMW to European Center (markaz oropee) in Shuwaikh to service my car. I figured I would save a whole bundle of money by not taking it to the dealer plus they would fix it quicker. I dropped my car in the morning, the guy told me the car would be fixed by noon, I told him I would be at work so I would pick it up at 6. At 6:30 I pass by and they were still working on the car. All they had to do was replace brake pads, gas filter, air filter and fan belts, I was really pissed but there wasn’t anything I could do. Anyway I ended up leaving from them at 7:30 and turned out the wipers has suddenly stopped working and I just felt they did a lousy quick ass job. Anyway forward to yesterday, I start the car and I hear this crackling popping sound and the engine revs were jumping. I opened the hood and the sound was coming from the engine so I guessed one of the spark plugs was acting up. So I was like fuck it, I am taking the car to the dealer, I had some other minor problems in the car and I figured I would get them fixed once and for all at BMW.

I woke up early today and drove the car to the BMW dealer. I get there and they were extremely friendly and professional. I sit down and start talking to the guy about my car troubles and he took notes down like a psychiatrist. He then went out checked the car himself and we came back and sat down again. He told me for them to “check” on the problems I have listed he estimates it would cost me KD200. Not to fix the problems, just to check the problems. I told him how about you skip the checking part and just go straight to fixing the problems because I know what they are. He is like to fix a problem they need to check it first. I was like fine, we started going down the list of problems I had given him and I marked off 3 superficial problems and that managed to bring down the estimate to KD100. He then told me they needed 4 to 5 days to check the car and then get back to me on how much it will cost to fix the problems.

I then asked about renting a car from them since I do that when I drop the Wrangler off at the Jeep dealer for the full service. Turns out they do rent cars but they were completely out of my league. The cheapest car they had was for KD40 a day while I usually pay KD7 when I rent from the Jeep dealer.

So in conclusion I think I am going to get raped with the price.. but psychologically I will at least feel that these guys know what they are doing and they will fix things right… I hope.

Looks like the Prada phone is no available in Kuwait, anyone know how much it costs and where its sold? [Link]

Picture by Nibaq

update: Turns out a friend of mine purchased a Prada phone while he was in England for 420 pounds. Other then no Arabic support the biggest issue he has with the phone is that if you save a mobile number with a country code like +965, the phone won’t recognize that person when he calls. The battery life also is terrible lasting at most a day and the wow factor disappears after a week. Another reader commented to this post saying that Villa Moda is currently selling the phone for KD300.

Here are some pictures taken by my friend: [1] [2] [3] [4]

IN PRISON: You spend the majority of your time in a 10X10 cell.
AT WORK: You spend the majority of your time in an 8X8 cubicle.

IN PRISON: You get three meals a day.
AT WORK: You get a break for one meal and you have to pay for it.

IN PRISON: You get time off for good behavior.
AT WORK: You get more work for good behavior.

IN PRISON: The guard locks and unlocks all the doors for you.
AT WORK: You must often carry a security card and open all the doors for yourself.

IN PRISON: You can watch TV and play games.
AT WORK: You could get fired for watching TV and playing games.

IN PRISON: You get your own toilet.
AT WORK: You have to share the toilet with some people who pee on the seat.

IN PRISON: They allow your family and friends to visit.
AT WORK: You aren’t even supposed to speak to your family.

IN PRISON: All expenses are paid by the taxpayers with no work required.
AT WORK: you get to pay all your expenses to go to work, and they deduct taxes from your salary to pay for prisoners.

IN PRISON: You spend most of your life inside bars wanting to get out.
AT WORK: You spend most of your time wanting to get out and go inside bars.

IN PRISON: You must deal with sadistic wardens.
AT WORK: They are called managers.

Taken from Single Grain

This is the strangest, weirdest and funniest thing I have ever seen. I still don’t believe it. There are goats in trees, this is not a hoax!

The tree the goats are in is an evergreen argan tree. It is found mostly only in Morocco. The tree reaches heights of 25-30 feet, and has a knobby, twisted trunk that allows for goat climbers. The goats climb the tree because they like to eat the fruit of the tree, which is similar to an olive.

Check out the pictures on Flickr [Link]
Here is information on them [Link]

Picture above taken from here

Cinemagic is having a weekly screening event called “Short & Sweet”. The events will take place at the Cinemagic Courtyard in Bait Lothan, Salmiya, and will run every Wednesday between 7:00 – 9:00PM. The screenings bring together a collection of short films from all over the world including Australia, Canada, Germany, Italy, Poland, Brazil, Jordan, Lebanon and Kuwait. Each week they will screen a different selection of films of varying genre, nationality, and style.

For its part, Cinemagic Kuwait, is organizing these events as part of its efforts to contribute to the development of an internationally competitive Kuwaiti audio-visual production industry, partly by bringing the filmmakers and audiences together and by increasing the public’s interest in and appreciation for the art of filmmaking.

This week, they will screen “Promises” a 2001 Academy Award-nominated and Emmy-winning documentary film that looks at the Israeli-Palestinian conflict from the perspectives of seven children living in the Palestinian communities in the West Bank and Israeli neighborhoods of Jerusalem.

The film follows the journey of Israeli-American filmmaker B.Z. Goldberg as he meets with seven Palestinian and Israeli children between the ages of nine and thirteen, seeing the Middle East conflict through their eyes. Rather than focus on specific political events, the film gives voice to these children, who, although they live only 20 minutes apart, live in completely separate worlds.

Attendance is always free of charge, but seating is limited, so make sure you arrive early. Snacks and refreshments will be served.

From all the cool strange touristic places in Kuwait like the Zoo, Entertainment City, Ice Skating Rink, Green Island etc.. my favorite is definitely The Scientific Center. Its such a beautiful and relaxing place. I passed by there today, it was only my second (or third) time so the large shark aquariums still mesmerizes me when I see it. I sat on one of the benches watching the sharks and fish swim and awhile later four scuba divers appeared and started cleaning the tank. It was fun to watch and the aquarium is really gigantic. If you haven’t been there yet you need to. The entrance fee is KD3 but its not only for the aquarium, there is another section you pass through first which has like bats, lizards, snakes, crocodiles etc.. When you visit the place you won’t believe you are in Kuwait.

Website: www.tsck.org.kw

update: by request here is a picture of one of the scuba divers in the tank [Picture]