It’s been over 2 years since I last updated the 248AM App and it desperately needed a makeover. I personally felt the App was all over the place trying to be too many things at the same time so with this update I’ve simplified it down to the bare minimum. I’ve removed everything not related to the blog and have left only four main tabs which are the current sections of the blog: 248AM, 248PM, Newsworthy and Events. I’ve also updated it to support Retina displays (finally) and I also managed to shrink the App size down to just 1.8MB.
So if you already have the 248AM App installed on your phone there should be an update waiting for you in the App Store. If you’ve never installed the App before you can do so by searching for 248AM in the App Store or by clicking [Here]
Interesting tidbit, the charactar Ashur who they call “the Syrian” on the TV series Spartacus (and who is probably the most hated character on the show) used to live in Kuwait back in the 80s. His real name is Emad Tarabay. I tried to get more details like what school he attended but he wouldn’t share any details with me.
Update: I am aware Emad is originally Lebanese, but on the show they call him “the Syrian”.
Avenues Phase I and II combined have around 400 stores in total. When Avenues Phase III is completed before the end of the year it will double the total stores to around 800. So Phase III is going to be another Avenues stuck to the current Avenues which will make it pretty huge.
A few weeks back I was having a quick bite at Hashtag when Dari the owner sat down with me and started telling me about PlusOne. It’s a fairly simple concept, anytime you order a burger just tell the cashier to PlusOne and they will add one Dinar to your total bill. The one Dinar you add will be matched by the restaurant and then a meal similar to the one you just had would be given to a low income worker. He invited me to pass by again when they were preparing the meals so I could volunteer and see how the system works for myself. So I did.
It was a pretty dusty day when I met up with Dari at Hashtag but that wasn’t changing their plans. I arrived just as they were starting to make the burgers. There were three other volunteers including the super nice Ms. Bibi Al-Ayoub from “Draw a Smile,” a charitable campaign that inspired PlusOne. Once all the burgers were ready we headed out to a location where street workers were coming together before being taken by a large bus to their compounds. As we arrived to the location so did a car from Chocolateness who were also participating that day.
The workers right away got in a very organized line as the volunteers started handing out the food one at a time along with a drink. Sadly that day there were more workers than there was food to give but hopefully as more people are aware about PlusOne that won’t happen again.
Right now the following restaurants are participating in this year long campaign:
If you’re interested in helping, just PlusOne to your bill when ordering from one of the restaurants above. If you’re a restaurant owner and want to participate, you can do so by clicking [Here]
As I mentioned last week I’m starting triathlon training so I could hopefully participate in the upcoming triathlon this October. I had my first day with The 3 Club and I don’t think I did that bad. My biggest issue actually is the fact I barely had time to do anything with three different sessions squeezed into my evening. At 5PM I had cycling which went easier than I expected. This was stationary and indoor which is why it probably felt easier than my usual rides to the gym in blazing heat riding against strong headwind. Class was done by 6 and I barely had enough time to rest before I hit Core Fitness for an hour of intense weight lifting at 7PM. I finished from Core, headed home, barely had time to feed my dog, grab a bite and update my post on Fehaid Aldeehani before I had to leave again for my 10PM running session with The 3 Club. Exhausting to say the least.
The running session was held at a track in Keifan and while we were there I spotted a lot of young guys and girls doing a variety of track and field training. I spotted everything from discus throwing and high jumping to hurdles and tripple jumping. It felt great running around the track while a bunch of other track and field sports were taking place at the same time. It actually energized me and made me feel like an athlete for the hour I was there (an old one with a bad knee but still). So overall it wasn’t a bad first day at all.
After incorrectly reporting a few days back that Fehaid Aldeehani won a bronze medal at the double trap event, Fehaid ended up winning a bronze a few moments ago at the mens trap event (not double). As of right now I found only one article that mentions this since this just happened. Congrats again Fehaid! [Link]
Update: Here are the final results of the mens trap event [Link]
Kuwait has only won one other Olympic medal before and it was a bronze at the 2000 Olympics that was held in Sydney, Australia. It was Fehaid who had won the medal back then in the double trap event. The biggest accomplishment would have to be the fact that Fehaid was able to win the bronze medal this year without any support from Kuwait. According to a post on 965 Malls today, Al Qabas had an article on Fehaid in which he complains about the lack of support as well as the disastrous state of sports in Kuwait. Kuwait Airways for example didn’t even offer him extra baggage allowance when he was heading to London for the games so he had to pack light since his rifles alone weighed 17KG.
Hopefully with the bronze medal this year and the online exposure some of the athletes have been getting like Faye Sultan, the local sports authorities will realize that they need to support these talented athletes.
Update2: I’ve updated this post with pictures of Fehaid which I found [Here]
When I needed some grappling gloves I ended up ordering a pair online since I couldn’t find any locally. Go Sport used to carry the Venom brand but they ran out of stock ages ago and never restocked. Then Nat needed a pair of combat gloves and a friend of hers recommended Sportsline in Salmiya. I hadn’t heard of the place before but turns out they have a huge collection of training gloves.
They mostly carry gloves from the Everlast brand including grappling, training and boxing gloves as well as face protection and hand wraps. One wall in their store is just filled with different kinds of Everlast gear all organized very nicely.
They also have a good collection of boxing bags and gear from the Samurai brand.
Price wise I found them more expensive than Amazon even when including shipping. But if don’t want the hassle of ordering online then this is a good alternative. They’re located in the basement of Al Wataniya Complex in Salmiya. That’s the same building that has the bank CBK, right across the street from NBK and Eureka.
Fehaid Aldeehani won a bronze medal earlier today at the Olympic double trap event. The only other Olympic medal Kuwait ever won was back at the 2000 Sydney Olympics and it was again because of Fehaid. Congrats! [Link]
Update: Turns out Fehaid came in 4th NOT 3rd. I misread the Yahoo article. 4th doesn’t win him any medals but it’s still a very respectable ranking that puts Kuwait on the map.
I’m out of the country right now so didn’t experience it but looks like an earthquake with a magnitude of 4.2 hit Kuwait around 7:30 in the morning. [Source]
Social Slave put together a short list of restaurants serving Iftar buffets along with their prices. The list needs more hotels but it’s a good start. [Link]
Last month Sidekick Academy competed at the 2012 US Open World Championships in Orlando and they ended up leaving with a ton of trophies. Last year when they competed they ended up winning 17 trophies and medals but this year they ended up leaving with a total of 28 which was more than any other team at the tournament! Here are the results:
Day 1: Standup “Tae Kwon Do”
FORMS DIVISIONS Shaikha Alshuaib 1st Place Creative Teen Forms
Omar Alosaimi 1st Place Int Creative Forms
Hussain Gholoom 1st Place Int Extreme Forms
Ahmad Hayati 1st Place Adv Creative Forms
Shaikha Alshuaib 2nd Place Extreme Teen Forms
Hussain Gholoom 2nd Place Int Creative Forms
Ahmad Hayati 5th Place Adv Traditional Forms
SPARRING DIVISIONS Nasser Alqattan 1st Place Adv Cont Sparring Heavy Weight
Ahmad Hayati 1st Place Adv Clash Sparring Heavy Weight
Shaikha Alshuaib 1st Place Teen Clash Sparring
Shaikha Alshuaib 1st Place Teen Cont Sparring
Omar Alosaimi 2nd Place Int Cont Sparring Middle Weight
Abdulrahman Aljasser 2nd Place Int Cont Sparring Heavy Weight
Mosab Alali 2nd Place Int Point Sparring Middle Weight
Abdulhadi Aladwani 3rd Place Int Cont Sparring Middle Weight
Ahmad Hayati 3rd Place Adv Cont Sparring Heavy Weight
Shaikha Alshuaib 3rd Place Teen Point Sparring
Hussain Gholoom 4th Place Int Cont Sparring Middle Weight
Ahmad Hayati 5th Place Adv Point Sparring Heavy Weight
Nasser Alqattan 5th Place Adv Point Sparring Heavy Weight
Day 2: “Jiu-Jitsu”
NO-GI Division “No- Uniform”
Abdullatif Aladwani GOLD Blue Belt Bantam Weight
Abdulrahman Aljasser SILVER Blue Belt Cruiser Weight
Abdullah Alshamri SILVER Blue Belt Master Bantam Weight
Ahmad Hayati BRONZE Blue Belt Middle Weight
GI Division “Uniform”
Nasser Alqattan GOLD Blue Belt Middle Weight
Abdullah Alshamri SILVER Blue Belt Master Bantam Weight
Ahmad Hayati BRONZE Blue Belt Middle Weight
Abdulhadi Aladwani BRONZE Blue Belt Bantam Weight
I seriously love these guys, if you want to know more about Sidekick Academy you can check out their website [Here] and their Facebook page [Here]
I just found out from Jacqui that OSN have released an iPad App for their OSN Play service. OSN Play allows you to stream movies and tv shows on the go and now with the iPad App you’ll be able to stream the content onto your iPad wherever you are in the Middle East. It’s perfect timing with the olympics currently taking place.
But I can’t get the App to work for some odd reason. I logged into my account but whenever I try to stream anything I get the error “You’ve now registered the maximum number of devices for this account.” I have no idea what that means but I’m hoping its a technical issue from their side that will be worked out soon.
If you’re an OSN subscriber you automatically have free access to OSN Play and you can download the App from [Here]
Update: Turns out every time you log in to OSN Play from a different computer it adds that computer as a device. You can have maximum two devices which I already have which is why I couldn’t get OSN Play to work on the iPad. There is a workaround without having to remove an already added device. OSN Play allows you to have other members in the house create sub accounts so I just created a second account for myself and this should solve the problem.
Last month I posted about the Flying Start Triathlon that is going to take place this coming October here in Kuwait and it got me thinking if it would be possible for me to compete. I think I’m in great shape since I’ve been working my ass off at Core Fitness for the past two years and I’ve been eating really healthy so I think I’m ready.
There are two distances in the Flying Start Triathlon and I’m hoping to complete The Sprint which is the shorter of the two. The running and biking seem very doable it’s the swimming I’m more concerned about. Currently I can swim across an Olympic sized pool horizontally once before collapsing in exhaustion and that’s only like 25 meters or something which is not even close to the 750m distance required in the race. That’s why I passed by The 3 Club who are the organizers of the event and asked them if they did any training. Turns out they did and starting next week I’ll be training with them twice a day every day.
There will be two sessions daily which rotate between biking, running and swimming exercises. I’m pretty nervous about this since I have no idea how I’m going to perform. Once I actually start the classes I’ll post my impressions here. So far my schedule for Ramadan looks like this:
5PM – Training with The 3 Club
7PM – Training at Core Fitness
10PM – Training with The 3 Club
Best part about this though is I’ll be eating WHATEVER I want since I’ll be burning so much calories. Fat Mark is going to make a comeback.. at least in a mental state.
According to a post on Mental Floss, Kuwait is among 21 countries with only one Olympic medal. I don’t think that is bad considering how tiny Kuwait is and how there is very little interest in track and field or most other Olympic sports. [Link]
Kuwait’s only Olympic medal was won by Fehaid Aldeehani in the men’s double trap shooting event at the 2000 Summer Olympics in Sydney. Fehaid is competing again in this years London Olympics and was the flag bearer during the opening ceromony (pictured above).
I passed by Bang & Olufsen recently to check out their computer speakers and although I didn’t end up getting anything I always love checking out their stuff.
They had the Beolit 12 (pictured above) which is their Airplay compatible portable music system. Design wise it looks very sharp and if I didn’t already have the BeoPlay A8 I would have considered getting this. Price wise it’s selling for KD250 which is very reasonable for a B&O product.
When it came to computer speakers they had two models available. The first I saw were the BeoLab 4 (pictured above). These speakers look very cool but at KD325 they were a lot more than what I wanted to pay.
They also had the BeoLab 3 on display which looked even cooler than the BeoLab 4 but these also cost nearly four times more coming in at over a thousand Dinars so I didn’t even consider them.
If you’re interested in passing by their store they located in Symphony Mall next to Missoni Hotel in Salmiya. They haven’t launched the new store officially but the shop is open if you want to pass by.
