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I took the picture above tonight when I was in Gimayze, an extremely popular street on a Friday and Saturday night since its packed with pubs and restaurants. Tonight it was empty and its for the same reason I posted about earlier which is people are afraid to go out. I’ve never seen anything like this here its strange, usually people in Lebanon go out and party no matter what.

Although I was in Lebanon around 3 weeks ago a lot of things have changed here mostly related to security. It seems people are starting to worry about all the bombings that are taking place and it shows with the extra security precautions.

My hotel for example doesn’t allow cars drive up to the entrance anymore and while entering the hotel I now get scanned with a metal detector. Bliss Street where the American University is located, now has yellow no parking warning on both sides of the street.

Yesterday evening I also passed by the ABC mall in Achrafieh, a place thats usually packed with young people shopping and hanging around at the cafes but yesterday when I passed at 9:15PM half the stores were closed, the other half were closing down and there were barely any people around. Since the bombings are taking place at night, everyone is afraid of the dark.

I am not worried about the bombings but its pretty obvious that this years tourist season in Lebanon has been killed.

My MEA plane was supposed to take off at 11:15AM but after boarding the plane turns out there was going to be a delay. After 2 hours of waiting on the plane with no AC we were taken back to the airport transit area where we are now waiting for the plane to either get fixed or something. It really sucks.

note: on the bright side The 4 Cats are with us on the same flight.

The other day I posted about the horrendous article in Kuwait Times by Mona Al-Fuzai where she talks about how talking to taxi drivers or being friendly with your boss could end up with you getting raped. Well that article has since then been withdrawn from the Kuwait Times website and instead a new article has popped up where Mona tells all her critics that she can write what she pleases and that we all should shut the hell up. K.thekuwaiti has a link to her article plus a nice analysis of her reply. Check it out. [Link]

The Slider Station blog posted a picture of their Chocolate Pudding dessert and now I am craving it. [Link]

I am going down to Lebanon to shoot a commercial on Wednesday Thursday and will be back on the 15th. I will have better internet access this time so I shouldn’t have problems posting while I am down there.

There are four guys who have been uploading a ton of old videos that used to be played on KTV back in the 80s and 90s onto YouTube for us to view. The four guys are (in no particular order):

hummer15al
sporty4ever
NiceQ8i
k0003

I would like to just say thank you to them because they have really been doing an amazing job. If you would like to view the videos they have uploaded just click on their names above.

A commenter posted a link to a Kuwait Times article entitled “What not to do in Kuwait”. K.thekuwaiti replied back to the commenter telling him the article was retarded because every piece of advice ends with a warning that you would be raped if you don’t do this.

I decided to check out the article myself and its true what K.thekuwaiti said. The article is giving the worst impression on Kuwait and a lot of things are really taken to the extreme. Here are some examples from the article:

Avoid starting friendly conversations with taxi drivers. This would give him the impression that you want him to have sex with you and of course, he would ask you if you are married and if your husband is with you. Never admit to be single and alone or even to confess that you are a runaway maid or employee. Many of them would not hesitate to rape you and leave you empty handed and get you pregnant.

So tip #1, don’t talk to taxi drivers or they will rape you.

Avoid accepting gifts or laughing over sexual jokes with your boss unless it is really okay with you and this is what you want .If you came from an environment where you are very open with the opposite gender, then you might think that such jokes are okay but here, it is not. This would give men a hint that you are ready to have sex with him and you could find yourself a rape victim. Besides, accepting someone’s gifts means approval.

So tip #2, don’t be friendly with your boss or he will rape you.

Avoid trying to look sexy by showing the sexiest parts of your body. You may think that you have a sexy body and want the world to see that because it is okay for you, but do not do that here. Lots of men here would think of you as a prostitute and may try to reach or touch you by any means. You may not mean it but this would be hard to convince them because they came from a different culture. The culture here associates clothes with manners. The more you cover yourself, the more respected you will be.

Tip #3, if you are hot people will think you are a prostitute and you will get raped.

Avoid fighting with a Kuwaiti. He simply wouldn’t hesitate to use any wasta to make you the wrong person of the dispute and make you take the blame. You might end up begging to him just to let you go!!!!

Tip #4, don’t fight with a Kuwaiti or he will rape you.

You can check out the full article on the Kuwait Times website but in case they decide to remove it you can grab a copy from [here]. The writer of the article is Muna Al-Fuzai. [Link]

Villa Moda started their summer sale on Saturday and it ends tomorrow (not sure about this). They have 35% off on most brands except for Gucci. Since they haven’t advertised their sale the place isn’t that packed. For more details on the sale you can call them up on 4827004. I tried calling them now to find out if the sale ended tomorrow but its 9AM and they are still closed.

Thanks Dana

This one’s for the ladies. Hot Toys have created a 12inch (height) Michael Scofield collectible figure. For some reason though they made him look cross eyed. [Link]

I didn’t know what I was expecting to see when I clicked the link but it definitely wasn’t this! Reminds me of the torture scene from the movie Ichi the Killer. [Link]

Picture taken from USA Today’s article “First look: ‘Speed Racer’s’ demon on wheels” [Link]

I went to Biella at Marina crescent today for lunch when to my surprise I found it had closed. According to a Krispy Kreme employee, Biella closed down and will open up again in two months time under new management. I didn’t think there were any problems with the place while it was open. I was frequenting it on a weekly basis and its one of my favorite restaurants in Kuwait, their seafood dishes are extremely good and they aren’t stingy with their portions at all. Anyone know what went wrong?

Marzouq was at the Audi R8 launch yesterday and he took some pictures. I heard the car is going to be priced around KD43,000. [Link]

I prefer passing by an actual supermarket to buy my groceries but this could be an attractive solution for people who don’t have the time to physically go and shop.

There are two local online grocery stores that I know of, taw9eel.com and foodkuwait.com. Foodkuwait.com requires you to sign up and login before you can do your shopping which is really stupid. Taw9eel.com on the other hand allows you to browse their products before you decide to sign up or order.