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I have to say I have been in Bahrain for like 30 minutes and I am already pretty impressed. Firstly I have a really huge hotel room which is really cool. Secondly there is 1 mall right behind the hotel, another mall right on the side of the hotel and a third mall right in front of the hotel. The one on the side, Seef Mall looks a lot bigger then Marina Mall. On my way to the hotel I found out Bahrain is made up of 33 islands. Why didn’t I know this from before? At night Bahrain is looking like a mini version of Dubai which is again not what I was expecting. Lots of construction and tall cool looking glass office towers. I don’t know why I had a completely different idea on Bahrain, so far it looks like a lot of fun.

Now I need to stop blogging and go get drunk.

My contact at Alghanim Automotive sent me the following email to publish on the blog:

Hey, some news for you and your audience. The new Lumina’s and all new Caprice’s are in Kuwait!! You know how popular with Kuwaitis these cars are. They will be launched in the next couple of weeks all over Kuwait. Not only that, there is a new Epica and the new SUV that just came out, the Captiva. The Captiva will arrive end of December and is a very sexy SUV. I tried the new Lumina and OMG… it’s a freakin’ monster under the hood. The buttons, dials, and inside trim quality is so far above what you’re used. Honestly, it’s German level stuff (and im not talking VW) inside and outside. The time of big, ugly, floaty, gas guzzling American cars is way over. We’re planning to take on Audi A6 with the Caprice.

Here are pictures he attached to the email.
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Yesterday a friend at my office tried buying a ticket online at the Jazeera Airways website. When she hit the final submit button after putting in her credit card details she got a page with an error. So, she redid the process over and over until it finally worked. Once she was done she checked her email and found that she had purchased 5 tickets. It turned out even though she was getting an error the order was still going through. She has been trying to contact Jazeera since yesterday to report what happened but the lines are always busy.

Today so far the same problem has happened with 4 other people I know including k.thekuwaiti. Everyone who is also trying to contact Jazeera is getting a busy tone. Someone was also telling me the line yesterday at the airport for people waiting to buy a ticket was a kilometer long. Thats just crazy.

I just came back from my bank. I went to check and see if Showtime honored my cancellation request and canceled my standing order with the bank but it turns out they haven’t. I no longer have Showtime at home since I canceled my subscription over 2 months ago but they are still taking money from me every month!

The employee at the bank was very helpful because he had gone through the same situation with United Networks which is also owned by Global Direct the same company that owns and runs Showtime. He told me what many people are doing is canceling their credit cards so that Showtime stops billing them but I wouldn’t be able to do that because Showtime take the amount straight from my account and not my credit card. So, the employee gave me some numbers at Showtime to contact but he told me they rarely pick up and to keep trying.

Dealing with Showtime has seriously been the worst experience I have ever had with any company ever! I am really trying to think of a company that treated me worst but can’t think of any at the moment. My advice is to stay away from Showtime and any other company that is run by Global Direct like United Networks and ZakSat.

update: Just got off the phone with someone at Showtime. He was very friendly and helpful. He apologized for the mixup and told me they would refund me the extra months they have taken and make sure they cancel my subscription for sure. Finally!

Auction it TODAY is basically a company that will take care of selling your stuff on eBay. A Kuwait branch was announced awhile back but they just very recently opened up shop. I called them up to get an idea of how their service works and this is what I found out. Just a note, I am not 100% positive about the information below because the person I spoke to wasn’t very clear over the phone. But this basically what I understood from him.

1) You bring your item to them

2) If you don’t have an idea how much your item is worth they will research and find out how much its worth on the market

3) They will take a picture of your item, post it on eBay and take care of shipping the item to the buyer and everything else

4) In return they take a commission fee. If your item sells for under $500, they take 38% commission. If your item sells for more then $500 they take a 30% commission. The commission fee is negotiable if you have a lot of items.

5) If you list your item without a reserve and no one buys it. You pay them only KD2. If you list and item with a reserve price and no one buys it, you pay them KD7.

Auction it TODAY is located in the Free Trade Zone near Movenpick , Building D-14. You can call them on 4613325.

I personally think its a cool service but the commission rate is just absurdly high. Is this normal? I have never used a service like this before so 30% could be the standard rate and I wouldn’t know.

Since the weather is good it might be the perfect time to try the Marina Climb. Its located in the center of Marina Waves and although I have never tried it before it looks like a lot of fun. One hour of climbing will cost you KD4 which isn’t that bad. For more pictures click [Here]

I passed by the Skate Park today while I was on my way to Maki. There was a guy in charge there and I asked him a couple of questions. I found out that it costs KD1.5 per hour to skate, rollerblade or bike in the park. They don’t rent out the gear nor do they have any gear to rent out. What they will provide you with though is the safety equipment like a helmet and elbow and knee guards. For more pictures click [Here]

I am leaving to Bahrain for some work related stuff on Wednesday afternoon and coming back Friday night. Its my first time there so I was checking Lonely Planet to see what there is to do in Bahrain and I couldn’t find anything.

I heard Bahrain has good restaurants does anyone know anything about them? Any recommendations? How about malls, do they have like a shopping mall in Bahrain? Will I actually find something to do or should I expect to spend all my time in the hotel room watching TV?

update: just remembered Michael Jackson lives there now so it can’t be that bad

I had to post this because I couldn’t stop laughing. This is an email I just received now:

Dear Sir,Assalamualaikum

I would like to go to Cochin in May 2006.How I can check the availability of seat ,cost and also how to reserve and purchase it.

I expect a speedy reply and Wishing all the best for Aljazeera airways.

with prayers shihab

So now people think I own a football team and Jazeera Airways.

Since I put the Contact Us link on top I started to get strange emails. Not spam mind you, just emails that seem very out of place. Today I got one which I thought I would share with you as an example:

Dear Sir/Ma

Good day to u how are u and ur kindred hope all is moving fine with u am Mr Ganiyu am from Nigeria i played footbal for Julius Beger football club in Ibadan state.

Am a good player and am looking for a club that l can share my talent with please l will be happy if u can really have in ur club.

I will be looking forward to hear from u soon.

Thanks
Ganiyu

update: Here is another example of an email I just received:

i just want to know that if you have medical based pathology book exp. (D. M. L. T.) if u have this type of book so pls send me a mail as soon as possible.

Ali

Here is a collection of very short science fiction stories. How short? Each story is made up of only 6 words! 33 writers and 5 designers each wrote a 6-word science fiction story and surprisingly some are pretty cool.. [Link]

The trailer for the new season of 24 is up but I am having trouble viewing it on my Mac! [Link]

update: thanks to Fred from Fox, here is Real player version. [Video]

update 2: Ok just watched the trailer, now I can’t wait for the season to start. I hope Tony Almeida turns out to be still alive, that would be really cool.

I passed by the TriStar workshop today to pass them my bike keys. They finished fixing and repainting my bike after my crash two weeks ago and tomorrow they will be taking it out for a test drive to make sure everything is working right. All my wounds have healed nicely except for my left wrist which still hasn’t healed. I should pass by Razzi Hospital this week to see whats up with that.

Awhile back k.thekuwaiti posted that he saw the Amazing Race reality show guys in Kuwait. Well the episode finally aired, its episode 6 of this season Amazing Race. I am currently downloading the episode as I am writing this. ForzaQ8 has a preview of the episode. [Link]

Recently PayPal started accepting credit cards from Bahrain, Qatar and UAE. How does Kuwait fit in to this? Well the American Express office in Kuwait issues their credit cards from Bahrain. So, if you have an American Express credit card you can now sign up for a PayPal account. When PayPal asks for your billing address just put the address of the Bahrain Amex office which is the following:

P O Box 5990
Al Seef District 428
Manama 428
Bahrain

For those of you who don’t have an American Express card you can get one from the American Express office located in Salhiya Complex. Their phone number is 2413000.

Thanks to BusyNow for sharing this information with me.