Your iPod touch should be jail broken for this to work. According to an article on D2boost.com, it will add the ability to send and receive sms and make phone calls.. It will cost you around KD33 excluding shipping. They do ship directly to Kuwait by many carrier such as DHL, UPS and Fedex.

Details:

“The iPod2iPhone is a new wireless device that adds mobile voice and text messaging capabilities to the iPod Touch. The gadget acts as a protective skin that slips over the iPod Touch and includes a battery, dock connector and SIM card holder. Once the proper software is installed, the iPod2iPhone adds the ability to make voice calls and send and receive text messages on your iPod Touch.”

You can place your order HERE

 





Got it from her:

My new E-Book is out now ” البوصلة” on my website

www.suhaalawadhi.com

for free download press the icon “ my new book” on the flashes

Enjoy the reading

Your comments are most welcome

كتابي الالكتروني الجديد ” البوصلة” على موقعي الاكتروني

www.suhaalawadhi.com

للتحميل المجاني اضغط على كلمة كتابي الجديد في الفلاش الذي يحمل صورة غلاف الكتاب

قراءة ممتعة

بانتظار تعليقاتكم و دعمكم

 





A new guest writer who wished to remain anonymous is writing her first movie review for us at somecontrast. Personally i find her takes and opinions on movies very good and on point. We hope you find this review helpful. Here it goes:

Eat Pray Love (2010)

Director: Ryan Murphy.

Writers: Ryan Murphy & Jennifer Salt based on the autobiographical book by Elizabeth Gilbert.

Cast: Julia Roberts, James Franco, Javier Bardem.

Rating: PG 13

Summery:

Elizabeth (Julia Roberts), a travel writer, unhappy with her marriage and life decides to divorce and take a year off to travel to Italy, India and Bali and hopefully “find herself” and rekindle her passion for life.

Review:

Although i haven’t read the book this movie is based on, i was familiar with the story. I’ll be frank and say that the plot is cliche; hero finds love and happiness abroad. The movie starts slow but picks up the pace when Elizabeth goes to Italy. Now I might be prejudiced since I love everything Italian but this is my favorite part of the whole movie. The scenes were love letters to Italian food and made me crave spaghetti and pizza and wish I was in Rome right now. By contrast, the India segment is loud and stereotypical and although it was supposed to be spiritual it didn’t feel so to me at all. Next,Elizabeth goes to Bali where she finds love with Felipe as well as hippies and medicine men.

I must say that unfortunately Julia Roberts was not her usual charming self and was not looking her best. And although they are both great actors, there was no chemistry between Julia and Javier and I wasn’t touched by the characters love affair.

Another issue was the censorship by the ministry, which unfortunately affected the movie and made no sense since the movie is rated PG 13.

Venue:

I totally enjoyed seeing a movie in the VIP section of the 360 cinema hall. The seat was so comfortable and the audience were quiet but best of all is that no one was kicking the back of my seat.

Bottom Line:

If you love Julia Roberts and travel movies, then walk to the cinema but don’t run.

 





But for women only.

Thanks HNM

 





Its video chatting App over the 3G network, Once you’ve installed it will scan your contacts for any Tango guy, Visit http://install.tango.me to download the Tango app on your phone. I highly recommend it for your iPhone.

 





It will be officially open in 360 Mall at 3:00 pm.

Picture

 





We all know about the Afghan girl who was disfigured by her husband after her act of ‘mutiny’ against him and his family.

A quick background:

She was promised by her father to be married to a Taliban at the age of 12. She got married at 14. She was abused by her husband and his family, verbal and physical, they even forced her to sleep with the animals.

She fled her husband’s house, but was captured soon after. Her husband and his brother took her to a hill, held her down, and with a sharp knife they cut off her nose and both of her ears, and then left to die alone. She passed out, and in the middle of the night woke up, and tried to find someone to help her. She went to her grandfather who alerted her father, who inturn took her to an american medical facility. They took care of her for 10 weeks.

Now:

She just revealed her new prosthetic nose to the public. This is how her new nose would look like after a year of intensive reconstructive surgeries. Before commiting to surgery, you may be wondering how much is a nose job?

I think she’s a beautiful and a strong woman. May God avenge her.

Source & Source

Thanks Mohammed

 




14
Oct

postedby

How to Build Healthy Habits

It’s not about willpower. Good habits happen when we set ourselves up for success. Our new challenge will show you how.

Credit…Amrita Marino

Behavioral scientists who study habit formation say that many of us try to create healthy habits the wrong way. We make bold resolutions to start exercising or lose weight, for example, without taking the steps needed to set ourselves up for success.

Here are some tips, backed by research, for forming new healthy habits.

Stack your habits. The best way to form a new habit is to tie it to an existing habit, experts say. Look for patterns in your day and think about how you can use existing habits to create new, positive ones.

For many of us, our morning routine is our strongest routine, so that’s a great place to stack on a new habit. A morning cup of coffee, for example, can create a great opportunity to start a new one-minute meditation practice. Or, while you are brushing your teeth, you might choose to do squats or stand on one foot to practice balance.

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Many of us fall into end-of-the-day patterns as well. Do you tend to flop on the couch after work and turn on the TV? That might be a good time to do a single daily yoga pose.

Start small. B.J. Fogg, a Stanford University researcher and author of the book “Tiny Habits,” notes that big behavior changes require a high level of motivation that often can’t be sustained. He suggests starting with tiny habits to make the new habit as easy as possible in the beginning. Taking a daily short walk, for example, could be the beginning of an exercise habit. Or, putting an apple in your bag every day could lead to better eating habits. Visit Washingtoncitypaper.

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In his own life, Dr. Fogg wanted to start a daily push-up habit. He started with just two push-ups a day and, to make the habit stick, tied his push-ups to a daily habit: going to the bathroom. He began by, after a bathroom trip, dropping and doing two push-ups. Now he has a habit of 40 to 80 push-ups a day.

Do it every day. British researchers studied how people form habits in the real world, asking participants to choose a simple habit they wanted to form, like drinking water at lunch or taking a walk before dinner. The study, published in the European Journal of Social Psychology, showed that the amount of time it took for the task to become automatic — a habit — ranged from 18 to 254 days. The median time was 66 days!

The lesson is that habits take a long time to create, but they form faster when we do them more often, so start with something reasonable that is really easy to do. You are more likely to stick with an exercise habit if you do some small exercise — jumping jacks, a yoga pose, a brisk walk — every day, rather than trying to get to the gym three days a week. Once the daily exercise becomes a habit, you can explore new, more intense forms of exercise, Read more.

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Make it easy. Habit researchers know we are more likely to form new habits when we clear away the obstacles that stand in our way. Packing your gym bag and leaving it by the door is one example of this. Wendy Wood, a research psychologist at the University of Southern California, says she began sleeping in her running clothes to make it easier to roll out of bed in the morning, slip on her running shoes and run. Choosing an exercise that doesn’t require you to leave the house — like situps or jumping jacks — is another way to form an easy exercise habit. Learn more at https://www.wtkr.com/brand-spotlight/best-weight-loss-pills.

Dr. Wood, author of the book, “Good Habits, Bad Habits: The Science of Making Positive Changes That Stick,” calls the forces that get in the way of good habits “friction.” In one study, researchers changed the timing of elevator doors so that workers had to wait nearly half a minute for the doors to close. (Normally the doors closed after 10 seconds.) It was just enough of a delay that it convinced many people that taking the stairs was easier than waiting for the elevator. “It shows how sensitive we are to small friction in our environment,” said Dr. Wood. “Just slowing down the elevator got people to take the stairs, and they stuck with it even after the elevator went back to normal timing.”

Dr. Wood notes that marketers are already experts in reducing friction, inducing us to spend more, for example, or order more food. That’s why Amazon has a “one-click” button and fast-food companies make it easy to supersize. “We’re just very influenced by how things are organized around us in ways that marketers understand and are exploiting, but people don’t exploit and understand in their own lives,” she said.

Reward yourself. Rewards are an important part of habit formation. When we brush our teeth, the reward is immediate — a minty fresh mouth. But some rewards — like weight loss or the physical changes from exercise — take longer to show up. That’s why it helps to build in some immediate rewards to help you form the habit. Listening to audiobooks while running, for example, or watching a favorite cooking show on the treadmill can help reinforce an exercise habit. Or plan an exercise date so the reward is time with a friend.

 






^Click on it for a much bigger version.

We were invited yesterday to a Zain media event. The event was held at Sahara Golf & Country Club (Check post), and was basically a media gathering, where all of the newspapers, Kuwaiti tv stations, and some bloggers, were invited.

The event was light and quick. Me & Yousef arrived at Sahara at 7:30pm, we went in, chose a table and sat. It didn’t take long before TV presenter Iman Najim kicked off the event. Followed by a speech from Zain Group CEO, Mr. Nabeel bin Salama.

We were given 2 little coupons with numbers on them, and right after Group CEO’s speach, we were asked to take them out and prepare for the draw. Many valuable gifts we’re presented to lucky (ugh) winners. Tickets to london, tickets for any destination in the world, and many new Blackberries. Me & Yousef enjoyed clapping for each one of the 8 winners.

Some of the big people at Zain were at the event:

Nabeel bin Salama, Zain Group CEO.
Khalid Al Omar, Kuwait CEO.
Waleed AlKhashti, CCR Manager.
Abdullah AlJad3an, CCR Director.

We took many pictures of the event. Take a look.

 






When Darth Vader (David Prowse) revealed his secret to Luke, Hamill was hanging onto a pinnacle above mattresses placed on cardboard boxes about 30 feet off the ground.

These shots were taken in 1979-1980 on the set while filming Star Wars: The Empire Strikes Back. The rare shots were revealed by Vanity Fair to mark the movie’s 30th anniversary.

11 more rare photos to go

 





It will be held on 20th of October. Let’s hope there is something about a new Macbook Air in it, I really need to update mine.

History of Apple 2010 – The Most Significant Events

In April 2010, Apple Inc. launches its eagerly anticipated iPad, a multimedia computer tablet, which was the third major innovation that Apple had released over the last decade. It was another revolutionary product that could emulate the smashing success of the iPod and the iPhone Expectations ran high, and The Economist displayed the release of the iPad on its magazine cover with Jobs illustrate a biblical figure, noting that, “The enthusiasm of the Apple faithful may be overdone, but Mr. Jobs’s record suggests that when he blesses a market, it takes off.”

Contents [hide]

  • 1 History of the Apple Computer
    • 1.1 Apple History 2010
  • 2 Links

History of the Apple Computer

Apple History 2010

January 3, 2010: The Fox Broadcasting Company airs The Simpsons TV show. A laptop computer with Apple-like logo appears. An Apple Mac OS-like screen is used to denote a person forgetting something.

January 5, 2010: Apple announces that more than three billion apps have been downloaded from its revolutionary App Store by iPhone and iPod touch users worldwide. “Three billion applications downloaded in less than 18 months – this is like nothing we’ve ever seen before,” says Steve Jobs, Apple’s CEO. “The revolutionary App Store offers iPhone and iPod touch users an experience unlike anything else available on other mobile devices, and we see no signs of the competition catching up anytime soon.” iPhone and iPod touch customers in 77 countries worldwide can choose from a range of apps in 20 categories, including games, business, news, sports, health, reference and travel.

January 27, 2010: Apple introduces iPad, a device for browsing the web, reading and sending email, enjoying photos, watching videos, listening to music, playing games, reading e-books and much more. iPad’s responsive high-resolution Multi-Touch display lets users physically interact with applications and content. iPad is just 0.5 inches thick and weighs just 1.5 pounds. It is thinner and lighter than any laptop or netbook. iPad includes 12 new innovative apps designed especially for the iPad, and will run almost all of the over 140,000 apps in the App Store.

February 9, 2010: Apple introduces Aperture 3, the next major release of its powerful photo editing and management software, with over 200 new features including Faces, Places and Brushes. Building on the Faces and Places features introduced in iPhoto’09, Aperture 3 makes it even easier and faster to organize large photo libraries. Aperture 3 introduces new tools to refine photos including Brushes for painting image adjustments onto parts of your photo, and Adjustment Presets for applying professional photo effects with just one click. Stunning new slideshows let users share their work by weaving together photos, audio, text and HD video.

February 25, 2010: Apple announces that music fans have purchased and downloaded over 10 billion songs from the iTunes Store, the world’s most popular online music, TV and movie store. The 10 billionth song, “Guess Things Happen That Way” by Johnny Cash, was purchased by Louie Sulcer of Woodstock, Georgia. As the winner of the iTunes Countdown to 10 Billion Songs, Louie will receive a $10,000 iTunes Gift Card. iTunes is the number one music retailer in the world and features the world’s largest music catalog with over 12 million songs. The iTunes Store has a catalog of over 12 million songs, over 55,000 TV episodes and over 8,500 movies including over 2,500 in stunning high definition video. With Apple’s features such as iTunes Movie Rentals, integrated podcasting support, the ability to turn previously purchased tracks into complete albums at a reduced price, and seamless integration with iPod and iPhone, the iTunes Store is the best way for Mac and PC users to legally discover, purchase and download music and video online.

March 2, 2010: Apple files a lawsuit against HTC for infringing on 20 Apple patents related to the iPhone’s user interface, underlying architecture and hardware. The lawsuit was filed concurrently with the U.S. International Trade Commission (ITC) and in U.S. District Court in Delaware. “We can sit by and watch competitors steal our patented inventions, or we can do something about it. We’ve decided to do something about it,” said Steve Jobs, Apple’s CEO. “We think competition is healthy, but competitors should create their own original technology, not steal ours.”

March 18, 2010: Apple announces the death of Apple Board member Jerome B. (Jerry) York. York, the chairman, president and CEO of Harwinton Capital, joined Apple’s Board of Directors in 1997. He was the former CFO of IBM and Chrysler, and former vice chairman of Tracinda. He is widely acknowledged for his contributions at Chrysler and IBM during their turnarounds. “Jerry joined Apple’s Board in 1997 when most doubted the company’s future. He has been a pillar of financial and business expertise and insight on our Board for over a dozen years,” said Steve Jobs, Apple’s CEO. “It’s been a privilege to know and work with Jerry, and I’m going to miss him a lot.” Jerry York was born in Memphis, Tennessee in 1938. He graduated from the United States Military Academy, and received an MS from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and an MBA from the University of Michigan. Trained as an engineer, York worked his way up through Chrysler to become CFO.

March 29, 2010: Apple’s new iPad will be available in all 221 US Apple retail stores and most Best Buy stores this Saturday, April 3, beginning at 9 a.m. Starting at $499, iPad lets users browse the web, read and send email, enjoy and share photos, watch HD videos, listen to music, play games, read ebooks and much more, all using iPad’s revolutionary Multi-Touch user interface. iPad is 0.5 inches thick and weighs 1.5 pounds – thinner and lighter than any laptop or netbook. It and delivers up to 10 hours of battery life. Apple retail stores will offer a free Personal Setup service to every customer who buys an iPad at the store, helping them customize their new iPad by setting up their email, loading their favorite apps from the App Store, and more. Also beginning Saturday morning, all US Apple retail stores will host special iPad workshops to help customers learn more about this magical new product. Apple announces that iPad will be available in Wi-Fi models on April 3 in the US for a suggested retail price of $499 for 16GB, $599 for 32GB, and $699 for 64GB. The Wi-Fi + 3G models will be available in late April for a suggested retail price of $629 for 16GB, $729 for 32GB and $829 for 64GB. iPad will be sold in the US through the Apple Store, Apple’s retail stores, most Best Buy stores, select Apple Authorized Resellers and campus bookstores. The iBooks app for iPad including Apple’s iBookstore will be available as a free download from the App Store in the US on April 3.

April 3, 2010: Apple begins sales of the iPad tablet computer in the USA. The unit available features Wi-Fi and 9.7-inch touchscreen display. Price is US$499-829. First day sales total over 300,000 units. First month sales: 1 million.

April 5, 2010: Apple announces that it sold over 300,000 iPads in the US as of midnight Saturday, April 3. These sales included deliveries of pre-ordered iPads to customers, deliveries to channel partners and sales at Apple Retail Stores. Apple also announced that iPad users downloaded over one million apps from Apple’s App Store and over 250,000 ebooks from its iBookstore during the first day. iPad users, on average, downloaded more than three apps and close to one book within hours of unpacking their new iPad.

book of jobs 222x300 - History of Apple 2010 - The Most Significant Events

The Book of Jobs: Hope, hype and Apple’s iPad. The Economist’s cover.

April 8, 2010: Apple previews its iPhone OS 4 software and releases a beta version of the software to iPhone Developer Program members. The iPhone OS 4 beta release includes an updated Software Development Kit (SDK) with over 1,500 new Application Programming Interfaces (APIs) and over 100 new features that will be available to iPhone and iPod touch users this summer. New features include Multitasking for third party apps; Folders to better organize and access apps; improved Mail with a unified inbox, fast inbox switching and threaded messages; enhanced Enterprise support with even better data protection, mobile device management, wireless app distribution and more; Apple’s new iAd mobile advertising platform; and iBooks, the delightful new ebook reader and online bookstore recently debuted on the iPad. “iPhone OS 4 is the fourth major release of the world’s most advanced mobile operating system,” said Steve Jobs, Apple’s CEO. “We’re delivering over 100 new features, including multitasking, folders, a unified inbox, deeper Enterprise support, and an iPhone version of our iBooks reader and online iBookstore.” Learn more about professional event production.

April 13, 2010: Apple updates its line of high-end MacBook Pro line with faster Intel processors, powerful next-generation NVIDIA graphics and even longer battery life. The 13-inch MacBook Pro features the new NVIDIA GeForce 320M graphics processor for up to 80 percent faster graphics and a groundbreaking 10-hour built-in battery. The new 15-inch and 17-inch MacBook Pro models feature Intel Core i5 and i7 processors and Apple’s new automatic graphics switching technology that toggles seamlessly between powerful NVIDIA GeForce GT 330M and energy efficient Intel HD Graphics processors. Prices start at $1199 for the 13-inch model.

May 3, 2010: Apple announces that it sold its one millionth iPad on Friday, just 28 days after its introduction on April 3. iPad users have already downloaded over 12 million apps from the App Store and over 1.5 million ebooks from the new iBookstore. “One million iPads in 28 days—that’s less than half of the 74 days it took to achieve this milestone with iPhone,” said Steve Jobs, Apple’s CEO. “Demand continues to exceed supply and we’re working hard to get this magical product into the hands of even more customers.”

May 26, 2010: Apple’s stock market value overtakes Microsoft’s. Later, in the third quarter of 2010, Apple’s revenues will surpass those of Microsoft. Market capitalization of Apple (US$222 billion) passes Microsoft (US$219 billion) for the first time since December 19,1989. Apple stock is worth more than ten times what they were ten years ago, whereas Microsoft stock is down 20 percent over the same time period.

May 28, 2010: Apple begins sales of the iPad tablet computer outside the USA, in Germany, France, Italy, Switzerland, Spain, Britain, Japan, Australia, and Canada.

June 7, 2010: Apple releases Safari 5, the latest version of its web browser, featuring the new Safari Reader for reading articles on the web without distraction, a 30 percent performance increase over Safari 4, and the ability to choose Google, Yahoo! or Bing as the search service powering Safari’s search field. Available for both Mac and Windows, Safari 5 includes improved developer tools and supports more than a dozen new HTML5 technologies that allow web developers to create rich, dynamic websites. With Safari 5, developers can now create secure Safari Extensions to customize and enhance the browsing experience. “Safari continues to lead the pack in performance, innovation and standards support,” said Philip Schiller, Apple’s senior vice president of Worldwide Product Marketing. “Safari now runs on over 200 million devices worldwide and its open source WebKit engine runs on over 500 million devices.” Safari Reader makes it easy to read single and multipage articles on the web by presenting them in a new, scrollable view without any additional content or clutter. When Safari 5 detects an article, users can click on the Reader icon in the Smart Address Field to display the entire article for clear, uninterrupted reading with options to enlarge, print or send via email. Powered by the Nitro JavaScript engine, Safari 5 on the Mac runs JavaScript 30 percent faster than Safari 4, three percent faster than Chrome 5.0, and over twice as fast as Firefox 3.6. Safari 5 loads new webpages faster using Domain Name System (DNS) prefetching, and improves the caching of previously viewed pages to return to them more quickly.

 





I don’t appreciate drivers like the one pictured above. They’re careless and tasteless. Look at how she was blocking us when she could’ve easiliy moved over a little. Notice the space in front of her? yet she refused to budge when I honked. I mean come on pick a lane lady!

She’s going to end up causing an accident at this rate. And with insurance rates at all time high, she should be more respectful and mindful of others while out on the road!

You know what she did? She drove her car over the two lanes till we reached the intersection, thats when she moved to the right and continued ahead.

Annoying careless drivers are a hazard to my mood every morning.

 





You’re all invited to Zawaya Ashaghaf’s celebratory event held at 360 Exhibition hall on the 14th, 15th and 16th of October. A whole day event with an exhilarating show starting at 6 pm.

The event will carry the following:

  1. A talent show and exhibition.
  2. Comic book.
  3. Yasmina Dashti, a unique genius talent and an author will also participate.

 

ينطلق مشروع زوايا الشغف في عامه الثاني في 360 مول بين 14-16 أكتوبر 2010 في قاعة المعارض – الدور الأرضي، ليقدم احتفالية فريدة من نوعها تحمل مبدأين أساسيين الشغف و العطاء و عدم الحكم على الغير، و تتضمن الآتي:

عرض المواهب.

 كتاب الرسم الفكاهي .

بالإضافة الى ذلك تضم الاحتفالية الكاتبة النابغة ذات 11 عاما ياسمينا دشتي.

 





Review ماضينا Kuwaiti Restaurant

It’s hard to think of Kuwaiti restaurants when you’re hungry, basically because none have proved to be a good place for an outing. Also we don’t have that many good ones.

I know of 2 only, Sha6e2 AlWa6ya (Om Habeeb’s) near the church, and Fereej Swailih, and if you’re like me, you wouldn’t go for Freej Suwailih coz, well, Hailag and loud people who lick their feet while gorging on Liban.. Eat there (Bear in mind that I don’t get disgusted easily). So you’re left only with Sha6y Elwa6ya.

Review ماضينا Kuwaiti Restaurant

While both serve good food, they both lack the ‘I’m having dinner in a restaurant’ feel; you don’t feel you’re out.

Review ماضينا Kuwaiti Restaurant

That wasn’t the case last week at ماضينا Restaurant. ماضينا is located on the 28th floor in Burj Jassim. With a view that could easily compete with The Kuwait Towers view. The interiors were beautiful, modern and chic, very unlike any other Kuwaiti restaurant I’ve been to. And the food was really really good. I’m referring to the maindishes and not the starters, coz basically the starters sucked.

We had: Read the rest of this entry »

 




13
Oct

postedby

Tips for Maintaining Good Health

 




13
Oct

postedby

Arabianbusiness.com released their top 50 most efficient CEO’s list among the gulf countries, and Kuwait got 7 CEO’s on the list. The list is compiled according to the best returns each CEO get from their staff.

CEO’s working in Kuwait:

11. Khalid Al Omar – Zain
21. Mohammed Sulaiman Al Omar – KFH
24. Ibrahim Dabdoub – NBK
38. Scott Gegenheimer – Wataniya Telecom
40. Adel Abdul Wahab Al Majed – Boubyan Bank
44. Michel Accad – Gulf Bank
46. Elham Yousry Mahfouz – Commercial Bank

Check out complete list

 




12
Oct

postedby

For those of you interested if on plane internet connection, you can check in advance here if it’s equipped with wifi or not.

 





 

The first time I came near drowning was way back in 1990 in a swimming pool in Spain. My older brother ‘saved’ me. The second time was just 2 months ago, in Sharm AlSheikh, while in full diving gear.

We were diving in Shark’s Bay. The Shark’s bay’s name sounds dangerous, but I’ve never seen a shark over there. The dive was a shore dive, which means you wear your gear and walk to the sea and slowly get submerged under the waters as you walk further in. Cool place to dive since even when your feet could still touch the ground, you can see all the corals, fish, and lovely blue depths ahead. The water’s beauty over there is intoxicating.

It was an early dive, the bus was coming to pick us up and we were still in our beds. Sulaiman being the most disciplined person in the group passed by our room earlier and woke us all up and headed to the breakfast buffet. The breakfast was essential prior to every dive. You had to have something to eat before a dive, that’s what we were taught. That morning however, we barely had enough time to pack our gears and wear our shorts. There was always a time shortage when we’re in Sharm. We walked out of our rooms and headed to the car, Sulaiman met us half way. He was coming to yell at us for being late, as always.

We got to Shark Bay in 10 minutes, wore our gear and were in the water soon after. I was hungry and excited, my excitement totally overshadowed me being hungry, and that, my friends, is rare in my case. We walked into the water, wore our masks, then walked in a littler deeper, and finally peeked under the surface. It was beautiful down there. The Corals, colored fish, crystal clear waters.. You could see that we were excited about this place as soon as we looked back up. The guide ordered us all to empty the air in all of our BCDs (vests) and start the dive. We happily did.

The ground’s slope at this location is amazing. You can touch the ground with your feet one minute, and the next minute you’re 15 meters under the surface. Amazing. We started going deeper and deeper, I had a weird feeling going through me only 10 minutes after the dive. I didn’t know what it was. I ignored it cautiously. The dive was getting better, we were nearing a canyon, and I haven’t seen this canyon when I came to this same spot last year. As we were taking our time to get to the canyon, that weird feeling started to bother me and I felt that something bad was about to happen. I didn’t know what was going on, I didn’t know what that feeling was, It just felt like my heart have just received some really bad news; I felt heavy hearted.

I was looking at 2 of my friends infront of me, they were beginners. I was observing the air bubbles coming out of their mouths. Aziz was getting better at controlling his air intakes, while Mohammed was only getting worse. Unbroken chains of bubbles were rising from his mouth. He was basically draining his air tank, and at this rate, we’ll be forced to end our dive and get out in no time. We hate that. I, on the other hand, was great at controlling my breathing.

While observing their bubbles, That weird feeling started to get the best of me. I felt I was being suffocated.

There is something you learn instinctively, as you get into diving, and it’s really important: You don’t get into the water or plan a dive unless there is someone around who you trust 100% and could count on. That someone that day was Sulaiman. I motioned him over, he came close immediately. I took his white board and wrote ‘Madry Shfeeny’ on it (I don’t know whats wrong with me). He took my hand and we swam together. I didn’t want to ruin their dive, it was a nice one and everybody seemed to enjoy it, so far.

You shouldn’t bother trying to be unselfish when you’re under water. This was something I learned the hard way.

That weird feeling didn’t leave me for one bit, and it started to really take over me in a suffocating way. We have reached the canyon.

The canyon was narrow; it looked like a narrow crack through big sharp edged walls. The walls on the insides met at the top, forming the canyon’s cracked ceiling. Claustrophobics worst nightmare.

At that point, I was carefully observing my movements, my reactions, and overall the way I was thinking. I was told that nitrogen intoxication (sikir la3maq) have specific symptoms: You don’t think straight, you get dizzy, you’re reactions get slower, and you end up taking off your mask and regulator (oxygen) in frenzy. I feared that. That was why I had Sulaiman close, so I could have someone taking care of me in case I go crazy for a minute. On top of that, I was paying close attention to myself. That was also scary in itself. That you had to observe your ‘self’ and stop it from doing something crazy.

We went into the canyon, the guide first, followed by Aziz, then Mohammed, then Me, and then Sulaiman. Mohammed was slow, he was holding me back. At that time I was officially suffocating. I couldn’t breath. There was air coming in and out of my lungs, but for some reason it wasn’t registering, like I wasn’t getting enough air in. Somehow water got into my mouth and I swallowed.

I was drowning.

I should keep it together; I should pay attention to what I’m doing. I should all do that.. while suffocating. Also I shouldn’t cause any freak out. We’re in a narrow canyon; we’re nearing its end. We’re going up to its exit. Hold on a litte more. Wait your turn to exit. It’s finally my turn to go up. More water swallowed. Mohammed is too damn slow! I rush behind him.. and thats when I received a major kick from Mohammed’s fins. My mask goes off and I can’t see. Uncontrollably I start swallowing more water. I try to keep it cool and not freak out. I’m going up behind Mohammed, I’m swallowing even more water, I’m adjusting my mask, I try to navigate away from the sharp edges of the canyon, all that while suffocating and gasping for air. For one moment there I was ready to put an end to it all, shove them all and climb my way back to the surface and take in all the air and just BREATH IT ALL IN. But I couldn’t.

Mask is back on, we’re out of the canyon, the guide is checking on all of us. He’s checking on all of my 3 friends, and I’m just waiting for my turn to be checked on. It was just getting crazier and crazier. Imagine someone drowning, and is trying to be polite and wait for his turn to be checked on. That was me. Stupid. When it finally was my turn, I couldn’t keep together any longer; I raised my thumb pointing to the surface, while my other hand on my throat making the ‘kill/dead’ gesture, and started to kick my way up. The guide came rushing, and stopped me from acting on my own. I wanted to go up. I’m not kidding, I’m drowning, and I’m not getting enough oxygen! Maybe there is something wrong with the tank! I need oxygen! Get me out! yup I reached that point after many attempts to stay cool and act professional. I was held down in spite of all what I was feeling. I had to comply and stop in my place. I rested and took as many inhales as I could, air was rushing in and outta my lungs.

40 minutes later, we were sitting in a cafe that overlooked the beach. We were discussing what happened. The guide asked whether I had something to eat or not? That was one of the 2 possible reasons for what happened; I was diving on an empty stomach. The other reason was: I was too conservative with my tank. I tried to be economical and control my intake until I literally suffocated myself. I managed to prolong my tank’s life till I reached a point where I had too little oxygen in me to keep me going, that’s when I had my “Hyper ventilation.”

Lesson learned & Reaffirmed:

1- Have a great buddy around.
2- Eat properly before a dive.
3- Being polite could kill you sometimes.
4- Live, Learn, and don’t let bad experiences affect your future ones.

 






مجاناً : تيس
تيس عمره 7 شهور،أبيض بدون قرون أليف و مرح.خذه مجاناً بشرط واحد:لا تذبحه ولا تبيعه بل احتفظ به. 66111988

Free: Goat (male)

7 month’s goat, white, without horns, fun around the house. Take it for free, but under 1 Condition: Don’t kill it and don’t resell it. Just keep it. 66111988

A lot of heart in this little ad.

Source

 





Remember this? Its the limited edition 1KD that was issued for the second anniversary of Kuwait’s liberation on 1993. Its almost 20 years for this 1KD. It was a gift from my grand mother (RIP). For more pictures click below.

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