What’s up with the highways today?! I’m still stuck between the 6th and 5th ring roads!
I thought traffic would go down by now, since the finals are nearing.. I’m so gonna be late for work today..
Update:
I finally managed to arrive at work, late by 2 hours. I heard in the radio that the cause of the traffic jam at King faisal’s highway (highway 50) was caused by a bursted water tank in Qurtoba. The nice people were slowing down whenever they see signs of leakage so they could get a closer look at the mess.
We had lunch at Brasserie de l’etoile. It’s a new french restaurant in the Avenues mall, phase II. The place looked and felt french, even the music played was perfecting the french mood.
However, The mood they were trying to set did not help my dish one bit. My dish was good, going by the Kuwaiti standards, but if I were to judge this restaurant and compare it to real french ones, I’d say they need to take a closer look at some of their dishes and concentrate on getting the flavors right. Read the rest of this entry »
I went in and in less than 10 minutes I was done and on my way to my car. Going in the afternoon time is much better than in the early morning (I went early the last time and it was crowded).
I’m glad that I’m done with the voting. I hope more people turn up..
I went in with very low expectations, I expected a disappointing adaptation of yet another great book by Brown, if not his best book, and I think this was the only reason I came out not as disappointed as I should be.
I think the movie was entertaining and is likely to have legions of movie goers praising it for the coming weeks. It is fast paced and high on thrills. However, and just like it’s predecessor, The Da Vinci Code, the movie pales next to the book. There was no time in the movie to squeeze all the information needed, And I think with that pace they were going, the viewer couldn’t grasp how big of an issue things like: illuminati, anti matter and path of illumination really were.
Despite that, the movie surpassed my expectations and I liked it. If you haven’t read the book, or have read it a long time ago (just like myself) then you’re going to enjoy the movie.
Movie censoring: The movie wasn’t censored a lot, except for 1 or 2 key moments, where we were left looking at each other for an explanation.
It’s a cool virtual game where you’re the doctor and are about to perform a knee surgery. I enjoyed it for a bit but then it became a little scary with all the drills and saws needed to perform the operation.
I just had an argument with 2 of my colleagues about whether it’s ok to eat non Halal meat when you’re in a foreign country or not. I was saying that it’s preferable to eat only Halal meat, but it’s ok not to. They were saying it’s Haram to eat non Halal meat. As Haram as drinking alcohol, they said.
What do you think?
Personally.. I always say the “bismillah” and eat.
I was recommended this Spa by Ansam, and since I’m making it my duty to find the best massage place in Kuwait, I went.
The place isn’t hard to find at all, it’s in Salmiya, gulf road, the right after Divas restaurant then the third building on the left. It’s a men’s spa and SalonTouch Studio, haven’t tried one of those before. It isn’t big, the salon is upfront and the spa is in the back, however it is very nicely designed with a modern feel. The people working there and the reception was very nice and warm. Even when I asked about the possiblity of taking pictures they were all smiles and approved immediately (this isn’t the case most of the times with spas). Read the rest of this entry »
Reading Intlxpatr & Mark’s posts about the newly opened restaurant, Smoke House, was enough to make me want to go there and experience it myself. Before going I asked a couple of friends about the place, and they all said it’s Ok. Nothing more and nothing less, the place is just ok. But I went anyway.
The place is small and had around 7 tables only. It’s in a hard to come across location location and is partially owned by an american (cool factor & authenticity factor). Unfortunately my experience wasn’t a good one. And Here is why:
The food was mediocre at BEST. Nothing special about the food at all:
1- The chicken wings’ (which is considered a specialty in this restaurant) presentation was horrible. The wings looked and tasted like they were cooked a couple of hours ago and then heated up in an oven then served.
2- Their smoke house burger was nothing special. The patty was too dry and the bun was too thick. Even my friend who had this burger a month ago said that it isn’t the same anymore.
3- The ribeye steak, my order, was recommended by the waitress as the house special dish, turned out like a fridays’ steak. I ordered it medium and got a well done.
The service:
The waitress was very nice, but I can’t say the same about the waiter nor the manager. The waiter couldn’t care less when I told him that the wings weren’t fresh, and when I told him I ordered a medium steak not a well done, he just smiled and left.
On our way out me and my friend had a little chat with the manager that went like this:
Friend: The chicken wings was different this time than the last time I was here.
Manager: No it’s the same.
Friend: No, I was here and my friends ordered the wings and it was different.
Manager: No, Thats what you think. I know it is the same.
Me: The wings weren’t fresh.
Manager: No they’re fresh. they were cooked at around 6pm only. (we were eating the wings at 8:30pm)
Friend: The food is different this time, even the burger! I ate here a month ago and everything was good!
Me: see this is my first time in this restaurant, so I don’t know if the way you cook has changed or not, but I just want to say that most of the food wasn’t good.
Manager: (in a very careless tone that lasted throughout the conversation) Listen, I know that my food hasn’t changed a bit, because I cook here, I made the recipes and the dishes and everything… I do everything here.
Friend: and we ate the food, so we know..
Manager: Yes the food I made.
Me: You know, you have an amazing way of arguing with the customers.
Thats when he retracted a bit, realized that he shouldn’t have argued so much, and said the ‘I will try and see what went wrong.. I appreciate your opinion..’ bla bla bla. Too little too late.
The hype surrounding this place was big, and the disappointment I felt, after eating the food and dealing with this disrespectful manager, was bigger.
You’ve seen this thing, the jetlev flyer, before on email forwards or on tv, right? It was finally made available for people to buy last month. People now can buy this thing and start flying all over Kuwait’s beaches this summer 😛
Jetlev is available in 2 models:
The one with 155 HP costs € 99,000. Around KD 38,000.
The one with 215 HP costs € 119,000. Around KD 46,000.
With these prices could the jetlev flyer be the next big summer activity in Kuwait? To use this machine you need 10 hours of training first, but I’m totally picturing this machine being rented in Kuwait for say, KD20 for a 10 minutes ride, with less than 10 seconds worth of training.
Yeah so I was looking for this book ‘The cry of the peacock’ in every country I’m in for about a year and a half now, I even told my brother to look for it all over london when he was vacationing there last christmas (maskeen dar 390 book shops with no luck. It’s out of stock and print, he said). So I finally had to order something off amazon and thought might as well include a couple of books in the shipment (I hate ordering online coz I don’t like to wait for stuff to be delivered. Yup I’d rather waste a year looking for the book instead). So when I finally received the book it turned out that I ordered more than one copy (not shifa7a, promise!). Anyones interested? I’m giving them away.. (the extra copies that is 😛 )
So.. (so many so’s in one post), I want to say something to those who like to read and immerse themselves in good books with middle eastern backgrounds.
1-“The Bastard of Istanbul” by the turkish author Elif Shafak is one of the best books I’ve ever read, it’s up there with the kite runner (yep thats the book I compare other books to). You have to read it if you haven’t done so already.
2-Alf Laila’s blog. It’s a blog by a talented Kuwaiti author. I’ve been following her writings and stories for a long time now, and I think she’s got the ability to write stories like the best of them. I hope she gets the recognition she deserves and I also hope that she finds it in herself to write the remaining parts of her latest story, Doubt, faster!
Since summer have officially begun, the guys at our chalet inflated the Fly Fish and went on with their annual summer routine, which lasts through out the summer. The Fly Fish is basically 3 Bananas stuck together, and it flies when the kayak pulling it goes fast enough.
I tried it for the first time today, and it beat all my expectations and more importantly my worries were subsided. it doesn’t strain your muscles, it doesn’t wear you down, and when it leaves the water and goes up in the air it isn’t as scary as it looks. And there is also some fishing, since they can use bass fishing resources specially for this, and catching the best fishes in the area.
A friend of mine recently told me about an asian restaurant, a sort of hole-in-the-wall kind of place. From the outside the place hardly looks like it’s worth it (shakla mayeswa baiza). The sign from the outside was plain old blah, it didn’t look inviting at all. Once we entered, we saw that its a small place with 4 places to sit (two 6 seaters and two 4 seaters). Later and after placing the orders, we had to share our table with a stranger coz we were sitting at a table for six, I didn’t want to relinquish the extra seats but it was hard saying no to a customer standing right on top of me, waiting for me to say yes to the waiter. You get the picture, the restaurant is small.. a la early bird. Read the rest of this entry »
Got this via an email from our friend Ansam, and according to the email this guy, Bo Bader, promises to deliver the best mangos in Kuwait to your door, with no delivery fees.
The parking was full and the place is crowded. I saw this empty parking spot and drove the car over just to discover that a very low form of life has taken up 2 spaces instead of 1. I don’t get how this type of people think! I mean how selfish they could get?! People like this guy disgust me.
I’m not the kind of guys who’d feel good damaging other people’s stuff, but today I KNOW I would’ve felt much better had I scratched both sides of the car with the tip of my key..
I filed a complaint instead (boring) and asked the management to take some action, they promised they will. Inshallah they will.
I just ordered paperbax. It’s a book holder, it keeps the book open and saves you the trouble of trying to keep the book open while reading. I’ll try it out as soon as I get it and then tell you what I think.
The USA won the game 2–1, and as a result, Colombia was eliminated from the tournament in the first round.
The BBC issued an apology the following day after its commentator said on another match that “the Argentine defender wants shooting for a mistake like that.”
