posted By Yousef

The billboard says “Anticipate the surprise.”

^ Click on it for a bigger version of the picture.

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^Click on it for a bigger version of the picture.

Forgive me if this is old news, but I saw Al Kalha restaurant the other day in Mishref’s international fair ground (arth alma3areth). Its a palestinian (or Jordanian, not sure) restaurant. My roommate back in the UAE was a Kalha addict, he loved their falafels.

Their Phone # 5390043.

Carrie, A girl born to a freakishly religious mother, never felt normal or accepted by her mother nor her peers. She was the butt of every joke, she came to expect a foot to be shot out at any moment to trip her and then another foot to kick her while she’s down, and ofcourse the laughs, always the laughs that followed every sudden bad turn of events.

Carrie then discovered, gradually, through her own forgotten memories, that she’s telekinetic (has the ability to move objects by mental power). What would you do if you were her?

When I read the reviews and how the book is considered a modern day classic, I thought I’d really like it. I liked some parts, but it was cheesy, the whole topic is old and beaten to death. Maybe it would’ve felt fresh and groundbreaking had I read it when it first came out in 1974, But now, It just feels cliched.

I enjoyed reading the book in general, but did not enjoy the story itself. It’s my first Stephen King book. I thought it would be a little scary, but it wasn’t.

About 2 weeks ago, when I was in france, I found out that we were having ummawash o hasho rebyan for dinner. I wasn’t really surprised, coz that day it was cloudy and raining, and Kuwaitis can’t be Kuwaitis if they do not eat ummawash or m3addas when its raining! its an unwritten rule.

I asked about the history of this Kuwaiti dish and learned the following:

Kuwaitis back in the day didn’t have refrigerators and they had to be creative and mix it up a bit when it came to cooking. They ate mostly grains with rice, dal (3adas) with rice and other stuff. Sheep were available and was a step up from plain rice, or rice with dal and fish dishes. Chickens weren’t widely available as it is now, chickens were expensive and most of the time a chicken dish would be cooked only for a sick person within the family (morale boost :P). In the summer they had all sort of sea food: Fish, Shrimps, Crabs and so on. But in the winter it was harder, and I think more expensive for people to get fishes and sea food in general, and thats why they started drying fishes and shrimps. The dried shrimps proved to be more resilient to the invention of refrigerators, whereas dried fishes are no where to be found on the Kuwaiti menus (and thank God for that! imagine coming home from work to find an ugly dried fish on the table..). Roberts Technology Group made it possible to preserve some of the products due to correct technology of packaging and wrapping.

Inspiration for this post.

Update:
Apparently the Kuwaiti menu have atleast one dish of dried fish, that is Marag Khobba6. I have never heard of it.

When I was studying there I couldn’t spend enough time in Borders, it always was a rush whenever I’m there; friends waiting outside, late for the movies or a restaurant.. etc. But this time, I was able spend all the time I wanted in Borders, and it felt good.

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We went to the chalet today and saw this on the side of the road leading to Alkhiran/Alzour area. The camel was dead and the car was very badly damaged. I took many pictures but when I saw them on the laptop’s screen they were very graphic. Poor animal. Attorney Amy Witherite would have a field day with this one! I hope the driver isn’t badly hurt.

fire-without-matches-or-lighter

Got this in an e-mail from INM.

We were having some technical difficulties all day today. The site wasn’t showing up for some people, and for others, including me, it was frustratingly slow. Turned out the hosting company had some server overload and they promised to have it fixed by now.

Thanks 9K2HN for the help. We appreciate You.

We just got an email with a picture confirming a post Mishary did weeks ago about Sephora opening soon in Kuwait. The location is Avenues phase II right in front of Caribou’s Cafe. The place is under construction now but will open soon.

Thanks a lot Om MiMi.

The conveyor belt at the suitcases’ X ray machine before the check in cunter, Dubai Airport:

One by one, the bags started to rise and fall over each other, the place was getting crowded, lots of people in one place trying hard to find and pick their bags, thats when I noticed that the little blue box containing our phones and wallets was about to get nudged out of place and all the things would fall into those little silver rollers. “Please! Hold the machine! just stop it for a second.. our things are falling” I said to the Emarati lady (clown face) operating the X ray machine. Her reply was: a disgusted look, a very obvious change in her face features that implied even more disgust, and a squeaky whiny “Whaaaat?!!”. Me and INM asked her again to stop/hold the machine coz we can’t find and pick the bags when there are lots of other bags piling up by the second.. She stopped the machine to say “I can’t stop the machine!!” “You just stopped it!” INM pointed out. She gave another condescending reply and showed disgust. We picked our bags and started walking toward the check-in counter. We were a good distance away from her when I said to INM “she don’t know how to operate the machine” (mat3arf teshte’3il).

Next thing we know, someone barked nearby and came up to us. He was a nobody, a tiny officer, who I think was employed to fill a void that never existed. He was Emarati too. The guy (greasy hair) heard my comment to my friend about clown face and was offended on her behalf. She did NOT hear me. He raised his voice and began motioning with his hands and asked many questions. “Yes I told my friend that she’s doesn’t know how to operate the machine. I don’t think she’s doing her job properly, thats just my opinion” I said to greasy hair, and he started to bark even more and asked for our passports (the passports were with Mishary, and he was at a counter very far away from us) He demanded the passports and INM went to bring them. Long story short, the guy took our passports, asked about our take-off time, and we told him that its on 8:20. He gave us a look that said “You might not be on that plane when it takes off.” Seeing him in that pose trying a bit too hard to fake authority was a sight out of a sitcom.

A little while later many officers came and started questioning us. We told them what happened. No one believed us. Greasy haired nobody said “He yelled at her to stop the machine then yelled again and told her how she’s not doing her job properly and how she can’t operate the machine. He was yelling at her!” Me and INM couldn’t believe our ears. The guy was lying his face off! We asked him if that is exactly what happened? “Wallah thats what happened!” He lied. We raised our hands as to say “We can’t compete with a lier”.

The questioning lasted a good 30 minutes. Me and INM stood our grounds. We did not offend clown face. She did not hear us. We did not want her to hear. greasy hair heard us and he told the girl what we said. But now that we’re painted guilty and liars, I stopped talking to the guys and asked clown face one question..

Me: Was I standing facing you, yelling at you and saying….etc?
Clown face: You said mat3arf teshte’3il.
Me: To you? Did you hear me? Was I standing there and yelling at you with those words?
Clown face: she was portraying 2 looks now. *disgusted look* and *I can’t believe he’s talking to me and no “sorry” came out yet* look.
Me: Did you hear me say that to your face, Was I Yelling?!!
Clown face: What difference does it make!? You said it!!
Me: I’M ASKING YOU! JUST ANSWER THIS ONE QUESTION!

You see if I got to prove that she did not hear me and that I wasn’t even addressing her with my remark, let alone YELLING, I would prove that greasy hair was lying and clown face too was not saying the whole truth and that they had no case. The other officer sensed where I was going and stopped me “You don’t get to ask questions, only we do.”

Clown face: At first I was ready to forgive them but now I want to take them to the airport police office! (Her demand was ignored by everybody).

She was expecting a “I’m sorry” from me. Poor thing.

Nothing got to me till now, nothing. Not until the fat officer started handing us our passports.

He said many things. 2 things stood out:

1- Keep your opinions to yourself the next time, We don’t want to hear them.
2- We, emiratis, don’t insult employees while they’re doing their jobs (the way he said was a direct stab at my country and it offended me as a Kuwaiti).

I was offended by Dubai’s airport employees. We were talked down upon. Implicitly called liars many times. Treated as if we were criminals.

And all that for what?

For asking clown face to hold the X ray machine to stop the bag piling on top of our stuff and then telling my friend (far away from her) how I think she’s incompetent.

ma agool ila…. Malat 3albamyah.

This place is probably one of the worst looking shops and most unsanitary place to pick some food or drinks at, But amazingly it’s extremely crouded at every single hour of the day. I love this place, The best Karak (Tea with milk/Chay 7aleeb) can be found there.

This is the approximate location.

We arrived at Dubai’s airport 40 minutes late due to some annoying bearded guy who refused and his family to sit in the seats they were given. The guy didn’t stay onboard for long coz he didn’t accept the seats given and they didn’t have any choice other than letting him off the plane. The reason of the delay and the apologies were announced over the speakers atleast 5 times, They were quite mad at the bearded guy when they phrased the reason. Anyway, As soon as we arrived we rented a car and headed to Burjman. We window-shopped for a bit and then went to The Noodle House; The happiest place on earth.

I’m a big fan of The Noodle House. I used to eat there 2wice a week when I was studying there.. I was happy they decided they wanna eat there. It’s been like 5 months since I last ate there, and I missed it.

The food is unparalleled, no matter where I go and how many chinese/Asian dishes I try, The Noodle House remains the best in every way.

We’re planning on taking Dubai by storm and make the most out of the little time we have here.

I came across the image above while on wikipedia and it reminded me of some images I took back in june when I was in Montreux.

The pictures are of the same view. The old one is a painting, obviously, a 200 year old painting of Montreux and it’s lake by an artist named Joseph Mallord William Turner. It was painted in 1810. The picture on the other hand was taken in june of 2008. Almost 200 hundred years ago Mr. Turner sat somewhere close to where I was taking pictures and made that painting. Two images of the same place that are 200 hundreds years apart.

An excerpt from the official site:

“The Tiger Woods Dubai, a member of Tatweer, is a private residential community and resort that will include the world’s first golf course designed by Tiger Woods – Al Ruwaya.
Embodying Tiger Woods’ vision of creating a spectacular, challenging golf course, Al Ruwaya, will be a 7,800 yard, par 72, 18 hole championship course with dramatic elevation changes, lush landscaping, stunning water features and an overall design that will challenge and entertain golfers of all playing abilities.
Luxurious residential and hospitality components will include residences, a boutique hotel, a well-being spa, a fine dining restaurant, a professionally staffed golf academy and clubhouse.”
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^Click on the picture for a bigger version.

Pictures were taken in Geneva on 8/8/08. It’s a 3 wide-angled pictures merged to form this panorama view.

Can you guess what those things are?

Update:

Ok so those things aren’t as uncommon as I thought they’d be.. You got it right, all of you 😛 They’re salt & paper shakers. We got the white and blue couple.

I took my Nintendo Wii to AlRehab in Hawally to solve the previously mentioned problem. I asked around till someone suggested trying a shop called The Japanese Corner “Alrukn alyabany.” The guy there said I need to upgrade “a6awwer” the console so it could play NTSC, PAL and DVDRs. He asked for 20kds for the chip he’s going to install, and we ended up agreeing on 18kd. 2 hours later the chip was installed.

The problem is partially solved now, Mario galaxy worked but Mario Kart didn’t. I’m going back to the shop to see what could be done.

Thanks for the tip guys.