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.
“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.” Read the rest of this entry »
Today i got a lesson for my SLR in yousef’s house which was instructed by Yousef, explained to me the basics and let me try it out and i came up with these pics. All what tha I need now is some comments about my first pics 🙂
My vacation is finally coming to an end. I’m leaving this beautiful place tomorrow back to Kuwait. I spent over two months here, and I still have it in me to stay for an extra year or two..
I took my suitcase and checked it in at the airport so i wouldn’t feel rushed and in a hurry on the day of flight. The bag was heavy and there was possibly a 2 or 3 kilos of excess weight. We did some precautions and brought an extra bag with us to lighten mine just incase it needed some lightening, thank God that didn’t happen, coz we were lucky to have dealt with a guy, not a girl, at the check-in counter. Girls at check in counters are crazy, no offense, but the ones I dealt with are.
Anyway. I hope the weather in Kuwait isn’t too cold coz I didn’t pack any warm clothes.
We just bought a new cooler that deals with these large bottles but the problem now, where can I buy a new empty one? i dont want to subscribe with Alroudatain or Abraj company which delivers these kind of large bottles, What i want is to get one so i can fill it at home. Does Anyone know any place in Kuwait that sells them?
My Mother and I were in the car the other day. An old guy with black clothing and a black hat wanted to cross the road and i stopped for him. Mom then pointed out that this guy is a jew.
This got me thinking about how we’re always taught to hate the jews, never talk to them, not be friendly with them..etc.
Me: How come we’re taught not to like and interact with jews? Mom: No, there is nothing wrong with befriending the jews. Me: But we were always lectured on how its almost a national duty not to like them. Mom: We don’t like Israel. The country and the government but not the jews themselves. The prophet (PBUH) had jews connections and did trade stuff with them. Me: oh.. Mom: We were talking about the jews in Kuwait the other day and flana (a relative of ours) told me this interesting story about them living in Kuwait back in the 30’s.
There was a street in Kuwait that was famous coz a lot of jews were living there, they called it the jews street, “fereej ilyohood”. they lived among us till the 1930s. They used to come visit every once in awhile. They liked my mother’s mother. They left kuwait in the late 30’s to Israel. They were rich people; they did a lot of lending and saving, they also had lots of gold. When they decided to leave Kuwait to Israel (via boats to Basra, Iraq), the news travelled fast (back then everybody knew everybody else, literally) so some young men from various Kuwaiti families (young guys from the royal family too) wanted to steal the jews’ gold. They waited till it was dark and no one was around, then went to the jews’ boats and dug holes in them. When the jews set sail in the early morning the day after, the boats started leaking and eventually they started sinking.
Almost all of the jews lived in Kuwait and left with no harm and were treated nicely. Only a small group were targeted by an even smaller group of Kuwaitis (Sawwadallah wyoohom) and when their boats went down, they left a lot of gold behind.
I was supposed to be back today from my short trip to Oman, but since I finished work earlier than expected I decided to cut it short and be back a day earlier. I didn’t tell anyone that I’d be home earlier, and I did manage to surprise them all. When I came into the living room, my wife was there, and she was not expecting me at all. After the salams, She was started acting all weird and started shoving me toward out of the living room to another room, that was weird so I asked her “whats going on!” and she said “Nothing!” I didn’t know anything about it till I went to get a glass of water and saw gift boxes on the dining table, being wrapped, and the whole table was messy from all the gift wrapping paper and stuff.
When I saw the gift, I got excited, but still didn’t know it was for ME! and I asked her whom is the gift for? and she said “You, it was supposed to be ur birthday gift.” My birthday is in september.. so she said that I can have the gift now, but this is it!
Thanks Ahmad for Conspiring with your sister, again. You both got me an amazing gift. 🙂
They did it first.. and 20 years later, we copied them. What a shame. I really liked our Liberation tower, I thought it was original. Couldn’t they think of something else?!
Anyway. I’m back from my little away time in Salzburg. I had a great time (the pictures are coming up). I really wanted to post while I’m there but the hotel’s wifi went down as soon as I logged in. No internet in the rooms, just in the lobby. They told me they’re gonna fix it soon but nothing happened till I checked out. I bet it’s back up and working right now. garada.
Today at 4:00PM i will be leaving Kuwait inshalla heading to Muscat for a work related trip, actually the day before yesterday i was told to pack and travel to Muscat, i will be staying 1 night in Muscat then i will go to a small town called Nizwa, This is my first time to visit Oman so I’m wondering what it will look like? what shocked me that there is no direct rout from Kuwait to Muscat! walah fashlah! I even checked with my miles booking to see if I can get a flight but no! Any way Dubai will always be there and my transit will be through Dubai and i will stay in Oman around a week inshallah and i hope to be able to post from there.
i love what Zain is doing in the past 2 years which is targeting the whole world, they want to expand as fast as they can! which is obviously amazing! this is their new ad which is pretty good too, Sara7a i loved their previous ads.
More over if any one want to put this as a ring tune for his/her mobile i just uploaded it so you can download it directly through our site.
Forget the APM post we want this machine instead to be in every Mcdonald’s in Kuwait. I would’ve loved using the machine that day instead of waiting inline for over 10 minutes. I don’t get it, why was there a line and lots of people waiting when they could’ve easily used the machines? I would have, had I spotted them before placing my order.
Yes we grow Mango trees as well and now they are ready to be eaten! 😛 remember when i told you guys that we’ve got mango in our house? now they are (nethaaw). We have enough dates to fill 10 fridges, grapes and mangos, A couple more fruit trees and we won’t need to go to the fruits sections in supermarkets 😛
My brother once told me not to try any chinese restaurants outside of Kuwait. He said that the chinese restaurants in Kuwait are very careful when cooking the dishes, they don’t want to alienate their Kuwaiti customers by cooking real chinese food, coz sometimes its too much for them to handle. My Brother basically said that in Kuwait they cook Kuwaiti friendly chinese dishes.
My brother’s favorite chinese restaurant in the world is Peacock in SAS Hotel, since Peacock is highly overrated in my opinion, I tried to take his advice with a grain of salt. I wanted to prove and make a point to myself, that there are good chinese restaurants out there, somewhere.
Today, I was out by myself, and I like to try new places when there is no one around. The reason I don’t prefer eating at new places with people with me is coz I don’t like the disappointed look and the “its all your fault” stare when the food turns out to be inedible (which often is the case). Anyway, As I was saying, I was out by myself and wanted to try a chinese restaurant, to prove a point. I entered the first restaurant I saw. Its called Chez Leung. There was no one inside besides the 2 chinese guys eating at a table near the kitchen and talking with the waitress, they were her friends, I think.
I chose a table and sat. I inspected the place for awhile, thinking to myself “this looks like a nice authentic restaurant. Look at the plants, the frames, the little plastic kitty waving, the plants again, the music… err.. the music?!” the Eagles “Hotel california” was playing from the speakers. Not so authentic. I was expecting some whiny girls singing words I don’t know. The waitress came, very friendly, took my order then went to the kitchen, all the while smiling like she’s just seen a friend. I took out my laptop, no wifi signal, returned the laptop back only to find the waiter standing next to me with my starters. The dish came out fast, definitely not a good sign. My starter was chicken on toast with sesame. It tastes bland, I couldn’t really taste the chicken, it tasted like a dessert called Samsamiya, Which I hated since I was little. My brother was half right by that now. But there was still hope, a chance for me to be right for doubting my brother. Not so long after she took my first dish, she came back with the main course, Hot & Sour chicken. It did not look very appetizing, and the mood they’re trying to set with the music is not working out well. By now George Michael’s “Careless whisper” was playing, followed by “you take my breath away”, Savag Garden’s “I knew I loved You”, Bryan Adams’ “Everything I do”. At first I was blaming the radio for playing all those songs, but after hearing them all back to back it was clear now that it wasn’t the radio playing all those songs, it was a them.. the restaurant! coz no radio would risk its reputation by playing all these sappy songs consecutively! (unless its 99.7 RKFM).
I finished eating and asked for the check. I couldn’t have been more off with the restaurant choice. The food was horrible, The place was not as authentic as I hoped for (I saw a ketchup bottle) and the music selection was… no comment.
I paid and headed to the door, A song started playing as I was stepping out the door, I couldn’t really catch it, it went something like this “If… I.. Shoould stay.. I would only… be in..”
Yeah its not a typo, the sport’s name is Bossaball (my mac is underlying it with a red line as i type 😛 I guess it is a typo afterall). I never heard of it but going by the video it looks like a really fun sport.
From wikipedia:
“Bossaball is a sport invented in Belgium. It is similar to volleyball, but also includes elements of football (soccer), gymnastics and capoeira. Each side of the court has an integrated trampoline, allowing players to bounce high enough to spike the ball, and a number of inflatable barriers.
Bossaball clubs exist in various countries including Brazil, Germany, Netherlands, Spain, Portugal, Romania, Singapore, Kuwait and Ecuador.”
For more information about this sport take a look at Kuwait’s Bossaball site HERE.
I was shocked to see that our chalet produced grapes! Me, Ali and some other friends found the grapes (pictured above) and Ali was the only one who tasted it. 🙂
