Flatly I want Wataniya Airlines back!

For local travel within the region there wasn’t an airline that could beat its price for comfort package, and the airport was so convenient that every other factor was minimized in comparison. Many people including myself are sick of Kuwait Airport, its a jungle and its frustrating getting to the planes when at Wataniya Airlines it was so easy and enjoyable it didn’t feel like you were in an airport. I got my starbucks, went to the lounge, sat down and relaxed before the flight.

These days I dread having these impromptu meetings in all different areas. I have to check Emirates, Middle East Airlines, Gulf Air, Jazeera, Royal Jordanian and any other airline thats going in the direction that I am going. I got used to only being at the airport 30 to 45 minutes before the flight, and now we are back to leaving the home 2 hours before the flight just to be sure I make it or nothing stops us.

I’m not the biggest fan of Jazeera since they treat their customers like cattle and if they could charge you extra for being a big guy then they would. Surprisingly Jazeera increased their prices from 20 to 60% for many of the desitionations right after Wataniya Airways made their anouncement. They still have their deals but it isn’t what it used to be, and its not like they aren’t making a lot of money with all the ridiculous amount of extra fees.

There is still hope for Wataniya Airways yet, and this is just a rumor that Wataniya Airywas will be coming back in different form. A lot of employees have found new jobs after leaving Wataniya because they didn’t know what their job status was and I’m assuming there is going to be a lot of legal issues going on with them. Wataniya Airways is now a nonoperating Airline but they aren’t going to be bought out, what they are trying to do is bid to buy Kuwait Airways. Wataniya Airways have 7 planes, 3 or 4 parked in Kuwait at Sheikh Saad Airport and the rest in Amaan Jordan, and they will have to pay $70 Million to Alafco as part of their lease payments for these planes, and that doesn’t include the other incuring expenses. The rule that has been stipulated in the bid for Kuwait Airways is that who ever bids for Kuwait Airways can’t be an operating airlines, and the government is reaching the final stages to put Kuwait Airways for a bid. So the step Wataniya Airways took is so they would be in prime position to buy out Kuwait Airways, and if they do take over then it would be a fantastic development. I really don’t have a clue how this is going to work out or how long it takes, but I hope it happens soon and I do hope that they take over Kuwait Airways.

I am a huge fan of Chinese food and love having it whenever I have the chance. But everytime I have chinese food in Kuwait I am a bit disappointed, its never what I expect it to be and something is always lacking. I know people talk about Peacock as the best Chinese Restaurant in Kuwait, but in my case its a disaster I have gotten food poisoning from them twice and in one case I had to stay in the hospital for the night. The other fast food places usually have one or two good dishes but thats about it, and they are not very consistent. I go to London or the US and love the Chinese food, its amazing and so satisfying, every bite of it tastes good. But in Kuwait they just can’t seem to get it 100% right and I usually eat and then regret eating the food because it wasn’t worth it and I just don’t feel good after the meal. I have tried most of the places in Kuwait and they aren’t good even in Dubai I haven’t found a place with good chinese food.

About a month ago now there was hail storm in Kuwait during those five days of rain. I came back from my trip and noticed that my car had a few bumps, at first I thought it was a cat that jumped on the trunk, only to notice that it was all over the car. I mean a lot of dings on the hood, roof, doors, trunk, and side panels. I lost count but they were at least 60 bumps all over the car, I’m sure it got up to 80 but it was useless to count at that point.

At first I took it to the dealership to see what work needed done and how long it would take. I was told it would need about 5 days and certain body panels would need to be painted after the work was done, and it would cost anywhere between 800 to 1200 KWD. I couldn’t blame them on the quote the whole car was banged up and needed to be worked on. My friend told me to take the car to Dent Xpress, they do wonders and my cousin just dropped his car there it was banged up from the hail storm as well.

So I drove over to Nasser Center right next to Suncity in Shuweikh, they said they needed to see the car first. When I took the car they saw it right away and told me to bring the car in on Saturday 8 am, and it would cost 400 KWD. It was Wednesday and they were working on a black Porsche Turbo taking out the dings and it turned out to be my cousin’s car. They said they would need two full days to finish the car which is fine by me.

I took the car Saturday @ 8am to get worked on, they took the car right in and did their inspection, the car was riddled with dents. I left them to start working, and I was expecting a call towards the end of the day on Sunday or Monday morning. I got a call from the guys at Dent Xpress on Sunday at 10:30 am telling me my car was done, that was insanely fast. Faster then I expected really and they said I can pick it up any time today which is great. I went to pick up my car right after work and they had it in another back, excellent service and these guys know what they are doing. It was a lot cheaper then taking it to the dealership and a lot faster.

After all was done I had my car detailed at Al Falah and it looked brand new, without a bump it and looking all shiny. I highly recommend them to anyone who needs work done for their cars, they professional, effecient and clean. You fix your car without having to repaint it which would lower its value. Overall I think they did a fantastic should with the car and I would go back to them instantly if I need any work done.

Link: DentXpress

I wrote about The Proteges program about this time last year and what they do, and it seems they had a successful run with their 25 students. Its amazing the amount of talent there is in Kuwait and I’m hoping that they expand on this program. Currently they have seminar taking place in the College of Business Administration to give you a glimpse of what they do and to get an understanding of The Proteges. You should check it out today if you have a chance.

Get more familiar with The Proteges program, with a couple of inspiring mentors at College of Business Administration – Monday April 11th at 12:30PM in A2

(Click Pic for larger picture)

Subway sandwiches are one of my favorite because they taste fresh and don’t feel heavy after a 6inch sub. I was planning on having a 12 inch sub and I was very hungry, one time last week I called in and they said they didn’t have Turkey Breast for the sandiwch. I asked if they have alternatives and they said they have smoked Turkey which is fine by me, but it took about 5 mins on the phone to get them to understand what I mean by substitute. But last night was the worst, how can a company run out of Turkey when they make sandwiches, they told me that they are out of all kinds of Turkey except for one location in Burj Al Bahar in Hawally and they don’t delivery from there. The supply ran out, which is extremely unexpected, and I was hungry and didn’t have any other option. I really didn’t feel like eating something heavy, and at that point I was starving. How can a company operate like this? They don’t know what their needs are enough to judge the supply of fresh meat they should keep? There are so many subways in Kuwait I don’t know where they are but how could all of them run out of Turkey.

Due to the severe dust storms lately many areas like Qadsiya, Rumaitheya, Dasma, and a few other locations ran out of water. The water tanker trucks were all in line getting filled up. I remember a water tanker cost anywhere between 4 to 6 KD but this past week they were ranging from 10 KD to 20 KD which has never happened before. We had the summer of no electricity but it seems that we might have a summer of no water. The government hasn’t taken enough action to plan ahead for water and electrical requirements, and then there is the case of people wasting immense amount of water. I pass by so many houses where they just leave the hose running to clear the driveway and that drives me nuts. If they get the high pressure cleaner they can clean a car in about 1/5 the amount of water needed and much more effeciently. But after one severe dust storm people had no water the next morning in many areas which is very disturbing. I wonder which you can live without more electricity or water? I kept thinking about this but I for one have to shower in the morning, and living without electricity is fine for a little while. The one major solution to this is to charge people for their use and not subsidize 95% of the cost as they are doing with electricity. In both cases they should really make an effort to correctly charge for water and electricity and then people will control their usage when they feel the burn in their pocket.

For any geek visiting Professional computer in Hawally is like going to a candy a store. So much hardware and well positioned on the shelves, it is always fun walking in there. I walked in to pay for a minor PC refurbishment they did and picked up a few items that I needed.

There were so many keyboards, I saw some cool new Razor gaming keyboards. Then there were a lot of Netgear, D-Link, Buffalo, and Belkin switches, routers, and access points. There was a good selection of motherboards and graphics cards as usual.

I picked up a Buffallo Router/Access Point, Netgear 8-Port Gigabit Switch, and a Logitech 1100 Wireless Mouse. Was doing some major rewiring and network deployment, I always had a Buffalo AP back in the day and its a been while since they updated their APs so now I picked up a new one and opened it up the moment I got home.

This is probably one of the strangest and most fearsome sandstorms we have seen in Kuwait yet. Malls turned orange, cars were covered in sand, and houses were flooded with sand. Now the next day it was an insane cleaning ordeal but I didn’t think about what people would do other then clean their houses.

When driving around town the next day you see the long lines at car washes in different areas. There was a huge line at the Bayan Carwash backed up to the 5th ring road exit onto Fahaheel. The Qurtoba Carwash caused traffic on the 4th ring road to come to a stand still. Al Falah Car Wash was packed you would have to wait for hours to get your car washed. My car is still all dusty and I’m just waiting until things get back to normal to get it washed.

When I went to X-Cite Alghanim to pick up something I needed I saw a ton of people going back and forth to the Kitchen section and I didn’t know why when the rest of the place was empty and one ninja was playing around with the iPad 2. Then I was cart after cart of vacuum cleaners, air filters units, and portable AC units, they were going by the second, it made sense. Later on in the day I thought about getting a air filter only to find out that they were sold out in X-Cite, Electrozan, and Eureka. They must be making a fortune selling all their stock.

This weather storm literally came out of no where, we were sitting outside and saw something on the horizon and it was moving quickly. We started getting blackberry messages of people in the city and how it was enveloping the roads and buildings. It looked like a real moving creature and it looks angry. Within 20 minutes it was over us and day turned to night, then you could hear the call for prayer, it was an eerie feeling. We all headed inside to take take cover but the sand storm is out in full strength. Even while we are indoors the dust is seeping through the openings in the windows and doors, we tried putting wet towels in certain areas, but other then using electrical or masking tape we aren’t going to stop it from coming in. I don’t even know where this weather system came from, I feel sorry for those with allergies or stuck outdoors, I hope this clears up quickly or it rains very soon.

Viva 7.2MB Connection

All these speeds and insanity just keeps getting confused, nothing is really true until you get it in your location and do some testing. So I had a chance to try out all of the above and I had some surprising results, keeping in mind that Fasttelco is a 2MB Wimax Connection and not a landline connection.

Fasttest Connection:

• Viva 7.2 MB
• Fasttelco 2MB
• Viva 21MB
• Zain 21MB

Viva 21MB Connection

Most Constant/Stable Connection:

• Fasttelco 2MB
• Viva 7.2MB
• Viva 21MB
• Zain 21MB

Zain 21MB Connection

Those were some surprising results and you can see from download screenshots, and this is in Mishref, it could be different in other areas. Some people told me the best connection is the 21MB Viva connection in the city.