When ever I’m in London I make it one of my top priorities to go eat at the Phoenix Palace and to make sure that I am very hungry. Its very easy to find, just off of Baker Steet & Marlyben Road. Walking in I noticed that they have expanded the whole place to a larger entrance and more tables, and still the place was full. They seated me on a four person table even though I was on my own. It was around 12:30 in the afternoon and the place was packed, business people, families, and a lot of Chinese. You know its a good sign when people from the country of cuisine go there to eat, and they always know what to order from what I have seen at Phoenix Palace.

Right off the bat I knew what I wanted to order, two appetizers and one main course for my meal for getting on the plane. Sesame Prawn on Toast, Vegetable Spring Roll, and a Peking Duck. They have the best tasting Peking Duck I have ever had in my life, I have been going to this restaurant for over 5 years now and its still as a good as every time I eat there, and I’m never disappointed. I usually want more people to come with me so I can order more dishes and share it with people, I never had any dish that I didn’t enjoy, the chow meins, the noodles, the rice, chicken and shrimp dishes, all so tantalizing, you feel as if they are tickling your taste buds. If you ever have a chance while in London and your craving Chinese food then this place should be the only place to visit.

Phoenix Palace Chinese Restaurant
5 Glentworth Street, London NW1 5PG
Tel: 020 7486 3515
Fax: 020 7486 3401

Its been a long while since I have been in a bookstore in the UK, as soon as I passed by Waterstones I stopped to check out the books. The reason I like Waterstones is because they have a recommendation section where people who work there recommend books with short reviews which are pretty interesting, they give you a mix of choices and different genres to enjoy.

I was walking around and tempted to buy a lot of books but kept walking as I still had a lot of books to read. My favorite section in the bookstore is the Scifi section, Waterstones always seem to be updated with a lot of books for science fiction and fantasy. So I headed down to my shocking surprise I found the new Trudi Canavan book, I didn’t know she had one out, I was happy as kid in a candy store, I flipped through it real quick, I didn’t think I would get to read any of her books anytime soon but lo and behold she had a new book. So I picked that up right away knowing that I will be reading it very soon. So many other books I skimmed through, I just took their names down to be noted for later, I have a list of a few dozen books that I want to read, but if its fiction I don’t mind picking it up any point in time. I just love the smell of books and paper in Waterstones, never could get enough of it.

Emirates stating a profit increase of 248% for this year, so I’m not sure why they got money loaned to them from Abu Dhabi if they are making this much of a profit. Now they have just ordered 32 more of the Airbus 380s at the Berlin Air Show, which are the double decker planes. From previous information they currently have 10 of the Airbus A380s in service to 8 destinations. Now that is adding to the 58 A380s that they have already ordered, so they are going to have a massive fleet of A380s at this rate, so what destinations they have in mind I’m not sure. They are going to outgrow there current airport Terminal 3 that they have recently built at alarming rate.

Link: Luxist

When I have short trips in London I usually like staying somewhere I’m familiar with, and St. Martin’s Lane is always at the top of my list of choices. Good service, attentive staff, good food, everything within walking distance, and the best part is that its always active with people coming and going. For the few days I was there I noticed paparazzi sitting on the opposite street waiting for someone to come out, but I was so busy I forgot to ask.

I booked a Loft King with a package deal of 20% discount so I got a very nice room with a nice view for the price of standard room. Whats good is that they do have a lot of different packages available if you book early enough with decent pricing for London. The best part is walking out and heading in any direction from that hotel, lots of interesting places to go to, and you can easily find a black cab in that area. I didn’t realize how much I missed London after getting there and it was sunny and cool, and so many bookstores to visit but I didn’t have too much time on my hands.

Link: SML

The last couple of days I have been going from meeting to meeting at a ridiculous rate not even being able to enjoy the beautiful weather while I was in London. British Airways are on strike so I took Royal Jordanian, and I had a meeting in Amman on the way back. I have to say that I was very impressed with Royal Jordanian, the service was fantastic and the planes are brand new, pricing is decent, but the airport is a old.

Getting into London Thursday I met up with some friends but I was still busy with work and my phone wouldn’t stop ringing. I wanted to see a movie at night but I was too damn exhausted that I passed out as soon as I got to the hotel. The next day I had meetings in the early morning onwards but I managed to get some time later in the day to go see one movie, but the weather was amazing in London and everyone was outside walking around. I didn’t realize how much I have missed London it’s been a while since I’ve walked around, then I realized how long its been since I took a long vacation. The stay in London was too short and too busy with work but I managed to get a lot done, then headed to Amman for one meeting then back to Kuwait.

Packing list before traveling is always a troubling task, I make a list every time and I still forget something or I wish I brought something with me. This is a work trip coming up with meetings packed for three days of traveling and two days of meetings. The bouncing back and forth is going to be very annoying to deal with but at this point I’m going to take advantage of the travel time to catch up with some shows and work on PC while on the plane. Filling up the HD and making sure I pack up everything always takes some times, and 80% of the time I forget the headphones to the last minute and I don’t like using the normal headphones when I got used to the in-ear headphones.

Packing List:

• Other Currencies
• Passport
• Personal Moleskine
• Work Moleskine
• Canon G11
• iPad
• iPod Touch
• Maximum PC & Wired Magazines
• Work Documents
• Business Cards
• Phone, Camera, Laptop Charger

I always knew that Dubai got really tough on traffic laws over the years. I even experienced it myself with all those cameras so I even opted out from driving in Dubai due to my speeding. But this video is just something else, I would never expect to see this in the UAE, burnouts, doughnuts, stunting and all kinds of driving ridiculousness. And if it did happen then the police would come down very hard on them. If you have too many traffic violations the cops even come to you to impound your car, but burn outs in the middle of the high and stunting is not something I would expect to see in the UAE, Kuwait yes, Saudi definitely, UAE didn’t think so

A lot has been going on with Wataniya Airlines over the past 6 months. They got a new plane, now it seems like they have a total of 5 planes, and more staff hired. They are now even changing the way you check in at first class, and now as soon as you check in, you can have your passport stamped right away so you only have to go through security to board the car to the plane.

New Routes:

• Rome
• Vienna
• Istanbul
• As well as all the others

Now they are even expanding the First Class lounge as they are expecting more and more people which is a great idea, I think they can even have more seeting inthe current area without any issue. So the old passport area for first class being turned into a lounge for First Class. The best part now is that they offer Zaijil Wifi services in the lounge and airport, so you can purchase 2 hours for 1 KD or 24 hours for 3KD, and you can do the whole thing and charge it to your Zain mobile phone by sending a few sms which was extremely easy, and I was online with my iPad. Now this makes it easier to sit early in the lounge and relax without any issues.

I have been flying Wataniya Airways continously throughout the Middle East and so after a couple of months I go to the Silver Diwan Card from the Purple Card. So even if I fly economy I get to use the lounge now and also get one person in with me which is pretty good for Silver, usually that doesn’t happen until your Gold with Emirates and that takes a lot to get there. I just hope they open up more routes and hopefully to London soon with a new plane that can fly a longer range, as it is right now British Airways is too expensive and the services are lacking for that price.

This the view from our balcony looking down, I just couldn’t get enough of it. The weather was perfect while sitting out in the balcony you feel a cool wind hitting you. They really knew what they were doing when they created this whole project, this is real smart development on their end, they created something to look at internally while its only man made. The whole huge fountain area is man made with the Bellagio type dancing fountain, which is the biggest in the world. The view is perfect when looking down, you see The Palace Old Town to the Left, Dubai Mall to your right, and Burj Khalifa right in front of you. The best part is walking around there and so many restaurants to choose from. We were there for 48 hours, I flew in later on the Wataniya Airways 7:00 am flight and left the next day at 11 pm back to Kuwait. The best part is that you never really have to leave the area, so many things to do and so many places to choose from to eat in. Plus we managed to see a lot of movies which was the best part of the trip, a movie marathon in 48 hours.

I have been passing by Dubai Mall constantly over the past couple of trips to Dubai, and I have never seen this Hobby Center on the third floor. And I spell it “Center” because the other way is just wrong. The place is huge in comparison to a lot of Hobby Shops I have seen, MyToyCo in Kuwait is really nice but this is just something else. They have every kind of machine can imagine helicopters, trucks, buggies, sports cars, planes, speed boats, tanks, and even semi-trucks with trailers. That doesn’t even include the number of models they have laying around. You have a choice of gasoline or electric machines, there is even a plane which is bigger then me hanging on the wall and you can find items ranging from 100KD all the way to 6000KD or even more. They have a huge selection and professional staff, spare parts, and a ton of accessories.

When I was inside I had a strong urge to buy a Speed Boat and RC Truck but I decided not to with what common sense I had left at the time. The kid in me was jumping for joy, I wanted to take one of those cars right out into the mall and start sliding around and drifting. There was one Tamiya truck which looked really cool but I decided not to get it since it was big and I didn’t have anywhere to put it, and I didn’t want to carry it with me since it would be a burden. But their selection is amazing, and if you have any interest then you should seriously go there, it was amazing and really got me thinking about getting a simple RC Truck. The speed boat was pretty cool but the guy said it had to be driven in ocean water since these little machines are basically like bullets on water and would be destroyed within seconds in a pool. I visited there twice in one day and I couldn’t get enough of it!