Since I’m going to be in London for a little while I thought it would be best to remain connected through one of the mobile Broadband providers. I wanted to have fast internet coverage where ever I am and most of the companies offer Pay As You Go USB Sticks but not all offer Pay As You Go MicroSims for the iPad. I had five options to work with for Pay As You Go:

• Vodafone (No iPad)
• 3
• O2 (No iPad)
• Orange
• Tmobile (No iPad)

I went to several of these companies and went to carephone warehouse to get the best deal. I also wanted to try a few of them because I might not have the best coverage at home. All of them have limited plans of 1 to 3 GB max per plan and you can top it off to increase the limit. ranging from £15 to £35 depending on the plan and type of USB stick. Out of all of them O2, Orange and Tmobile weren’t that good. Vodafone had a good plan but the coverage by my place isn’t too good but when I’m out its really good, but surprisingly the best out of the bunch for the Laptop and the iPad is 3 Network. And one other note, Mobile Broadband Internet in Kuwait is ALOT faster then the UK, but they can have the option of fiber to home but I was surprised how crappy their Mobile Broadband service in the United Kingdom.

There is a lot going on about the safety of the A380 and the reason for the failure of the engine on the Qantas A380 is still unknown but whats shocking is that the blades went through the wings and so the passengers and crew were lucky. Some airlines aren’t grounding their planes like Emirates and Singapore, but Qantas grounded their planes until this investigation is completed. They have a problem with the Rolls Royce Trent 900 engine, they still don’t know the main reason for the failure, the second is that parts fly out the back end and punctured the wings. Usually the front end of the engine can contain the blades if something goes wrong, but it seems part flew out the back end which didn’t contain the parts and damaged the wings, in principle if an engine is damaged its supposed to be designed in a way to contain the damage and not damage the rest of the plane.

When purchasing the A380s from Airbus you get two choices of engines, either a Rolls Royce Trent 900 or a GE and Pratt & Whitney GP7200. There are three airplane engine manufacturers in the world; GE, Pratt & Whitney, and Rolls Royce. Pratt & Whitney and GE decided on a joint venture to develop the engine for the Airbus 380. So in this case the GP7200 has no issues and all the A380s ordered by Emirates have the GE and Pratt & Whitney GP7200 so there is no reason to ground those planes. So the A380s from Emirates are safe to fly but I heard business class service in the planes isn’t too good and its understaffed, too many passengers and too few crew.

Link: Gizmodo

Only in London could you park a car like that, stuffing one tiny car between two small cars. It looks funny that this electric car is parked its nose to the sidewalk while all the others are parked normally. I really detest this little electric car, makes me want to kick it over every time I see it, I even think that I would be able to kick it over with just one kick. Even the smart car looks like a thing of beauty compared to this contraption. I think that everyone who drives this car thinks they are doing wonders for the environment and they are better then everyone else, I don’t think its doing anything for the environment but thats just my opinion. I love the mini cooper, and they think the Tesla & Chevy Volt are amazing machines, but this little machine is a piece of crap that should be thrown in the trash.

Took a few vacation days to catch up with some rest and headed to family in London. I still have a lot of work to do but luckily they can all be managed by emails so my presence isn’t required. It took a while to find a seat on the British Airways flight and it was packed full of people, I passed out almost the whole flight since I didn’t sleep the night before finishing as much work as possible. As soon as I landed I scrambled to immigrations since I knew it was going to be a long line and luckily I beat a few people to immigrations and by the time I went to baggage claim my bags were out, I haven’t seen Fast Track operational at anytime so we always get stuck in a long line. I changed into a thick sweater, scarf and a beanie before landing but the cold slapped me right in the face as soon as I exited terminal 5, it was a cold crispy feeling and I knew it will be fun. I’m looking forward to walking around and going to a few movies, I know I’m going to go pick up some bike gear while I’m here.

The last few weeks have been insane! I just can’t believe how meetings I have been to and how long some of them take, and I had to fly to Dubai out of the blue for an urgent meeting, I took the night flight instead of the 7 am flight, it would cut too close to my meeting and any delays would have been a huge problem. I really didn’t feel like taking off since I had too much on my plate already, I wished I could have cloned myself to manage everything that I had to do. Sleeping isn’t an option these days and writing reports, visiting family and getting some personal work done, all before a Eid trip. I honestly felt like I have been running for the past few weeks with very little breathing room but I love when I get work done, and I know I keep saying this but there isn’t enough time in the day. And this weather is just amazing, I hope it continues to be this good until at least April but thats probably hoping for too much.

At one point in Dubai Airport I fell asleep at the Gate and the Wataniya Airways staff woke me up to board the plane back to Kuwait. I was one of the first people there but the last to board. I was so exhausted by the end of the day that I passed out. It was a choice between being hungry and being sleepy, I couldn’t even wait for food, I passed out before take off and I leaned my chair back not caring that we haven’t even moved from the gate yet. I’m hoping to catch up with some rest in the next few days!

One recommendation, if you have lots of work in Dubai and want to check out late I recommend that you stay at The Address Club Rooms or Suites. They have an excellent policy of your check out time being the same as your check in time. So I came in at night around 11 pm then my check out is 11 pm the next day. So I had meetings from 9 am until about 3:30 pm, I went back to my room and napped for about 30 minutes before taking my time to check out which is fantastic. The normal room is 114 KD but the Club Room was 154 KD, but I would have paid for half a day which would cost an extra 70 KD because they charge half the normal rack rate, so overall its much better to get the Club Room if you need to check out late. I for one don’t like packing up and leaving early from the hotel and going to meetings and dragging my carry on with me, even if I’m going to walk around the mall.

With Zain you have a choice of two plans, International or Local, with International you get an extra 10 MB for international use and unlimited local, with Local you get no allowance for international but you get unlimited local. With both plans you pay 6 fils per KB, with the international you get that fee once you go over the 10 MB monthly allowance. Now because of all the pricing and billing blunders that people suffered while traveling internationally with a local plan Zain switched off Blackberry Service for people who travel internationally but with a local plan. If you want Blackberry Service running but you want to keep your local plan you have to go to Zain and sign documents stating that you understand the bills against you. Now I can understand the billing issue but they seriously have to find a way to warn people when they are reaching their limits instead of just cutting them off. My friends just learned about this little change in policy while they were traveling, so even if they wanted to activate their Blackberry service they would have to go to Kuwait and sign the document and then they would switch it on, so no way to do it while you are abroad. But for those who don’t want to switch it on you can still use the Blackberry service internationally when you are connected to a Wifi connection.

I had to go to Beirut a few days ago for a short trip, a few meetings and a few outings with friends. So I booked on Wataniya Airlines and took the normal economy ticket for 60 KD since I booked early and I haven’t traveled in economy for a while but the seats were very comfortable. I just flew Jazeera Airways recently and the leg space was a bit cramped but in Wataniya the seats were very reclined and very good leg room which I enjoyed. One other major plus is that they have power outlets in economy which I haven’t seen in other airlines.

While I was there I just couldn’t stop eating, there is a lot of good food in Lebanon. I know it sounds a bit funny saying this but I Lebanese food in Lebanon tastes a lot better then any where else. Then there is the Solidaire area which is a lot of fun to walk around, the area around there just keeps getting better and better. We went to one amazing restaurant in Rumana called Mounir and their food was amazing but to get their you have to be an F1 driver. I seriously can’t drive in Lebanon, you have to have insane driving skills and there is an art form to honking because you have no clue what the other person is going to do. I honestly love Lebanon there are so many nice places to visit, and I enjoy passing by their art and furniture stores but I never really have time to walk around and take a look.

Now this is some interesting news, Wataniya Airways has signed a code-sharing program with Austrian Airlines to expand their services, that is a great step forward for them. They are now opening 19 new European destinations for very cheap rates London for 99 KD, Milan for 122 KD. Its good that Wataniya Airways is expanding at a gradual rate and being smart about it, I just hope they stay in their current location in Sheikh Saad Airport but I don’t think that the airport is enough for their flights at this point. Then there is also the idea now that Wataniya Airlines might join the Star Alliance since Austrian Airlines is owned partly by Lufthansa, well its a possibility at least.

This is the first time I pass by the new Ducati store by the Autodrome, and its right next to the Autodrome and one hell of a dealership. I walked in thinking that I was at the candy store, I kept looking at each machine. The new Monster 796 looks really good, and I loved the 1198R they had up on the second level. The design of the store is fantastic with so many bikes to look at, I just couldn’t get enough. If I wasn’t wearing a dishdasha I would have had my leg over each and every bike.

There was even an 848 Evo in the back, and that looked like a beautiful machine that I couldn’t get enough of. Those beauties kept teasing me every time I look at one of them, now to wait for the Ducati Diavel coming out in a few months, based on what the sales guy said it will be on the show room floor sometime between February to March.

Meetings nonstop for all these days, but luckily they were all bunched up in the morning. Surprisingly Dubai was pretty packed for Gitex, and I’m assuming that its going to be even more insanely packed during Eid holiday. The weather has been amazing while we are here, somewhat cool and warm at the same time. I tried watching a few movies in my free time but there wasn’t too much of that either, but we did walk a lot while we were here. The first day we got here we passed by Dubai Autodrome and saw a few entertaining things, I’m not a big fan of the Autodrome since the track is a bit on the small side with not enough straight aways to push the car into high speed corners.