Everytime Im driving my car or riding my bike I always keep an eye out for women driving and what they are doing. They are completely oblivious to anything in their surroundings.
Its like they drive with a real intent of killing someone, I dont think if someone wants to kill you they can do any worse then the way some women drive. I was almost taken out this Friday by a woman on the cell phone who was in the middle lane wanting to make a right. We were on Damascus street, and she wanted to exit into Surra while talking on the phone. I was directly on her right, not behind her in a blindspot, but relatively forward so that her side view mirror was directly on my left. She started leaning quickly and I looked at her and she wasn’t even looking, she was just mouthing off on her phone.
When she turned hard right hard I tried getting away but I couldn’t since there was a car in front of me with no opening, I had to break hard and try to cut right. I took the corner extremely hard, I tried break as much as possible before going into the exit. I dropped from 100 Km/h down to 50 Km/h (the whole time she was still on my left) and took a 90 degree turn which I would usually do going 25-30 Km/h. I was stuck between two cars taking the turn and my extincts made me dip hard and pushout quick going at 50 Km/h. She didn’t notice me until we were into the turn and she still didn’t do anything. SHE WAS STILL TALKING! I knew I was going to run into women like that in Kuwait but not like this. Hamdilla I was lucky enough to be able to react, also if I wasn’t on this bike I don’t think I could have taken the corner like I did with it. I dropped extremely low and went in really fast.
I turned to look at her, and my heart was beating at 1’000’000 Beats per second. She didn’t give it a second thought, she didn’t even apologize she just gave me a dirty look and drove off. I was pissed! I was happy I was able to narrowly escape. Why was I not surprised that she was muhajabah, this isn’t my first incident with women muhajabaat driving in Kuwait, its always like that and they don’t pay attention to the world around them. This all took place while I was on my way to work at 3:45pm on a Friday afternoon.
I’ve had some close calls, but this is this was the closest in Kuwait.
I have to say that I am not a chocolate person, and it doesnt entice me at all. Usually when you visit houses or when I come home I see pile of chocolate and I don’t even give it a second thought. This time I saw some chocolates in different kind of presentation then I saw it was from Chocolate Bar. I keep reading about people visiting Chocolate Bar and hearing about people visintg it, I’m not much of Chocolate person so I didn’t even go. When I saw the chocolate sitting on the table at home I thought why not try it out, I have no clue what it is or whats in it.
I tried the turtle looking chocolate and then the round one, and I have to say that both were nothing short of delicious! I never knew it could taste so damn good. All day long whenever I would pass by them I would stop to take one or two on way somewhere! These chocolates were presented differently and nicely, and on top of that they tasted fresh and chocolaty, it wasn’t too sweet that you get tired of it so I kept eating them throughout the day. I think I will be passing by Chocolate Bar one of these days.
Nokia 6300
Price: 130 KD
Nokia N93i
Price: 260 KD
HTC P3600
Price: 230 KD
Sony Ericsson W880i
Price: 185 KD
My friend has been asking me about setting up a proper home theater system in his house that he is building. So I told him if he wants something proper I can take him to ETC but his budget for the whole thing has to be between 7’000 KD and 10’000 KD for something proper. And most of that money is going into the projector since he can get some decent equipment with that. And this is something that will easily last him 6-9 years down the line. This is what I have seen from hometheaters in Kuwait and in the US. If your going to do it, then do it proper and do it once.
If you didn’t have a full budget this is what I proposed in the order of importance to the whole setup:
- A/V Reciever (7.1 DTS, THX Approved, 1080P, upscaler, HDMI 1.3, the works)
- Speakers (Mirage or Meridean top of line)
- Projector (at least 1080i HD)
- Screen (Retractable)
That is what I came up for him and he gave them the plans. They played for us Fantastic Four on 1080i with the high end projector off of the PS2 upscaled to 1080P through the Sherwood reciever and it looked amazing. It is probably the best I have ever seen, we were all mesmerized by it and I totally think it is worth it if you are into watching movies and spending a lot of time doing that. It couldn’t get any clearer, and the sound was just perfect. You could hear everything just as it is happening and you can’t get enough of it, its fantastic. I forgot we were only visiting.
They say they made these new plates to make it standardized in Kuwait and easy to read, but I know thats pretty much BS.
The real reasons are pretty simple:
- Somebody is making a huge profit off these new plates. Whenever they make new plates somebody just got the order to outfit the whole damn country.
- Cars from areas such as Ahmady, Farwaniya, Mubaraak Al Kabeer, and Jahra are valued less then cars that are registered in the City(Asimah) and Hawally. They say that it isn’t fair, but I think its fair to a certain degree. Usually the vehicles you get from the other areas the cars seem to be pretty beat up. I have seen some BMWs that look like they are pretty abused as if they just came out of battle with so many scratches and plastic parts falling apart, and when they want to sell they fix it cosmetically but not mechanically. I just think its total BS.
Other then that I think they are bland and ugly, previously you could see the other one s pretty clearly in my opinion.
I realized I had to renew my Schengen Visa since I might have to travel to Europe for work for a couple of days, and I had to check on the UK Visa as well, but I didn’t need that. This is the number of days it takes to get a Schengen Visa from any of these embassies except the UK is for the UK Visa. It could be less then the stated time, but that is the official number of days it takes to get that Visa it might be less. I got my Visa from the German embassy and it took 4 days.
To get a Schengen or UK Visa you need:
- Travel Itinerary with booked tickets
- Hotel Reservations
Austria:
Official Duration 2 Days
Germany:
Official Duration 4 Days
France:
Official Duration 15 Days
Spain:
Official Duration 7 Days
Italy:
Official Duration 10 Days
UK:
Official Duration 2 Days
Now this was an interesting event. My Landcruiser has almost no modifications to it what so ever with a light amount of tint, its more for this unbearable heat then anything else. So atleast in the summer I can touch my steering wheel after having the car on for 10 mins with the A/C on.
My vehicle registration was about to expire so I need to get the police vehicle check done. They usually take a look at your vehicle if its in working condition and your insurance and thats about it. This time the cop said my windows are tinted so I should remove them, and even with a little “help” they were saying that they would get charged for letting this vehicle through. I said thats rediculous and why are they concentrating just on the tint when they are letting banged up vehicles and smoke coming out to pass but not a light tint. I said you can see inside the car, this is for the damn heat but they still wouldn’t let it through. So I removed it myself to get it over with and it was hell to remove it, but I didn’t care. And I told them after they sign-off the paperwork I’m going to get it tinted right away and then he looked at me and he just signed my paperwork.
Then I went to Llumar and got my landcruiser tinted again, it was just two front windows they didn’t even notice the back and front were tinted. This whole process was just rediculous, the car is perfect working condition with almost no modification and so I was really annoyed. They are focusing and dumb things when they should be taking care of other more important things.
So yesterday my mother wanted to go somewhere to walk and so she said IKEA, I thought it was a good idea since I haven’t been there yet and I keep hearing about it. Its a bit hard to miss driving down the fifth ring road, so we drove in and I remember to park in the underground parking. I was suprised the place was packed full of people and everyone with their carts, kids, and family all over the place. I have to say that I like this IKEA more because things are more spread out and I feel like there is a better selection of things, since I was really familiar with the old store.
I find it funny when I’m always looking for the arrow on the ground, I bet if it wasn’t there people would really get lost. I have to say that IKEA brings together the biggest mix of people all in one place. It really is funny, I think it is probably the best place for people watching since you will see every kind of person and from every nationality in Kuwait. It was nice walking around there, I made a few mental notes to pick up a few things from there at a later point. That time was just a visit and I didn’t feel like picking anything up or waiting in those longs lines. I think they did a good job with the new IKEA.
What I have noticed recently is that people have been using the memory of Sheikh Jaber and other past Sheikhs of Kuwait to plaster stickers across their windows. Whats sad is that very few might be patriotic the most are just using it as an excuse to have their car completely tinted. It doesn’t seem that celebratory to me, and the decorations that our government puts up is the same lights that they have put up since 1991. Its not as if this isn’t our independence day and our liberation day, there should be an event to remember the Kuwaitis that passed away fighting for Kuwait during the Gulf War and remembering our POWs.
I remember when I used to look forward to these two days to celebrate proud days in Kuwait’s history, and for some reason it feels like it has just been turned into an administrative holiday and nothing else now. Maybe I’m asking for too much, but I really do wish the government would get it’s act together and we can get Kuwait back on track.
They will be out in force! I warn those who are in the streets it shall start so watch out. I will be avoiding all roads where there could be a possible attack.
Recommendation:
- Lock Your Doors as you Drive
- Have a bottle of Water to clean your eyes out just in case
- Avoid the crowded roads
War Front A
The Police are putting up barriers on the Gulf Road so that if you enter the Gulf Road from any point starting from British Embassy/Kuwait Towers you will not be able to exit until Bida’a/Rumaithiya. These barriers will force you to be stuck next to the idiots with the water guns that could be filled with anything and the kids who will try to open your door and spray you any way possible.
War Front B
In the beach house area such as Julai’a, Bnaider, Khairan, and Mina Abdulla there will be barriers put up by the police, there will be a lot of buggies around so watch out as you drive. From what I know there will be lots of people visiting that area as well from mukhayamaat or Camps. So its going to be very hectic, if you want to see then get on a high perch with a binoculars or get in your car and lock the windows.
I’m going to see if I can take pictures over the next couple of days, but I’m going to try to avoid getting messed up. Good luck to all!