i was going down to the underground parking where i spotted this sticker in the elevator advertising shisha delivery! i've heard of this before but this is the first time i actually learn about it in person.
i tried shisha for a while then i stopped this bad habit, nevertheless this got me intrigued - but since our house is non smoking, i guess i won't be able to call these guys and share the experience - anyways, here's the address if you want to see for yourself and let me know.
i read this unbelievable news in alqabas newspaper about this sheikh in saudi who issued a fatwa forbidding women from switching on the air conditioning in the absence of their husbands!!!! yes, this is true... not a joke at all!! the reason behind this thoughtful fatwa is that air conditioning in the house means the presence of a woman in a chilled environment, which encourages men to commit immoral acts!!
wth??? seriously now?? first of all one has to be stalking a woman in order to determine whether or not she is alone in that house or not, no? normally, no one can tell.
now let's assume that these women are cheaters and they call their partners in the absence of their husbands, is turning the air conditioning off a show stopper? really? why not put the lights off too? you know if the lights are on, it means women are in the house and this will greatly encourage immoral activities, especially in the evening - so no air conditioning and no lights, seems like the perfect place for a hot date!!
some men and their sick minds! cure the minds and all will be good.
i passed by johnny rockets yesterday and discovered the "new original" - basically the new burger comes with the same old ingredients, only with a softer, lighter patty and a softer bun - what they didn't tell me is that the bun is also a bit spicy, and that all this softness comes at a price: unbelievably messy!
the bun is so tender it can barely hold the ingredients, plus it breaks as you hold it, and the meat is so soft it falls into pieces! what made everything worse is the fact that burger was cut i half, big mistake there!
though the taste is almost the same, i still prefer the old original, think twice before you order the "messy"..
during our tour at the one yesterday, we spotted a large number of awesome items - there is no way we could share everything, however we picked 3 different items that we loved - the first is this 135 kd colossal scissor made of wood, not sure what to do with this but i guess it helps slicing up big egos!
the second item is this cute welcome rug - we find it really funny and engaging - not sure who would actually use it here in kuwait, but we love it! if my memory serves me well the price of this rug was 7 or 7.5 kd.
the last item is this desk frame, you can gift it to your wise friends, excuse the pun :) not sure though what the price was, i totally forgot.
i was at the one yesterday and spotted this wonderful corporate social responsibility program called "help palestinian women help themselves" - basically, the one has been working with qalandia camp women's handicraft cooperation, a non-profit, non-governmental organization that aims to raise the social cultural, health and economic standards of women and children in palestine - what you see above is hand embroidered wrist wraps that serve as a symbol of the hope that comes from the preservation of palestinian heritage and the one is helping in selling them in their stores at a price of kd 9.950.
as for the second set of items within this initiative, it consists of these beautiful cushion covers, each is a result of 2 months of work and sold at kd 84.950 - though these cushions might seem a bit expensive, when it comes to CSR programs people don't mind the price as it supports a good cause - way to go the one, this is really a wonderful initiative supported with beautiful products.
for some reason we were under the impression that the new starbucks store at marina mall will be another reserve, but it isn't - nevertheless, the new place is lovely, neat, fresh and very inviting - not your regular starbucks, this is now an upscale coffee shop with a whole new experience.
every detail in the store is new, if you look at the floor tiles you quickly realize the change, the self-serve condiment counter had a drastic make-over with a simple flat serving area - everything seems to be simpler, the food has a simpler display, much neater - the signs are now graffiti style, and the green lighting and interior highlights are noticeable.
the exposed painted duct ceiling has unfortunately disappeared, too bad i loved that style - the new ceiling is nothing special, however the new store design smells coffee heritage all over, using arabic artifacts, coffee grinders and pots - i loved the wall design in the back, a carved map of kuwait infused with small motif espresso cups, it looks awesome!
too bad i missed the jazz band, but i had a busy night - best of luck to starbucks with the new store, it's definitely a winner.
related stories:
will this be another starbucks reserve?
the summary of this movie on imdb.com starts with a few words: the trouble with harry is that he is dead... a fantastic description for a fantastic hitchcock movie that i had missed to see - what is special about this hitchcock is the humor, it is quite a funny movie with suspense, but zero horror - the best part of the movie is a dialogue between captain albert wise, the guy with the riffle, and sam - the captain was off in the wild shooting rabbits where he accidentally shoots a guy and kills him, or at least thought he had killed him, here's the insightful dialogue where sam tries to ease the captain's gilt:
sam: it was accidental, an act of god perhaps. In a way you should be grateful that you were able to do your share, accomplishing the destiny of a fellow being - suppose for instance it was written in the book of heaven that this man was supposed to die in this particular time in this particular place - let’s suppose for a moment that the actual accomplishing of his departure has been bungled, something gone wrong, perhaps there was meant to be a thunderbolt and there was no thunder available say, then you come along you shoot him and heaven’s will is done and destiny fulfilled - your conscience is quite clear you have nothing to worry about.
captain: sammy, i haven’t got a conscience..
what a brilliant script! if you have some free time to watch a classic, this one is a must see, you'll enjoy the humor.
i read 3 strange stories on arabtimes online which raised a few questions:
1- the first story is about a 61 year-old kuwaiti who was caught fooling around with a kuwaiti woman in her 20's, making out in a public place - the question is: is it that hard to get a younger guy sister?
2- the second story is bout a guy who opened a twitter account impersonating a policeman in jahra, with the objective of making fun of the ministry of interior - the question is: do you have enough funny stories for your time behind the bars?
3- the third story is about a kuwaiti who abducted 8 filipino women in a hawalli apartment, raped 2 and molested 6 - the question is: if you're only man enough for 2, why the hell did you abduct 8?
last week ended on a very sad news from school as a 16 year old kid drowned to death in qadsiya club - the story broke a lot of hearts and everyone was in tears, however nothing compares to the sorrow of the kid's parents - what a loss this kid, he was an athlete but still he lost his life for something silly.
it seems that this kid loves to deep dive holding his breath, he used to go with a friend to qadsiya swimming pool and exercise there - last wednesday his friend wasn't available so antoine decided to go alone, his friend told him not to dive alone, but the kid wouldn't listen.
antoine went to qadsiya and deep dived alone, his ear drum however couldn't support the pressure and exploded - antoine couldn't support the pain and water filled his lungs, he was gone in 3 minutes.
ears, how sometimes they fail us! in antoine's case his ears failed him twice that night, the first time when they didn't listen to his friend's advice, and the second time when they surrendered to water pressure taking the kid's life away, silently without making the slightest sound...
somehow this was meant to be, i truly believe that everything happens for a reason - what makes us sad, angry and disappointed with life is the fact that we don't always know the reason for such dramatic events - all what we can say is god bless antoine's soul and give his parents the strengths to get through this tragedy.
i was at mcdonald's the other day and spotted this new french sandwich, so i ordered an extra french just to try it - i guess i made a mistake by ordering a sandwich and not the meal as i missed out on the camembert cheese bites, how did that happen? frankly i didn't even know they existed.. maybe the message was not that strong, i don't know.
anyways, the french is fantastic, if you like the strong taste of fresh onions, like real strong! in my case, and since the sandwich was placed in the bag upside down, i got all the onions on one side of the bun and i got like a mouthful of onions with every bite which stung pretty strongly, and the other half was simply onion-less!
regardless of the unfair distribution of onions in that frenchy, if you like onions go for it, just make sure you're not french-kissing anyone afterwards! voilà!
i came across this amazing google earth dubai coast annual timelapse from 1982 till 2012 - it's incredible how this coast has changed in just 20 years! you can check the link here.
we were invited to the opening of bagel bar at the avenues phase 3, so we went there unassuming as the brand is a total stranger to us - the place is quite nice, cool decoration with lots of bagels all around the coffee-house, even the walls are decorated with all kinds of bagels.
there was a table with samples for tasting, so we tried a variety of bagels all awesome! the burger bagel was super, i would highly recommend that, so was the salmon - the chicken fillet was also very good and the italian rocked!
bagel bar also serves soups and salads with a variety of desserts, they even have meringue if you crave them - the menu sign is very cool, it has some animated pictures and switches from english to arabic every few seconds - the menu sign brings us to the pricing strategy, and here's the turnoff! a bit more than 2 kd for a bagel, frankly one bagel is not enough so you need at least 2 to satisfy your hunger and that's not cheap!
we'll definitely go back and take our time to savor what bagel bar has to offer, last night was a real quicky..
