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..

i always wondered what a local liquor factory looks like, well here it is, a bathroom tub! i mean seriously??!! i'm not a liquor expert, but are these plastic trash containers made to carry liquor? trashy liquor maybe... and look at the peeling walls, i can't believe this filthy factory... what are they thinking!

though in our religion alcohol is permitted, i can't imagine myself running such an illegal trade or even buying such a product - it really takes balls to do this!

you can read the original article on arabtimes online here.

i read this interesting article on the next chapter blog or umkhaloodie, about the helper she fired, and for good reasons - umkhaloodie listed the things her helper broke during the past 6 months which made me wonder about the stuff our part-time helper has broken over a number of years, so here they are:

1. broke 2 side lamps
2. broke my son's psp (that hurts)
3. a bar
4. dropped bleach over leather couch
5. broke several scented candles
6. crystal decoration
7. hoover vacuum cleaner
8. bed drawer
9. a dozen glasses
10. a dozen plates
11. lost countless cutlery
12. kitchen cabinet
13. shoes rack
14. shower curtains
15. broke the oven's alarm
16. used several t-shirts as dust towels
17. broke the tv rack
18. broke 2 computer mouses
19. broke several kids toys including a shopper
20. broke toilet fans
21. a new villeroy & boch tray
22. portable dvd player
23. a number of remote controls
24. living room table
25. guitar
26. lava lamp

well, this is only a small list and when you confront your helper the answer is always see no evil hear no evil say no evil - nevertheless, indu has been around for years and we forgive her because she is super trustworthy and that is quite a hard currency!

i spotted these self-heating cappuccino cans at sultan center so i decided to give them a try - took one to my office yesterday and followed the instructions - the process is simple, you turn the can, open it, push the plastic cover until it breaks, wait for 3 minutes, turn the can back to its original position, open it and drink.

the problem however is somewhere else, the taste! it is seriously horrible, the worst coffee you can ever have! first of all, foam is nonexistent in this can so you can't really call it cappuccino, it is rather coffee with milk mixed with a strong tin-can taste - i seriously couldn't finish it, though i tried hard.. had a few sips and that was it.

on the other hand, i like my coffee to be boiling hot and this can gives you a hot coffee, but not very hot or boiling hot coffee - so my take on this? a total failure, i wouldn't drink it even if i'm camping somewhere in the middle of the desert!