Red Bull Car Park Drift

Sounds like fun, I wonder how it compares to the ones in California I've gone to.

Kiva - Lending to the Needy

If anyone is interested in helping out needy people and people of Palestine this is a really great site to donate increments of $25/7.250 KD to those needing a loan which they will pay back over time if they don't run into problems along the way. The screenshot below is from my account, people who I've sponsored and as you can see, several people have already repaid the loan.

 

Unfortunately the loans made to people in Palestine have become delinquent due to the war and bombings of the country. There are risks involved but it's only $25, not a large amount to fret over. I started off with loaning to 4 people totaling $100 and once I reached $25 in re-payments I loaned to another person. There is Islamic finance which is the main area I donate to and a new area for conflict zones such as Palestine.

 I started a lending team named 'Kuwait for Kiva' unfortunately it didn't spark the interest I thought it would but I'm giving it another chance.

You can find more on their website and you can recommend friends earning yourself $25 to lend for each person who signs up.

Sweet Caddy at Safat Showroom

There's a beautiful 54' Cadillac Eldorado on display in the Safat Al Ghanim showroom. It is really amazing, even has the gold package going on.

 And then there is this weird conjoined twin looking wooden sculpture thingy on display.

Complete with seating in the wooden trunk.

Crazy Stunt

I guess Kuwait doesn't have anything on these guys!

Costa Coffee- Got (camel) Milk Campaign

 

Have you ever wanted to try camel's milk but were too afraid? Costa Coffee is offering their products made with camel's milk (one day only) for their new store launch, Costa Coffee Miral.

 



Please join us on Tuesday, the 28th of October at our Miral store (adjacent to the Hilton hotel in Mangaf) from 7-9pm. Sip on something new while munching on Costa's freshly baked favorites from Magnolia Bakery and LeNotre.

We have a few more surprises in store for the event –  so we hope to see you there!

The Costa Coffee Family

I've tried it in a dessert while visiting a desert camp trip in the Emirati desert, had it fresh and frothy while visiting the camel farms in Kuwait and a friend brought some chocolate made from camel's milk from Al Nassma store in Dubai. It tastes like a sweet cream, I am definitely interested in tasting it in a coffee version. Here's an article on the new camel craze hitting the markets - link

Guy run over by Saudi stunt Driver

I would've moved but I guess he wanted a real 'close up' which he got.

Ice cream machine in IKEA

Almost everyone who takes a trip to IKEA cannot leave without getting an ice cream, for some reason these are the best ice cream cones ever. I haven't been to IKEA in a while, when we went for ice cream I notice a line of people standing around a machine with a ice cream cone picture. I got to the register asked for chocolate and instead of getting our cones, we got tokens.

 

You are no longer served by the staff, instead you pay and get a token that looks like a watch battery so be careful if you hand it to your small kids. You then wait in line and sit your cone in the machine, put the tokens in and the magic begins. The ice cream is still vanilla but with a swirl of chocolate or strawberry. I want one of these in my house!



 

They are smaller than when hand served, maybe it's a cost control solution? It reminds me of Vegas, it was so much fun to hear the coins drop, get your hands dirty from handling the money and now you get a receipt, no more sounds of falling coins hitting the metal trays. With the ice cream, it's fun to wait and get it handed to you and they were bigger.

I've Fallen and I Can't Get Up

Happy Friday

Bleach Kuwait

I was tasked with fixing up a company apartment for a manager, I've seen Bleach Kuwait on IG (@bleachkw) and decided to give them a try mainly because they are a newer Kuwaiti owned company. I was contacted by Ahmad who is one of the owners and eventually made an appointment to have someone come out and give me an estimate. They arrived promptly and took a look around, my estimate was 240KD which shocked me at first. It's a 3-bedroom, 2.5 bathroom, kitchen and living room flat.

 

But it's not my money so I agreed. This is a deep cleaning and when I say deep I mean every tile and grout line was meticulously cleaned from top to bottom. I was impressed by the work ethic of the team, they only rested a few minutes during their 8-hour shift. The total was 12 hours, 4 the first and 8 on the second visit and they cleaned from the start to the finish of their shift.

 

Starting off with a gift bag from the company complete with slippers.

 

Scrubbed and buffed the floors of every room

 Supplied their own cleaning items

 

 Took care of the outside windows

Before

After

 Before

 After

Before

 After

 Before

 After

I would like to say they did a really great job and even burned bukhour before they left, great job guys! I was also glad to get a phone call afterwards regarding their services, that's good business practice. You can find out more here or call them 94437726 or 99035060.

Racial Profiling Experiment- HOAX

The video of a NYPD officer appearing to racially profile two Muslim men because they are wearing traditional Islamic clothes has been exposed as a hoax.

 

Shamelessly seeking to exploit recent tensions sparked in New York City by the choking death of Eric Garner in July, the video was created by two filmmakers hoping to create and profit from viral content on YouTube.

 

Brooklyn residents Adam Saleh and Sheikh Akbar, who produce shareable content under the name 'TrueStoryASA' released the video entitled, 'Racial Profiling Experiment' over the weekend - duping many media outlets around the world.

Not cool guys!


Saudi student murdered for his Car

A man charged with killing a Saudi Arabian college student in California stabbed him in an attempt to keep both the car he had arranged to buy via Craigslist and the $30,000 the student wanted for the car, police revealed today.

 

Los Angeles Police Chief Charlie Beck said at a news conference Monday that 28-year-old Agustin Rosendo Fernandez of Long Beach was found with the Audi that sparked the murder of 23-year-old Abdullah Abdullatif Alkadi. 

 

He also made a statement that led authorities to the missing student's body off a desert freeway.

Fernandez has been charged with murder and made his initial court appearance Monday afternoon. 

He did not enter a plea and will return for arraignment next month.Fernandez is facing one count of murder with the special circumstances of murder during a robbery and murder during a carjacking.The complaint states that a knife was used in the crime.'The investigation determined that Agustin Fernandez killed Mr. Alkadi in an attempt to keep both the Audi and the purchase price,' Beck said. 

 

'Craigslist, eBay, all the other opportunities for sales are also opportunities to let unwanted people into your lives,' Beck said. 'This happened, not the victim's fault, but with (an) absolutely tragic, tragic outcome.'Fernandez is eligible for the death penalty due to the special circumstance allegations.

Alkadi vanished on September 17 from his home near California State University, Northridge, where he was a student.Abdullah Abdullatif Alkadi, 23, was found dead on Thursday along Interstate 10 in Palm Deserts, more than two hours away from his Los Angeles home where he was last seen.

He had sold his Audi S-5 through Craigslist with an asking price of more than $35,000 the day before he was last seen.Alkadi had moved to the United States in 2010 to pursue a degree in electrical engineering student at Cal State University, Northridge according to his brother, Ahmed, 32, who is also a student there. He wanted to make his family, his parents and himself proud,' said Ahmed. 'He wanted to be a contributing member in our society but things turned out the other way around.'

Beck said the second person who had been arrested is no longer in custody, but remains under investigation.The month-long search for Alkadi brought in the FBI at the request of the LAPD, according to spokesperson Laura Eimiller. She declined to further discuss details of the FBI's involvement because Los Angeles police detectives were leading the investigation.

The Los Angeles Times reported that Alkadi's cell phone had been tracked to Beaumont, 80 miles east of Los Angeles, but that someone had deactivated it. Police located the car Alkadi sold and said the buyer was not connected to the man's disappearance.Ahmed will accompany his brother's remains back to Khobar in Saudi Arabia, where Alkadi's parents live. He was a peaceful guy,' said Ahmed. 'Regardless of any barriers we have with language or religion, he's a human being. I would like the public to pray for his soul to have peace in eternity.' 

 

--Craigslist is a scary place, I would never deal with it, too many stories of people murdered from ads they post. May he rest in peace.

Another tragic death of a Saudi student:

A Saudi student at Tennessee Tech University was killed when he was run over by his friend in the US city of Coalfield, Tennessee, Al-Hayat newspaper reported.

Muhammad Al-Badi’s friend dropped him off in the early hours of Saturday at his house but then reportedly tried to joke with him by pretending to hit him with his car.

The friend is said to have lost control of the vehicle and ran over Al-Badi, injuring him severely. According to a police report, Al-Badi’s friend was drunk at the time.

All attempts to save the Saudi’s life failed and he died shortly after arriving at the hospital. No official statement was issued on the incident.

The victim’s family is in Jeddah and preparing to receive his body for burial. It is the second time in the space of a month that a Saudi student on scholarship has been killed in America.

Nawaf Al-Otaibi, friend of the victim and from the same university, said Al-Badi did not have any enemies but disputes the reported version of the events.

He claimed the friend ran over him three times with his car and that the driver was drunk at that time and had a disagreement with the victim.

Abdulaziz Al-Dossary, another friend, said the accident happened around 4 a.m. and the security department did not issue any statement regarding the case.

He said the incident could have happened after a fight between the pair.  He said the victim was 23. “He studied in Coalfield for two years and we heard about the incident 12 hours after it happened.

“Muhammad was good at his studies and was living alone. “I heard that all his family traveled to Jeddah and is waiting to receive the body of their son.”

Al-Hayat newspaper attempted to contact the Saudi Embassy in Washington for a comment. An employee at the embassy’s cultural mission responsible for receiving the complaints of students on scholarships, Saad Al-Sakheb, said he was not authorized to comment on this case.

He did say the cultural mission had not received any news of the incident. He told the paper that the official spokesman at the embassy was not available because it was the weekend.

Blog Wars



What is going on with the blogs today? I have to admit there are a few blogger females I don't care for but I don't fight about it. How well do you know your bloggers? The majority of bloggers are well known, especially the ones making money from promotions and advertising. But what about the ones who never show up to the invites? The ones who always take the products and blog about them but turn down events.

After receiving a weird email from a blogger I had a problem with I can say there is a blog war going on in internet land. A couple of bloggers ganged up on one and did so much damage she deleted her IG, Twitter and made her oh so public blog invitation only. I was out of the loop because I don't read her blog anyways, damn I missed a lot.

The once 'thank you for 2 million hits' has sadly been reduced to 'no access'  and closed indefinitely. I'm not talking about Desert Girl! It's another 'southern female' blogger. I won't go into details about what happened but lying about your life, looks and all details of your publicized relationship will end up biting you in the butt.

UPDATE: So it seems AG has ousted Expat and the city for who she truly is and for some odd reason I was dragged in the middle. I received and email fro E&TC forwarding me an old email from AG from 2013 saying some rude things about me, like I really care. I'm drama free people so leave me the hell alone! I have no time for soap opera/ drama shows, if anyone has anything to say/ask feel free to meet me, I prefer face to face. AG decided she didn't want to publish my comment on her blog, it was still in the 'comment' phase and has been deleted. That proves that AG is guilty as well or she would have published it, I guess she doesn't want people to know.

HATERS: "My name's Bennet and I ain't in it!"

 

More Kuwait Stuff

This masjid was dug up for the Heritage Village project, as you can see they left it abandoned. I was told by the  lady at one of the museums that the family of the owner of the masjid used to have a bridge to it and still used it but I couldn't see any way of getting to it. 

How long will they leave the area like that? By the time they decide the masjid may not be standing, it should be considered by the NCAAL as a historical building before it is too late.



 Hard Rock Café....no more.

I think they mean 'knock your socks off"

Laila Gallery mall.....classic style.

Around Kuwait

The new Al Salam Mall by Marina Mall

 Sharq Mall undergoing changes

 The new sculpture roundabout thingy next the The Grand Mosque

Central Bank of Kuwait progress

The bank is so beige.

Dubai adds boats and water crafts to their Fleet

As if outrunning the Dubai police in a sports car was a silly idea, now it appears you can’t escape the emirate’s long arm of the law out on the water either. The latest addition to the police department’s uber-fast fleet? An amphibious Gibbs Quadski.

Weighing in at 1,333 lbs., the versatile Quadski sports a 1300cc four-cylinder engine, good for running down criminals on land and pursuing even craftier ones on water thanks to its 140-horsepower output and 45mph top speed in the wet.

It’s only fitting that the Dubai PD had to up its fleet once again. Just a few days ago the emirate’s medical first responders added a Lotus Evora and two Ford Mustangs to its ambulance fleet, which if were being honest, is still a far cry from the police force’s Bugatti Veyron, 700-horsepower Brabus Mercedes G-Class, McLaren MP4-12C and smattering of other super-lux speed machines.

The Gibbs Quadski will join the Dubai police’s typically high-powered marine fleet, which also includes the green and white speed boat seen above, built by Victory Team earlier this year. Perhaps starting trouble in Dubai would be a poor choice.

Legoland Park - Dubai 2016

Merlin Entertainments plc on Wednesday revealed detailed plans for LEGOLAND Dubai, which will become the seventh LEGOLAND Park when it opens in 2016. The Jebel Ali park, which will be operated by Merlin, is being developed in conjunction with Dubai Parks & Resorts Limited, a Meraas holding company.

Merlin said LEGOLAND Dubai will cover a total of three million square feet and feature over 15,000 LEGO model structures made from more than 60 million LEGO bricks.This includes over 40 interactive rides, shows and attractions – all set in six themed areas - LEGO City, Adventure, LEGO Kingdom, Create, LEGO Factory, and the magical Miniland.

Nick Varney, CEO of Merlin Entertainments plc, said: “We are delighted to be opening in Dubai and to be working with a partner as innovative and supportive as Dubai Parks & Resorts on this exciting new project."Dubai is the most important tourist centre in the Middle East and we believe that it is the ideal place for LEGOLAND. Not only is the LEGO concept already very popular here, but LEGOLAND’s unique appeal for families with younger children is universal, making it a must do visit not just for ‘local’ visitors from Dubai and neighbouring Middle Eastern states; but also tourists visiting the region from all over the world. 

"Indeed, we have no doubt that LEGOLAND Dubai will add a whole new dimension to Dubai’s leisure scene.”Raed Al Nuaimi, CEO of Dubai Parks & Resorts Limited, added: “We are excited to have one of the world’s leading global leisure operators join hands with us to enhance the entertainment and leisure offerings in Dubai and the wider region... we are confident that LEGOLAND Dubai will add incredible value to the overall family entertainment experience at Dubai Parks & Resorts.”

In addition to LEGOLAND Dubai, the first phase of Dubai Parks & Resorts will also comprise Motiongate Dubai and Bollywood Parks Dubai. Set for completion in 2016, phase one will also feature Riverpark, a grand entrance plaza and Lapita, a family themed hotel