I wouldn’t usually and willingly go into a cinema to watch a movie about sea pirates, not even pirates of the Caribbean, but if it was a Tom Hanks then it’s a must see movie regardless of the story or the trailer. I went to watch Captain Philips yesterday and I have to say I wasn’t disappointed at all. Read more »
There was a block of houses, all white and modern and lovely, being built in our neighbourhood close to our apartment. I passed by everyday, thinking to myself how beautiful they were and how, if one day I ever get to build a house of my own, I’d love to have one just like those. The construction on the houses was finally complete a few months back, a ‘for rent’ sign was put over them for a few days, and then the tragic transformation began. Read more »
For the past few weeks whenever the Top US Box Office segment comes on TV between programs and I watch the rating of The Call, I tell myself that this sounds like an excellent movie and I must watch it if it ever made it to Kuwait’s cinema. It finally did and I finally did watch it but I cannot say that I watched it indeed for I didn’t even get to understand the ending, thanks be to our MOI censorship. Read more »
Yesterday afternoon I woke up late. It was a Saturday and my husband was out running errands. I was thinking about my lazy Saturday and my breakfast when I heard my husband call out to me”Come, come see the baby cat outside!”. Read more »
If you remember my previous post about our stray cats (post) you’d know we’d gotten attached to them and began feeding them and they played with us all the time.
Last week, one of the cats, Toto the cowardy one, was unable to walk. She was Read more »
Since 3/4 of Kuwait are now on instagram, I’m sure all of you had encountered the infamous, most annoying comment of last week: Please like 9orat el3o6or ele eb profily.
Dear companies, we realize that the use of Social media outlets have been great for your business. I personally salute you for being modern and on trend. I don’t blame you for holding out competitions at all but please, for the love of god, I beg of you DO NOT have competitions where people with the most number of likes win. PLEASE!
First, its unfair. Some pictures are truly horrible, simply an eyesore that lacks any creativity. Yet horrible pictures win because the person who submitted it is either very popular, have a huge extended family, or simply a shameless beggar who would stop at nothing to harass people, over an over and over and OVER again, for a like.
Why don’t you choose the best pictures yourself? Its not hard, gather the pictures, have 3-4 people from your management vote on them and announce the winners instead of having us, the poor instragrammers, ruing the day you have decided to hold a competition and counting the day until the competition is up.
And you, you beggars, have you no shame? No dignity? Really wallah? You think your horrible picture deserves to win what exactly? A bottle of perfume? Can’t you go and buy it yourself? Its not a Rolls Royce, or a Park Lane penthouse. Have you no regards to other people’s feeling? A bottle of perfume is the price for your own dignity, now that’s it?
If you’ve been annoyed by those instragrammers asking for votes, don’t be shy let it out here.
The other day I saw this taxi parked in Kuwait city with a hugest amount of bird droppings I’ve ever seen! Now who in his right mind would allow this to happen to his own car? How long have that car been standing there exactly? Shouldn’t there be a rule against these ugly dirty sights? Like a fine for littering the street with a dirty car with this amount of dirt? I think there should be! Wallah fashla!
About an hour ago I was in Kuwait city when I suddenly noticed some light pale grey smoke in Read more »
My favorite external hard drive, one that had taken many abuse from me over the past year, fell down yesterday. It was a tiny fall, nothing major, like 30 cm from the desk to the carpeted floor. But now it won’t work. Read more »
When you work hard, for years, to create your own brand and reputation in the market. When you create something out of god given gift. When you are successful and loved, you are bound to find copycats popping Read more »
Bethesda 1- The Salamat: The cause of 90% of the crowding in any expo! Two women with their entourage meet in the middle of the narrow aisle and start kissing and saying hello and exchanging the gist of their past 25 years since they’ve last met while people are trying to walk around them to no avail. You have to wait until they are done. Plus, try and talk to a seller for a complete 5 minutes. You can’t because at every minute and so she will stop, say hello, and chat for a while, then come back and you have to explain what you want all over again. Urrghhh!
Takefu 2- The Babies: You know an exhibition is already crowded with stampeding women. Why on earth would you bring kokash yahal with you? Its hard enough trying to walk between all these women let alone push your baby in his pram. Also, why do you need two maids for one child? Pushing and shoving the crowds so the baby is safe and unscathed? Can’t the two maids entertain him somewhere else? Bs kafi elnafas on the poor child!
3- Elseller Elmayga: She sits there displaying her stuff but she looks at the crowds with the aloofness of a queen. Whenever you approach and try to make eye contact she pouts, fishes her phone, and pretends to be distracted. Erm why are you here then if you don’t want to sell to customers or interact with them?
4- Eldewaniya Booth: Some sellers will invite their friends and/or family over. Gather inside the booth and turn it into a mini dewaniya: sowalif o 7abb o chai. If you say “law sama7tay” they all stop talking, turn their heads over to you slowly with killer looks, how dare you interrupt their “salfa”. Elsharha mo 3lekom, el sharha 3lay ele bashtere minkom.
5- The Recycler: She buys stuff from all around Kuwait, IKEA for example, knit a crochet net on top of it, and sell it for 10 times its original value! We know it’s available in IKEA for 1 KD! Or a piece of cardboard thay you cut as a door handle and you can do in your local markaz 6ba3a for 10 KD!!! Eshda3wa! I’m all for supporting creative business but some things are just too much.
6- The ATM: Given that we have one million exhibitions held in Kuwait already I wonder why they don’t facilitate payment by Knet or a one stop payment or something. The ATM line is always too long on the lone ATM machine! Maybe they can have a service where they collect your purchases to a collection point where you pay before you exit and take the bags at once. That way you don’t have to carry your bags around b3d, mo?
7- Elmalgoofa: She is a fellow customer who has no respect whatsoever to the conversation you are barely having with the seller. You would be talking and she would interrupt “law sama7tay law sama7tay hatha shinooo” or “ebchaaaam” or 3adi jedan she acts be 9amt but she grabs whatever you are holding or whatever you are standing next to. Why the hell don’t you wait your turn like I’ve waited mine? I always let them get their way because otherwise I’d make a scene and quite possible strangle elmalgoofa ele ma ta9ber!
8- ElMo7aqeq: She stands by your side patiently waiting her turn, thank god for that, but then she kills the time by holding a mini interrogation session: Sheybe3oon? 7elween moo? Esh sharya? Entay min bentah? Metzawja? 3ndich e3yal? Wain teshta’3lain? Dasha ma3rath ana wella ta7qeeq? Esh hal legafa intay b3d? Wallah 7reem elQ8 could do well working as interrogators!
9- The Stinky Booth: Elnass yayeen embakhereen em3adeleen emzahlegeen, o 7arr, o crowds, o khanga, o you pass by some food booth that cooks the food by the fryer or 7ameesa or displays something so smelly “fish?” that your eyes water and you curse yourself for passing by. Can’t you have done your cooking at home or operated an delivery business mathalan? 9oba’3na!
10- The Parking: Elmoshkila el azaliya everywhere in Kuwait. There is no parking when you try to get in. When you do find a parking you spend an hour trying to get out of the expo. If you go with Valet parking they take one hour to get your car while you are standing there in the lovely weather with your purchases and heels if you are wearing them. Mako fayda 
What about you? What do you hate about the exhibitions in Kuwait?
Yesterday evening we were sitting outdoors in our tiny corridor/make shift tiny garden. Drinking tea and enjoying the post rain weather when a white car pulls out in front of us in the street and the driver honks to grab our attention while Read more »
Fresh out of the press comes the latest book by Jojo Moyes: Me before You. The story about Louisa who was very comfortable in her small town working as a waiter in a small cafe and dating an OK guy for 7 years when suddenly she Read more »
1- The vain driver: They cannot stop looking at themselves in the mirror. A comb will come out to fix a stray hair, a kohl pen to pop the eyes even more. Then suddenly the iPhone is whipped out and click click it goes taking pictures of them pouting or posing because their beauty at that moment cannot go undocumented. People are free to do so of course but we would appreciate it if you weren’t driving on the highway while your tending to your beauty!
2- The good driver: or the ones who want to be a good driver but they don’t know how. They drive too slowly. They seem too scared to change lanes so they must flash their signals 10 minutes before they want to turn or move. For some unfathomable reason they always, always, ALWAYS drive on the fastest lane? For the love of god, WHY!
3- The kings of the road: They will use the safety lane to cut you off. They will overtake your space in a U-turn or in a traffic light demanding to pass. They will drive in the middle of two lanes as long as they want and don’t you DARE honk your horn at them. After all they own the road as far as they are concerned.
4- The Casanova: Mostly seen on 2nd ring road or Gulf road. This guy is god’s gift to women therefore we must all drive slowly and wait for him to block the road driving next to a poor girl driver trying to get away from him while he tries to convince her he loves her and wants to marry her if she would only take his number. Shakhbary! Grow up!
5- El7ajjeya: women my grandmother’s age who love to drive a Yukon chock full of kids, help, and grocery shopping. She is always hassled because of the one thousand requests that fall on her poor head. She also, sadly, doesn’t know how to drive that Yukon so if you spot her on the street, steer clear of her path!
6- Elshayeb: he would be a proud old man, well over the age of 80 with a license that expired 50 years ago, and can barely see so he leans all the way on his steering wheel and squints. Of course he walks all over the road in whatever fashion he feels like it o fekom khair honk your horn at him. El9aber zain.
7- The Jerk: ykoon la3eeeeeen. He would be driving slowly and you want to change lanes because of him, but suddenly he picks up speed so you wouldn’t go before him. Or you would signal you want to turn and suddenly he decides he wants to take his time on the road -or speed- elmohim that you don’t accomplish your goal. Happened to me too many times lel asaf. I wonder how miserable their lives must be w3liya.
8- The labor worker: he would have a tiny run down dusty car filled to the brim with tired and sad looking fellow labor workers. There are just too many of them in the car and you can tell because the body of the car is almost scraping the pavement. Of course he must go very slowly. What is not fathomable how ever is why they insist on driving on the fastest lane? Why not on the slow lane where they can spend one hour crossing a bridge?
9- The Taxi: the ones that pick up people whenever and wherever the situation allows. They are always driving super slowly because they are browsing the streets looking for potential customers. They wouldn’t mind breaking and stopping suddenly in the middle of the highway if they thought a potential customer would come along and even if they are occupied, they would still drive super slowly and never, ever, in the slow lane. If only we could get rid of those taxis then half of the congestion in the Kuwaiti roads would clear up. Hmph.
10- Elma6yoor: He is always in a hurry, always driving 160 KM/H, and seems to have misplaced his brakes. It doesn’t matter if the road is blocked up and there is no where to go, he would still be driving too fast and expecting you to either move out of his way or keep up. He is a potential accident waiting to happen and you can see him a mile away. Keep his path clear because, god forbid you delay him, he has no trouble running you over on his quest of madness.
Do you have anymore categorizations for the drivers you see on our streets?
Its been a while since I did a do you remember this cartoon post! I suddenly remembered this cartoon that I’ve seen in 1992 or 1993 maybe and I googled it. In Arabic it was called Seeta El7anoon -don’t ask- but it turns out that its a Japanese anime movie called “Grave of the Fireflies”. I’ve seen this movie twice maybe only. One of my cousins gathered me and the rest of my cousins one day in their living room and showed us the video, with a box of kleenex nearby. By they end we were all bowling uncontrollably, crying our eyes out! Its the 2nd hardest thing I’ve cried over. The first is Titanic and the third is Devdas :p
Do you remember watching this anime before? In Arabic as Seeta el7noon? Or if you watched it in Japanese or English? If you did how hard did you cry :p
P.S. Yes. You reminded me.
What first pulled me towards this book is the book cover. So serene, sweet, and romantic. Actually I liked it so much I bought it more than once -I have two brand new copies in my bookcase!-. I wish I knew how to take pictures like that! I wanted my Dathra book cover to be something as beautiful too!
Why I didn’t read it though is because the back covers says that one day five passengers were commuting in a train from Brighton to London when something happens that brings them together and changes their lives forever. Because of what I thought the story was, some events taking place at a train, I thought it was not a very easy read and it would take a lot of concentration to keep up with the story. Surpisingly the train part was over in the first few chapters and it was only to start off the story which takes place on the land like any other novel.
A warning though: this is an extreme tear jerker. Be prepared with a box of kleenex as you would be weeping into your pillow at night. You know when you are down and you feel like crying to cleanse your soul but you can’t? Read this book and you will cry until your eyes are raw and there are no tears left in them.
Is it a good book? Yes it is, quite a good one actually. Despite the sadness entwined in its words you will thoroughly enjoy it and realize that, sometimes it takes a moment, one moment only, to change the life as you know it for good.
You can find the book at Amazon (link) or wait and buy my second copy from my next upcoming garage sale. Stay tuned 😉
During the National & Liberation day holiday we decided to go to the cinema and watch the highly acclaimed “Woman in Black”. The woman in black is a horror movie, period. As we settled in our seats we heard “Gaa gaa aghoo” as always. Some mindless parent had decided to bring their infant into a horror movie. We just hoped he would shut up and not gurgle while we were watching.
Then in the middle of a very very very scary part of the movie we suddenly hear “WAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAH EYKHAWEEEEEEEF”. Apparently a kid below the age of ten was scared out of his mind with what he saw. He began crying -very loudly, drowning out the sound of the movie- and the audience started laughing at his bawling. You would think his mother would leave her seat and take her frightened child outside? Noooo. She didn’t even bother to shush him. The most important thing was for her to watch the movie whether or not the child was traumatized for life and to hell with the goats sitting around her trying to watch. They will manage.
Isn’t there a rule against letting babies inside the cinema? How was this child allowed inside a horrific scary movie that I, a 31 year old woman, kept my eyes closed with my palms most of the time? What kind of mother are you, taking your child to an hour and a half of horror? Lets say you were stupid enough not to check what the movie is about before it started, when you saw it was a horror movie and it scared your child, why didn’t you leave? Why would you stay put?
Its about time movie viewer ratings were enforced in this country. Not every movie is suitable for all genres! If the people are too stupid to choose the appropriate movie then a law should be made to force them to keep the children away from such movies until eventually they learn and start respecting the law! Its not rocket science y3ni!
In case you’ve been really confused as to what a blog is, I have taken the liberty of retrieving its definition from wikipedia (link) and publishing it on my very own personal journal published on the world wide web.
Therefore, dear illiterate jerk, there is absolutely nothing wrong in Danderma talking about Danderma on Danderma’s blog, all the time, 24/7, because its a BLOG! A JOURNAL! A DEAR DIARY!
It is not an online newspaper. If you see a newspaper talking only about its owner then there is something horribly wrong with that. On a blog however it is perfectly fine, the way it should be actually. It doesn’t mean I am conceited. It doesn’t mean I am self centered. I doesn’t mean I am a celebrity and acting like it. It only means it is my VERY OWN BLOODY BLOG!
O guess what? If I am sad I will put sad stuff. If I want to nag I will nag. If I want to berate I will berate. If I want to praise I will praise. Blog too negative? Find bloggers who are on prozac then and follow them to somewhere over the rainbow. Too much food? Oh please like you don’t like to eat, shakhbar el zwara? Too many travel posts? Well I like them kaifi, they actually work as a reference to me! Too many reviews? Well its not different from me telling my friend on the phone about something I tried and liked. 9adagtaw keifkom ma 9adagtaw mo ella.
Bottom line is, if you don’t like what you are reading then don’t read it! Tra mo ‘3a9ob! You are free to read whatever makes you happy and content. Go read that by all means. Reading my blog is not your homework!
So again back to the conclusion: Its my blog o kaifi. Yes. Kaifi. Finito.
In my 31 years of living on the face of the earth, specifically in Kuwait, I’ve never ever seen something as outrageous as I’ve seen last weekend!
As a matter of fact I did once, last year standing in the Qa6ar St. and Salem Al-Mubarak St. traffic light in Salmiya I saw a young man, 15 maybe, giving the cars his back and doing the deed. At least he thought he was hidden by some construction site -but he wasn’t- and we didn’t see anything except a person’s back. I chalked it off to being young and foolish. Maybe he was in a bet? After all Marina Mall was less than a 100m away!
But this weekend? Going out from Ikea and wanting to check a furniture store next to Souq Almeera, in the middle of the meera parking, without any cars surrounding him and with a full view of the main road, stood an old man in a winter dishdasha. I saw him with his dishdasha half way through his legss and I told my husband “El 7ajji eshfeeh rafe3 deshtashtah?”
Usually when I see an old man I coo and say y7leelah so I was looking at him and he looked back at me with a puzzled expression. As in why is that woman looking at me? Then my husband started yelling “Don’t look don’t look” at the same moment I registered a long yellow stream flowing out of him and right on the parking floor. I started screaming in shock! A man is relieving himself right there in the middle of the road surrounded by nothing to hide his modesty! In full view of the entire world! O mo 3ajba ini ga3da a6al3ah b3d!
After screaming then a fit of retching -never approaching a puddle of “liquid” on the floor again g63- I was angry! So angry! How dare this man think he can take a tinkle in the middle of the street? Where are we living? He is five minutes away from a big supermarket surely stacked with bathrooms! Why wasn’t he at least trying to hide? Or do it with his back to people instead of standing there in full view of passersby?
Malat 3leeh g63! I should have called the police for him! Then again is there a law against taking a tinkle with partial frontal nudity in front of people? Would they even bother taking him to the station? Does this happen often or is it a new thing? G63 g63 g63 g63!
Have you ever seen a man doing it in full view of everyone g63!
-P.S. I just remembered that I’ve seen a worker doing it on the wall of the building where Pick You is located two months ago, at least his back is to people, this year! What is happening? Why is everyone suddenly doing it in the street?
Ever since I could remember I have seen this horrible ugly chair in Kuwaiti homes. I’ve always hated it and thought it was the ugliest thing ever. Who cares if its comfortable? Who care that it can arch its back and extend its legs? Who cares if its called a lazy boy and is intended for the man of the house to sit on it like its a throne?
Its ugly. Its horrible. It goes with absolutely nothing. I used to banish it to Bu Tootee’s office room but now there is no space for it hence the only place it can be displayed is my very own precious living room!!! Its ruining everything! Every time I look over and see it I want to cry! I want it out of the house, plain and simple. But the man won’t let go. You would think I was asking him to give up a kid for adoption! He made it even uglier by putting a back massage device on it :'(
Do you suffer from the same horrible piece of furniture sitting in your living rooms? Do you have any ideas on how to mask its horribleness or turn it into something less of an eye sore? Would you be willing to break into the house and steal only it and I will give you a 150 KD for that?
Hmph.
Poor Pheobe Philo. Had she known that her Celine Boston Tote would end up as a toddlers bag for Kuwaiti babies she wouldn’t have bothered creating it. What goes through your head when you see a little baby barely past the age of two holding the micro size of one of the latest it bags in one hand while holding her stuffed toy in the other hand?
The first though is intended to be wow this girl’s parents have money. The actual thought that goes through my mind is how vulgar this is. For a little child to be stripped off her innocence and to carry a bag when she has absolutely no idea that its a designers bag sold for $1800. If its meant to be cute then all it induces is how sad. If she is wearing that bag at age 2 what is she supposed to wear at age 10? A Berkin? At 18? At 21? At 30? At 40?
Would you buy your baby girl a designers bag? If I had a girl the only bag she would be carrying is a Barbie bag at age two. What do you think when you see a baby girl with an expensive designers bag that is taller than her?
Does privacy mean squat to people in Kuwait?
If you know me, and I trust you enough with my phone number or any other personal details that doesn’t give you the right to act on my behalf and distribute it to other people. If anyone asks you about my phone number for any reason on earth, you should first contact me, let me know that flana X wants your number, and then give out my number after MY APPROVAL!
I am getting weird calls and calls from numbers I’ve never known in my life giving me lectures on who to vote to! When you are given a phone number it comes with a certain amount of trust that you will keep it private, its the unspoken rule.
From now on I am not going to answer any strange numbers that are not saved in my phone book. Period. I repeat again: If you have my phone number then its a sign that I trust you to keep it private. It is NOT for local -or global- distribution. Full Stop.
Have you ever given out someone’s number without checking with them first? Have your number ever given to someone you don’t want to talk to by someone else? Doesn’t that make your blood boil?
I was trying to read something in Wikipedia when all of a sudden this black page comes on and won’t budge! What legislation? What happened? I thought the politic turmoil was concentrated in the Middle East? Has it reached the USA and effecting the internet?!
I am already imagining life with limited internet and I am panicking! What is going on? I don’t want to read on and on of political rubbish. If you can explain it simply to me please do. Should we do something? If it is a US legislation thing can our voices be heard? If not then it is totally unfair for our voices to be cast away when when a decision like that is going to effect every single human being using the internet on the planet!
Bel Q8y elfa9e7: Shel Salfa? Tra mo nag9een!
*Disclaimer* This post is not a “Fathee7a fe Ma63am” post. This post is about something that happened and what is the right way to act if it happened. Please read properly and actually comprehend what you are reading. If you want a “fathee7a” you can always go to montada el fathaye7. El Adab ra7ma. Thank you.
Last Monday around 5 PM in the evening a friend of mine, Noaf, went to a famous sea side restaurant in Kuwait to have lunch with a friend. Sadly this restaurant is one of my top ten favorite Read more »
Lets say you have this friend, she is an avid blog follower and knows more about what is going on in the Kuwaiti blog scene than I do. She talks about the blogs all the time discussing their topics and latest news. Right up my alley you’d say. What a good friend.
Except she doesn’t read my blog. Or follow me!
Of course there is no reason for people to follow or like your blog just because you are friends with them in real life. People are free and have different tastes. But its been bothering me a bit. I can’t help but have the question “Why not my blog?” jump out whenever she goes on about blog X and blog Y. What makes blog X so much better than mine that you rave about it all day long while you wouldn’t spare 2 minutes glancing at my blog? What is missing? Is there something missing?
Its not so much the fact that she doesn’t check my blog. Whats bugging me is that every time she talks I begin to doubt myself, my blog, my posts, my choices. I hate that. Really hate that. Eshda3wa ya 7afoth?
I know I shouldn’t really care but on some level it hurts. Its just like saying I am not good enough or something. It makes me a bit blue!
So dear bloggers: have you ever had someone close to you not liking your blog but liking almost every other blog out there? If you do, do you think its OK to doubt yourself? Is that normal? I am really confused here.
