Social Slave

Hash got me an iPad on Valentine’s Day! It was such a wonderful surprise because we weren’t planning to do anything since he’s been down with the flu, and besides everyday is special for us :) Well since then I’ve been busy playing with my new toy and getting all my favorite apps I already use on my iPhone. Now I need to get me some accessories.. a case, a dock and the camera cable and memory card reader I read about on Danderma. Any suggestions on some cool apps I should get?

Last month I had my worst experience with Aramex to date. So far besides the minor delays, price changes and customs charges everyone was facing, I didn’t have any other issue to complain about but they just blew it with my last shipment.

Hash had ordered the Apple Logic Studio on 7th December and considering that it’s just a small box of software, we thought that we would probably get it in 4-5 days tops. But it turned out to be a nightmare with the the package getting held up in customs and MOI, the constantly increasing shipping charges and then the address issues!

The shipment arrived in Kuwait on 11th December and then went on to be held at the customs and MOI for 13 days all the way from 12th December until 25th December just because the description said it was a DVD/CD! When they finally had it out for delivery, I called them to deliver it to my office since we weren’t going to be home until late that day. Turns out that their address policy has changed and they no longer make temporary address changes like they used to and you can only have one permanent delivery address which takes a day to change in the system, so they would deliver the next day.

Next day I called to ask about the delivery and they tell me that the person who changed my address didn’t notify their Operations Department and so my package wasn’t sent out, and it was finally delivered on 28th December!

And all this while I had been noticing that their shipping charges kept changing every few days. It started with KD5.450, which changed to KD8.450 few days later and on the day it was supposed to be delivered I got a text message that it is KD10.450. When I called them on the day they were supposed to deliver, the lady on the line told me to add another KD1.600 for the MOI charges making it a total of KD12. But the delivery receipt turned out to be the same as the text message and I paid KD10.450 in the end.

A small box of software, hardly weighing a few pounds took 16 days within Kuwait to get to us with an additional KD5 for customs and MOI charges and the box was not even opened for checking!

This year winter kicked in surprisingly early since mid October and it’s been getting way too cold. I had been wishing for them to start and now that it’s freezing cold out there, I am loving it! The mornings are perfect with the cold crisp air and just enough sun to warm the skin, and the clear blue skies with fluffy cotton candy clouds. As the evening sets in I am magnetically drawn into my cozy couch with the pillows all fluffed up and a soft fuzzy blanket to snuggle under and watch TV while sipping on a big mug of hot chocolate or cappuccino topped with whipped cream and crushed Cadbury Flake…

I’ve become so comfortably lazy that its very hard to get me out of the house at all and Hash is pretty happy that I am not dragging him out much. I haven’t even been blogging much either let alone doing any work around the house. It’s actually fun doing nothing and craving lots and lots of comfort food!

So I finally got the iMac. I actually got it a few days after I posted about where to find the best deal for Macs in Kuwait but got so wrapped up with my music room setup that I didn’t find the time to blog about it.

I got the 27″ 2.7GHz iMac from Blink.com.kw for KD599 which turned out to be the best deal I could find. I had checked at almost all the electronic stores – iCity, Digits and Al-Nahar were all offering the iMac for a lot more than Blink, and if I had to order it online it would have cost me about KD469 plus another KD75 or more for Aramex’s Shop & Ship which would add up to about KD544 which is just a few dinars less than what I paid and I’m happy that I didn’t order it online because of what happened after I brought my new iMac home.

After we got home and I unpacked and set it up, I switched it on and there was no picture on the screen! I could hear the welcome video but the screen was blank. Sadly their customer support hours were over and I couldn’t call anyone for support or to report the faulty piece, even though I did call their number a few times just in case I got through to someone. Obviously I was very pissed and frustrated and couldn’t wait till morning so I could take it back. But the staff at Blink were very helpful and they gladly replaced it for a new one, tested it at the store just to make sure and since then I’ve been busy.

So if anyone’s looking for Macs, Blink has the best deal so far. check out

It’s been a while since we posted on the blog. I had been meaning to take a much needed break for a while and finally got my chance with all the Eid holidays last week! It was nice to just rest and relax and be disconnected from everything else, I actually got a lot of other stuff done and it turned out to be a perfect time out.

Hash has been busy with setting up his music room which he had been waiting to do from a while but couldn’t find the time away from work. So basically it was a nice restful and productive little break for the both of us.

Back to work and all else now so it’s time to snap out of the holiday mood although I wish I could just sleep the whole month!

Fall season is here and the only down side to this beautiful weather is the seasonal allergies! I’ve been under the weather since the past week and I’ve only been sleeping most of the time and haven’t been able to blog much.

Now that I’m a bit better, I can’t wait to go out and enjoy this lovely weather in the evenings at the cafés or even have a beach-side barbecue, anything really! Two more days to go for the weekend!

I got the day off today since my company is moving the office to a new location. Last week had been a very tiring one with all the packing going on and the whole office was in a mess with movers and boxes everywhere. I had finally wrapped up all my packing yesterday and today they will start moving everything to the new place. So I get to have a long weekend! Yay!

I’m going to miss the old place though, I have been there for over three years now and the office was in the perfect spot with so many coffee shops, restaurants and my bank all in the same area. Let’s see how the new place is going to turn out, I haven’t been there yet so once I’m there I will start looking for cafes and lunch places. The best part is that I will be closer to Hash ♥ and two of my best friends!

Last night we received this wonderful Girgean from the British Playhouse Nursery just when we sat down to watch our TV shows. I really liked the traditional decorated box that was filled with assorted Arabic sweets, nuts and Maamoul which we enjoyed with our cappuccinos.

Thanks Shaima for the lovely gift.

Last night I came across this website called The Ramen Rater who has tried out and reviewed about 450 kinds of instant ramen noodles. He doesn’t just have them out of the packet, but he likes to spruce them up with eggs, green onions and a lot of other stuff.

Looking at all those images on the website and me being a big egg lover, I kind of got tempted to try it out. So since it’s a lazy Friday I got all the stuff and made my own bowl of noodles with egg, a bit of soy sauce and black pepper. At first I was wondering if it would taste funny looking at the egg floating in the soup but it actually turned out pretty tasty.

Check out all his different interesting recipes and reviews [Here].

I was out with my mom and sister in Hawally late Thursday afternoon to pick up a few supplies. It was very hot and we just wanted to get home soon enough but right then our car broke down in the middle of the street at the traffic light. We were on Beirut street and it was a rush hour. Every time the cars would stop at the traffic light, we would ask the nearby drivers if they had the jumper cables since the car wouldn’t start. But no one helped and on the contrary they would pass by angry and honking loudly as if we stopped the car on purpose!

With no AC, the temperature was rising and so were our tempers. Finally we found the number of a garage and they sent a tow truck to pick up the car and we took a cab home. I was only imagining that if this happened during Ramadan, the whole street would be a mess with nonstop honking, shouting and fighting. A little tolerance and helpfulness makes a big difference.