Category: Uncategorized

Use this site to see where you end up! Though it seems to jam up for Calgary and seems to end up in Antartica.

And it this wasn’t fun try this optical illusion.

Check this out too, it shakes windows.

Vitamin W, the W being Wasta.

What is it?

It is, as the Kuwait Times says, having the right man in the right place. Connections. Basically the paper is saying that there are unqualified officials in their positions due to their connections not due to merit.

Isam Bayazidi’s Blog says it well:

To start with, there is a special type of corruption, that is Wasta (English: a mean, mechanism, medium), and sometimes we even give it a nickname Vitamin Wow ( as it gives power and so). Wasta for those who are unfamiliar with the term is about having someone in a power position do something (legal or illegal) for you (a favor) that couldn’t be done without a wasta. The funny thing is that we don’t usually hide our acts when we use Wasta, but we brag about it, and offer providing the same wasta to people around us to help them out

He also mentions in his blog the World Culture Forum which just took place in Jordan. Interesting. I think Jordan is on the vacation list. It is cheap to get to from here and there is even SCUBA.

Updated! New posts below. The problem is from the room I stay in I can’t get at this blog properly to update it. Strange. I’m in Starbucks now doing the updates of saved stuff.

I was at the beach in the Hilton Club this afternoon and the water looks clear. So maybe Thursday’s dive will be awesome. I can hardly wait!

I’m having some issues getting at the site to post and upload images.

But, stay tuned. This weekend there should be a spate of new postings! I’ll backdate them to when they should have been posted if the Internet cooperated.

I was even on the phone to the web provider last night, and they say all is OK based on trace-routing etc. by me.

And there’s a big dive planned for Thursday!

Click here for a full size image.
A phone booth in Salmiya area near the Indian Community School.

Well, not a bad day so far. 7 hours sleep. That’s OK.

And so cold here, I had to wear my down vest to take off the chill getting into the car, so cold at 12 degrees C.

And the drive was nice. Light traffic and no fog, nice sun behind my back, listening to Concierto de Araunjuez. It skips in a few spots due to the old CD player in the car, but a very nice disk.

It is fortuitous that the office is west of Kuwait City. It would be much more hazardous driving into the sun morning and afternoon!

Wore my new shoes today. The fancy ones. Only problem is it make my pants look a bit short!

Well, so comfortable with a thin leather sole and such soft leather. Fits like a glove. But at the end of the day, looking at the sole wear I don’t think they would last very long. At work walking on just a bit of gravel and the wear really shows.

I may as well wear them. I bought a new suit in Calgary last August (was it that long ago!) for here but the daily wear in the office in West Kuwait is fairly casual as it is an Operations Area. But mostly when I go to Main Office or other meetings I wear a dress shirt and often a tie.

And for all the latest news in Kuwait go to Kuwait Times