Enfield Continental GT

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Last weekend I met up with a friend after a long time and we spent some time chatting about our shared interests, one of which was motorcycles. My friend is currently getting a classic Bullet restored and we were talking about customizing options on the old thumper. When I got home I remembered this rumor I had heard last year about Royal Enfield coming out with a Cafe Racer style bike so I went online to do some news hunting.

It appears that the rumors were true after all and the Continental GT will be available to motor-heads sometime by the end of the year. I’m loving the new breed of Bullets, especially the single seat Bullet Classic 350 and 500 and now we’re spoiled for choices with the GT. From the looks so far its definitely something I’d love to have in my garage in the future.

Royal Enfield has also added a new production facility from where they’ll be rolling out the next generation thumpers and I hope the final product will be something that is reliable and fun to ride. Here’s a video walkabout of the new plant.

Royal Enfield [website] and [Facebook]

Copper Chimney – Kuwait

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A group of guys from the office and I went for lunch at Copper Chimney during the weekend as someone had suggested it was great for North Indian food. I wasn’t aware that it was a famous chain in India and two members of our group had tried the food in their Bombay and Madras branches.

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I wasn’t intending to post a food review as I wasn’t in the mood but since some of the items we ate were really excellent I had to share it with my readers. I’ll keep my review short and focus on the dishes that really hit the spot in both taste and satisfaction.

Starters:
We ordered Chicken Shorba, a gently spiced chicken soup with bits of chicken and flavored with saffron. It was quite good and really light. I was glad there wasn’t any corn starch in it. This was followed by Tandoori Chicken and Chicken Chaat. I wasn’t a big fan of the chaat as it didn’t taste tangy enough or have the ‘chat patta’ flavor as they say in Hindi. The tandoori on the other hand was great! They used thigh meat and was nicely charred and had a smoky flavor. It was so good that we ordered more and had 4 plates in total!

Main Course:
We ordered the following; Butter Roti, Murgh Rahra, Chicken Bartha, Chicken Biriyani and Mutton Biriyani. The chicken Rahra was too spicy for most of us and everyone ordered soft drinks soon after a few bites. Both chicken dishes were tasty and we soaked up all the gravy with the crispy rotis. The biriyanis were served in individually sealed ‘dum’ containers and had boneless chunks of mutton and chicken respectively. It wasn’t very special and taste was on par with the usual fare at most high end Indian restaurants.

Dessert:
I was going to order the Rasmalai but one of the guys suggested we go with Malai Kulfi and Gulab Jamuns and it was a good decision. The Kulfi was probably the best I’ve ever had in Kuwait. You know how when you’re served Kulfi you always get some ice crystals in it? This was totally opposite and creamy almost like ice cream! The jamuns were ok I guess.

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Location:
Copper Chimney is located in the restaurants strip in Bida’a area near Movenpick hotel.
Phone: 22263114

Recommendation: If I visit Copper Chimney again I’ll surely order the Tandoori Chicken, the Bartha and the Malai Kulfi.

Copper Chimney Kuwait [homepage]
Copper Chimney on [Facebook]

Photos From Shizuoka Hobby Show 2013

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RG GP01s

Syd, over at Gaijin Gunpla has posted a ton of pictures of the latest release Master Grade and Real Grade kits for this summer. I was surprised to hear of the RX 78-2 Ver. 3.0 and it looks like they’ve introduced some new innovations in frame design and engineering.

My interest, however, is in the new Real Grade GP01 Full Burnern from Gundam 083 – Stardust Memory. The amount of detail and part separation from the pictures we’ve seen so far is really awesome, considering its only 1/144 scale.

Hop on over to Gaijin Gunpla for the full post and I’ve also posted the link from Gunpla Tv’s Youtube channel below.

Gunpla Tv [link]

True Facts About…

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I subscribed to this Youtube channel thinking it was about trivia on animals and nature but it turned out to be something quite different but hilarious! Here’s some of my favorites, starting off with True Facts About Morgan Freeman. Enjoy.

You Tube [link]

True facts about the Tarsier

True Facts About The Tapir

True Facts About The Sea Pig

True Facts About The Chameleon

True Facts About The Naked Mole Rat

True Facts About The Angler Fish

True Facts About Baby Echidnas

True Facts About The Land Snail

True Facts About The Dung Beetle

Star Trails – Second Attempt

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On Friday I tagged along with my friend Q8geek on his 6th Star Trail outing and this time I was much more prepared than my previous attempt. There were some technical constraints with my camera body which prevented me from taking more frames but I did what I could with the available resources.

I exhausted my D60′s battery after about 90 minutes of shooting and then switched to the GX1 when the Milky way galaxy was visible. We positioned our cameras away from the roads to reduce any light pollution. You can see how much street lights can interfere with night sky photography in one of the examples below.

Star Trails in Kuwait from Mathew Jacob on Vimeo.

Good News for Grendizer Fans

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One of the first things I did when I came back to work in Kuwait in 2006 was search for places selling Grendizer. I had lost mine during the invasion and ever since then I’ve always wanted to get a replacement.

During an online search I had found out that Bou Saleh had them in stock but would cost around 200 KD for the Soul of Chogokin set. This was way out of my budget and later last year when they re-released the kit it was retailing for around 60 KD but I had other things that took higher priority and this slipped my mind completely.

Last month I happened to see that Super Robot Chogokin series was coming out with a Grendizer model and I didn’t think twice in booking my figure. Delivery starts only in June and I might get mine by July but its well worth the wait considering its a decent quality set and only costs about 12 KD. I’ve linked the kits I’ve mentioned in this post down below;

Soul of Chogokin GX-04S Grendizer & All Speizer Set [link]
Brave Gohkin Grendizer [link]
Super Robot Chogokin Grendizer [link]

The picture above is by a friend of mine, Mishari, a very talented photographer. You can see more of his work [here]

Keep Jleeb Park Clean

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I recently came across this project were people from certain localities took charge of cleaning up the public parks in their respective areas. From Kuwaitiful blog I found out that the initiative started in Qortuba and spread to other areas like Mishref, where we meet once a week with friends. Most parks in Kuwait are pretty decent and its great to see people passionate about taking care of what little greenery we have in Kuwait.

Now I’m not expecting the same thing to happen in Jleeb park but the least we can do is pick up after ourselves and not leave a mess for the next group of people using the facilities. I was jogging in our neighborhood park in Jleeb on Saturday morning and it was frustrating to see how much garbage was thrown around in the park the previous night. There was a group of about half a dozen cleaners working to pick up all the food and plastic bags from the grass and it took more than 45 minutes to clear up 25% of the park.

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I wish adults would clean up after themselves and also teach their kids to do the same. I wouldn’t want my kids to hurt themselves on broken glass while playing in the grass or come into contact with leftover food rotting in the playground and I’m sure most of you wouldn’t as well. How much effort would it take to crumple up your packet of Kitco or juice box and walk to the nearest dustbin? I’m not expecting people to volunteer to clean the park but rather prevent the problem in the first place by not littering in the park.

I’m reminded of what a friend of mine once told me as he nonchalantly threw an empty cola can over his shoulder; “its ok, the cleaner will get that tomorrow”. I guess whats what the majority of people in Kuwait think when they throw something on the ground.

Summer Action Movies 2013

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Ok, so Oblivion wasn’t really as great as I thought it would be but I did like the concept and the story. There’s more to look forward to as we’re approaching the Summer Blockbuster season and its getting off to a good start with Iron Man 3 releasing this weekend. Here’s my list of movies to see in the coming months;

Iron Man 3 – Loved 1 and 2, anxious to see the Mandarin.

Man of Steel – The very last trailer really got me convinced that this could be the best Superman movie yet!

The Wolverine – As a Marvel and Wolverine fan what can I say? Bring it on bub!

Elysium – So far I’ve learned that its kinda like District 9 but on a bigger scale, plus Matt Damon looks great!

Pacific Rim – Giant Robots piloted by men, fighting alien invaders? What more do I need?

World War Z – I still haven’t started watching ‘The Walking Dead‘ yet but will do soon after I see this movie.

The Lone Ranger – Loved the show when I was a kid and would love to see it on the big screen.

Startrail Session VI – Photography Activity

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My friend, the Geek is back with another Star Trail session in Salmi desert. I missed the last couple of outings due to work and family related schedule conflicts. This time around I’ve booked the day well in advance and made sure there will be no interference from the aforementioned parties.

Hopefully I’l get better shots than last time as I’ve understood what I was doing wrong and now am prepared to take some proper sets of trails. The photo posted here is by Q8 Geek.

For more info on the outing you can head over to [his site] and get in touch with him to register your name in the group. Also join the [Facebook event] if you’re interested in getting any updates for this event.

Tough Times Ahead for Drivers in Kuwait

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The past couple of weeks there’s been an increasing number of people getting booked for traffic offenses. I personally know a handful of people, including my dad, who’ve had their driver’s license confiscated by the traffic police.

The news reports don’t seem to be encouraging either, as you can read [here] and [here]. Be on the lookout for checkpoints and drive safe. The sad part is that drivers like the ones you’ll see in the video down below will still remain untouched and freely roam our streets. The video was shot near my home and is a common sight during morning rush hour.

Youtube [link]