Danderma's Blog, page 62

Are We Supposed to Recycle Medicine?

Over the years and after every visit to a doctor when I get ill, or simply a visit to Boots in the UK, I’ve acquired a great and big collection of different forms of medicine. Tablets, capsules, syrups, drops, ointments, bandages, antiseptics, vitamins, antibiotics, etc. As a result I now have an actual handbag filled to the brim with my pharmaceutical loot and use them within realistic limits of their expiration date. I won’t be throwing out a good antibiotic just because it expired on January 2013 now am I?

But then I also have a lot of medicine that expired eons ago. The oldest take back to the early 2000′s and I think I’ve been in denial about reaching the third half of the second decade of the new millennium but I’ve finally decided that a medicine made in 2001 is now 12-years-old and consuming it might very well turn me into a mutant or something. It had to go, but many do still reside there.

I was just wondering if there is anyway we can “recycle” medicine? Instead of throwing it out, perhaps someone out there, a chemist or a pharmacist perhaps, would actually make use of the substances in the medicine even if they are no longer OK to be consumed by humans?

Are we supposed to recycle medicine? If we are, how and where and when exactly? Do you have any idea?

A Lovely Modern Bouquet from Patla Florists

If you’ve been following my blog for a while you will know that I adore flowers. Therefore, you can imagine my surprise yesterday when out of the blue I receive a very beautiful very modern round silver vase with a little chalkboard pick and my blog’s name written on it in white chalk.

The bouquet was very simple yet very modern and elegant, with a bunch of white roses -my favourite flowers by the way, they are just so pure!- and the other flower I don’t know the name of but in two shades, purple and blue, that seemed to change colours when you look at it, almost twinkling in the sunlight. Simply striking!

How I adore white roses

I looked at the florists name, Patla, and tried to remember their location only couldn’t. I called one of the owners, Ms. Sarah Al-Shayji, to thank her and she informed me their florist has only been open a week and they are planning a few arrangement idea for National and Liberation day. I can’t wait to be frank.

Thank you Sarah Al-Shayji and Doha Al-Mudayan for sending the lovely bouquet my way. You made my day yesterday, wishing you the best of luck! For more information about Patla florists you can call them on 50718111, follow them on Twitter (@PatlaFlorist) or on Instagram (@PatlaFlorist).

Sneak Preview: The Dark Room Restaurant

We’ve been invited to a sneak preview of Kuwait’s newest restaurant, The Dark Room. You might have already heard about it or tried it from your travels abroad in London or NYC, but in case you didn’t, The Dark Room is a restaurant where you dine in total darkness with absolutely nothing to see which in turn should enhance your other senses including your taste one and allow you to experience your food in another level all together.

The restaurant is located in the basement of Burj Jassim tower in Kuwait City. When you arrive, you go down two flights of dimly lit stairs to a small dimly lit but tastefully decorated reception area where the hostess checks you reservation.

On the left side of the reception area is a locker room. You are supposed to leave all your belonging, including your phone, in a deposit box and take only the locker key with you inside the dining room. I had to say letting go of my iPhone was an experience in its own. I felt lost.

Then you are through a long corridor to a small waiting area where you wait for your waiters to arrive and lead you inside the dining room. Both the corridor and the waiting area are even more dimly lit than the reception room. The idea is that your eyes can gradually adjust to the darkness before it completely becomes all black.

While you wait you are served small glasses of lemon and mint juice with some nuts to munch on. We were also handed long plastic aprons to wear before going inside.

Then our guide/host for the night Hamad Al-Ali, aided with his night goggles, came and led us inside the dark dining room. My husband had his hand on Hamad’s shoulder, I held my husband’s hand, and Pink Girl held my hand and we took off in a slow train like manner, inching step by step inside total darkness until we were told to feel for the chairs and sit on them.

We sat absorbed by darkness, we couldn’t find each other at first. Then we settled down and got used to the surrounding I felt a sudden urge to fall asleep but it passed away in about five minutes or so.

Now what?

I began looking for my iPhone. I panicked for a moment when I couldn’t find it but then remembered its locked away. I think I have an unhealthy obsession with the thing. Then we realised we had dining neighbours sitting next on either side of us. The table was stark empty, and when the waiters aided by their night goggles arrived to serve us they would first put the utensils in your hands then tell you what you are being served. How you eat it, how you figure out where the spoon or fork cuts or whether or not you are going to poke your cheek with an empty fork -happened twice-, are all things you have to figure out.

The food is prepared by chef Adoola and you choose the dishes before you enter the dark room. We started with a cold mushroom soup, followed by risotto balls, then an order of shrimp that I passed on because I can’t stand them and I’m a vegetarian, and next came a vegetarian ravioli for me and lasagna for everyone who, from listening to their praise, must have been extremely delicious. When we were done we were guided outside the room again into the reception with the light amount gradually increasing to allow your eyes to adjust again after the darkness. We then got to see our fellow diners and finally meet them. One of them was a young artist, Basma Al-Saeed, who is fourteen-years-old and paints amazing pictures. We had the pleasure of meeting her and she said I could post her picture in my blog.

Young Basma had won many award for her artwork. She will also be participating in the upcoming Proud to be Kuwaiti annual exhibition. I can’t work to pass by and see her work insah2 Allah. Keep up the good work Basma! You can check her artwork and her updates on her instagram account (@Basma_Alsaeed).

It was quite an experience dining at The Dark Room last night. Its gives you a fresh new perspective on how darkness enhances your other senses and a new found appreciation for the gift of sight. In similar restaurants abroad, the waiters who serve the customers are blind people but in Kuwait the waiters wear night vision goggles. The menu is prepared by Chef Adoola and the price for entry including dinner is 15 KD.

If you are afraid of the dark, don’t like to be touched, and can’t bear to be separated from your smart phone, and your idea of dining out mostly involves staring at people, then The Dark Room is not for you. Otherwise, if you are up to a new experience with no one staring at you and no screaming children running around, then you should be waiting for The Dark Room opening which is going to be soon.

The Dark Room is located in Burj Jassim in Kuwait City. For more information you can check their website (link) or follow them on Twitter (@DarkRoomKw) or instagram (@DarkRoomKw).

The New Avenues Before & After Pictures – Part 4

Now we come to part four and current last Avenues Mall before & after construction pictures post. For part 1 click (here) and 2 (here). and 3 (here).

This time the before pictures are borrowed from my dear friends bloggers Swera and Pink Girl because I originally wanted to match their pictures to my after pictures but it was impossible. Dear girls, thank you for letting me use your pictures

Prestige – Before November 2012 by Swera.

Prestige – After January 2013.

Tory Burch & Tumi Grand Avenues – Before March 2012 by Pink Girl.

Tory Burch & Tumi Grand Avenues – After January 2013.

The Mall Fountain – Before March 2012 by Pink Girl.

The Mall Fountain – After January 2013.

Juicy Couture Grand Avenues – Before March 2012 by Pink Girl.

Juicy Couture Grand Avenues – After January 2013.

Prestige Fountain – Before November 2012 by Swera.

Prestige Fountain – After January 2013.

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The Souk – Before March 2012 by Pink Girl.

The Souk – After January 2013.

Prestige – Before November 2012 by Pink Girl.

Prestige – After January 2013.

Grand Avenues – Before March 2012.

Grand Avenues – After January 2013.

I hope you enjoyed the before & after posts and the difference was clear enough. I might be making more if I can go back and match some more next week but its subject to before pictures availability. Have a nice weeked

Pathetic or Smart: Begging Your Way into Events?

I’m astonished with every passing day at the lengths some people would go to to attend a blogger’s event and sadly we’ve seen with our own eyes bloggers that no one had heard of before because they just started yesterday shamelessly asking the event organizers shamelessly to be invited as well or even fighting and acting all haughty and offended when they didn’t receive their invites.

I still remember the years when I was literally an unknown blogger. I poured my heart and soul into the blog, I checked popular bloggers posts on daily basis trying to figure what made them appealing to the readers, I watched the well-known bloggers of that time as they were invited to review restaurants or try something new sent their way. I wished that the day would come when I would be recognizes for my efforts and sought out to do the same. I worked harder and harder each day for years until one day it happened to me, my humble blog’s name was not virtually unknown anymore.

Then the event’s mania began and poof, everybody wanted to become a blogger. Technically speaking everybody on planet earth can become a blogger, just open a blog and write away. But working hard and posting and trying to make a distinguished name for your blog is apparently too time and effort consuming to get you into an event. After all, you didn’t open the blog to share some knowledge, or rant, or try to inspire people with your talents. Its opened just so you can say you have a blog, and the best way to fill it up with information is that you go to event, click a few photos, and write about them. But you are not invited to events because you don’t technically register on the blogsphere radar yet, so what can you do? Beg to be invited of course.

How does the begging happen? You either learn that there is an event coming up by company X or event organizer Y and you call them up saying you are a blogger and want to attend. Or you contact them in front of their followers in the social media outlets, hinting that you are wishing for an invite, or ask them shamelessly to send you an invite as well, or fight with them after or before an event on why you didn’t invite them to that event since she/he is a blogger too. Sometimes the event organizers would ignore those blunt event-crashers but many times they seem too embarrased they apologize and send an invite right away. Voila, you opened a blog yesterday and invited to an event tomorrow! Easy no?

 In Arnold’s Schwar. Book, he had a chapter with a list of rules a the end and one of them was “Don’t let your pride get in the way”. I myself have let my pride get in the way a LOT of times. For example, if I’m not invited the first time around, I won’t attend the second time around. I stil don’t consider myself an IT blogger and I’m still working on developing my blog so one day I can sit back and think to myself “Now I’ve made it”. Have I been wasting my time all these years? Trying to build a name for my little blog in hopes that my blog’s good reputation would open the doors for me? Should I have just asked and shown my face?

Pathetic vs. Proud? I’m not really sure anymore.

But I think its worth it to arrive at an event with a sense of entitilement, that you’ve earned entry to this event. That when you shake hands with the event organizers and introduce your blog’s name, someone would actually tell you how much they love your blog and how they read it first thing in the morning rather than give you a blank stare with a big fat question mark flowing inside an even bigger bubble that says “Come again?”. Yes, I choose pride  that comes from hard work. I’m still hungry, and will still try and work my way to the top.

What about you, fellow bloggers? Do you think its smart or pathetic to beg your way into an event?

The New Avenues Before & After Pictures – Part 3

This is part three of the Avenues Mall before & after construction pictures. For part one you can click here (link) and for part two you can click here (link). There is one more part that I’m going to post tomorrow. You can click on the images for bigger sized ones with more details.

Teavana The Grand Avenues – Before March 2012. 

Teavana The Grand Avenues – After January 2013. 

The Mall Entrance – Before March 2012. 

The Mall Entrance – After January 2013.

Harvey Nichols Grand Avenues – Before March 2012.

Harvey Nichols Grand Avenues – After January 2013. 

The Souk – Before March 2012.

The Souk – After January 2013. 

Grand Avenues – Before March 2012.

Grand Avenues – After January 2013. 

Grand Avenues – Before March 2012.

Grand Avenues – After January 2013.

Prada Prestige – Before March 2012. 

Prada Prestige – After March 2013. 

The Souk – Before March 2012.

The Souk – After January 2013. 

I might go back to the Avenues next weekend and see if I can match anything up though I strongly doubt I can come up with more. If you like before & after pictures then I hope you are enjoying these posts, I’ve put a lot of effort into them.

 

 

 

Opening a Tin of Macintosh

The earliest memory I have of chocolate was in some family party in the early 80′s. In the party they were distributing small bags of Macintosh, otherwise officially known as “Quality Street” and I remember myself with one of those bags. I even have a picture of me holding two Macintosh chocolate pieces and smiling mischievously.

Macintosh is a beloved oldie classic chocolate that never goes out of style and I think the time has come to celebrate it with a post. Last week I was feeling a bit down and I knew just the thing to cheer me up, a tin of Macintosh chocolate! I wonder why we call it Macintosh when on the lid of the tin its obviously called Quality Street?

The moment you open the lid you are hit by a gorgeous chocolate-y smell that is unique for the Macintosh chocolates. You won’t know which one to start with, all the pieces are glittering like little gems in a pirate’s treasure chest, beckoning you over to try them first.

Which one would you choose first? 

The purple is everybody’s favourite! So beloved it came in a giant size and a long bar too. Usually a tin box comes with two or three pieces only and people would fight over it. I wish my favourites where that popular though.

The official name of “The Purple One” is Milk Chocolate Hazelnut with Caramel”. Every other person I know goes gaga over it. Personally I find it OK. Its not my favorite, not by a long shot. It might come as #5 or #6 at the list of my favorite Quality Street chocolates.

The second global favourite that also comes in a great big size is the green rectangular one. We locally call it the “Mercedes” one because it looks like the Mercedes Benz cars logo! This one I don’t like though, its just too much for my taste.

Now to my favourites: my third favourite is this chewy toffee pink one. I love the sand-like texture of the soft toffee as I’m chewing it. Its so yummy

My second favourite is the strawberry cream! I adore it, I love the tanginess of the strawberry cream oozing into my finger tips after I take a bite. As a matter of fact, if you check my baby picture, you will see me holding my two favourites and one of them is the strawberry cream one!

My ever favourite, the orange cream one! So chocolatey, so tangy, so delicious, so orangey. I love it. I’d buy an entire tin of Macintosh filled with it if I could. I even like it when it gets a bit stale and the cream hardens a bit, it would taste even better with the chewy harder texture of the cream. Mamma mia

The least favorite one I suppose is the disc like hard toffee one. Its not bad actually, I usually keep it somewhere warm until the toffee melts and softens then eat it when I’m done eating all my favorites and it tastes good and when you’re done you know its time to buy another tin of Macintosh chocolates

I actually remember a coffee flavoured Macintosh but I think its been discontinued decades ago. Around two years ago they discontinued my two favourite macintosh chocolates -Strawberry Cream and Orange Cream- in Kuwait but not in London so I stopped buying my Macintosh fix from Kuwait until last week which, to my sheer delight, meant my two favourite flavours are back! Yay!

Even the wrappers look pretty when they are all scrunched up and left all over the place! They have a distinct smell to them that I like too. I remember we used to take the transparent coloured wrappers and holding them to the sun to have colour tinted vision.

Oh and I found the answer to the Macintosh name, According to Wikipedia (link) the chocolates were originally manufactured by a company called Macintosh before being acquired by Nestle in 1988. Their name is Quality Street though even from the days of Macintosh.

Now, which one is your favourite Macintosh chocolate? Do share please

A Golden Danderma Necklace from Asrar Shop

The owner of a custom Jewelry shop sent me a cute gift, a golden necklace with my blog name, Danderma, spelled out as a pendant attached to a gold chain, complete with a little ruby-like heart dangling from it! I loved it so much I decided it deserved a Danderma style photo shoot.

Asrar Shop can customise many things with your name or whatever word or phrase you wish: earrings, necklaces, bracelets, keychains, rosaries, cufflink, and more.  The finishing is very clean and really lovely.

I was very happy with my blog necklace. I might be making myself a keychain with my blog name on it in Arabian calligraphy soon and hang it on my beloved Canon camera! It never occurred to me to customise something of mine in my blog name before, I don’t know why?

The necklace now sits proudly my in jewellery box, looking good there.

That, of course, was before I caught Bo Throos stealing my necklace and trying to run away with it! Never thought you had it in you Bo Throos, its mine! He got detention by the way.

Thank you Asrar Shop for your gift, it is lovely and made me very happy indeed! For more information on Asrar Gift she does all custom Jewelery you can contact her on her Whatsapp at +965-65540829 or follow her and check her work on instagram (@AsrarShop).

Book Review: Total Recall by Arnold Schwarzenegger

The first time I saw Arnold Schwarzenegger was while watching Terminator with my father. When the terminator came ion the screen, my father pointed at him and told me “This actor? This is the world’s champion in bodybuilding”. Of course, an athletic person going into movies is not that surprising, happens all the time with football and basketball players. An Austrian champion bodybuilder becoming a movie star then becoming the governor of the state of California in the USA, is worth reading about.

I loved the beginning of this book, how Arnold was born in a year of famine, how they lived in bare necessities, how he had strong parents who disciplined him yet a father who didn’t believe in him. Defiance is very present in the first chapters of the book and throughout. How the little boy had a dream and he worked relentlessly to make it happen and worked harder whenever someone laughed his dream off or told him it cannot happen.

His commitment, his punctuality, defiance, determination, and steel will got him his many bodybuilding titles and helped put the bodybuilding on the map and got him to America and gave him his first business of bodybuilding videos, tips, and supplies mail order. Then the book talks about his American life and doesn’t much talk about his relationship with women then you turn a page and find him talking about falling in love with a Kennedy and marrying her and having children.

The book, even though it talks about his family life after marriage, is still on the private side. You cannot sense much gooey emotions but you can definitely sense a strong will and determination to put a mark on this world and change it to the better. Then the book progresses into the movie parts of Arnold’s life, which was fun to read, then the politics part. In the politics part we see a side of Arnold that is so private that he didn’t inform his wife of his wanting to run for governor or the people of California until the last-minute. The man is like a machine that works silently with Austrian efficiency!

I, however, hated the part about Arnold’s secret affair with the housekeeper that resulted in him fathering a son who’se as old as his youngest son from his wife. His, lets say, explanation is too casual and after a long book filled with details, its just not enough or that convincing.

Overall, the book is an inspiration for how to achieve what you want in life even if all the odds were against you. I can identify with that and I think I’m going to listen to Arnold’s dream-to-reality transformation tips. After all, he made, didn’t he? Defienetly going on my bookshelf and I would strongly recommend it.

The New Avenues Before & After Pictures – Part 2

This is part two of the Avenues Mall before & after construction pictures. For part one you can click here (link). There are two more parts to go that I’m going to post them tomorrow and after tomorrow. Check them out, you can click on the images for bigger sized ones with more details.

Grand Avenues – Before March 2012.

Grand Avenues – After January 2013.

Prestige Christian Dior – Before March 2012. 

Prestige Christian Dior – After January 2013. Its still not opened yet though.

Grand Avenues – Before March 2012.

Grand Avenues – After January 2013.

The Mall – Before March 2012.

The Mall – After January 2013.

Harvey Nichols Grand Avenues – Before March 2012.

Harvey Nichols Grand Avenues – After January 2012.

The Souk – Before March 2012. 

The Souk – After January 2013.

Grand Avenues – Before March 2012. 

Grand Avenues – After January 2013. 

Soku - Before March 2012.

Soku – After January 2013. 

The Souk - Before March 2012.

The Souk – After January 2013. 

Construction came a long way, didn’t it? I just wish I had more construction pictures to match to the existing Avenues. I only have enough for two more posts so stay tuned.