Pottermore and Wands: Reflection of Oneself?

The Magical Quill Book. Successful registration inside Pottermore BETA.

Credit to TheLastMuggle

Finally, after weeks of waiting for my third Pottermore email (the first two were Congratulatory ones after I answered correctly the question with the magic quill), I finally checked out the fuss that surrounds this BETA game. It was filled with amazing visuals, small excerpts from the story only catching the most important detail from each chapter but unfortunately it seems Sony (the site maker) forgot to add some music. Ironic, isn't it?


But as I go through, enjoying the new pieces that J.K. Rowling herself added to colorize the story - background insights of each characters, events and objects - I finally had my chance to have my virtual wand. Unlike what Harry Potter did in the movies with the swish and flick, I have to go through 7 questions with a note to myself to answer them in all honesty. Why is that so? Two things came to mind when I was doing it - for the sake of fun imagining I'm in Harry's shoes when he was picking his wand for the first time and a psychological look on how this virtual wand reflects my personality. The questions were piece-of-cake, nothing much to think about but what surprises me was the result afterwards.

Pottermore Profile. The Wand details on the left. Credit to Pottermore Site

Interestingly, I got myself a Black Walnut with Dragon Core, Twelve and a Half-inches, Hard. Now what does that mean? I'm no herbologist or even if I'm a Harry Potter fan myself I really can't recall what it signifies. Good thing though, J.K. Rowling herself present articles about a wand's description or if it still feels lacking I just found out that Harry Potter Wikia have additional insights to it posted on their site.

Wand Wood Description for Walnut. Credit to Pottermore Site

Wand Core Description for Dragon. Credit to Pottermore Site

With the above description, it says one thing: the wand owner is inclined to intelligence, flexibility, sincerity, loyalty, attuned with inner conflicts and stubbornness. This was all but quite a surprise. It may have been coincidence or the questionnaire contains good psychological merit but those attributes quite reflect the person I am. Because of this, my interest boosted up for the Pottermore virtual world. Now I can say I'm more thrilled to see what I will discover. So stay tuned!

Mom's Post-Bday Dinner

A Birthday dinner would mean delicious food. Since we opted not to eat Filipino food or any oriental dish or even any Arabic cuisine, we decided to dine around Kuwait Towers..well no not inside the three huge structural balls, but at some casual dining restaurant that serves typical American-Mexican food...Chili's! Thankfully the place wasn't jammed packed, thinking that we had dinner around 8PM and it's still Ramadan.

The ambiance was great for casual dining, a good change for the usual fast food. The staff were mostly Filipino, something we were obviously glad about and the service was definitely wonderful. It took around 15-20 minutes before all our orders were served and a few hours of happy feasting. Yum yum!

Fajitas Quesadillas Tacos topped with Vanilla ice cream! How's that for an appetizer?!

Good ole New York Steak paired with some side veggies, garlic bread and Mexican Java rice!

Quesadilla Explosion Salad

Half-Rack Baby Back Ribs but instead of the Fries opted for the Mexican Java Rice

Mom posing in front of the Arabic Chili's logo

 Our total food costs us around 25KD (around 3900Php which was a bit expensive for three lol) but it was all worth  it, so I definitely see myself coming back.

Seaside Kuwait

On a Sunday afternoon before going to the Holy Family Cathedral Parish for the 6:30PM mass....

The Game: Azkals VS Azraq

I got my ticket the day before the big game. You can choose from 1KD(155Php) to 5KD (780Php). Since we lack the necessary funds (ahem) to get the best seat, we opted for the cheapest ticket but ended up with the 2KD (310Php) instead since the local guy who was selling the ticket said that the 1KD were already sold out, mostly by Filipinos. That of course wasn't a surprise.

Ticket for the Azkals vs Azraq game. It's obviously in Arabic so I dunno what it says.

 The day of the big game was a bit of a shocker, since I've never seen thousands of Filipinos here in Kuwait in one place. My Dad, my cousin and their friends who've been here for years said that it was the first time in 2007 that a massive crowd of Filipinos cared to watch any kind of event. Obviously everyone was excited to see how the game would be played, minus the fact that a lot of girls (and gays) were cheering for their favorite Azkal team members.

The local police on standby

What do you think?

The game started around 7:30 PM where the temperature was around 41-43 degrees celsius but that didn't stop everyone from watching the game. Football (or soccer in British term) is a foreign game to the Filipino crowd so more than half of everyone that I talked to about who they'd think would win pointed to the Azraq, Kuwait's National Football team since the game is as infamously popular here as boxing or basketball in PI.

Parade of the Players at the start of the game

The massive crowd. The local news said more than 60% were Filipinos. Can you imagine that?

It lasted for more than 3 hours. Unfortunately the Azkals lost to Azraq in a game of 0:2. Also that was a sad fact, at least the players did their best to show what they can do against an international seasoned team.

Harry Potter's Last Battle

Since it's first book release in June 1997 and the first movie release in November 2001, the Harry Potter series and its author had gone a long way from unknown to phenomenal world wide. The name has been infamous, even been dubbed as the greatest of movie franchise of all time. For years, I have followed the craze and as the last part of the movie is coming to theaters a few weeks from now, I'm feeling a mixed emotion of thrill and sadness.



My friend, Allison, introduced me to the wonderful world of Harry Potter during my freshmen year at the University. Since then, we regularly awaited for the release of its books and movies. When I went to Macau which at the same time was the release of the last Harry Potter book, I roamed the streets of Taipa and traded my last Pataca in order to have the book - my first Bloomsbury edition. I was so thrilled it only took me almost 3 hours of constant reading just to finish the book.

Now exactly four years after that, it was funny to note that I'll be seeing the last part of the movie, not in my home country, but here in Kuwait. Checking the local movie theaters, I was glad to find out they even offer a Harry Potter movie marathon that would start today, July 4 for 1.5 KD at all Cinescape cinemas (360 Mall and The Avenues) while the much awaited movie will be shown on July 12 - the exact same date that it'll be released in the UK!

 
Finally, the countdown starts for one of the much-awaited movies of the year!

Philippine Azkals Vs Kuwait Al-Azraq

After a 5-1 aggregate score between the Philippine Azkals VS the Sri Lankan Brave Reds, the Philippine national football team's next set of games will be against Kuwait's Al Azraq for the continuance of the World Cup qualifiers. The first leg will be on July 23, 2011 at Hawally, Kuwait and the second match will be on July 28, 2011 at the Rizal Memorial Stadium in Manila, Philippines.

This game that the Azkals won against the Brave Reds was the first time the team technically took a step closer to qualify for the football World Cup. But as they grow closer to their goal of playing in Brasil for the 2014 games, the Azkals' challenge seemed to be getting more complicated as days go by. This time, they have to face one of the strongest football teams of the Middle East - the Kuwait Al-Azraq.

Both teams have a FIFA rank of more than #100 with the Azkals in #159 and Al-Azraq in #102. Now even if the Azkals would ultimately look like underdogs in this upcoming match, they might as well try to do their best to beat out their opponent or else it's just another shameful addition to their long history of failed attempts to qualify for the World Cup and a huge disappointed to the million of fans that were supporting them.

As an Azkal supporter, this is just too thrilling to watch. So definitely I'll be in Hawally to see the match even if it's on a Saturday. Hopefully the game will be set after 3 PM!

Go Azkals!

 
To watch the game check this info:
When: Saturday, July 23
Time: 7:00pm - 10:00pm
Where: Mohammad Al Hamad Stadium, Qadsia, Kuwait
Tickets: Available at the entrance or at the Kuwait Football Association Hedquarters in Adiliya between Kazma (former FILBACK gym) & Adiliya Jamiya (1KD, 2KD, 3KD)

Sandstorm in Kuwait

They said sandstorms, dust devils or dust storms would occur if the weather's changing, but technically speaking they arise when a strong wind would blow loose dirt and sand from any dry land area. According to some sites I've read about this country, these kind of natural very much unlikely occurrence happens every time the weather is going to change. Interesting information for someone who grew up in a tropical isle who only experienced tropical storms, floods, earthquakes, El Niño, and La Niña. Whatever the cause is, I'd probably like to get soaked in the rain rather than get covered up with dust.

View from our Flat (Before)

After only 5 Minutes

Even with occurring mild force of nature, we decided to hit the Grocery store (Carrefour) at South Surra and along the way, the dust storm was pretty obvious.

Front of 360 Mall at 6th Ring Road, South Surra, Al Zahra'a Area

Outside Kuwait Scientific Center

The Scientific Center of Kuwait, located in Salmiya, Kuwait

I am a fond of going to museums, planetariums, galleries, aquariums or any place where I can feed my mind. So it was really nice to see that Kuwait has its own Scientific Center which houses a vast collection of marine species. Unfortunately we weren't able to go inside that day sue to some event so instead we just hang around outside the area to check on the huge boat displays that were now held as artifacts of this Arab state's once rich fishing and pearl diving industry.

Fateh El-Kheir. A water sailing boat.

Description of the boat

Oy! It's a VIVA building. (It's a new mobile server here which I use myself)

The seaside lined up with tons of Date Palm trees which would always remind me that I'm in this part of the planet

Great place for jogging as well

Food Tasting in Kuwait

One of the things that I can't live without? Food. Although I promised myself to divulge in exploring Arabic and Indian dishes since I'm going to be living here for a while, the first one that I actually ate was a family sized bucket meal from KFC when we were still at the airport. Funny thing is, their french fries tastes creamier than what I usually had back home and the chicken tastes better. So why was it like that? Maybe because KFC's R&D thought of personalizing the taste based on the region where the food's going to be served. Pretty cool huh?

One time, my cousin brought us to this local semi-fast food restaurant called Shrimpy that caters to seafood lovers cooked the Western way. The one we went to was located at Arabian Gulf Street beside Kuwait Towers and I have to say that the ambiance was gorgeous and could be leveled to a fine dining restaurant. The food was also great (though a bit oily), they have a variety of veggies for the salad and a single order would cost around less than 1.5KD to 2KD, drinks included.

Shrimpy's Fried prawns and Fish fillet with french fries and bread

Shrimpy's single served salad

So when we went around Farwaniya, we stopped at Gad Restaurant. The place was pretty jam packed with the locals (not sure if they're Kuwaitis or any other Arab groups since I'm still finding it hard to distinguish one from the other) and we were actually led to a divided room suited for people together with their Family. My dad said the place serves authentic Egyptian dishes and I was about to try my very first kabab/kopta, kabsa, riz bi sh'areh (Rice with Vermicelli) and a lot more.

Gad Restaurant's Menu Card

Eesh baladi or Egyptian bread. Paired with Arabic Pickled Turnips when served. Reminded me of Pandesal but the taste was a bit bland.

Mixed Kabab Grill

Overall, the dish was good and my expectations set. Value is okay too, the dishes were around 500 fils to 2.500 KD I also get to know that the taste wasn't salty or even sweet - just around the middle.

Anyway while doing grocery at City Center in Salmiya, we decided to taste some combination of Arabic and Indian cuisine for a change at the mall's food court. My parents went for Fatoosh and I tried Cocktail Beirut. The food being sold were almost the same but I decided for a combo order - 3 main dishes plus one rice of my choice. I went for Macaroni Koazy (reminded me of Lasanga minus the herbs, tomatoes and the sweetness), Biryani rice and stir-fried beef with veggies and spicy chicken curry (don't know their counterpart names). But overall, it was a hefty meal only around 1.500 KD, drinks not included.

Combo meal from Cocktail Beirut, City Center in Salmiya

Even though the food in Kuwait comprises of Egyptian, Indian and majority Western dishes - there's a ton of McDonald's, KFC, Burger King, Pizza Hut and Starbucks all over the place - I, being an Asian would always crave for anything that is Asian. So just last night (thanks to one of my Dad's colleagues), we went to Oriental Cuisine at City Suites Hotel near Sharq. It was actually a Thai-Chinese Restaurant and the food were awesome as the pictures depicted in their menu. Since we didn't call for any reservation, we stood outside the restaurant for 20 minutes amid the heat (43°C/109.4 °F) but after tasting their hot spicy Tom yum (ironic, I know), Fish balls, Stir fry beef with oyster sauce, Mixed seafood rice paired, Banana in coconut cream and a glass of lemon shake with mint tea, everything just felt like heaven!

Oriental Cuisine at City Suites in Sharq

Overall the experience was great and although I've went to selected restaurants/fast foods, I don't think this would be the last time that I would be trying out what Kuwait food lifestyle has to offer.