27 DRESSES

Cute. What girl doesn't look forward to her wedding? (some men included) But a little unrealistic don't you think? They even brought it up in the movie. How could she afford to pay for all those dresses etc. Ladies, you do learn a good lesson in this movie though. After one year of having a crush on the same guy, MOVE ON! He's just not that interested on you. I LOVE watching it ... 3 stars!

MADE OF HONOR

Ok, a lot of you may know this about me, but I am a HUGE sucker for romantic comedies in addition to just plain comedy especially action comedies. Below are my ratings for the latest romantic comedies out now or soon. Keep in mind that the maximum score is 4 stars.

Made of Honor

LOVED IT! It was little like My Best Friend's Wedding but switched around. At least this time the guy got the girl ;) I myself love scottish men, but in this movie they made them look plain. Naughty naughty ... I must give this movie 3 1/2 stars!

P.S. I LOVE YOU

This was the movie I saw on my flight to Arizona. From the first minute after the show started, I was crying. It was sooooooooo romantic. The story is a of a girl named Holly (Hilary Swank) who marries Gerry, an Irishman (Gerard Butler), whom she meets while on a school trip in Ireland.

Holly (Hilary Swank) was only 18 when she married Gerry (Gerard Butler), but they were madly in love. A few years later Gerry gets passes away. Knowing that his wife Holly will fall in to a deep depression he surprises her by sending her letters and gifts, after he is dead, on different intervals.

The movie is a lovely romantic adventure with Kathy Bates as Holly's Mom, Lisa Kudrow as her best friend, and Jeffrey Dean Morgan YUM! as her late husband's best friend.

I definitely recommend that you see this movie, if not for the sucky romantic stuff, then definitely for the fun adventure and laughter.

P.s. Trust me ;)

My LONG Trip

Hey Everybody! 

I know it's been a while, but I promise the next few articles are worth it. 

I'm in the U.S.A. right now, and on my way here I used British Airways (BA). For the past year I've been hearing of BA's new club world and since I only went to Europe in 2007 I saw no changes to the seats. The only thing that did change were the blankets they used; however, on my flight from London Heathrow to Phoenix Arizona I finally saw the new sleeper seats!

The sleeper seats are SO MUCH more comfortable. Even the footstool is better. You can stretch like a cat especially if you're as tall as I am (for a girl). There are so many angles to sit, sleep or lie down AND you can not only pump up your lumbar area but you can also pump up the pillow/head area as well. 

EVERYTHING is easier to get too. The TV, the table, the remote control EVERYTHING. You have an electric socket to plug in for your laptop. There is a drawer to put your laptop or other things you'd like to store for the trip. The TV is touch screen FINALLY. You can play, pause, rewind, forward, and you have so many choices other than movies such as news, tv, games etc. My flight was 11 hours so it was so nice to finally see that on BA. I thought I was going to go crazy on the flight, but luckily I was well entertained. Even my niece was shocked that I only got 20 mins sleep.  

I have to say that I have been very disappointed with BA lately; however, this flight was much better than my previous experience in December. I have sworn off BA in the near future though until they get their act together. 

Back to the positive, I watched a really good movie during the flight and my critique will be out on it soon.

Adios for now! 

Awake

Welcome to my first movie critique! Although I saw this movie a while back it is still considered pretty new. Awake with Hayden Christensen (Star Wars), Jessica Alba (Honey), and Terrence Howard (Crash), is a thriller about an extremely wealthy young man named Clay Beresford (Hayden Christensen) who undergoes surgery and is not rendered completely unconcious through the anesthesia. This condition is widely known as Anesthesia Awareness.

While "Awake" during his operation Beresford learns of a plot to kill him for his wealth. The best part of the movie was when Beresford has an out of body experience otherwise known as Astral Projection. While out of his body, Hayden's character finds out the truth and tries to get the people around him to notice.

I won't spoil any more of it for you, but I must tell you about my personal experience first. Once I started watching the movie all I did was cry from the beginning. To the point that my mother left the living room, because she thought she was going to watch a depressing movie. The next thing you know there is a catalyst and everything starts to move at a fast pace.

Overall, a good movie. I would give it four stars. The movie has an amazing cast including Arlis Howard and Lena Olin whom I did not mention earlier, Hayden Christensen did an excellent job, and the plot was, to me, something new that someone has not tackled in a long time. My hat goes off to the cast for a job well done.

Childhood Dreams

Do you know the song "Que Sera Sera"? It starts off as "When I was just a little girl I asked my mother what shall I be, Will I be pretty, Will I be rich, and this what she said to me ... " This song is one of my absolute favorites, and it preludes my announcement today.

When I was a little girl, I used to dream up so many professions that I wanted to be when I grew up. I wanted to be a doctor, a teacher, an actress, a singer, and also a critic (both food and movies). As it is kind of hard to become the first four, I recently decided that I can do the last one through my blog. YAY!

I love talking about the lastest movie or restaurant I've been too, and so including my usual ranting on political, economic, and entertainment issues I will also be adding my view on the movies out right now as well as any restaurants I try in Kuwait and through my travels.

I hope you enjoyreading my thoughts as much I will enjoy informing you.

All my best,

Aseel

Gulf Salaries

Before introducing my latest topic, I'd like to send out a Happy National & Liberation Day to all Kuwaitis and to all who consider Kuwait their home.

As the topic of this article suggests, and as many people in the GCC have noticed in the past few months there has been a steady increase in costs in the region. Some people suggest it is due to the dollar falling and the rising cost of living.

As such, the Kuwaiti government and parliament are planning to increase all Kuwaiti and Non-Kuwaiti salaries to help with this inflation. Of course, I am very happy and proud they have come to this decision. I know a lot of families who DON'T have loans, and outstanding bills who are still suffering because of this inflation.

That said, I was flipping through a Kuwaiti newspaper (URL:http://www.alqabas.com.kw/Final/NewspaperWebsite/NewspaperPublic/ArticlePage.aspx?ArticleID=364209 ) the other day and on the cover there was an article stating that Kuwait's Finance Minister has declared that Kuwaiti salaries are the highest in the GCC. I was shocked, because I know for a fact that my friends in the GCC make more money than I do regardless of experience or not. The Finance Minister announced that the information he has provided was received from Kuwait's Civil Service Commission.

I especially liked the part when the Finance Minister announced that Kuwaiti civilians receive many complimentary services as well as services that are partly supported by the country, that we should work hard, and by so doing, our country will reep the benefits.

I hope the Finance minister was only talking about the Kuwaiti males in this country, because as far as I know, single or married Kuwaiti females only benefit from free health care (which I would NEVER use unless as an emergency), free education for their kids, and the extra $665 - $840 (depends on their salary) they get a month from the government.

Whereas, males (it differentiates from single to married but I am going to list all their benefits) get the same $665-$840 range, plus an additional x number of dollars for being married, plus x number of dollars for rent, plus $14,000 if they marry a Kuwaiti female (half of which is a gift and the othe rhalf an interst free loan), $175,000 interest free loan if they want to buy a house, plus free education for their kids, and on and on and on.

I for one do not use the free health care beneft unless in emergencies, because of several reasons but mainly because of their lack of efficiency and organization. I'm single so I do not benefit from the free education. In total, the only benefit I get is the extra $665/month.

In contrast, Bayt.com also released a study declaring UAE and Qatari employees are the highest paid out of all GCC countries. Bayt.com created an online survey in conjunction with market research specialists YouGovSiraj, and polled 15,000 employees in the six GCC countries across 20 industry sectors, including automotive, finance, advertising, IT and pharmaceuticals.

For more information on the study and the study itself click on the link below:
http://www.zawya.com/story.cfm/sidZAWYA20080226033039/lok033000080226?weeklynewslettertext

I also know of a Kuwaiti company that did a survey of GCC salaries a couple of years back, and noticed that their staff were being paid far less than the average GCC employee in their sector. As a result, they increased all employee salaries as they believed appropriate.

With both sides provided, I ask you, who are we supposed to believe? If you look at Bayt.com's survey you might be inclined to not support either just as I have. I'm going with my gut instinct, which is that Kuwaiti are not the highest paid in the GCC. I would also trust in Bayt.com's results more than I would trust the Kuwait's Civil Service Commission, especially since the Finance Minister did not specifically say the information provided was up to date. The information could have been months or even years old.