FACT Bahrain November 2012

THE SMART MONTHLY GUIDE TO LIFE IN BAHRAIN

FACT M.E. - BAHRAIN EDITION

INSIDE THIS MONTH

FASHION. ART. CULTURE. TECHNOLOGY NOVEMBER 2012

VOL 6, ISSUE 3

BD1

The iPhone 5 vs.

The Galaxy S3 We pit these bitter rivals against each other in a Lab Tech comparison!

SR10

(p44)

Bahr ai n Dining THE

NOVEMBER 2012

GUIDE 2012

A brief look at some of the many, many great restaurants to be found in Bahrain.

Now get out there, get dining, and get voting in the Citibank FACT Awards 2012! (p28)

ISSUE 63

The Battle of the Bands 2012

The country’s most rocking competition returns, with an epic ÀQDOH KHDGOLQHG E\ 0DF\ *UD\ (p8)

High Street Fashion PLUS Fall/Winter Great looks for less. (p58)

+

& The Centurions Bahrain band made good! (p12)

Bahrain City Center 17172320

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FACT BAHRAIN NovemBER

THE SMART MONTHLY GUIDE TO LIFE IN BAHRAIN

FACT M.E. - BAHRAIN EDITION

INSIDE THIS MONTH

FASHION. ART. CULTURE. TECHNOLOGY NOVEMBER 2012

VOL 6, ISSUE 3

BD1

The iPhone 5 vs.

The Galaxy S3 We pit these bitter rivals against each other in a Lab Tech comparison!

SR10

(p44)

Bahr ai n Dining

8 Battle of the Bands!

The island’s most rockin’ competition returns, which a huge finale headlined by Macy Gray!

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12 & The Centurions

THE

NOVEMBER 2012

Bahrain’s home-grown indie band is currently rocking their way across the UK live venue circuit...

GUIDE 2012

A brief look at some of the many, many great restaurants to be found in Bahrain.

Now get out there, get dining, and get voting in the Citibank FACT Awards 2012! (p28)

ISSUE 63

The Battle of the Bands 2012

28 The Bahrain

Dining Guide

The country’s most rocking competition returns, with an epic finale headlined by Macy Gray! (p8)

PLUS

Fall/Winter High Street Fashion Great looks for less. (p58)

+

& The Centurions Bahrain band made good! (p12)

FACT Magazine M.E. Bahrain Edition November 2012 Volume 6, Issue 3

25/10/2012 20:51

A quick guide to just some of the many fantastic dining venues to be found around Bahrain!

FACT M.E. Bahrain Publishing W.L.L. Office 53, Building 872, Road 3618, Block 436, Seef.

Ministry of Information Subject Registration Number: CFB779 Director Omar Shaheen Chief Operating Officer Rami Khalil Editor-in-Chief Tony Sidgwick (editor@factlive.com) Deputy Editor Zara de Haldevang Fashion Writer Nefeli Christofides Regional Head of Sales Laura Alvarez Sales & Marketing Manager Sari Mabire Senior Sales Executive Leslie Garduque Sales Executive Pauline Marcombe Designer Rashed Bindaina Fashion Consultant Laura Bale Photography Contributors George Mathew Rashed Bindaina PRINTED BY Union Press ADVERTISING ENQUIRIES Tel: +973 1721 6099 E-mail: laura@factlive.com All Rights Reserved. Opinion expressed within does not necessarily represent the opinion of the publisher.

All efforts have been made to ensure accuracy of the information within this publication. However, FACT M.E. Bahrain cannot accept legal responsibility for any erroneous content or omissions.

34 Preserving Musical History

FACT catches up with one of the last few true Oud bands to be found in the world...

28

34

CULTURE

ARTS

38 Skyfall

The new Bond movie is finally here, and looks to be one of the best yet!

TECHNOLOGY

44 The iPhone 5 vs.

Samsung Galaxy S3

Two of the world’s most popular smartphones go head-to-head...

44

48 The Kia Cadenza

Ali Driver reviews a Korean car that redefines his preconceptions!

54 Power Through Colour

FACT talks to a specialist about how choosing the right colours can affect your whole life!

54

FASHION

58 High Street Fashion

Bringing you high brand looks for high street prices...

TIME TO UNWIND FACT BAHRAIN NovemBER

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FACT BAHRAIN NovemBER

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FROM THE EDITOR

‘Tis the Season to be Feasting!

It’s rather fitting that the American celebration of Thanksgiving takes place this month. I say this because it’s around this time of year that we’re running our massive Citibank FACT Awards campaign, and that means that this is YOUR chance to give some thanks to all your favourite restaurants and venues across Bahrain.

You’ve had parties in them, you’ve met new friends, had romantic evenings with loved ones, and enjoyed many a memorable meal in them, so now it’s time to give something back (aside from the many dinars you’ve passed over in bills and tips, that is!) by way of voting for them in their respective categories.

The FACT Awards are important for one main reason, and that is because you, the general public, vote for the winners – not a panel of experts, not a team of journalists, or a gathering of hotel managers – YOU. And at the end of the day, it’s your vote that counts, because without you, the paying public, no

restaurant can survive.

The FACT Awards are a clear indication of which restaurants are hot, and which ones need to up their game to put themselves back on top again. Managing a restaurant is a tough job, because while it takes many great nights to build up a loyal customer, it only takes one bad night to lose them forever!

That’s why there needs to be a campaign like the FACT awards – it forces venues to sit back and ask themselves, “Are we really offering the very best experience that we can? Is our food as good as it can be? Is our service top notch?”

Because, let’s face it people, the competition in Bahrain is tough.

REALLY tough! There are so many great restaurants out there that each needs to stand out in their own special way to stay on top.

Which can only mean great things for people like us who love to go out and eat ourselves stupid!

Happy feasting!

Tony Sidgwick Editor-in-Chief tony@factlive.com

My favourite story this issue The iPhone 5 vs. the Samsung Galaxy S3 p.44-45 This was an interesting one, as we compared two of the most significant smartphones of recent times - could it be that the domination of the iPhone is officially over?

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News from the

FACT Penthouse

The votes for the Citibank FACT Awards are officially flooding in, with the first two prizes for voters already given out.

Congratulations to the lucky winners!

Last month we wrapped up the judging for the Kick’s K Factor karaoke competition, and there were some tough decisions towards the end, but what a competition it was! Now we get our Friday nights back... This month we catch up with Bahrain-bred indie band & The Centurions, who are currently enjoying unpredecented success in the UK! Well done guys, and remember when you’re famous, we featured you first!

www.volkswagen-bahrain.com

VolkswagenCentreBahrain

We asked the region how much it likes shopping.

25% like shopping

45% can’t live without it 25% love shopping

5% want their credit card back

Introducing the new Passat.

Fits the region perfectly with the largest boot space in its class.

We’ve asked the region what it looks for in a car. And it’s clear the new Passat fits the region perfectly.

With the largest boot in its class, extra legroom, FenderTM Premium Audio System, and six front and side airbags, the new Passat does fit the region. And your wardrobe.

To test drive the new Passat or for more information visit the Volkswagen showroom today.

BD. 8,990/-

• Starting from ice 00km Free Serv • 3 Years / 45,0 ce an st si As side • 3 Years Road ed Warranty nd te n Ex s ar Ye 5 • Rust Perforatio ranty Against • 12 Years War

German engineering for everyone.

Sitra – Tel: 17459977 Email: volkswagen@behbehani.com.bh FACT BAHRAIN NovemBER

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NOVEMBER 1

THUR

2

FRI

-Candee Beach Halloween Party @ Amwaj Marina (see p.20)

3

SAT

4

SUN

5

MON

6

TUE

7

WED

8

THUR

9

FRI

-Battle of the Bands qualifying round @ Rocky’s Cafe (see opp)

10 (see p.22)

-Tree of Life Charity Bazaar @ Country Mall

SAT

11 Centre (see p.20)

-Mary-Anne Wright Exhibition @ Bahrain Arts

Battle of the

! s d n a B Revving up the music scene this month is the infamous Battle of the Bands – who will be crowned the best rock band on the island?

SUN

12 MON

13 TUE

14 WED

15

THUR

16 FRI

17

-Battle of the Bands qualifying round @ Rocky’s Cafe (see opp) -Irish Festival @ Rugby Club (see p.21)

SAT

18 SUN

19 MON

20 TUE

21 WED

-’Premonition’ Exhibition @ Bin Matar House (see p.16)

22 THUR

of the Bands semifinal @ Rocky’s Cafe (see opp) 23 -Battle FRI

24 SAT

25 SUN

26

-Ministry of Sound @ Coral Bay (see p.20)

MON

27 TUE

28 WED

29 THUR

30 FRI

-Ministry of Sound 21st Birthday @ Coral Bay (see p.25)

1

SAT

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B

rought to you by B Music…

Live!, this November sees a competition that really does warrant being our main noteworthy story this month. Many of us are already familiar with the overwhelming amount of talent on our tiny island. However, now is the chance to see the best of the best.

Set to feature a line-up of extremely talented local and resident hotel bands, all boasting a repertoire of hardcore rock-n-roll, heavy metal, old school classics, current charts and the odd originals and covers, everyone’s personal music tastes are sure to be satisfied at this musical competition.

The line-up is as follows: qualification rounds are scheduled to take place at Rocky’s Café, formerly known as Rock Bottom Café, on November 9. The second qualification night will be on November 16 and the semi-finals will be held on November 23.

All competing bands will be split into two groups, with one group performing on each qualifier. A total of five bands will be selected from each group to proceed to the semis on the 23rd. From the 10 hopefuls, only four bands will get the chance to appear in the all-important finals.

If any of you have been watching

the X Factor, the US or UK version, you may be familiar with the term ‘wild card’ that has shaken things up over the past few weeks. Well the Battle of the Bands is doing just that.

An extra wild card band will be chosen to compete at the finals via an online poll. Not only will this give you the chance to vote back in your favourite band who may have been eliminated early on, it means the group gets one more chance to really step things up and pull out all the stops to try and win the competition.

It all boils down to the grand finale on December 7 at Coral Bay. Not only will this evening showcase the beats and talents of the finalists all gunning for the top spot, but the evening will end on an all-time-high with the international Grammy Awardwinning singer Macy Gray… yes MACY GRAY! Having crossed a range of genres from experimental soul to alternative rock, Macy Gray has paid homage to the music of soul legends including Stevie Wonder, Marvin Gaye and Aretha Franklin – respect to that! With her unique voice and outlandish sense of style, the superstar, best known

QUOTE OF

THE MONTH

Macy Gray, doing her thang!

“In a way, our new film is kind of like the Arab version of the movie 28 Days Later.”

Writer, producer and actor Ahmed Al Zayani,

talking about a new zombie movie he’s making entirely in Bahrain with other students from NYIT.

Follow FACTBahrain on

for her awesome track ‘I Try’, has carved herself an impenetrable niche appealing to audiences of all ages in search of a fresh alternative to mainstream soul.

Those of you who are lucky enough to get a ticket to see Macy Gray live will see her take centre stage by storm and perform tracks of her 2012 album Covered, plus many of her own timeless tunes.

Tickets are only BD10 per person and that also includes a free welcome drink. These tickets are available at the door (we wouldn’t count on it though) or in advance

at Coral Bay, JJs and BMMI shops in Mina Salman – perfect if you are doing your weekly beverage shop!

This is an event not-to-bemissed – keep updated by following BMMI shops on Twitter and Facebook to find out more information. Keep an eye out next month as FACT will be running an online competition for you to win tickets!

GO: Bands interested in signing up for Battle of the Bands, send an email to info@ budlivebahrain.com.

FACT BAHRAIN NovemBER

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THE SCOPE

LOVE IT !

The Votes are Rolling In

SO OBVIOUS!

A Highway Delivery

If you are as bored of the traffic here as we are, imagine being in labour AND being stuck in it.

This happened to poor Ameena Mohammed who was stuck on the Shaikh Khalifa bin Salman Highway when her waters broke!

Having called an ambulance, the traffic grew continuously worse due to the bomb squad checking out the road ahead for a dummy explosive device. As a result, she almost had to give birth in her car but luckily medics reached her just in time. Sort it out Bahrain…no one likes traffic, or messy back seats for that matter!

One of Those Days…

We have all had our moments in BCC where we lose our car, but for one Bahraini man, this turned into a nightmare! After finishing his grocery shopping, he went home only to be sent back again by his wife as she wanted more things (demanding or what?). Having opened what he thought was his car, he put his items in the boot before stopping into another store.

When he got home, he opened the boot to find that there was nothing there and, in fact, a car identical to his had been parked nearby and he’d put all his shopping in there instead! Talk about a bad day…

CAN’T BELIEVE IT

With our new website looking as amazing as ever, we were so happy that our online voting for our Citibank FACT Dining Awards took off hours after going live. As part of our voting online campaign, a lucky voter will be win a prize every week for six weeks. Our first winner was Giselle Elle who picked herself up a pretty nice Samsung Galaxy S3 (check out our technology section for the perks). For those who haven’t voted yet, you could be in with the chance to win one of our five remaining gadgets so get voting at www.fact-magazine.com.

HATE IT! Zara’s Question of the Month:

A

Too keen for Christmas?

ccording to a trusty website I found, while extremely busy at work (obviously), I worked out that it is exactly 54 days from November 1 until Christmas Eve. That is one month and 24 days, or 4,579,200 seconds, 76,320 minutes or 1272 hours.

Now don’t get me wrong, I am no Scrooge, nor am I one of those types of people who will go around the sales in January and stock up on next Christmas’s decorations and presents. I think you could probably classify me as an inbetweener – someone who loves and hates Christmas at the same time.

Trust me, it is possible.

Having lived in the Middle East for

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about 14 years of my life, I have learnt a thing or two about how Arabs seem to love this festive period more than we do. Whether it is having Jingle Bells as their ringtone in the middle of August, or dressing up as Father Christmas (or Santa Claus for those Americans out there). The best thing about being in Bahrain during this time of year is that everyone really gets together to celebrate. Whatever nationality, Christmas is a time for presents, parties (definitely a highlight) and spending time with our families.

In fact, the more I write about Christmas, the more excited I am getting. I know it is a while away, but

we all know how quickly time goes and how easy it is to lose track of it.

Yet again, I will spend December 24 at home in England. Being half German, we celebrate Christmas Eve more than Christmas Day. We also leave our shoes outside on December 5 for St Nicholas to put chocolates in… so anyone feeling generous, my address is… umm, perhaps not!

All I know is that as soon as this month is in full flow, the shops will start to be lit up with trees, tinsel, presents, cards – you name it. I am just hoping that I will be able to afford a bus ticket home from Heathrow after my weekend at the Dubai Sevens!

FACT BAHRAIN NovemBER

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& They’ve Made It?

Local boys ‘& The Centurions’ have taken the UK indie scene by storm since they left Bahrain’s shores last year to study. Their success proves that it doesn’t matter where you come from – if you have the talent and the belief, good things will come…

S

ome of you may remember a feature we carried last year about Bahrain-based indie band & The Centurions (FACT, August 2011 issue) – a rag tag collection of high-school geeks bound by a shared love of music and fuelled by a large dose of talent.

Thanks to the efforts of local music teacher Kim Grose, the boys got their act together in between studying for their final exams to produce an album in a pokey little studio in Manama. The end result was highly commendable, but carried that inexorable tagline “for Bahrain”. At the end of the day, there’s only so much you can do in a “pokey little studio in Manama”.

Then they all disappeared off to university, and to be honest that, we thought, was the last we’d hear of them.

Well, we’re extremely happy to say that it wasn’t. A couple of weeks ago we were contacted by Vish, the drummer and unofficial spokesman for the band, who sent us an update in the form of several

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links, press clippings and an .mp3 of one of their soon-to-be-released singles, entitled ‘Skeleton’ (which we unfortunately can’t share with you, as we took a blood oath not to leak it!).

Suffice to say, jaws were hitting desks all over the office. Since leaving Bahrain, they have completed a UK tour, playing in prestigious venues such as London Cargo, Hoxton Underbelly, The Attic, Beercart Arms and CLC in three different cities (London, Canterbury, Cheltenham), out of which they held the headline spot for three. They have been asked to play at their first festival – the City Sound Project Festival in Canterbury – which features many well-known indie bands, and they were also chosen to be the main support act for one of NME’s buzz bands for 2012, Citizens!, who are one of the most prominent and popular new indie bands of this year.

Furthermore, they were picked and featured as part of the Mercedes-Benz mb! mixtape,

which is a compilation of musicians from around the world released every three months and downloaded by over 30,000 people around the world.

They’ve just finished recording their new EP, scheduled for release at the end of 2012/beginning of 2013 (release date not confirmed).

It was recorded at the Limehouse Studios in London, where it was mixed and mastered by James Aparacio, who has worked with the likes of Goldfrapp, Moby and We Have Band.

And the single! All we can say is that if we’d heard ‘Skeleton’ on BBC Radio One, we wouldn’t have been surprised – it really is that good!

Uplifting and upbeat, the track is complemented by intricate guitar riffs and soulful vocals – the type of stuff that sticks in your head and sounds great live. And the finish is flawless, thanks to some serious production talent from real UK indie studios.

We caught up with Vish for a chat about what the band’s currently up to...

F. So, from the looks of things you guys have been busy. Last thing I heard was that you were all going off to uni. What happened?

V. Yeah, we all went to university in the UK. We have been in England for over a year now, it’s great. We like the nightlife.

F. Are you doing this fulltime, or are you squeezing it all in between studies?

V. Squeezing it harder than an empty Heinz bottle! Jad is going to be a chemical engineer; Mazen is going to be a doctor; Rab is going to be a psychologist; and I am going to be a lawyer. It’s tough to squeeze it in with work, but at the same time if you want something to happen badly enough you find a way around it.

F. It looks like you guys are making a name for yourself.

How well is it actually going?

V. So far it’s been going really well.

The fact that people are coming up to us after gigs to talk and say how much of a good night they had is the coolest thing ever. Once the ball gets rolling one thing leads to another, small club night shows lead onto larger support acts, support acts lead to festival spots, and so on.

It’s the way things work, especially in this sort of scene, and we are glad to be a part of it right now more than anything. We now get e-mails from promoters all around London and even Europe saying they heard about us through people or that they really liked our show and that seems to be happening more and more now, so I guess you could say it’s going well!

F. Any record companies sniffing around?

V. A few! But let’s not speak too soon…

F. Are you still in touch with Kim at all? Is he aware of how you guys are doing?

V. Kim is like Coach Irv and we are like the guys from Cool Runnings. He is the guy who believed in us when no one did, taking on a bunch of teenagers and producing a record with them. We talk to him on Skype and he makes us laugh as usual; he is the coolest guy ever and I’m sure he is proud of where we are now. We hope to work with him on our full length EP when we come to it.

F. How does it feel playing a big gig in the UK, the home of indie?

V. It really is an awesome feeling.

Not to hate on Bahrain but there never really was a big enough scene or area where everyone just has the same love for certain bands. On the other hand, here it’s so nice to meet like-minded people and see people come to your gig to find out about new music. It has also been cool ‘cause we meet up with some of the bands that we really liked and used to listen to in Bahrain, like our friends Is Tropical and Theme Park.

We even supported a couple at gigs like Citizens!. It really is such a tightknit community of musicians here and it’s super cool that it exists.

F. What’s been the most ‘rock n’ roll’ moment so far?

V. We got mobbed by babes after our gig in Cheltenham in this crazy huge Victorian theatre-type venue.

They took loads of photos with us and we also signed autographs. The promoters even put custom Subway sandwiches on our rider. Best gig so far!

F. What do you have to say to the people back home who were your first fans?

V. It sounds clichéd, but thank you for all the support, coming to gigs, buying EP’s, spreading the word and hanging out with the weird kids that never sat on the cool table!

We got mobbed by babes after our gig in Cheltenham in this crazy huge Victorian theatre-type venue

GO: The band keep in touch with fans mainly via their Facebook group, where you can get all the news about their latest releases and gigs: www. facebook.com/andthecenturions.

FACT BAHRAIN NovemBER

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Bahrain’s Party Guru

Event organiser Warren Stalls is a name known across the island. Responsible for the infamous Candee Beach parties, FACT catches up with him to find out more about his personality and plans for his brand and Bahrain.

Z: Tell us something we don’t know…

W: I actually started as a waiter at La Terrace when I first moved here. After about a year, the DJs working there took me as a promoter and it all went from there!

Z: How long have you lived in Bahrain?

W: Almost 12 years, and over that time I have worked with a large number of venues and brands. I was one of the first promoters here to work with Café del Mar, Buddha Bar, Bushido and the Blue Elephant. Before this, I worked events in Capetown for about 17 years.

Z: What is it about the island that you love?

W: The people – they are so friendly and easy. In Bahrain there is just a bit of everything for everybody.

Z: Explain what you do here.

W: Well I am primarily a consultant, so I am hired to help other venues and to be in charge of events management. I love getting involved in loads of different projects but I will always make sure that I am only ever at one place, finishing up the job that needs doing. I have my own slogan: ‘Whatever I do, I do it for the people’, so it’s important that the brand always comes first. I just happen to be the person behind it, that’s all.

Z: How would you describe the events scene here?

W: Events will never satisfy everyone. People are different so I am always learning and trying to improve the areas of weakness at my next event. Nobody is perfect in this industry, and sometimes people forget that there are certain limitations in certain countries. I

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try to make the most out of what I can do here. Despite the tough times here, I have never stopped trying to improve the nightlife in Bahrain. People want to enjoy themselves more nowadays so I always try and create events for fun loving people who know how to party.

Z: What can we expect from Candee Productions?

W: Over the next few months, there is SO much going on. We have the monthly Candee Beach on November 2, the End of the World Party on December 21 and, for the first time ever, there will be a party for New Year’s Eve. I am so impressed as to how fast the name of Candee has spread. I am hoping to move into different areas of the GCC to places such as Qatar and Oman.

GO: Check out Warren’s Facebook page or log onto his website www.candeeme.com for upcoming events.

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15

NOTEWORTHY... A Doha Weekender!

A Weekend With the

W

FACT’s Tony Sidgwick spends a Doha weekend in style courtesy of one of the capital’s hottest hotels – the W Doha…

I

t didn’t really hit me until I turned up at customs in Doha airport. “Where are you staying?” they asked me. “The W Doha,” I replied, and was shocked when a strange feeling of satisfaction infused me at the words.

I’d been to the W twice before – once for a photoshoot, and once for a lunch meeting in the Spice Market – but I’d never actually been an official guest of the hotel. This time, however, was different. This time, I was staying at one of the hottest hotels in Doha.

I don’t say that lightly – Doha is flush with hot hotels, each one special in its own unique way, defining the terms luxury and opulence. However, what makes the W Doha stand out is the combination of luxury and style – a boutique hotel that boasts something striking to look at everywhere you turn, from the bold white and blue colours of the opulent hotel lobby to the vibrant colours of the W Café; from the stylish Far Eastern décor of the Spice Market to the cosy cabanas of the Wahm lounge – it’s all just so impressive.

My visit this time was in honour of a new promotion the hotel is currently running, the Amplify Your Weekend package, which they invited me to come and experience.

The package includes two nights stay in one of the ‘Spectacular’

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rooms, Friday Brunch for two at the Spice Market, Saturday Breakfast at Market by Jean Georges for two, and a three-course Express Lunch at Spice Market for two on the Saturday, before enjoying a late checkout at 4pm. Also included in the package is a complimentary drink at Wahm lounge for two.

The room was, like the rest of the hotel, strikingly stylish, but also very comfortable. The huge bath and walk-in shower were both going to see much use during my stay! At this point, however, I will make a point of saying that if you’re going to book a weekend in the W Doha, make absolutely sure that you demand a room that isn’t facing the construction site right next door to the hotel! Being a ‘freebie’, I was roomed overlooking said construction site, and it was awful.

My complaint to reception resulted in a fruit basket with two cupcakes being brought to my room.

The room service attendant looked nonplussed when I placed the two cupcakes over my ears and informed her that they didn’t work, but I took the basket anyway. It had peaches in it.

Thankfully, the construction stopped on Friday, so I had one full day of blissful peace!

The W has no control over nearby construction, so I decided not to hold it against them and continue my experience…

The Spice Market - a culinary journey through Asia awaits!

Friday Brunch at Spice Market

This is a truly impressive affair – due to its popularity, it’s almost always fully booked on the day, and this was no exception.

The aim of the brunch is to take you on a culinary journey across Far East Asia, with a street market-inspired setup of live cooking stations and buffets positioned all over the restaurant. The selection is staggering, and there is no way we could make our way around it all, but everything we had, from the sushi to the stir fries, was all fantastic.

which is shredded mango and greens in a deliciously tangy dressing – a light and tasty dish.

This was followed by Salmon with Miso Mustard, which again, was very tasty, with unique flavours really standing out.

Overall, the weekend experience was excellent, and I left feeling truly refreshed.

It’s not just the luxury of the hotel that matters with the W, but the attention to detail they give to the service. For example, when a colleague asked one of the receptionists whether there was anywhere nearby to buy credit for her phone, the receptionist replied that there wasn’t anywhere convenient, but then took it upon themselves to transfer some of their own credit to my colleague’s phone without even being asked.

And then there is the anonymous soul who monitors the hotel’s Twitter account.

An urban legend had reached us about a guest who was travelling from the airport to the hotel, and tweeted that they were looking forward to having some in-room dining. The hotel responded to the guest asking them what they would like, and sure enough, when the guest reached their room, the food was waiting for them.

We decided to put this to the test. Whilst in Wahm lounge with some Qatar-based colleagues, our Qatar Editor Katy tweeted that she was having trouble deciding which cocktail to have next. We were all somewhat shocked when, five minutes later, a waitress brought a cocktail straight to her, explaining that the hotel recommended that one! As the waitress wandered off, we craned our necks for the hidden cameras, wondering how in the world they’d figured out it was us!

There was an unmistakeable sense of humour to the whole incident, as if this anonymous W Twitter master had taken our editor’s Tweet as a challenge, and responded in good humour. We were suitably impressed!

It’s not just the luxury of the hotel that matters with the W, but the attention to detail they give to the service

The lobby - stylish!

Friday Night in Wahm

Wahm is one of Qatar’s most popular nightlife venues, and with good reason. It’s an intimate and comfortable venue, with dim mood lighting, many cosy indoor and outdoor cabanas to choose from, and a nice outdoor terrace to spend time on during the cooler months. I had a relaxing few drinks with friends and colleagues that lasted late into the night, and a good time was had by all.

Breakfast at Market

by Jean Georges

A much more sedate affair on the Saturday morning, this is a breakfast buffet with a strange but tempting combination of Western, Arabic and Asian cuisine lining the restaurant’s buffet stations. You can also choose to have eggs cooked any way you like, from poached and scrambled to spicy omelettes.

There’s even a ‘healthy’ section of fruits, yoghurts, and an impressive selection of mueslis to choose from.

Express Lunch at Spice Market

Back to Spice Market for a late lunch prior to checking out, this was the perfect way to ensure I didn’t have to rely on plane food for my flight back to Bahrain. I started off with a rather unique dish, the Thai Mango Salad,

GO: The Amplify Your Weekends Packages at the W Doha is offered at a rate of GR2900 per night based on double occupancy for two nights. To find out more, log on to www.whoteldoha.com, or call +973 4453 5000.

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Musicc Musi NOTEWORTHY...

More About The

When new nightclubs come on the Bahrain scene, it is always worth talking to the DJs to find out more…

L

ocated in the lobby of the lavish Kempinski Ixir Hotel Bahrain City Centre is the Bizarre Lounge – one of the most recent nightspots to appear on Bahrain’s party scene. The grand opening was luxurious, extravagant and a huge success, with the island’s most stylish party-goers spending the evening sampling something new in Bahrain.

If you are looking for high energy and handcrafted cocktails, the Bizarre Lounge promises to deliver decadence with nothing short of five-star service. The interior features purple, silver and black velvet finishes that make for a unique new spot for evening events.

The DJ on the music menu is the Brazilian DJ Monica, otherwise known in her native Sao Paulo’s nightclubs as the ‘DJ of Glamour’.

Having performed in some of the most exclusive clubs in Germany, USA, Spain, Ibiza, Morocco, Jordan and the UAE, global critics know her for her “beautiful, exciting and energetic sets”. Music is a scene constantly updating, so fresh sounds on the island are always applauded and appreciated.

When asked about her new residency, DJ Monica told us, “Bizarre Lounge is a beautiful venue! I was so excited to begin playing here, as I had seen pictures of the venue and the hotel, and I know the prestige of the Kempinski brand. I was eager to gain experience in a new country, because as an international

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DJ, it’s always great, personally and professionally, to gain exposure in multiple countries.

We recently had some amazing parties: the Saks Fifth Avenue Fashion Show After Party was decadently chic; and the Halloween Party… what can I say… Definitely the most outrageously glamorous costume party on the island!”

And her style of music? “My DJ sets are unique – I take a lot of pride in producing mixes that I know nobody has created before me. I like to mix different styles, ranging from Deep House to Techno, to create a truly new musical experience for my party people.

I’m known in Europe and South America for my beautiful European mixes, which are described as heartrending and energetic cool sounds.”

Although having played in the UAE before, the DJ went on to say, “Bahrain has a fantastic party crowd and the people are so friendly! The scale of parties is different, but I am very excited to be playing at the Bizarre Lounge; it is such an intimate venue. I have had great success in the past playing at 5-star hotels, and have truly enjoyed the experience. I am positive that my time in Bahrain will continue to be exciting!

“I’m looking forward to welcoming you at Bizarre Lounge every Wednesday, Thursday and Friday from 9pm till the early hours to listen and dance to my eclectic choice of music!”

GO: If you haven’t been down to Bizarre Lounge, make sure you check it out soon! Call 1717 1111 for more information.

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NOTEWORTHY...

Mary-Anne Wright Exhibition

With brand new artists coming into the limelight each month, this November sees the work of Mary-Anne Wright at the Bahrain Arts Centre.

Happy Halloween

Candee Style!

Yes we know technically October 31 is over, but the best Halloween Party is still to come on November 2…

B

orn in Portsmouth in the UK, Mary-Anne spent her early years there, as well as in Dundee, Scotland. While her father was based in Malta, many of Mary’s school years were spent there before she went on to complete an Honours Degree in Fine Art in Bristol University.

After a short stint in London, Mary-Anne moved with her husband and her eldest son to Australia in 1982, where for many years she taught and ran specialist workshops in oils, pastels and acrylics. A council member of the Royal Queensland Arts Society, she was also a portrait tutor before she moved to Victoria in 2003 to open her own gallery.

Now based in the Middle East, Dubai was first on the cards where she spent two years before moving to Bahrain. As well as setting up a studio in France, she has a new studio near Ballarat in Victoria where she tries to spend some time every year.

Coming up on November 11 is your chance to see Mary-Anne’s work first hand. The exhibition’s proceeds will all be going towards the BSPCA, as well as local charities, and will showcase the artist’s unique collection of ballet, flowers, beachscapes and local scenes.

The opening night starts at 7pm, whereas the days to follow will be open at different timings.

November 12 to 16 will be from 8am to 1pm and 5pm to 9pm, and November 17 will be 8am to 1pm only.

Mary-Anne’s work is definitely worth giving up your time for, so make sure you manage to get down to the exhibition while it is on. You will also get the chance to purchase copies of your own prints.

GO: To look at Mary-Anne’s work online or to get in touch with the artist herself, log onto www.wrightvanross.com.

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I

t is that time of year again – oh yes, the time when trick or treating takes over and you realise that you have spent about half your salary on sweets for those petulant kids banging on your front door every five minutes.

Well anyway, this belated Halloween party is one for adults only. Think beach, think perfect weather, think Autumn sunkissed suntans, think partying all day and staying up all night… yes you’ve got it, it is yet another Candee Beach! Now in a brand new location, which will mark the new spot for all the Candee Beach events to come, this party is set to be the biggest of its kind this month.

Although some of you may be pretty fatigued from your hard Eid sessions (don’t worry we are feeling it too), it is a Friday after all and you need to have a word with yourself and get down to Amwaj Marina for one of Warren Stall’s infamous parties.

This month, for the first time, there is a theme. Those of you coming on from a brunch or a celebration elsewhere, come dressed all in white as there will be plenty of opportunities to let the Candee team help you look the part. Imagine face painting, glow sticks and costumes. Now, as always, Candee Beach wants you all to enjoy yourselves so there is a smashing BD500 for the best dressed costume.

Now the cooler temperatures are upon us, this is the perfect time of year to kick back on the beach and truly enjoy yourselves.

Although there are a number of Halloween focused events over Halloween itself, Candee Beach is bound to be another party to add to the successful run of events that is Candee Productions.

As always, tickets cost BD10 per person while tables are BD150.

GO: For tickets and information, call Warren on 3777 9936 or log onto www.candeeme.com

Run Your Heart Out

20th Anniversary for the Irish Festival

Deemed as being one of the most popular annual events, the Irish Festival returns once more this month to the Bahrain Rugby and Football Club…

T

hose of you who were lucky enough to catch this event last year will already be pretty excited about its return on November 16. With a huge line-up of activities, this year is set to be another huge success, all through the continued hard work of the Irish Society and its chairman James Kennedy.

Although the main event of the festival is on the Friday, there are a number of other festivities taking place that are worth a mention.

The Thursday sees a networking lunch, where businessmen and women from across the globe will gather together to award those for all the hard work for the GAA over the years.

The main event takes place on the Saturday. Last year there were just shy of 30 teams that took part, where Irish rock band Aslan took to the stage and entertained the mass crowd, all extremely merry and somewhat sunburnt after a full day of Gaelic in the sunshine.

This year, the venue is set to be more prepared than ever. The Bahrain Rugby and Football Club in Saar is where the infamous Bahrain Games take place. Due to start at 10am in the morning, the day will be jam-packed with games. Teams from Kuwait, Abu Dhabi, Oman, Saudi Arabia and

Bahrain, of course, will all be there participating to win their leagues, whether it is the Bowl, Plate or Cup. Last year, Abu Dhabi went away with a near clean sweep of the trophies so fingers crossed Bahrain can really bring it home and keep adding some silverware to their latest wins.

The Arabian Celts, whose slogan is ‘Celts Abu’ - a phrase you will hear throughout the day from the local teams - have recently sent three teams to participate in the Asian Games in Kuala Lumpur.

Now looking fitter than ever, it will be no surprise that they come back sporting some serious smiles.

This year’s line up is headlined by the Saw Doctors, an Irish rock band, which formed in 1986 in Tuam, County Galway, and have managed to achieve 18 Top 30 singles in Ireland, including three number ones! The first number one was ‘I Useta Lover’, which topped the Irish charts for nine consecutive weeks in 1990 and still holds the record for the country’s all-time biggest selling single. In 1998, the band received a Lifetime Achievement Award at the Meteor Ireland Music Awards.

GO: Head down to the BRFC on November 16, members go free, while there is a small admission charge for visitors. For more information, check out the club’s new website on www.bahrainrfc.net.

What first started in 1981 following the birth of the London Marathon, the Bahrain Marathon Relay is now celebrating its 32nd year of success…

O

ver the years, the concept of sport and exercise has taken a considerable jump, where general awareness of our physical appearance is at an all time high. This month sees the 32nd year of one of the largest charity and social events in Bahrain: the Marathon Relay.

When London initially announced the start of its first-ever marathon, a group of like-minded individuals were quick off the mark to create a similar event of its own. First thought up by Gary Angus, the idea of a staggered marathon was soon put into action through a committee of three, including John and Nanette Hughes and Mark Stonebanks. While you can imagine Bahrain seeming like a completely different country at this time, the continued success to this day only goes to show how popular this event has been.

This year’s event is set to take place on November 16. Shortly after the creation of the relay, the Bahrain Round Table took it upon itself to transform the event into a legacy. Currently holding approximately 20 members, all male and under the age of 45, this team is dedicated in finding various methods in which local charities can be supported.

Over the past few years, up to 200 teams have been seen to take place in the sporting day and thousands of charities have benefitted. 2012’s theme is ‘Happiness’ and after the recent support of Viva, spectators will be able to cheer on the teams from the Kart Track.

The fact remains that even through difficult times in Bahrain, the local expat and residential communities have all pulled together to help continue the tradition. Let’s hope that, in a few years time, such an event is still marked on everyone’s calendars.

GO: Those of you, who are keen to be part of the Marathon Relay, please log on to www.brt1.net for more information.

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NOTEWORTHY...

Charity Bazaar

ICT

T

Technology has definitely changed the world into what it is today. A new ICT event next month is set to change the way business works…

Marking its existence on the list of Bahrain charities, the Tree of Life is holding its first major event.

he Tree of Life Charity Society is one of the newest charities to be inaugurated this year. Its aim is to provide services to various segments of the Bahraini society in the field of social welfare by helping orphans, needy families, and supplying health care and education, as well as host a number of other social activities.

The charity prides itself as having general principles, where people in need, no matter their religion, race or creed, will receive as much help as possible.

The main aim of the charity is to strengthen the social ties between members of the community by providing charitable and humanitarian work. With society values being the core of the Tree of Life’s endeavor, the charity is hoping to help a large number of people based in Bahrain who are struggling to look after themselves and their children.

For the first time ever, the Tree of Life Charity Society will be holding a charity bazaar on November 10 at the Country Mall in Budaiya.

Those of you looking to give away clothing, books and gifts, then this is the perfect opportunity to get involved with a new charity on the island. The bazaar will be open from 9am to 9pm and every one is invited to partake.

GO: For more information please email info@ treeoflife.org or call 1728 0280.

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Business through

M

arking its third year on the island, MEET ICT is back with bigger agendas and wider objectives.

Organised by Gulf Future Business, with huge help from the support of the event’s partner eGovernment, 2012 is set to bring in some of the most celebrated international experts from the field of ICT. Over three days, there will be a variety of activities all designed to increase knowledge awareness and teach people about a number of different platforms, including Social Media, cyber security, apps, cloud computing and ICT innovation.

The event will start off with a two-day conference within MEET ICT, where distinguished speakers and renowned panelists will discuss and debate the hottest issues affecting the regional ICT industry. While the programme has been created

by ICT subject matter experts, people from all areas of business are invited to partake.

There will also be three parallel workshops that will cover areas such as IT Governance, IT Project Management and Cloud Computing. Those of you who are ICT business owners or

managers, respective individuals from all over the Gulf, the Middle East and the rest of the world will be able to meet with partners and customers to discuss opportunities worth billions of dollars in the region. In addition to the business matching sessions, those interested will be able to meet key local and regional decision makers.

There are set to be 34 speakers this year - some local, others international - who will be talking through their own areas of expertise. If you are hoping to take part, you can download a form from www.meetict.com and hopefully you will get the chance to make a speech of your own.

Bahrain is a mature, wellestablished business hub with some of the largest financial institutions in the Gulf. It also remains a country where many others look to when formulating their own regulations and structures. Those looking to learn more about the world of ICT and the different avenues involved should get onboard with this upcoming event.

GO: The MEET ICT event will be held at the BIECC – more information can be found the website www.meetict.com

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NOTEWORTHY

Happy 21st Birthday Ministry of Sound!

Coral Bay has hosted many of Bahrain’s best parties, and it continues this November with the Ministry of Sound’s 21st birthday celebrations…

“Ministry of Sound” are undoubtedly three of the most popular and world-renowned words in the world of music.

Often referred to as MoS, the foundation of the company started as being a nightclub based in London in 1991 before moving on to conquer the record industry.

MoS is owned by MSHK Group Limited, a company with offices based in London, Sydney

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and Berlin, and chaired by James Palumbo. MSHK Group’s mission statement is ‘to create the moments that people live for’, and it currently owns Hed Kandi, Euphoria, Hard2Beat bands and co-owns Ministry of Sound Australia’s Hussle Recordings.

So where did MoS all start?

Inspired by New York’s Paradise Garage, Ministry of Sound’s London nightclub was

the brainchild of DJ Justin Berkmann, who set out to create the city’s first club devoted to the American house music scenes of New York, Chicago and Detroit, with a room purely dedicated to sound.

Berkmann said, “My concept for MoS was purely this: 100% sound system first, lights second, design third; the reverse of everyone’s idea.” Having partnered with James Palumbo

and Humphrey Waterhouse to bring the concept to life on the site of a disused bus garage, located in Elephant and Castle in Southwark London, the club officially opened on September 21 1991.

Today, the club is legendary in the dance music scene, where DJs play sets every Friday and Saturday night.

Ever since 2008, Fridays have been hosted by The Gallery and Saturdays are Ministry of Sound’s long-standing Saturday Sessions with house, electro and techno sets from popular names including Tiesto, Erick Morillo, Pete Tong and David Guetta.

Aside from the large scene in London, MoS runs 600 international events per year, which span across the UK, Asia, Africa, North America, South America and Europe.

There is an estimated 600,000 clubbers who attend the events throughout the year.

This November 30, the 21st anniversary celebrations in Bahrain will be held at Coral Bay, and feature the talent that is Shane Kehoe. Last year, the DJ was kept busy entertaining fans at some of the best clubs in the world, from Hong Kong to Ibiza, Moscow to Brazil, and now Bahrain.

Irish born Shane Kehoe is now based out of London and is one of Housexy and Ministry of Sound’s resident ‘players’. A man who mastered his trade at a young age, he has won numerous competitions and awards for his DJing. Always on the path of improvement, Shane has lifted his profile to DJ alongside some of the world’s finest DJs including Deep Dish, Moby and Sander Kleinenberg.

Ready for a great comeback to Bahrain at the Karma Lounge outdoor terrace, this will be the ultimate place to be when it comes to dance music.

Music and Mussels

For those of you who are yet to take a trip down to Restaurant Row in Adliya’s Block 338 district, Camelot has to be on the cards for your next visit.

P

riding itself as being one of the most unique spots in Bahrain, Camelot is a French and Spanish-inspired restaurant tucked away in the heart of Adliya, which stands out from many of the surrounding venues. The lounge is fresh, with a retro interior, comfortable seating and impressive menu to suit the gourmand and casual diner alike. The restaurant’s philosophy is simple: Great food, great wine, great atmosphere.

Camelot is just about perfect for any and every occasion. The Head Chef takes huge pride in preserving flavour and quality in every meal on the menu, while the ever-evolving beverage list carefully features selected labels, plus a number of exclusives that can’t be found anywhere else in the world. Those of you looking to escape for a quick lunch break, or perhaps grab a coffee at a business meeting, or even take that special someone out for a romantic night for two, then Camelot is the answer to all those requests.

There are a couple of events worth mentioning.

Although there is a happy hour every evening from 5-7pm, Monday is the night for their popular Moules et Frites Night. Diners can enjoy unlimited mussels and fries for just BD14 per person, where unlimited beverages can be had for an extra BD8 each.

While enjoying your meal of seafood and the bestcut fries in town, you can be serenaded through the sound of the acoustic duo James and Jo. The duo first came on the scene back in May, where they took to the stage and impressed the diners of Camelot and people of JJ’s so much, that they have been invited back to play for longer! Previously involved in a band called Us Wolves, James and Jo are a pretty unique pair who cover songs in such a great style that fans have been requesting covers of their own.

Another night to mention is The Grape Escape every Tuesday night. The name speaks for itself – it is an evening dedicated to wine tasting, with the added bonus of smooth grooves and cheeses to compliment. The Camelot doors open at 7pm and it will only set you back a small fee of BD10 per person. With Tuesday being mid-week, it is the perfect opportunity to remind yourselves what could be in store for the weekend.

GO: To make a booking, please call 1771 7745, email info@ camelotrestaurant.net or book online at www.camelotrestaurant.net.

GO: For tickets and more information, please contact 1731 2700.

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The Mรถvenpick Hotel Bahrain, Emirates Airline and the Mรถvenpick Hotel Saigon proudly present the first Vietnamese Food Festival from the 12th until the 18th of November 2012. Every evening the streets of Saigon with the countless food stalls are coming alive at the Silks restaurant and the adjoined tropical gardens overlooking the sprawling lagoon. Eat as much as you like for only BD 15.000++ per person served from 7:00pm until 11:00pm at the Silks restaurant and terrace.

www.moevenpick-hotels.com

www.moevenpick-hotels.com

Vietnam

culinary journey.

CULTURE

p28: The Bahrain Dining Guide 2012

GETTING UNDER BAHRAIN’S SKIN THIS MONTH

The

Bahr ain Dining Guide2012

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CULTURE

The

Bahr ain Dining Guide2012

As, once again, the FACT Awards are in full swing, we bring you our annual dining guide with the aim of getting you out and exploring the fantastic cuisine to be found in Bahrain. This feature is in no-way a reflection of the nominations in the FACT Awards – in fact, many of the following restaurants aren’t even nominated – but more of a guide about where to go depending on your particular tastes. Enjoy!

Bargain Dining La Taverna

The oldest Italian restaurant in Bahrain, La Taverna has maintained its rustic ambiance and traditional food in the face of many new Italian eateries popping up on the scene over the years. Located in the City Centre Hotel in the Manama souq area, it has also maintained its reasonable prices, which is why it has remained a firm favourite amongst many in Bahrain. Its weekday lunchtime deal can’t be beaten, with a three-course set menu for only BD5.900 – Bargain!

David’s Stir Fry Crazy Currently located in Riffa, opposite The Centre Mall, this Chinese restaurant, run by a chef who formerly worked in a five-star hotel, is hugely popular with both locals and expats. Offering Chinese food of a very high quality for a very decent price, you’ll be hard pressed to find a table in the tiny venue during busy times like lunchtimes and evenings at the weekends. The good news is that he’s opening a new outlet in Umm Al Hassam in the very near future…

Honey Thai Restaurant One of the most popular Thai restaurants in Bahrain, an indicator of how good this place is is the fact that it’s probably the most popular amongst the Thai population of Bahrain too. The food is fantastic, and ridiculously cheap, and it’s also open well into the early hours, making it a great postparty grub stop too! You’ll find Honey Thai in the Manama souq area, near the Gold Souq.

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CULTURE

For the Seafood Lovers

Keep it Healthy Elevation Burger

Ok, so a burger and fries is not really a healthy choice for a meal. However, if you are really hankering for a burger, then this place is most definitely the healthiest choice you can make! All of their products are organic, from the meat to the bread and vegetables, and the fries are deep-fried in olive oil instead of vegetable oil, so they aren’t cooked in saturated fats.

Found in Seef Mall’s new extension, this is the most guilt-free fast food you’ll find in Bahrain!

La Mer One of the most romantic spots in Bahrain, La Mer is located right on the waterfront of the Sofitel Bahrain’s beach, and boasts stunning views of Bahrain’s Western coastline, and therefore some of the best sunsets to be seen on the island! With a selection of fresh fish caught daily, and a beautiful outdoor terrace for pre- or post-dinner drinks and a sheesha, La Mer has become a popular choice for fish lovers.

The Fish Market

One of Bahrain’s most popular seafood restaurants, The Fish Market can be found at Al Bander Resort.

Boasting a wide array of freshly caught local fish straight from the fisherman’s port, as well as internationally sourced favourites, The Fish Market is a firm favourite for many residents of Bahrain, despite the fact that it’s quite a drive to get there!

Seafood Night at the Mövenpick A hugely popular theme night at the Mövenpick’s Silks restaurant, the Seafood Night brings you a huge selection of fresh fish, popular fish dishes and even pasta like lobster ravioli, making it a fantastic choice for seafood lovers. You get all this plus free selected house beverages for only BD22 nett per person, which is an absolute bargain!

Salad Boutique Any restaurant that has the humble salad as the basis of its entire menu is an obvious choice for a healthy meal, although to be honest, there is nothing humble about their salads. The selection is huge, with some really unusual combinations that have, in fact, been created by regulars to the restaurant. Be careful, though, as the ingredients on some of the choices, such as beef and melted cheese, can cancel out any positive benefits of eating a salad! You’ll find the venue opposite Camelot restaurant in Block 338.

Organic Food Café The Organic Food Café, located on the first floor of Seef Mall’s new extension, is an extension of the Organic Food Market which can be found next door. Using only the freshest organic ingredients in the dishes on its tempting menu, you can be sure of a meal that is free from any chemicals, additives and hormones that can be found in much of the normal produce on the supermarket shelves today.

Khor Fesht Fish Located in Muharraq, this is a great choice for people who are looking for an authentic Bahraini seafood experience. Well-known amongst locals, you’re presented with a choice on arrival of three of four different types of fish caught fresh that day, which is then cooked in a traditional Bahraini style with spices and black lemon, and served up with rice. It’s delicious, it’s authentic, and it’s all eaten by hand – A real experience!

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CULTURE

For the Meat Lovers The Meat Co. One of Bahrain’s best-loved steak houses, located on the main pedestrian stretch of Block 338, the Meat Co. specialises in one thing, and one thing only – MEAT! From prime cuts of beef from around the world, including America, South Africa and Australia to lamb, chicken and even game meats such as venison, it’s a comprehensive, if expensive, meatlover’s experience! There is, however, always a token vegetarian dish on the menu, which is also always very good.

Brazil Rodizio A Brazilian churrascaria experience in Umm Al Hassam, for a set fee the staff of the restaurant continuously bring round skewers of different kinds of meat to your table, carving slices off right there and then. There’s anything from chicken drumsticks to prime cuts of beef, and all of it is delicious! They’ll keep bringing the meat until you cry “Enough!” making it a true meat lover’s paradise!

Steak Night at the Mövenpick One of the most popular events for carnivores in Bahrain, the Steak Night at the Mövenpick takes place every Thursday night in Silks Restaurant, and is a meat lover’s heaven! Prime cuts of a huge range of meat, from steaks to lamb chops, are piled high on the buffet tables, and all you have to do is select your meat, your vegetables, and have it cooked to your liking! This is in addition to the excellent selection of starters and desserts. The set price of BD23 nett per person includes house beverages.

The Butcher Shop & Grill Located in the restaurant stretch near the cinema in Bahrain City Centre Mall, the Butcher Shop & Grill is another eatery with a menu dedicated entirely to meat, with hearty portions designed to satisfy your carnivorous cravings. Steaks, lamb shanks, skewers and more can be found on the menu, and even the side dishes like the creamy spinach and the mashed potato are delicious.

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New Arrivals Saffron

Saffron, located in Muharraq Souq area, is something that’s been a long time coming in Bahrain – a comfortable and traditional restaurant serving up real local Bahraini food of a high quality. Aimed at tourists and expats more than Bahrainis – the dishes can be found cheaper elsewhere, but not all under one roof – Saffron provides a real Bahraini dining experience, and despite being more expensive than more ‘local’ options, is still a cheap dining experience.

Vapiano A concept very novel to Bahrain, Vapiano is a no frills but high satisfaction Italian dining experience located in Bahrain City Centre mall. Customers are seated on long bench tables, and order their food at the long counter, where you’ll select your pasta, sauce and ingredients, before watching the chefs on hand whip up your dish for you. The fact that it’s not table service makes the whole experience much quicker than a normal restaurant, making it a great lunchtime destination.

Meisei One of the newest additions to Bahrain’s dining scene, Meisei is located in Block 338 right next to…

Block 338! The building right next door to Block 338 restaurant, Meisei serves up a menu of Far Eastern food with an emphasis on Japanese food and sushi.

It boasts a cosy and comfortable atmosphere and friendly staff, and is already winning itself a following amongst Bahrain’s diners.

Noodle House A new addition to Seef Mall’s new extension, the Noodle House is already a firm favourite in other countries in the Gulf, with outlets in Muscat, Abu Dhabi, Dubai and Qatar already well-established. A unique menu concept sees you marking your order on the menu pad with a pen, and then tearing the page off to hand to the waiter. Your tasty food will then arrive shortly after, making it an ideal ‘drop-inand-dine’ option for a quick lunch.

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ARTS

Keeping Bahrain’s eyes, ears and minds in shape

THIS MONTH YOU MUST...

HEAR

>Album Title Goes Here< by Deadmau5

The latest album from the Canadian DJ & producer. (see p.36)

p34: Preserving Musical History p36: Bahrain Beats p38: On Screen

SEE

Perserving Musical History

One of the world’s last true Oud bands. (see p.34)

READ

The Casual Vacancy

by J.K. Rowling

The Harry Potter author’s first foray into adult fiction! (see p.37)

WATCH Skyfall

The highly anticipated new Bond movie starring Daniel Craig.

(see p.38)

FACT BAHRAIN NovemBER

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ARTS

Preserving

Musical History Music is a clever way of telling stories, but sometimes, it is the instruments themselves that tell a thousand tales. Zara de Haldevang talks to Abdulla Al-Sherooqi, a member of the most unique bands on the island, Fursan Al-Oud.

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ARTS

P

erhaps one of the oldest instruments in the world, the oud has lived through centuries of different cultures. The oldest known example of the oud comes from Mesopotamia in Iraq during the Acadian period, 2359-2319BC. Now as a centerpiece in the British Museum in London, the oud is literally translated as ‘wood’. The explanation for this name is simple; at the end of the sixth century, the Arabs of the Hijaz adopted the wooden-faced lute from the city of Hirah, Iraq. Thought to be influenced by the four stringed Persian Lute ‘bar-bat’, there were two types of Oud up until the 15th century – the Oud ‘qadim’ strung with four strings in fourths and the Oud ‘kamil’ which had five strings.

Abdulla said, “In Bahrain, there is thought to be a strong connection between the island and the instrument. During the late 20th century, the people of Bahrain wanted to continue the tradition of the instrument and its sound. This was also shown through the music of Egyptian musicians such as Mohammed Qasabji and Mohammed AbdulWahab.”

Fursan Al-Oud was first put together in 2002 by Dr. Mubarak Najem – the idea was to find talented people familiar with the instrument and to help them perfect their talent in an academic musical manner at the Bahrain Musical Institute.

During the beginning of the 20th century, a great musician Mohiddin Haydar founded a school in Baghdad designed to educate the art of the oud – it was this school that inspired the creation of this band.

While the band has also travelled to countries including China, France, Washington, Japan and Morocco to perform, Fursan Al-Oud remains the only oud band in the entire GCC. The band member went on to say, “Depending on the concert size, the members range from being a trio to having up to 14 players! We were last seen playing during the Music Month for the Capital of Arab Culture 2012, and the band also participated in the Musical Festival for talented children at the AbdulRahman Kanoo School.”

And what are the future plans for the band? “Our hope for the future is to be known all over the world through our concerts and music. We are still planning on releasing our first album, where we are hoping to manifest our music in order to spread awareness about the oud and what we do. There is also an Oud Juniors band for members between six and twelve years old called Ashbal Al-Oud – this is a great opportunity to spread musical awareness amongst the younger generations.”

Our hope for the future is to be known all over the world through our concerts and music.

GO: To listen the Fursan Al-Oud, you can YouTube the videos of their music. The Bahrain Musical Institute is also a great place to catch the band practising.

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ARTS

NEW ALBUMS, ARTISTS, AND AUDIOPHONICS

CHOICE TUNES

In Association with Virgin Megastore, Bahrain City Center

Electronic

Deadmau5. He’s not really a mouse. He’s not dead either.

Album Title Goes Here

By Deadmau5 WHAT’S IT LIKE:

THIS is the sixth studio album from Joel Zimmerman, aka Deadmau5, featuring a suitably cynical album title that demonstrates his disdain for anything resembling convention.

It’s unmistakeably Deadmau5, with those instantly recognisable beats and synths - even if you didn’t see the song title or artist, you’d know it was the mau5, so in that regard he hasn’t broken the mould in any way. However, this will be welcome news for his legion of fans, as it’s more of the same from the confrontational Canadian producer.

This is an album for people who like their electro a little heavier - they like their beats relentless and pounding, and their melodies jarring and explosive. A fantastic offering is ‘Professional Griefers’, featuring the vocals of Gerard Way, of My Chemical Romance - a brilliantly grungy foot stomper showing a bit of creative flair by Zimmerman.

However, that isn’t what the WHOLE album is about though, as there are the token trancy parts to get the crowds putting their hands in the air. This comes most notably in the form of ‘Fn Pig’, which starts out gently, and then drops a heavy, yet funky beat. Love it!

B+

Trance

House/RnB

Flamenco/Jazz

Thousand Mile Stare

Had to Be Me

By Chicane

By DD Foxx

The Blue Guitar Sessions

WHAT’S IT LIKE:

WHAT’S IT LIKE:

The latest studio album from one of the masters of trance, this is Chicane’s first LP in two years.

An uplifting collection of ambient trance tracks, this shows the full experience of the man who brought us classics like ‘Offshore’ and ‘Saltwater’.

Make no mistake, though - this is not an album of dance floor fillers in the vein of his old Ibiza favourites. Despite a relatively uptempo beat on tracks like ‘Windbreaks’ and the eponymous ‘Thousand Mile Stare’, this is, by and large, a chillout album. This is evidenced much more by the beautiful collaboration with Kate Walsh on ‘Playing Fields’.

Every tune manages to make you think of the closing scene of an epic movie, where after years of struggle, pain and heartache, the hero finally comes home.

A great offering from a true decorated veteran of the global trance scene!

B+

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FACT BAHRAIN NovemBER

By Jesse Cook

WHEN we first saw this album sitting on the New Releases shelves of Virgin, we thought “DD who?”. Then a bit of follow-up research revealed an interesting story...

DD Foxx is the alter ego of 25 year-old Lebanese singer Layal Halabi, who grew up in Saudi before going to school in Dubai, where she is now based. This is her debut album, which was released last month, and boasts a collection of 15 Euro-influenced house and RnB tracks with Arabic flavours featuring her sultry vocals in a mixture of English and Arabic.

It’s a pretty decent offering, especially considering that Halabi never even heard modern pop music until she went to Dubai at 13 years old! Her innate talent shines through the album, and the smooth blend of house, RnB and Arabic sounds might just prove to be the recipe for her becoming the first successful crossover artist to come out of the Emirates.

B

WHAT’S IT LIKE:

YET another random album from Canada that we’d never heard of (anyone remember the travesty that was Can’t Hold Back Anymore, by Peter James Esau, reviewed in FACT July 2012?).

However, the good news in this case is that this one is fantastic!

Jesse Cook’s music normally centres on a latin, flamenco guitar style, but in this album he has turned that style to covers of a more soulful, bluesy nature, with commendable results.

‘I Put a Spell On You’, featuring the vocals of Jalacy J. Hawkins, retains the soulfulness of the original, but adds to it a heady dose of latino fiery romance with Cook’s guitar.

The headswaying pleasantness continues throughout 14 tracks. It took us a while to figure out what this music was, but then it hit us - this is sophisticated dinner party music at its absolute best!

B

ARTS

BAHRAIN’S BEST READS THIS MONTH BY GENRE

CHOICE WORDS

In Association with Virgin Megastore, Bahrain City Center

Fiction

The Casual Vacancy By J.K. Rowling

WHAT’S IT ABOUT:

THE uneasy peace of the quaint little West Country town of Pagford is disrupted when a much-loved and generous member of the Parish council, Barry Fairbrother, drops dead from a heart attack.

This leaves behind the not-so-benevolent members of the council, led by the dastardly Howard Mollison, the obese delicatessen owner, plotting and scheming about who should take Barry’s place, and a power struggle ensues.

At the centre of the power struggle is the intention by Mollison and his followers to offload responsibility for the run-down estate nearby, the Fields, to the neighbouring city, Yarvil, thus driving the estate’s kids out of the local school’s catchment area.

WHAT’S IT LIKE:

As J.K. Rowling seeks to leave her children’s storytelling credentials behind and make a decisive move into adult fiction, anyone looking for the warmth and idealism of the Harry Potter novels will be sorely disappointed.

The Casual Vacancy is chock full of rural English snobbery and thinly veiled racism, colourful working-class language and mirky sexual escapades, all set against a backdrop of self-serving plotting and politics.

That isn’t to say it’s not an enjoyable read - there is a surprising depth and richness to the many characters and B+ various plotlines in the book, which all come together nicely.

Non-Fiction

Historical Fiction

Fiction

On the Front Line

Winter of the World

Telegraph Avenue

By Marie Colvin

by Ken Follett

WHAT’S IT ABOUT:

ON the Front Line is a compilation of the many articles written by one of the world’s greatest war correspondents, Sunday Times reporter Marie Colvin.

Marie lost an eye to shrapnel from a Sri Lankan RPG, and eventually lost her life to Syrian artillery bombardment in the siege of Homs. She was one of the most prolific war reporters, as she ONLY covered conflict, and nothing else. Wars she wrote about included Chechnya, Kosovo, Sierra Leone, Zimbabwe, Sri Lanka and East Timor, though she specialised in conflict in the Middle East.

WHAT’S IT LIKE:

Although this is a collection of work that spans decades, the fact that it is compiled into one long collection gives it a strange kind of continuity, as if, rather than reporting on individual conflicts, Marie is instead telling an ongoing story about global strife and its various protagonists.

This book is riveting, haunting, poignant and harrowing, and knowing how the story ends, with Marie’s death, adds so much more weight to the words within. It is perhaps one of the greatest compilations of non-fiction work in recent times.

A-

WHAT’S IT ABOUT:

THE second part of a planned trilogy, Winter of the World follows the descendants of the same five families that featured in the previous installation, Fall of Giants.

The lives of these families, who are from various social classes in Wales, England, Germany, Russia and America, are interwoven in a story set against the backdrop of the harrowing events leading up to, and during, the Second World War. The story covers the period from 1933 to 1949, and all the horrendous events that took place within, from politics to all out warfare, from officers to the lowliest private, and the civilians affected by it all.

WHAT’S IT LIKE:

Ken Follett is an absolute master of historical fiction - a rare breed of writer who can take real historical events, and infuse them with the lives of his characters to such a level of depth and realism it’s as if he was there experiencing those events himself.

While the characters are fiction, the events in the story are very real, as are various historical characters who make an appearance along the way, so that you end up learning a great deal about these events even as B+ you’re irresistably drawn into the story.

By Michael Chabon

WHAT’S IT ABOUT:

TELEGRAPH Avenue follows the story of African-American Archy Stalling and his white best friend Nat Jaffe, who together own a second-hand vinyl store in Oakland, in Northern California.

As Archy’s wife catches him cheating, his illegitimate son shows up and starts a relationship with Nat’s own gay son, and in the meantime their business is threatened by a mega-mall planned to open nearby.

WHAT’S IT LIKE:

The book is a lighthearted read with some undeniable comedy interwoven into some rather poignant social commentary dealing with issues like race, homosexuality, broken homes and so on, but one can’t help but feel it has missed the mark somewhat.

While Chabon undoubtedly revels in the process of writing, the end result comes across as distinctly self-absorbed, with metaphors and phrases seeming grandiloquent rather than artistic. Take, for example, the phrase, “Somewhere in the midst of the continent of shock and grief that was Archy Stallings, a minor principality rejoiced.”

It’s as if he has aimed for the eloquence of John Irving, but overshot it and ended up C+ with the pretentiousness of Ben Elton instead.

FACT BAHRAIN NovemBER

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ARTS

TOP FILMS SHOWING THIS MONTH IN BAHRAIN

ON SCREEN

Skyfall

D: Sam Mendes C: Daniel Craig, Helen McCrory, Javier Bardem, Ralph Fiennes

WHAT’S IT ABOUT:

Catastrophe strikes, as Bond is seemingly killed in a botched mission (although we obviously know better). And it can’t happen at a worse time, as M is threatened by shadows from her past, and MI6 is attacked by an evil supervillain. Ever the dutiful operative, Bond returns from the dead to open up a can of ‘whoop-ass’ on said villain.

A review is unnecessary. This picture should be sufficient to express the awesomeness. However, we have to fill the space, so...

WHY IT’S WORTH WATCHING:

If we have to spell it out for you, then you don’t deserve to watch it in the first place! But just in case...

For starters, there is the return of the quintessential bond car, the Aston Martin DB5, pictured above.

And secondly, there is the evil villain coming courtesy of the brilliant Javier Bardem, who has already proven he can take a baddie to previously unknown levels of sinister, as demonstrated in his portrayal of the psychopathic killer Anton

Chigurh in No Country For Old Men. And THEN there are the directorial talents of Sam Mendes, the man responsible for classics like American Beauty, Jarhead and Revolutionary Road.

Initial reports are already promising, with reviewers claiming that while this latest incarnation of Bond a la Daniel Craig still retains the gritty realism of Casino Royale and Quantum of Solace, it also brings in some of the old humour and one-liners reminiscent of the Connery days. Bring it on!

WIN 2 FREE CINEMA TICKETS

Redeemable for any film at any Cineco cinema

Answer the following question: Which James Bond movie was the Aston Martin pictured above originally in?

SMS answers to: +973 3655 8274 or E-mail answers to: editor@factlive.com

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FACT BAHRAIN NovemBER

ARTS

Twilight: Breaking Dawn II D: Bill Condon C: Kristen Stewart, Robert Pattinson, Maggie Grace

WHAT’S IT ABOUT:

Now a vampire, after being transformed following the birth of her weird vampire/human hybrid baby in order to save her life, Bella is enjoying undead family bliss.

However, when the Volturi get wind of her vampire baby, which is against some rule, apparently, the Cullens must enlist the help of other vampire covens to defend themselves.

WHY IT’S WORTH

To give you some indication as to the hysteria surrounding this movie, consider that this picture alone is enough to reduce certain members of the female teenage population of the world to tears.

WATCHING:

Again, this is one that doesn’t need explaining to Twilight fans. Asking them “why it’s worth watching” is like asking them “why it’s worth breathing” or “why it’s worth eating”. They would answer that it is essential to the very continuity of their existence; that to deny them this finale is to deny them their very purpose for living.

For the boyfriends being dragged along, there is some consolation: Bella looks quite hot as a vampire, and there should be some good fight scenes.

The Life of Pi

is the film adaptation of one of the most unique and interesting novels ever written. Pi is the son of an Indian circus owner who is exporting their circus to Canada.

However, the ship goes down in stormy weather, and Pi finds himself stranded on a lifeboat with a pissed off Bengal tiger! He must figure out how to survive months adrift at sea whilst sharing a tiny space with a 600-pound killing machine.

A story of a boy sharing a boat with a tiger, and generally trying not to get eaten.

Killing Them Softly We’re not quite sure where the movie got its name from...

The Man With the Iron Fists D: RZA C: Russell Crowe, Cung Le, Lucy Liu, RZA

WHAT’S IT ABOUT: A famous

blacksmith, aptly called The Blacksmith, is renowned for creating elaborate weaponry for the people of his village. However, when treachery threatens the very existence of his village, he joins forces with the various warriors and assassins he works for, creating his own weapon for the brawl - a pair of iron fists. Then he punches a guy’s eyeball out. Yes, really!

WHY IT’S WORTH WATCHING: Didn’t you read the last part? He punches a guy’s EYEBALL out people! While not a Tarantino film, exactly, it does have QT’s stamp of approval on it, so you pretty much know what you’re in for. Think Kill Bill meets Mortal Kombat on steroids, and you get the picture.

Appearances by Russel Crowe and Lucy Liu sweeten the deal.

follows the story of a mafia enforcer (Brad Pitt), who is called in to investigate the heist of a high-stakes game of poker hosted by said mafia. He must find the robbers, retrieve the money and deal out some nasty street justice before the mafia get tired of waiting and take it out on him instead!

Brad Pitt demonstrates that he can look cool even in a parking lot at 1.30am.

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TECHNOLOGY Keeping THE PEOPLE OF Bahrain state-of-the-art

p44: iPhone 5 vs. Galaxy S3 p46: The Lab p48: The Kia Cadenza

The iPhone 5vs The Samsung Galaxy S3 Clash of the Titans:

A bitter rivalry as old as time itself... or, since 2009 anyway. Which camp do you belong to?

Are you Team Samsung, or Apple to the Core?

Read on as FACT puts these two enemies head-to-head...

FACT BAHRAIN NovemBER

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TECHNOLOGY

Clash of the Titans:

The iPhone 5 vs

The Samsung Galaxy S3

In what could prove to be the biggest battle in the smartphone industry in history, the latest Samsung Galaxy goes up against the mighty iPhone…

A

s the epic battle, nay WAR, between Apple and Samsung intensifies, the release of the two tech giants’ latest flagship smartphones has had the whole world watching with baited breath. It could herald the most important gadget releases since Apple launched the first iPhone back in 2007. This is because it could potentially see the first time a Samsung Galaxy outsells an iPhone.

To demonstrate how this might happen, let’s break the sales of these phones down into three distinct demographics: In one camp, you have the Apple cult – these people will buy anything with a ‘i’ before its name or a ‘Mac’ in there somewhere. Fanatically loyal, it’s not about the product, it’s about the brand, and they are Apple branded to the core (pun intended). You know where to find them – they’re the guys who’ve pitched tents outside the Apple store the night before a new iPhone or iPad gets released, peeing in bottles just to be the first to lay

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FACT BAHRAIN NovemBER

their hands on the new ‘iProduct’.

In the other camp, you have the ‘rebels’ – the people who consider themselves too smart to be indoctrinated into a cult by some clever branding and avant-garde design.

They refuse to pay a premium price for a product that offers the same or less than another, cheaper product. So they buy a Samsung Galaxy instead.

The rebel camp is so far smaller than the Apple cult, but it’s growing.

And then you have the ‘inbetweeners’. They really don’t care.

They’ll make the choice based on factors like whether they can afford it, what their friends have, and ultimately, what they think when they actually pick up the phone and play around with it.

They might buy an iPhone or Samsung, but there’s an equally good chance they’ll buy something else entirely, like a Blackberry, HTC, Nokia, or even a Huawei.

It is in that last camp that the main battle is being fought, as Samsung attempts to overcome the clever marketing and branding of Apple and win over enough of the in-betweeners to outsell them. They will attract few of the Apple cult, just as Apple will indoctrinate few of the ‘rebels’.

Samsung has it relatively easy. They don’t have a massive expectation to live up to – they simply make each Galaxy S better

than the last, and people are suitably impressed. Apple, on the other hand, has it very tough. The original iPhone was a game changer in the mobile phone industry – a revolutionary product that literally changed the world. The iPhone 4 managed to re-vitalise the Apple hysteria with a huge jump in features and quality over previous iPhones.

Whereas the iPhone 4S was underwhelming, with only mild changes over the 4, the iPhone 5, on the other hand, had huge expectations.

With all the hype surrounding its launch, it had to be another gamechanger to live up to it all.

Unfortunately, the launch has already been plagued with problems, with the Apple Maps application proving faulty, problems arising with the camera and numerous reports of the casing being easily chipped.

These kinds of defects are ones that would’ve sent Steve Jobs into an apoplectic rage, and many argue that under his leadership, the phone would never have been released with them, and that the iPhone 5’s launch was rushed due to commercial reasons.

The good news is that fixes for the Maps app and the camera have already been released, and the vast majority of iPhone 5 users are now perfectly happy with their new purchase. So, let’s take a close look at it to see how it compares to previous generations.

The iPhone 5 is now 20% lighter than its predecessor, the 4S, as well as being lighter than many other smartphones out there, at just 112g.

Despite that, it still has that premium and solid feel, due to the build quality.

It now boasts a 4-inch screen, which is half an inch bigger than the 4S. Many people compare this screen size unfavourably with the Galaxy S3, stating that because the S3 has a 4.8-inch screen, it’s simply better.

However, what these people don’t realise is that Apple have done this deliberately. They could make the screen as big as they want, but they maintain that the iPhone 5’s screen can still be operated in one hand using just the thumb, which is an aspect they stubbornly hold on to.

While this might be detrimental when watching movies and YouTube videos, or playing games, it does make for more practicality. But there are still those who argue that the Galaxy S3 is simply too big, and feels cumbersome in the pocket.

A BIG change in the new iPhone is the dock connector. Apple have done away with the old 30-pin connector in favour of a much smaller one they’re calling ‘Lighting’. This is going to piss off all iPhone faithfuls who bought all the peripherals like speaker docks, because the new iPhone will no longer fit them directly, but will instead require an adaptor or MP3 jack. This will be nothing new to Galaxy users, who’ve always had to use the jack.

With the Galaxy S3, you get S-Voice, which is like Siri, and probably works about as well, being a bit hit-and-miss in general. Motion Direct Call is another cool feature, whereby when you’re texting someone, if you then decide to call them instead, you simply put the phone to your ear, and it will automatically start calling them!

The JellyBean update also promises to bring new features to the Galaxy S3, including a smoother UI, Google Now, Offline voice-typing support, expandable notifications, better settings organisation and much more.

So, to summarise: We do like the iPhone. Whatever you say about them, Apple products have a certain ‘cool’ factor that can’t be denied, and the

iPhone 5 is no exception.

Using the iOS is a smooth and intuitive experience, and we like the way it works. We also like the way that the iPhone 5 is lighter, meaning that it’s not such a burden in the pocket.

However, we also really like the Samsung Galaxy S3. Android Ice Cream Sandwich is a fantastic OS, and promised updates for Android JellyBean, which you can update to soon with the S3, really give you something to look forward to. The S3 is bigger and heavier, but the screen is all the more impressive thanks to its sheer size – you just feel like you’re getting more phone for your money.

What it boils down to is this – the S3 is almost half the price of the iPhone 5, and no matter how much you may prefer the iPhone to the Galaxy, you could never say that the Galaxy is half as good. In fact, some would argue that the Galaxy is

iPhone 5 Size & Weight Price Display Processor Camera OS Storage

TECHNOLOGY

BETTER than the iPhone, which makes the Galaxy so much better value for money that in our eyes, making the choice simple.

If we had to pick a winner, in sheer terms of value for money, the Galaxy S3 wins hands down.

Galaxy S3

123.8 x 58.6 x 7.6mm/112g

136.6 x 70.6 x 8.6mm/133g

from BD399

from BD240

4-inch retina 1136x640, 326ppi

4.8-inch Super AMOLED HD Plus, 306ppi

A6 Chip (1.3GHz)

1.4GHz quad-core Exynos

8MP, 1080p rear-facing/1.2MP front-facing

8MP, 1080p rearfacing/1.9MP front-facing

(as priced in Geant Hypermarket) (as priced in Geant Hypermarket)

iOS 6 16/32/64GB

Android Ice Cream Sandwich, Jelly Bean update coming 16/32/64GB, plus microSD slot FACT BAHRAIN NovemBER

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TECHNOLOGY

LAB TEST

Harman Kardon Bt Headphone Available: Harman Kardon, Bahrain City Centre Mall (Price: BD65)

High-end audio boutique Harman Kardon turn their considerable expertise to Bluetooth connectivity with these, their BT headphones. As with anything from Harman Kardon, you can expect extremely high levels of sound quality, build quality and style from these, and that’s exactly what you get.

The unique rectangular shape of the headphones makes for surprisingly comfortable wear, as they fit snugly over your ears, blocking out external sound with the soft leather cushions around the headphones.

They look fantastic too, with true avant-garde design in the rectangular headphones and the brushedaluminium look.

Despite their rather large size, they don’t feel at all cumbersome when you’re wearing them, as they’re surprisingly light on the head, so after a while you’d barely notice they’re even there if it wasn’t for the brilliant sound emanating from them. The audio is crisp and clear, with no distortion, and a decent amount of bass to give the sound that rich feeling.

A very nice addition is an enclosed microphone, which means that the headphones can be used for VoIP, including internet calls and gaming.

However, there is a small drop in sound quality when you actually use

the headphones for what they were intended for, which is the Bluetooth connectivity. If you simply used them straight away with the Bluetooth, you wouldn’t even notice, but when you compare the sound using the Bluetooth to the sound through the cable, there’s an audible difference in quality.

However, this is nitpicking, as overall the quality using the Bluetooth connection can’t be faulted, and you can’t really expect the quality to be the same as with cable.

Now, though, we come to the main rub – the price. They are shockingly expensive, even for a product by Harman Kardon. Even with the brilliant design and sound, we can’t say that there aren’t headphones out there of a comparable quality for much, much less. But then, like any premium product, the people who buy it aren’t going to quibble about the price!

If you can afford them, you’ll truly enjoy the experience of these funky and comfortable wireless headphones.

EMOTION

HARMAN KARDON BT EXPERIENCE-METER Happiest human ever

“The first time you pick these up and put them on, you can’t help but be instantly impressed.”

“There is a slight drop in audio quality when you listen over the Bluetooth connection.”

Very impressed

Pleased

“They’re hugely comfortable, and the sound quality is, as you’d expect, fantastic.”

Indifferent

“A great gadget, but worth the price? We’ll leave that to you to decide!”

Ouch!

PROS

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-Fantastic quality, even with the Bluetooth -Extremely comfortable

CONS

-VERY expensive

B+

TECHNOLOGY

LAB TEST

ALIENWARE AX51 Available: Virgin Megastore (BD599)

EMOTION

This is the highly compact and stylish PC gaming system from Alienware.

Alienware was formerly an independent brand that specialised in building highspec PC systems designed specifically for hard-core gaming performance.

They were then bought out by Dell, and now represent Dell’s specialised highend gaming products.

This particular model boasts the powerful Second Generation Intel Core i5-2320 3.0GHz processor, as well as an impressive 8GB of DDR3 memory.

Great graphics come courtesy of the industry-leading NVIDIA GeForce GT 1GB GPU, making for a serious piece of gaming hardware.

It also comes equipped with a Blu-ray DVDRW optical drive for playing HD Blu-ray discs, as well as burning data to DVDs and CDs. A massive storage capacity is provided by its 1TB hard drive, and wireless network access and online gaming comes through the built-in Gigabit Ethernet LAN and Wireless-N Card.

And finally, it runs on the Windows 7 Home Premium software, which is considered by many to be the best Windows software to date.

While the Alienware AX51 does provide a ready-to-use powerful gaming system, you will pay a premium for the brand. A similarly powered system can be created for a much lower cost using alternative hardware, especially if you put it together yourself, though it won’t look nearly as cool.

The slimline and compact design of the casing does have its pros and cons. While the compact size is great

ALIENWARE AX51 EXPERIENCE-METER

Happiest human ever

Very impressed

because it doesn’t take up too much room, it also means that upgrading components can be tricky, as the slots and spaces for the cards and chips, etc., are built specifically for the components that come with it. If you want to change them for higher-spec components that are bigger, they might not fit properly.

So, to summarise, if you’re not hugely tech-savvy, you don’t want to go to all the trouble of building your own hardcore gaming machine, and don’t mind spending the money, the Alienware AX51 is a straightforward solution to your needs. Just buy it, plug it in, and you’re ready for some serious PC gaming.

However, if you ARE a computer whizz, or you have a friend who is who’s willing to help, you can build a gaming machine of equal or better quality yourself for less money. It should be said, however, that it won’t have the warranty that comes with this Alienware kit.

“For your average PC gamer, the Alienware AX51 is an easy-to-use piece of hardware that’ll power practically any game with ease.”

“If money isn’t a problem, you’ll be instantly impressed with the design and compactness – it takes up so much less space than your average PC tower!”

“It provides instant hardcore gaming potential, with excellent speed and amazing graphics.”

Pleased

Indifferent

Ouch!

“Ok, so it’s quite expensive – you could get more for your money elsewhere…”

PROS

TIME

-Simple, ready to use -Powerful

CONS

-Not easily upgradeable -Overpriced

B+

FACT BAHRAIN NovemBER

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TECHNOLOGY

ALI DRIVER SAYS THAT

“Kia is making big moves with their latest range, not least with the Cadenza.”

Our Mystery Motoring Expert, Ali Driver, had his conceptions redefined by the Kia Cadenza.

O

ur car review with Kia started off a little shakily.

We requested their flagship sedan, the Optima, but they had none available. We were then offered the Soul, a quirky little CUV recently released by Kia, but when we got there it was nowhere to be found – apparently one of the staff had disappeared with it.

So, they offered us the Cadenza instead. It’s not a particularly new model, having been released last year, but seeing as I hadn’t experienced ANY Kias for several years, I thought, “Why not?”

Let me start by saying that my preconception of Kias up to this point had always been defined as: ‘Cheap Korean cars that offer great standard

features for peanuts to make up for the fact that the brand is about as cool as boiled cabbage.’

However, upon being presented with the Cadenza, we adopted that kind of expression with the upside down smile and raised eyebrows and nodding head that says: ‘Wow, this ain’t so bad…”

Say what you like about the badge on the front, but the Cadenza is a handsome car, with sleek European styling that would sit nicely beside a Ford Mondeo or Renault Laguna.

This is largely thanks to it being designed by Kia’s Chief Designer Peter Schreyer, who Kia poached from Audi, and who was partly responsible for the styling of icons like the Audi TT. “Say what you like about Kia, but you can’t deny that the Cadenza is a handsome car!”

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So initial impressions are good, but things only get better when you climb in to the car, and start to explore. The list of standard features on the Cadenza is staggering. Are you ready? Here we go: Keyless entry and start, touchscreen infotainment system with a pretty snazzy SatNav software, MP3 Connectivity and in-dash 6CD changer putting sound out through a 12-speaker soundsystem, Bluetooth connectivity, panoramic sunroof, air-conditioned front seats, steering-wheel mounted controls, cruise control, electric leather seats with two memory settings on the driver’s seat, rear parking camera with assist, rear centre armrest with controls for AC and audio… Ok, I’ll stop there, but you get the idea!

The good news continues when you start the car. To begin with, the dashboard welcomes you with a nice ambient little melody, much like starting up a laptop, which isn’t a deal maker, just a nice little touch.

When you set off, you’ll be instantly impressed with the power coming from the 3.5l V6, which boasts an output of 270hp – not bad for a mid-range family sedan.

The power delivery is smooth and constant, but if you want things to be a little more exciting, you can pop the gear lever over to manual, and either change gear yourself, or allow the revs to max out before the

TECHNOLOGY car decides to do it for you, extracting a little more fizz from the engine.

The ride comfort is also impressive – smooth and refined, with very little road or engine noise seeping into the passenger cabin. Handling is good too, thanks to what Kia call the Amplitude Selective Damper (they all like to give their own special names to these things, don’t they?), although ten minutes of internet research didn’t actually clarify what exactly makes this system different!

The brakes let the Cadenza down somewhat. Despite being fourway disc brakes, and therefore very effective at stopping the car, they felt squishy and imprecise when applied, with no progressive firmness giving you a feeling of control over how hard you’re braking. You just have to keep pushing the brake until you feel you’re slowing enough.

The interior of the Cadenza is a very pleasant place to be, largely thanks to the staggering list of features, but also because of the elegant design.

The clean and stylish lines, the premium feel of the materials, and the comfortable leather all give an impression of being in a premium European sedan – something Kia is striving to accomplish.

The front seats are comfortable, with the in-seat aircon always appreciated on a hot day. However, even in the rear you won’t miss out, with a fold down armrest boasting audio and A/C controls giving strong hints as to Kia’s aspirations for the Cadenza to become a car of choice for hotel taxis and other mid-range chauffer services.

The touchscreen infotainment system is impressive, with a nice birds-eye view on the Sat-Nav map, which also changes it’s view from daylight to night-time depending on what time of the day it is, which is a very nice touch. It’s little details like

this, and the welcome tune as you start the car, that are really going to help Kia set their cars apart from the competition. There’s even a 3.5 inch LCD screen on the instrument cluster, which can be changed to show your desired information.

A little pointless, in my opinion, was the red ambient lighting under the chrome trim of the dashboard and doors, which I felt looked a little tacky. Simple white or amber lighting would’ve been much more elegant, or even none at all, but again, that’s just my opinion.

The keyless entry and start is fantastic, with the door handle of the car lighting up at night as you approach, guiding your hand to the right place, and as you hop in more ambient lighting helps you find the button to start the car. It’s all so… “premium”!

The soundsystem is, as you’d expect with 12 speakers, pretty impressive, with a 6-CD in-dash changer, which we didn’t use, and an MP3 jack, which we did. Within ten seconds we had an iPhone connected up to the car, with BBC Radio One streaming live from the UK and playing in the car – fantastic!

There was one big concern for us, however, and this was the dark patches that had already worn away on the leather on the steering wheel. This is most definitely not something that we’d expect to see on a car that was only around a year old, though to be fair we did not see similar worn patches on the leather of the seats.

So, to summarise, my preconception of Kia has been upgraded from ‘Boiled Cabbage’ to ‘Baked Potato’. Still not necessarily cool, but

The interior of the Cadenza is a very pleasant place to be, largely thanks to the staggering list of features, but also because of the elegant design

“Kia are definitely going for a premium European vibe with the Cadenza, and it shows...”

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TECHNOLOGY

“You’ll be impressed by the power of the 3.5l V6 engine.”

much more palatable. Not quite ‘Shitake Mushroom’ yet, but a lot more appealing than ‘Boiled Cabbage’.

The Cadenza is a good car. If I were given it as a company car I would be thrilled, and drive it happily every day. But would I buy it? No, not yet, because it’s still a Kia. But that’s just me and my brand snobbery – most people out there wouldn’t be quite so shallow, and recognise it simply for what it is – a handsome sedan with great features that’s cheap to maintain.

If Kia keep making cars as good as this, their status will be climbing past ‘Baked Potato’ in no time, and towards ‘Shitake Mushroom’ within a few short years! And during my research about the car, I came across some information that proves that the Korean car company is already well on its way!

According to Interbrand, the world’s biggest brand consultancy agency, Kia is now one of the world’s Top 100 brands, placing 87th in the prestigious ranking.

This is thanks to “advances in product

quality, design and innovative marketing.”

Keep your eye on Kia – they’re a car company that is going places, and will undoubtedly start winning over more and more of a share in this competitive marketplace. All they need, really, are some ‘special vehicles’ – some one off hot models created not so much as a commercial interest, but more as a brand building exercise. Nissan did it with the Juke R, and Toyota have done it with the Toyota 86 – they’re iconic models that add a healthy dose of ‘cool’ to the brand, which is something that Kia desperately needs to do!

The Cadenza is priced at BD13,000, which is a little surprising for a Kia, especially given that a top-of-the-range Nissan Maxima is around the same price. However, the Cadenza does trump the Maxima in features, if not in street-cred.

One thing that you can be assured of with the Kia, however, is that it will be both reliable and very cheap to run. If you’re not worried about street-cred, and want premium-brand luxury for Korean prices, then the Cadenza is a great choice.

Who is Ali Driver?

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FACT BAHRAIN NovemBER

1. He lives in Bahrain and says he grew up on the streets of Muharraq, but we think he’s actually from a rich family in Saar, and won’t admit it.

2. He says his car skills are all self-taught, but we’re sure we’ve seen a course certificate from the BIC on his wall.

3. He drives cars better than anyone we know (but don’t ever tell him).

4. He claims to be able to change a regular car tyre in under 4 minutes, but we’re sure that’s only when his wife helps him.

time to get nice & cosy. chai latte chai tea and spice into creamy, addictive drink.

caramel macchiato Creamy textured milk syrup and half the normal amount of espresso

flat white XX strength smooth espresso combined with milk which is textured to silky perfection.

caffĂŠ mocha Dark, rich chocolate blended with espresso then combined to perfection with steamed milk.

FACT BAHRAIN NovemBER

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FASHION

p54: Power Through Colours

FIGHTING THE BATTLE AGAINST BAD TASTE IN BAHRAIN

Power

Colour Fashion, clothes and style are all elements we combine into our daily lives without a second thought. Zara de Haldevang has a consultation with Louise Wrankmore from Colour Me Beautiful to find out more.

FACT BAHRAIN NovemBER

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FASHION

Power

Colour Fashion, clothes and style are all elements we combine into our daily lives without a second thought. Zara de Haldevang has a consultation with Louise Wrankmore from Colour Me Beautiful to find out more.

I

t may not be the clothes we wear who truly define who we are, however they do play a huge part in helping us to express our own sense of style, our personalities and the way we are feeling. Vera Wang said, “A woman is never sexier than when she is comfortable in her clothes,” – a statement that every woman can relate to at some point in her life.

Louise Wrankmore lives and breathes colour. Having spent a large amount of her life working in the beauty world, it is no surprise that she has found herself involved in the worldwide organisation that is Colour Me Beautiful. According to the image consultants, colour is a wonderful tool for giving your look an instant boost. Wearing colours that compliment your colouring can make you look healthier, more vibrant and younger.

On arrival to Louise’s house, the beginning of the two-hour consultation begins with a series of questions all designed to help her understand more about her client.

Subjects such as lifestyle, shopping, make-up, habits and favourite colours are covered, before she takes on the task of discovering

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FACT BAHRAIN NovemBER

whether you have a blue or yellow skin tone. With the help of her colour wheel, each tone is split into two – others will know this as the season colour wheel, where you can determine whether you are Spring, Summer, Autumn or Winter.

After going through a series of exercises to discover which suit your skin and hair colouring the best, you are given a wide variety of tips on how to wear the colours, whether in small hints or block attire. You will also learn how to bring the colours from your personal palette into your wardrobe and find out which ones really give you the wow factor.

The lesson, by no means, ends there. Louise then tends to your make-up bag to find out whether the eyeliner, mascara, eye shadow and lipstick are the right shades for you.

When asked what colour means in one word, Louise replied “Powerful. People can spend their whole lives wearing everything that is wrong for them – all it takes is a bit of advice and you can suddenly look alive again!”

Don’t get us wrong, this is not just a service for women – men are also victims of choosing the wrong clothes! In fact, many of Louise’s clients are male and have never looked back since their consultation. Louise is also one of Bahrain’s limited personal shoppers, a rare and unique service that many of the island’s residents would be thrilled to hear.

GO:To book your own consultation, please call Louise on 3916 2239 or check out the Colour Me Beautiful Bahrain Facebook page.

FASHION

eir clothes 85% of • Woman wear 15% of th the time! affect the colour of ar we u yo s ur lo co e Th • your eyes determines the • Your natural colouringwill look good in shades of make up you lour can • Wearing the wrong co and ill make you look stressed lour can • Wearing the wrong co older make you look 10 years lour can • Wearing the wrong co avier make you look much he ur can • Wearing the right colo make you look slimmer ur can • Wearing the right colo oother make your skin look sm ur can • Wearing the right colonamic make you look more dy u wear • People notice when yo the right colours!

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FASHION

The Bargain Hunter

reet r favourite high st to ou u yo g in br e w esnâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;t have In this issue looking great do st onto the at th g in ov pr , pieces manife s runway trends cost a fortune. A n just as easily stay on trend ca high street, you e bank. th ng ki without brea

FACT BAHRAIN NovemBER

57

FASHION

More Bang For Your Buck Shopping on The High Street

r a e w s n a m o W

ted style and attention to Known for their sophistica Dutti is one that we’re detail, this look by MassimoClean cut and delightfully dying to show off at work. s people that you really chic, it exudes power and tell know what you’re doing.

Thanks to e designers lik Dolce and oral Gabbana, fl prints and rics jacquard fab fall. are huge thisst of Though mo rd us can’t affo w to spend a fen thousand o t it one garmen n we doesn’t meae in can’t indulg fully this wonder d. feminine tren e You only havn to to head dow to TOPSHOP ds on get your hanpestry this fierce ta et. bomber jack

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FACT QATAR BAHRAIN NovemBER NovemBER

The peplum has made its mark this and for a good reason. It’s extreme season, especially for those lacking curves ly flattering, to-toe this look by Kenneth Col . From headchoice for a night out, sure to gete is a stunning you noticed.

t accessory A cocktail ring is the perfec ur into an mo gla g to insert a little evenin P is our first outfit. This one by TOPSHO ’s opulence son sea choice for a nod to this our e ulg ind to y wa at gre trend and . rkly spa gs penchant for all thin

This fantastic pony skin belt in a deep purple hue from Salsa is an ideal way to introduce rich jewel tones to your wardrobe.

ir of pointed We can’t resist this pa deliciously a in s t-bar court shoe by Nine West. k pin by ba ne femini trouser or Paired with a tailoredu’ll have a yo irt sk il nc pe a neat liven up the chic new ensemble to . banal weekday routine

FASHION

Every girl needs at lea st one pair of ankle boots to mark season. These killer ult the winter ra high boots

by Aldo are a great inv estment.

Team them with a cig arette pant for a look that’s fail-safe .

come Satchels have bebag ve ha tus the m ecting for any self-resps studded hi T . ta is fashon M will example by H& anarchy of h uc to a inject ime look. to a casual dayt

straight from the Lacoste ready-to-wear outfits sition for your catwalk are the perfect propoed knits matched winter holidays, with oversiz ther. We’re ready with creative leggings and lea to join? for the slopes! Who wants

The graphic sweater is our hero piece for the coming season. A textbook examp garment turn statement piece is thisle of a staple houndstooth sweater with contras great

by New Look. Matching it with t pink finishing’s leather will have you looking likea luxury fabric like of the runway. What’s not to loveyou walked straight !

Head to toe print is a foolproof way to make a statement this season. Brands like Miss Selfridge and Koton bring us a great selection of bold eye-catching prints ranging from floral to geo that have us head over heels. It seems an overtly loud look, especially for those with more minimalist tendencies, but with few to no accessories and a simple court shoe it’s surprisingly wearable.

FACT BAHRAIN NovemBER

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FASHION

CHECK OUT...

GEORGIA JAGGER STEPS OUT FOR SUNGLASSES HUT

Sunglass Hut are making a big move in the fashion industry by enlisting the talents of model Georgia May Jagger, world-famous daughter of Rolling Stone rock god Mick Jagger, to highlight the brand.

At just 20 years old, Jagger has already been hailed a style icon; known for her perfect pout and trademark gap-toothed smile, she has graced the pages of American Vogue, British Vogue, Harper’s Bazaar, W Magazine, Dazed and Confused, I.D., Purple and more. Georgia has been featured in campaigns for Hudson Jeans, Rimmel, Chanel, Versace and most recently Madonna’s Material Girl.

Camo is having a serious fashion moment. Make your mark on the trend with these military inspired trousers

by Pull and Bear.

If your casual wardrobe needs a makeover with attitude, Pull and Bear has the no-holdsbarred collection you need to make it happen.

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FACT QATAR BAHRAIN NovemBER NovemBER

No woman can resist a great clutch, particularly one in a vibrant colour.

This wonderfully unfussy coral clutch by Massimo Dutti is so great we suspect it won’t be long till your girlfriends are begging to borrow it.

Working colour into your wardrobe can be a challenge as it has the ability to turn garish fast. If you’re unsure, a clever way to introduce colour is in small bursts with statement pieces.

FASHION

cret It’s no see loving ’r e w that ht now. studs rig et by This jack ridge is Miss Self way to the ideal our look update y btle rock with a suge. chick ed

ellishments If girly florals and ostentatious emb on seas this you for it ng aren’t quite doi OP comes there’s no need to panic. TOPSHedibly cool to the rescue with a range of incr king like you androgynous separates. Avoid loo wardrobe fell head first into your boyfriend’s playing with and solidify the look by layering, female motifs. cate deli cing odu intr textures and

As girls we’re powerless to a fabulous dress, and as we all know a new dress is a foolproof way to get out of a style funk. This structured number

by Kenneth Cole is a clear winner in our books. Complete the look with a pair of statement heels and a striking clutch.

LOOK OUT FOR...

Maison Martin Margiela for H&M

T

his is the much-anticipated capsule collection by Maison Matin Margiela for high street megastore H&M. It’s set to be one of the most exciting collaborations yet and we predict it’ll have fashonistas everywhere swooning. The French fashion house is known for its wildly conceptual design aesthetic and is a favourite amongst celebs and fashion bloggers alike. The collection is all about volume, as Maison Martin Margiela toys with shape and proportion. Even better, fans of the brand will be happy to know that the collection will reintroduce past iconic runway pieces at affordable prices.

Now less than a month away, the collection makes it’s debut in stores November 15 and we for one will be first in line to snap it up.

Perfect jeans? Hard to beat Salsa’s collection - whatever fit, finishing and wash you love, Salsa has it; from push-ups, push-ins, to shape-ups. The only difficult part will be to choose only one pair. Jeans are just the start with this brand, as their leather jackets, T-shirts and accessories from shoes to bags will keep you going back to the shop time and time again for their innovative additions and amazing quality!

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FASHION

Menswear

omen. ndbags are to wlook no ha t ha w en m Watches are to market for a chic timepiece ith a classic If you’re in the y Hilfiger bring us a watch w further, Tomm ty of style. design and plen

This sweater by Kenneth Cole with leather panels is an obvious choice for its stunning craftsmanship and urban sophistication. It’s a truly versatile piece that is ideal for layering, whilst still having the ability to stand alone, meaning you’ll get an incredible amount of wear out of it.

Whilst the time of year where covering up becomes a necessity draws ever-close, we remind you that keeping warm is never an excuse for looking frumpy. Beat the cold with this sweater from H&M that’s soft enough to sleep in.

Ideal for its wearability, this staple sweat can be teamed with a pair of leather trousers for a great weekend look.

If there was ever an urban trend so cool it’s sent us into a shopping frenzy, it’s got to be leather high-tops. We’ve hunted down the hottest pair on the high street; so get yourself city-ready with this pair by Aldo.

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FACT BAHRAIN NovemBER

With its new modernist take on the classic peacoat TOPMAN is on to a certified winner.

With its leather look yoke, borg collar and youthful details we suspect it wont be long before it sells out.

If you’re in the market for outerwear then head to Salsa where you’ll find the perfect leather jacket that exudes a hardy mannish charm.

This is a must have piece in your wardrobe, as years go by the better this jacket will look.

FASHION

Showing us how to pull off a refined yet cool work look, this outfit by Massimo Dutti is faultless from head-to-toe.

Consisting of traditionally tailored pieces in an understated colour pallet, this outfit guarantees you’ll be looking sharp at the office.

ntrasting neling of two co ake a wonderful pa e iv ct in st di e will m With the there’s no brogues by Dun textures, these extensive shoe collection. Aslook with a r e ou th e to complet addition s a work shoe, question that it’ and a slick shirt. tailored trouser

This collection insinuates ‘man of action’, and that we are! That’s why we love the easy to wear Lacoste looks down-to-earth but the materials and design of all the pieces show the careful thinking of Felipe Oliveira Baptista in the execution.

Burton brings us a quirky little wallet centered with a prominent moustache print that would make an excellent gift for the man with fashion sense as boisterous as his sense of humor.

TOPMAN presents a lighthearted approach to the lapel pin. I don’t know what it is, but something about the moustache never fails to tickle us.

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D

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Delvin FASHION inthe Home FIGHTING THE BATTLE AGAINST BAD TASTE IN BAHRAINâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s Homes

Dinto elving the Design World

Interior design is one topic that brings out the inner artist in you. Zara de Haldevang talks to Marc Dorrian, the Associate Design Director for Design Worldwide Partnership, about life as a designer in Bahrain.

FACT BAHRAIN NovemBER

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Delving Fashioninthe Home

Dinto elving the Design World

Interior design is one topic that brings out the inner artist in you. Zara de Haldevang talks to Marc Dorrian, the Associate Design Director for Design Worldwide Partnership, about life as a designer in Bahrain.

B

ahrain’s art scene isn’t just about the art galleries, exhibitions and the artists – in fact the word ‘art’ now involves a grand spectrum of subjects, where interior design is very much included. Marc Dorrian, having graduated from The Glasgow School of Art in Scotland with a degree in Interior Design, is no stranger to the world of design. With over 15 years of experience in commercial interiors, Marc was based back in the UK for 11 years, where he was involved in many five star projects worldwide before he made Bahrain his new home in 2009.

So why Bahrain? “I was taking a break away from designing to concentrate on my other love, art. I had just finished a show in Glasgow, when I received an unexpected call from an ex-colleague/friend asking if I would be interested in travelling to Bahrain to join the Lifestyle Team for DWP. It was perfect timing – I was feeling fresh and looking for a new challenge.”

Marc’s Bahrain projects to date include the Wyndham Grand Hotel, Bahrain Bay and the Regency Intercontinental.

Most of you would also be familiar with Klub 360; a venue Marc’s hand took a part in designing. “I’m not sure Klub 360 is a place I go to relax in! What is fantastic about designing is that there is an end product, something that you can see, touch and experience… and see people experience these same spaces.”

When asked about the

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relationship of design and personal sense of style, Marc replied, “Like fashion, art and music, all these things reflect your personality and interiors should be no different. The environment that you live in and which surrounds you has to suit you and you need to be comfortable in that space.

Living in a rented apartment, I am pretty restricted as to what I can do here. I have purchased some small items to give it some individuality and I also have my artwork on the walls. I was told I couldn’t do anything but went ahead anyway and painted some walls for features. The landlord saw what I did and proceeded to do the same for all the other apartments!”

And what about design coming in to play with every day life? “It affects you more than you realise. At the end of the day, it’s not just about picking out the perfect fluffy cushion; a lot of time is spent on special planning, logistics and function, always thinking about how the customer will use and experience the space, whether it’s residential, hotel spa, office etc.

Design is a profession you can’t switch off

ng

Fashion inthe Home

in your brain after you leave the office. Anywhere I go I am always looking, always thinking how it can be improved.”

Marc’s future plans? “My ideal project will be when I design something for myself. I want to design my own home from the architectural design right through to the coat hook in the entrance! One thing for sure is that I will get along with the client! I am always looking to develop and improve, as a designer this never stops in my opinion. We have had a difficult few years in terms of the economy globally. The design industry, like everything else, was affected, however we are starting to see confidence rise again in our sector and I am hoping this continues.

“My advice to others, in terms of pursuing a career in design: it’s certainly not for the faint hearted. It’s hard work and every day is different, which for me is what makes it such an interesting and challenging profession. The most important elements for me are passion and creativity in what you do. If you possess this then you have the foundation to pursue your career.”

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//

Time Unwind to

Recreation is just as important in life as occupation! This is your guide to making the most of your precious spare time. There’s no need to waste it...

FINAL WORD

What’s your

BAHRAIN

IQ

only one test score really S.A.T’s? M.B.A’s? Pah! In Bahrain,

matters: your Bahrain IQ!

with an Bands tournament kicks off this month, The BMusic Battle of the Gray.

To you this means: being headlined my Macy

epic Grand Finale

international talent?

local and a An awesome month of music featuring both and listen to your Tchaikovsky b Absolutely nothing – you’d much rather sit at home collection?

Macy who?

c

The Citibank FACT Awards are now well underway, with thousands of votes week. Are you?

a Scoffing your way through every restaurant on the

being cast every

voting form, to be completely sure

that

the votes you cast are the right ones? an iPhone?

Only voting so that you might win ABOUT FOOD? ON A DIET, SO STOP TALKING

b c

smartphone shootout between two of the most popular This month, we feature athe Samsung Galaxy S3. Are you:

s on the

market, the iPhone 5, and

a “TEAM SAMSUNG, BABY!!”? b “APPLE TO THE CORE!!”? receives and receives calls, and sends and c Completely indifferent – your phone makes or need it to do?

SMS messages. That’s all you’ll

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ever want

FACT BAHRAIN NOVEMBER

BAHRAIN IQ - p82

Our sly monthly round-up of recent Bahrain news

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//

VENUE REVIEW

The Persian Room Lagoon, Amwaj (Tel: 1601 0166) BD5-10 per person

This month, we go Persian, as we head over to the idyllic Lagoon, Amwaj, to visit the Persian Room.

Located right next door to Mei n Yu, the Persian Room is the brainchild of proprietor Monica, an Iranian American who grew up on the authentic home cooking of her Iranian mother and grandmother.

“Big deal, ANOTHER Persian restaurant!” we hear you say? Well, it IS a big deal, because the dining experience at this venue truly stands out. Monica is very particular about using the traditional recipes handed down to her, as well as the best ingredients she can find.

The results speak for themselves.

She has regular guests that come from as far as Riffa just to have their favourite dish there. We can safely say that the food we enjoyed was some of the best Persian food we’ve ever had.

The individual flavours of each dish stood out, and you could tell that a lot of TLC had gone into each creation. The menu isn’t huge, but this is no bad thing, as it’s much better to do a few things excellently than a huge range of

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things that are mediocre.

Our own experience kicked off with a four-way platter of appetisers, an option you can choose if you’d like to sample more than one or two.

Ours comprised the Mirza Ghasemi (mashed eggplants and tomatoes with egg and garlic served with bread), Kashk Bademjan (eggplant dip mixed with onion, walnuts, mint, garlic and yoghurt sauce with olive oil), Zeytoon Parvardeh (olive salad mixed with walnuts, Iranian herbs and pomegranate dressing), and finally Mast Khiyar (yoghurt with chopped cucumbers, mint, tarragon and lemon).

All of these were delicious, especially with the fresh bread hot from the oven that comes with it. However, it was the Mirza Ghasemi that blew us away – the deliciously tangy and sweet flavours of the tomatoes with the garlic was fantastic.

For the mains, we had the Persian Room Kebab served with three colour rice, which is a platter of chicken fillet and fillet of beef cooked in a charcoal grill served with three different types of rice,

which was absolutely divine with the fresh lemon squeezed over the meat.

With that we had a popular favourite of the Persian Room, the Fesenjoon Ba Morgh, which is a sweet and sour chicken and walnut stew with pomegranate sauce.

The kebab platter stood out even in a country where good kebabs can be had on virtually any street corner.

However, the Fesenjoon stew was truly excellent – delicious and tangy, the rich sauce will have you dipping your bread long after all the chicken has been eaten. According to Monica, it’s not uncommon for people to order a big tray of this dish for events in their home.

For dessert, we found enough room to share a portion of their traditional Persian honey cake, which is a light, spongy and creamy slice of heaven that we strongly recommend you leave space for.

While there are any number of well-established Iranian eateries in various hotels around Bahrain, the Persian Room stands out for its unpretentious, traditional homecooked food of an exceptionally high quality. Well worth a visit!

Relax at Mai Tai

For that perfect cocktail, Trader Vic’s has the perfect solution…

Music in the Mezzanine Looking to unwind after a busy day, why not try somewhere new?

We all know how it feels to have a tough day or week at the office, and the most important thing is to make sure you find that time to unwind, relax and put your feet up. The Mezzanine Lounge at the Kempinski Grand Hotel Bahrain is a place to achieve just this! Give your car to the valet and sit down in the lounge to enjoy one of the venue’s signature beverages. You will also receive a drink for free while you listen to the musical tunes of Zoe and Rick, the talented duo from the USA and Thailand. With Rick on the guitar and Zoe on the vocals, you will be able to put your worries aside and have that special ‘me’ time. The after-work special is from 6-8pm, where Zoe and Rick play from Tuesday to Saturday.

The Mai Tai Lounge, hands down, is one of the best spots on the island to get your perfect cocktail in the open air. This outside outlet of Trader Vic’s is a great place to chill out and relax with a drink in hand and a delicious selection of bar snacks (the cheese balls and beef chow-chow are definitely recommended).

The November weather is somewhat cooler now and with the lounge’s lighting and new music tracks, this location is one that should be visited on a regular occasion. Although it is a shame that Mai Tai Lounge is not open before 6pm, as it would be the perfect place to enjoy a sunny afternoon, the lounge is open until 2am. It is imperative that you try at least four of the different cocktails on the menu before leaving…

FACT’s orders!

GO: Call 1758 6555 for more information.

GO: For more information, call 1717 1000.

Vietnamese Heaven

Want to win a three-night trip to Saigon?

Dine at the Mövenpick this November to make it happen!

In partnership with Emirates Airline and the Mövenpick Hotel Saigon, Mövenpick Bahrain will be showcasing Vietnamese specialities, when three of the most talented chefs from the Saigon hotel will be flying to kick off the week-long Food and Cultural Festival for the hotel in Bahrain.

Kicking off at the Silk’s Restaurant and its adjoining terrace, the al fresco dining can be enjoyed under the stars overlooking the grounds. There will be a number of live cooking stations, where diners can watch the master chefs hard at work and will be able to sample dishes from the Northern, Central and Southern regions of Vietnam. The restaurant will be serving special menus to showcase their signature dishes ranging from the famous Pho noodle soup to the French influence Ban Mi.

Between November 12 and 18 from 7pm to 11.30pm, you could win a three-night trip to Vietnam, where all you have to do is dine at the hotel! The food festival is supporting the KOTO foundation in Saigon, a non-profit organisation vocational program that helps to change the lives of Vietnam’s street and disadvantaged youths.

The youngsters are taken by KOTO and educated in different fields of hospitality to be ready for future employment within the Mövenpick hotels all over the world.

You can also learn the secrets of Vietnamese cooking with the professionals on November 13,14 and 15 from 11am-1pm for just BD12.5 including lunch.

GO: To make a booking for dinner or the class, call 1746 0000.

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VENUE SPOTLIGHT

Dragon Hotel & Resort Address: Awmaj Islands Contact No: +973 1603 9800 Website: www.dragonresorthotel.com www.mujuamwaj.com

DON’T MISS OUT...

Muju Jazz Brunch

Hosted at Muju every Friday and overlooking the azure Amwaj Bay, the Islands favourite Jazz brunch serves up a delicious array of International Cuisine complimented by Live Jazz from the South African Lelane Fourie duo! The price is BD25 nett, inclusive of all beverages and takes place from 12PM-5PM.

PLUS...

Corners

‘Your Local in Amwaj’, at Corners you’ll never miss a moment of your favourite sports, comedy nights and great music.

You can even test your skills at the lively new quiz night that has started on a Wednesday with resident DJ Stevie George!

Yamin Jana

Yamin Jana Mediterranean-style Seafront Lounge is set al fresco on the azure seafront of the Dragon Hotel. A Mediterranean infused experience day and night, it boasts live Arabic entertainment and an authentic buffet on the table every Friday.

DONT MISS...

Karaoke Idol Returns!

Yet another chance for Bahrain’s amateur singers to either shine like stars, or make complete fools of themselves – either way, it’s a great show for the punters!

For all the bedroom Beyoncés, shower time Cher’s, bathtub Buble’s and motorway Madonna’s – now is your chance to emerge from the shadows and let your undiscovered vocal genius make Bahrain’s public… laugh themselves stupid!

Bahrain’s original and best-loved talent show – Karaoke Idol – returns to JJ’s Irish Restaurant this month. With prize money of BD1000 up for grabs, it’s bound to attract all kinds of individuals to the stage for some premium live entertainment.

However, amongst the yodelling of each round there will be found a few hidden gems of talent – true karaoke kings and queens that will impress the judges and amaze the audience, going through to the finals for their chance at glory, and lots of money!

Karaoke Idol 2012 kicks off with the first round on November 6th. There will be six rounds in total, taking place each Tuesday, with the last round on December 11th. Two finalists from each round will go through to the grand final on December 18th, where they will sing their hearts out for a chance at the three top cash prizes.

The winner will be awarded BD700, second place will be awarded BD200, and third place will win themselves BD100.

Each contestant will be facing three judges in Bahrain and will be fairly critiqued and commented upon, don’t worry though – everyone who has a go will earn themselves a free drink, so it’s not all bad!

Karaoke is extremely fun for contestants and audience alike, and the judges will be honest though they’re really rooting for everyone, with everything said and done all in the spirit of the competition.

So, come on down to JJ’s on Tuesdays, check out the performances, and if you think you’re brave enough, have a go!

Please note: this is a competition for amateurs only. Entries from professional vocalists will not be accepted.

GO: Karaoke Idol will take place at JJ’s Irish Restaurant every Tuesday from December 6th to December 11th. For information call 3932 9083.

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VENUE SPOTLIGHT

Déjà Vu Address: Opening hours:

Contact No: Website: Email:

Villa 60, Road 3802, Near Gulf Hotel 12:00 - 15:00 (lunch) 19:00 - 23.30 (dinner) & 00:00 (weekends) 19:00 - 02:00 (upstairs lounge) (+973) 1365 7770 & (+973) 3308 8405 www.dejavubahrain.com info@dejavubahrain.com

The Restaurant...

Indulge yourself in Déjà Vu Restaurant’s exquisite Mediterranean cuisine. The chefs use the freshest ingredients inspired by the colourful multi-cultural heritage of the Med. They also specialise in private parties such as birthdays, anniversaries or corporate events, and outdoor catering.

ENJOY... One complimentary glass of house wine Sunday through Tuesday from 7 to 10pm.

The Lounge...

REGULARS SUNDAYS

All the dancefloor fillers & crowd pleasers in house music.

MONDAYS

Forever Retro

Buy-one-get-one-free till 12am on selected beverages, with music from the 70s, 80s, 90s, old-school R&B and Hip Hop.

TUESDAYS

CHIC

WEDNESDAYS THURSDAYS FRIDAYS

SATURDAYS

Classic House

Ladies’ Night at Déjà Vu. Free selected drinks and cocktails for the ladies.

WINO Wednesdays

with Djette Kiwi and Kicks Massive - Where wine tasting and 80’s meet! BD 10 per head from 7pm to 11pm.

B.A.K.E. - Beats n’ Attitude Kiwi Experience

B.A.K.E. is a dirty, vocal house experience by Djette Kiwi aimed at bringing Bahrain a taste of Bohemian Bourgeois nightlife. Expect anything from house and electro to drum n bass and breakbeat!

Bling

Hip hop, Rn’B and mainstream hits with DJ Aaron Wolf.

Chill Out Night

A chilled night of music, with Happy Hour from 7pm to 9pm.

The Resident DJs...

DJ Aaron Wolf

DJette Kiwi FACT BAHRAIN NovemBER

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VENUE SPOTLIGHT

Upstairs Downstairs Address: Website: Opening hours:

Contact No:

Building 754, Rd 3825, Block 338, Adliya www.upstairsdownstairs.me 11:00 - 15:00 & 18:00 - 00.00 - Sun-Weds 09:00 - 15:00 & 18:00 - 00.00 - Thurs-Sat +973 1771 3093

Located in the heart of Bahrain, a terrific buzz hits you as you enter Upstairs Downstairs and make your way through the bar to the utterly charming twofloor restaurant. Decorated in a traditional English Country House style, it’s like being at a private dinner party hosted by a friend, with an ambience further heightened by local jazz musicians performing on stage. International guest stars regularly take the stage too.

The menu is eye-catching, with a varied selection of cuisines from around the world, from fajitas to fish cakes, unique salads and more, with vegetarians well catered for.

So drop in to Upstairs Downstairs and experience something truly unique in Bahrain today...

LIVE ENTERTAINMENT NIGHTLY!

Sunday, Monday & Tuesday

Jojo

Saturday & Wednesday

Buffet Mania at BICE Another brunch contender has been added to the list… this time in Moda Mall.

Saturo

Thursday & Friday

Frankie’s Friends

** 20% off all fo od and drink ** 6pm-8

pm from Saturd ay to Wednesd ay

Set in the exclusive location that is Moda Mall, BICE Ristorante is a New Yorkbased Italian restaurant with an impressive international network. Founded in Milano in 1926 by Beatrice Ruggeri, each and every venue is known for its great hospitality, high quality of Italian food, and sense of warmth.

Now in locations such as Dubai, Singapore, the Seychelles, Mexico City, Valencia, Beirut and of course Bahrain, BICE is definitely a place to add to your list of places to eat.

For the first time, BICE is launching their authentic Italian brunch from October 26.

Starting at 12pm, the brunch only costs BD20 inclusive of one drink and BD26 for unlimited drinks. Under 14s only have to pay BD13 inclusive.

Already famous for the quality of their food and passion for culinary dishes, the unique location of this restaurant makes it an easy place to get to and from. The lofty ceilings and spiral glass staircase cascades down from the lounge and the towering windows overlook the Manama bay where you can see panoramic views of the sea. If you are looking for a new brunch spot, then look no further as this is a great place to go and soak up the scenery whilst indulging in classic Italian fare prepared by the real Italian chefs!

GO: To make a booking call 1753 6666 or visit www.bicebahrain.com

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VENUE SPOTLIGHT

Cocoon Lounge

Address: Website: Opening hours: Information: Reservations:

A night with DJ

Afroboogie Missing the WTF nights at Klub 360, your request is fulfilled!

November 9 is a date to mark down in your diaries. For just BD5 for men and free for ladies, you can enjoy a night of great music from the one and only DJ Afroboogie, aka Nelson. Described as a man who “stands for quality underground sounds… a sure crowd pleaser, a great DJ and a great person to sum it up”, this man’s career started back in 1989 – long before DJs received any sort of recognition. Playing all night sets in Johannesburg’s clubs, the DJ became a well-respected name in the country’s club circles.

After a five-year residency at ESP in Jo’burg, this musical man started to release DJ mix compilations, and went on to release nine CD compilations between 1996-2006. His gig schedule took him to all corners of South Africa and he played in major events such as Ministry of Sound, Woman, Amnesia and Pacha tours, where some audiences reached close to 20,000 people.

Since 2006, Dubai has been DJ Afroboogie’s homebase, where he continues to hold residencies at the biggest clubs including Trilogy and the Peppermint Club. For one night only, head down to Klub360 to check out this legend’s music for yourself. Having supported huge names like Roger Sanchez, Faithless, Orbital and Tm Deluxe to mention a few, you can make up your own mind once you see him spinning the decks. Klub 360 is one of the best joints in town to hear fresh music and witness new talent – it would be a huge shame to miss out on talent like this.

GO: To check out DJ Afrogboogie’s music, got to www.afroboogie. com. For tickets for the event call 3336 0300.

Juffair Grand Hotel www.facebook.com/CocoonBahrain 17:00-02:00 everyday +973 3692 3233/3410 9908 +973 3650 0114

COMING UP...

NOVEMBER 15 - DJ Swing’s Big Birthday Bash DJ SWING never fails to entertain the crowd on Thursday nights at Cocoon Lounge with his hot RnB set will be celebrating his Birthday on Thursday 15th November. We are doing things big this time around, with lots of pleasant surprises for all the party people that come down to celebrate the Big Birthday Bash.

Birthday bash starts at 9pm so don’t be late for all the fun and surprises with DJ SWING.

LIVE JAZZ with Latin Soul Band every Monday

Live Jazz and Latin sounds will be heard on Monday at Cocoon Lounge. That’s right Latin Soul has arrived and they will be playing the very best of Jazz and Latin tunes live. With the band only a year old they have already established themselves on the island as one of the best musical sensations of classy and inspiring music. So if you are craving for good music to soothe the soul Monday Nights at Cocoon Lounge with Latin Soul will be the place for you.

REGULARS...

MONDAYS

Latin Soul Band

TUESDAYS

Wine Night

WEDNESDAYS THURSDAYS FRIDAY

SATURDAY SUNDAY

Relax and unwind to the sounds of Jazz & Latin vibes from the Latin Soul Band, 9pm to 11pm. Unlimited selected beverages for BD 12.

Wine tasting for BD8 all night long.

Lipstick Lounge

Complimentary cocktails for the ladies, free entry for all.

House & RnB Exclusive

BD 15 unlimited beverages to the sounds of house with DJ Thomas and R&B with DJ Swing.

Lipstick Lounge

Complimentary cocktails for the ladies, free entry for all.

Chillax

Lounge and Relax with DJ Thomas.

Retro Night

The best of 70’s, 80’s and 90’s music.

Happy Hour everyday from 5pm to 9pm Special Discounts for Corporates, Military & Cabin Crew For information, call +973 3692 3233/3650 01114 FACT BAHRAIN NovemBER

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“Image is everything”

“ Coverage, Restoration, Editing, Collage, Montage, Popart, Film, HD Video, Extensive Image Archive…”

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1759 3993 www.ksdibahrain.com

A Health Tip from bnl

Skipping breakfast to lose weight actually makes you fatter

I

f you think skipping your morning coffee and toast will help you shed a few pounds, you could be mistaken.

Researchers claim breakfast eaters tend to weigh less than breakfast skippers, and skipping breakfast has been associated with overweight and obesity.

Some studies have found that those who skip breakfast end up eating more calories through the course of the day compared to those who don’t – and weight gain is the result. This may be due to increased feelings of hunger which can lead to overeating, particularly higher-fat foods later in the day.

Therefore, eating breakfast may help to control appetite and lower the chances of overeating throughout the day. In fact, the 2010 Dietary Guidelines for Americans recommend eating a nutrient-rich breakfast, noting it as a key behaviour linked with weight loss, weight maintenance, and improved nutrient intake.

//

Health & Wellbeing Your body is your temple, so worship it! Looking after your health doesn’t have to mean exercising and eating health food - a good pampering is just as important...

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Virus - 1

----------------------------

Tony- 0

FACT’s Editor-in-Chief was knocked for six by a virus last month, and brings you the story in all its gooey details. Aren’t you a lucky bunch?

I’d like to tell you a story about how a virus recently handed my ass to me on a plate. The reason why this story’s interesting is because I’ve always been lucky enough to have quite a robust constitution. I very rarely get sick – only the occasional cold, which clears itself up after a couple of days. I never get the flu, and I never get stomach bugs.

That is, until now.

I think what caused this unfortunate episode was a chain reaction of events – a “perfect storm” of infection, if you will. I’d had a long bout of laziness with regards to exercise. I normally try and go for a walk or run every other day, but prior to this particular occasion I hadn’t got my lazy arse in gear in a good couple of months. I could try and blame the summer, but the summer’s always an easy scapegoat, isn’t it?

Anyway, this particular illness was preceded by a decidedly stressful week at work – we were sending two separate magazines to press, and I was determined to get both done by the Thursday, so that it was all over and done with and we could have a worry-free weekend. This meant a four-day run of 14-15 hour days, scrambling to get everything finished on time.

And our kindly employers had decided that in return for our monumental efforts in getting the magazines to press in a timely manner, they would reward us by paying our salaries, in cash, on that Thursday, so that we could enjoy our weekends to the full.

So, I therefore did what anyone with a huge wad of cash in their pockets who has just finished a massively stressful week at work would do.

I went totally and utterly, 100%, balls-to-the-wall, pass-me-a-jar-of-

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FACT BAHRAIN NovemBER

badgers mental! A judging session for K-Factor at Kicks bar involving much free beverage kicked off the weekend’s proceedings, and Friday was a whirlwind of Oktoberfest (twopint steins, anyone?), Candee Beach and the Japanese Popstars (epic, but sadly under-attended).

At one point I climbed into the back seat of my car in the car park behind JJ’s, determined that this was where I was going to spend the night, but luckily a friend found me and was kind enough to carry me home! Needless to say, Saturday was tough. Like, “Don’t turn on that light because if you do my brain will explode and leak out of my ear” tough.

My immune system, at that point, must’ve said, “RIGHT, that’s IT! I’ve had enough. You’re on your own today mate, I can’t take anymore,” and shut up shop for 24 hours.

The ominous early warning signs were missed by me. On Sunday, I had what I thought was a cracked lip – something I get quite a lot, not being too particular about hydration.

I rubbed some Vaseline on it, and that was that. It was on Monday that I took a closer look, and thought, “What the hell…”

A scabby yellow blister had appeared on my bottom lip, and fifteen minutes of internet-based self-diagnosis confirmed it. I had a Cold Sore.

Dammit.

Having never had one before, I initially had no idea what it was, but sure enough, the pictures and symptoms proved it. The first bout, apparently, is the worst, often accompanied by a sore throat, swollen tonsils, fever, and other flulike symptoms.

I’m not going to sit here and cast

aspersions on where it came from – the truth of the matter is that it could’ve come from anywhere, and it could’ve been dormant in my system for years without me even knowing it. All I can say is that this was my first-ever cold sore, and it sucked, massively.

My already much-beleaguered immune system rallied itself to tackle this strange new infection, but having never seen it before, it had no idea how to deal with it. Within 24 hours my lower lip was on fire, and I was slavering it with cream to try and get rid of it ASAP. This, however, is not the end of this tale. It gets much, much worse!

Distracted by dealing with this strange new affliction, my immune system failed to notice the storm clouds building in my throat. Then one morning, a few days later, I woke up feeling like I’d spent all night eating broken glass.

A quick trip to the clinic confirmed it – I had a compounded infection where the first had lowered the defences and let the other ones in, where they then proceeded to run riot. I could only help but picture the little b*****ds as they took hold…

“WE’RE IN – WE’VE TAKEN THE MAIN GATE! THE CASTLE IS OURS!!”

And run riot they did. From my throat it spread downwards and played havoc with my guts. I couldn’t even look at food, and my whole torso was a bubbling cauldron of squeaks and groans, like a big bag of unhappy goblins squirming around trying to get out.

The throat infection also spread to my left ear, where it proceeded to make merciless jabs at my brain every time I swallowed or coughed.

To make matters worse, the

veritable cocktail of drugs that the clinic prescribed to heal me had the opposite result. I must have had a bad reaction to one of the meds, as I began to itch one day, and realised that I’d broken out in a rash all over my stomach and legs, and parts of my arms. This was accompanied by hideous, stabbing pains all over my torso, front and back, like the ghost of some demented acupuncturist summoned from hell to torment me.

This was, by far, the sickest I had been since I had appendicitis at the age of 12. I could only lie on my sofa in miserable disbelief and laugh! How in the hell could this have happened! What else was coming?

A cold sore. A throat infection. A stomach infection. An ear infection. Bodily aches and pains. A rash. Burning pins and needles. Is that all? Come on, let’s see what else is out there! Come one, come ALL! It’s open day on Tony’s body.

Let the bacteria of the world unite and make merry! It’s PARTY TIME! In desperation, I stopped taking all the drugs except for the antibiotics, and good, ol’ fashioned Panadol Cold & Flu – an old friend, one that I had turned to many times before.

I dosed up, and waited. The following day, no change. I went into the office, as there was a lot of stuff that needed my attention, but didn’t have the most productive day in the history of my career.

The day after that: Breakthrough! The rash had subsided, as had the cold sore and throat infection. The ear infection still sent shooting pains in to my skull once in a while, but it was at a level that could be managed. I was finally on the mend.

The moral of this story? It ALWAYS catches up with you.

A habit of heavy weeks followed by heavy weekends doesn’t give your body time to recover. “Work hard, play hard” is a fine sentiment, but the reality is that without a regular dose of “Relax hard” in there somewhere, eventually your body’s going to give in.

The two-day bender every Thursday and Friday night has to stop – I’m getting too old and my body just can’t handle it anymore. The spirit may be willing, but the flesh just wants to put its ‘lazy shorts’ on, sit in its favourite chair and watch Top Gear. I believe we can find a happy compromise. I’m thinking I may have to limit my insanity to just one day a week from now on, and console myself with tame but enjoyable mid-week socials every once in a while.

And exercise! I’ve been too lax in this regard. From now on, regular sessions are a strict requirement.

To my immune system, I say this: “I apologise, old friend. I placed too great a burden on you, and we both paid the price.

Now that, together, we have fought our way along the long and bitter road back to health, I do solemnly swear never to place such unreasonable burdens on you again. I shall also endeavour, through my eating habits and general fitness, to keep you strong, and arm you with all the tools required to fight off any future assaults on this shrine, this castle, that we do inhabit, unto our dying day. Amen.”

And on the plus side? In a week I dropped five kilograms, and since I recovered my appetite is a fraction of what it was before. Could this be the beginning of the road to physical perfection! Probably not, but it’s always good to be optimistic…

Eat like a

Human Our Health Columnist is fitness guru Craig Heslop, Founder & Coach of Tribal Fitness, who believes that a more back-tobasics and natural approach to living is the key to a healthy lifestyle…

Most scientists will agree that Homo Sapiens (Humans) are between 300,000 and 400,000 years old. In that time we have grown to hunt and forage a wide range of foods that nature has provided for us. Archaeological evidence would suggest that domestication of our food started less than 10,000 years ago (Lee & DeVore, 1968).

The industrial revolution, which started around 250 years ago, has had another huge impact on the food we eat today.

Despite our drastic change in diet (diet = lifelong way of eating), we are almost identical to our pre-agricultural ancestors. We may wear clothes now, drive cars and have iPhones but we are still hunter-gatherers by blood. As lions eat meat and koalas eat vegetation, humans have adapted to eat both. This adaptability has resulted in us populating every biome on the planet.

Our adaptability to eat almost anything means we have started playing Russian roulette with foods that are slowly killing us. If you feed a cow grain from birth, it will die a painful death.

They may be domesticated like us but they are grazing grass eaters like their ancestors. Industrial ranchers are therefore forced to feed their cattle antibiotics to prevent them from becoming sick.

If you mess with nature it will bite you!

Humans have enjoyed a diet of vegetation, seeds, roots, nuts, fish, insects and game meats for many thousands of years. Consuming this wide variety of organic, wild and local food sources is a desirable way for us live today. Unfortunately, it is impossible to eat exactly how our pre-agricultural ancestors did and personally, I am happy I do not get most of my protein from eating insects!

As the rates of many preventable diseases continue to skyrocket – obesity, diabetes, heart disease and several cancers – it may be time to return to what has worked for us for hundreds of thousands of years. As Mr. Hipprocrates said so wisely, “Let food be thy medicine and medicine be thy food.”

GO: For more information, or to get involved with Tribal Fitness, email craig@tribalfitness.com, or call 3947 3710

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SALON SPOTLIGHT

Joz Salon

Address: Dragon Hotel, Amwaj Contact No: 1603 1120 (Amwaj) Email: jozsalonspa@batelco.com.bh

About us:

Get ready for the ultimate salon and day spa experience, including hair, makeup, facial and body services. JOZ Salon and spa features only the best highly trained and skilled professionals, who are here for your every need — whether you are aspiring for a completely new look or a soothing treatment to help you unwind. We look forward to delivering the ultimate guest experience to you.

Why Us? Joz Salon and Spa Amwaj is a full service salon and day spa that offers a wide range of services and treatments for hair, nails, skin and body. The salon team includes the best-trained stylists, designers and colourists. The spa team includes highly specialized technicians, aestheticians and massage therapists.

Joz Salon&SPA offers unprecedented customer service to ensure that every guest has an experience unlike any other. JOZ Salon&SPA is located on the first floor of the Dragon Hotel in Amwaj Island. The view from the salon allows admiring the blue waters of the sea giving you the feeling of complete wellness.

Visit the salon to discover the latest exclusive hair care brand label.m . Created by world renowned hairdressing brand TONI&GUY. Label.m hair care and styling products have been proven extremely effective in treating all hair types, therefore following the global trend JOZ Group decided to introduce the brand in its outlets.

Balmain Hair is a beloved brand that many famous hairstylists work with and can therefore often be seen on the catwalk at various famous fashion shows in Paris, Milan, London and New York. Being faithful to the vision of innovation, JOZ introduced Balmain Extension systems.

Find out about Kerastraight If you are looking for a new experience in hair straightening and repair systems. Kerastraight offers three different systems that are designed to match your hair type even very weak and fragile hair, platinum blonde, white, highly coloured or porous hair can benefit from the goodness of this treatment.

JOZ Salon & SPA is open seven days a week from 9 am until 9 pm. Visit the salon at Amwaj Dragon Hotel or call 1603 1120.

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Believe It or Not Christal Dennis is a Personal Performance Coach and Hypnotherapist with a Masters in Psychology Leadership Development and Coaching. She is dedicated to helping people overcome life’s hurdles and tapping in to their deepest potential...

How much of an impact do you think your beliefs have on your life? Believe it or not, what we do believe has a profound effect on our behavior and our success in life.

Let me give you an example. Ask a child who is doing well in school: “Are you smart?” It’s quite easy to predict that the most likely response from that child will be an unequivocal yes. Or maybe the answer will be so matter of fact they may even say “Yes, duh!”

There are other kids who need to work a little bit harder than others and over a period of time they may start doubting how smart they really are. Many of you may know that having a hard time with academic studies is not always a true reflection of how smart a person really is. After all, Einstein did not do well in school at all and has turned out to be one of the most brilliant minds of our time.

Unfortunately these kids who have started to believe that they are not smart may start getting stuck in a vicious cycle where their belief of not being smart gets reinforced by bad school, teacher and parent feedback causing them to steadily lose motivation and maybe eventual resignation to a life of mediocre academic achievements.

What we don’t know is that these beliefs can be reversed if this child could start believing that they are, in fact, smart after all. Even if this child may still need to work harder than others, that deep down belief that they are smart could give that spark of motivation to go ahead with stronger and more positive feelings about studying.

What kind of beliefs do you have about certain things in your life? What do you think about money for example?

A common belief about money is rich people are bad. So some people think they need to choose between being rich and a good person. Also how much are you affected by what people say to you? Do you find yourself easily offended? Believe it or not, you are not offended by what people say but by the meanings you give to what they say.

These beliefs can be changed at a subconscious level so that you can be free to do the things you really want in life. You can choose to believe that you don’t deserve success or choose to believe that you deserve rocking success!

GO: For a personal consultation call 3669 6666

Would YOU like to be...

Applications are now being received for Bahrainâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s Top Model 2013.

If you want to apply, send a face and full-body image to topmodel@factlive.com.

Good luck!

FACT BAHRAIN NovemBER

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FINAL WORD

What’s your

BAHRAIN

IQ

S.A.T’s? M.B.A’s? Pah! In Bahrain, only one test score really matters: your Bahrain IQ!

The B Music... Live! Battle of the Bands tournament kicks off this month, with an epic Grand

Finale being headlined by Macy Gray in December. To you this means:

a An awesome month of music featuring both local and international talent? b Absolutely nothing – you’d much rather sit at home and listen to your Tchaikovsky

collection?

Macy who?

c

The Citibank FACT Awards are now well underway, with thousands of votes being cast every

week. Are you?

a Scoffing your way through every restaurant on the voting form, to be completely sure that the votes you cast are the right ones?

Only voting so that you might win an iPhone?

ON A DIET, SO STOP TALKING ABOUT FOOD?

b c

This month, we feature a shootout between two of the most popular smartphones on the

market, the iPhone 5, and the Samsung Galaxy S3. Are you:

a “TEAM SAMSUNG, BABY!!”? b “APPLE TO THE CORE!!”? c Completely indifferent – your phone makes and receives calls, and sends and receives SMS messages. That’s all you’ll ever want or need it to do?

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THE SMART MONTHLY GUIDE TO LIFE IN BAHRAIN

FACT M.E. - BAHRAIN EDITION

INSIDE THIS MONTH

FASHION. ART. CULTURE. TECHNOLOGY NOVEMBER 2012

VOL 6, ISSUE 3

BD1

The iPhone 5 vs.

The Galaxy S3 We pit these bitter rivals against each other in a Lab Tech comparison!

SR10

(p44)

Bahr ai n Dining THE

NOVEMBER 2012

GUIDE 2012

A brief look at some of the many, many great restaurants to be found in Bahrain.

Now get out there, get dining, and get voting in the Citibank FACT Awards 2012! (p28)

ISSUE 63

The Battle of the Bands 2012

The country’s most rocking competition returns, with an epic ÀQDOH KHDGOLQHG E\ 0DF\ *UD\ (p8)

High Street Fashion PLUS Fall/Winter Great looks for less. (p58)

+

& The Centurions Bahrain band made good! (p12)