The construction and setting up was going on for months now, and while several other stores have already opened up at Ali Tower i.e Uth Oye! and others, it was about time McDonald’s also opened up.

I’m not sure from what time will they start serving, but I might definitely pay a visit tomorrow in the afternoon/evening to see if I can grab a Big Tasty burger from there. And since they are opening next to Hardee’s and Nando’s, I really hope they also start offering unlimited Coke refills like the other two with every meal.

So now, it’s all there on the M. M. Alam Rd. All my favourites: KFC, Pizza Hut, Subway, McDonald’s, Hardee’s, Nando’s, Domino’s Pizza, Gun Smoke – but they keep on killing the parking area!

How do I know? There is a big billboard telling about this opening when coming from DHA towards Cavalry Ground. Caught my eye today morning when passing that road.

Coming back to the topic, Foursquare recently opened up their Specials option for Pakistan – at which Cafe Istanbul was the first ones to offer a discount on check-in. Then came the TSY Travel Agency special which is giving 2% discount to the mayor. In my opinion, those specials are kinda useless.

Cinnabon Pakistan is offering 25% discount on your total purchase everytime two friends (on Foursquare) check-in together at Cinnabon (Gulberg). This special is available daily and on every visit with two Foursquare friends.

I, along with Uzair, Saad and Alam went to try out this Foursquare special a few days back. I’m a regular (infact, too regular) at Gloria Jean’s Coffees, which is just opposite to Cinnabon, but that day we decided to check out Cinnabon. After out purchase, when we showed the Foursquare special screen to the cashier, they were clueless of any such discount.

After a little talk with them, the Cinnabon staff asked me to email the Foursquare special discount screenshot to the manager. I did. And also paid the full bill without the 25% discount. Since it was a Saturday, I was expecting a reply by Monday or Tuesday, but to my surprise, I got a reply from the cafe manager within 30 minutes of us leaving Cinnabon. An apology for the confusion and inconvenience, and requested to pick up our discounted amount or they would deliver it to my place. How awesome, isn’t it?

I have been there several times since then, and never had a problem checking-in and receiving my discount now. I look forward to more Foursquare offers and promotions from Cinnabon in Lahore – and also hope other cafes/restaurants would follow their lead on Foursquare!

Okay, so I’ll be honest here. I’ve been too busy for the last few months. And it seems that I’ve even forgotten how to write. But oh well, here I am with my very first post of this year – 2011.

I’m sitting in my uni lab, because my netbook is out of battery. Tons to do and tons to work on, but it seems I’ll have to wait till the evening to get back home and start working from my desktop.

Nothing much to share, other than the same old rant that I have once again screwed up my studies this semester and will probably be repeating it.

And oh, looks like I’m finally getting over with my shyness and stage fright problem. Yes, I can now talk in front of an audience. I was oen of the speakers at LUMS International Marketing Colloqium 2011, and recently shared by story at COMSATS Institute (Lahore). I wasn’t as scared as I used to be and loved talking to everyone.

P.S. If you notice, I wear yellow when I have to speak somewhere. Coincidence. May be, my lucky colour?

I’m currently working along with Farhan Masood on something exciting, something related to what I and you all love – Food! Not revealing anything now, but soon, very soon!

I have another interesting story to share about Cinnabon Pakistan and their Foursquare. I will do that in my next post.

No plans to take my OOP class now. Thinking of going back home.

So the year is about to end. God, that was fast! It seems like just yesterday I was out celebrating the start of the year 2010. No, I’m in no mood to do a post on my memories of the year 2010. Anyways, an advanced happy new year to everyone reading thing.

For the last two weeks, I’ve been working on a new frontpage for this blog. But it seems it is never going to get completed. Every time I start working on it, something or the other pops up – even though my Windows Live Messenger, Google Talk, Facebook and Twitter etc. are all closed. It’s nothing big, just similar to my About.Me page I recently got invited to try out.

Load-shedding is back and it’s late right now and I’m waiting for the power to get back so that I can start working again.

I had the Samsung Galaxy Tab for the last one week with me. I never got a chance to compare it thoroughly with the iPad, but I did that well with my Galaxy S. Tab is almost like an over-sized Galaxy S phone – but i must say, it has the perfect size for portability (no, you can’t fit that thing in your pockets. Hehe!).

Just remembered a while ago that I have a programming fundamentals quiz tomorrow, and as usual, I haven’t prepared for it. Oh well, best of luck to me!

Tomorrow, I have to discuss with Usama about our New Year party plan. New Year’s Eve is just a few days away and there is already so much to do. And oh, not to forget, there is one more thing on the New year’s Eve! Too bad I can’t tell about it – Hehe!

I have a couple of ideas floating in my mind for the last 2-3 days. Once i get over with my laziness, I’d actually start working on them and see if they are of any use to me or anyone.

That’s it for now. Sleep tight everyone! Good night!

Last time I wrote a post, I was going to Islamabad to fly off to Singapore for the Dell event. Well, that went really well – enjoyed a lot there in my short trip to Singapore.

Taking a look at things here, UCP has been keeping me busy pretty much. Not that I’m working really hard, hehe, I just get too tired after getting back home from uni that I don’t feel like writing here.

Me on stage with Kamaran Rizvi and Waqar Qureshi.

I updated the About page of this blog today. And oh, UCP threw a welcome party for all the ‘newcomers’ at PC Hotel a couple of days ago. From what everyone says, it was the best one ever. I enjoyed the Avatar performance the most. You can see two of those characters above in the photo. Amna was looking the BEST!

A night before Eid, me and two other friends – Usama Zafar and Sheharyar Naseer, went out for a little fun wearing these awesome music flashing shirts! Check out the video below:

Let;s move the university topic aside. I have four years to share those stories! So in case you don’t know, I’m flying off to Singapore tomorrow night. I was there a couple of weeks ago, but yes, another trip there now!

Dell has invited me for a Dell Media Event which is going to be held in Singapore (More info here!). Excited? Sure, as hell! But it’s going to be one hell of a hectic trip. I’m not really sure about the agenda there, but I already have a long to-do and shopping list of myself.

Tomorrow morning, I’m leaving for Islamabad where I’m looking forward to spending 4-5 hours with Saad Hamid, Abdullah Saad, Ahsan, Uzair and others.

My uni got over early today, so I decided to drop in at Gloria Jean’s Coffees. I should move on now somewhere for lunch. And the photo attached above is of the drink I just had!

See you all later! Probably a post tomorrow from the airport.

I have almost 2000 followers on Twitter, and with that I’m going to start something similar to what my friend Awais Imran did.

Getting to the point, I will be donating Rs. 100 for every new follower I gain on my Twitter account (@harisn)!

Feel free to promote this and ask everyone to follow me!

Yes, I’ve finally bought this beauty! I bought it for Rs. 46,000 today and seriously, this phone is worth every rupee spent on it.

More reviews, tips and photos will follow up on SizzledCore.com and AndroidPakistan.com.

Samsung Galaxy S Review: Read here!

I’m going to do a recap of the last four months of my life and what I did in them.

May

Photo taken in May 2010

I had my pre-engineering board exams. Then went to Karachi for a week for the first Pakistan Blog Awards and yes, I won an award for the Best Tech Blog covering International news.

June

After getting back from Karachi, I prepared for my practical exams. Right on the day of my last exam, I flew off to Karachi again for a day, and then off to Dubai for a month of awesome-ness and party-ing!

July

After getting back from Dubai, again went to Karachi, but a sudden turn of events made me miss my friend Imran’s engagement and come back to Lahore. Since then I’ve been wasting time, outing in Lahore and catching up with friends.

August

And here I am – Waiting for my uni admission test result and half excited for an awesome Singapore-Malaysia-Bangkok trip coming up with friends in mid-Spetember. I sure don’t want to miss that at any cost! And oh, Ramadan is here and the routine has made me lazier than ever this time!

I’m not even going out much for Iftaris this year. I hope it gets better after Eid. And not to forget the gadgets-spree I’m going to go for soon!

That’s it for now – and once again I hope to write another post by tomorrow.

Have fun!

And yet again, I met some of them at college today as I had to go and pick up my pass for the concert organized by my prison (college) hehe!

I’m actually happy of college getting over, but at the same time I’ll miss the last two months when bunking college was at the max, getting kicked out for low attendence and back in the very next day and then again bunked on that day and the day after that =P

Our bunking routine was pretty cool. College started at 7:30am, and we used to reach at 7, gather up our group, catch a rickshaw (if no car/bike that day) and off to the Model Town Park to spend an hour there. An hour, because Gloria Jean’s and Espresso opens at 8am =D After spending a few hours having breakfast at one of the coffee shops, next stop would be at Al Nakhal Cafe – my friends’ favourite Sheesha point while I gobbled down their burgers or shawarmas hehe! Our return to college/home used to be around 1-2am.

Farewell also went pretty well. Honestly, I never bothered to listen even a single word of what the college administration and teachers had to say that day. I was busy enjoying with friends and *ahem* the food which was offered at the end!

I’ve Intermediate (F.Sc.) Part-II Board exams in a week. Preparation is on with tons of stuff that I miss! And no, nothing college related! I will be seeing the face of my college for the very last time on Monday when I’ll go to collect my board roll no. slip.

Signing off for now as I’ve a bit of studying to catch up with!

And just for the record, this post was completely written and published using WordPress for Android app on the Nexus One.