Posted by Mark
The P2BK 2014 event launches this coming Thursday January 30th at the Kuwait International Fairgrounds [Map] and will last up untill February 25th. This year the set up is going to be similar to last years with an outdoor old souk that was built specifically to host this event. There will be a ton of Kuwaiti businesses participating including already established ones as well as new ones plus you have the Remal sand sculpting festival taking place alongside it as well. P2BK will be open daily from 10AM to 10PM and for more information you can check out their Instagram account [Here]
On a side note, companies seem to be neglecting their websites and are starting to rely solely on Instragram. I tried to google information on P2BK and all I ended up with was my blog since their website had no information on this years event. And, none of the information was made available in English. Events like this should be advertised to the expat community as well to make sure everyone else is included to share the experience.
Posted by Mark
There’s a small store tucked away in a back street of old Salmiya that I’ve been driving by for years but didn’t go into until last night when curiosity got the better of me. Turned out the store specializes in film making gear and they had a ton of items like dollys, stabilizers, camera sliders, tripods, lights and a bunch of other stuff like Rode and Zoom brand mics, Blackmagic cameras and various tools and accessories. Their prices are also pretty much similar to Amazon. For example, the Blackmagic cameras prices compared to Amazon are as follows:
Blackmagic Pocket Cinema Camera
Their price: KD300 (with local warranty)
Amazon price: KD282 (without tax or shipping)
Blackmagic Design Cinema Camera
Their price: KD600 (with local warranty)
Amazon price: KD566 (without tax or shipping)
The store is called ‘Media System for Video Equipments’ which is not very catchy at all and they’re located in the area opposite Marina Mall [Map]. They’re open from 9:30AM to 1:30PM and then again from 4:30PM to 9:30PM. Their phone number is 25713384.
Posted by Mark
[YouTube]
The footage above was shot while the village was still being constructed but it still gives you an idea of how large the Remal sand sculpting festival will be. If you want to check out a timelapse on how one of these sculptures was made, check out this video also from Remal. [Link]
The Remal International Festival opens on January 30th, for more information, click [Here]
Posted by Mark
The 2013-2014 ‘Global Competitiveness’ report ranked Kuwait the worst GCC country in:
1. Access to loans
2. Direct foreign investment
3. Government surplus/deficit
4. Financial services
5. Quality of primary education
6. Quality of higher education
7. Quality of math and science education
8. Procurement of advanced technology products
9. Intellectual property protection
10. Bribes
11. Governmental laws
12. Brain drain
13. Extent of staff training
14. Starting a business
15. Technology transfer
Ouch. [PDF]
via Kazima
Posted by Mark
Spotify is my favorite digital music service and whenever I post about it on the blog people always ask me how I manage to get it working. Geek in Kuwait has put together easy step by step instructions to follow to get Spotify and Netflix working in Kuwait. So if you’re interested in getting those two services working, follow this [Link]
Note: I use StrongVPN to bypass blocked websites. Also with Spotify unlike Pandora, once you sign up you no longer need to use a VPN to use it.
Posted by Mark
While flipping through some old files I found this old article from Kuwait Times about blogging in Kuwait. It’s from 2004 and back then I had stopped posting on qhate.com and instead moved to moblogging photos (kinda like instagram). Back then the blogging community was really tiny, it’s crazy how things have changed since then. Check out the article [Here]
Note: The link to Qhate in the article is wrong, it should be http://qhate.com
Posted by Mark
There are a number of places to get your digital photos printed but my favorite place is Boushahri in Salmiya. I’ve been going to Boushahri ever since I was a kid when they were THE photography store/studio. Nowadays things are a lot different. They moved from their large location in the old Salmiya Salem Al Mubarek street into a building off of Baghdad street. They’ve even closed down their portrait studio and all that’s left really is a tiny store that sells a few Fuji and Leica cameras and a corner where they print photos.
I like them cuz they’re conveniently located near my place, they’re not in a mall and they’re fairly quick. If I have a few photos they usually print them out while I wait and if I have a bunch like 30 or more I usually pick them up a few hours later. Their prices are pretty cheap as well, a regular small 10x15cm photo costs just 100fils to print while a larger 10x15inch photo costs KD1.5.
They open every day (except Friday I think) from 9:30AM to 1PM and then again from 4:30PM to 9PM. Here is their location on [Google Maps]
Posted by Mark
This is just a quick post for anyone that’s interested in silkscreen printing. I found a small place in Shuwaikh that sells pre-stretched aluminum screens in various sizes along with squeegees and silkscreen ink.
The prices are pretty reasonable, I picked up a small sized screen with a squeegee for KD11. The screen alone was KD7 which is a bit cheaper than the KD7.5 I paid for my wooden screen of similar size which I had purchased from Dasman Complex. The inks cost KD5 per color but each can will probably last you forever since you only need such a small amount to print. They also had metalic colors like gold and silver but I think they were for KD12.5.
The store is called Bin Naji and their phone number is 24929993/4. They’re located next to the Shuwaikh police station and here it is on [Google Maps]
