Author: Mark

This is some completely random info to wake up to but I just found out that Freddie Highmore, the star of the popular TV series Bates Motel and The Good Doctor at one point was living in Kuwait and interning at Gulf Bank. I thought the info was made up but it’s mentioned on IMDB in the trivia section and there is a photo of him at Slider Station.

If you don’t know Freddie as an adult then you might recognize him as Charlie from Tim Burton’s Charlie and the Chocolate Factory as well as playing Peter in Finding Neverland.

Mind blown!

Thanks forzaq8

There is a Turkish restaurant in Avenues called Seyami Usta that now accepts cryptocurrency as a means of payment. They’re the first local business I’m aware of that accepts cryptocurrency and it’s odd that it’s a restaurant and a Turkish one at that. Payment is done through Binance Pay and is only available at their Avenues location.

If you’ve been there and paid with crypto, let us know how your experience went.

Thanks abalawadhi

@thedodo, the super popular animal stories and animal rights instagram account just posted a video of puppies in Kuwait that were rescued by @raf.kw. It’s a feel good video and in just 4 hours already gotten 800,000 views. Watch the video above and make sure you visit and support @raf.kw

Thanks Basmah

Kuwait’s Abdullah Al-Rashidi just won a bronze medal in the Men’s Skeet Shooting competition at the Tokyo 2020 Olympics. Abdullah had previously won bronze at the 2016 Rio Games but as an Independent Olympic Athlete. Source

Sheraton Hotel in Kuwait was the first Sheraton to open outside of North America. It opened up in 1966 and I’ve always had a connection to it due to the fact my family used to have lunch there every Friday when I was a kid in the 80s. Sadly like all nostalgic places in Kuwait, they eventually get demolished or they get an ugly facelift. In Sheraton’s case, it’s the latter. I think the facelifted building has lost its charm and history and now looks too generic.

But the bigger story here is that the Sheraton Hotel will become the St. Regis Hotel. The rumor is that the main building pictured above will become St Regis while the hotel extension (back right of the building) which was built in 1979 will become Sheraton Hotel and have it’s own separate entrance. Sheraton Four Points behind that will remain as is. Here are some more tidbits taken from the Skyscraper City Forum:

• The plans to rebrand are confidential and relatively unknown.

• The hotel renovation project was supposed to have the main wing done by the end of 2020, the 1971 extension done in 2021 and the 1979 wing renovated over the course of 2021 and handed over by 2022. Due to COVID, they are now two years behind schedule.

• The renovation on the main building may look done, but they fast-tracked the exterior completion so that they could give the hotel a clean appearance instead of having torn green tarps hanging off the façade.

• The interior of the main building is still very much under construction; due to COVID and Kuwait’s closed borders, the interior designers and foreign contractors are unable to come to the site and oversee the works, so whatever little the hotel can do locally, they’re doing it at a slow pace.

• With the closed borders and no events taking place, the hotel’s occupancy is EXTREMELY low – I’m talking four or five rooms occupied, max.

Sheraton Hotel in the 1960s

Thanks ChaoticTranquility

Update: Here is a bit of random info. The first customer at the Kuwait Sheraton Hotel was Edmond Ghantous – June 26, 1966.

If you have Netflix and are feeling nostalgic, the popular and hilarious Kuwaiti play Bye Bye London is available on the platform to watch. Link

It looks like it’s been there for a year now but didn’t really notice until someone pointed it out. The quality of the video is the best I’ve come across yet and it even has English subtitles.

Searching for “Kuwait” on Netflix brings up some other local shows and movies but the only other one I recognized is Back to the Future inspired movie, Back to Q82.

Thanks Nidal

For people looking to get into making espresso coffee at home, the Gaggia Classic Pro machine is considered to be one of the best starter machines you can buy. It’s an affordable single boiler machine that allows you to pull an espresso shot and steam milk for your latte. Previously if you wanted a Gaggia the only option was to order it from abroad but now the brand is available locally at Xcite.

The Classic Pro machine is priced at 179KD in-store at Xcite but listed for 199KD on their website for some reason. On the Gaggia UK website, it sells for 177KD so 179KD is actually a great price for it.

So if you’re looking for a great affordable semi-automatic espresso machine you can now pick up a Gaggia in Kuwait.

The 2020 Tokyo Olympics is currently in progress and below is the schedule of events in which the Kuwaiti participants are taking part in. Sadly the timings of the events are all in the middle of the night for us except for the swimming competition:

July 25 – 3AM to 10AM
Abdullah Al-Rashidi – Men’s Skeet Shooting
Mansour Al-Rashidi – Men’s Skeet Shooting

July 26 – 3:50AM to 11AM
Abdullah Al-Rashidi – Men’s Skeet Shooting
Mansour Al-Rashidi – Men’s Skeet Shooting

July 28 – 3:25AM to 10AM
Talal Al-Rashidi – Men’s Trap Shooting
Abdulrahman Al-Faihan – Men’s Trap Shooting

July 29 – 3:50AM to 11AM
Talal Al-Rashidi – Men’s Trap Shooting
Abdulrahman Al-Faihan – Men’s Trap Shooting

July 29 – 1PM to 3:30PM
Abbas Qali – Men’s 100 m Freestyle Swimming

July 30 – 1PM to 3:30PM
Lara Dashti – Women’s 50 m Freestyle Swimming

July 30 – 3AM to 6:30AM
Mudhawi Al-Shammari – Women’s 100 m

August 3 – 1AM to 4AM
Yacoub Alyouha – Men’s 110 m hurdles

August 4 – 4AM to 6:25AM
Yacoub Alyouha – Men’s 110 m hurdles

August 6 – 4AM to 11:45AM
Mohammad Al-Mosawi – Men’s Karate

If you want to watch the Olympics you can do so with BeIN Connect. The price is $5 for a day or $12 for a month and you can get more info on that on the BeIN website.

Check out @kuwaitolympic for the latest updates

If you’re looking for an activity to do this Eid how about renting a jet ski? There are a number of places up and down the Gulf Road and they generally all have the same guidelines.

You don’t need any special license to take out a jet ski but you do need to keep your Civil ID with them as collateral and you also have to sign a waiver. Some locations offer lockers to put your stuff in but I would recommend you keep everything in the car anyway and then either leave your keys with them or get a small waterproof pouch to take your keys with you. Most places also have a tap/shower to rinse off the saltwater and sand once you’re done.

The price for an hour of jet ski rental at the location next to TGIF is 25KD an hour but other locations might be cheaper. They also open daily from 9AM to 6PM and don’t require you to be vaccinated.

Here are three jet ski rental locations on the Gulf Road:
– Villa Fayrouz
– Green Island
– TGIF

If you’re planning to go to Avenues during Eid and are worried about finding parking, here is a quick tip, you can pre-book a parking spot using the PASS App. There are over 140 parking spots reserved for PASS customers in Avenues Phase 4 which you can find by going down the Saveco parking entrance, Gate 28. The cost is 500 fils an hour and your hour starts from the moment you book the spot. For more info, click here.

Since we have a few days off for Eid I thought I would share a new list of shows you could binge-watch. If you want to know how to stream HBO, Hulu, and Disney+, check out my old post on this subject here.

Sweet Tooth
I’m a sucker for anything that involves a post-apocalyptic world so when I watched the trailer for Sweet Tooth I knew I had to watch it. Sweet Tooth takes place in a world that has collapsed due to a deadly virus leading to the rise of human-animal hybrids. The show felt like one big adventure and never got boring with the only negative really being the fact there are just 8 episodes. If you have Netflix check it out.

Clarksons Farm
Jeremy Clarkson is best known for his car shows Top Gear and The Grand Tour but you don’t need to be into cars to enjoy this show. I actually found it much more entertaining than anything else Jeremy has done, it’s a very chill and funny show so I really hope he’ll film a second season. This one is available to watch on Amazon Video.

Mare of Eastown
A crime drama that revolves around a murder that takes place in a small town. The show keeps you guessing who the murderer is till the very end and since it’s just 7 episodes long, it’s a quick watch. Not as good as The Killing but I mean nothing really is. This show is available on HBO Max.

Shadow and Bone
I’m generally not into fantasy worlds but the trailer for Shadow and Bone caught my attention and then the show just grabbed me from the very start. It’s also a short series with just 8 episodes so you’ll be able to finish the first season in a day or two. This one is on Netflix.

Bonus: Not a TV show but if you’re looking for a movie to watch I thought the Dinsey film Cruella was surprisingly great and fun to watch. I rented the movie on Disney+ but I think you could rent it on Amazon Video and YouTube as well. I also watched Chris Pratt’s new Amazon Original movie called The Tomorrow War. It was ok I guess, I wouldn’t pay to watch it but it’s free if you have Amazon Video.

Ten Kuwaiti athletes will be competing at the Tokyo Olympics due to take place between July 23 and August 8. The athletes are:

Yacoub Alyouha – Men’s 110 m hurdles
Mudhawi Al-Shammari – Women’s 100 m
Mohammad Al-Mosawi – Men’s Karate
Lara Dashti – Women’s 50 m Freestyle Swimming
Abbas Qali – Men’s 100 m Freestyle Swimming
Abdullah Al-Rashidi – Men’s Skeet Shooting
Mansour Al-Rashidi – Men’s Skeet Shooting
Abdulrahman Al-Faihan – Men’s Trap Shooting
Talal Al-Rashidi – Men’s Trap Shooting
Abdulrahman Al-Fadhel – Men’s Single Sculls

There doesn’t seem to be a lot of buzz around the athletes even though there should be. They actually should have plastered them on billboards all around Kuwait similar to how Talabat did with restaurant owners last month.

You can follow the official account of the Kuwait Olympics on Instagram where they’re currently sharing stories of the athletes in Tokyo. @kuwaitolympic

Ceado grinders are pretty popular with coffee geeks especially their single-dose grinders. I didn’t know they were available locally and I have a friend actually who ordered one online and paid a ton for shipping so figured I’d put this info out there in case anyone googles “Ceado Kuwait”.

Turns out Mabrook are the dealers for Ceado in Kuwait as well as Slayer coffee machines. They had a number of Ceado grinders on display, one of them, the “E6P Filter Burrs” model had a price of KD367 on it. Online the same model sells for KD330 so the local price isn’t that far off especially if they give discounts (which they generally do).

Mabrook doesn’t have any Ceado grinders listed on their website but they do mention them a few times on their Instagram account. If you’re looking for Ceado grinders check out their showroom here.

A few years ago I sold my Nikon D800 and Sony RX1 and replaced them with the incredible Sony A7 III. I never regretted selling the Nikon but I did regret selling the RX1. There are only 3 cameras I’ve owned that I’ve felt very passionate about, The Panasonic GF1 and GX1, and the Sony RX1. They were compact cameras I carried with me everywhere and used extensively for the blog. I was hoping the A7 would replace the RX1 but due to its size that never happened.

Then a few weeks back I passed by the new Fujifilm store in Boulevard and it got me thinking about the new X100V. I’ve always loved the way the X100 series looked but I’ve only ever used the original one that was released back in 2011 and I didn’t like it. Since my original review, Fujifilm released the X100S followed by the X100T, X100F, and now the X100V. According to all the reviews I read online, the X100V was considerably better in every way over all the previous versions. On Amazon they sell for around KD422 without tax or shipping. In Kuwait they have a summer offer right now and are priced KD399 after discount, so I ended up picking one up. They were originally out of stock but they had a shipment coming in so I waited around a week before getting the call to pick it up. I also ended up getting a slightly better discount on the camera due to a blog reader so ended up saving quite a bit more over the Amazon price.

I’ll eventually post a detailed review on the camera but I wanted to post about it now since the offer might end soon if it hasn’t already. The camera so far has been fantastic, and I’m really loving it. It was between the X100V and the X-E4 but ended up with the X100V because of some extra features that I prefered like the larger viewfinder and slimmer body. If you were thinking about ordering the X100V online, check it out locally first. The local Fujifilm website shows it’s out of stock and priced at KD435, but it might not be updated so I’d check their store in Boulevard.

A local coffee shop called Blend launched a new campaign for a black-colored soft serve by using a visual of a guy in blackface. The guy in the photo is the local photographer @bonmr who is known for superimposing himself onto photos. Both Blend and Bonmr turned off comments on the photos after people started protesting their use of blackface.

As of this morning, Blend have completely removed the photo from their account while Bonmr still has the photo up with the comments disabled.

You’d think after the huge backlash last year after the popular Kuwaiti makeup up artist Ghadeer Sultan posted a photo of herself in blackface that people finally understood the negative connotation behind it. I guess not.