Author: Mark

A couple of days ago a new announcement was made that only vaccinated citizens can travel. Expats on the other hand (and they made this part very clear) are still banned from entering Kuwait. Keep in mind most citizens would most likely travel for leisure purposes while most expats would travel for family reasons. A lot haven’t seen their loved ones since the start of the pandemic, I haven’t seen my dad for two years but I know of people who haven’t seen their wives or kids for as much.

I’m fully vaccinated now with my two shots which is great. I have the immune app and I’m all green and on the Mosafar website, my vaccination circle is also fully green. Yet if I fly out of Kuwait I can’t come back in because I’m an expat?

I was annoyed but I had decided a couple of weeks ago that I wasn’t going to post about this stuff anymore. Citizens are equally upset by these bizarre decisions and they’re all being very vocal about it on all the social media channels. So I left it at that.

Then last night, my sister calls me from Lebanon and tells me my dad has fallen ill. He’s fully vaccinated so I don’t think it’s covid, but he’s old and frail so I don’t know. This morning I wake up to a message saying things have taken a turn for the worse and they had to admit him to the ER.

So now I have to make a choice.

• Fly out to Lebanon as soon as possible and get stuck outside Kuwait for months. I’d have to decide to leave my friends, my job, my blog, my life, (everything basically) and be uprooted for an indefinite amount of time.

• Or, stay in Kuwait and possibly never see my dad again.

This rule isn’t just unfair, it’s illogical and unrealistic and because of it, I’m unable to do the right thing which is to be with my dad and family, especially when I know I’m needed.

Note: I just want to add that I wasn’t planning on publishing this post. I originally wrote it as a way to vent and self-therapy. I don’t like sharing personal parts of my life so it feels very awkward putting this out there but I just felt that if this post somehow helps change the rule, even if it’s a very small chance, then it’s worth putting it out there. Thank you for your messages.

Update: My dad is doing a lot better now, thank you everyone again.

As you are probably aware by now, movie theaters will reopen again during eid after having been closed since the very start of the pandemic. Here is some information I was able to obtain regarding the opening and what the safety measures will be taken:

• Only vaccinated customers will be allowed into the cinemas. Your vaccination status will be verified using the Immune App. Only people with a green color bar behind their name will be allowed entry.

• Cinemas will operate with 50% occupancy

• 2m social distancing will be enforced

• Cinemas will be promoting online ticket and food sales to reduce the lines

• Cinemagoers will have their temperature checked at the entrance

Some more info:

• If you vaccinated outside of Kuwait, you will have the chance to upload your vaccination to the Immune App. This update will not be available for Eid.

• After taking your first vaccine shot the Immune App will not display a green color bar behind your name until 5 weeks have passed.

All the above has still not been finalized so there might be adjustments made.

A few days ago Mahmoud Alghanim, a pioneer in the local restaurant industry sadly passed away. Mahmoud was the creator of the popular pizza concept “Pizza Italia” as well as the Italian concept “Prego”. Considering the popularity of the concepts, there is oddly very little information on the brands online which is why I was always hoping to meet him so I could document his story and make it available to everyone.

From what I gather, Pizza Italia opened sometime in the mid-80s (1984?) and had at least 16 locations. They were open at least till 2005 since that’s when I took the photo above.

Prego, on the other hand, I found the CV of their executive chef “Luca Umberto Voncini” online so I have a bit more information. Based on his CV they opened their first location in Dalal Complex in Salmiya in 1993 and then closed it in 1995. This was the same location where their Pizza Italia branch was previously located. They had two other Prego locations, one in Mangaf and one in Kuwait City. Those opened up in 1996 and closed in 1997.

Both concepts were under the mother company “Arab Food Service Co.”

An accident in front of Pizza Italia Riqqa Coop branch in 1987.

I’ve started scouring the internet to try and find as many photos, commercials, and information related to the brands so I can put them all under one post. If you have ANYTHING related to both brands, a menu, a business card, anything no matter how insignificant you think it is please let me know.

Tidbit: The popular Pizza Italia commercial above was filmed in Salmiya, in the old souk on Salem Al Mubarak Street. It was directed by Nick Cate on a hand-cranked 16mm Bolex camera. The music was composed by an Egyptian composer called Mohammed Al Banna. The actor running in the commercial is a Lebanese actor but I don’t have his name.

Update: Managed to get some dates!

Pizza Italia opened in 1983 with its first store in Daiya. They ended up closing the whole brand in 2005.

Prego opened in 1993 with its first store in Salmiya, Rabih Building (now demolished), followed by another store on the Gulf Road in Sharq. Prego also closed down in 2005.

Last week I was looking for something on Google and ended up stumbling across an old picture of Salmiya which I hadn’t seen before. I started digging around looking for a higher resolution version and turned out I had actually posted the photo on my blog back in 2009 with a bunch of other old photos.

My memory is terrible and I’ve published over 12,000 posts so there is no way I can remember everything. I tried to find a higher resolution version of the photo online but everyone else had taken it off my blog so I couldn’t find one. So I decided to go through my emails to see if the source had originally sent me better quality scans. Turns out he had scanned the images in high res but because they were over 160MB he only sent me low res versions. I decided to randomly reply back to that person’s original email 12 years later asking if he still had the high res images. Turns out he did! He sent me a link to all the photos and I downloaded them and just put them up on Flickr and you can check them out here.

Anyway, I wanted to do a before and after comparison of Salmiya and you can view that in high res here. It’s impressive how many old buildings are still there but sadly they haven’t been maintained and are all in a state of disrepair. The whole neighborhood honestly is disastrously mishandled with no sidewalks or parking spots and loads of large open garbage bins that stink up the neighborhood. My neighborhood has so much potential and it’s sad I can’t do anything about it.

Thanks Khalid!

The photo above got leaked online showing what potentially are new cop cars based on the recently facelifted Chevy Tahoes. Keep in mind that similar to the Volvo and Patrol cop cars I previously posted, these could just be samples and not eventually go into service. But, since the current cop cars are Chevy Tahoes, I wouldn’t be surprised if their fleet did get updated with the new facelifted versions.

Thanks Fahad

This is such a great video if you’re into racing and the video quality is surprisingly really great. The video is by CiTV Sport who produced a lot of rally videos back in the 80s and is narrated in English and features some rally legends including Saeed Al-Hajri who raced for the Rothmans Porsche team and also a young Mohammed bin Sulayem pictured below.

Even if you aren’t into cars you should at least watch the first minute or so of the video since it starts off with some footage of the old Kuwait Marriott Hotel. The Marriott Hotel was the base of the 1985 Kuwait Rally so all the drivers stayed at the hotel and that’s where the race started and ended.

The 1985 rally was sponsored by the furniture company Mahdi Habib whom I hadn’t heard of until today. According to their website, they’re one of the oldest companies in Kuwait and were established back in 1952.

The photo above is a before and after photo of Sharq. It’s taken from a recent study by architect Khalid Alsafi highlighting the constant aggressive destruction of Kuwait’s heritage and cultural areas, only to then become abandoned empty desert spaces for decades.

If you want to see a higher resolution photo of the above click here.

Yesterday I came across this photo of the Hilton Hotel under construction back in the 60s. I hadn’t seen photos of it during construction before and what’s great about this one is that it also shows the construction of the Gulf Road. The Gulf Road used to be a sandy beach before the land was reclaimed and turned into the coastal road you see today.

Hilton Hotel originally opened in 1968 with the official opening taking place on February 15th, 1969. In 2003 the building was demolished because the structure was deemed unsafe.

via @mmmojil

Last year Corniche Club closed down after losing the right to operate the location and there were rumors that Alshaya tried to get the location for Equinox but lost out. But according to a contact it turns out that Arkan Real Estate which is part of the BNK Holding portfolio have taken over the location.

BNK have a number of consumer brands in their portfolio including Volvo, Vespa, Backburner, Gia and the Japanese restaurant Odachi. The popular gym Inspire will supposedly be taking over the club and I wouldn’t be surprised if BNK opened their other brands at the location like their coffee shop Backburner or maybe a Vespa showroom.

Update:According to Alshaya they never bid on the Corniche location just rebid on the PF Chang location. They won the rebid and PF Chang just reopened again this week.

At the start of the curfew, I asked for some shows to watch since I had pretty much watched everything already. I got a bunch of suggestions and some turned out to be really great, so here are some more recommendations for you to watch:

New Amsterdam
This show is so cheesy but there are over 50 episodes and although it’s so not my style, I couldn’t stop watching it. It’s like driving by a car wreck on the highway, binge-watched the show over a two-week period non-stop so it helped kill a lot of time. There are two seasons out on Netflix and season 3 recently started on Hulu.

The Terror
Two seasons, two different stories. I loved season 1 but couldn’t get past the first episode of season 2. Season 1 on the other hand grabbed my attention from the very first episode. It’s very different from the usual stuff I watch and based in a time period I’m usually not a fan of so the whole thing was a bit refreshing. It’s a horror but has more of an amazing stories kind of vibe. Highly recommend it, available on Hulu.

Industry
While working on this post I realized none of the shows here have good trailers, Industry included. This is a show about young traders at a UK bank and if I just went off the trailer above I would have thought it was actually boring or lame. It wasn’t. It’s very different from other trading shows like Billions or Black Monday, but that’s mostly because it’s British so it’s a lot calmer and less dramatic. Only one season is out and it’s available on HBO.

Your Honor
I was close to not adding this show to the list only because I really really hated the way it ended. But up till the ending, this show was so good and stars both Bryan Cranston and Michael Stuhlbarg (Boardwalk Empire) so really incredible acting. This show is on Showtime.

The Big Flower Fight
I thought I posted about this series but just searched the blog and turns out I haven’t. If you like shows like The Great British Bake Off then you’ll like this show since it’s got a very similar structure, style and mood. It’s on Netflix.

The Great Pottery Throw Down
Similar to The Big Flower Fight and The Great British Bake Off, a bunch of amateur potters compete to become the top potter. It’s also a British show so it’s slow-paced, calm and very chill to watch. It’s available on HBO.

Blown Away
Ok one more show similar to the two above except this one is about glass blowers competing against each other. Unlike the other two this one is an American show so it’s much more fast-paced and intense but it was also fun to watch and really interesting. This one is on Netflix.

#لا_تجاهر_بالافطار #Dont_Eat_or_Drink_In_Public_During_Day_Time_in_Ramadan pic.twitter.com/KN2mAvTTF0

— وزارة الداخلية (@Moi_kuw) April 21, 2021

This is too funny.

via @MohammadRSharaf #also_make_sure_you_try_his_shawarma

Over the weekend the MOH launched an app called “Immune” which is a way for vaccinated people to view their vaccine certificate. They don’t mention where or when you would be required to use the app but it’s safe to assume it would most likely be used while traveling in and out of Kuwait. Also, cinemas are supposedly going to open after Eid but only for those who’ve been vaccinated, this app will probably be used to verify your vaccination status.

It’s a very simple app that does just one thing and you can download it for both iOS and Android devices.

I’ve been wanting to try the new sugar-free Vimto out of curiosity but I checked in a couple of supermarkets and wasn’t able to find it. Not sure if its sold out or just not carried everywhere but I did find an even healthier version. Liquid launched a new Vimto flavored drink for Ramadan that’s made with real fruits. Their interpretation of Vimto contains red grapes, pomegranate, pear, beetroot and a dash of rose water.

I tried it yesterday and it does taste pretty close to Vimto but obviously less sugary and with more natural flavors. The only downside is that like with all healthy alternatives you’re gonna have to pay a premium. A 300ml bottle costs KD2.250 while a liter costs KD4.950.

If you want to try it out Liquid is available on Deliveroo, Carriage and Talabat. They’re also on Instagram @liquidkwt

Any person over 65 years of age in Kuwait can receive their COVID-19 vaccine directly and without having to book for an appointment, the health ministry announced. This includes both citizens and expatriates. Source.

This is pretty good news! If you know someone, either family members or maybe your baqala guy or barber that are over 65 and haven’t gotten vaccinated yet, let them know about this.

Yesterday I found out about Charles Cecil, an American diplomat who served in Kuwait back in the 60s. While here he took some great photos of Kuwait including the images in this post of Kuwaiti homes that were newly constructed at that time.

I’m not sure how many are still standing today, I think I recognize 2 but they’ve had their colors changed. You can check out more photos taken by Cecil on his website cecilimages.com.