Author: Mark

The post office has been closed since the start of the pandemic but it looks like they’ll finally be opening up on June 21st.

Even once open expect a delay in getting your package since they’ll have quite a backlog to go through. I saw the video above yesterday which is exactly how I picture our mail sorting facility on the first day of reopening.

Private couriers are also struggling with a backlog of orders while being understaffed, so be patient with them as well.

😔

Starting from June 6th, anybody whose driving license expired and renewed it online will be able to pick up their new one from the kiosks at Al-Naser Sport Club in Ardiya. They are open from 8AM to 5PM and here is the location on Google Maps.

source

I just took out my Alfa for a quick drive expecting the weather to be hot but surprisingly, it was great! I was initially going to just drive around the block but ended up driving all the way to the city via the Gulf Road. Would have kept going if it wasn’t close to curfew time.

I don’t think it’s always been like this. Back when I had a convertible I used to tell people you could drive it with the roof down 6 months a year. I’m going to have to revise that number since I’ve been driving my Alfa since mid-October. That’s nearly 8 months if I got the maths right. Obviously it’s too hot during the day but 5 onwards it’s really doable, I didn’t even break a sweat!

So if you’ve ever considered getting a convertible or a classic car but dismissed the idea because you figured you couldn’t drive it for most of the year, well, now you know you can.

The first day after lockdown I was REALLY craving french fries and burgers. I rarely ever have fries on a regular day but I must have been watching something on YouTube or seen a photo somewhere that made me really want fries (I’m that easy). I was craving Wachamean and although I couldn’t have it on the first day, I finally did yesterday and it was incredible, I don’t think I’ve ever enjoyed fries as much as I did yesterday.

Wachamean like a lot of places now has introduced a carhop service which I’m a big fan of. I love drive-thru and carhop services, not because I’m lazy, but because I love eating in my car while watching YouTube videos. It’s a habit I picked up from my uni days although we didn’t have YouTube back then, or even internet on our phones. My other favorite burger place BBT (pictured on top) also has carhop so I’m passing by them today for lunch.

The quickest way to get your food during this pandemic is using these car services since delivery platforms are struggling with a shortage of drivers. Getting the food yourself also helps out the restaurants since they don’t have to pay the delivery apps their 20-30% commission fees. So not only is it faster to get the food yourself, but you also help out the restaurant that way so keep that in mind the next time you feel like eating out.

So what did you end up ordering?

After this past weekends press conference with the announcement of the 5-stage plan to recovery, there were many things left unclear, and some things that were just plain confusing. A lot of you had questions which is understandable.

Language Barrier
This is something I’ve already mentioned before. The majority of the messages shared right now are only shared in Arabic. The biggest issue with this is other than the fact a large part of society isn’t getting the messages, it results in a lot of fake news being shared with no way to verify if it’s true or not. It’s not that difficult to get stuff translated and information shouldn’t just be translated to English either since a lot of the low-income workers read neither English nor Arabic.

Too Many Channels
Another issue I think is how the information is being shared across multiple channels. There isn’t one official source where you can check to get all the Covid-19 related announcements, laws, and whatever. Right now there are around 6 different official Instagram accounts but they also share different information across their different channels. So you might find something on the Twitter account that’s not on their Instagram account, or you might find something on their Facebook page which is neither on the Twitter or Instagram pages. So not only do you need to follow all the Instagram accounts but also all their other social media channels as well just to make sure you’re getting everything. And that’s if you speak Arabic, if you don’t then you have to rely on random Instagram accounts or google translate newspapers.

My Blog
Which brings me to my main subject, the blog. Anybody who knows me personally knows that I love knowledge. I want to and need to know everything and I’m always curious which is why I’ve had no trouble finding content to post daily for the past 15+ years. I also love sharing and during this crisis, I realized there was a demand for information in English so I naturally started helping people by posting all the information in English so everyone knows whats going on. It’s a role I took on because nobody else was doing it right. But then the questions started rolling in. People had questions and they were coming to me because nobody else was answering it for them. The official accounts seem to ignore questions and so people had nowhere to go except blogs like mine or places like Reddit to try and get answers.

But this past weekend people had A LOT of questions after the press conference especially those who were either in locked-down areas or areas that were going to be locked down. I didn’t have any answers and the questions kept coming in and in. Add to that the angry and frustrated comments people were leaving and the Kuwait vs Expats arguments that were taking place and I just couldn’t take it anymore. I ended up closing down a number of posts for comments but then people started emailing me questions or direct messaging me on Instagram and Twitter. With everything that’s going on right now, I don’t need this anxiety.

It’s not my job to translate news to English or answer questions about area lockdowns or know if you’ll still be able to take your wife to the hospital. I’m sorry, but I don’t have any of these answers. I wish I did but to answer your questions I have to sift through various information all in a language I can barely read to try and make sense of things that don’t make sense.

So I’m no longer gonna do this. I’m going back to posting about things I find interesting no matter how superficial it might feel reading about a burger review with everything going on in the world. But that’s what my blog has always been about, just random shit I think is interesting to share. Happy Stuff.

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The local band Galaxy Juice just released a new track and it’s their first one in Arabic. The track is called “Subiya” (الصبية) which is the name of a desert in Kuwait located by the sea. The song is from their upcoming album, “Galaxy Juice and the Forty Thieves”.

For more music by local artists click here.

Today is the first day of Stage 1 and this means partial curfew for most of Kuwait. If you’re in one of the areas still in lockdown, I’m sorry about that, it must really suck. Salmiya blocks 10, 11 and 12 seem not to be in lockdown this morning even though it was originally announced they would be.

I was up early around 7 this morning and headed straight to the nearest Arabica to pick up coffee. The streets were pretty busy, the falafel near my place was packed and Trolley in Salmiya which is always empty had a queue outside. When I got to Arabica there were 6 cars waiting which wasn’t too bad compared to the Jabriya Starbucks line you can see in the video above. The Gulf Road was pretty busy and a lot of parking lots had the entrance barriers moved aside by people and cars were going in to park in the lots.

Everyone is obviously relieved the lockdown is over, I just hope everyone takes wearing a mask seriously and respects social distance. I’m hoping Avenues opening up in Stage 2 is enough incentive for people to follow the rules over the next 3 weeks. Stay safe everyone.

Yesterday during the press conference a 5 stage plan for the gradual return to normal life was shared. Because the information wasn’t made available in English, a reader took the time to translate the presentation himself so non-Arabic speakers could also read it. Please keep in mind this is an unofficial translation and so there might be inaccuracies.

Download the official Arabic version
Download the unofficial English version

Thank you Fawaz Al Hathal!

Update: Temporarily removed the English copy because I’m trying to edit and fix stuff in it including flipping around all the graphics. Check back in an hour.

Update2: File is back up

Yesterday as part of the new partial curfew announcement they also announced the areas that will remain in total lockdown and that list included Maidan Hawally Block 10, 11, and 12. This one line caused such a massive amount of confusion and I have no idea why they announced it this way.

There technically isn’t an area called Maidan Hawally and so Maidan Hawally Block 10, 11, and 12 don’t exist.

Salmiya Block 11 where the American International School is located is the area generally referred to as Maidan Hawally. It’s adjacent to the main Hawally but it’s on the other side of the highway in Salmiya. On the Kuwait Finder app, on Google Maps and on Civil ID cards, it’s called Salmiya Block 11. Maidan Hawally is not the official name but there is a police station there called Maidan Hawally Police Station and this is what people know the area as so it can pass. But what is Maidan Hawally Block 10 and 12? Supposedly Salmiya Block 10 and 12.

I’ve tried to visually illustrate the above. The areas in yellow, blue and green are Salmiya. The area in yellow is what is usually referred to as Maidan Hawally. Everyone living in these three colored areas live in Salmiya according to their Civil ID and Kuwait Finder. The English School (TES) and the Millennium Hotel both have their addresses listed as Salmiya Block 12, not Maidan Hawally Block 12 (source 1 and 2). The Abdullah Salem Cultural Center have their address listed as Salmiya Block 11, but describe the area as Maidan Hawally (Source). The Coop in Block 10 is called the Salmiya Coop Society Supermarket (source).

So if the area is called Salmiya, if on people’s Civil ID cards you’re referring to it as Salmiya. If government supermarkets in the area are referring to it as Salmiya, why announce a total lockdown of Maidan Hawally Block 10, 11 and 12? Wouldn’t it be a lot clearer if you called it by what it is, Salmiya Block 10, 11, and 12?

If THAT wasn’t confusing enough, above is the graphic posted by @CGCKuwait that mentions the areas of lockdown. They don’t even mention which blocks of Maidan Hawally just that Maidan Hawally is in lockdown. So everyone would assume its block 11 of Salmiya.

But, Watan News have the actual video of the announcement up and they’ve transcribed the video which mentions Block 10, 11, and 12. So Watan is actually being accurate while the official source isn’t.

This is so frustrating and we haven’t even gotten to the specifics of what a total lockdown of those areas means since it also wasn’t clarified. Will people in Salmiya Block 10 still be able to book an appointment at Lulu in Block 9? No clue.

Update: Map has been updated to correctly show all of Block 11

Update2: There is supposedly another conference tonight to clear up all the confusions

Around 30 minutes ago there was a conference where they announced the next steps to opening up after the lockdown. For those of you who can’t read Arabic, I’ve tried my best to summarize things until the official English text is published. There might be mistakes below, nbut it should be helpful until the official English comes out.

Basically what the government has done is gamified things, which I like. Imagine the lockdown we just completed as Level 0, we did it for 3 weeks and we passed. Now we move to Level 1 where we get more privileges and a partial curfew. In three weeks we will be evaluated, if we do well we move to Level 2, if we do bad we go back to Level 0 and start all over again. The better we do the more stuff we get. Here is how they’ve divided things to the best of my ability to translate:

Level 0 – Full Lockdown
What we just completed.

Level 1 – Free from 6AM to 6PM
We get mosques, restaurants (delivery and drive-thru), courier and delivery services, laundromats, fuel stations, private clinics, garages, car washes and car dealerships.

Level 2 – Free from 6AM to 9PM
We get banks, malls (10AM to 6PM), 30% of government and private sector, retail stores, restaurants takeaway, parks.

Level 3 – No curfew
We get 50% of the government and private sector back to work, hotels and resorts, Taxis with 1 passenger, Friday prayer at mosques.

Level 4 – No curfew
We get more than 50% of the government and private sector back to work, dine in at restaurants with social distancing, public transportation with social distancing.

Level 5 – No curfew
We get diwaniyas, social gatherings, weddings, events, gyms, conferences, hairdressers, spas, sports and cinemas.

In addition, I read that Farwaniya, Hawalli, and Khaitan will remain in lockdown. But, there is a bit of lack in clarity because I’ve heard it’s just some blocks that will be locked down, and I’ve heard that whole areas will be locked down.

Once an official English version of the above comes out I’ll update the post. If you read Arabic here is the PDF they presented during the conference.

Update: According to Kuna, Level 1 starts on Saturday

Update2: Arabic Kuna seems to contradict English Kuna. Arabic Kuna says Level 1 starts Sunday (31), English says Saturday (30). Great…

Update3: Ignore the KUNA links, according to @CGCKuwait, it’s starting on May 31st. Here is their official graphic in English with more details on what’s included under Level 1. Link

Update4: I updated the post to make it clear the hours I’ve listed are when we’re are free to go out and not the hours we have to be stuck at home.

Last year I heard a rumor that Arabella was going to get demolished and turned into a hotel and now there are renderings out showing what it’s going to look like. Based on the renderings it seems like they’re going to be demolishing the left side of Arabella (the side with Texas Roadhouse and Cheesecake Factory and build the hotel there.

The area isn’t that big so I’m very curious to see how they’re going to make it work especially the parking situation which is a total mess right now.

There is no mention yet on what hotel will be opening there or when but for more renderings including some interior ones, click here.

Thanks ChaoticTranquility

One item I was lucky enough to purchase just before the lockdown was a CTEK battery charger to use on my cars. I was planning to get one anyway for my Alfa since I was planning to park it during the summer but it turned out to be useful for the lockdown as well. If you’ve ever traveled on a long trip and got back to find your car battery dead, it was most likely because your car managed to drain the battery while you were away or the battery just lost its charge. A battery charger is a great way of keeping your battery healthy when parked for long periods of time and the CTEK is one of the best money can buy.

What makes the CTEK so great is how it takes care of your battery with its 8 stage approach combined with the simplicity of it. All you need to do is connect one end of the CTEK to your car battery and then plug the other end of it into a regular wall power socket and the CTEK will automatically take care of the rest. It will run the battery through some tests, check the condition of it and then charge it. Once the battery is fully charged it then trickle charges your battery to keep it alive and healthy until you need to use the car.

I’m lucky that my building parking lot has power plugs in various spots so right before the lockdown I charged the batteries of my cars just so I know they’d have enough juice to last through the lockdown. The CTEK came with two different plugs to connect to my battery, alligator clamps which just easily clip on to the positive and negative terminals on the battery, and eyelets that screw onto the battery. I installed the eyelets on my Alfa since it would be using the charger the most while I used the alligator clamps for my FJ and Lotus. In the photo on top you’ll notice the CTEK placed outside the car but that was just for the photo. You can actually place it under the hood so that way it’s protected from the weather as well as from getting stolen. If you have your own private garage then you can just leave it outside or on the floor.

If you have a car or motorbike that you plan on parking for a long time it’s worth investing in a battery charger. The CTEK is one of the best you can buy and the MXS 5.0 model which is the one I got sells for KD39.5. If you’re interested in picking one up you can order one from the local dealer, their Instagram account is @ctek.kw and their website is audodepotkw.com

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A post shared by Cobra Club (@cobraclubmusic) on May 20, 2020 at 12:19pm PDT

Cobra Club – Ghost @cobraclubmusic
Tareq Almulaifi is a Kuwaiti singer/songwriter who officially launched his new band Cobra Club earlier this month with the 80s inspired track “Razor“. They’re back again with a new single called “Ghost” which sadly doesn’t have a music video. The new track also has the same retro vibes to it and you can listen to it on Spotify.

Fabrice – Leave us alone @fabriceroots
Fabrice is a French musician with a unique Caribbean voice that’s living in Kuwait. Earlier this month he released a new single titled “Leave us alone” which is available to stream and download on his Bandcamp account. So check it out here or just click play below.

Back in 2003 I bought the very original Roomba. They had just come out a few months earlier and the idea of a robot vacuum cleaner fascinated me. It was around the same time I was fascinated with Sony’s robot dog, the AIBO, but unlike the AIBO, I could actually afford the Roomba back then.

I was still living with my parents when I got the Roomba so it really only had to clean one room, my room. It was fun using it at first, but I eventually got bored and sold it since I stopped using it. Looking in the comments of that for sale post I found a comment of mine where I explain to a reader why I sold it. I was basically too lazy to use the Roomba since it had to be started manually. This meant I had to be in my room to use it or I had to remember to do it before I left the house for work. It also meant that it would keep going until the battery died and then I had to plug it in and charge it again. It was a chore that defeated the whole purpose of getting a robot in the first place. In that same comment, I mention that if they ever came out with “a version that cleans every day at a certain time without me interfering” then I’d get it another one which brings me to the Eufy Robovac.

One of the first things I did once the pandemic started was to tell my housemaid to stop coming over. This meant I had to clean my place myself which gave me a reason to get a new robot vacuum cleaner. I looked at what was available locally and found the Eufy RoboVac 30C at Blink. I hadn’t heard of Eufy before, but on Amazon it had a 4.5-star rating and over 4,500 reviews. Blink was selling it for 92KD which was around 5KD more than Amazon not including tax or shipping so a pretty good price and so ordered it.

I’ve been using the RoboVac on a daily basis and even though the first few days were a bit rough, it’s now been a few weeks and I’m loving it. The RoboVac 30C has a few cool options, it has Wifi, a 100+ minutes battery life, it can find its way back to its home station and recharge the battery when it’s low, you can schedule it and it also works with Alexa and Google Home. Thee 30C is considered to be a dumb robot in the RoboVac world. There are some RoboVacs that are a lot smarter and can draw and map out the whole room digitally and even recognize different objects on the floor (like actually be able to tell if its a shoe or a basketball). But those RoboVacs are a lot more expensive with some of the more expensive ones costing an upwards of 300KD. The way dumb RoboVacs work is a lot simpler, they clean the room by moving around it randomly with no specific pattern. They’re less efficient in that sense but at the end of the day they still get the work done.

I have my RoboVac clean my lower level of my apartment every night at 8PM. I’m in my TV room upstairs at 8PM so having the RoboVac work at that time doesn’t bother me. I don’t even hear it except for the beep when it wakes up to start cleaning, and another beep 90 minutes later when it calls it a night and comes back to its charging station. I mentioned earlier the first few days were rough and that turned out to be for a variety of reasons. The biggest issue I had was that the RoboVac dust storage was filling up very quickly and the rolling brushes underneath were getting clogged up with carpet hair. If that wasn’t an issue by itself, the RoboVac when low on battery shuts of the suction and heads home. But because my RoboVac storage was full it would cause it to leave a trail of dirt and dust balls on the way back to the charging station. I was having to clean after the RoboVac which was super annoying and was making me regret buying it. BUT, it turned out this wasn’t the RoboVacs fault. The reason it was filling up so quickly is because of the amount of dust and virgin carpet hair it was sucking up from under my large couch. My normal vacuum cleaner can’t reach under the couch but the RoboVac is low enough to get under there and clean properly. After a few days the dust container stopped overfilling and the RoboVac is working perfectly now. Every morning as part of my routine I now just empty the dust container which is usually around half full. The other issue I had when I first got it was making my place RoboVac friendly. It didn’t need a lot of work, I just had a few cables I needed to tuck away nicely so the RoboVac wouldn’t get stuck on it and I had to move one side table slightly away from the couch so that the RoboVac would have easier access. The RoboVac comes with strips you can stick on the floor if for example you don’t want it to wander into the kitchen or you want to keep it away from a certain area.

During this 24/7 lockdown my RoboVac has been my companion of a sort, kinda like how Tom Hanks had Wilson the Volleyball on Castaway. I now yell at my RoboVac and call it an idiot like I used to yell at my dog when it used to do something wrong. My RoboVac has a habit of knocking down my skateboard which I’ve got leaned up against the wall and then starts pushing it around like it’s playing with it. It’s kinda cute when it wants to play but noisy. I’ve only had my RoboVac get stuck once so far and when that happened my phone App notified me. It has no issues climbing carpets and even low objects. A lot of times it might get stuck on something and then it starts trying to push over it but after a while it gives up and goes backward freeing itself. I’m very impressed with it and I don’t regret getting it at all. I don’t even regret getting a smarter RoboVac since the 30C is doing a really great job. My black tiles tend to show dust easily but now they’re shiny all the time I love it.

If you’re interested in getting one, I got mine from Blink but it’s showing as sold out but A Store who are the Eufy dealers still has them in stock also for 92KD.