Author: Mark

Last month I posted about an emergency lane tragedy where a mum lost her 4-month old child to a speeding motorist. The mum had pulled over into the emergency lane because of a problem with her car when a driver who was speeding in the emergency lane crashed into them. The mum has now written about the tragedy in the Kuwait Times. You can read her article [Here]

Does anyone have a Bang & Olufsen CD player they want to sell? Doesn’t matter which model, if you have one let me know! I’ve got like a million CD’s and just an old Technics discman to listen to them with.

Thursday night I passed by Digits in Marina Mall and picked up the new iPhone XS a few hours before the official launch. Digits always hook me up with a phone ahead of launch and even discount the phones for me because they know they’re going to get publicity from me. I like this arrangement because it means I don’t need to wait in line or worry about the phone getting sold out. This year I actually had another company approach me with a better deal on the new iPhone, but my history with Digits goes way way back.

I’m a very nostalgic person and I’ve got a lot of nostalgia with Digits. I’ve been a customer of theirs since before they were called Digits, since before they were called Mac&More, since way before the iPhone or iPod ever existed, back when their store was simply called Apple Computer. Back then they were located across from Salhia and had beautiful beige Power Macs on display which I sadly never got to own. But, since the very beginning, they’ve been hooking me up with stuff like when I got my Twentieth Anniversary Macintosh from them or when they let me take their Think Different banners after their Salhia store closed down. And then I got my 15 seconds of worldwide fame because of them when my pictures of their abandoned store made their way around the web. So yeah, I’m a big fan of Digits and very loyal. I think their service center is great and I just love dealing with them which is why I’m always promoting them.

This year I had two options of phones to choose from, the iPhone XS and the iPhone XS Max. I was pretty tempted to get the Max but I already thought the regular XS was too big and so I knew I’d struggle with the Max. Since I sold my water damaged iPhone X around 3 months back I’ve been using an iPhone 8. I loved how small it felt and how I could easily reach all four corners of the screen with my thumb, but I did miss the full screen and I majorly missed the ability to switch between apps by just swiping left or right at the bottom of the screen. Although I was tempted to get the Max because it was a new phone and would give me more to write about on the blog, I knew the regular XS was the one I really should get. Judging by the poll I held on my instagram story though, it looks like the majority of you would prefer the Max.

The XS and X are virtually the same phone. Even though Apple could spend an hour talking about the differences, in reality, there isn’t that much of a difference. The only thing you might notice being different is the camera, the new camera is an improvement over the previous one but unless you’re taking two photos with the two different phones in the same spot and then compare them side by side… you won’t really notice a difference. Battery life still isn’t that great, when I went from the X to the 8 I was kinda surprised at how much better the battery life on the 8 was, I could spend all day on the phone and the battery wouldn’t drop down past 50%. With the X and now the XS, I could be down to 50% by lunchtime.

But truthfully, I’d rather be on the X or XS over the 8 any day. The iPhone 8 and any non-fullscreen iPhone really do feel and look outdated compared to the new iPhones with the fullscreen. Although I loved the battery life on the 8, I don’t mind the sacrifice for a larger and better screen. So moving from an iPhone 8 (or 7, 6, 5 etc..) to an XS is a no-brainer, the question really is if you have an iPhone X now, is it worth moving to an XS? The answer is no, not at all.

Bayt Lothan, the community center that became an important part of the local culture scene was completely demolished over the weekend. Bayt Lothan closed down around 2 years ago and then earlier this year it was partly demolished. Now the whole building has been razed to the ground.

Bayt Lothan was considered by many a historic building and at one point in time used to house Sheikh Sabah Al Salim, the former Amir of Kuwait.

For those of you who didn’t believe me or think no way a place called Eggslut would be allowed to open in Kuwait, well, I was right. The hoarding for the first Eggslut store in Kuwait just went up in Crystal Tower, they’re opening right next to Starbucks.

Eggslut is an LA-based gourmet food concept where all the items on their menu feature eggs.

The Untitled Deli belongs to two of my friends and ever since they opened I’ve been nagging them to get on Carriage, and finally, they did. They also added a bunch of new sandwiches to their menu.

So check them out on Carriage, and make sure you visit their Instagram @theuntitleddeli.

It’s been a while but the weekend list is back! I’m personally going to The IMPROVengers tonight, the opera tomorrow, and then the carnival on Saturday and Marketspace as well since its taking place down the street from where I live. Check out this weekends list of events below:

Thursday
Opera: The Magic Flute
Exhibition: The Graphic and Typographic work of Tarek Atrissi
The IMPROVengers – An Evening of Killer Unscripted Comedy

Friday
Opera: The Magic Flute
Exhibition: The Graphic and Typographic work of Tarek Atrissi
Exhibition: Rebel Against Skin Cancer
Iredecent, Live with Skyhope

Saturday
Exhibition: The Graphic and Typographic work of Tarek Atrissi
Exhibition: Rebel Against Skin Cancer
Guided Tour: Arab Organization Headquarters
British Academies Carnival 2018
Marketspace
Yerevan Opera House – Classical Music Concert

If you’d like to share an event on the blog [Email Me]
For a full list of upcoming events click [Here]

Sometimes events get canceled or have details changed so always double check with the organizers.

If you saw the large cloud of black smoke coming out of the city today, it was from the new under construction NBK tower which caught fire earlier today.

I was watching it from my office window before realizing my car was parked in their lot next door so I went to make sure my car was safe. When I got to my car I remembered I had my new Sony A7 III in the car so I ended up snapping some shots and also posted a bunch of videos on my instagram story.

I think all the workers came out safe and there were some who stayed behind to help the firefighters out by using the emergency fire hoses in the parking lot next door.

Screenshot from Searching

The movies below are now showing at Cinescape, Grand Cinemas, Sky Cinemas and VOX:

New This Weekend:
211 (4.3)
Searching (7.9)
The Bouncer (6.4)
The Wife (7.3)

Other Movies Showing Now:
Alpha (7.0)
Animal World (6.5)
Boonie Bears: The Big Top Secret (6.0)
Christopher Robin (7.9) ★
Final Score (5.5)
Johnny English Strikes Again (6.7)
Luis & the Aliens (6.0)
Mile 22 (6.6) ★
Mission: Impossible – Fallout (8.9) ★
Peppermint (6.0)
Peter Pan: The Quest for the Never Book (N/A)
Smallfoot (7.8)
Slender Man (3.0)
The Equalizer 2 (7.1) ★
The House with a Clock in Its Walls (6.0)
The Nun (7.0)
The Predator (6.9) ★
The Yellow Birds (5.7)

The movies below are also now showing at the Scientific Center IMAX theater:

Movies Showing Now:
Amazon Adventure 3D (6.6)
Amazing Mighty Micro Monsters 3D (7.4)
Hurricane 3D (7.0)
Oceans: Our Blue Planet (7.4)
Tiny Giants 3D (7.9)

Numbers in brackets refer to the IMDB rating at time of publishing.
★ is for movies I’m interested in.

When JACC first told me Herbie Hancock was coming to Kuwait, the name sounded familiar but it didn’t ring a bell until I was going through some of his songs and came across Cantaloupe Island and Rock It. That’s when I realized, I already knew his songs, I just never knew they were his!

Herbie Hancock is considered a jazz legend whos been making music since the early 60s. He’s won 14 Grammy Awards including album of the year as well as winning an Academy Award for original soundtrack. Next weekend, Herbie Hancock will be performing live over two nights, Friday October 5th and Saturday October 6th at the Sheikh Jaber Al-Ahmad Cultural Centre. Tickets start at KD35 for the bronze and go up to KD75 for the VIP seats. Once again I’ve teamed up with JACC to giveaway 4 platinum seat tickets worth KD265 to two of my blog readers. So there will be two winners for this giveaway and each one will get two platinum tickets for the Saturday evening show!

To win tickets for this giveaway I’m trying something new this time. The previous method of leaving a comment was driving me insane because I’d get an email for every comment left here. So imagine getting over 400 emails in under a day, it made me hate holding giveaways. So for this one, I’m trying something new so check it out below.

[gleam url=”https://gleam.io/oZLw2/herbie-test”]Win Platinum Tickets to Jazz Legend Herbie Hancock![/gleam]

As usual, please make sure you use a working email since that’s how I will be contacting the winners. If a winner doesn’t respond within 24 hours, another winner will be randomly chosen. Good luck!

For more information on the concert, click [Here]

I was never a fan of the old Cayennes, not because I was Porsche purist and was upset that they had built an SUV, but because I thought they looked ugly. This new third generation Cayenne, on the other hand, is so hot looking which is why I got in touch with Porsche and asked them to borrow the car for the weekend.

Even before driving this third generation Cayenne I was pushing it off on friends. Anybody with a budget of around 30K I would quickly recommend the new Cayenne because it had two very important things going for it, a great looking exterior as well as a very modern looking interior. And, because the car just came out, you know this current look is going to be around for at least the next 7 years.

The model I picked up for the review was the “entry-level” Porsche Cayenne. After spending a weekend with this standard Cayenne I can tell you, you don’t need the faster Cayenne S or Turbo versions. The standard Cayenne with 340HP is no slouch which is what I was expecting it to be. The S version adds another 100HP on top of the standard Cayenne power and the Turbo version adds 200HP, but if you’re on a limited budget, get the standard Cayenne and use the money saved to fill it up with options. The car handled like you’d expect a Porsche to handle, it was very comfortable on bumpy roads but also stiff enough on fast hard turns. When I posted my Lexus LC500 review last week, a reader suggested I should test the cars by running them up and down the Crystal Tower parking lot so I decided to do just that for this review, as an agility test. If you don’t know the Crystal Tower parking lot, its known for being incredibly tight and people tend to scrape both sides of their cars going up and down the ramps. So I decided to have a bit of fun and mounted three GoPro’s to the Cayenne and decided to go up and down the lot to see how it handled tight turns. It passed! I think next time I should run the test when the parking is full since if the floors are empty it’s actually not that hard to maneuver through the floors.

The interior of the new Cayenne is another place it really shines. I personally think the Range Rover Velar raised the bar pretty high for slick and futuristic looking interiors but the new Cayenne manages to do that as well. The new Cayenne has a pretty huge screen with a really great looking infotainment system that also includes Apple’s CarPlay, but that’s just part of what makes the interior look so modern. The physical buttons in the center console area have now been replaced with backlit buttons and digital screens that are now touch sensitive. The whole center console looks like a giant screen and this helps give the interior such a modern look. Moving to the back the rear passengers have excellent legroom as well as having modern amenities like USB ports. The trunk is also pretty big and the rear seats fold down to make it even bigger but oddly enough, there are no controls in the trunk to automatically fold down the rear seats. I couldn’t find the option to add them either on the Porsche site which is bizarre because this is a pretty expensive car so you’d expect this pretty basic option.

Which brings us to the price. The starting price of the Cayenne is KD24,600 and I know this is going to sound weird, but that’s actually a pretty good deal. I would have expected the car to start much higher so I was pleasantly surprised when I found out how much they cost. 30,000 would get you a Cayenne S but as I mentioned earlier, I’d use the money saved going with the standard Cayenne to add all the options you want and there are A LOT of options to choose from. One of my favorite things about Porsche is how you can configure and build your own car on their website. Their online configurator allows you to spec the car the way you want it while showing you the exact cost, and then you can take your build to the dealership and just order it. I tend to build a Porsche maybe once every couple of weeks just for fun (don’t ask) and the Cayenne I built with all the options I wanted came out to around 31,000 which isn’t that bad.

So yeah I pretty much loved the car. I think like all Porsches the biggest issue with the Cayenne is that it’s going to end up being too popular and so you’ll start seeing a ton of them on the roads. If you want to check the car out and take it for a test drive you can as well, just head to the dealer and book a drive. Also make sure you check out the Porsche car configurator [Here]

I’m thinking about getting a Pelican case for my camera gear and so the first place I checked was at Al-Sabih. But, not only did they not have the sizes I was looking for, what they did have was expensive, like double Amazon prices expensive. For example:

Pelican 1520 Case with Foam
Al-Sabih = KD73
Amazon = KD34

Then I remembered someone once mentioned a store called FITCO Systems once that also sold Pelican cases. So I googled FITCO and found pictures of what looked like a stationary store / hardware store / electronics store. I asked the guys in one of my WhatsApp groups about the store and a friend told me its a very weird place, so weird that he couldn’t explain what the store sold and that I had to go see it for myself.

FITCO Systems is located in Kuwait City right next to Tatami and behind Solo Pizza. When I first walked in I asked about Pelican cases and they have them. Their prices were also pretty reasonable:

Pelican 1400 Case with Foam
FITCO = KD32
Amazon = KD30

Pelican 1500 Case with Foam
FITCO = KD48
Amazon = KD43

Pelican 1600 Case with Foam
FITCO = KD65
Amazon = KD48

Anyway here is the interesting part. I started walking around the store to see what they sold exactly and they had so much random stuff all over the place. The store has been around since 1986 and I think they deal with businesses and wholesale (B2B) more than with consumers. So the store isn’t really in tip-top condition which is why I kept digging up so much vintage stuff.

The store has a ton of items still on the shelves from when they had opened back in 1986, items that are no longer useful but they’re still selling. The place is like a time capsule and I think I spent an hour flipping through their shelves taking photos of everything from Palm Pilot modems to storage cases for 5 1/4 Floppy Disks. They had brand new Windows 98 boxes as well as Microsoft Plus! 98. They had discontinued FujiFilm FP-100C instant film, old Nikon 35mm film scanners, a whole bunch of 8mm backup tapes and cartridges, old webcams, and just a huge amount of random items piled up everywhere. I shared a bunch of photos on my instagram story @mark248am if you want to take a look.

If you want to check the place out yourself, here is their location on [Google Maps].
They also have a website but like the store, it also looks like it hasn’t been updated since the 90s [Link].

Before the 1990 Gulf War, Kuwaitis used to live on Failaka Island. But, during the war, the island got destroyed and then was never rebuilt again forcing the “Failakans” to move and live on the mainland. Now 25 years later, Doti Watkins, a local resident is working on a project to preserve the stories of the Failakans. She’s trying to track down anyone who used to live on Failaka to interview them about their lives on the island, as well as hopefully share with her photos, documents or artifacts.

I think this is a really interesting so if you know anyone who used to live on Failaka, please get in touch with her (her details are below). Here is some more info on this project:

The Kuwaitis of Failaka Island
An Oral History Project

Failaka Island is a unique place in the Arabian Gulf in general, and Kuwait specifically. It is located 20KM from Kuwait City and is well known for its rich and diverse archeological sites. What is being overlooked is that the Kuwaiti settlement of Failaka is also an important archeological site and there is an urgent need to preserve the geography, culture, and history of the Kuwaiti’s who once lived there. They are the most recent people to settle on the island, with a history that is estimated to be 300 years

The Kuwait Failakans are of special interest because they were neither urban nor nomadic. Their landscape and resources were different from the Kuwait mainland. They had different soil and water sources for agriculture compared to mainland Kuwait. They lived in relative isolation and relied on marine travel for connectivity to the rest of their society. Additionally, their sense of place included the remnants of all the other settlements before them.

It has been more than 25 years since the Kuwait Failakans were removed from their homes. This means the surviving population is aging and it will only become more difficult with time to acquire firsthand information and preserve an understanding of what it meant to be a Kuwaiti Failakan.

The purpose of this project is to collect the oral histories of Kuwait Failakans and use GIS (Geographic Information Science/Systems) to develop a GIS database “library” which will store and preserve their histories, traditions, folklore, photos and other documentation as available.

Doti Watkins
[email protected]
96007801
@doti_watkins

RAM Mounts make some of the best mounting solutions be it if you want to mount your tablet inside your car, or your camera outside of it. I wouldn’t trust any other brand when it comes to mounting my camera outside the car, it’s actually what I use to mount my GoPro on top of my car during track days (pictured above). I know no matter how aggressive my driving will be and how fast I go, the suction is going to hold up. They’re actually known for having some of the most impressive suction cups in the world and most if not all of their mounts are made of aluminum, so they’re super durable.

I’ve previously had to order my RAM mounts off Amazon but I recently found out there is a store in Kuwait that sells them. The store is called Q8 Mounts and they have a huge selection of RAM hardware to choose from. They even have an online website but if you go to the actual store, they have a ton of different mounts available on display for you to play with and check out before getting what you need.

Pricewise it’s complicated. Some of the items are double the price of Amazon, some are exactly the same and some are a lot cheaper. It’s pretty weird because usually, places are either have the same price as Amazon, more expensive prices or cheaper prices, I’ve never come across a place that has all three. If you’re looking for RAM mounts then check them out, they’re on instagram @q8mount, their website is q8mount.com and here is their location on [Google Maps]

Last week I got invited by VOX Cinemas to the premiere of Johnny English Strikes Again. The premier was showing at their VIP theater which they call “THEATRE by Rhodes”, after the Michelin-starred chef, Gary Rhodes. I hadn’t experienced the Rhodes theater yet so I was curious to try it out.

THEATRE by Rhodes is located in an area separate from the rest of the VOX theaters in Avenues. So while the VOX regular area was busy, once I stepped into the Rhodes area it was super chill and a completely different look. From a super bright white busy area, you walk into a much dimmer, quieter and moodier space, as if you’ve just walked into a lounge. Actually, it is a lounge with what looks like a bar on one side and lots of seating all around. Food and drinks were included with the invitation so as soon as we were seated the waiters brought me and my friend menus so we could pick out our three-course meal and drinks. There were a number of different options to choose from in every category, you had the usual stuff like nachos and hotdogs but of course, presented much nicer and composed of better quality ingredients, but you then had more interesting options which for the life of me I can’t remember what they were. I should have taken a picture of the menu but I didn’t. My starter though was a crispy shrimps dish and my main was chicken and shrimp satay on sticks.

After placing our order we were taken to our seats inside the theater. The seats are all reclining with an adjustable footrest as well. You also get a complementary blanket and pillow. It was super cozy and comfortable, like watching a movie at home except better since I don’t have a reclining sofa at home. The seating was easily my favorite part of the experience and the main reason I’d go back thats for sure. Once the movie started they began bringing our food out. I thought this was going to be annoying because you’d have waiters walking around and in front of the screen but the waiters were all pretty stealthy. You’ll barely notice them.

Even though the movie wasn’t great I had a good experience. The only issue really is that the seats are all too far apart from each other. So I couldn’t communicate with my friend at all throughout the film. It’s a very solo experience watching a movie in the VIP theater and you might as well just go by yourself, which actually is a great plus. If you’re an introvert and want to go and watch a movie by yourself, you’ll love this place. It just feels like everyone in the theater is sitting by themselves so you won’t feel self-conscious or awkward.

The price for a normal THEATRE by Rhodes ticket is KD10 but if you want the 3-course meal and drinks then the package costs KD20. For more information or if you’re interested in trying out the theater yourself, check out the THEATRE by Rhodes website [Here]