Author: Mark

Formula 1 and UFC are the only two sports I watch on TV and with both I’m always surprised by how small the following in Kuwait is. With F1 I kind of understand why nobody in Kuwait cares for it but I can’t seem to understand why UFC isn’t more popular. It’s one of the fastest growing sports, it’s full of action as well as drama and its extremely entertaining. The past 24 hours have been pretty much insane in the UFC world with four fights being taken off the big UFC 223 fight card that’s taking place Saturday night, Conor got arrested and spent a night in prison for causing mayhem after a press conference, and the main headline fight has yet to be determined after two fighters had to pull out!

So much drama taking place and I only know of four other people in Kuwait who watch the UFC and I can discuss this with! So if any of you are UFC fans, let me know in the comments, I’m kinda curious to see if any UFC fans follow the blog.

Screenshot from You Were Never Really Here

The movies below are now showing at either Cinescape, Grand Cinemas or Sky Cinemas:

New This Weekend:
A Quiet Place (8.4)
Acts of Violence (5.1) ♦
I Kill Giants (6.6)
In Extremis (7.1)
You Were Never Really Here (7.5) ♦

Other Movies Showing:
Beyond the Edge (6.2)
Black Panther (7.2)
Brawl in Cell Block 99 (7.2)
Pacific Rim: Uprising (6.2)
Peter Rabbit (6.5)
Ready Player One (8.1)
Red Sparrow (6.8) ♦
The Hurricane Heist (4.8)
The Strangers: Prey at Night (5.9)
Tomb Raider (7.3)

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

A Beautiful Planet 3D (7.9)
Amazing Mighty Micro Monsters 3D (7.4)
America Wild: National Parks Adventure (N/A)
Dream Big 3D (7.9)
Extreme Weather 3D (6.6)
Tiny Giants 3D (8.0)
Watermelon Magic 3D (7.4)

Numbers in brackets refer to the IMDB rating at time of publishing.
★ is for movies I’m interested in. ♦ implies movie might contain censorship.

I haven’t flown out of the main Kuwait Airport for awhile so not sure how long it’s been like this, but the long-term parking lot is no longer a mess. They’ve got new private security firm running the lot now and they can’t be bullied into letting you in. So you no longer have cars parked all over the sides of the lot illegally, nor do you have cars parked on walkways. Last year the Civil Authority banned illegal parking and it seems like they had to hire a private security firm to maintain the discipline.

Since we’re on the subject of the airport, I spotted the self check-in kiosks above around the airport. Currently, they only work with Turkish Airlines, but I’m guessing eventually they will be compatible with more airlines. I always found it odd that we didn’t have self check-in counters at the airport, but better late than never.

I’m heading to LA and San Fransisco for a few days so expect me to either not post at all in the upcoming days, or if I do post it will be at odd hours. Everything should get back to normal once I’m back next week.

Lord Curzon and his staff being carried ashore to be welcomed by the Sheikh November, 1903

I just found out about the Bridgeman photo library a short while ago and going through it I spotted a bunch of interesting photos of Kuwait I had never seen before. I’ve included some of my favorites in this post along with their captions.

Kuwaiti man holding a kid on the leash on a pavement. Kuwait City, December 1956

Kuwaiti woman entirely covered by her dress selling chickens in the street. Kuwait City, December 1956

Kuwaiti woman with a veil on her face holding her son in front of the cages containing birds on sale.

Check out more old photos of Kuwait by clicking [Here]

Eduqate describes itself as “an educational archive that encourages culturists and liberal arts students in the GCC to become exposed to readings in the topics of culture and identity”. Basically, Eduqate is about nostalgia and specifically nostalgia related to the GCC.

The project just recently launched but already I’ve been finding the content fascinating and informative. So if you love nostalgia (and who doesn’t), check out their website eduqate.org or follow them on instagram @eduqate

A reader sent me the email below letting me know that the kiosk I spotted at the ASCC museums last week has now been removed!

Dear Mark,

Thanks for the post about the kiosk in ASCC. Last week I contacted an executive at the Amiri Diwan and forwarded the picture of the kiosk that you posted on the blog. He was surprised by the grotesqueness of the stand and instantly contacted the person in charge of the project. From what I hear, the stand has now been removed (thank god).

Thank you for keeping us aware.

Best Regards

Lunch Room is a new restaurant that has been open for a few weeks now, but I finally got to try it this past weekend. Lunch Room is the creation of Ahmed Al Bader, the same chef behind one of my favorite restaurants, Habra. I went to Lunch Room with a friend, and although we didn’t over order, everything we did order turned out to be delicious. We started off with the maple-roasted carrots and Mexican Mango juice, and then for my main, I had the scrambled egg on a Dutch buckwheat pancake while my friend had the poached eggs dosa. We finished things off with the Dutch buckwheat pancake dessert that came with berries, salted honey butter and whipped mascarpone.

You can take a look at the full menu [Here]

Usually, it takes more than one visit to a new place to find a dish that I love and would come back for, but with Lunch Room I managed to hit the nail on the head from my first visit. Everything we had turned out to be delicious especially my scrambled egg dish which I’ll have a hard time not ordering on my next visit so I could try something else. But not only was the food really good, I also found the restaurant super cozy and the service was great as well.

I don’t know why they didn’t call the place Brunch Room since it’s more of a brunch place than a lunch one, but really, even if it was called Dinner Room I wouldn’t care and still go back to it. It’s probably going to be my favorite brunch spot for the next few months since I think I’ve overdosed on Cocoa Room. If you’re visiting on the weekend expect to wait for a table. I passed by around 10:30AM and there were 14 names ahead of mine. Luckily, they’re walking distance from Arabica in Arraya, so I killed time by having coffee there. Lunch Room is open from 9AM to 3PM and they’re located in Kuwait City next to RAW sushi [Google Maps]. You can also follow them on instagram @lunchroomkw

If you want your car washed at home then there are a lot of companies that offer the service, and there is even an app that can connect you to most of them. But not all car washes are equal which is why I found this latest service from ProTech Monte-Carlo interesting.

ProTech consider themselves a car spa, they offer premium detailing services as well as tinting, paint protection and a variety of treatments for your car. Just flipping through their Instagram account you’ll notice they’ve worked on some of the hottest cars in Kuwait from classics to supercars, and I’ve personally used them twice, first time to detail my Datsun 240z, and the second time for paint protection on my first Exige.

Over the weekend I got a message from them letting me know they’re now offering membership packages for their premium car wash service to your home. For KD40 a month they’ll come by once a week at a prearranged time to wash your car. If you want them to come by more than once a week they have packages for that as well which you can see below:

There are a couple of things I like about this, the first being that they actually know how to wash cars the right way. I know washing a car sounds simple and it is, but there are special techniques to washing the car properly and how to avoid getting swirls in your paint. For example, they’re the only place I’ve seen use clay bars when washing the car. If you’re got an expensive car then the extra care is definitely worth it. The second thing I like about this service is the membership aspect, I like the idea of signing up to a washing service and have them come over say every Sunday at 8AM to wash my car. The only thing is you need to commit to 12 months and I don’t like thinking that far ahead.

If you’re interested in signing up to the service, you can contact them by phone or whatsapp on +965-96912001. Here is a link to their [Website]

Below are all the events I found taking place this weekend. If there is anything I missed let me know.

Thursday
Exhibition: Four Hundred Days
Cofe Festival
George Enescu Bucharest Philharmonic Orchestra
Forests “By The City”
Cinemagics Rooftop Movie: Force Majeure
Dvorak Piano Quintet

Friday
Exhibition: Four Hundred Days
George Enescu Bucharest Philharmonic Orchestra
3rd Women’s Volleyball Tournament
Concert: The Warehouse Series 0.3

Saturday
Exhibition: Four Hundred Days
George Enescu Bucharest Philharmonic Orchestra
Guided Tour: Arab Organization Headquarters
Cinemagics Rooftop Movie: Good Time

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.

Screenshot from Ready Player One

The movies below are now showing at either Cinescape, Grand Cinemas or Sky Cinemas:

New This Weekend:
Beyond the Edge (6.2)
Brawl in Cell Block 99 (7.2)
Downrange (5.0)
Peter Rabbit (6.5)
Ready Player One (8.1)
The Hurricane Heist (4.8)

Other Movies Showing:
Black Panther (7.2)
Death Wish (6.4)
Midnight Sun (6.1)
Pacific Rim: Uprising (6.2)
Red Sparrow (6.8) ♦
Sherlock Gnomes (4.5)
The Strangers: Prey at Night (5.9)
Tomb Raider (7.3)

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

A Beautiful Planet 3D (7.9)
Amazing Mighty Micro Monsters 3D (7.4)
America Wild: National Parks Adventure (N/A)
Dream Big 3D (7.9)
Extreme Weather 3D (6.6)
Tiny Giants 3D (8.0)
Watermelon Magic 3D (7.4)

Numbers in brackets refer to the IMDB rating at time of publishing.
★ is for movies I’m interested in. ♦ implies movie might contain censorship.

I spotted the kiosk above yesterday while visiting the ASCC museums. The place hasn’t been open for a month yet and already they’re starting to make it look tacky. There are so many visually nicer ways to have a kiosk rather than just shoving a few tables between a wall and a pillar. No idea why they would do this…

The inauguration of Kuwait Motor Town is currently being broadcasted live on KTV 1 as I am typing out this post. If you want to watch it you can stream it online [Here]

Update: The opening ceremony has finished.

According to a reader who went to pick up mail from the post office, you can now track your package to see if it’s reached the post office by WhatsApping the tracking number to 99919010.

You can also continue to use the MOC website to track your package [Here]

Thanks Dwane

Update: The number is no longer is service

Niqashna is a platform for open debates that was launched early last year. Every few weeks they discuss an interesting subject and tonight they’re debating freedom of speech in Kuwait. The debate is in Arabic but the Q&A will be in both Arabic and English. If you’re interested in attending (its free), you can get more details [Here]