Author: Mark

Lots to do this weekend, check them out below. Always double check the event details by visiting the organizers account, I make mistakes sometimes!

Thursday, April 10
TTD by Jaune Pizza Popup
The Improv Show
GR Yaris Cup – Kuwait vs Qatar
Palestinian Poetry Night

Friday, April 11
TTD by Jaune Pizza Popup
GR Yaris Cup – Kuwait vs Qatar
Starlight Jazz and Buffet
Chadirji’s Hawally Workshop
Full Moon Women’s Circle
Kuwait Jiu-Jitsu Championship

Saturday, April 12
TTD by Jaune Pizza Popup
Chadirji’s Hawally Workshop
DAI Story Time
DAI Chess Fest
NORAEBANG – K-POP Together

Yesterday, the Ministry of Interior deployed new mobile speed cameras across Kuwait. These battery-powered cameras will pop up in various locations and are really easy to miss!

I’ve come across similar cameras in Saudi on my road trips, and because they’re painted the same color as sand, they’re easy to miss until the very last minute. Also, depending on the road, it’s sometimes hard to tell if the camera is pointed at your lane or the opposite one.

These new cameras are being introduced ahead of the new traffic laws, which go into effect on April 22. The new laws include increased speeding fines, ranging from KD70 to KD150.

A couple of weeks ago, Kuwait Flour Mills introduced coffee at some of their branches, and it’s been causing quite a bit of drama. Why? Because of the prices. KFM is selling espresso and Americano for 500 fils, and a latte for just 750 fils. That’s around half the price, or even less, compared to most coffee shops.

They aren’t skimping on quality either. KFM are using proper grinders (Eureka) and coffee machines (IBERITAL) to pull the shots, and their beans are from 48 East who also provided the training.

I passed by the Yarmouk branch this morning to see what the fuss was about, but the line was so long I decided to drive to their Fahad Al Ahmad branch instead. It also had a line, but a much shorter one. I tried both the hot and iced latte and although they weren’t better than the coffee I make at home, it definitely was better than most coffees in that price range.

Some coffee shop owners are upset about the pricing and have been voicing their frustration online. Since Kuwait Flour Mills is government-owned, they feel it’s unfair for them to sell coffee this cheap.

It costs me around 360 fils to make an espresso at home using beans from %Arabica, so it definitely costs coffee shops and KFM even less with wholesale pricing. So are coffee shops being greedy, or is KFM undercharging?

Personally, I think the hype might hurt some coffee shops for now, but eventually people will go back to buying coffee from their favorite (and usually most convenient) spots.

Stockroom Coffee recently opened their new location in KIPCO Tower, and I think it looks really great. Their Murouj branch is one of my favorite looking coffee spots, and this new branch was also designed by the same architects, FORM. The space has a sophisticated yet cool aesthetic. It’s minimal, but not simple since there are interesting little details everywhere you look.

It doesn’t show in these photos, but there is a seating area. And although this Stockroom is probably catering to the tower and surrounding office buildings during the day, it feels like it could be a chill place to hang out in the afternoon and evenings once the office crowd clears out. The new location is on the ground floor of KIPCO Tower and is open from 7AM to 10PM. Google Maps

If you want to check out more photos of the place, head to @formkw

Photos above taken by @mashkanani

I have both MyUS and Shop&Ship accounts but I tend to use my Shop&Ship the most since the prices were always cheaper than MyUS. MyUS only used to make sense for me when an item was expensive but not that heavy since I don’t pay tax when shipping to my MyUS address. But, a few days ago I was ordering some parts for my car and I realized it would be much cheaper shipping to MyUS.

Item Cost Shipped to MyUS: $256
Item Cost Shipped to Shop&Ship: $278.71 (includes 8.87% tax)

Item Weight: 10.95 lb
MyUS Shipping Cost (using DHL Express): KD14.278
Shop&Ship Shipping Cost: KD22.3 (because I get the 31% S&S FLEX discount) or KD31.1 (if you don’t have S&S FLEX)

So just by choosing to ship this one item to MyUS I saved a total of KD15. Even if I paid tax it would still be cheaper to use MyUS. It wasn’t like this before so now I’m curious to know if their prices became cheaper. I think I’m just going to straight up use MyUS from now on. The package also arrived super quick, shipped April 3, got delivered to me April 6. Oh I have to mention, Shop&Ship charge KD1.5 for custom clearance, DHL charge KD4. But I still save more with DHL.

American stand-up comedian and actor Gabriel Iglesias, aka Fluffy, is coming to perform in Kuwait for the first time ever. Fluffy is known for his hit Netflix specials and sold-out shows around the world, and I think he is easily the biggest stand-up comedian to ever perform in Kuwait.

He’ll be performing live at The Arena on May 1st as part of his “Don’t Worry Be Fluffy” world tour. Tickets are expected to go on sale later today on The Arena’s website.

If you want an idea of what to expect, you can watch one of Fluffy’s many specials on Netflix, including his latest one, “Legend of Fluffy”. You can also check out his insta @fluffyguy

I’m always incredibly jealous of the kinds of photos Bader Alshaiji (@badshaiji) has access to. Thankfully, he loves sharing as much as I do. When I saw he had photos I’d never seen before of the Kuwait Towers under construction, I reached out and asked if he could send them over to me so I could share them as well.

These are rare photos I’ve never come across before, at least not in this quality. They were taken between 1971 and 1975 and show the construction of the towers, including when they caught fire in 1973.

Check them all out on my instagram account @248am, and make sure you follow @badshaiji if you’re interested in old historical photos of Kuwait.

The Palestine Film Festival 2025 opens tomorrow (Sunday, April 6) as part of the “All Eyes on Palestine” visual event happening in Kuwait this week which also includes the “Gaza Habibti” photo project.

“Gaza Habibti” brings together the work of 25 photographers from Gaza, capturing moments of hope and everyday life in a place still fighting for freedom and dignity. Their photos will be part of exhibitions taking place around the world, with all proceeds going to support photographers in Gaza. This event is taking place at @capkuwait and opens April 6 and will be on view until April 12.

The Palestine Film Festival Kuwait on the other hand is a volunteer-run, non-profit initiative that celebrates Palestinian life, art, and culture. The festival features a curated lineup of films, from documentaries to shorts, all highlighting the resilience and spirit of the Palestinian people. This year the films will be showing at CAP Theater and AUK.

There is also a poetry night taking place on Thursday.

All events are free and no registration is required for any of them.

Follow @palestinefilmfest_kuwait and @capkuwait for more details.

The compound in Dasman that housed the original Kuwait Television studios, and later Villa Moda and Mais Alghanim, has been demolished. It’s located across the street from The Cheesecake Factory on the Gulf Road, near the Kuwait Towers (Google Maps).

I’m not sure how many people who drove past those old warehouse-like buildings knew how historically significant they were. The compound had been abandoned for over 20 years, but I always hoped it would be refurbished and redeveloped either into a creative hub like Qatar’s Fire Station, or a trendy retail space similar to Alserkal Avenue in Dubai.

Besides housing KTV, the first TV station in the Gulf, the buildings later became home to two other iconic Kuwaiti brands.

In 1987, “Mess Alghanim” which started off as a staff cafeteria for the employees of Yusuf Ahmed Alghanim & Sons Co, moved into one of the old Kuwait Television building and transformed into a warm family restaurant. It was also that year the name of the restaurant was changed to “Mais Alghanim”.

In 1992, Sheikh Majed al-Sabah opened the first Villa Moda there in one of the other buildings. He was the first to bring Western designers like Donna Karan, Calvin Klein, and Ralph Lauren to the region. Until today when I think of that store I can’t believe how ahead of its time it was.

As a tribute to the compound’s history, I’ve put together an album on Flickr that includes:
– Black and white images shared by @badshaiji from 1975
– Photos Mais Alghanim when it was still open there
– Villa Moda store after it had shut down and been abandoned
– Photos of the compound taken in 2021 and 2024
– Photos of the compound now being demolished

Check out all the photos here.

If you’re following up on the news you know by now that Trump announced tariffs on everyone basically, including Kuwait. According to the sheets of paper distributed to reporters, Kuwait will be getting a 10% tariff on all imports to the United States. Not sure how much that will affect local exporters since I’m not sure what we export to the US other than oil? Maybe KDD chocolate milk?

Last week I posted about Gaza Cola on the blog and my Instagram account. It’s a new soft drink that was released in Kuwait, made by Palestinians to support Palestinians with 100% of the profits going to charity.

I posted it on my Instagram account not expecting it to do well engagement wise. I always read about how pro-Palestine posts keep getting low engagement, or are hidden from peoples feeds so I wasn’t expecting much but I was fine with that. Sometimes I like to post things because I want to, even though it might not get a lot of likes. Initially when I posted it, it got around 500 likes within the first half hour. That generally is a good sign because it means the post will most likely get 1,500 likes or more, which is usually the target I’m trying to hit.

To my surprise, the likes didn’t stop coming. 5 days later and the post now has over 67,000 likes (when I started writing this post it was 66,9766 and as I’m editing this post its now up to 67,523).

Not sure what caused it but around two days after I published the post it started going viral, first in Kuwait, then the world, and yesterday Kuwait again. It’s super cool, but it’s also been a lot of headache. I quickly started getting a lot of anti-Palestine comments, so first thing I did was delete all the negative comments and limit comments on that post. The local Gaza Cola account @gazacola_kw also started getting attacks as well, and they weren’t expecting it either.

I’m still trying to understand why this post went viral and none of the other Gaza Cola posts did. The product has been available in the UK since last year and the main @gazacolauk has photos of the can and everything so it’s really strange. Maybe my photo it just extra eye catching or maybe its my headline or maybe the Kuwait Towers in the background caught peoples attention. It could be anything really but all I know is that it’s currently the most engaged content on my account by far.

If you want to check the post on Instagram, here is the link.

It’s been awhile since I’ve posted up this list and in that time I watched quite a bit of stuff. Firstly Adolescence, I loved the technical aspect behind the camera work, but I really only enjoyed the first 2 episodes out of the 4. I started watching The Pitt, I’m like 4 episodes in and loving it. White Lotus new season is also great, obviously my favorite person this season is Walton Goggins, been a fan of his ever since I watched Vice Principals and I’m more obsessed with him now. My second favorite person on the show is Patrick Schwarzenegger, he’s surprisingly really good. I hate his character so much, he’s such a douche! But that’s also why I like Patrick so much cuz he plays the part so well.

I tried to watch Severance season 2 but while watching the recap of season 1 I didn’t remember any of it so now need to rewatch the first season before starting the second.

I finished Reacher, the finale wasn’t that great, I mean the whole season wasn’t that great. It’s just junk food tv, but I like that sometimes.

Have you watched anything interesting lately? Let us know in the comments.

Movies at the Cinemas
The English movies below are now showing at the local cinemas:

A Minecraft Movie (7.2)
A Working Man (6.8)
Aladdin (classic) (8.0)
Captain America: Brave New World (7.5)
Dirty Angels (5.9)
Locked (6.1)
Night at The Zoo (5.8)
Novocaine (5.8)
The Day The Earth Blew Up: A Looney Tunes Movie (6.3)

The numbers in brackets refer to the IMDB rating at the time of publishing.

Gaza Cola, the ethical alternative soft drink made by Palestinians to support Palestinians, is now available in Kuwait. Osama Qashoo, the creator of Gaza Cola, came up with the idea in November 2023 as an apartheid-free beverage, with all profits going toward supporting and rebuilding Al Karama Hospital in northern Gaza.

I tried it and it tastes pretty good, similar to other cola soft drinks. They only have one original flavor now and it will be sold for 240fils with 100% of the profits going to charity.

Gaza Cola is currently available at Mishref and Kaifan Co-ops. It will be available soon at Shamiyah and Salam Co-ops, and later at Sideeq and Abu Fatera Co-ops.

You can also order Gaza Cola directly via WhatsApp which is linked in their instagram account @gazacola_kw

Note: There seems to be another drink available on Talabat Mart called Gaza. That’s a different company/drink. Gaza Cola only has one flavor and the can looks like the one in the photo.

I like the fact that calling 113 still gives you the time. It’s nostalgic.

Popular British R&B singer Craig David is coming to Kuwait for a live performance in May. I used to be a fan of his music back when I was in university, so it’s pretty random that he’s coming to perform here. He’s known for hits like “7 Days,” “Fill Me In,” and “Walking Away,” and he recently sold out The O2 Arena in London as part of his 25th Anniversary Commitment Tour.

Craig David will be performing for one night only in Kuwait at The Arena on May 2nd. I’ve been told tickets could potentially go on sale as soon as tomorrow, but follow @thearenakuwait for the official announcement.

Update: Tickets are now on sale. Here are the ticket prices:

Bronze: 30KD
Silver: 40KD
Gold: 50KD
Platinum: 60KD
Diamond: 70KD
Royal: 80KD
VIP: 100KD
VVIP: 120KD