Author: Mark

This actually makes me want to fly with Kuwait Airways. Check out @dali_duran’s instagram account for more of his videos. [Link]

A few years ago I posted about Abdullah Al-Moussawi (Sayed in Europe), an 11 year old Kuwaiti boy with incredible football skills. Someone had uploaded a video of him on YouTube playing football and the video ended up catching the eye of a football scout in Holland who later tried to get Sayed to move and train in Holland. Sayed became a sensation in Holland and was given the nickname “the Pearl of Arabia”. But, there was a bit of controversy and the move never happened. You could read my old post for the full story [Here]

I just wanted to post an update on Sayed. Even though he didn’t end up moving to Holland he was flying there every now and then to train with the top Dutch club SBV Excelsior. But last Wednesday, the director of TT (TrainingTrips.eu), an organization affiliated with professional players and football clubs (among them FC Feyenoord, Ajax, Manchester City, Liverpool, Club Brugge and FC Barcelona), welcomed Sayed into the organization and will now be taking care of his football career.

According to Jeroen Gösgens the director;

“Sayed has the potential to make it as a professional player. That’s why we’re convinced that it’s vital to make the next step right now. We work exclusive with top- talents and academies throughout Europe and it’s in our strong believe that any delay at this stage of the process won’t be in the best interest of Sayed’s development.

Since the first time that we saw him play 5 years ago, we’ve followed him carefully and now he’s ready to make the next step. Therefor his attendance at a pro-academy is an absolute requirement for his career.

We’re confident about Sayed’s motivation and capacity. Our expectations of Sayed are high. We only work with our own selected players and make no concessions whatsoever in this regard.

That Sayed comes from Kuwait is special in the way that we never had a player from the Gulf Region before. However, we want to convey him because of his exceptional- talent, determination and passion for the game. Considering that Sayed has reached his current level basically on his own strength with just help from his father, family and friends is already an amazing accomplishment by itself. We’re happy to welcome Sayed in our ‘family’ and will support him in every way to become what he really wants to achieve; being a valuable, creative player in a major league in Europe.”

It’s a pretty cool outcome and an incredible story considering all this started because of his low res YouTube video and with no support locally.

Early on in the month I posted my favorite tracks of the year and after a bit of a struggle I’ve managed to choose my top 10 albums of the year which I’ve listed below. I use the word struggle because there were quite a few good albums this year but in the end, the albums below were the ones that meant the most to me. I’ve also taken the liberty to arrange them in order of my favorite the Jon Hopkins – Immunity album being my most favorite. It’s just a ridiculously good album and one that I spent a lot of time listening to. Check out my top 10 albums below, I’ve even gone ahead and pulled out a track from each album so you could listen to it.

1- Jon Hopkins – Immunity

2- White Lies – Big TV

3- Moderat – II

According to Kuwait Times, the zoo is going to start selling some of their animals because they have too many of them and not enough space. My recommendation is to go for a Pygmy Goat, they’re just too damn cute (they’d make great funny YouTube videos). [Link]

Those white decorative stones that have started appearing around various streets in Kuwait… yeah they’re not the best idea in the world.

What I liked about this video other than the realism and the location is the fact they used a drone to shoot some of the footage. [YouTube]

I spotted the flyer above stuck on a wall near Sultan Center Shaab and thought it was pretty thoughtful. A quick check of the instagram account @santanimals reveals its an account with the goal to help stray animals in Kuwait as well as creating awareness on animals in general. A great initiative.

Not sure when this took place but according to the guy in the video, the bus lost control and slammed into a parked red car before coming to a stop just outside the Centro Electronics store in Kuwait City. [YouTube]

Cinemagics will be playing the two movies below this weekend. Make sure you wear something that will keep you warm.

Thursday, December 19th 2013 at 7:30PM
CACHE
A married couple is terrorized by a series of surveillance videotapes left on their front porch.

Saturday, December 21st 2013 at 7:30PM
SURPRISE FILM OF THE MONTH
Every month they’ll be playing a surprise film, where you won’t know what you’re watching until just a minute before the film begins. One thing is for sure, every month the surprise film will be either one of their favorite film on the list, or the most unique in one way or the other. This month’s film won and was nominated for over 30 awards worldwide including the Oscars, Golden Gloves, Independent Spirit Awards and the Baftas. A unique, hilarious, bizarre and poetic little film.

These movies are free, there is no entrance fee. For more information on Cinemagics rooftop movie nights click [Here]

Update: Turns out the viewing is canceled this weekend.

Shakshooka, the nomadic farmers market is taking place tonight from 6PM to 8PM on the rooftop parking of 360 Mall. Here is the location on [Google Maps]

Don’t forget to bring cash and a carrying bag if you will be buying stuff.

Photo above by @faisalthef

Around a month ago I was at the airport early morning, I had just finished checking in and headed towards the money exchange to get some currency. I gave the exchange employee my Knet card but got an error saying my card was declined. I tried it again but got the same error. I knew I had money on the card since I had double checked the night before. In any case I decided to log in with my banks app and double check but I got an error logging in as well. I then told the money exchange clerk I would be back and headed to one of the ATM machines at the airport to withdraw money but also got an error. So I called the banks call center number and spoke to an employee who proceeded to tell me their system was going under maintenance and I wouldn’t be able withdraw any money or use any of my cards for the next two hours.

I was furious.

Here I was at the airport about to travel and I didn’t have any cash on me and I wouldn’t be able to get any cash either and not because I didn’t have any money but because my bank wouldn’t give me access to it. When I asked the employee why they didn’t inform me and their other customers about this so that we would be prepared (I could have converted currency the night before and withdrawn money), his response was we did… on Instagram and Twitter. And this is where the problem lies. I hung up with the call center employee and headed to the lounge where I proceeded to tweet my frustration as well as send their customer care an email. I didn’t get any response from them until 30 days later when I had to tweet and remind them that it had been 30 days without a response.

Now this is where I would be interested to hear from you guys since maybe I’m over reacting here or maybe it’s me being an asshole but wouldn’t you agree it would be best if the bank SMS’ed their clients important information like when you won’t be able to access your money or any of your cards for two hours instead of posting that kind of important information on twitter or instagram?

First of all why the hell would I want to follow my bank on twitter or instagram? I follow only 15 friends on twitter and I follow around 100 friends on Instagram. The image above is a result of me following my banks twitter account (I had to so I could send them a direct message). They tweet so much and so often they ended up taking over my twitter feed. Why would I want to flood my twitter feed with their tweets on a daily basis?

Secondly, my bank have my phone number and I receive a ton of useless advertisements from them all the time. Why is it ok to SMS me useless adverts but not ok to SMS me important information like when I will not be able to use my ATM or credit cards because their system will be down?

So this is my suggestion to my bank (you know who you are):

1- SMS or Email your customers when there will be a major disruption in the service

2- Be clear about what the disruption will be. “System will be undergoing maintenance” could mean anything from I won’t be able to log in to your website to your call center employees won’t be able to order their daily fix of Caesars pizza. It’s too generic, instead tell your customers clearly that on a certain date at a certain time they will not be able to use their ATM cards.

3- Respond to emails. 30 days with no response means you’re ignoring me. I sent an email to Zain the other day and got a response in 15 minutes so if they can do it so can you.

That’s my 2 cents. And yes this post was censored by Fajer.

Best Electronics currently have a special promotion on Hurom juicers. They were previously selling them for KD99 but they’ve now dropped the price down to KD74 which is cheaper than Amazon. Slow juicers supposedly retain more nutrients during the juicing process when compared with conventional juicers. I personally love my “conventional” juicer and wouldn’t trade it in for any other juicer, but if you’re a fan of slow juicing then this should be of interest to you. [Link]

Note: You need to add to cart and check out to see discounted price.

Bayt Lothan are holding a poetry reading this coming Thursday night. If you’re interested here are the details:

Date: Thursday December 19th, 2013
Time: 7PM
Location: Bayth Lothan:
Tickets: KD5

The tickets are sold at the Q8BookStore or at Bayt Lothan. They will also be sold at the door on the same night.

Does anyone remember when the Buffalo Bill’s Wild West Show came to Kuwait? It was back in the 80’s and I think it was held at the Mishref Fairs Ground. I just remembered it today for some reason and I can’t find anything on Google about it. If you happen to remember it or have any photos leave a comment below.

Update: A reader found the following quote in an article about Kuwait from the Chicago Tribune back in 1987 which I thought was hilarious..

When an American Wild West show visited recently, cowboys were forced to ride around an arena pointing their fingers in the air and shouting “bang, bang,“ because Kuwaiti authorities would not permit them to bring in their blank-firing six-shooters.

[YouTube]

Here’s a cool new music video and it’s not a rap video! Amin Farid Abdal is a Kuwaiti-Puerto Rican with a background in music performance and production. His latest music video is for a track called ‘WebCam Girl’ and it’s off his upcoming album ‘Neon Darkness’. Check out the video above and then check out his SoundCloud page for the rest of the tracks [Here]