Categories
In Focus Things to do

Bait Al-Othman Museum

Bait Al-Othman Museum opened earlier this year but I only got to pass by and check it out yesterday and to my surprise, it turned out to a lot bigger than I was expecting it to be. The museum covers various aspects of Kuwait’s history and showcases them in different rooms that are spread out across the museum. I loved walking around the place because I didn’t know what I would see next, they had a room about Kuwait Airways, a room with old currencies, an old barber shop, a drama room and a lot more other ones all covering historically important aspects related to Kuwait.

Entry fee was just KD1 and there’s a ton of parking outside where you could also see some old vehicles and even a plane. The museum is located in Hawalli behind Al Othman Complex on Bin Khaldoun Street. Visiting hours are 9:30AM to 12:30PM and 4:30PM to 9:00PM. They are open daily except for Friday mornings. Here is the location on [Google Maps]

The photos above are just some of the stuff you will see there since I didn’t want to ruin the experience for you by posting everything.




Categories
Food & Drinks Reviews

Review: The Peacock

I’m going to start my review by saying I don’t have any pretty food pictures to go with this post. I didn’t have my camera with me because I wasn’t planning to write a review and even though I had my phone I couldn’t use it to take pictures during dinner. Since everyone is usually anti-socially glued to their phones during lunch or dinner, me and my friends have this thing we do where we pile our phones facedown on top of each other on one side of the table and no one is allowed to check their phone until the bill comes. If you touch your phone before the bill arrives then you get to pay the whole bill yourself. Not something you want to do, especially when you’re at a pricy restaurant like The Peacock.

I don’t want to talk about the food anyway which was delicious (as expected). Most of you already know Peacock from before they closed down and their menu is basically 99% the same as it was before. For those of you who’ve never been to Peacock then it’s basically one of the best Chinese restaurants in Kuwait and also probably one of the best restaurants in Kuwait overall. It’s definitely in my top 3.

Now the reason I changed my mind and decided to review the place was because of the service. Hands down I think Peacock have the best dining service in Kuwait. It’s just ridiculous the amount of waiters that appear out of no where to service you. No one is hovering and you don’t notice them but when you need a waiter they’re there before you even call them. A friend arrived late to dinner and when he sat down at the table I just watched as four different waiters surrounded him to take care of him as he was being seated. One had hot towels, the other filled his glass with sparkling water, a third poured jasmine tea and the fourth handed him the menu. It’s like being pampered at a spa.

Another great thing is how well the waiters know the menu. One of my friends is allergic to wheat so she asked a waiter about various dishes and he knew the exact ingredients. He was able to tell her if one dish contained corn starch or if another used wheat or not. They know their stuff. Also, all the items on the menu are numbered and the waiter knew what each number corresponded to which dish on the menu. And the menu his huge with like 80 or so dishes yet I somehow can barely memorize my phone number.

The only negative really is that with the reopening they’ve also increased the prices of their dishes. That was to be expected because of inflation and so the prawns dishes for example are around KD9 now. Other than that we had an amazing dinner and I’m so glad they haven’t changed much about the place.

The Peacock is located at the newly renovated Radisson Blu Hotel. If you’re interested in passing by you need to reserve by calling them on 25673000.

Interior shot taken from the Radisson Blu [Facebook Page]




Categories
News

Air leak onboard Kuwait Airways flight

A Kuwaiti Airways passenger plane used blankets and bed sheets to block an air leak discovered through an emergency door while the jet was en route from Thailand to Kuwait, a newspaper reported on Tuesday.

Passengers began to panic when they saw the pilot and cabin crew hurrying to block the leak caused by erosion of a small part of the door, the Kuwaiti Arabic language daily Alwatan said, citing Kuwaiti Airways sources. [Source]

On the positive side it looks like they might be getting 20 new planes by next year.




Categories
Events

Event: Education UK

British Council is hosting their annual Education UK Exhibition which invites you to visit and speak with over 40 universities and colleges from the UK. EDUKEX 2013 will be held on the 2nd and 3rd of October in Sheraton Towers, Diamond Ballroom.

Entry to this event is free of charge but registration is required. Log on to the following website to register prior to the exhibition https://kw.edukexhibitions.org/

For more information please contact us on the following channels;

Telephone: +965 2251 5512
Fax: +965 2252 0069
Website: https://www.britishcouncil.org/kuwait-education-edukex.htm
Email: [email protected]
Facebook: www.facebook.com/britishcouncilkuwait
Twitter: @kwbritish
Instagram: @kwbritish

Note: Not related to the post below. Ok maybe just a little bit.




Categories
Information

Kuwait barely makes top 800 universities list

According to a recent ranking of top universities around the world, Kuwait barely makes the list coming in 701+ out of 800 (they just grouped the bottom 100 universities into one lump). Kuwait University was the only local university that made it into the top 800. On the other hand Saudi Arabia had 7 universities make the list including one that made it to #216, the highest amongst our neighbors. Oman, Qatar and the UAE all ranked higher than Kuwait as well.

Not good.

Check out the full rankings [Here]

Old KU photo above taken from [Here]




Categories
Mags & Books

Q8Books opening this Sunday

Q8Books is officially opening its door this coming Sunday. Other than a night full of cultural entertainment featuring artists Daxna, Monstariam, Dr. Foobar and Hamed Al-Refaei, Q8Books will also be introducing their outreach program. The bookstores opening hours will be 2 to 9PM and they’re located at Bayt Lothan (outside to the right of the main entrance). Pass by and follow them on Instagram @q8bookstore




Categories
Food & Drinks

AJ’s Food Truck

Over the weekend I got to try AJ’s Food Truck and although I didn’t think much of the food I do love the idea of food trucks and I hope it catches on (and I’m guessing it will). With AJ’s Food Truck you have two options, you can either book them to come over with their truck and cater to you and your friends or you could follow them on Instagram and keep an eye out for when they park their truck somewhere so you could go and find them.

AJ’s Food Truck is a burger truck with a menu consisting of two kinds of burgers, a steak sandwich and a chicken burger. They also have sides like fries, onion rings and chicken tenders as well as drinks. But food trucks can of course be more than just burger trucks and I’d love to see a Chinese or Mexican food truck roaming around Kuwait.

If you want to find out more about AJ’s Food Truck you can check out their Instagram account @ajsfoodtruck




Categories
Food & Drinks

Katsuya by S+ARCK opening next month

I found out last night that Katsuya by S+ARCK will be opening in the middle of October. Katsuya by S+ARCK is a Japanese restaurant that is designed by the famous product and interior designer, Philippe Starck. The franchise was brought to the region by Alshaya and their first location in Kuwait is located in Avenues Phase III near Gaucho Grill.

Picture above taken from the Philippe Starck website.

Update: Katsuya is now open [Link]




Categories
50s to 90s Kuwait

Super old footage of Kuwaiti firefighters

No idea from what year since the video doesn’t have a description. [YouTube]




Categories
Apple

iPhone 5S and 5C Prices in Kuwait

I passed by Sharq today to check out the prices of the iPhone 5S. Most of the shops didn’t have it yet but the ones that did were selling the 16GB from KD320 to as high as KD360. Eureka Electronics also has the iPhone 5S in stock and they’re selling the 16GB for KD300. They also have the iPhone 5C 16GB for KD220.

Prices will obviously drop once the market is saturated.




Categories
Kuwait

It’s still just a dirt pit

Back in 2011, someone decided it would be smart to reduce the size of the middle sidewalk in old Salmiya by creating a dirt pit around all the trees. I guess the idea was that they would plant these pits with greenery which I was against since I knew no one would maintain it. I received some criticism regarding my views because I wasn’t being optimistic.

Well the picture above is how the median looks like over 2 years later. This is why I was suggesting the other day they plant fake grass in old Salmiya instead of destroying the beautiful Gulf Road with fake grass.




Categories
Photography

Sheikh Majed Al-Sabah featured on Instagram

The Instagram blog and official account featured the account of Sheikh Majed Al-Sabah a few days ago. Sheikh Majed Al-Sabah who was the person behind Villa Moda has been taking photos of household objects on stark white backgrounds which has proven to be popular with his followers.

I’m not aware of any other Kuwaiti account that has been featured on Instagram before. The photo they featured has already received over 300,000 likes while the article on the blog has received over 1,000 notes. You can check out his account by following him on @majedalsabahkuwait and you can also check out the feature on him [Here]

Thanks @geekinkuwait




Categories
Mags & Books

Q8Books coming back to life

Back in May I posted that Q8Books, the used books store was closing down. Well since then a lot of things have happened. Q8Books did in fact close down but all the books were purchased by Fajer the lawyer and she’s moved the bookstore into a much larger location in Salmiya. She’s bringing back Q8Books and it’s going to be better than ever. The new location is at Bayt Lothan and it’s around four times the size of the older location.

The bookshop is nearly done and Fajer is planning to relaunch it sometime next week. Once it’s officially open I’ll have her post about it with more details including information on how you can donate books and on the bookstore’s outreach project to support a library in Gambia. For now you can follow them on Instagram to see what they’re up to @q8bookstore




Categories
Blog Info

Note for iOS7 users

I just upgraded my iPhone to iOS7 and realized both my 248AM and Kuwait Blogs app now no longer work. I need to update them so will be doing so this weekend. Once the update is available I’ll let you know.




Categories
Video Games

Octopus City Blues, a locally developed video game


[YouTube]

Firas Assaad is an expat born and living Kuwait and works as a software developer in a small company in the city. Firas had always wanted to make games and so for the past 2 years he’s worked on a side project called Octopus City Blues.

I found out about Octopus City Blues last night when I got an email from a reader telling me about a Kickstarter project based from Kuwait. Firas went on Kickstarter to secure funding to help pay the other team members for their time and was hoping to get just $7,000 but with 6 days left he’s already gotten pledges of nearly $17,000. The game looks super cool and trippy plus it’s 2D which I love. You can watch the trailer on top to see the style of the game and below are some links with more information on Firas and the project:

Octopus City Blues on Kickstarter
Octopus City Blues Interview: Grab that Tentacle!
Octopus City Blues website

Thanks Hish