Author: Mark

Below are all the events I found taking place this weekend, if I missed anything let me know in the comments:

Thursday, Jan 12
Meet Me At The Terrace
Yard at The Assima Mall
The Promenade Family Fun

Friday, Jan 13
Kites Watching in Bnaider
Meet Me At The Terrace
Yard at The Assima Mall
Hannibal Race 2023
Trip: Into The Stars
965 Superbike Championship

Saturday, Jan 14
Meet Me At The Terrace
Treasure Hunt At Alshaheed Park
Al Kout Run
Art N Dine – Take me to Saturn
Assima Mall Reading Book
DAI Storytime
Cooking Class: Italian Tagliatelle
Know Your Mughals

Exhibitions
Surrender by Bader Qabazard

Activities
Albohayra Farm
Ascend Rock Climbing
Indoor Karting
Little Jungle
Murouj Farm
Movement Classes at Omni Studio
Roller Blade at Roller Hub
Yoga at Darātma

Museums to Visit
Abdullah Salem Cultural Center (ASCC)
Amricani Cultural Center Museum
Bait Al Othman Museum

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

New This Weekend:
High Heat (4.7)
Leave (5.3)
Realm of Terracotta (6.2)

Other Movies Showing:
Avatar: The Way of Water (8.3)
Black Panther: Wakanda Forever (7.4)
Black Adam (7.5)
Finnick (5.9)
M3GAN (6.1)
Operation Fortune: Ruse de guerre (7.2)
Shotgun Wedding (7.3)
Summit Fever (4.9)
The Amazing Maurice (6.4)

The classic films below are currently showing at the 1954 Film House:
Back to the Future (8.5)
Back to the Future Part III (7.4)
Blade Runner (8.1)

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

The Grand Mosque is holding a tour in English this coming Saturday, January 14th. The tour will take place at 10:00 AM and last up to an hour.

The tour will take you through the Arabic calligraphy exhibition, the main prayer hall, and the Emir’s hall.

Dress Code: No sleeveless shirts nor shorts for men, and full-length cloaks and headscarves for women

Parking: Available at gate 5

Meeting Point: The visitor’s diwaniya

These tours aren’t held every weekend and aren’t always in English so don’t miss it if you’ve been meaning to go. No pre-booking is needed and no tickets either. This is a free tour.

Finnish stand-up comedian ISMO is coming to Kuwait as part of his international comedy tour. ISMO, who is the winner of the title “The Funniest Person in the World” by the comedy club Laugh Factory, will perform at AUK on January 25th.

I hadn’t heard of ISMO until now and I watched some of his clips on YouTube and he seems like a funny guy, but I wouldn’t call him “the funniest person in the world”. If you’re looking for something to do, tickets start at KD15 and can be purchased through Eventat.com

There’s a new fish and chips spot that just opened up in the city called The Fishery. They opened next to where Lunch Room used to be in T21 Tower, right across from Behbehani Complex. Their main menu consists of three items:

Fish Fillet Burger KD3.950
Fish and Chips (dory or cod fish) KD5.950
Shrimp Roll KD4.500

I haven’t passed by yet since my cheat day is on Friday (new year new me!) but it looks promising from the photos. They’re currently in their soft-opening phase but operate a full day from 2PM to 11PM. If you’re interested, they’re on Instagram @thefisherykuwait

JACC have announced that the award-winning Broadway show Shrek The Musical is coming to Kuwait next month. There will be 14 shows taking place over 9 days starting from February 2nd up until the 11th.

Tickets start at 10KD but those tickets are for wheelchairs while the second cheapest tickets are 15KD and are for seats with restricted views. So realistically, tickets start at 25KD and go up to 50KD for VIP seats.

I imagine tickets will sell fast, so if you’re interested in watching a Broadway show in Kuwait, this is your chance. To book tickets visit the JACC website ‎‏jacc-kw.com

Ahmadi Music Group (AMG) is one of the longest-standing arts organizations in Kuwait dating back to the 1950’s. They hold a lot of different events throughout the year and are now looking to welcome new members to their group.

If you like to sing then Ahmadi Music Group can surround you with a 50-strong choir and orchestra. The first rehearsal is tomorrow, Monday 9th of January at 7 PM. If you’d like to try out, contact Jennifer on WhatsApp 66147907 for the location and details.

I recently got back into shooting with 35mm film so the timing of this is pretty perfect. VO (I still have no idea what they do) are opening what they’re calling the largest photography dark room in the Middle East. The dark room will contain eight enlargers (6 for 35mm film, 2 for 120mm film) and will be a collaborative space for anyone interested in exploring and experimenting with this old art form.

If you don’t know how to develop photos that’s ok because they have a Darkroom 101 workshop that costs 30KD and will teach you the process. Developing your own photo costs 5KD (including the chemicals) and printing your own images starts at 1.2KD per photo.

The dark room is opening on January 10th and you can get more information by visiting their Instagram @vo.thedarkroom or their website vo.com.kw/darkroom

Below are all the events I found taking place this weekend, if I missed anything let me know in the comments:

Thursday, Jan 5
Meet Me At The Terrace
Bazzar Expo
KMT: Car Open Track Day

Friday, Jan 6
Kites Watching in Bnaider
Meet Me At The Terrace
Bazzar Expo
Roll Race Event
Super Run Event

Saturday, Jan 7
Meet Me At The Terrace
Treasure Hunt At Alshaheed Park
Bazzar Expo
AlSadu Workshop: Fun with Textiles
Basta: Fermentation Workshop
Storytelling with Ahmed Almonsouri
Artists Hangout
TrashHero Beach Cleanup
Speedcubing Workshop
Watch Camel Races

Exhibitions
25 O’Clock by Walid Taher
A Retrospective by Abdulwahab Al Awadhi
Visitor of Freedom by Thuraya Al Baqsami

Activities
Albohayra Farm
Ascend Rock Climbing
Indoor Karting
Little Jungle
Murouj Farm
Movement Classes at Omni Studio
Roller Blade at Roller Hub
Yoga at Darātma

Museums to Visit
Abdullah Salem Cultural Center (ASCC)
Amricani Cultural Center Museum
Bait Al Othman Museum
Tareq Rajab Museum

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

New This Weekend:
Finnick (5.9)
M3GAN (6.1)
Operation Fortune: Ruse de guerre (7.2)

Other Movies Showing:
Avatar: The Way of Water (8.3)
Black Adam (7.5)
Black Panther: Wakanda Forever (7.4)
Mindcage (4.2)
Pil’s Adventures (6.1)
Shotgun Wedding (7.3)
Summit Fever (4.9)
The Amazing Maurice (6.4)
The Lair (4.6)

The classic films below are currently showing at the 1954 Film House:
Back to the Future (8.5)
Back to the Future Part II (7.8)
Back to the Future Part III (7.4)

The film below is also showing at JACC’s Cinema Hall:
Saint Omer (7.0)

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

The Cinema Hall at JACC is back with a new film schedule for the month of January and this month’s films include:

EO (Poland) (Cannes Jury Prize Winner)
Egyptian Shorts 1 (Egypt) (short films produced recently)
Our River… Our Sky (Iraq)
Saint Omer (France)

The movies have English subtitles.

Tickets cost KD4 and can be purchased from jacc-kw.com.

Yesterday the Ministry of Interior announced they would be installing new smarter speed cameras around Kuwait. The new cameras are pretty high-tech and can detect things like illegal turns, cars blocking pedestrian walkways, people using their phones while driving, and even spotting if you have a seatbelt on or not.

One of the things I hate the most is driving behind someone going super slow on the fast lane because they’re texting or taking a selfie so I hope they install a ton of these new cameras all around Kuwait.

Starting February 2nd, Jazeera Airways will now be flying directly to Moscow. Their introductory fare starts at KD99 and I just tried booking for a date in February and found seats for KD98.960 so this KD99 price is real.

The only thing is the timing of all this seems a bit weird. With the ongoing war against Ukraine, not sure Russia is the best place to take a vacation right now. Simple things like your credit cards won’t even work there. But KD99 is a pretty good deal though.

Yesterday I passed by Youm Al-Bahhar which officially reopened on Sunday after getting refurbished.

I’ve been visiting Youm Al-Bahhar since I was a kid in the 80s so I’m very familiar with the place and tend to visit it every few years for nostalgic purposes but also because of the bookshop there which I first visited back in 2014. The bookshop called the Kuwait Heritage Library mostly sells old books many of which are rare, so I like to pass by the guy every so often to see if he got anything new.

The Youm Al-Bahhar village has changed a lot since it first opened. Initially, it resembled an old fisherman’s village built on sand next to the sea and was filled with different old-school entertainment rides for the kids (the photo above of me and my brother is the only one I could find showing it). Over the years the village kept getting more modernized and eventually the children’s games were removed.

If you visited the village over the last few years then you’re not going to see much of a difference in terms of the main structure. It’s been cleaned up, and given a fresh new paint job but the layout is still basically the same. The village has a few shops that sell different things related to Kuwait, there is now a small museum, a rooftop cafe which was closed when I passed by, and an area filled with benches and surrounded by a few shops that sell various traditional food like tea and rugag bread.

The village opens from 11AM to 10PM but the various shops open from 4PM onwards. Entry is free and the village is located across from the National Assembly building (Google Maps).

A Space X rocket, carrying the first Kuwaiti Satellite (Kuwait Sat-1) will launch into space from Florida later today.

The satellite is a CubeSat which is a class of research spacecraft called nanosatellites. CubeSats are generic, modular satellites that come in different sizes and can be customized with various payloads. Kuwait’s satellite will have a camera payload which was put together by students at Kuwait University and will be operated by them after disengaging from the rocket.

With this satellite, Kuwait will be able to take its own photos of its own country from space which could then be used for many purposes ranging from environmental studies to mapping cities.

If you’re interested in watching the launch, 360 Mall will be broadcasting it live on their Oval Screen in the Main Atrium at 5:45 PM. For more information check @kw.university and @kfasinfo