Lessons of Darkness is a film about the Kuwaiti oil fields in flames directed by Werner Herzog and released in 1992. I posted about the movie 8 years ago but it wasn’t available to stream online back then, and now it is.
The style is similar to movies Baraka and Samsara where footage is combined with beautiful music except, in this case, the beautiful footage is mostly of horror and destruction. The first few minutes look like a scene out of a sci-fi film and it’s really an epic-looking film overall.
The film is available on YouTube and in HD. I have no idea how long it will be up there until it gets pulled for copyright reasons so if you haven’t watched the film this is your chance to do so. Here is the link.
I posted an update to my T1 to T4 shuttle bus post, in summary, there is no airport shuttle bus once you leave the terminal but you can take the public bus. Read the update here.
Today marks the 32nd anniversary of the 1990 Kuwait Invasion. Every year on the anniversary I like to share some links related to the war, here they are:
Free Kuwait
This is a website that focuses on the campaign that was led by Kuwaitis in exile and is loaded with photos and information.
Kuwait Invasion – The Evidence
This is a website that contains over 1,200 pictures taken right after the 1990 invasion as photographic evidence to all the destruction caused by Iraq.
Short movie: Hearts of Palm
Hearts of Palm is a short movie set on August 2nd 1990 and deals with Kuwaiti students living in Miami Florida during the Iraqi Invasion of Kuwait.
The Class of 1990
This is a short documentary about reuniting classmates years after the 1990 Iraqi invasion.
BBC Documentary: The Last Flight to Kuwait
A series of documentaries on Iraq begins with a look at the fate of British Airways flight BA149 to the Far East in 1990. As the plane landed in Kuwait, Saddam Hussein invaded, capturing its crew and passengers.
Lessons Of Darkness
This film surveys the disaster of the Kuwaiti oil fields in flames, with little narration and scarcely any interviews. Hell on Earth is presented in such transcendent visions and music that one can only be fascinated by it.
Alo Yoga, the Los Angeles-based premium lifestyle/yoga brand is coming to Kuwait soon. Alshaya got the franchise and based on their jobs posting, they are setting up their head office in the UAE and then opening their first store in Kuwait.
Once open, Alo will compete directly with Lululemon so I’d imagine they will be getting a very premium location in The Avenues for their first store.
So I flew out of the Kuwait Airways terminal on Friday and parked my car in the long-term parking there, but then had to change my return date and now flying back to Kuwait on Emirates which lands at terminal 1.
Does anyone know if there is a shuttle bus between the two terminals? I checked the T4 website which I didn’t know existed till a few moments ago and there isn’t any info there.
Update: Yesterday I landed at terminal 1 and ended up taking a public bus to terminal 4. There is no shuttle bus once you exit the airport (there is one for transit passengers inside the airport but before immigration). Once you pass immigration and exit the airport your only option is a cab to terminal 4 or a public bus. The public bus station is located off to the side of the airport (Google Maps) and when I got there I found five buses parked.
A KPTC bus was about to leave but I yelled and waved to the bus driver and he stopped. I wasn’t sure if he was gonna pass by T4 but it was one of their new buses so I wanted to try it out. When I got on the bus I asked the driver if he was passing by the Kuwait Airways terminal and he said yes. The cost of the ride was the regular 250fils bus fee. 2 minutes later he dropped me off at the bus station outside T4. Fast and easy.
A couple of days back I posted about the lack of an English option in the Sahel App and clearly a lot of people are frustrated by this. But I bring you good news!
According to a source involved in the project, the app has had the English option available for a while now but are unable to launch it just yet because some of the entities that are in Sahel have not finished adapting to English and English data. That’s why it’s taken longer than expected to roll out the English version, but it will eventually roll out.
That actually makes a lot of sense. For some reason, I thought it was just about translating the text inside the app to English but I didn’t consider the fact that the English data we input would then have to work with the various different ministries that all deal with Arabic paperwork. The fact that the ministries are now working to have English be an option is actually impressive.
For those of you who were looking forward to watching the latest installment of the movie Thor at the cinemas here, you’re going to have to find another place.
According to Alqabas, the Ministry of Information has banned the screening of ‘Thor: Love and Thunder’ in Kuwait due to scenes that include gay characters. This shouldn’t come as a surprise anymore, and similar to previous movies that included gay characters, it’s mostly likely going to get banned in other neighboring countries as well.
Yesterday I dropped off my FJ Cruiser at the Toyota dealer since I’m trading it in for the new Hilux. I’ve had the FJ Cruiser for over 12 years and didn’t really think I’d ever sell it. I loved it so much I even ended up buying a 1980 FJ (video below, more on that another time). But, after test driving the Hilux earlier this month, I decided I’d part ways with it. 12 years! I was still working in advertising when I bought the car, I was married, I had a dog, I had a completely different life and so it all feels really weird.
I bought the FJ back in 2010 for 10,450KD and yesterday when I dropped the car off, it had done 250,053KM. If the dealer had actually called me a day earlier I might have been able to coordinate it properly so I could hand it over to them with a perfect 250,000 mileage. Over the years I’ve had only a few issues with the car so it’s been pretty great considering how much abuse it’s taken from me. Right after the warranty expired I ended up having a problem with my AC. A common issue with the FJ where the AC evaporator needs to be replaced, a job that involves having the whole dashboard pulled out. That cost me around 650KD to get sorted at the dealer. 5 years later the problem happened again although the second time it cost me 400KD to get fixed. Finally, the last issue I had with the car happened last month when I had issues with my brakes. The dealer wanted 1,000KD to fix but I ended up fixing it outside for 220KD with a used part. Other than those three issues, I’ve had no other problems at all.
Servicing the car was never an issue either which is why I really wanted to buy another Toyota. I actually feel lucky that the two dealerships I deal with, Toyota and Lotus both have been really great. I’ve dealt with other dealerships before and these two by far are the best ones I’ve experienced. They’re also the exact opposite of each other. Toyota is probably the largest car dealership in Kuwait with multiple service centers and a ton of staff, while Lotus is probably the smallest dealership with just one tiny service “corner” and only a handful of staff.
The dealer took the car off me for 2,850KD which isn’t pretty bad considering the original cost of the car and the fact it’s 12 years old. I could have sold it for higher myself directly to a buyer, but I didn’t want to go through the hassle of dealing with different people, the price negotiations, or the process of transferring the ownership.
It was pretty sad letting go of the car but I think it’s for the best and I should pick up my Hilux tonight or tomorrow. I ended up going with grey and got to finally see it in person a couple of days ago after it had finished the pre-delivery inspection. The dealer didn’t have any cars in stock other than the white test drive vehicle so I had to wait till their shipment arrived to see the color in person. I’ll probably post about the Hilux once I get it, but for now, I just wanted to dedicated a goodbye post to my FJ.
Is the Sahel app really only in Arabic? I keep thinking there must be an English option somewhere and I just can’t find it because it doesn’t make sense that an app as important as Sahel is only in Arabic. I’m terrible at reading Arabic so I struggle to use the app, so how do people who don’t know any Arabic use it?
Yesterday I passed by the newly opened Ajas’s Film Lab to check the place out. According to their bio, they’re meant to be the best place for all things film related but I don’t know how accurate that is. The store is small and fairly empty with mostly just a counter in the back and a small fridge filled with disposable cameras and some film. They had three kinds of film, one black and white, and two colored. The black and white is priced at 5KD while the colored were 8KD each. The disposable cameras were also 8KD.
Their main service though is developing films but turns out they don’t print them. They just develop your negative roll and then scan and email you the digital photos. The main reason I shoot film is so I can print film so it was disappointing they didn’t offer that service. The cost for developing and scanning your film is 5KD.
The place isn’t cheap but I think they’re trying to offer a nice trendy place for people to get their film developed. The developing and scanning cost is OK I guess at 5KD, there are cheaper places but not by much. When it comes to film rolls though I think they’re too expensive. I buy my color film rolls for 4KD from random studios around Salmiya where they still sell film (they aren’t expired), so I definitely wouldn’t pay 8KD.
If you want to check Ajas out, they’re on insta @ajasfilmlab and here is their location on Google Maps.
For a list of places that develop film, check out this link. For black and white film, Studio Khemia sell rolls starting at 3KD and also offer workshops where they teach you how to develop and print your black and white rolls, check them out on Insta @khemiae.darkroom
Good Game, the popular tabletop gaming store which opened back in 2013 in Sanabil Tower has now moved back to Sanabil Tower (Google Maps) after previously moving to Salmiya. They didn’t move back into their old store in Sanabil but instead got another larger corner store. I wasn’t really a fan of the Salmiya location since it wasn’t very cozy but the new store sorts that out.
If you’re a fan of tabletop gaming or if you feel like getting into Dungeons & Dragons after watching Stranger Things, check them out @goodgamekw
There is a local Instagram account that sells children’s books paired with themed dioramas. I originally thought these themed dioramas came with the books and the account was just reselling them, but it turned out that the person was making each diorama themselves.
It’s a cool idea that can make reading more fun so if you have kids check the account @story.trunks.kw
