Author: Mark

Yesterday I shared photos of the Abu Al Hasaniya beach littered with plastic bottles and a group of volunteers from Trash Hero decided to take it upon themselves to go pick up all the trash.

Based on the video shared in their stories, it looks like most of the trash was picked up. But, they’re going back there today at 3PM to finish up the job so if you want to give them a hand, join them today. @trashherokuwait

Photos and videos have been circulating this morning of Abu Al Hasaniya Beach littered with trash, mostly plastic bottles. It looks like they were washed ashore by the sea and not caused by beach goers. More photos here.

Not sure if it was this was a fluke or what but I had a really great experience with the Kuwait post office last week. I had a package containing 4 car tires that shipped from the UK and arrived to me in less than a week. My tires left the UK on December 10th and according to the MOC tracking page, they arrived to Kuwait on December 15th. The following day I got an SMS from the Hateen Post Office to pass by pick up my package. When I got to the post office there was nobody there and the whole process of getting my tires took less than 10 minutes. I ended up paying just 1KD for customs clearance and they even had a porter cart my tires to my car.

If the post office was always like this I’d be ordering through them soooo much more often. They were so fast they made Aramex Shop&Ship look like the Kuwait post office.

Update: I knew things were too good to be true, turns out the post office gave me someone else tires! Link

iHop shut down all their locations in Kuwait earlier this year but it looks like now they’re making a come back again. A few days ago iHop updated their instagram page saying were back.. but only as a delivery brand on Talabat.

Hopefully, they’ll eventually reopen a physical location since I always liked their breakfast.

I tried googling for an answer when I wanted to buy a car jack this weekend and couldn’t find anything so if you’re also looking to buy a car jack, this post is for you.

If you want a car jack to use at home when working on your car, the first place you’ll probably check is Ace Hardware or Bin Nisf. Problem is Ace Hardware is really expensive (50KD for a Craftsman car jack) while Bin Nisf didn’t really have anything. Instead, if you’re looking for a car jack one of the best places to go is Al Maroom in Shuwaikh. They have a fairly large selection of jacks and they carry the brand Big Red Jacks. I ended up picking up a 3-ton Big Red Jack for 25KD plus a pair of Big Red floor jack stands for KD10.

If you’re looking for garage jacks, here is their location on Google Maps.

I just realized that it’s Camel Race season. The races usually take place every Saturday from October to March so if you haven’t been to one before it could be something new and fun to do, plus it’s free. There are also a bunch of other things happening this weekend so check out the list below:

Thursday
Exhibition: Art from the Islamic Civilization
Exhibition: Saad Hamdan – The Spirit of Ceramics
Exhibition: The Private Collection of Mahsa Azimi
Exhibition: Abdulwahab Al-Awadhi – The Sound of Silence
Exhibition: Abduljalil Al Shareefi – Nostalgia
Bazaar Commercial Expo
Hype Festival
BBT Picnic
Terrace at the 360 Mall Foodhall

Friday
Hype Festival
Sailing: Friday Moonlight Sailing
Kuwait Equestrian Federation Show Jumping Tour
BBT Picnic
Terrace at the 360 Mall Foodhall

Saturday
Exhibition: Art from the Islamic Civilization
Exhibition: Saad Hamdan – The Spirit of Ceramics
Exhibition: The Private Collection of Mahsa Azimi
Exhibition: Abdulwahab Al-Awadhi – The Sound of Silence
Exhibition: Abduljalil Al Shareefi – Nostalgia
Grand Mosque Tour
Treasure Hunt in Al Shaheed Park
Ford Desert Challenge
Hype Festival
Shai Al Doha By Not Necessarily Famous
Kuwait Equestrian Federation Show Jumping Tour
BBT Picnic
Camel Races
Arabic Language Day at The Grand Mosque
Terrace at the 360 Mall Foodhall

As usual, if I’ve missed an event, let me know in the comments.

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

New This Weekend:
Christmas Thieves (5.1)
Spider-Man: No Way Home (9.2)

Other Movies Showing Now:
Clifford the Big Red Dog (6.1)
Encanto (7.8)
Ghostbusters: From Beyond (7.7)
House of Gucci (7.1)
King Richard (6.8)
Sing 2 (7.2)
Survive the Game (4.7)
The Kindred (6.6)
Wrath of Man (7.1)

Classic Movies Showing Now:
Rocky III (6.8)

The films below are also now showing at the Scientific Center IMAX theater:

IMAX Movies Showing Now:
Antarctica (N/A)
Backyard Wilderness 3D (7.7)
Encanto (7.8)
Turtle Odyssey (7.2)

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

Back in 2017, I posted about the eSports scene in Kuwait and since then it kinda took a dip in terms of activities at one point but it looks to be gaining momentum again. Al-Bayan Bilingual School (BBS) now even has an eSports Club which is pretty cool but probably the biggest thing happening right now is VO’s X-Kuwait Esports division.

X-Kuwait is trying to develop athletes as well as set up sporting competitions like The Fifa Winter Games which is going to be held at the end of this month. The 1st place winner will get a 5,000KD cash prize, while 2nd place 3,000KD and 3rd place 1,500KD. Registration to the competition was meant to close yesterday but they’ve extended it by a day. If you want to try your chance at winning 5,000KD, it’s 10KD to register for the tournament and you need to do so today. Here is the registration link.

Also make sure you follow X-Kuwait on instagram to stay posted on other competitions that come up@xkuwait.esports

MP Abdullah Al-Turaiji yesterday submitted a proposal to the National Assembly calling to restrict vehicle ownership by expatriates to only two and impose extra fees on any additional vehicles, saying the proposal aims at reducing traffic jams. Turaiji’s proposal calls on the interior ministry to take the necessary measures to restrict the number of vehicles foreign residents can own for personal use to only two “to counter the illegal trade in vehicles, reduce traffic jams” and “ensure there are enough spaces for the use of Kuwaiti citizens at commercial malls, markets and public places”. Source

Can someone explain how me owning more than 2 cars causes traffic jams? Is there a way to drive all my cars at the same time cuz if there is I’d love to do that?

For such a big and really well-organized event, it’s sad to see the beach area trashed like that.

Out of curiosity, how many people here watched the last race of the Formula 1 season last night? I’m kinda curious to see how popular the sport has gotten in Kuwait especially after Netflix’s Drive to Survive series.

[poll id=”18″]

It’s been a few months since I’ve recommended a new show to watch but that’s just because nothing new really came out that I really liked until just recently. Here are two shows that I think you should watch:

Swagger
This is currently my favorite show streaming on TV right now. It’s a new series by basketball player Kevin Durant that is inspired by his experience playing basketball as a youth. It’s a sports drama and you don’t really have to be into basketball to watch it. It’s an easy show to pick up and watch and there’s tons of great acting with a pretty great soundtrack to go with it as well. The first season still hasn’t finished and the show’s timeline takes place in 2019/2020 so it touches on the various important issues that took place in the US last year including black lives matter and the pandemic. It only has a 6.6 on IMDB for some reason but really ignore that since it’s really great. The show is streaming on AppleTV+.

Cowboy Bebop
This is probably gonna be a controversial one but I really liked Cowboy Bebop. In my defense, I never watched the original Manga series and so I didn’t have any preconceptions or expectations going into this. There is nothing like Cowboy Bebop, it’s a sci-fi series that feels like the 70s which is a very odd combination. So you have old 70s cars for example on the planets, but you also have space travel and all this futuristic technology yet they all look very old school. From the very first scene of the first episode, the show was fun to watch and it really disappointing that it got canceled after just the first season.

Skip: La Brea, probably the worst TV show I ever watched. It was total garbage and none of it made any sense. I have no idea how it managed to score a 5.6 on IMDB. Invasion, this show had potential but didn’t do it for me. It wasn’t very exciting and didn’t make me want to watch it. Too loud to be background TV as well.

A couple of years ago I posted a review on the Sony WH-1000XM3 noise-canceling headphones. They’re really really great and I’ve been using them ever since that post as my go-to travel headphones since they do such an incredible job of canceling the plane noise (they’re better than Bose). Back then I purchased them for around KD110 but this weekend I noticed they were on sale at Xcite for just 55KD! (cheaper than Amazon even)

I made a friend purchase a pair and figured I’d post about it as well. 55KD for these headphones is a too good to pass price. If you’re looking for noise-canceling headphones, get these before they sell out. I spotted them at their Hawalli branch but they also have them on their website.

Thrf is a new online thrift shop set up by the very fashionable @hesitant__alien. The account sells pre-loved, vintage, and brand new clothing all hand-picked by her and updated every weekend. All the prices and sizes are listed in the description and everything is very reasonably priced.

The clothes sell out fairly quickly so make sure you follow the account to be notified once they drop @thrf_kw

Here is the list of events taking place this weekend. The GIG Battle Fitness Festival which is taking place at the Green Island is always worth going to and attracts a lot of international competitors. The Drive-In movies at Bnaider also sounds fun but, if you haven’t gotten tickets yet to the Staged in Kuwait Pantomime, there are still a few available so don’t miss out on that. Here is the full list:

Thursday
Exhibition: Art from the Islamic Civilization
Exhibition: Beyond the Abyss
The Avenues Sky
Pantomime: Dick Whittington
Bazaar Commercial Expo
Drive In Bnaider 264
Arab Masters Tennis Tournament
Farmers Market in Wafra

Friday
The Avenues Sky
Pantomime: Dick Whittington
Bazaar Commercial Expo
The GIG Battle Fitness Festival
Saracen Race 2021
Drive In Bnaider 264
Arab Masters Tennis Tournament
Kuwait Coffee Festival
Farmers Market in Wafra

Saturday
Exhibition: Art from the Islamic Civilization
Exhibition: Beyond the Abyss
Grand Mosque Tour
The Avenues Sky
Treasure Hunt in Al Shaheed Park
Pantomime: Dick Whittington
Bazaar Commercial Expo
The GIG Battle Fitness Festival
Sailing: Saturday Sunset Cruising
Miseen Scene Club: Goya’s Ghosts – 2006
Kasa’s Padel Tournament
Trashtag Cleanup and Kashta at Shumaymah Desert
Drive In Bnaider 264
Arab Masters Tennis Tournament
Kuwait Coffee Festival
Holiday Monogram Event
Farmers Market in Wafra
Horse Grooming & Yoga
Free City Walk

As usual, if I’ve missed an event, let me know in the comments.