Category: Information

I hadn’t been to the Avenues for awhile so this is just an update for people haven’t been there recently also.

Carrefour is now open. I was expecting to find stuff there that wasn’t available at Sultan Center but surprisingly they either had the same stuff or less. The cornflakes section for example is a joke at Carrefour filled mostly with their Carrefour branded cornflakes. Their fish section was larger and their bakery seems better but didn’t get a chance to try it. The coolest thing about Carrefour is their electronics section. They have a ton of stuff and its all good brands like Sony, Samsung etc.. plus they have a ton of accessories and gadgets. Problem is you can find the stuff cheaper elsewhere.

Gap is now open. I was never a fan of Gap so I can’t say much about it. Kuwaiti Cosmopolitan has a detailed post on Gap so you can check that out. [Link]

GoSport is now open. The place is huge, much larger then I was expecting it to be. They have a lot of sports gear all laid out very nicely. I think its my favorite sports store at the moment not that they had strong competition.

Other notable mentions: Lucky Brand Jeans opened up. Ben Sherman is opening soon. Banana Republic still closed. I was supposed to have lunch at the Noodles place upstairs but there was an hour and a half waiting list. Parking wasn’t a problem at 2PM on Friday.

From todays issue of the Kuwait Times:

Someone emailed me telling me that the ministry shut down the Jahra branch of the Farah restaurant because it turned out they were catching street cats and using their meat for their shawerma. Today this news is in the papers and here is a link to an article from Al Rai Al Aam newspaper. [Link]

I think thats kinda sick but I am still curious to know if they were trying to pass it on as chicken or beef? I am also wondering what I would have rated it if I had tried it…

Thanks Afterstorm

IMPORTANT: Just a note, the article doesn’t mention Farah, the person who sent me the article said it was Farah.

A lot of people have iPods and a lot of people listen to them using the white earbuds that came in the box. The earbuds look pretty but really aren’t doing your music any justice since they aren’t very good. This is why I always suggest to friends to invest in a decent pair of headphones like they just invested in the mp3 player.

One brand I always suggest they give a shot is Sennheiser. They have a large variety of headphones so people are bound to find one that suits their needs. My first pair of Sennheiser’s were the PX100 which were amazing as I reviewed previously on my blog.

Anyway a friend of mine passed by aDawliah yesterday who are the dealers for Sennheiser in Kuwait and he told me they currently have a sale and their prices are now cheaper then Amazon. Not only that but the staff their were very helpful and even let him try on and listen to a variety of headphones until he found one that he liked.

So if you are still using your original Apple white earbuds or are looking to buy a new pair of headphones then now might be the best time to buy one. The easiest aDawliah branch to find is the one right across the street from Marina Mall. They are also dealers for Bose but I wouldn’t recommend them since they are over priced and don’t sound that great.

Here is a link to aDawliah’s website [Link]

Since I canceled my Showtime subscription I no longer watch TV, not even the free satellite channels. I don’t have a reason to since I download all my TV shows and movies. But, there are times when I do wish I have satellite TV, for example there are currently important events taking place in Lebanon from the bombings in the residential areas to the battles in the north and because I don’t have satellite TV I can’t watch what was happening…

Until now! I was playing around with CNN Pipeline when I noticed one of their feeds was a direct broadcast of LBC, the Lebanese TV station. I clicked on the link and it turns out because of the events taking place in Lebanon, CNN have given viewers an option to view a Lebanese TV station for latest up to date news. So I decided to sign up to CNN Pipeline for only $2.95 a month and I am currently watching a live feed of the latest bombing in Lebanon. Pretty nifty.

I just found out some disappointing news. After all these years of drinking Like Cola thinking I was supporting a local product, I just found out that Like was actually introduced by 7up. Oh well at least we still have Shani to be proud of.

I really love watching this stuff. Thanks to hummer15al for uploading this documentary. Its divided into 3 parts and the video is in color which is cool.

1960 Kuwait Part 1
1960 Kuwait Part 2
1960 Kuwait Part 3

Yesterday some people suggested that the reason behind KFC’s recent addition to the Fish Zinger sandwich is so that they can offer a non-chicken alternative on their menu in case of another bird flu scare. I suggested that if that was the case KFC should have advertised their Colonel Burger. Well turns out there is a story behind that burger. Tat, a reader of the blog commented with the following information:

Business predictions are that bird flu will reappear every summer. Last summer, Egypt’s KFC sales fell almost by half and the Gulf KFC’s by 20 – 25%. Therefore KFC international has come up with non-chicken products to offer alternatives.

The Colonel Burger has been around for a long time. It was a product, started many years back, by Americana locally, to beat a competitor called Jack in the Box; a burger chain concept that dared include fried chicken in their menu. Since the burger is not a KFC product its not advertised too much.

KFC in the gulf will move over to transfat free oil in a few months.

Cinemagic who are entertaining people every Wednesday night with movies have now created a Documentary Night which is going to be held every Tuesday. This week they will be playing Al Gore’s controversial Academy Award winning Documentary about Global Warming, “An Inconvenient Truth“. The location is the same, Bait Lothan in Salmiya and the movie will run from 7:30PM till around 9:30PM.

As always, attendance is free of charge and they encourage you to invite guests. Seating is limited, so make sure you come a little early. Snacks and refreshments will be served.

Yes I know I already posted at least two different opening dates for Carrefour before but they just kept pushing back the opening dates. Now according to a user (Rocker) in the forum the new launch date is this Tuesday.

update: Here is a picture of their full page teaser ad from the Arab Times. [Pic]

I just got the following in my email:

We have created a new website to express the current issues with Kuwait in a few simple words: www.wtfq8.com

You can anonymously submit your own WTFs (What the fuck) here: https://www.wtfq8.com/add.php

-K.

There are already some cool WTFs on the site. My favorite is Muhajababes!

Kuwait and Saudi Arabia were recently added to PayPal! [Link]

Thanks Yousef

I got the following email from Cinemagic:

Dear All,

You are invited to attend “Short & Sweet”, Cinemagic’s weekly screening event. The events will take place at the Cinemagic Courtyard in Bait Lothan, Salmiya, on Wednesday 9th of May, and will run between 7:00 – 9:00 p.m.

This week we will be screening “Children of Heaven“, a 1997 Iranian film that was nominated for the Academy Award for Best Foreign Language Film in 1998.

It deals with a brother and sister and their adventures over a lost pair of shoes, while also touching upon the more serious subject of the political situation in Iran as well as class differences between the rich and the poor and daily urban life.

In 1998, the film was the first Iranian film to be nominated for an Academy Award for Best Foreign Language Film, but lost to the Italian film Life Is Beautiful by Roberto Benigni.

It was successfully shown on numerous film festivals and won awards at the Fajr Film Festival, the World Film Festival, the Newport International Film Festival, the Warsaw International Film Festival, and the Singapore International Film Festival. It was nominated for the Jury’s Grand Prize at the American Film Institute’s festival.

For its part, Cinemagic Kuwait, is organizing these events as part of its efforts to contribute to the development of an internationally competitive Kuwaiti audio-visual production industry, partly by bringing the filmmakers and audiences together and by Increasing the public’s interest in – and appreciation for – the art of filmmaking.

As always, attendance is free of charge and you are encouraged to invite guests. Seating is limited, so make sure you come a little early. Snacks and refreshments will be served.

Yazan Al Ghazzawi
PR & Marketing Manager
Kuwait Cinemagic

Tel: (+965) 574 3253
Cell: (+965) 722 2416

www.cinemagics.com

I passed by the jewelery exhibit tonight at the Mishref fair ground to check it out since my cousin who recently came in from Thailand had a display there (ZoRaB). On the way in to the exhibit I found a huge shawerma stand outside so I went up to a guy there and ordered myself two shawermas. The guy turns to me and tells me these shawermas are not for sale, they are for management upstairs! I found that strange, actually not really that strange since this is Kuwait but still, a fancy jewelery exhibition and the management upstairs have their own shawerma stand right outside?

So I walked in to the exhibit hall and right at the entrance the Kuwait Customs had a display. Again this felt out of place but I figured I would get closer and check it out. I have to say, its one really strange display. The backdrop of the display had a collage of pictures from their most famous drug busts I think. There were also a couple of pictures of alcohol busts, you know the very cliche 200 bottles of red label on the floor and 3 Bangladeshis posing behind them. Now the cool part was the magic section. They had a display of magical items they had caught, its seriously the silliest stuff. There was a horse shoe, some rings, a few rocks and a lot of handwritten notes. I think those were curses or something. On the far left they also had some pharmaceutical items (they looked like adrenalin shots) and three fake DVDs. I still don’t understand why they had a display set up at a jewelery exhibition, maybe for comical relief.

The jewelery exhibit itself was kind of dull but I am also not really a jewelery person. The exhibition ends today (Monday) so if it is your kind of thing maybe you should check it out, the customs stand itself is worth the trip.

As I mentioned previously, for the Young Lions competition we had to come up with an advert for the WFP. I just wanted to bring to attention their “Food for Education” program where WFP provides meals at schools so hungry children are encouraged to attend. For only $34 a year you can provide a child with a meal at school for an entire academic year. You can donate online via their website and even have it automatically deduct from your credit every month to save you the hassle of manually donating monthly. Its for a good cause and its only KD10 to feed a child for a whole year so check out their website and donate if you can. [Link]