2:48AM - Entertaining Kuwait since 2003I just got the following SMS from my sister who I’m guessing is inside Avenues:
Avenues has what is acclaimed to be the sexiest Starbucks in the world. Even the name and logo are in silver, not green. The walls are also dark gray granite.
Sounds cool. I am going to google now and see if there is anything like this anywhere else in the world. Avenues is still not open to the public.
As most of you probably know by now there have been a number of Bird Flu cases reported in Kuwait. The big question of course is are we in any danger? How can we contract the Avian flu? Well I did some research and from what I understood the only way you can contract bird flu is through their saliva, nasal secretions, and feces. Meaning unless you are planning on making out with a bird you should be pretty safe. [Source]
I passed in front of the Jeep dealer yesterday and noticed they had the new redesigned Wranglers on display. Since they were closed due to the holiday I called them up first thing today morning. I spoke to a salesman and he told me they had just received the Wranglers and they didn’t have any prices yet. He took my number down and promised he would call me as soon as they did. Later in the day I got a call back and this is what I found out.
Wrangler Sport – 2 doors
Price: KD7,399
Wrangler Sahara – 4 doors
Price: KD8,799
I find these prices too high but Jeep ALWAYS overprices their new cars.
The Kuwait BMW Motorcycle Club launched their website a few days ago. The club is run by TriStar and is open to Ducati riders also since at the moment there is no Ducati club in Kuwait. I think its actually open to all riders no matter what brand of bike you have. They usually have weekly rides and events so its a pretty active club. The site is blog like with a forum that currently has no activity but overall the site does have potential. Hopefully it gets updated often and riders start participating in their forum. [Link]
Kuwait is the 8th fattest country in the world, even ahead of the US! [Link]
1. Nauru
2. Micronesia
3. Cook Islands
4. Tonga
5. Niue
6. Samoa
7. Palau
8. Kuwait
9. United States
10. Kiribati
Hungry Bunny is a local creation that opened up in the early 80s in Kuwait. It was inspired by a Australian franchise called Hungry Jack which was what Burger King was called in Australia back then.
In 1997 Al Homaizi Foodstuff Co. who owned Hungry Bunny got the rights to Burger King. Since they couldn’t have two competing franchises they decided to close down all the Hungry Bunnys and open up Burger Kings in the same locations.
Since then there have been copycats the most popular being “Hungry Bunny World” and “Super Bunny” which was named after the famous Hungry Bunny burger. Hungry Bunny World actually opened up a branch on the 4th Ring Road back in 2005 and called it just “Hungry Bunny”. This led to a lot of speculation and rumors that Hungry Bunny was relaunching but they weren’t true. Al Homaizi sued (or threatened to sue) so they added the word “World” on their signage.
I heard awhile back from a friend that Al Homaizi was actually thinking of relaunching Hungry Bunny but I don’t know if thats true or not. For now the only way you can enjoy Hungry Bunny is to drive down to Saudi Arabia where the franchise still exists there. Here is the link to their website: www.hungry-bunny.com
note: the above information is based on my knowledge. If there are any mistakes in dates or events I will fix them but as far as I know the above is accurate.
update: A reader by the name of HaMooR wrote the following:
Dear Mark,
Al Homaizi has the BK franchize since the first hungry bunny openned in Kuwait. and I believe it was Kaifan branch, in order for Al Homaizi to sake BK prudects at that time in kuwait. they have to change the name of BK, because BK was consider in the taboo list (boycott Isreal).
There was a big sign in kaifan branch that says all the meat prudects are BK. So when BK was removed from the list back in 97 .. and there is no reason to for them to hide the name, they switched to BK.
Best Motion Picture of the Year
Winner: THE DEPARTED
Best Achievement in Directing
Winner: Martin Scorsese for THE DEPARTED
Best Performance by an Actor in a Leading Role
Winner: Forest Whitaker for THE LAST KING OF SCOTLAND
Best Performance by an Actress in a Leading Role
Winner: Helen Mirren for THE QUEEN
Best Achievement in Editing
Winner: THE DEPARTED
Best Achievement in Music Written for Motion Pictures, Original Song
Winner: AN INCONVENIENT TRUTH
Best Writing, Screenplay Written Directly for the Screen
Winner: LITTLE MISS SUNSHINE
Best Achievement in Music Written for Motion Pictures, Original Score
Winner: BABEL
Best Documentary, Feature
Winner: AN INCONVENIENT TRUTH
Best Documentary, Short Subject
Winner: THE BLOOD OF YINGZHOU DISTRICT
Best Performance by an Actress in a Supporting Role
Winner: Jennifer Hudson for DREAMGIRLS
Best Foreign Film
Winner: LEBEN DER ANDEREN, DAS
Best Achievement in Visual Effects
Winner: THE PIRATES OF THE CARIBBEAN
Best Achievement in Cinematography
Winner: LABERINTO DEL FAUNO, EL
Best Achievement in Costume Design
Winner: MARIE ANTOINETTE
Best Writing, Screenplay Based on Material Previously Produced or Published
Winner: THE DEPARTED
Best Animated Feature Film of the Year
Winner: HAPPY FEET
Best Performance by an Actor in a Supporting Role
Winner: Alan Arkin for LITTLE MISS SUNSHINE
Best Achievement in Sound
Winner: DREAMGIRLS
Best Achievement in Sound Editing
Winner: LETTERS FROM IWO JIMA
Best Short Film, Live Action
Winner: WEST BANK STORY
Best Short Film, Animated
Winner: THE DANISH POET
Best Achievement in Makeup
Winner: LABERINTO DEL FAUNO, EL
Best Achievement in Art Direction
Winner: LABERINTO DEL FAUNO, EL
Rado at RatLab posted an interesting post about a large flag on the side of one of the buildings in the city that went crazy. Seems the flag got loose somehow and because it was windy it started slamming into the glass building breaking and smashing windows. The firemen ended up coming and closing down the street until they could bring the flag down. Pictures of the incident are available on RatLab. [Link]
I got the following in my email today:
Cinemagic Kuwait Launches Weekly Short Film Screenings
“Short & Sweet”(Kuwait 05/12/2006) Cinemagic Kuwait are organizing “Short & Sweet”, a schedule of weekly short film screenings. The screenings will commence on Wednesday, February 21st, and run throughout the year. The events will take place at the Cinemagic Courtyard in Bait Lothan, Salmiya, and will run between 7:30 – 9:00 p.m.
The screenings will bring together a collection of short films from all over the world including Australia, Canada, Germany, Italy, Poland, Brazil, Jordan, Lebanon and Kuwait. Each week we will screen a different selection of short films of varying genre, nationality, and style.
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
Attendance for the event is free of charge, but seating is limited. Snacks and refreshments will be served throughout. For more information, please do not hesitate to contact me at the numbers below.
Yazan Al Ghazzawi
PR & Marketing Manager
Kuwait CinemagicTel: (+965) 574 3253
Cell: (+965) 722 2416
www.cinemagics.com
Don’t know how many people saw these pictures but yesterday Maserati revealed their new coupe and its really looks amazing. [Link]
I thought Levi’s closed for good in Kuwait after their store in Al Fanar shut down but today I found another branch. I was in Dar Al Awadi complex in Kuwait City, its the really tall building with a wizards hat on top. The Levi’s store is located in the basement of the small mall there and it seemed pretty decent. I just took a quick peak and saw that the jeans were priced between KD21 and KD29 which is cool but most of the styles and colors they had even I would call old fashioned.
I always was curious to how they were made… [Link]
This has to be the coolest thing the local government has done so far. The First Ring Road has an actual website! For those of you who don’t visit the city much, construction is soon to start on the Sheraton round-about to help decrease the traffic. This First Ring Road website has information on this project including pictures of how the project will end up looking like AND pictures of the current progress. They are actually updating the site on a regular basis with pictures of the construction site.
Now the site design is ugly of course but thats to be expected. [Link]
Recently Marina Mall has become extremely cluttered with ads and it seems things will just get worse. A few days ago “ads 2 blog” posted Marina Mall was going to install a fog screen where ads would run on it. Now today ads 2 blog posted that Marina Mall is also launching a Sky Billboard which will fly around inside the mall displaying ads!
On the bright side, Avenues is opening up on the 20th of this month which is just three days away.
This years Dog Show will be held once again at the British Embassy Gardens on Friday 16th of March 2007. Last year it was a lot of fun for so we will for sure be going back this year. In last years show Geo won second place in the Best Puppy category and this year we are hoping to win in other categories including Best Tail Wagger, Most Adorable Dog and Most Obedient. These competitions aren’t anything serious its all just a lot of fun. If you have a dog you should try and make it this year. For more information click [Here]
Here is my post of last years event.
Thanks Stallion for reminding me