Category: Information

Kuwait Little Theater started back in 1948 in Ahmadi under the name KUOCO Independent Players and is considered to be the oldest community theater in the region:

The first recorded theatrical activity in Kuwait’s oil era dates back to 1947 when a group of Kuwait Oil Company employees met in the old Magwa Club and called themselves “The KUOCO Independent Players”.

Their first production in 1948 was staged in a large nissen hut located in the Ahmadi Industrial area. Rehearsals were usually held in the producer’s or a member’s home. As the building was also the local cinema the sets were often built and painted and then assembled on stage at the last minute.

In 1950 KOC provided the group with a small hut next to the cinema with a mere 18-inch high platform serving as a stage. The hut was so small that it came to be known as Kuwait Little Theater.

Two years later the group moved to larger premises, (the former KOC food store known as Spinney’s on the Main Street), and this nissen hut has gone on to become the permanent home of ‘Kuwait Little Theater’.

Sadly, KLT no longer exists having closed down years ago (I think 2014) because the KLT hut which was still being used contained asbestos and so was no longer safe.

Recently I came across old photos as well as a list of every production that KLT held from 1950 up to 1990 which I’ve decided to upload to flickr. You can check everything out by clicking here.

Also back in 2010, I posted about a documentary that was released to celebrate KLT’s 60 year anniversary. You can check out that old post here.

A couple of weeks back a video of tires burning at the tire graveyard went viral. The problem is the video of the fire that went viral was actually from the huge 2012 fire at the tire graveyard. Back then all the tires were piled up together in one large pile (check out the photos here) but after that big fire, they started separating them which you can see in the satellite photo here.

Even after separating them fires continued to break out just not as big. Even the satellite image linked above has a fire in it, thats how often fires were occurring.

But recently, after a fire broke out back in April, the EPA decided to start moving the tires to a new location and piling them into smaller piles with a much larger distance in between to try and prevent any chance of a large fire breaking out.

A follower shared a link to the @trtworld account which recently shared photos of this new graveyard and I thought the pictures looked great which is why I’m sharing them here. This is currently a temporary solution until more recycling centers are built or the tires exported. For a few more photos, check out the trtworld post here.

Thanks Nidal and Syed

A few weeks ago I decided to finally upgrade my toolbox with a proper set of tools. Over the years I’ve been buying tools as I needed them and that has resulted in a bag full of random brands, missing pieces, and duplicate items. Since I use my tools a lot because of my cars, I decided to reboot my toolbox and put together a nice set of some great brands and great tools.

There are two very popular hardware stores in Kuwait, Ace Hardware and Bin Nisf, but there are a ton of other smaller or more specialized stores in Kuwait which is mainly why I wanted to put this list together. There isn’t one store that carries everything so if you want to build a kit with the best of different brands you’re going to have to visit different locations. Below is a list of my favorite places that carry some great brands, most of them are only available in the stores they’re listed under. I’ll only be listing the brands I think are worth mentioning, for example, Bin Nisf carries a lot of brands but not many quality ones. Also, some brands like Bosch, Dewalt, Stanley, Makita, etc are sold in all hardware stores so I haven’t mentioned those as well. Check out the places below:

I noticed recently on Twitter a lot of people complaining about Aramex. I thought I was the only one having problems with them recently but it looks like it’s everyone. Yes, I’m aware a lot of you don’t like them and prefer using other services, but from my experience, they offer the best bang for the buck. You also get what you pay for, so very affordable shipping but also fairly slow shipping which is why I don’t have an issue with their speed.

Recently things have been a disaster though. Not sure if it’s because of lack of staff or what exactly but not only are packages being delivered much slower than usual which I’m fine with, the mistakes they’re making is what I have an issue with. For example, I had one package go out for delivery only for the driver to say I rejected the package which I didn’t. It then took 2 weeks, 6 to 7 phone calls, 3 complaint tickets, and contacting their social media team twice just to get the package redelivered again.

This brings me to my post. Which company has the worst or best customer service in Kuwait? Everyone makes mistakes, that’s fine but good or bad service for me is based on how you go about trying to solve the mistake.

Worst: Aramex (Shop&Ship)
Like I said, it isn’t because they’re slow, it’s because they’re just terrible at solving problems when they do happen.

Best: Babel
This was difficult to choose because of the lack of options, but in the end I decided to pick Babel. I order delivery from them and their customer service is great. They always call to make sure the food arrived or call the next day to make sure if everything was ok. But really the reason I chose them is because of the one time I had an issue with my order, they went beyond what was required to make me happy even though I wasn’t even upset. They forgot to put the tabbouleh dressing with my order so I called them to let them know just as an FYI. They were very apologetic and insisted on resending the whole order again and even included dessert to make up for it even though I tried to tell them not to. Been a big fan ever since.

I’m curious to know what everyone’s Worst and Best is. Based on social media I’d assume it’s going to be either Aramex, Xcite or one of the telecoms.

Update: I was right! Looks like the majority of readers rank Aramex Shop & Ship, Xcite and Ooredoo as the worst followed closely by Talabat. When it comes to best customer service it looks to be Deliveroo which I also agree with.

It started off in 2008 as a group of domestic workers who got together to spend leisure time, cooking, and playing games. Then as the group got more popular, other domestic workers were coming to them for help, so they decided to do something about it.

“Before, nobody talked about domestic workers. They were there, but nobody could see them. But over the past 13 years, there have been a lot of changes.” – Ann Abunda

In 2010, they founded Sandigan Kuwait, a more serious group that advocates for the protection and welfare of domestic workers. They now assist and assess workers’ cases from different nationalities, and from different work sectors. They have a repatriation programme, offer legal aid, and provide psychosocial activities. In addition, every Friday they have a livelihood program for domestic workers.

It’s an inspiring story and you can read more about it on the International Labour Organization website ilo.org

via @AlHashemShaikha

A couple of years ago I got my Wizr t-shirt printed in Dubai. I had it done on a direct-to-garment (DTG) printer which is basically an inkjet printer that prints directly onto fabric. Compared to the usual heat transfer prints, DTG prints look a lot better, as if the t-shirt was store-bought.

Back then I had asked if there were similar services in Kuwait and I got a few recommendations. Sadly most of them seem to have shut down last year due to the pandemic. But, I did eventually find one place that was still active called Inkservice. They’re a print shop with various locations around Kuwait but their DTG service is located at their Shuhada Co-op branch. I had an old Rambo advert printed on one of my white t-shirts and it came out perfect so I’m going back to print some more things.

The cost is 4.5KD if you provide a t-shirt and 6.5KD if they provide one. If you’re looking for a place to print on t-shirts check these guys out. It takes a few minutes to print so you can wait there till it’s done. They’re on instagram @inkservice and here is their location on Google Maps.

This is some completely random info to wake up to but I just found out that Freddie Highmore, the star of the popular TV series Bates Motel and The Good Doctor at one point was living in Kuwait and interning at Gulf Bank. I thought the info was made up but it’s mentioned on IMDB in the trivia section and there is a photo of him at Slider Station.

If you don’t know Freddie as an adult then you might recognize him as Charlie from Tim Burton’s Charlie and the Chocolate Factory as well as playing Peter in Finding Neverland.

Mind blown!

Thanks forzaq8

If you’re planning to go to Avenues during Eid and are worried about finding parking, here is a quick tip, you can pre-book a parking spot using the PASS App. There are over 140 parking spots reserved for PASS customers in Avenues Phase 4 which you can find by going down the Saveco parking entrance, Gate 28. The cost is 500 fils an hour and your hour starts from the moment you book the spot. For more info, click here.

A local coffee shop called Blend launched a new campaign for a black-colored soft serve by using a visual of a guy in blackface. The guy in the photo is the local photographer @bonmr who is known for superimposing himself onto photos. Both Blend and Bonmr turned off comments on the photos after people started protesting their use of blackface.

As of this morning, Blend have completely removed the photo from their account while Bonmr still has the photo up with the comments disabled.

You’d think after the huge backlash last year after the popular Kuwaiti makeup up artist Ghadeer Sultan posted a photo of herself in blackface that people finally understood the negative connotation behind it. I guess not.

Yesterday I dropped by the pet store Zue to check out their indoor park. Zue opened around a year ago but due to the pandemic, they had to scale things back a bit. But now they’re fully open and I think it’s such a beautiful place for dogs.

When you first walk into Zue you walk into their shop front which has a nice-looking cafe on the far right. They sell pet food and accessories for dogs and cats only and if you continue to walk into the space further, you end up at the grooming section which is fairly large and divided into two rooms, one room for small pets and the other one for large ones. The whole section is surrounded by windows that overlook the Zue park and benches for customers to sit on while waiting.

The park is why I was there, I had seen pictures on Instagram and wanted to check it out myself. It’s divided into two floors, the ground floor for large dogs and the top floor for smaller dogs. The top floor also has an area to rent out for birthday parties and when I passed by yesterday they were getting the area set up for one. The dog park is pretty huge for an indoor one and has fake hills and grass, water pools as well as obstacles and tunnels for the dogs to play with. There were large windows on the roof that let in bright sunlight and if I had a dog I’m sure he would have loved playing there especially with other dogs.

I really like the idea of the indoor park especially with how hot it gets here during the summer and also because of the lack of places dogs can go to socialize with other dogs. Accessing the park requires a membership fee which is 75KD a month for a large dog, and 60KD for a small dog. The price doesn’t increase much if you have more than one dog, for example, the membership for 2 large dogs is 90KD a month and two small dogs is 75KD a month. The membership gives you 30 hours of access a month and you’re allowed to bring one guest with you.

If you want to check the place out here is their location on Google Maps, also make sure you check them out on Instagram @zue.kw

Yesterday I was driving by the Abdullah Salem Cultural Center and it was PACKED. There were cars backed up all the way outside the museum entrance, a scene I hadn’t seen since the museum first opened. That reminded me that I should probably post about the fact that museums are finally reopening again! If you’re looking for something to do, below is a list of my favorite museums and their current opening hours:

Abdullah Salem Cultural Center (ASCC)
They’re open from 10AM to 8PM with the last admission at 7PM.
Fridays they only open from 2PM to 8PM and Sundays they’re closed.
You can find photos and information on the museum here.

Bait Al Othman Museum
They’re open daily from 9AM to 1PM and then evenings from 4PM to 8PM.
Fridays they only open in the evenings.
You can find photos and information on the museum here.

Tareq Rajab Museum
They’re open daily from 9AM to 1PM and then from 4:30PM to 8:30PM
You can find photos and information on the museum here.

Al-Salam Palace Museum
One museum I think a lot of people are interested in visiting is the Al-Salam Palace Museum. That museum was set to open just as the pandemic hit. Their Instagram says they’re opening soon but they haven’t mentioned a date. A friend of mine who had previously booked a tour before the pandemic hit got a call recently though to set up a new date so I think right now they might be going through the backlog of people who had booked early last year. I was lucky enough to get a tour of the museum before they opened and you can check that post out here.

Update: Due to high demand, ASCC now opens from 10AM instead of 2PM.

This is a follow-up post to one from last year where I posted about how PayPal started allowing users in Kuwait to withdraw money. I got an error back then when trying to withdraw and so did a lot of people, but yesterday I had some money on my PayPal and decided to try and withdraw it and it worked!

It was also pretty instant, less than a minute after requesting the refund with PayPal I started getting messages from my bank NBK saying that a refund is being processed and then a minute later got confirmation that the amount was in my account.

So if you’ve previously tried withdrawing money from PayPal and it didn’t work, try now.

Yesterday night the air quality around Kuwait was measuring 999 which is the maximum the reading can display. Anything between 150-200 is deemed as unhealthy which hazardous is usually anything between 300-500. We’re definitely way past just hazardous at this point. I think the previous highest I’ve ever seen was 358!

On the flip side, the weather wasn’t as hot yesterday and so I was able to take my Alfa out on the Gulf Road and not be bothered by the heat!

I used to purchase my US Apple store and iTunes digital cards from Xcite but someone a few months ago left a comment on my blog letting me know I could actually purchase them from Amazon. I assumed that would be the cheapest option since Amazon is selling the $100 gift card for $100, with no extra fees or commission which I assumed Xcite or any other store locally would be adding.

But, Redditor noooris did a bit of math and turns out if you purchase the $100 gift card from Xcite for 29.750 KD, you’re actually only paying $98.94 for it once converted to US Dollars. On the other hand, it cost me 31.072 KD to purchase the $100 gift card from Amazon after converting the amount to Dinars.

So if like me you routinely purchase Apple cards to top off your US Apple Store account, Xcite is the cheapest option I’m aware of for purchasing $100 cards. Here is the Xcite Link

Update: Xcite have now increased the price of the $100 card to KD31. So it’s back to ordering from Amazon again.

A few years ago, I posted about digitizing your old videos using a video capture device that plugs into your computer. It’s a great way to convert all tapes, but the downside is you needed the actual tape player. If you just had videotapes but no means of playing them then the capture device was pretty much useless. This was my dilemma, I had an old Betamax tape of a school ski trip and no means to play it. I considered buying a Betamax player but the cheapest I found was 50KD and so wasn’t going to be worth it for just one video.

Someone ages ago told me Al-Nazaer converted videos but since all their stores closed down years ago I couldn’t just visit them and ask them about it. So last week while feeling nostalgic I decided to call their head office in Subhan and ask about it. Turns out they have a small media academy in Hawalli that was still functional, and that’s where their digital conversion studio was located.

I headed straight to the studio with my Betamax tape and headed to their conversion studio. I asked if they could convert Betamax tapes and they said yes and took my tape and played it on their screen so we could check and see if it was working. A few seconds later my 11-year-old self popped up on the screen.

It was the first time I had ever seen myself as a kid in the 80s on video and it felt SO WEIRD!

During the 1990 invasion, we took most of our family videos to Lebanon and stored them away in our family home without any means to watch them. So no one in my family has watched any of our family videos that were filmed in the 80s for 30+ years. Since I had no idea what was on this video and since I had never seen myself on video as a kid, it felt like I was watching a video of myself in another dimension. That’s the best way I could describe it in words, it was a very strange feeling.

But anyway, back to the subject of converting videos, Al Nazaer can convert any video format to digital. So camcorder videos like Hi8 or miniDV, VHS tapes and Betamax tapes are all no issues. The cost of converting depends on the kind of tapes you have and how many you want to convert. They charged me KD10 to convert a single Betamax tape and I got the footage on a DVD as well as a digital file. The more tapes you have the better price. Their studio is located on the first floor of the building across the street from Muhallab Mall. Their phone number is 1888900 and here is their location on Google Maps.

You can also find them on Instagram @alnazaer