Category: Interesting

This is something completely random I just fell upon but found really interesting. It seems there was a series of UFO sightings in Kuwait at the end of 1978 and it was supposedly the first time UFO’s were sighted in our region. Reports of the sightings were published in newspapers and even the Kuwait Institute for Scientific Research (KISR) got involved. Below are some quotes I got from various places but at the end of the post is a link with a lot more details.

Finally, the investigating committee established by the Kuwait Institute for Scientific Research held a press conference on January 23, spurred on, they said, by the Arab Times photograph, to which “The committee attaches special importance….” They admitted that they were “groping in the dark,” and said they could neither confirm nor deny the appearance of UFOs over Kuwait. – The Muffon UFO Journal 1979

Some local wags have made light of the first UFO sightings which came near the end of the long and traditionally exuberant holiday celebrations of Eid-al-Adha. However we have learned recently of an event coincident with one of the UFO sightings which has confounded some of our most level-headed Kuwaiti friends, and may have been what persuaded the GOK to make a serious investigation of the matter. A senior Kuwait Oil Company (KOC) official told us the the “UFO” which first appeared over the northern oil fields seemingly did strange things to KOC’s automatic pumping equipment. This equipment is designed to shut itself down when there is some failure which may seriously damage the petroleum gathering and transmission system and it can only berestarted manually. At the time of the “UFO’s” appearance the pumping system automatically shut itself down and when the “UFO” vanished the system started itself up again. This event was not addressed by the KISR committee report – Message sent by the American Embassy in Kuwait City to the State Department in January 1979

I believe. Check out these two links for more [Link 1] [Link 2]

Alnowair – iThank Campaign from al_nowair on Vimeo.

You can pick up the Alnowair #ithank post-its for free from select Caribou Coffee or the Alnowair booth at Marina Mall.

A few days ago I found out one of my friends (Abdulwahab Alansari) has the strangest/coolest/wtf/successful/creative local business which I thought would be amazing to share as an example of how local businesses don’t have to be all about cupcakes and burgers.

My friend manufactures cheer leading outfits in Kuwait for the UK market.

I thought he was pulling my leg at first but turns out it’s true. Back when he was in university in Liverpool he used to coach their gymnastics and cheerleading team and he was really good at it helping them go from an average team to a team that would come in first place in two out of the three annual competitions. Cheerleading kits in the UK were very over priced and of low quality so he did some research and decided to manufacture his own kits so he could help out his team. Ironically though, his team only placed an order for kits just 8 months back… after supplying over 5,000 kits over a period of 2 years to other universities and private clubs. In fact his small Kuwait based business now supplies 30-50% of UK universities and well over 30 private clubs. His clients include all the universities in Liverpool as well as the big ivy league unis in the UK like Oxford University.

Sebs Cheer Apparel don’t design outfits although they do help teams with elements of their design. Their main focus is manufacturing the outfits with the fabrics ordered from suppliers in LA, China and sometimes Kuwait. The outfits are all manufactured locally and then shipped to the various teams in the UK.

The name “Seb” was Wahabs alter ego and what most people in the “cheer world” knew him as. It’s that recognition that got him his first 10 clients since coaches and athletes he worked with respected him as an athlete and knew he would do a good job of getting efficient kits out. The business started off small with him supplying people he knew but soon word of mouth spread and more and more universities wanted to do business with him.

So there you have it, an interesting and successful small Kuwaiti business that doesn’t involve cupcakes. If you want to find out more about his business you can check out the following links:

Website
Facebook
Twitter
Instagram

Over the weekend while in Lebanon I oddly found out about a farmers market located here in Kuwait called Shakshooka. I hadn’t heard of it before and the fact that someone living in Lebanon knew about it while I didn’t was a bit weird. I was planning to visit the next Shakshooka so I could write about it but turns out Danderma beat me to the punch since she posted a full write up on it on her blog earlier today. So check out her post [Here]

Photo above by @faisalthef

A friend of mine is opening up a very cool store next week called Good Game. The store will carry tabletop, board, war and card games like Warhammer 40,000, Magic: The Gathering, A Game of Thrones, Settlers of Catan and Lord of the Rings the Living Card Game. They also have space in case you want to play any of the games in the store as well as accessories like paint and various gaming components. The store which was designed by a very talented friend of mine (Nesef Al Nesef) looks ridiculously cool as well.

The store opens this coming Monday and will be located in Sanabil Tower (opposite Souq Sharq) on M2. Their phone number is 22397548 and you can also check them out on the following links:

Website
Facebook
Instagram

This would fit in perfectly with the Axe “Get a girl friend” advertising campaign. [YouTube]

It’s a project by Google, U.S. Geological Survey (USGS), NASA and TIME. If you click the link at the end of this post you’ll be taken to an animation showing how Kuwait has progressed from 1984 up until 2012. You’ll mostly notice how more and more buildings got built but the roads basically stayed the same which is why we have so much traffic problems. Here is the [Link]

Gulf Consult in association with Atkins were engaged to develop a comprehensive detailed Local Plan for Kuwait City entitled ‘Kuwait City Urban Development 2030’. The Plan is to guide development for Kuwait City over the next 20 years to affirm its role as a national/international, financial/business and commercial centre.

Kuwait City is strategically located at the northern peak of the Metropolitan Area overlooking Kuwait Bay, surrounded by the sea to the north east and the 1st Ring Road to the south west. It covers an area of 1,200 hectares and is well connected to the rest of Kuwait through a series of arterial roads that transverse the 1st Ring Road.

The Local Plan proposes that the new development in the city be concentrated in four Action Areas: Sawaber; Mirqab West; Mirqab East and Qibla Commercial Area 1 and 2. The main development premise for these areas is to create mixed use sustainable developments which introduce new land uses into the city.

Also integral to the Plan is the integration of a Park and Open Space Strategy; Transport Strategy; and Utility upgrades and additions.

The Project was completed in six phases: Data Collection and Analysis; Detailed Planning and Traffic Studies; Planning Alternatives for Kuwait City; Detailed Local Plan; Detailed Zoning and Subdivision Plans; and Final Plans and Documents.

The area in question is around Al Tijaria Tower, opposite Al Shaheed Park. It’s currently occupied by old warehouses, an abandoned hospital, a grave yard, garages and tons of stores selling metal pots. The renderings look pretty but since this was just a study, we shouldn’t get our hopes up. More renderings and info [Here]

I’ve never seen the terminal up close but based on the photos it’s a lot bigger and nicer than I imagined it to be. I’m also surprised there aren’t even more photos online… or at least I couldn’t find any. Check out some photos of the terminal [Here]

Note: First photo from [Here]

It’s pretty common to hear about expats being discriminated in Kuwait so it was interesting to read a post by yousefq8 who writes about how as a Kuwaiti he was being discriminated the whole time while apartment searching. It seems most of the places he was checking didn’t want to rent out to Kuwaitis and so he resorted to lying and talking in English to make things easier for himself. I have no idea why they would discriminate against a Kuwaiti, maybe expats don’t feel they can live comfortably when there is a Kuwaiti living next door? Not sure but you can read his post [Here]

There’s currently a British Spitfire on display at 360 Mall as part of the “Aircraft” Exhibition that’s currently taking place starting from today until the 27th. The 70 year old Spitfire fighter aircraft was flown during World War II and is still operational and had been on display at the British Royal Air Force Museum since the end of the war. I’m not in Kuwait so I can’t pass by but if you’re looking for something to do this weekend then this exhibition sounds interesting. [YouTube]

My good friends at dh-c created a very cool gift set for Valentines day. The set includes a framed drawing of my favorite Kuwaiti character “Qumooth” and a CD that contains a mystery love song (supposedly very cheesy). They’ve only created 5 frames and each comes with a cactus and a jar of salted caramel. If you’re interested in purchasing one they’re available on The Yard’s website [Here]

Lidia al-Qattan explaining the Big Bang Room

I’ve being thinking about this post for the past few days trying to figure out what I was going to write exactly. The place turned out to be such a cool and surreal experience that I just couldn’t figure out where to start or how to say what I wanted to say. In the end I decided that I’ll be brief and not go into details so that you go there with no expectations other than having a good time.

Me posing outside the house with @kuzmoz

Last week a friend asked me if I wanted to join them on a tour of the House of Mirrors and since I had never been I decided to join them. The House of Mirrors belongs to Lidia al-Qattan, the widow of Khalifa al-Qattan, a renowned Kuwaiti artist. She started decorating one small wall with mirrors and through time more and more walls were decorated until the whole house inside and out was covered with mirrors.

The reception area with munchies

As I said, I’m not going to go into details because I don’t want to ruin the experience for you but simply put Lidia is such an amazing person. We were expecting the tour of the house to take around 30 minutes but it took us 3 hours and the 3 hours literally flew by. She was such an incredible host full of stories and the whole experience was seriously pretty trippy.

If you’ve never been to the House of Mirrors you should and when you do make sure you go with a bunch of friends since its an experience that should be shared. The cost of the tour is KD2 per person on weekdays and KD3 on weekends. The location of the house Street 94 Qadisiya, House 17 Block 9. You need to call ahead and make an appointed on this number 22518522.

A couple of weeks back I was walking in Avenues Phase III when suddenly I smelled something incredibly good. I followed the smell all the way inside the Williams-Sonoma store to a pot sitting behind the checkout counter. I asked one of the employees about the smell and she was extremely helpful, like she went into their store room and brought out all the ingredients to show me kind of helpful. She told me it was basically just a crockpot (rice cooker/slow cooker) filled with water and had the following ingredients boiling inside:

– 2 sliced oranges
– 2 chopped apples
– 2 sticks of cinnamon
– 3 teaspoons of cinnamon powder

So last night I passed by Kenwood (Jashanmal in Kuwait City) and picked up a crockpot along with all the ingredients I needed from the supermarket. I found crockpots that were as cheap as KD5 at Xcite but they only had crockpots in white while I wanted a black one. The Kenwood dealer didn’t have a black one either but I ended up getting the stainless steel version pictured above which looked pretty cool but also cost around KD15.

All you do is add the ingredients with water into the pot and then just wait until the water boils and your house fills up with an incredible aroma. My apartment now smells like I’ve been baking apple pies all day long and I love it.

Not sure how I missed this yesterday but it was open day at the Ali Al Salem Air Force base and anyone could get in and check the planes and helicopters they had on display. They even had drones on display!

Marzouq visited the base and took a ton of photos which he’s uploaded onto his blog and you can check out [Here]