Category: Kuwait

Don’t have any plans this Saturday? Here’s something you can do, clean up the beach. You get to meet new people while also making a statement. This beach clean up is happening alongside the 350.org international campaign where people all around the world come together on the same day to perform a good earth deed. This year that day is 10/10/10 but due to the fact that would be a Sunday in Kuwait, a work/school day, the event in Kuwait will be taking place on 9/10/10 instead.

Location: The beach between KFC and Fridays on the Gulf Road
Time: Saturday, October 9 · 3:00pm – 6:00pm
Activity Website: Facebook

I saw this on 4thringroad and thought it was pretty cool. The ministry of public works have setup a live stream of the new Jaber Hospital that’s being built. I know there is nothing exciting about watching a hospital being constructed but if you look at the bigger picture here this actually could be a start to something bigger.

If the ministry can stream live footage of a hospital being built then they can easily start streaming live footage of traffic on highways. Imagine being able to check out the traffic on the 5th Ring Road before heading out or checking live footage of multiple roads and then deciding which one to take. I think that would be very cool and extremely useful so hopefully this live stream of the hospital is just a start to something a lot bigger. Here is the link if you want to watch the hospital being built. [Video Stream]

If you’ve got a Kuwaiti passport you’re lucky since according to recent data, a Kuwaiti passport allows you visa-free entry into 71 countries topping out all the other Arab countries. Lebanon on the other hand ranks at the bottom with the likes of Iran, Yemen and Syria ranking higher. Here is the list of Arabic countries rankings:

1- Kuwait 71
2- Bahrain 67
3- Qatar 66
4- UAE 64
5- Oman 61
6- Saudi Arabia 57
7- Egypt 43
8- Jordan 39
9- Syria 39
10- Yemen 38
11- Iran 34
12- Lebanon 32
13- Iraq 27

On the other hand the British passport topped the whole list allowing visa-free entry into 166 countries. Here is the link to the full article [Link]

Picture from zDistrict

A reader emailed me to tell me that Kaifan Co-op recently installed Cash Guard machines. I’ve seen them before I think at the Shamiya Co-op and thought they were pretty cool. Basically it’s connected to the cash register and once your total is tallied up you pay the cashier and they place the money into the machine which then spits out the change if any.

Now I’m curious to know how much money was actually going missing from the regular cash registers that the Co-ops had to resort to installing these what I am guessing expensive machines? I found a video on YouTube on how they work which you can watch below.

[YouTube]

Thanks Laila

It was very strange walking into this store since it was mostly made up of cassette tapes with few CDs laid out in the middle. It reminded me of the early 90s when the market was just starting to get introduced to CDs and so I suddenly felt the urge to pick up a Vanilla Ice cassette.

What helped with this early 90s flashback was the fact that the majority of the tapes were from that era, Color Me Bad, Culture Beat, Dr Alban, you name it and they were all “Thomsun Original” branded tapes similar to the one’s Bells and Swan Lake used to sell for those who still remember. At KD1 for 3 tapes that’s a lot cheaper than the KD1.750 we used to pay for a single tape. Ah, the good old days of The Video Club…

The store is located on the first floor of the parking lot building behind Johnny Rockets Salhiya.

The Ministry of Interior have redesigned their website (for the worse in my opinion) and with it have removed an English version. You can’t view an English version of the site which means expats will have a much more difficult time trying to check and see if they have any speeding fines and other online services. Luckily they still haven’t deleted the old English site yet and it can still be accessed by manually replacing the word arabic in the url with the word english.

Arabic site: https://moi.gov.kw/portal/varabic/
English site: https://moi.gov.kw/portal/venglish/

Thanks Avay

A reader called Ahmad emailed me some pictures showing how his neighbor installed telecom transceivers on his roof (above) and then covered them up to look like tacky decorations (below). I’ve seen telecom towers made to look like gigantic palm trees but never seen something like this before.

The reader already emailed the baladieh on two different occasions but nothing has happened yet. According to the reader:

These are very close to the other houses including my house and it is hazardous to the health. The house owner actually doesn’t live in this house but he is renting the whole house for different families.

I’m curious to see how this issue gets solved, hopefully Ahmad will keep us posted on the outcome of his complaints.

Awhile ago I found out the Lexus IS F is now officially available at the dealer here in Kuwait. Previously the only way to get an ISF was to import one usually from the US where it launched back in 2008. Sadly the local dealer is selling it for KD25,000 which is nearly KD10,000 more expensive than in the US so it’s still cheaper to import one.

I think I’m going to try and pass by after lunch tomorrow and take some pictures. I haven’t taken sport shots before and a rugby match seems like a good way to start:

The Kuwait Scorpions Rugby Club (formally the Nomads) start their 2010/2011 season this Friday (1st Oct) with a home match against Muscat RFC. Pre-season training has been well attended and with the recent league reconstruction, the Scorpions are looking to have a successful season both home and away.

Come and support your local team against the might of Muscat!!

Kick Off is at 3pm at the Ahmadi ‘Sandpit’

For directions and further details of KSRFC, please go to www.q8scorpions.com

Thanks Akbar

Since when does Kuwait have a cricket team? It’s kinda like when I first found out we had a baseball stadium. [Link]

Update: Here a more pictures of the baseball stadiums. [Link]

It’s been awhile since I posted about Mishaal Al Roomi. For those of you who are new to the blog and haven’t heard about him, Mishaal is a young and extremely talented weather forecaster whom I’ve posted about a number of times before. He had a website which he used to update daily with the weather forecast even though he was only 17 years old. His site ended up having technical problems and then the updates suddenly stopped. Well he emailed me today telling me that his website www.q8weather.com is now fixed and getting updated daily.

So if you want to get an accurate weather forecast you can now head over to his website and check out his predictions. I’m also going to check with him and see if there is somehow I can implement his forecast into the Kuwait Blogs app. Here is a link to his 5-day forecast which is what I used to check [Link]

Me and Nat passed by Sidekick Academy earlier tonight and signed up to their courses. Nat’s going to be taking their Be-Safe womens program which I previously posted about while I’ll be taking private lessons in mixed martial arts.

It was my first time passing by their training facility and I was really impressed. The place is huge and feels like a great place to train in. They also told me Royce Gracie will be coming back to Kuwait in around 2 months time which is great.

So now I’m pretty much set up with activities on a daily basis. I’ve got Core Fitness four times a week, mixed martial arts once a week and I’ll be building and racing radio controlled cars with Pro-Hobbies also once a week. And people say there is nothing to do in Kuwait…

Update: Here are the prices if anyone is interested

Program Pricing (6 times a week)
1 month = KD70
3 months = KD200
6 months = KD375
1 year = KD720

Be Safe Program (twice a week/women only)
1 month = KD45

Private Lessons (per hour)
KD10 = Private lesson with a red belt instructor
KD20 = Private lesson with a brown belt instructor
KD30 = Private lesson with a black belt instructor

Their phone number is 99965562 99975562

Update: Sorry I posted their wrong phone number, the correct number is 99975562

The U.S. Embassy, Kuwait has organized a photography exhibition that is hosted by Dar al-Athar Al-Islamiyyah. The photography exhibition is of famous American jazz musicians who traveled the world on U.S. Department of State-funded tours to promote cultural diplomacy.

Time
September 23rd to October 8th
Saturday to Thursday 10am to 2pm & 4pm to 8pm
Friday 4pm to 8pm

Place
Dar Al-Athar Al-Islamiyyah (Americani Hospital)

You can view the flyer [Here]

Van Cleef & Arpels will be launching tomorrow evening (September 28th) at Salhiya Complex.

Additionally, Bvlgari will be relaunching on October 4th in the same location as their previous store in Salhiya but this time it’s under new ownership.

Did anyone feel an earthquake around 2:25PM?

Update: Looks like an earthquake with a magnitude of 5.7 hit near a city called Kazerun in Southern Iran. More information [Here]