Category: Reviews

Last week Cari, the new food delivery app soft launched in Kuwait. It was more of a beta launch than a soft launch since the app was constantly crashing at first, there were barely any restaurants and there was no sign of one of their most aggressive features which was 30 minutes delivery. Since then there have been at least two software updates sorting out the bugs so I decided to finally try them out.

Inside the app there are two main categories, one for all the restaurants and then another one just for restaurants that offer 30 minutes delivery. I decided to try out their 30 minutes delivery by ordering lunch from BBT. It wasn’t the most scientific experiment since my office is only a couple of blocks from BBT in the city, but I also wasn’t trying to make Cari fail the test or anything. Here is how the timeline looked like:

12:06 PM – Order placed
12:14 PM – BBT started preparing my order
12:29 PM – Driver arrives
12:31 PM – Order delivered

My order took 25 minutes to deliver from the moment I placed the order which is pretty cool and fast.

Right now they’re also not charging a delivery fee which is great for us. Not sure how long this is gonna last but it gives us a good reason to use Cari for now at least. There aren’t that many restaurants on the app that offer 30 mins delivery, in the city, there were like 10 only and they were either burger or coffee places.

As of this post, Cari still hasn’t officially launched so if you want you to try it out you need to click the download link on their Instagram page @getcari and follow the instructions.

Update: I’ve been told that the official launch of Cari will be happening today

Update2: They’ve officially launched, here is the direct link to the app on the Google Store and Apple Store.

I’ve never been an Apple Watch fan, I didn’t like it when it came out, and I didn’t like it 5 years later. I didn’t like the way it looked or the fact I had to raise my wrist just to turn on the screen. I also hated the idea of having to remove my watch to charge or to shower, because I never remove my watches no matter if it’s a cheap Casio or an expensive AP, my watch is always on me no matter what. Then I saw the new Apple Watch Ultra being introduced during Apple’s Keynote event, it was the first time I actually saw an Apple Watch and actually cared for it. It looked great, had a large screen, and had great battery life. I wanted it.

Full disclosure, I have a long-standing relationship with Xcite who provided me with this watch to keep. They’ve been very supportive of the blog from the very early days and they’ve lent or given me a number of items over the years to review, as well as hooking me up with discounts. I’m a huge Xcite fan and they’re an Apple Authorized Reseller.

I picked up the watch a week ago from my friends at Xcite and ever since I got it, I haven’t removed the watch except occasionally to charge it. I really don’t have a lot of requirements from a watch, I need it to tell time (easily), show the date, look good on my wrist and I don’t want to have to keep removing it from my wrist. I’ve tried watches with leather straps or vintage Casios that weren’t water-resistant, I hated having to take them off before showering. Before Covid, I was mostly rotating between two of my expensive watches, one made out of titanium, and the other forged composite, both pretty large but both very light watches (same formula as the Ultra). During Covid, I got a Casio calculator watch, similar to the one Michael J. Fox wore in the movie Back to the Future. Ever since I’ve gotten it I’ve basically stopped wearing all my other watches. It’s such a simple watch that I think looks great with its 80s design, and it was very practical. I didn’t have to worry about scratching it or banging it around, and if something did happen to it I could just get another one without going broke. But, I did have two issues with it, the first being that to see the date I had to press a button, and the second was that it didn’t have a backlight. This meant I couldn’t read the time if I woke up in the middle of the night.

This is going to sound weird and obvious, but the Apple Watch Ultra is a better version of my 1980s Casio. The new Ultra although big is actually really light for its size because of the fact it has a titanium case. It has a beautiful large screen that can show me all the information I need at a glance, and at night when I fall asleep, I have it set up to change screens to a much simpler one that only shows the time in an x-large font and in red, to ease eye strain in the dark. So functionality, it does everything I need and more. But the regular Apple Watch has all this, what sets the Ultra apart is mainly that it looks way more interesting than the regular watch which to me always looked really boring. Most of my watches are either chronographs or dive watches, I’ve never been into simple clean-looking watches, even my first watch as a kid was a Snoopy watch that looked like a dive watch. If I’m going to be wearing and using something all day, I need to like the way it looks and feels, and for me, the Ultra is the first Apple Watch I want to wear.

Another big selling point for me is the battery life, even in the first few days of owning it when I was playing around with the watch non-stop, it lasted me two days on a single charge. The fact that I can use the watch all day and then go to sleep with the watch on my wrist monitoring my sleep and knowing that I’m still going to wake up and have more than 50% battery life is such a satisfying feeling. I don’t want to deal with another device in my life that I have to worry about the battery life. So now I’ve created a routine where every morning when I sit on my iMac to type out my blog posts, I put the watch on the charger. By the time I’m done with my posts, my watch is fully charged and goes back on my wrist until the next morning. I noticed it charges really really fast over USB-C.

One of the things I was worried about initially when I saw the watch was if it was going to be too big on my skinny wrists. It’s not. Even though the watch has a 49mm diameter case, it doesn’t look huge on my wrists and so most likely won’t look big on yours either. I’m wearing the watch with a medium-sized Green Alpine Loop strap which I think is the best-looking strap on the watch. I thought initially it might be a bit annoying to put on and take off, but after using it for a week now, I’ve found it not an issue. The only issue with the strap if I’m being picky is the fact that it does get wet when showering but tends to dry fairly quickly after so not too big of a deal.

I’m trying to think of a negative thing to say about the watch but I can’t seem to think of anything. Even if I’m trying to be extra picky, there doesn’t seem to be anything that I find really annoying about it. The orange action button doesn’t have a lot of customization options right now, I can just pick a handful of different things it can do and right now I have it set to turn the watch into a flashlight. Actually, since I’m being picky, the location of the action button is where I usually place my thumb when I want to click the crown with my other finger. So on more than one occasion, I’ve accidentally turned on the flashlight when I’ve just wanted to click the crown. Just a minor issue.

When I was growing up in the 80s, the Casio G-Shock was the watch I wanted because it looked rugged and had various features I would never use like a stopwatch or altimeter. To me, the Apple Watch Ultra feels like a modern-day G-Shock and I think a lot of people see it that way. It’s going to be really popular and you can already tell by how quickly they’re selling out.

If you’re looking to buy an Ultra there is only one model but comes with different strap options. My favorite strap is the alpine loop I have but I’ve tried the trail loop and found it really comfortable. The price of the watch is 290KD and here is a link to the watches on the Xcite website.

If you have any questions about the watch, let me know in the comments.

I’ve noticed that as I’ve gotten older, I rarely eat at new places anymore. Well, that’s not completely true, I’ve just gotten a lot pickier with where I eat. I have my goto places that’s for sure, and Cocoa Room is my favorite breakfast spot. Earlier this year Cocoa Room launched a dinner menu and yesterday I decided to pass by and try it for the first time as part of my new goal to try a new place once a week.

The Cocoa Room dinner menu is Mediterranean influenced and so the mains section has lots of pasta, a couple of steaks, one seafood dish, and a burger. Not a big variety to pick from, and nothing really interesting but that’s because their starters section is where all the exciting dishes are. Thankfully they had an iPad with photos of all their items because all the dishes were in French and I had a difficult time visualizing what they were (You can check out the full menu here). I ended up ordering the following items:

Milefeuille D’avocat
Brioche De Champignons Crémeuse
Carpaccio De Boeuf
Spaghetti De Capri
Gratin de Maiz

Picking just three starters was difficult and if I had to pick again I’d probably go with the seabass carpaccio instead of the beef only because it’s not something I’d find elsewhere. For the pasta, I decided on the Capri because I wanted to try a new flavor and I never had a zesty spaghetti before (it was pretty ok).

Overall everything I had was good, the avocado millefeuille was probably my favorite dish while the mushroom brioche my least favorite (not enough mushrooms). The only complaints I have with the menu is the item names being in French and the lack of interesting mains. Lots of places in Kuwait have pastas and steaks so I was looking for something a bit more different to try. Also the desserts section wasn’t that appetizing but you can always head to Burger Boutique after dinner for their chocolate brownie pudding.

The total bill came to KD27.500 so expect to pay around KD15 per person. I had to reserve before heading there although there were empty tables so you could probably just walk in. Cocoa Room is definitely my favorite breakfast spot in Kuwait, but not sure I’d go back as often for their dinner.

I’ve had my Toyota FJ Cruiser for over 12 years which is why I recently started looking for a replacement. My requirements are really simple, a bit more comfort, something I can abuse and still survive 10 years with me, it has to be a 4×4, it has to have 4 doors, and finally, it has to have an automatic gearbox. I don’t like the way the 4-door Wrangler looks, the Ford Bronco is nice but being a Ford I’m not sure about the long-term reliability. The new Defender is great but impossible to get right now, costs over KD20,000, and it’s a Land Rover so can’t imagine it being very reliable. The new Land Cruiser is too big and expensive, the G-Class is crazy expensive, the Prado too boring, and the Jimny too small. I really wanted the Toyota LC76 and was so close to buying one last year but I really do need my main car to be automatic and they only come as manual.

I had kinda given up on finding a replacement until a couple of weeks ago when I spotted the new Toyota Hilux on the road. I had seen them when they first came out a few years ago, but last year they got a facelift and I hadn’t seen one until now. The new model looked pretty nice on the road and I couldn’t get it out of my head all day. So I got in touch with my contact at Toyota and managed to borrow the car for a few days to try out.

Two thoughts came into my head as I drove out of the Toyota dealership and headed to work. The first was my amazement at how comfortable and quiet the car was. The second thought was on how uncomfortable and noisy all my cars must be that I thought a Hilux pickup truck was quiet and comfortable. Seriously, it was very puzzling, I think it must be because the rear wheels are outside of the cabin which is how come it was very quiet. Whatever the reason, my first impression was great.

A lot of people might not know this but the Hilux is actually one of the most popular cars in the world. In Australia for example, it’s their #1 selling car and it’s also a best seller in a bunch of other countries. It’s a durable go-everywhere commercial vehicle and if my FJ could survive over 10 years with me, the Hilux should be able to survive even longer. My whole experience with the car over four days was very positive. Everything from the ride quality to the seating position impressed me. I’m going to start driving to Saudi once a month for work so I need a car that would be comfortable on long trips. That’s why I tried to spend as much time in the car over the weekend and at no point did I feel exhausted or tired. The Hilux ticked all the boxes for me, it pretty much has everything I’m looking for in a new car. Surprisingly the car didn’t feel that big. Since my FJ is wider the Hilux felt a bit more nimble and compact even though it’s a longer car.

It doesn’t have much tech so no features like lane change assist, autonomous emergency braking, or even digital gauges, but I don’t mind that. What I do wish it had was dynamic radar cruise control so it could slow down and speed up depending on traffic. That would be super helpful on my long road trips to Saudi but we don’t get it as an option in Kuwait. Another thing I wish it had was a better sound system, it has Apple CarPlay, but the speakers are pretty crap. In other countries, there is an option to upgrade to a better JBL system, but we don’t get that here either. But, it shouldn’t be too difficult to upgrade the sound system eventually since some manufacturers like FOCAL have made upgrade kits for it. One odd thing is the fact there is just a single USB port in the car and it’s the one I need to use to connect my iPhone so I can get CarPlay working. That means other passengers can’t charge their phones unless I get a USB adapter for the 12v socket. I guess I should be glad it at least has CarPlay.

The model I took out was the Hilux Adventure model which costs KD9,700 KD11,400. They also have cheaper models and a more expensive GR model. I think at this price point there really aren’t that many options and the fact it’s a Toyota is great. I’ve only had good experiences over the past 12 years with them and my FJ has been very reliable and the service costs very low. I actually think the price is a steal compared to the prices of other cars on the market. I was meant to drop off the car back to the dealer on Saturday but ended up keeping it for an extra day just because I really didn’t want to get back into my FJ. When I eventually did take it back I ended up putting my name down on the waiting list for the next shipment. I liked the car so much I’ve decided to get one.

The only issue is because I’m an expat I can’t own a pickup truck so I either need to put it under my friend’s name or the company I work for. They really need to update this law… If you want to find out more about the Hilux, there are a ton of videos on YouTube (I watched ALL of them) but here is a link to the Hilux page on the local Toyota website.

Update: Just a correction with the price. The Adventure model costs 11,400 a different model costs 9,700. I just found out while putting a deposit down on the car 😅

My favorite Bahraini grills spot is still Ghadeer al Bahrain in Salmiya, even though after the pandemic they had to increase their prices by around 100 fils. But last night, I decided to try another Bahraini grills spot in the city called Tekka Lumee. This past winter whenever I drove by Tekka Lumee in the evening it would be super packed with people, they actually had to expand their outdoor seating and double the size because of their popularity. I was with a friend in the city last night and we were originally planning to walk over to Little Ruby’s for dinner when we decided to give Tekka Lumee a shot.

Tekka Lumee is a small place across the street from the newly opened Assima Mall. Unlike Ghadeer al Bahrain which has been around for 30+ years, Tekka Lumee is a new concept that opened up over a year ago. Their menu has a pretty good variety of items and you can check it out online here. We ended up getting hummus to start with and Tekka Lumee grills, Tekka Yogurt, Kebab Special and Special Tawooq for the mains.

A couple of minutes after placing the order the food started coming out. First the freshly baked Irani bread with the hummus, and then all the grills. If you’re hungry and don’t want to wait too long for your food then this is the place to come to. I quickly started digging into the food and right away knew what I liked and what I wouldn’t order again. Both the Tekka Lumee and Tekka Yogurt were great, especially the Tekka Lumee which had great flavor. The Tawooq was the third-best item, I usually wouldn’t order chicken at a Bahraini grills place but was curious to try it here but wouldn’t have it again. The most disappointing item though was the kebab, it was fairly dry, a bit bland, and was the only thing that we didn’t finish on the table. It sucks because I usually like ordering kebab with my tikka but wouldn’t do so again here.

Even though Ghadeer al Bahrain is a low-end hole-in-the-wall restaurant, I do feel like I have to compare it with Tekka Lumee only because they both basically sell the same food. Pricewise Tekka Lumee is surprisingly pretty good, their grills are around KD2.500 a plate and contain 5 skewers. What is important to point out is their skewers are longer than that of Ghadeer and contain more meat, so you could say close to double the size of Ghadeer’s. This means price-wise it’s fairly competitive to Ghadeer Al Bahrain even though it’s a much nicer (cough cleaner cough) place with a better dining experience. Tastewise the tikkas at Tekka Lumee were great but the kebab as I mentioned was a disappointment. The kebab at Ghadeer is much better but I’d still go back to Tekka Lumee for the other items (and for the bread which was crazy good). The total for two people including 3 drinks came out to around 13KD. If you want to check the place out, their Instagram account is @tekka.lumee, and here is their location on Google Maps.

Last year I bought the Fujifilm X100V to use as my compact camera when taking photos for my blog and for when I travel. I just loved the way the camera looked and so convinced myself that my Sony A7 III was too big and bulky for traveling and I needed the X100v. I wasn’t really exaggerating much, the A7 was actually a bit big and heavy, even with a compact lens. I had tried taking the Sony with me on a few trips and I just ended up leaving it in the hotel room most of the time. I was hoping I’d carry the lighter and more compact X100V more and after having now taken it on three different trips, I can easily say this is the best travel camera I’ve ever had.

Most cameras nowadays can take great quality photos, but what sets aside the Fuji for me is the way it looks, the way it feels, and most importantly, the weight. Walking around a city for hours with the X100V hung across my shoulder was never an issue at all. When I traveled with the Fuji I always had it on me and rarely ever left it in the hotel. It was never annoying to carry no matter how long I was out of the hotel for. On trips that required me to wear a heavy jacket because of the cold, I could barely even tell I had the camera on me.

The battery life was also great, I’d go for days without having to recharge the camera and when I had to it used USB-C which is what I carry with me because of my MacBook. So I didn’t need to pack an extra cable or charger with me. The camera is also really well built and weather-sealed so I didn’t have to worry about knocking it around or being stuck in the rain with it. I think one thing I liked about the camera was how it made me want to take more photos, especially when it came to capturing moments I came across. No hassle, no having to think about anything, I’d just see a moment and quickly grab the camera from my side, turn it on and by the time it’s up at my eye it was ready to shoot. The simplicity and speed allowed me to capture a lot more moments compared to any of my previous cameras I traveled with.

The only issue I had with the Fuji was related to the transfer of the images from the camera to the phone. It’s all done wirelessly which is great but the Fuji software can be a bit buggy sometimes and I’d have to quit the software or turn on and off the camera a few times to get things working.

At around 400KD the camera isn’t cheap but it’s half the price of my Sony A7 III and so I felt a lot more comfortable taking it with me on trips. It really is such a great camera, I love it and can’t recommend it enough.

It’s been a while since I last posted a restaurant review, but there really hasn’t been any that interested me until now. Midar is a new Kuwaiti restaurant opened by the team behind some of our favorite places like Burger Boutique, White Robata and Slider Station. I passed by Friday for lunch and left wanting to go back.

Midar opened during Eid a couple of weeks ago in The Gardens area of Avenues phase 4. I had seen pictures of the space ahead of time and it looked really pretty but in person, it looks even better. The restaurant was smaller than I imagined it being but I liked it more this way since it felt cozy. I had a reservation that I had made a couple of weeks earlier so I was seated as soon as I arrived. We were given a choice of either sitting inside or in their outdoor space, I chose inside and that’s what I would recommend. The outdoor space is pretty generic and so you’d miss out on the beautiful interior.

Once seated it took a pretty long time to be attended to by a waiter. Service was actually the only issue I had with the place, not because the service was bad or the waiters were not any good, they were just not attentive. Their menu like most places today was digital and you can check it out by going to midar-me.com/menu. Midar is a Kuwaiti seafood concept so all their dishes are seafood related and you won’t find any chicken or beef on their menu. I ended up ordering Jahra St. Hummus to start with and then a Grilled Medium-sized Seabass and Fresh Shrimp Mumawash for our mains, followed by the Sticky Date Cake for dessert. Oh and we also ordered their super spicy Special Mabooch on the side.

The food all looked great, the portions were fairly big, and everything we had ended up being delicious. The fish was brought next to our table and then cut open and plated, it reminded me of the one I have at Shemam except this one was obviously elevated and better. The Mumawash when mixed with the special mabooch and the sauce they bring with it on the side was my favorite thing (and really spicy). Finally the dessert, I mean it’s such a basic thing, a sticky date cake, but it was easily the best one I’ve ever had, it actually caught me off guard since I’m not really a sticky date cake guy. Once the meal was done we had a choice of complimentary regular or lumi tea which is a nice touch.

The final bill, including a mocktail, soft drink and water came out to around 35KD which is pretty reasonable for a place like this. Really the only odd thing was the service. The waiters just never seemed to be around even though the place isn’t that big. But, they also just opened and the whole restaurant industry is suffering with a lack of staff so it’s understandable and I’m sure they’ll work out the kinks quickly (their concepts tend to have the best service in the industry). I’d definitely go back and I actually have a to-do list of things I want to try next time.

Since Midar just opened they’re going to be really busy during prime hours, so even though they do accept walk-ins, you’ll have a better chance of getting a table if you reserve through their website midar-me.com

A couple of days back ago I got back from a 10-day trip to London. Other than a day stopover in 2018 on my way from LA, it was my first time back in London since 2015. I flew Kuwait Airways which btw, is so much better than flying British Airways. Firstly the timings of the flights make a lot more sense (no late night flight so no need to sleep on the plane) but also the overall experience is better because of the Kuwait Airways airport and the less busy flight. Because I was staying for 10 days I needed a reasonably priced hotel that wasn’t a shoebox, was somewhat trendy looking and located in a great area. After doing a ton of research I decided to stay at the Kingsland Locke in Dalston.

I hadn’t heard of Dalston nor had I been to it up until this trip. It’s an area in East London, part of the Hackney borough. If you’ve been to Shoreditch before then it’s around a 30-minute walk up from there. Dalston turned out to be the best place I could imagine staying. I had the award-winning bakery The Dusty Knuckle like a 5-minute walk from my hotel so that sorted out my breakfast and coffee routine every morning. Instead of losing weight on this trip because of all the walking, I think I put on weight because of all the pastries I was having every morning. I was also within walking distance from the bar 🔶🟥🔵 which became my go-to spot for a nightcap and to chill at the end of the day.

I was also surrounded by loads of grocery stores including M&S and Amazon Fresh (post on that coming soon). There was also a Pret-A-Manger, a community garden and an amazing Indian restaurant called Attawa all a few minute’s walk.

The area is connected to the rest of London via Overground and there were two different stations next to the hotel, one that was a 2-minute walk and another a 5-minute walk. Both stations were on different lines so it made getting anywhere rather simple and quick. Shoreditch and Peckham were both reachable without swapping any trains while areas like Oxford Circus or Notting Hill would require swapping to the Underground line which was just 2-stops away.

The hotel itself was pretty cool. It gave off a slight hipster vibe but it was subtle. The interior was nicely designed, and the staff were friendly. The hotel works like a short stay apartment which it what helps keep the costs down. It’s like a tiny studio apartment so you get a fully functioning kitchen in the room and a laundry area in the basement if you need it. There isn’t a daily cleaning service, depending on how long you’re staying you might get a complimentary clean included or you can request it for an extra cost. If you want new towels, shampoos, toilet paper etc, you can just request those at the front desk.

I stayed in their City Studio room which was fairly small but larger than the room I stayed in last year at The Hoxton in Paris (which also cost twice as much). The bed and pillows were super comfy, and the whole room gave a very cozy vibe. Even though this hotel was one of the affordable ones I found, it still cost KD60 a night, so it’s attainable but wouldn’t call it cheap. You can obviously find cheaper rooms but don’t think you can find one that has as cool a personality and vibe that was located in a good area. I’d totally stay there again if I go back.

If you’re traveling to London this Eid and haven’t booked a place to stay in yet then check this place out. Here is a link to the hotel website Link

A couple of months back I got a new iPad Mini from Xcite and posted a review about it. I spoke about how it would most likely replace my 12.9″ iPad Pro for traveling because of it’s small form factor, and since that post, I’ve actually done just that. I’ve taken my iPad Mini on three trips so far and here is a quick followup review.

Firstly, as I had predicted, the size of the iPad Mini is perfect for traveling. It’s light so it doesn’t add much weight to my backpack, and it’s small enough to fit on the plane’s dropdown table even when not fully extended. I wish I had a photo but I also managed to fit it right next to my food tray, I just had it angled on a corner so I could eat and watch my shows at the same time. The battery life has also been great, unless you’re on a long-haul 16-hour flight from Dubai to LA, you’re not going to need to charge the iPad Mini for the whole trip.

I did come across a downside though and that’s the storage space. I have the 64GB version which I thought would be more than enough for storing shows and movies for my flights but that’s not the case. Well, I also like to take a lot more shows and movies than there is time to watch because I like to have options. So for a two-hour trip I’d like to have around 20 hours worth of content to watch and I can just choose what I want. I mix it up with different genres as well as durations, so some 20min shows, some longer 50min ones, some comedy, some drama etc. But now I’m traveling to London tomorrow and I don’t have enough space to carry the ratio of content to trip duration (In my case it’s like 10:1 I guess 😅). So far this is the content I have downloaded for my trip:

Amazon Video
The Outlaws – 6 Episodes

Apple TV+
CODA – Movie
Severance – 1 Episode
Slow Horses – 1 Episode
The Afterparty – 4 Episodes

HBO MAX
Julia – 3 Episodes
Raised by Wolves – 4 Episodes

Netflix
Indian Matchmaking – 4 Episodes
Formula 1: Drive to Survive – 3 Episodes
Cobra Kai – 6 Episodes
Space Force – 6 Episodes
The Tinder Swindler – Movie
Kate – Movie
Murderville – 6 Episodes

Paramount+
Star Trek: Picard – 4 Episodes
Mayor of Kingstown – 4 Episodes

Showtime
American Rust – 4 Episodes

Not sure if you think that’s a lot or not but for a 6+ hour trip that’s not enough content for me to pick and choose from. In addition to the above, I have around 21 magazines downloaded and I just tried downloading one more and it’s telling me I don’t have enough space. So unlike what I originally stated in my review, 64GB actually isn’t enough and I’d now recommend the 256GB version instead. Other than that, the iPad Mini is the perfect media companion on flights. Here is a link to my previous review.

Back in 2019 I bought my first RIMOWA bag, a medium-sized check-in Original which is part of their aluminum series. Since then I’ve fallen more in love with the brand and ended up purchasing two more, a cabin version of the bag and a large check-in.

I bought the large bag recently, back in October when I was in Europe. I ended up shopping a lot more than I expected and so couldn’t fit all my stuff in my medium-sized bag and so decided to buy the large one to match my other two. I used the bag once on that trip to fly back to Kuwait, and then I used it again when I went to Istanbul last month.

When I got to Istanbul I removed the sticky luggage tag from the handle and noticed the paint peeled off the handle. I don’t mind my bag getting dented and scratched up, it’s part of the reason I got a metal suitcase to begin with, but paint peeling off the plastic handle just looked bad. It was also weird because it didn’t happen with my other two bags which I’ve owned for longer and traveled with a lot more. I figured it must be a production issue so once I got back to Kuwait I shot off an email to customer support on the main RIMOWA website to get the problem sorted under warranty.

In less than 24 hours I got a response back from RIMOWA asking for my bag’s serial number as well as asking me some questions and if I could share a photo. Then the next day I got a phone call from the RIMOWA dealer in Kuwait who were super nice and asked me to drop off the bag whenever I was free to their store in Avenues. When I did drop the bag off they even offered to fix the dents on my bag which I told them to not to. A day or two later I got a call back telling me the bag was ready to pick up, they had replaced the handle with a new one.

It was super easy, probably the easiest warranty fix experience I’ve ever had with any brand which is why I wanted to write about it. After living with the RIMOWA bags for a few years now, and after having dealt with the local dealer, I can’t recommend the brand enough. No competition, they’re the best travel luggage you can get.

Back in 2020, I purchased the 16-inch MacBook Pro. I’d never been a fan of large laptops and so not sure what got into me but decided I’d buy the largest one Apple sold and I regretted the minute I got it. I mentioned in my original review that a month into using the laptop I had gotten slightly more comfortable with it but it really didn’t progress much further than that. It definitely wasn’t a laptop to take on trips with, and I’m not even talking plane trips, I hated taking my laptop to the office or into the next room just because of how big and bulky it was.

I don’t tend to change laptops a lot, my average cycle is around once every 4 years so this is the quickest change I’ve done, 2 years after purchasing the 16-inch MacBook Pro I went ahead and purchased the latest 14-inch one.

The new 14-inch Macbook Pro might be the best laptop I’ve ever owned, even competing with all my favorite iBooks from the early 2000’s including the 12″ PowerBook.

Where do I begin? Let’s talk about the size first, although 14″ doesn’t sound much smaller than 16″, and even though in photos it doesn’t look that much smaller, in reality, the difference is huge. As I’ve been doing since 2001, the first thing I order when I buy a new laptop is a black Waterfield SleeveCase. The sleeve offers plenty of protection so I tend to throw around my laptops into the backseat of my car, on the car floor, or onto my desk. Throwing around the 14-inch feels so easy now that I’ve come from the larger 16-inch. I know how easy throwing around a laptop isn’t something you’d think of when buying a new laptop but it’s really something that we all do. The 14-inch is easier to carry around, shove into places, and is a much more portable machine than the 16-inch was.

Another issue I had with the 16-inch was the battery life. It wasn’t that great and lasted around 4-hours. The new 14-inch lasts so much longer that I’m going to compare it to my iPad. I don’t charge my iPad daily even though I use it daily. The new MacBook is the same, since I got my MacBook over a month ago if I really think about it I could probably tell you exactly how many times I’ve charged it. The battery easily lasts over 10 hours so I don’t charge it every night but more like every 3 or 4 days now. I usually keep the laptop on my couch in my living room when I go to sleep while with the 16-inch I’d take it back to my desk so I can charge it and have it ready for the next day. It feels freeing not having to charge the laptop every night.

The keyboard is another thing that is just amazing about the laptop, the best keyboard I’ve used to date on any laptop. Firstly the touch bar is gone which is good news. Although I was a huge fan of it when it first came out, Apple never really expanded its features or abilities so over time I just started wishing I had regular buttons.

Other things to mention, the laptop has a notch similar to how new iPhones do but they’re less noticeable on the MacBook. It doesn’t bother me at all and it makes me feel like I have more screen space because the menu bar has now moved up to where the camera is, instead of it feeling like the menu bar is eating up important screen real estate. That top menu bar strip feels like bonus space. Apple also brought back some ports including the SD card slot which I just got to use now for the first time to move photos from my camera to my laptop. Very practical but I won’t use it that much myself. I also need to mention how good the new MacBook feels to hold. Both my MacBook Air and my 16-inch MacBook Pro have sharp edges whole the new 14-inch has softer rounded edges and so feels really great in my hands. Finally, the new MacBook looks very hot, one of the best-looking laptops to date.

So like I mentioned at the start of this post, this new 14-inch MacBook Pro is one of the best laptops I’ve ever owned. I love it a lot and already feel so attached to it that I put up my 16-inch for sale without hesitation. I also got it for a pretty good deal, Amazon had a $200 off offer on the 14-inch so I ended up buying it for KD530. I just checked now and they actually have the laptop discounted right now at KD546, so not as good a deal as I got but still cheaper than retail. If you’re looking for a laptop I can’t recommend this one enough. Definitely get it.

I’ve always been very fascinated with compact computers I guess ever since I saw the original Nokia Communicator 9000 with Val Kilmer in the 1997 film, The Saint. Since then I’ve had a bunch of mini computers including the Nokia Communicator 9110, Sony Clie UX-50, Asus Eee 900, and the MSI Wind. I think this is why I’ve always wanted an iPad Mini and after spotting the purple one at an Apple store in Amsterdam while on vacation, I decided it was time I got one. So after getting back to Kuwait I got in touch with Xcite and managed to get my hands on one.

Full disclosure, I have a long-standing relationship with Xcite who provided me with this iPad. They’ve been very supportive of the blog from the very early days and they’ve lent or given me a number of items over the years to review, as well as hooking me up with discounts. I’m a huge Xcite fan.

Firstly right off the bat, I’ll tell you that I tried my best to capture in the photos how beautiful the purple color of this new iPad Mini is, but I’ve failed at doing so. The purple Mini combined with the dark cherry Apple cover I got for it looks amazing, you really need to see it in person because my photos don’t do it justice. Color aside, I also love the new form factor of the Mini which now follows the updated design language of the larger iPads and new iPhones. Gone are the curvy soft edges which are now replaced with the sharper sides that I think give it a timeless look. One reason I felt so comfortable with the Mini right away is that it feels like a Kindle in my hands, and side by side with one, you’ll see below they’re pretty close.

The iPad Mini is tiny and incredibly light, especially when compared to my huge 12.9″ iPad Pro. It’s not as light as my Kindle, but it’s light enough that I can hold it for an hour while reading magazines and not feel bothered by the weight. And yeah, I’ve mostly been using my Mini to read magazines, RSS feeds, and documents. Although my iPad Pro’s larger screen makes the magazine experience more natural due to the size of the pages on the screen, it’s a much more comfortable experience on the Mini because of how lightweight it is. One thing I found surprising, the iPad Mini is actually small enough to fit into the front pockets of my pants. I wouldn’t walk around with an iPad in my front pocket, but the idea that I could, if I needed to, makes it very convenient.

I’ve had the iPad Mini for a few weeks now and it’s replaced both my laptop and iPhone for casual browsing while watching TV. It’s kinda like having a phone in your hands but better because of the larger screen. But, it is a very odd size and I’m not sure who I would recommend this iPad for. It’s not going to replace your phone since it’s not a phone, but it’s also really small so if you’re thinking of getting an iPad, it wouldn’t be the size you’d want to get. It’s not even the cheapest iPad so it wouldn’t be the one you’d get for your kids either.

I think the iPad Mini is meant for people like me who already have a regular-sized iPad and a regular-sized iPhone and are looking for something in between. It’s not something I need, but something I’m finding uses for. For example, I currently take my iPad Pro with me when I travel so I can watch shows on the plane. But I don’t like taking my MacBook Air with me when I do that since my backpack becomes too heavy. Now I can take both my MacBook Air and iPad Mini with me and the weight is fine. I’ve also started using the iPad Mini when working on my cars to load up documents. Previously I was using my iPhone, but the Mini’s larger screen makes reading instructions from a distance much easier. If you get a Mini you’ll find uses for it.

One issue I should mention I have with the Mini is the battery life. According to Apple, both my larger iPad Pro and new iPad Mini have a similar battery life, but that can’t be the case because I feel my iPad Mini’s battery drains a lot faster. Maybe it’s because I spend so much time on it, more than I would on the Pro, but I don’t think so. Another thing I’m kind of disappointed about is the fact Apple doesn’t make a keyboard for the iPad Mini. It’s the one thing I really wish it had because my idea of a mini computer always involves a keyboard. There are some third-party ones available, but I haven’t found one yet that I liked. I do have the Apple Pen which works with the Mini, but I rarely use it. Finally, the last issue I have with the Mini is the Touch ID. The iPad Mini doesn’t have facial recognition and instead uses Touch ID which is located on the power button to unlock the iPad. You’re meant to touch it and it scans your fingerprint and then unlocks. It’s been a few weeks and I still haven’t gotten used to it yet and I tend to spend a lot of time accidentally turning off the iPad when trying to unlock it. It’s super annoying.

When I spoke to Xcite about getting an iPad Mini I requested the entry-level 64GB model because that’s really more than enough for my needs. Also, because this is going to supplement my various Macbooks, iPads and phone, it doesn’t really make sense financially to get anything more expensive than the entry-level model which already costs quite a bit at KD160. So that’s the model I’d recommend, I also wouldn’t bother with the 5G models since you can always tether your iPad to your phone.

In conclusion, I’m loving my Mini. Not sure who to recommend it to but if you’ve been thinking about getting one I’d pull the trigger and get it. It’s fast, the speakers are loud and the size is perfect. To check out the various iPad Mini models and colors available, here is a link to the Xcite website.

The weather suddenly got a lot cooler last week so I decided I’d get a heater for my apartment. I didn’t have any heaters since I tend to buy those cheap 8-10kd oil heaters and then give them away at the end of winter because they take up a lot of space. To stop myself from giving the heater away this year, I decided I’d splurge and get a nice fancy one, that way I’d be forced to find a place to store it till I need it again next year.

I checked out Best, Xcite, Eureka and the new Cloud9 store for oil heaters and I narrowed my options down to two, a DeLonghi and a Heller. But, I also spotted an interesting-looking heater on the Xcite website, the Princess Smart Glass heater. It was a convection panel heater, came with Wifi and also had the option to connect to Alexa and Siri. Since I wanted the heater that same day, I decided I’d head to Xcite Al-Rai and pick it up myself instead of having to wait for them to deliver it.

The Glass Heater comes in two colors, black and white. I ended up going with the black which compliments my living room nicely. It’s a slim heater and so I managed to tuck it into a dead corner of my room which actually means I can keep it there all year round and not have to store it anywhere. Setting up the heater was fairly easy but I wasn’t able to add it to Alexa. The Alexa “Skill” required to be installed to add the heater is located on the Amazon UK website while my Alexa is set up to use the Amazon US website which doesn’t have the required skill. But I did download the heater app on my phone and I now use it to turn off and on the heater as well as control the temperature but I would have preferred to just say “Alexa, turn on the heater”.

As a heater, the unit performs really well. I tend to turn it off when I leave the house and then turn it on remotely before I’m back again. My living room is around 5x5m and it heats it fairly easily. At KD55 it’s one of the most expensive home heaters you can buy but it’s such a nice looking heater that I don’t mind. Plus, the ability to connect to it remotely is also a big benefit since it means I can just turn the heater on before getting home instead of having to come home to a cold room and then turn it on and wait for it to heat up.

Now the only issue is that as of this post, both the black and white versions of the heater are sold out on the Xcite website. I think I picked up the last black one and there was another guy who I think bought the last white one at the same time while I was there. They did have both models on display in their Al-Rai showroom so you might still be able to buy the display models if they haven’t been sold already.

Here is the link to both the black and white versions on Xcite. Link

It’s been a year now since the DJI Mini 2 got launched but I just got mine a couple of weeks ago. I’ve been wanting the DJI Mini 2 ever since it was released so a few weeks ago I got in touch with Xcite and asked them if I could get one to review. I’m not a drone expert so this review is directed at other people like me, beginners basically. The Mini 2 shoots in 4K, is pretty tiny, and it’s also really light weighing just 249g. If you want more detailed specs of the Mini 2 there are tons of videos on YouTube that do just that. Instead, I’m going to give you my opinion on why I think this is the best drone a beginner can get right now.

Full disclosure, I have a long-standing relationship with Xcite who provided me with this drone. They’ve been very supportive of the blog from the very early days and they’ve lent or given me a number of items over the years to review, as well as hooking me up with discounts. I’m a huge Xcite fan.

I’m not sure where to start this review since I’m really excited about the drone, and I wasn’t expecting to be. If you’ve never owned a drone before it can be a bit intimidating at first and even if you have had a drone before, maybe a basic one like the original Mini 1 or the Spark, then flying probably still intimidates because of certain limitations like the battery life and connection issues. At least those were the two things that kept me from flying my drone often and both those things no longer are an issue with the Mini 2.

The last drone I had was the DJI Spark which was pretty good but most of the time I’d have connection issues once it got to a certain height, distance or if I was flying in an area like Salmiya which caused a lot of interference. It was freaky because I didn’t want to lose the drone and it made me a lot more cautious whenever I wanted to take it out. The DJI Mini 2 on the other hand uses a different connection technology called OcuSync and I think this is my favorite new feature. I haven’t had a single situation, not even for a second where I had a connection problem. I’ve flown it out far and as high as it can get and haven’t had a signal drop or even a low signal warning. It’s made flying the drone so much more enjoyable and it’s given me much more confidence.

The other feature I’ve been loving on the Mini 2 is the battery life which now lasts up to 30 minutes. That’s a lot of time which is great cuz I always felt so rushed with the Spark which only had around 15 minutes of battery life. Last week I headed out to Sulaibikhat to film the flamingos and I actually spent a lot of time just hovering my drone low near the water just watching them on my screen. It would take around 5 minutes to reach them since I was parked pretty far from their location and another 5 minutes to get back but with that, I still had around 20 minutes left of just pure stalking time. It’s enough time to get completely immersed and zoned out, I literally spent all my time just watching flamingos catch their food and eat as if I had my own private National Geographic channel. Whenever the battery was going to die the drone would just let me know and then start flying back to me. Really easy.

OcuSync and the battery life together have made me want to take out the drone more often and not have to worry about anything which is why I think it’s the perfect beginner’s drone. I can just focus on shooting and not worry about the other things. When the weather was misty this past weekend I just parked next to the Kuwait Towers and casually took the drone out to see if I can capture the towers coming out through the fog. It’s such an easy thing to do now and it’s because I’m no longer worried about flying the drone. After reaching a height taller than the towers I realized the fog was too high and had completely engulfed it, so I decided instead to fly towards the city to see if I could capture Hamra Tower. I didn’t end up getting a good shot but just the fact that I was able to on a whim head into the city with my drone is something I’d never have done with the Spark.

The DJI Mini 2 is really everything I’ve wanted into a drone. Something small, light, have a long battery life, and no connection issues. It’s made me want to fly the drone much more and given me the confidence to do so. If you want to get into drone photography, this has to be the best drone to start off with. I got the DJI Mini 2 “Fly More Combo” pack which comes with three batteries, a charging hub, extra propellers, and even a nice carrying case. The price of the full package is 175KD and you can get one from Xcite.

A couple of weeks ago when I posted about my Datsun, a reader suggested I install a hidden GPS tracker on it. I thought about it and it kinda made sense so I decided to see how much one would cost. After doing a lot of research, I ended up getting a GPS tracker called Tracki.

There were a number of reasons I chose Tracki including:
– it came with a sim card
– it would work worldwide
– the monthly subscription was around $14
– it has a 4 out 5 rating on Amazon with 24,000+ reviews
– the tracker cost only $10!

Other things I also looked at were battery life and what kind of connection it had, in this case, Tracki charged over normal micro-USB and battery life depended on how often I wanted it to ping back the location. For example, if I wanted to update the location every 2 hours, then the battery life would last 12-15 days. If I wanted the location to be updated every 6 hours then the battery life would last 22-26 days. On the other hand, if I wanted live tracking where the tracker would update the location every few minutes, then battery life would only last 3-5 days.

The battery life clearly isn’t that great but there is a simple workaround. You could either hardwire the tracker into your car either by getting an adapter to plug it into your OBD port (most new cars have it), or you could run a USB cable to the tracker from your cars USB port of fusebox, that way whenever the car is on it’s charging your tracker. In my case, I decided I would just strap a power bank to it. I have a few laying around the house that I don’t use and one is more than enough to keep the tracker running for a couple of months. Even if I have to swap the battery out every month that wouldn’t be too much of an issue.

So does it work? Yeah, it does. At any time I can just launch the Tracki app and check and see where my car is or where it was. So not only can I know where my car is at any given moment, but I can also view the history of where it’s been. That’s useful if say your car was stolen and then taken and parked somewhere underground. You could at least track the car before it went underground. And then if say for some reason the tracker can’t get you an accurate GPS point, it can continue to give you a rough idea of where it is using wifi or cell towers to triangulate its location.

Attaching the tracker to your car is very easy, you can either use the magnet on the back of the unit to attach it to a metal surface, or use the double-sided tape that came with it to stick it somewhere. If you’re connecting it to the collar of your pet, you could use the rubber case which has a lanyard or keychain hole in it.

There are a couple of negatives with Track the first being the Tracki app. It just feels over-complicated and buggy. For example, sometimes I try to save settings and get an error when in reality it actually saved the settings. Also, battery life is probably the biggest issue. Not sure if it’s because I was playing with the settings too much or what exactly, but I have the tracker set up to update the location every 4 hours which means the battery life should last 18-22 days, but it ended up lasting me just a week. It’s not that big of a deal since I’ll be strapping a battery pack to it, but if you’re using the tracker say to track your pet, you can’t really attach a battery pack to it. One more thing that is annoying is that 1 subscription covers 1 device. So if you get a tracker for all your cars you don’t get to share an account or even a discounted rate.

If you’re interested in getting Tracki, the price on Amazon fluctuates between $9.88 and $14.88. Amazon can also ship the device to you directly and that cost me an additional $21.59. You could ship it to your Aramex Shop&Ship account and pay less but I didn’t want to wait that long. Here is the link to Tracki on Amazon.com