Category: Reviews

Back in June, I posted about how I was able to order a new espresso machine straight from Italy without having to pay crazy shipping prices. I briefly mention what I ended up buying but since I still hadn’t had the machine for that long, I decided I’d leave the proper review for another time and since it’s now been a few months here is what I think of my setup.

Firstly my coffee machine set up is composed of the following three main parts:
Rocket Appartamento
Rocket Faustino Grinder
Acaia Lunar Scale

These three items along with my leveling tool (instead of a coffee tamper) have proven to be a dream team for me. One of the hardest things to get right is consistent coffee on a daily basis. There are too many factors in play and if just one of the steps changes slightly you end up with a different tasting coffee. This is why people generally have a favorite barista at their favorite coffee place, people want their coffee done the same way every morning. My setup is allowing me to get the same result every time and so I’m loving it.

My previous espresso machine was the Breville Oracle which had basically a fully automated process to make my latte. My Rocket setup is fully manual so I have the following steps I need to take:

• I first fill up my milk jug with milk and place it next to my machine
• I remove the portafilter from the coffee machine
• I place portafilter on my scale and zero it
• I then grind 18g of coffee into the portafilter. My grinder has a timer and I’ve set it to grind for 12.7 seconds which generally grinds around 18g of coffee
• I then place portafilter back on my scale to see if I hit 18g. I’m fine with 18-18.3g of coffee, if its a bit more I remove some, if it’s less I add more
• Using my leveling tool I press it hard on my portafilter and rotate it 8 times
• I then purge the steamer to let out condensation while also purging the group head to stabilize the water temperature
• I mount the portafilter back in the machine, I place my scale under the portafilter and place my coffee cup on it and zero the scale
• I then take my milk jug and start steaming my milk, once the milk gets warm I start the coffee-making process
• My scale can sense when coffee drips into the cup, it then automatically starts a timer while weighing my coffee.
• In the middle of this process, my milk hits the correct temperature (I can now feel it with my hands but I started off using a thermometer) so I turn off the steamer, clean the wand and purge it to clear any milk that might have gotten inside
• I then get back to focusing on my coffee. Once I get 36 grams of coffee in my cup I stop the machine. I try to get 36g of coffee in around 20-24 seconds
• I then take my milk and pour it into my coffee cup attempting latte art which I’m consistently terrible in and then I’m done

It’s a lot of steps but it’s become second nature and I timed the process and from start to finish and it takes just 2 minutes. 2 minutes to make a great latte, that’s really not bad at all. Most importantly is how good my coffee is and it’s always the same. I’m making such good coffee now I’ve stopped having coffee completely outside my house. When I had the Oracle I had consistency issues all the time and used to still have coffee at %Arabica on weekends because their coffee just tasted better than mine at home. But now I’m basically making the same quality at home with my set up so I haven’t had a single coffee outside since I got the machine. Not exaggerating either, not one single coffee outside my home since I got the machine back in May or June (whenever I got my machine). No more inconsistent coffees because of different baristas, no more complaining about the temperature of the milk because they’ve either boiled it too hot or not heated it enough. I have the exact same coffee every single time.

My coffee experience has improved tremendously because of my setup and I’m using the Appartamento model which is the entry-level Rocket machine. There are a lot more sophisticated models with more capabilities, but for my needs, the Appartamento has been more than enough and great value. The only negatives I really have are the following:

• I wish the drip tray was bigger in the Appartamento
• I wish the Appartamento could hold more water
• The Faustino grinder touch screen is great unless your fingers are damp and then it doesn’t work

Honestly, these three issues are very minor and aren’t really issues. So yeah, obviously I would highly recommend my setup especially if you want to make great espresso at home but don’t want to invest crazy money. My setup including accessories which I didn’t list above cost me around KD700 shipped to Kuwait. Sounds a lot but keep in mind it costs me around 500fils to make a latte at home using my favorite beans from %Arabica (Arabica Blend) and with lacto free milk (which is more expensive than normal milk). A regular latte at a coffee shop costs around KD1.750 with regular milk. I have three lattes a day so that’s a saving of 3.750KD a day or 112.500KD a month. So in just seven months of use, I’ll recoup the cost of my setup and you could recoup it even faster by using cheaper beans and milk. So you’re paying this much money upfront, but saving so much more in the long run.

So if you want to now buy a coffee machine online, check out my previous post here.

I know this is a totally random thing to review but this little device is just amazing. For the past couple of months I’ve been looking online for a portable pressure washer. I wanted to be able to wash my Alfa whenever I needed to as well as random stuff like my apartment AC compressors, or my BBQ grill, just random things that don’t have water access nearby. Anyway, I didn’t really find anything interesting and basically gave up until I spotted the Kärcher OC 3 at Ace hardware. I had actually checked out Kärcher pressure washers during my research but for some weird reason never came across the OC 3 which is exactly what I was hoping to find.

The OC 3 is a compact pressure washer with a built-in rechargeable battery and a 4L water tank which makes it extremely portable and practical. So far I’ve been using it to wash my bike after rides but this would also be great to take to the beach for example so you can wash your feet from sand when done or to spray down your wakeboard gear from seawater before shoving them into the back of your car.

There is one major negative with the OC 3 which could be a deal-breaker depending on what you’re planning to use it for. The OC 3 can hold 4L of water which is around 2 minutes of continuous spraying. 4L is more than enough for washing my bike but if I want to wash my car it means I need to find a tap nearby to refill the unit or I need to bring a larger water source with me (like a bucket) and use the included suction hose attachment. I originally thought the 15-minute battery life would be an issue but didn’t realize I would run out of water first.

Other than the water capacity limitation I love this thing. Ace carries the unit with the adventure pack which is an addon storage unit that clips to the bottom of the OC 3. The adventure pack includes a brush attachment that you can use to wash mud and dirt off a bike for example and it also contains the suction hose so you could use an external water supply. The cost of the OC 3 is KD43.750 and Ace only had a couple on display so not sure if they have more in stock. I couldn’t find it anywhere else in Kuwait so if you want one you should probably try to pass by ASAP to see if they still have them.

Update: Looks like I lucked out on the price because according to the local Karcher dealer, the price I paid was for a different unit (the K2). Ace mispriced the OC 3 and the actual cost of the machine is around KD68 not KD43.

Back in May I posted a review of my Eufy RoboVac which performed beyond my expectations. Because my experience with the RoboVac was so great I decided to also get a RoboMop. I ended up ordering the iRobot Braava Jet 240 off of Amazon which is iRobots most affordable RoboMop.

In case you didn’t get it from the name, the RoboMop is like the robot vacuum except it mops the floor with water. I have tiles covering my lower floor and hardwood on my top floor and although the RoboVac does a great job of removing the dust, it doesn’t clean up smudges or stains. I mostly have an issue in my kitchen where I have black tiles and so when after washing dishes or cooking, I end up with water stains/smudges on the floor from where I dripped water. The RoboMop I ended up getting is slightly smarter as well as dumber than my RoboVac. My RoboVac for example cleans a room by moving around randomly while the RoboMop I got moves around the room in a smarter, much more organized up and down motion. But while my RoboVac can connect to Wifi and be set to start at certain hours, the RoboMop doesn’t connect online and requires you to manually start it.

I’ve only tried the RoboMop in small areas and it’s performed pretty well. You fill up the RoboMop with water (no soap) and then place it where you want and press the clean button. I got some sprayable floor cleaner and I just spray a bit of it in the area I want to be cleaned and I let the RoboMop do its thing. Because I have black tiles its easy to see water streaks and I was getting that at one point but I solved it by reducing the amount of water the RoboMop sprays on the floor. I’m also experimenting with different cleaning pads, the unit came with disposable ones but I also ordered some more practical reusable ones which can be washed.

The RoboMop is smart enough to recognize carpet and avoid it which is great cuz I do have carpets on my tiles. Once the RoboMop finishes cleaning the floor it goes back to where it started from and turns off. So although I do wish it did have an auto start option I do like the fact I can turn it on before I leave the house and then come back to find my floors mopped and the RoboMop back in its spot.

At just 55KD the RoboMop isn’t that big of an investment in the robot cleaning world. Even shipping to Kuwait didn’t cost much since the unit is fairly light. There are smarter RoboMops available and even some RoboVac/Mop combos, but I didn’t really want to pay much more than this and really I mostly got this for my kitchen and so didn’t need anything smarter. I couldn’t find the RoboMop locally which is why I ordered it off Amazon. If you’re interested in getting one, here is the Amazon link.

The last time I bought a bicycle was just over 10 years ago. It was a full-suspension mountain bike meaning it had shocks both in the front and in the rear which you’d need if you were doing some crazy ass downhill mountain riding. Since I wasn’t riding down any mountain, I quickly realized over the years that although the bike looked good, the full-suspension setup was overkill for my needs. My favorite bike path is from Corniche Club all the way up to the Kuwait Towers and back so I really didn’t need any sort of mountain bike frankly.

One night during the lockdown, I came across a video on YouTube called “Reasons you only need a gravel bike“. That caught my interest since I was curious to know what a gravel bike was and so over the next 6 days I watched 196 videos on bicycles (I counted them). By the time I was done I had decided that it was time for me to get a new bike and I wanted one from the brand Canyon. What differentiates Canyon from other bike manufacturers is that they sell directly to consumers, no middle man, and so there are no shops that carry their bikes, it’s just you buying directly from their website which means you get a lot more for your money and it also means it’s perfect for us in Kuwait. Since their business model revolves around online orders, then they can easily ship a bike to Kuwait and the package you get includes everything you need to get your bike set up since all their customers have to do it worldwide because there are no local dealers.

I ended up ordering their Roadlite CF 8.0 bike, they had different versions of the bike to choose from but I decided to splurge and buy their higher-end model since I was buying a bike just once every 10 years. The top of the range model was the Roadlite CF 9.0 but I ended up going for the CF 8.0 instead which was specced out with Ultegra components, DT Swiss wheels, carbon fiber handlebar and seatpost, and a bunch of other great components. The 9.0 came with the Dura-ace components instead of Ultegra but that would have been a waste of money for my needs (even Ultegra honestly is a waste of money for my needs). For those of you who don’t know, bicycles are made up of different components from different manufacturers. So brands like Canyon, Trek, Scott, Santa Cruz etc.. design a bike frame and then fit wheels, handlebars, drive terrains, brakes and shocks from other manufacturers who specialize in these components. The performance, weight, quality, and price of those components vary greatly which is you can have a bike costing $1,500 but the same frame with higher-end components costing $6,000. The reason I went with their Roadlite series and not another model was because of my requirements so what works for me might not work for you.

Canyon ship directly to Kuwait via UPS and shipping cost me around 100KD. It arrived well packaged with a step by step manual and all the tools needed to put it together. If you’ve never put together a bike don’t worry, neither had I and turns out it’s not that complicated. You only need to connect the handlebar, seat post, pedals and the wheels to the bike which are all very easy to do especially if you’re good at following instructions. Canyon sell a lot of accessories and gear on their website as well so I had ordered other items with my bike like a bell, a bottle cage, water bottle, rear LED light, some Canyon stickers and probably my best purchase of the year, the CLUG bike rack. Seriously the CLUG is incredible, so simple and yet has made storing my bicycle so practical.

I’ve now had the bike for over a month and been riding it around 3-4 times a week and loving it. One of my favorite things about the bike is that it weighs just 8.3kg. That’s so light I could literally lift the bike with one finger (I actually tried it). My previous mountain bike really wasn’t considered that heavy at around 14.3kg, but the difference in weight between my old bike and the new one is night and day. I notice it mostly when I’m carrying my bike around but also while riding in a headwind or jumping off curbs or raised bits of the road. The bike is so light that when I fit my two water bottles in my bottle cages, the bike ends up feeling considerably heavier.

I didn’t really have a budget when I initially started looking at bikes but I assumed I would pay somewhere in the range of 300-400KD. In the end, I ended up paying 700KD including the 100KD for shipping. It was way more than I ever expected to pay for a bicycle but the odd thing is, it’s not even that expensive compared to some other models. Maybe I’m out of the loop in the bike world or something, but top-end mountain bikes are in the 1,500-2,500KD range with most basic ones starting somewhere around 400KD. So yeah, it all depends on your mindset and how deep your pockets are more than anything else really. In my case, I’m having a lot of fun riding again so that’s made the bike worth it for me.

If you’ve been thinking about getting a bike and didn’t like the locally available options then you should really check out Canyon. Their customer service has been pretty great as well, I’ve had to get in touch with them about some technical questions and they’ve been very quick in getting back to me. Here is a link to their website.

ROVE is a local car booking app similar to Uber. It’s a lot more upscale than the street cabs and more in line with the likes of Draewil. Before the pandemic, I was flip-flopping between ROVE and Draewil depending on which had a cab closer to me but Draewil hasn’t reopened yet (I think they’ve closed down for good they’re going to be back September) so currently ROVE is the only car booking service I’d use.

Like I mentioned in my Draewil review, I don’t use cabs a lot, usually only when dropping one of my cars off to the garage so I don’t mind spending the extra amount of money for comfort and right now, safety. I actually don’t think ROVE is even that expensive compared to the experience you’re getting in return. A trip from my garage in Kuwait City to Salmiya cost me KD4.5, but I was picked up in a brand new Range Rover, there was a bottle of hand sanitizer in the rear cupholder alongside a water bottle, I had a charging cable, lots of legroom, the driver wore a face mask the whole time and the whole service is very professional.

I’m actually not sure if ROVE have other cars since every time I’ve used them I’ve been picked up in a Range Rover. Depending on where you are the time it takes for their car to reach you will vary, yesterday it took 8 minutes for the car to arrive after I requested one. For payment, you can either set up your credit card in the app, pay by cash or pay by KNET. If you’re looking for a premium cab service, I’d highly recommend ROVE right now. Here is a link to their website with the app download links. [Link]

They’re also on Instagram @rideroveapp

I’m a bit late to the party with this, but only because I’ve never been a fan of Apple earphones. I’ve never used the ones that came with the iPhone, and I have a major dislike for the way the regular AirPods look with their long stems. But recently I started riding my bicycle again and needed a new pair of wireless earphones.

For the past couple of years I was using a pair of Shure wireless earphones, I liked them because of the way they fit around my ears which meant it was impossible for them to fall out. But, I had two major issues with them. The first was that they were in-ear headphones which meant they isolated the sound around me which I didn’t want to do because I want to be able to hear cars or other riders around me while riding. The second issue is that both earphones were connected by a wire, and the wireless and battery module hung between both earphones on that wire. That’s a bit cumbersome with today’s technology and I hated how the battery module would bounce on my neck while riding my bike.

So after a bit of research, I decided I’d finally give in to Apple and get the AirPods Pro. The Pro versions are different from the regular AirPods in that they are in-ear headphones so they sit inside your ear and not the outside, they also have a shorter stem (you can see a comparison here). The main reason I went with Apple over other better sounding options like the Sony WF-1000XM3 and the Beats Powerbeats Pro is the size. I wanted something small and light and the AirPods Pro were the smallest of the three.

After owning the AirPods Pro for around a month now, I’m loving them. They have two features which make them really great, the first is something I’m wondering why no other in-ear headphone manufacturer has done. Usually with in-ear headphones when you stick them inside your ear you get a bit of pressure which after a long period of time gets uncomfortable. The AirPods Pro are designed in such a way that they release the pressure which has made them super comfortable when I ride. The second feature is the transparency mode. A lot of people purchase the AirPods Pro because of the active noise-canceling feature where the earphones cancel out the sound around you. That’s great when in a busy coffee shop or on a plane, but not so great when you’re out exercising on public roads. Apple thought of that and have included a transparency mode where the tiny mics outside the earphones transmit the sound around you into your ears. So you can still hear your music and also your surroundings.

When it comes to sound quality they’re not great, they’re actually pretty crap compared to all my other earphones and headphones I own but then again, I knew that would be the case before I even bought them. When riding my bicycle sound quality doesn’t really matter honestly. Battery life has also been great with me but I also am constantly charging them whenever I’m close to a charging cable. The biggest surprise for me really was how well they fit really in my ears and how they never fall out.

Really the only negative I have about these earphones is the price. The cheapest I found was 70KD which I’m fine to pay for excellent sounding earphones, but it felt wrong paying so much for these since they don’t really sound great. But I’ve justified the price by the convenience factor and how often I’m using them. So I’ve for example started using them when I take my Alfa out since that car doesn’t have a stereo. They work great while driving since with the transparency mode I can still hear the traffic around me.

So overall I do recommend these earphones even though they aren’t the best sounding. I never thought I’d like them but I do understand now why they’re so popular. If you’re looking for great sounding earphones there are much better alternatives out there, but as an overall convenience and comfort factor, I don’t think these can be beaten.

A day before our three-week total lockdown I got a delivery from Amazon, the NEOGEO Arcade Stick Pro. It’s an arcade stick pre-installed with 20 old-school NEOGEO games. I’m a huge fan of NEOGEO ever since I was a kid since it was an unattainable gaming console back then due to the costs involved which was extremely high. Back in the 90s a single game could easily cost over 100KD for example, so paying 40KD for a NEOGEO arcade stick with 20 games included seems like a steal.

But, I really wasn’t interested in the games that were included, instead, the reason I wanted to get the Arcade Stick Pro is that someone found a way to install even more old-school games onto it.

Like all the classic mini-consoles that have gotten released over the past few years, the Arcade Stick Pro runs off USB power and connects to your TV via an HDMI cable. I spent hours and hours the first week of lockdown going through nearly 2,000 classic games from the 80s and 90s one by one. Whichever game I liked or reminded me of my childhood, I put aside to create my ultimate old school gaming playlist. The Arcade Stick Pro was obviously best at emulating NEOGEO games but it also did a great job of emulating other home consoles and arcade systems like CPS1, CPS2, and more. I wasn’t interested in emulating home consoles though since I could do that with my SNES mini and my Odroid Go Advance. Instead, what I really wanted to do was emulate games I used to play in the arcades when I was a kid and shooting scrollers (both horizontal and vertical) like Blazing Star and Mars Matrix which the Arcade Stick Pro did a phenomenal job with.

If you don’t want to copy your own games onto the Arcade Stick Pro, the system comes with 20 fighting games built-in and an additional 14 bonus games which includes a bunch of Metal Slug games and Super Sidekicks. The Metal Slug series alone would be worth the $120 price tag.

There aren’t really any negatives, except for one major inconvenience. With my SNES Classic mini system, I have it set up next to my TV and I bought a wireless controller for it. This means I can sit back on my couch and play games comfortably without having to worry about running power and HDMI cables. With the Arcade Stick Pro, the actual controller is the console so you need to have power and HDMI running to wherever you’re sitting. So if your couch is 3 meters away from your TV, you need a 3 meter long HDMI cable running to your couch and a USB cable to power up the system. It’s a hassle and anytime I think about wanting to play on it I have to think about setting it up. A second issue that might be a problem to some people but isn’t for me is 2-player games, if you want to play 2-player games you need to purchase an extra controller for it which is another $25.

I really do love this arcade stick and it made the lockdown a lot more bearable for me. If you’re looking for an affordable arcade stick that can run some of your old favorite NEOGEO and arcade games, this is a pretty great option. The stick costs $120 on Amazon and I think I paid KD14 for shipping and customs. I wasn’t able to find it here but Rihab Complex was also closed back then so they might have it now.

Back in April, I decided to buy a security camera so I could monitor my front door. Whenever I was ordering food I was having the drivers leave it at the front door, and I was also doing the same with my courier deliveries. Instead of having my packages delivered to my office which was closed, I was having them drop it off home instead. Since I didn’t want to sit around the house all day waiting for the drivers, I’d sometimes be out of the house when they deliver so I just have them leave the package at the front door. That was really the main reason I decided I’d get a security camera, just in case a package went missing I could see what happened.

At first, I wanted to get the Ring Doorbell cam but while checking out Xcite’s inventory, I found out about the Ring Stick Up Cam Battery and I realized it would work better for me. The quality of the video was higher than the Ring Doorbell, the battery also lasted longer and it was also cheaper.

Because I was mounting the camera outside my apartment door I didn’t want to run any electrical wires. I needed something I could mount easily and run on battery for a very long time. The Stick Up cam came in two versions, a wired and a battery version with the battery version promising up to 5 months battery life on a single charge. Xcite was selling the camera for 35KD which is pretty close to the Amazon price which was 31KD not including tax or delivery, so I ordered it from them.

Setting up the camera is a fairly easy process as long as you have a wifi signal where you’re mounting the camera. I didn’t have a strong wifi signal so I just bought a cheap 6KD Wifi extender from Blink and solved that issue. The camera has many features and customizable options but the most important ones for me were auto recording on movement and the ability to connect to the camera at any time for a live feed. Actually, the most important feature is the long battery life and it’s been two months since I’ve charged the battery and it’s slightly below half right now which is pretty great especially since I was playing a lot with the camera when I first got it. The camera also has a mic and a speaker so I could if I wanted to, communicate with the person outside my door.

One important thing to note is that if you want to save the videos you need to have a subscription plan with Ring. The camera doesn’t have a built-in memory and needs Wifi to work. Any video it records would be automatically uploaded to the cloud if you have a subscription plan. If you don’t have a subscription, then the only thing you’ll be able to do with the camera is connect to it for a live video feed and thats about it. The subscription cost isn’t that bad really, I’m paying $30 a year which includes a 60-day video history and the ability to download and share the videos. If you have multiple cameras around the house they have another plan for $10 a month for all your home cameras.

Overall I really like the product and the ease of use. The ability to save 60 days of videos onto the cloud and be able to access them from an app or their website is super convenient. At 35KD it’s also fairly accessible and the non-battery version is even cheaper but obviously not as convenient. If you’re interested in getting the camera, as of this post Xcite still has them in stock.

One item I was lucky enough to purchase just before the lockdown was a CTEK battery charger to use on my cars. I was planning to get one anyway for my Alfa since I was planning to park it during the summer but it turned out to be useful for the lockdown as well. If you’ve ever traveled on a long trip and got back to find your car battery dead, it was most likely because your car managed to drain the battery while you were away or the battery just lost its charge. A battery charger is a great way of keeping your battery healthy when parked for long periods of time and the CTEK is one of the best money can buy.

What makes the CTEK so great is how it takes care of your battery with its 8 stage approach combined with the simplicity of it. All you need to do is connect one end of the CTEK to your car battery and then plug the other end of it into a regular wall power socket and the CTEK will automatically take care of the rest. It will run the battery through some tests, check the condition of it and then charge it. Once the battery is fully charged it then trickle charges your battery to keep it alive and healthy until you need to use the car.

I’m lucky that my building parking lot has power plugs in various spots so right before the lockdown I charged the batteries of my cars just so I know they’d have enough juice to last through the lockdown. The CTEK came with two different plugs to connect to my battery, alligator clamps which just easily clip on to the positive and negative terminals on the battery, and eyelets that screw onto the battery. I installed the eyelets on my Alfa since it would be using the charger the most while I used the alligator clamps for my FJ and Lotus. In the photo on top you’ll notice the CTEK placed outside the car but that was just for the photo. You can actually place it under the hood so that way it’s protected from the weather as well as from getting stolen. If you have your own private garage then you can just leave it outside or on the floor.

If you have a car or motorbike that you plan on parking for a long time it’s worth investing in a battery charger. The CTEK is one of the best you can buy and the MXS 5.0 model which is the one I got sells for KD39.5. If you’re interested in picking one up you can order one from the local dealer, their Instagram account is @ctek.kw and their website is audodepotkw.com

Back in 2003 I bought the very original Roomba. They had just come out a few months earlier and the idea of a robot vacuum cleaner fascinated me. It was around the same time I was fascinated with Sony’s robot dog, the AIBO, but unlike the AIBO, I could actually afford the Roomba back then.

I was still living with my parents when I got the Roomba so it really only had to clean one room, my room. It was fun using it at first, but I eventually got bored and sold it since I stopped using it. Looking in the comments of that for sale post I found a comment of mine where I explain to a reader why I sold it. I was basically too lazy to use the Roomba since it had to be started manually. This meant I had to be in my room to use it or I had to remember to do it before I left the house for work. It also meant that it would keep going until the battery died and then I had to plug it in and charge it again. It was a chore that defeated the whole purpose of getting a robot in the first place. In that same comment, I mention that if they ever came out with “a version that cleans every day at a certain time without me interfering” then I’d get it another one which brings me to the Eufy Robovac.

One of the first things I did once the pandemic started was to tell my housemaid to stop coming over. This meant I had to clean my place myself which gave me a reason to get a new robot vacuum cleaner. I looked at what was available locally and found the Eufy RoboVac 30C at Blink. I hadn’t heard of Eufy before, but on Amazon it had a 4.5-star rating and over 4,500 reviews. Blink was selling it for 92KD which was around 5KD more than Amazon not including tax or shipping so a pretty good price and so ordered it.

I’ve been using the RoboVac on a daily basis and even though the first few days were a bit rough, it’s now been a few weeks and I’m loving it. The RoboVac 30C has a few cool options, it has Wifi, a 100+ minutes battery life, it can find its way back to its home station and recharge the battery when it’s low, you can schedule it and it also works with Alexa and Google Home. Thee 30C is considered to be a dumb robot in the RoboVac world. There are some RoboVacs that are a lot smarter and can draw and map out the whole room digitally and even recognize different objects on the floor (like actually be able to tell if its a shoe or a basketball). But those RoboVacs are a lot more expensive with some of the more expensive ones costing an upwards of 300KD. The way dumb RoboVacs work is a lot simpler, they clean the room by moving around it randomly with no specific pattern. They’re less efficient in that sense but at the end of the day they still get the work done.

I have my RoboVac clean my lower level of my apartment every night at 8PM. I’m in my TV room upstairs at 8PM so having the RoboVac work at that time doesn’t bother me. I don’t even hear it except for the beep when it wakes up to start cleaning, and another beep 90 minutes later when it calls it a night and comes back to its charging station. I mentioned earlier the first few days were rough and that turned out to be for a variety of reasons. The biggest issue I had was that the RoboVac dust storage was filling up very quickly and the rolling brushes underneath were getting clogged up with carpet hair. If that wasn’t an issue by itself, the RoboVac when low on battery shuts of the suction and heads home. But because my RoboVac storage was full it would cause it to leave a trail of dirt and dust balls on the way back to the charging station. I was having to clean after the RoboVac which was super annoying and was making me regret buying it. BUT, it turned out this wasn’t the RoboVacs fault. The reason it was filling up so quickly is because of the amount of dust and virgin carpet hair it was sucking up from under my large couch. My normal vacuum cleaner can’t reach under the couch but the RoboVac is low enough to get under there and clean properly. After a few days the dust container stopped overfilling and the RoboVac is working perfectly now. Every morning as part of my routine I now just empty the dust container which is usually around half full. The other issue I had when I first got it was making my place RoboVac friendly. It didn’t need a lot of work, I just had a few cables I needed to tuck away nicely so the RoboVac wouldn’t get stuck on it and I had to move one side table slightly away from the couch so that the RoboVac would have easier access. The RoboVac comes with strips you can stick on the floor if for example you don’t want it to wander into the kitchen or you want to keep it away from a certain area.

During this 24/7 lockdown my RoboVac has been my companion of a sort, kinda like how Tom Hanks had Wilson the Volleyball on Castaway. I now yell at my RoboVac and call it an idiot like I used to yell at my dog when it used to do something wrong. My RoboVac has a habit of knocking down my skateboard which I’ve got leaned up against the wall and then starts pushing it around like it’s playing with it. It’s kinda cute when it wants to play but noisy. I’ve only had my RoboVac get stuck once so far and when that happened my phone App notified me. It has no issues climbing carpets and even low objects. A lot of times it might get stuck on something and then it starts trying to push over it but after a while it gives up and goes backward freeing itself. I’m very impressed with it and I don’t regret getting it at all. I don’t even regret getting a smarter RoboVac since the 30C is doing a really great job. My black tiles tend to show dust easily but now they’re shiny all the time I love it.

If you’re interested in getting one, I got mine from Blink but it’s showing as sold out but A Store who are the Eufy dealers still has them in stock also for 92KD.

A couple of weeks ago I wanted to go visit Al Bohayra Farm and since it was pretty far, I figured I might as well take the opportunity to test drive a car that’s more comfortable than mine. I mean out of the 4 cars I own at the moment my FJ is the most comfortable one which is weird because my FJ isn’t even comfortable. So I got in touch with Mercedes and to see if they had a new GLE I could review. I had seen the new GLE at their Avenues showroom and really liked the way it looked so I was very curious to see how it would drive as well. Luckily for me, Mercedes had just put a brand new silver GLE 450 into their test drive fleet and I would be the first person to take it out.

The new facelifted GLE launched last year and like with their other models, I really like the design direction Mercedes has been taking recently. I never used to be a fan of the Mercedes styling and had always been a Beemer guy but their new cars just look so damn good. Even when I went to pick up the GLE from their showroom I spent a good amount of time checking out the new small Mercedes A-Class since it looked pretty great too.

The GLE as expected turned out to be the perfect car for my road trip. It was spacious, super comfortable and just a really nice and quiet space to be in. Even when I ended up on a pothole-ridden road the car ate it up like it was nothing. But the main reason I’ve become such a huge fan of Mercedes is because of their dash cluster. From all the car manufacturers out there, I think Mercedes have gotten the whole digital dashboard thing right. I first experienced it in the Mercedes S-Class years ago and now it’s trickled down to all their models including the GLE. I can’t think of another car manufacturer that combines the dash screen with the center control screen more elegantly and cleanly that they do. And unlike the new more expensive new G-Class, the center screen is actually a touchscreen in the GLE. It was something I found annoying in the G-Class and it’s been fixed here.

I’ve been thinking about replacing my FJ Cruiser with another SUV since I’ve had my car for 10 years now, and one of the reasons I wanted to take the GLE out was to see if it could be a possible replacement. Well, the answer to that is going to have to be a solid no. Basically I realized I can’t own a comfortable normal car or I might not want to drive any of my other cars. First world problem for sure, but that’s currently my reality at the moment.

That’s not to say the GLE was a perfect car, over the short period of time I had it I did discover some minor annoyances. One thing I was surprised with was the fact the car didn’t have adaptive cruise control. It had all the other bells and whistles like lane-keeping assist, automated parking, assisted emergency braking and 3D surround cameras, but no adaptive control which was odd on a fully loaded Mercedes at this price point. It’s kind of a must-have option nowadays especially systems that can work in slow traffic. Another issue I had was with Apple CarPlay. Although it worked flawlessly in the G-Class, my experience with CarPlay in the GLE was fairly buggy with the system crashing on me more than once. But more importantly, unlike in the G-Class, CarPlay wouldn’t take up the full width of the display but instead just occupy a smaller boxed area in the middle of the screen with black bars on the side. I hated that since it made what is a large gorgeous display seem a lot smaller than it is. But, it’s just a software issue that can be fixed with a software upgrade.

The GLE starting price is KD 22,700 but the model I drove cost KD 27,500. It’s a really good looking car with plenty of power and all the options you could want (except for adaptive cruise control). If I didn’t have any of my other cars this would definitely be one I’d consider. I loved the silver color and I didn’t even mind the interior color although if I had to choose I’d probably go with black. When I went to pick up the car from the dealership I walked through the quick service garage (pictured above) and it’s one of the nicest and cleanest garages I’ve seen. If you want to test drive this car you can, here is a link to the GLE website with a form you can fill out.

When Apple announced the new 16-inch MacBook Pro I tried to resist buying it for as long as I could but eventually, I caved and placed an order for one towards the end of December. I had a 13-inch MacBook Pro from late 2016 and although I didn’t really have any issues with it, I did feel it had become redundant. I have a 12.9-inch iPad Pro and a new 13-inch MacBook Air for work, so having a 13-inch MacBook Pro as well didn’t make any sense. On short weekend trips I’ve gotten into the habit of just taking my iPad and for anything longer I’d rather take the slightly lighter MacBook Air. Since I was using my MacBook Pro mostly while sitting on my couch in front of the TV, I decided size wasn’t as important for a couch computer and went ahead and ordered the new 16-inch.

My first laptop ever was a 2001 12″ Apple iBook and since then the largest laptop I’ve ever owned or used had been a 13″. I always went for the smallest size possible since they were usually cheaper and also because they were more portable. So you can imagine the look on my face when I first put the 16″ MacBook Pro on my lap and opened it up. It was HUGE! I mean I had played with a display model at Xcite and Gait before ordering one, but in a large store on a large table it didn’t feel that much bigger than my 13″. On my laps, it was a completely different story and I honestly hated it right away and regretted buying it.

Now that I’ve been using the MacBook Pro for around a month, I have gotten a lot more comfortable with the size. I wouldn’t say I’m in love with it just yet, but at least it’s become a lot more bearable. There has been a lot of hype online about the new 16-inch MacBook Pro with a lot of reviewers calling it the best laptop Apple has ever made (sorry but the old-school 12″ PowerBook takes that spot), and although there are a lot of positives with the new design, I did face some issues.

First the good stuff and if you’ve read any review already you’ll know there are two things everyone has been talking about, the redesigned keyboard and the speakers. I never really had any problem with the previous keyboards, but I do know a lot of people hated it. The newly updated keyboard is better that’s for sure, there is more key travel so it feels softer to type on and its also quieter. I’m actually on my iMac right now typing this post and the keyboard feels similar to the one on the new MacBook Pro, that’s how good they’ve managed to make the new MacBook Pro keyboard feel. The second big change is the speakers, many people are calling it the best speakers you can get on a laptop, I don’t know about that but I can say that yes the sound on the 16-inch MacBook Pro sounds lightyears better than on my 13-inch. Side by side the difference is night and day but even if you don’t have another laptop to compare the sound next to, you’ll still clearly notice the difference. The sound is fuller and there is now bass which on the previous MacBook Pros didn’t exist. But this also brings me over to the negatives.

The speakers aren’t loud. I haven’t seen anyone mention this yet but the new speakers seem to be limited in volume to avoid distortion? I have this issue with Bang & Olufsen speakers, they tend to limit the volume below the maximum so to avoid any distortion that may occur. But then again maybe because the new MacBook Pro speakers sound larger than they actually are, I expect them to go louder? I don’t know but I noticed this volume issue because of how often I’ve tried raising it only to find out it’s already on maximum. The second issue I have with the new MacBook Pro is the heat. It’s winter right now so the temperature is nice and cool in my apartment but I’ve already noticed the laptop gets really warm on the underside. I would be just watching youtube videos and the laptop would get uncomfortably hot on my laps. I never had that issue with my other laptops and I’m worried in the summer it’s going to annoy me a lot. Finally the battery life. Before my 13″ MacBook Pro I had the older generation MacBook Air and I would easily get 8 to 10 hours of battery life. With the 13″ MacBook Pro that dropped down to around 4 hours and now with this 16″ I think I’m getting around 5-6. The problem is Apple says I should be getting 10+ and they used to be really accurate with their estimates but I can’t seem to ever get there.

Overall though this is a pretty well-rounded laptop. I got the entry model 16″ and it’s plenty fast for me and comes standard with 16GB RAM and 512GB storage. I’m not comfortable with the size just yet but that’s understandable since for the past 20 years I’ve only been using the smallest of laptops. One advantage to the large size is that it’s now making my 13″ MacBook Pro feel a lot smaller and lighter which has made me consider keeping it but I’m not going to. The keyboard touch bar is still there and if you hated it before you’re still gonna hate it but if like me you like the touch bar then you’re gonna like it even more now since they’ve made the ESC button an actual key and separated it from the touch bar. For those wondering why I ordered the MacBook online instead of getting it locally, it’s simply because I wanted a US keyboard without the Arabic letters and also because it would come out cheaper than buying it locally. If you’re thinking of upgrading your MacBook then you can’t go wrong with the 16”. If it’s too big for you then you might want to hold out a bit because rumors are Apple is gonna release a new 14” one to replace the current 13”.

A few weeks ago a new restaurant opened up called ROTO which is based around the concept of a wood-fired rotisserie. The restaurant is owned by the guys behind Little Ruby’s and Chef Khaled Al Baker (@chefkb) whom I’ve previously posted about on the blog. I’m not generally a fan of rotisserie chicken but because Khaled is a friend of mine I decided to (translation: I had to) check the place out. Good thing I did because I’m now actually a huge fan of Roto.

I think the main reason for me not liking rotisserie chicken in the first place was because I only ever had it from those street side rotisserie places and I always found it too greasy plus I don’t like chicken on the bone. So when I told Chef KB that he assured me it would be a different experience, plus they serve the chicken off the bone so I didn’t have an excuse not to try it. Before even getting to the chicken though I have to say what I probably like most about Roto are the starters. Two things you need to have, his Burrata dish and the Corn Brûlée. I’ve literally gone to Roto just to have the corn brûlée, it’s that good!

The rotisserie chicken, on the other hand, tasted wayyy better than I was expecting it to. It definitely didn’t taste like a regular street side chicken and the ability to choose from a variety of different dipping sauces gives it an even greater appeal. Part of what makes the rotisserie taste so good is that it’s grilled in a Josper Rotisserie using wooden coal, so you end up with a nice crispy exterior, a juicy interior, and a slightly smokey flavor. But, what I liked even more was the pulled chicken sandwiches they have on the menu which have become my new favorite lunch thing. The Musahab panini with extra garlic sauce is my favorite one with the shawarma panini coming a close second.

Pricewise it’s fairly reasonable with the rotisserie chicken costing KD4.5, the musahab panini with fries KD3.5 and the corn brûlée for KD3. So a meal for two can cost around KD10 with drinks which is pretty good nowadays. Roto is located in Kuwait City in the new glass tower across the street from Crystal Tower [Google Maps]. They’re open from 1PM to 11PM and you can follow them on Instagram @ontheroto

Top and bottom photo taken from Roto

While prepping for this post I realized that I hadn’t written a hotel review since 2015. I think that’s because I don’t travel as much as I used to and when I do, they’re usually quick weekend trips over to Dubai. I usually stay at the Vida Downtown Hotel in Dubai but this past weekend the room prices were more expensive than usual at KD67 a night which is more than what I wanted to pay. Hotel rooms are still one thing I’m not comfortable with paying a lot for, I only tend to sleep there and not really hang out in the room so can’t see myself paying so much money for it. So while looking for alternative places to stay I stumbled upon the Rove Downtown Hotel. The reviews online were all pretty great, the hotel was a 5-minute walk from Dubai Mall, a 10-minute walk to my best friend’s apartment, the rooms looked nice and clean, and most importantly, it was only around KD35 a night. So I booked and hoped for the best.

When I first arrived to the hotel check-in was pretty quick even though they were a bit busy. While checking in I noticed what looked like an entrance to a cinema on the far end of the lobby so I asked the receptionist if that was an actual cinema and he was like yes it was. Turns out the hotel had a small Reel Cinema movie theater that played current movies and was free for hotel guests. I was already impressed. After getting the room key I headed towards the elevators when I spotted a Zoom brand convenience store connected to the lobby. I decided to check it out and they had a ton of munchies as well as things you might need like deodorant and toothpaste. So far it seemed like the perfect hotel and I started hoping the rooms would be good because I knew it had the potential to be my new favorite hotel in Dubai.

As soon as I walked into the room I was relieved. The room looked like what I had seen in the photos, it was clean, modern, cozy and not that small. When booking a room they had only two options really to choose from, either a room overlooking Burj Khalifa, or not. I didn’t care about the view so I booked a regular room and so my view was of some random towers further down the road and it wasn’t that bad. My overall first impression was really great at that point.

Over the next two days, I really couldn’t find anything negative about the hotel. Even if I’m trying to be super picky the worst thing I could come up with is the lack of decent TV channels or the lack of Apple TV. At Vida, I could connect to my Netflix account on the room’s TV and also stream YouTube videos from my phone to it. But that’s really the only negative thing I have to say about Rove. Dubai Mall was really easy to get to with the closest entrance being the new Fashion Avenue extension and if you want to Uber somewhere, the cabs are all super close and never take more than a couple of minutes to get to the hotel.

If you’re looking for a great budget hotel to stay in the next time you’re in Dubai then I really recommend you check out Rove. I was so impressed it made me go back to writing hotel reviews again. Here is a link to their website.

Review written by Tarek J

Last Tuesday I was invited to the VOX Kuwait premier for the new Jumanji film, The Next Level. Not my typical cup of tea, but I remember being pleasantly surprised at the last film when I took my son to watch it a couple of years ago. So when I got the invite, I called my son up and told him to get ready, and he was ecstatic. That’s the real value of these films, they aren’t true cinema, but they are the kind of kid friendly adventure films that I used to watch in the 90’s. Not to say this is another nostalgia driven film, it’s it’s own modern tale but it reminds me of 90s films because of its spirit.

VOX blew it out the park this time. The red carpet was replaced with a shifting landscape inspired from the film (starting with walking on a draw bridge, to a sandy desert floor, to a snowy landscape (ok tiny foam balls but it looked the part). Once we got into the theater, we had a local drum circle give it their all drumming away and getting the audience involved, it was more exciting than expected.

If you’re a fan of the last Jumanji, you will be a fan of this one. It’s that simple. The Next Level finds new ways to play with its formula, most cleverly by switching which characters takes on once back in the game, which allows us to see a different sides of the cast. One of the criticism from the last film was that the in-game characters didn’t act like the humans they came from but just acted like themselves (Kevin Hart was just Kevin Hart in shorts). This time around they all play against type, with Dwayne Johnson playing an elderly demented Danny Devito, and Kevin Hart playing a slow soft talking sophisticated intellectual (see what I mean?).

In terms of censorship, it’s a family film so really nothing to worry about except the occasional kiss that’s cut, but the plot remains intact.

This is pure popcorn cinema. It’s funny, well directed, with some exciting action sequences and occasionally well executed gags. Again this isn’t anything to write home about, but with films like this you gotta judge on a curve and keep in mind what the movie is trying to do. Take your kids, take your nephews and nieces, or if you enjoy a good easy unironic time at the cinema, take yourselves and enjoy it. God knows we can use more fun in movies, and at the very least, Jumanji The Next Level delivers on that.