2:48AM - Entertaining Kuwait since 2003

Good Game, the popular tabletop gaming store is finally allowed to have in-game play at their store again. The only provision is that you need to be vaccinated to do so. If you are vaccinated then you will need to show your green vaccinated status on the Immune app to play or participate in any events at the store.

If you previously missed the announcement, Good Game moved to Salmiya into a much larger space. Make sure you check out their Instagram @goodgamekw

Back in 2009 I posted a scan of a liquor permit dating back to 1964 when alcohol was still legal in Kuwait. But a few days ago a friend of mine sent me a photo of a liquor permit which looks to be in really good condition. Kinda makes me want to find one so I could frame it.

One thing I’ve been trying to find for over a decade now is photos of the Gray Mackenzie liquor stores. Supposedly there was one location in Seef and I’m guessing there were other locations like in Ahmadi but I can’t find a single photo of one anywhere!

Anyway, here is a link to an article in TIME magazine dating back to 1965 talking about how alcohol was banned in Kuwait.

Thanks friend, owe you cookies

Update: A reader just sent me the picture below of a Gray Mackenzie liquor store from back in 1958 when alcohol was still legal. Based on the decorations it looks like it was taken during the Christmas season. This photo is also supposedly of the location opposite Seef. I couldn’t find a higher resolution photo but it’s a start!

This year’s curfew was completely different from last year’s. I think mostly because there was less fear since we’ve all been dealing with Covid for the past year and are more informed on it, while last year the whole thing was still a mystery.

One thing I noticed this year was how every area had different activities going on like at one point I think Surra had a carnival during curfew. In Salmiya once the cars disappeared everyone came to the old souk where I live and turned the streets to mini badminton courts. I didn’t post about it on my social media or on the blog at that time because I didn’t want to bring it any unwanted attention, but it was so much fun. There were even mini badminton courts drawn in chalk all over the streets. It was kinda like a block party.

What did your neighborhood do during curfew?

It’s hard to tell from these videos if the vaccination drives were only for mall employees or open to the public but whatever the criteria was, it looks like it was total chaos.

There was also a video that showed a police officer aggressively shoving and hitting people waiting in line to get vaccinated. After the video went viral the MOI quickly released a statement saying they’ve summoned the involved officer for questioning and that it was an individual act and in no way reflects the police department’s mission which is to serve and protect the community.

Has anyone else noticed how active and reactionary the MOI Instagram account has become? Whenever there is an incident that goes viral they’re always on top of it. From all the government accounts I think the MOI and Traffic Department are my two favorites.

Last week I found this old 80s KDD advert and one thing that struck me about it was the sheer amount of flavors that don’t exist anymore. And, on top of all the missing flavors, turns out KDD had push-up ice cream (back row, right of the Rockets)which I don’t ever recall. Also if you’re wondering about the blue and green colored ice cream sticks in the back, the green is coconut flavored but the blue I’m not sure. You’ll also notice two Columbia flavors, turns out they’re both similar except one doesn’t have the ice cream center.

A lot of people who registered in December have been leaving comments that they still haven’t gotten their vaccine appointment. One reader just left the comment below that might be helpful and worth giving a shot:

All expats that I know who registered in December did not get vaccinated. I think there is a problem with the December data.

151 will not help you, go to the counter in Mishrif and tell them that you registered in December and still did not get vaccinated. They will redo your registration and with in 72 hours you will get an SMS.

If you try this and it works, let us know!

Between 1895 and 1909, Russel Hamilton an English petty officer made various voyages from Egypt to Japan stopping along the way. One stop was Kuwait where he took these two black and white photographs with captions on the back.

The caption on top reads:

Shiek of Koweit and followers. Note that some have covered faces, fearing evil eye of camera.

The caption below reads:

Taken during bombardment of Koweit. Somali outrage led by the “mad mullah” – Sheiks Pallace Koweit

If you’d like to see these photos in hi-res, click here.

Source: Smithsonian Institute

If you don’t want to drive around looking for a guy selling fireworks at a random roundabout there are three local websites in which you can order fireworks from. All three sites have a ton of different kinds of fireworks for sale and they all have the prices listed.

If you’re interested, here are the websites:
العاب نارية (Their YouTube account with demonstrations)
Q8 Fireworks
Kuwait Fireworks

Thanks K

Back in 2017, I attended a talk by Prof. Alberico B. Belgiojoso titled “The 1970 Vision for Kuwait City” where he shared some various interesting plans that never got implemented. One plan to help reduce traffic congestion in the city center included building multistory parking lots on the outskirts of the city and then connecting them to the city center and various office towers via suspended monorails. Since that talk I’ve been trying to find a decent photo of the proposal and the best I’ve been able to find is the one above which I scanned from a booklet I borrowed off a friend. It’s a government booklet titled Urban Development in Kuwait “التطور والعمران قي الكويت”.

Thanks @_M87

Here’s a feel-good story. Yesterday around 10,000 employees of The Avenues got vaccinated against COVID-19. This was part of the second phase of the government’s field vaccination campaign, the first phase included cooperative societies, mosques, the banking sector, food manufacturers, cinemas, and others. 34,758 employees received vaccination during the first phase.

According to the MOH, they launched the second phase of the campaign in Avenues since it was the largest mall but in the upcoming days, the vaccine will be provided for workers in other commercial complexes around the country.

Kuwait is experiencing a period of stagnation. The landscapes of Kuwait—its patchy downtown, its repetitive suburbs, its flat desert, its Gulf waters—have not been reimagined for decades. There is no societal expectation that these landscapes will or should change. Even simple and sensible improvements remain outside the realm of possibility. We cannot imagine a more green and pedestrian friendly downtown. We cannot imagine suburbs more diverse in building type and resident background. We cannot imagine a less trampled and littered desert, richer in biodiversity and always beautiful. We cannot imagine our water being less polluted and its depths more bountiful. And this deficient imagination of ours is also lacking in the other direction. Given the current economic, environmental, and humanitarian challenges the country is facing, it is baffling why most of us cannot visualize the rapid and disastrous transformations that our urban, rural, and natural landscapes can undergo in the near future. Regardless of the evidence, there seems to be a widespread expectation that things will essentially stay the same. Full Post Link

The excerpt and image above was taken from an interesting post by architect Ali AlYousefi. He’s got a lot more Kuwait imagined images on his blog so make sure you check it out. I also think his posts work really well in parallel with Asseel Al-Ragam’s Simple Fixes tweets like the ones below.

Over the weekend PACI updated the Kuwait Mobile ID app and added vaccination data to it. This means the vaccination data is now part of your Civil ID information alongside other important info like nationality, birth of date, and sponsor. Clicking on the vaccine status pops up a window revealing details on the first and second dose.

If you’re anti-vax this isn’t good news because it’s starting to look like vaccination will eventually be required for things like residency renewal, traveling, and maybe even accessing gyms or other indoor public spaces. So if you’ve been holding out on signing up for the vaccine you’re just delaying the inevitable.

Yesterday I uploaded some old photos of Family Bookshop to Flickr which I had taken back in 2011 before they closed down. I had always assumed that the Salmiya location of Family Bookshop was the first and only branch but turns out that wasn’t the case,

The Family Bookshop started off as bible shops around the region by the Danish Missionary Society with the one in Kuwait opening up in 1910. But in the 60s, as part of their literature mission they decided to build a new concept called the Family Bookshop Group (FBG) with the following objectives:

• To print the Gospel
• Encourage dialogue between Muslims and Christians
• Provide all Christian churches in the region with literature and auxiliary materials, provide society with quality literature and other books primarily in Arabic and English
• Seek the best possible cooperation with various Christian churches
• Develop a self-supporting organization by efficient leadership
• Offer education and encourage Arab Christians to become booksellers
• Develop cooperation between the bookshops and coordinate a future development

From what I could gather there were two Family Bookshops in Kuwait. One at the American Mission Hospital (now the Amricani Culture Center) which opened in 1969 and pictured at the very top of this post. Then there was a second branch located in Salmiya which also opened up in 1969 (pictured above).

I think it was Salmiya because in the photo above taken outside their 1969 location, the building in the background on the far right of the photo looks like the building in Salmiya which the Family Bookshop we know was located in. I believe the building they were in got demolished so they moved to the location across the street in 1971 (pictured below).

The Salmiya Family Bookshop which most of us know eventually closed down in February 2013 when they were evicted from their premises and the building demolished.

The store manager at that time who you might recognize if you were a regular was Jaswinder Singh. He joined Family Bookshop in 1979 as a part time accountant before eventually become the manager. He’s now retired and back in India, but his daughter runs the bookstore @little_bees_books

I managed to find a bunch of incredible photos of the Family Bookshop in Kuwait in the 60s on the University of Southern California library website. I’ve uploaded them all to Flickr and you can view them here.

Also if you want to check out photos of Family Bookshop Salmiya before they closed down, click here.

Update: This post was updated with more information and the closing down date was adjusted from 2012 to 2013.

A couple of days ago a new announcement was made that only vaccinated citizens can travel. Expats on the other hand (and they made this part very clear) are still banned from entering Kuwait. Keep in mind most citizens would most likely travel for leisure purposes while most expats would travel for family reasons. A lot haven’t seen their loved ones since the start of the pandemic, I haven’t seen my dad for two years but I know of people who haven’t seen their wives or kids for as much.

I’m fully vaccinated now with my two shots which is great. I have the immune app and I’m all green and on the Mosafar website, my vaccination circle is also fully green. Yet if I fly out of Kuwait I can’t come back in because I’m an expat?

I was annoyed but I had decided a couple of weeks ago that I wasn’t going to post about this stuff anymore. Citizens are equally upset by these bizarre decisions and they’re all being very vocal about it on all the social media channels. So I left it at that.

Then last night, my sister calls me from Lebanon and tells me my dad has fallen ill. He’s fully vaccinated so I don’t think it’s covid, but he’s old and frail so I don’t know. This morning I wake up to a message saying things have taken a turn for the worse and they had to admit him to the ER.

So now I have to make a choice.

• Fly out to Lebanon as soon as possible and get stuck outside Kuwait for months. I’d have to decide to leave my friends, my job, my blog, my life, (everything basically) and be uprooted for an indefinite amount of time.

• Or, stay in Kuwait and possibly never see my dad again.

This rule isn’t just unfair, it’s illogical and unrealistic and because of it, I’m unable to do the right thing which is to be with my dad and family, especially when I know I’m needed.

Note: I just want to add that I wasn’t planning on publishing this post. I originally wrote it as a way to vent and self-therapy. I don’t like sharing personal parts of my life so it feels very awkward putting this out there but I just felt that if this post somehow helps change the rule, even if it’s a very small chance, then it’s worth putting it out there. Thank you for your messages.

Update: My dad is doing a lot better now, thank you everyone again.

As you are probably aware by now, movie theaters will reopen again during eid after having been closed since the very start of the pandemic. Here is some information I was able to obtain regarding the opening and what the safety measures will be taken:

• Only vaccinated customers will be allowed into the cinemas. Your vaccination status will be verified using the Immune App. Only people with a green color bar behind their name will be allowed entry.

• Cinemas will operate with 50% occupancy

• 2m social distancing will be enforced

• Cinemas will be promoting online ticket and food sales to reduce the lines

• Cinemagoers will have their temperature checked at the entrance

Some more info:

• If you vaccinated outside of Kuwait, you will have the chance to upload your vaccination to the Immune App. This update will not be available for Eid.

• After taking your first vaccine shot the Immune App will not display a green color bar behind your name until 5 weeks have passed.

All the above has still not been finalized so there might be adjustments made.