Back in 2019, I posted a review of the KEF LSX Wireless Speakers which I fell in love with. Since that review, I had been using them with my record player and a few weeks ago I bought an SVS SB-2000 Pro subwoofer to pair with them. For some reason, my record player and the sub didn’t get along really well, when I’d stream music onto the speakers from my phone they sounded incredible with the sub, but when I played any record, I’d get a really low deep humming bass note that was just awful.
I couldn’t return the subwoofer (and didn’t want to honestly) so I decided to get a second pair of LSX speakers to connect to my main computer and the sub. I had been using my old Onkyo home theater amp connected to a pair of Bose Acoustimass 5 Series III speakers with my Mac and although they sounded a bit boomy sometimes, they weren’t bad at all, I was just looking for an excuse to get new KEF LSX speakers after seeing them on sale. When I posted about the KEF LSX back in 2019 they were selling for 340KD but, Xcite have been heavily discounting their speakers (I got my KEF R7’s for 50% off) and the LSX were now on sale for KD250, so I picked up a pair of white ones.
These are probably the best speakers you can get for your computer. You can read my original review where I discuss why they are so good, but the experience of using them with my Mac is so unreal. Although the speakers are located on the corners of my desk, the sound feels like it comes straight out of my iMac in front of me. On more than one occasion I’d bring my ear up to my Mac to make sure the sound wasn’t really coming from there. I think it has to do with KEF’s phase correction or DSP but you really need to hear it to believe it, I love it. Also just to add, the LSX alone already sounded great but paired up with the SVS sub and I started to semi regret not getting this combo for my gym instead of the R7 and saving a ton of money (but not really cuz I also love my R7’s a lot).
If you were interested in the LSX speakers previously but thought they were too expensive, check them out now. They don’t have many in stock right now and I think I got the last boxed white pair but worst case you could pick up a display model. Also, the Xcite website says they’re all out of stock but they aren’t really, my white ones were out of stock online but they still had stock in-store in addition to the display models. Just make sure you go to the large Xcite on the 4th Ring Road in Al-Rai or the Avenues location next to IKEA since these are the only two locations that carry them.
Update: 6 months later I have to say, my LSX 50 paired up with the SVS SB-2000 is such a great combo and can easily hold its own versus my much more expensive KEF R7 speakers. When it comes to bass, there is no competition, the LSX SVS combo beats the R7 easily so if you’re into electronic music, this is the setup to have.
Does anyone remember the restaurant with the lobster aquarium in Sheraton Hotel back in the 80s? I think it was called the Hunt Room? It was located in the back, to the right of the telex machines. I’m trying to find photos or info on it but can’t find anything so I’m guessing I’ve got the name completely wrong.
Update: Ok found it, the restaurant was called “Hunt Room” so I was close! I found an old Sheraton matchbook for sale on eBay that mentions Hunt Room (pictured below) and also found a photo of a father and son having dinner there back in 1984. I need to keep digging.
Someone on Reddit found the postcard above that was written and sent by Malcolm X from Kuwait back in 1964. Malcolm X was an African American Muslim minister and human rights activist who was a popular figure in the US during the civil rights movement. Following his exit from the Nation of Islam, he took a pilgrimage to Mecca and during that time, he also traveled to Kuwait, Nigeria, Ethiopia and Casablanca.
The postcard above was one of 16 postcards that were auctioned off in 2016 and were sent by Malcolm to Gloria Owens, who was the secretary at Muhammad’s Temples of Islam where he was a minister alongside Louis Farrakhan. The postcard reads:
Greetings from beautiful Kuwait. Since I’ve seen what a mess can be made of things by narrow-minded people, I’m still traveling, trying to broaden my scope.
Until just a few moments ago I had no idea Malcolm had visited Kuwait. I’ll try and see if I can dig up anything from his trip but for now, if you want to see a higher resolution version of the postcard above, click here.
Not sure why film is all of a sudden taking off in Kuwait but Ajas is another local online store that sells film cameras. Their prices are slightly higher than CRATE whom I posted about recently, but they have a pretty cool ad (posted above) so all is forgiven. Check them out at shopajas.com
According to @kuwaitnews, Kuwait has started vaccinating elderly expats as well as expats with chronic health issues. I’ve also had people get in touch with me letting me know that their parents or grandparents have started getting their appointments. This is really great news to end the week. Thank you to everyone that supported this request and helped make this happen!
Dine-In Records is a local online record store with a decent collection of albums. I’ve previously posted about two other local stores, Vinyl Destination and Misfits and although Dine-In has a smaller collection than both of those, the three combined give you a larger variety of albums to choose from. Prices start from KD10 and you can check out their collection on their website dineinrecordskw.com
Of course, if you want older or used records you still have the option of the Antique Basement.
Li3ib is an app that allows you to book different sports activities around Kuwait. During regular days you could use the app to book tennis, squash, basketball and volleyball courts, football fields and also rent bicycles. But due to the closure of everything sports at the moment, the only thing available is bicycle rental.
I actually wanted to wait and post about this app once sports stadiums reopened so people can make good use of the app but, because the weather is so good right now I know people will want to take advantage of the bicycle rentals. All you need to do to rent a bike with the app is choose a date and a drop-off time and they’ll deliver the bicycle to you and pick it up again the next day. Renting a bike for 24 hours is KD10 which is really reasonable.
If you’re interested in any of the sports I mentioned above or want to rent a bicycle easily to go out riding this weekend, download the app using this link.
A new only organic specialist supermarket opened up yesterday called Danke. The supermarket carries a variety of organic foodstuff as well as biodegradable and recycled household items. Yesterday actually happened to be the first day they opened and so they were still busy setting up the place. The bakery for example was not functional last night but should be up and running by the time you read this post.
They’re in a soft launch phase but other than the freezers and the bakery the shelves were all stacked with products from various brands including Alinor, Allos, Bauckhof, Biovegan, Byodo, Lubs, and many more. They also had a small fresh produce section.
The owner happened to be there while I was checking out the place and he told me that although Danke is a local brand the concept was brought in from Germany. That would explain why all the brands I saw were European and mostly German. While trying to dig up info on the brand I noticed they also have an app. I just installed the app and it seems to contain all their products but not sure if it’s working yet. You can download it and check it out yourself here.
The place looks great so it’s worth passing by and checking out. They’re currently open from 8AM to 12AM and are located in the basement of Burj Jassem in Kuwait City. If you don’t know where that is, here is the link to Google Maps. They’re also on Instagram @danke_kw
Just a quick update, I removed yesterday’s post on my own accord. I wasn’t forced to remove it. I stated what I had to state and my readers read it so it’s done with. But when a post like that blows up and goes viral outside my regular reader base, it can easily get misinterpreted by people who don’t know me or the blog, and that brings a different set of issues that I don’t want to deal with. For everyone that reached out with support yesterday, thank you, it meant a lot.
Good Game, the popular tabletop gaming store which opened back in 2013 in Sanabil Tower has now moved to a much larger location in Salmiya.
I loved the previous store but it became too small for their needs and so they had to find a new spot. The new place is pretty huge with lots of tables and chairs, a small snack bar, and a pretty large retail area.
Other than selling boardgames they also rent them to play in-store. The price varies from game to game but they’re mostly around 2-4KD for unlimited playtime. You just go with your friends, pick a game to rent, and then just play for as long as you want, with no time limit.
The new Good Game is located in 8 Mall in Salmiya, opposite Marks & Spencer. They’re currently open 12PM to 8PM and closed on Sundays, but check out their Instagram for the latest opening hours @goodgamekw
Since the gyms are closed I figured I’d post about Apple Fitness+ and how much I like it. Last month I decided I’d get back into yoga, I used to do it frequently a few years ago and then just stopped and never got back into it. Last year I tried doing yoga while watching a YouTube video and didn’t like the experience, but in September Apple released Fitness+ so I decided to try it out and see if it was any better. To use it you need to have an Apple Watch set up on your phone, I didn’t have an Apple Watch but I had borrowed one from a friend last year to try it out and I guess my phone still thought I had it. I couldn’t get Fitness+ working on Apple TV or my iPad but it was fine on my phone which was ok for now since I could stream from it to my TV. I decided to try a yoga exercise and to my surprise, my experience was great!
I started doing yoga with an instructor called Dustin and I just clicked with his style right away. I liked his pace, I liked his soothing voice and very chill demeanor and I’ve now started doing yoga with him practically on a daily basis. Apple Fitness+ is basically the same thing as watching an exercise video on YouTube except for the fact that it’s organized really well in the app and if you have an Apple Watch, the app connects your heart rate monitor to Fitness+ and you get a data exchange between the two (you can see your data on the TV as well). I really didn’t care for the Apple Watch, not really a fan of it nor do I like collecting data while working out since I tend to become data-obsessed and it ruins things for me (it why I stopped rowing for cardio and why I had stopped riding my bike for a long time). But I really am enjoying Fitness+ a lot. It’s become my go-to now after finishing up my weight lifting at home.
I mentioned at the start how Fitness+ was somehow working for me on my phone because at one point I had an Apple Watch set up on it? Well, that didn’t last long and it started giving me errors and not letting me stream onto my TV. I didn’t want to stop using Fitness+ so I decided to buy an Apple Watch so I could set up Fitness+ properly. Fitness+ requires an Apple Watch Series 3 or above to work so I looked around for a cheap second hand Apple Watch or a cheap brand new one since all I needed it for was Fitness+. In the end, I found out that Xcite in Jleeb had a Series 3 Apple Watch in stock, size 38mm, and selling for KD64.5 with a free additional strap. This was the cheapest new Apple Watch I could find so I ended up picking that up and setting it up with my phone. Now Fitness+ works on all my devices including Apple TV and my iPad. I also picked up a couple of Manduka yoga blocks from Ananda since I’m currently as flexible as a concrete brick.
Fitness+ has a bunch of workouts you can pick from other than yoga including Hiit, core, strength, treadmill, cycling, rowing, dance, and mindful cooldown. You need an Apple Watch to be able to set up Fitness+ the first time but after that, you don’t really need to wear the watch unless you want to know how many calories or monitor other data. In addition to an Apple Watch, Fitness+ costs $9.99 a month but it came included for me with my Apple One premier plan. Yes, you can use YouTube but I tend to like services focused on one thing and Fitness+ makes finding a workout, bookmarking and following a specific trainer all very easy. Plus if you want to track your heart rate and calorie count then the combination of the Apple Watch and Fitness+ works great and you can also get various notifications on your watch like when you’re past the halfway point of the workout or when you’ve achieved a new record.
Since gyms are closed, Fitness+ could be a great alternative especially if you already have an iOS device and an Apple Watch. They have a free trial period so you don’t need to commit to a membership unless you think you’d use the service.
This has to be the coolest gym-related idea ever and the timing of it is perfect with gyms having been forced to close down now. Mobile Crossfit Box is a portable gym that you can rent out for you and your friends! It’s a fully decked out gym with everything you need from different kinds of cardio machines to barbells, kettlebells, dumbells, boxes, squat racks, and pull up bars.
The price is 40KD per hour and it can handle up to 4 people at once so it’s 10KD per friend. They also have a drop-in fee of 10KD which I’m guessing means if the truck isn’t fully rented out you could drop in where it’s parked and use it. For more info or too book the gym check out their instagram account @mobilebox_kw
Eissa & Jude is a small local husband and wife business dedicated to creating high-quality wooden toys to inspire mindful play. They’re representing the Gulf so the wooden toys are inspired by everything they grew up with in our unexplored desert. I like the aesthetics of wooden toys and I like how it’s made locally and related to our environment although for realism sake, I would add some wooden cutouts of garbage bags in an effort to represent Kuwait’s desert more accurately.
Eissa & Jude don’t have an online store yet but they are currently available at the children’s pop-up store Bonboni’s in Salmiya. Check out their Instagram account for more photos and details @eissa_jude
