2:48AM - Entertaining Kuwait since 2003

Every year the Palestinian Cultural Center holds an exhibition with a lot of handicraft and embroidery available to purchase. But, due to the pandemic that’s been put on hold and this year instead of an exhibition, there will be a four-day shop (a pop-up).

The Palestinian Culture Center aims to support needy families and preserve the rich and vibrant culture of Palestine. It does this by encouraging ladies to continue a beautiful handicraft, embroidery, which has been in Palestine for hundreds of years and ensuring that the tradition is carried on to the younger generation.

The Center has been in operation since the early 1970’s in Kuwait and then moved to Jordan after 1990. Today, the PCC, has over 450 women from the Palestinian refugee camps in Jordan working on these beautiful pieces. For these women, the payment they receive is a great support for their families. The PCC also aims at supporting education and helps various schools and education programs in Palestine as well as needy families.

As a charity organization we use a simple rule in all our pricing. Thirty-three percent of the sale cost of an item is given to the woman that produces the work, thirty-three percent goes towards covering the cost of the item, and the remaining amount is distributed to schools, orphanages and needy families mostly in Palestine.

So if you’re looking for something to do during the day, the pop-up runs from today until Wedneday. For more info check out the Palestinian Culture Center Instagram account @palestiniancc

Since live markets are still not allowed, the popular craft market is back again virtually. This weekend, the Spring Craft Market will take place virtually with all the vendors offering a 10% discount.

Each vendor has also paid a small fee to take part in this market which has been donated to ‘Operation HOPE’ who are continuing their great work helping the less fortunate in our community, even more so now as a lot of people are impacted by the covid situation. You can find out more about Operation HOPE by visiting their Facebook page.

So how does a virtual market work? Simple, all the vendors taking part in the Spring Craft Market are listed on the market’s Instagram account @the_craft_market_kuwait. Scroll through the account and when you find an offering you like, say books or paintings, click through to that vendor’s account. Then you just find something you like and leave a comment or DM the vendor telling them you want it.

As a lot of the items are hand-crafted and one-off unique pieces, once they’re gone they’re gone. Please support your local artists, crafters, and small businesses and check out the market this weekend, it’s taking place tomorrow and Saturday. Here is the link again @the_craft_market_kuwait

The other day I posted a video tour of the new Terminal 2 airport. Well in case you wanted to know how our airport looked like back in the 60s, the video above shows a passenger arriving and leaving the airport back in 1965.

I believe the airport in the video above was the original one located in Nuzha. You can check out photos of that airport in my previous post here.

I’m very routine-oriented so every year when my car registration expires I take it to the same traffic department in Jabriya and go through their long clumsy process to get the papers renewed. What is the process? First I have to go to an insurance office to renew my insurance. Then I then need to head to the traffic department in the morning, wait in a long line for my car to get checked. If it passes I then need to find a place to park my car so I can go to a small office in a shack to get my papers stamped. Once that is done I then need to leave and come back in the afternoon and head to the super busy main traffic department building (the mornings are only for Kuwaitis) and buy a stamp and then submit my papers to have the registration booklet printed. If I have a fine I’ll have to get my papers back and head to the fine payment section upstairs, wait in a long line and then head back down and submit my papers again. A very complicated and inefficient process.

But years ago private car inspection centers started popping up but I never thought to try them out until now. Due to Covid and not wanting to deal with large crowds, I decided to try a private center and all I can say is WTF, I can’t believe it took me this look to go the private route!

I just renewed two of my cars last month and the process couldn’t have been easier. I went to a place in Al-Rai called Super Service and both times I was in and out in under 30 minutes. The first thing you need to do is drive your car into the center and leave it running. You then head inside and give your registration booklet to the receptionist who photocopies it and then tells you to hand over your documents to one of their employees at a counter. That employee will fill in all the paperwork, renew your insurance, and also let you know if you have any fines to pay. You then pay for everything (fines included) using Knet and go sit down and wait. 10-15 minutes later your car is done getting checked and your new registration is printed and you get in your car and leave.

That’s it!!

I paid KD29 to renew my paperwork which is very reasonable considering how fast, smooth and anxiety-free the process was. There is no way I’m ever going back to renewing my car registration the old-fashioned way at the traffic department, not unless I have to. There are a number of private inspection centers but if you want to visit the one I went to, here is their location on Google Maps.

So two things here. Firstly I wasn’t aware that we had Skoda in Kuwait, or maybe I was aware but because it’s such an unexciting brand I might have forgotten about it.

The main story though is that Behbehani who are the VW and Porsche dealers just announced that they’ve acquired the Skoda brand which makes sense since Skoda is part of the VW Group. The brand previously was with Fouad Alghanim & Sons Automotive (@skodakuwait), the same dealers as Audi and Lamborghini (which also fall under the VW Group).

Skoda is considered to be a cheaper alternative to Volkswagon. The cars are made in the Czech Republic, China, Russia, India and Slovakia so producing them is cheaper due to lower labor costs. As I already mentioned, I personally don’t find their cars to be exciting, but anyone looking at Skoda’s is probably doing so because of value and not looks. If you’re interested, the Skoda Behbehani Instagram account is simply @skodabehbehani

Thanks Fahed

It looks like Saveco has taken over the Q Electronics location in Shuwaikh across the street from Mayar Complex. Q Electronics (technically called Q By Al Yaqout) opened up towards the end of 2017 and then shut down shortly after in 2019. The location was pretty big so it makes sense for a supermarket but this looks to be a new concept by Saveco since they’ve called it “the urban market”.

My guess is they’re going to be a bunch of smaller stores in this big store, kinda like a street market but indoors. There is no mention of it yet on their Instagram account and I’ve reached out to them for more info but still waiting for a reply.

Update: Saveco got back to me with the following:

Saveco Urban market will provide a first of its kind supermarket experience in kuwait, a sensational trip of taste and sights. Everyday shopping will be an exhilarating and gastronomical experience through a variety of live hubs, all whilst maintaining a high level of supermarket customers need everyday.

Basically what I understood is it’s going to be another Saveco but just looks a bit more premium.

This is a post for google since I know a lot of people want to powder coat or electroplate parts but don’t know where to go. I found out about a place in Shuwaikh that offers these services when I wanted to powder coat my wheels, but they also zinc-plated all the nuts and bolts for my 240Z that I’m restoring and I might be getting my 240Z metal bumpers re-chromed by them. The place is called Anmar Advanced Services but they’re on Instagram as @pcoatkw and @tankelkw.

The services they offer are:
Zinc-Plating
Tin-Plating
Nickle-Chrome Plating
Powder Coating
Sand Blasting

I don’t have all their prices since it depends on various factors like size and quantity, but for powder coating car wheels for example they charge KD90 for 4. I think I also paid 35KD to galvanize (zinc-plate) all the nuts and bolts of my 240Z but I can’t find the bill. If you’re interested in any of their services, here is their location on Google Maps (they’re in the back left corner of that street). You can also get in touch with the engineer, his name is Maher and his number is ‭66475000‬ DM them on Instagram @pcoatkw and @tankelkw

The Al Seif strip had cool colorful stairs covered with graffiti on both sides and it had a lot of character. It was a bit gritty but it was real and people used to go and take photos in front of the walls and it was one of those “instagrammable” spots. Then one day someone decided that the stairs needed renovating and they ended up painting over all the graffiti and turning it into normal boring stairs again with white walls covered with black splatters. It looked terrible.

But, the colors are now coming back because the walls are currently being repainted again by the artist @oat.here. They’re still not finished but it already looks 100x better as you can see in the photo above.

The video above is the most detailed tour of the new airport Terminal 2 so far. It was shot earlier this month and the engineer in the video takes us through all the different important areas of the airport showing the current status. According to the video the terminal is meant to be completed in August 2022 which I find hard to believe based on the progress shown. But, they do mention that although the airport construction is going at full force, due to covid some of their suppliers aren’t working at 100% and so that might end up causing delays.

In any case, right now I miss traveling so much that I don’t mind our old airport, so they can take their time with T2 as long as we get to fly out again soon from any of our airports. To stay posted on the progress of the airport you can follow @t2.engineers on instagram.

Thanks LovelyKuwait

A couple of weeks ago a friend of mine sent me a link to a book on eBay saying “This is something you might want. American expat cartoonist who drew some funny sketches of life in Kuwait. Also a shawarma guide for the ‘90s.” Literally, 2 minutes later I sent him a screenshot of my order. It was selling for 9KD and it came out while I was at university in Lebanon so I was curious to know what was “in” while I wasn’t here. The book ended up being delivered yesterday and it turned out to be way more interesting than I expected it to be.

It’s 132 pages filled with illustrations, maps, reviews and recommendations of where to go and what to do in Kuwait all written in a humorous tone. It reminded me a bit of the Wizr series but with a lot more illustrations and content. I posted some pages up on my Instagram and pretty much I right away started getting bombarded by people asking where they can get a copy and I honestly have no idea.

There is one for sale on Amazon right now but the guy is asking for like $700 which is obviously ridiculous. At one point it looked like there was a copy available online but that was back in 2006 and the page no longer works. It’s 132 pages so I can’t sit down and scan the book one page at a time.

Until I figure out the best way to share the whole book online you can for now at least check out the few pages I’ve uploaded here.

Thanks Shaheen!!!

I picked up this book online not knowing what it was or the year it was published, but it was selling for around 500fils so figured it was worth checking out. Turns out the book was published in 1964 by the Ministry of Guidance & Information, Department of Culture & Publicity, Division of Tourism. If that wasn’t cool enough it also came with three fold-out maps. I shared some pages yesterday on my Instagram but I also uploaded the photos online in case anyone else is interested in seeing what a 1964 tourist guide of Kuwait contained. These aren’t all the pages, just the ones I thought were interesting. Check it out here.

WELCOME TO THE ARENA KUWAIT

Our Arena is a 5,000+ capacity purpose-built indoor live entertainment and events venue which is set to transform the delivery of live events within the State of Kuwait. It has been designed to world-class standards and is capable of hosting various event types.

We aim to host a comprehensive range of events and differentiated activities targeting the multinational population of Kuwait as well as the world. We are excited about the prospect of bringing family entertainment, music concerts, sports events, comedy shows, theatre shows, cultural gatherings, consumer exhibitions and a variety of other events and activities to Kuwait and the region.

The Arena Kuwait is an integral part of a major destination development by the Tamdeen Group which includes our key destination partners; Rafa Nadal Academy Kuwait, Grand Hyatt Kuwait and 360 Mall.

The Arena is part of the new 360 Mall extension and supposedly the project is on track to open by the end of the year.

Live Nation if you aren’t aware are one of the largest live entertainment companies in the world.

thearenakuwait.com
@thearenakuwait

It’s been over a year now since I got my 1970 Alfa Romeo 1750 GTV and I’ve put over 10,000KM on it. That’s a lot considering it’s one of 4 cars I currently own, I didn’t drive it in the summer because it doesn’t have AC, and we had curfews last year and a full lockdown. But it goes to show how much I’ve been loving the car. It’s beautiful to look at and it’s so much fun to drive.

But, it hasn’t been problem-free, the more mileage I put on the car the more old parts break and need replacing. As I type this post my car is sitting in my basement waiting on a new rear differential since mine broke a couple of weeks back. At the rate I’m swapping parts out I should end up with a brand new car by the end of the year. I’ve mentioned this on one of my previous posts but I’m still surprised at how easy and quick it is to get parts for my 51-year-old car, classicalfa.com is a lifesaver. I’ve been doing most of the work on the car myself or with a help of a friend and it’s been fun, I describe it as Lego for adults. The first step is always figuring out what’s wrong with the car which is not as easy as it sounds, and then the second step is ordering the parts and swapping them out. The mechanic I had previously been using to work on the car got stuck outside Kuwait when corona hit and since he’s over 60 he can’t come back in. The fact he was old is why he was good at what he did and this goes back to my other post on how we are gonna lose a lot of experienced people with this ban on 60+ year old expats.

Anyway, so a few years ago I posted about how I highly recommend getting a classic car, well I’d like to revise that statement now and add that it isn’t for everyone. When you do buy a classic car you need to be fine with the idea that the car will eventually breakdown and leave you stranded in some random parking lot or on the side of the road. You also need to have some basic car knowledge so you know when something is wrong, and definitely have a good mechanic you could take the car to when it breaks down. Keep a bunch of tow truck numbers saved on your phone and before you buy a classic car check and see how easy it is to get parts, if it’s not easy then look for another car to get. Oh and you need to be patient and calm when things do go wrong (which they will). If you’re fine with all the above then yes, I highly recommend getting a classic car.

While I’m on the subject of classic cars, my 1972 Datsun 240z is nearly done and as you can see it’s no longer blue. The 240z is basically going to be a new old car once done since I’ve basically rebuilt the car from the ground up with brand new parts. Hopefully, it should be ready and on the road in a few weeks time, it will have air conditioning so I will be driving it throughout the summer. I can’t wait.

At the start of the curfew, one of the things I did was sign up to Discovery+. Since I watch so much TV I had pretty much already gone through all the content I wanted to watch on Netflix, Hulu, Amazon, HBO, Disney and AppleTV+. Desperately needing new content to watch I found out about Discovery+ which at just $4.99 a month (with ads) seemed like a good deal. Two weeks in and I love it!

Discovery+ is the perfect background TV content with tons of great shows (the above is my list). The subscription gives you access to content from A&E, History Channel, Food Network, HGTV, Discovery, TLC, and more. If you’re a fan of House Hunters like me then you get access to all variations of the show in addition to a House Hunters channel that is live and just plays one episode of House Hunters after another… indefinitely. Thanks to Discovery+ I now know living on an island or in the Alaskan wilderness is not for me.

If you want to access Discovery+ you need to use a VPN or what I recommend, a SmartDNS service. I also purchased the subscription through the US Apple Store so no US credit card needed. If you want to sign up start off with the $4.99 membership and if you like the service and want an ad-free experience, you can then upgrade (it’s $6.99 a month). That’s what I did and I think it’s worth it.

Around a week before they closed restaurants in Kuwait for dine-in, 360 Mall opened up their foodhall. A foodhall is similar to a food court except instead of fast-food restaurants they’re more upscale or artisan. I passed by to check the space out and I thought it looked great with a good variety of places to eat at including some brand new places.

Even with dine-in closed it’s still worth passing by it and picking up food to go. The new foodhall is located at the end of the new 360 Mall extension near Ikea and Nike.

Here is a list of all the places open inside the new foodhall, hopefully I didn’t miss anything:

Alto
Apizza
Bakehaus
Bao
Chotto
Doh!
Elate Tea
GoFresh
Junas
La Maison Du Fromage
Nabat
Natureland
November Co
Off The Menu
Prime Cuts
Raha Stone Mill
Soucolat
Taboonat
Twarrad
Texture
Vol 1
Wachamean
Woop!