2:48AM - Entertaining Kuwait since 2003

Brilliant Company is a local online children’s bookstore with a subscription service that delivers hand-selected, quality books that match the age, gender, and interests of your kid. They deliver 3 books gift wrapped every month and have 4 plans that are priced reasonably:

1 Box (11KD)
3 Months (30KD)
6 Months (57KD)
12 Months (108KD)

In addition to the subscription service, they also sell books individually and quality toys focusing on children’s sensory-motor skills and cognitive development. If you want to check them out they’re on Instagram @brilliantcokw and their website is brilliantcokw.com

CityBus has introduced 80 new eco-friendly buses onto our roads and one of the new features of these buses is that they now have a ramp for special needs passengers. I actually didn’t realize that up until now our buses weren’t wheelchair friendly, and other than these 80 new buses, none of the other public buses have ramps.

Although it’s kinda odd that we’re only just now introducing wheelchair-access to buses, it’s still pretty cool that we are. If you’re interested in public transportation make sure you check out @kuwaitcommute as well if you haven’t already. Also, check out the Alqabas video below where one of their journalist’s decides to use public transport and share her experience.

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This list has never been as unimportant as it is now considering it doesn’t really matter what passport you have at the moment (well, unless you want the vaccine) because we’re all stuck here and can’t travel anywhere. But I wanted to share this years ranking since Kuwait has moved up the list of most powerful passports coming in 28th place up from 36th last year. Kuwaitis can now visit 44 countries (10 more from last year) without requiring a visa and they can also get visa on arrival in 39 other countries. Here are some countries with their rankings:

1 – Germany
4 – United Kingdom
12 – UAE
15 – Canada
16 – United States
26 – Qatar
28 – Kuwait
36 – Bahrain
41 – Saudi Arabia
42 – Oman
58 – India
62 – Egypt
67 – Lebanon
76 – Afghanistan

Want to see how your passport compares? Check out the full list here.

With curfew starting at 5PM, videogames are a great way to pass time which is why it’s created an even bigger shortage on new generation consoles than there was before the curfew was announced.

Pre-curfew, the PlayStation 5 was already impossible to find, even with the inflated grey market prices. The Xbox Series X on the other hand was fairly available but because of the curfew, whatever Xbox was in stock also got snapped up.

One cool way to find out when the PS5 or Xbox Series X is back in stock is by following the twitter account @Ryukersblog. Ryukers has been tracking the availability of both consoles and tweeting whenever they get back in stock somewhere. So if you’re hoping to pick up a new generation console, keep checking @Ryukersblog for updates.

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There has been a bit of a debate recently regarding the recent Chocolate Bar ads with many women calling the ads sexist and misogynistic. A friend of mine asked me what I thought of the ads and I personally just saw them as funny without thinking much more of them. But then again, I’m a guy and so I might be part of the problem here. I didn’t even know what misogyny really meant until a couple of days ago.

I like to think of myself as a feminist, so I was kinda disappointed in myself for not seeing anything offensive in the ads. But I think that has to do more with the fact I generally don’t read too deep into things. While watching the ad above all I was thinking about was the 80s aesthetics and while watching the ad below all I could focus on was the car (a manual BMW E30 Touring).

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I don’t think I’m sexist just because I didn’t see the ads offensive to women at first, but looking at them again, I can see how they could be considered wrong. I’ve had this debate internally in my head a lot, anytime I read in the news about similar issues around the world (well mostly in the States). I always ask myself if maybe we’ve become overly sensitive? or are we just more informed and aware now? Are we overdoing it, or were we not doing enough?

Do you find the Chocolate Bar ads offensive? Or do you think people are just overreacting?

[poll id=”16″]

I’ve seen a few people online ask where to find weighted blankets in Kuwait before and it didn’t seem like they were available here. But, yesterday while picking up some items from Ace Hardware I noticed some weighted blankets while on my way out.

I spotted the Bell + Howell weighted blanket pictured above, it weighs 12lbs and was priced at around KD36 which is not bad. On the Walmart website the same blanket sells for KD18 without tax but because of its weight, expect to pay over KD20 on top of the price just to ship it to Kuwait. According to the Ace website, they have three different weights of blankets with the lightest being 10lbs and selling for KD27 and the heaviest 15lbs and priced at KD45.

Weighted blankets are considered to be therapeutic and can benefit people with anxiety, autism, and insomnia. Some people find sleeping with a weighted blanket very calming.

There is a juice place currently on Carriage called “Juice Rotana Refreshment” that is selling a drink called VIP Rdball Mix that has one of the add-ons as vodka! Obviously, it’s some kind of lost in translation mistake and a really funny one. I’m currently out of their delivery zone so maybe someone can order it and let me know what they get?

There is more than one “Juice Rotana Refreshment” on Carriage so make sure you search for the one pictured below with the green logo.

Pretty great price if it’s legit!

There is this beautiful building I’ve walked and driven by for years and had always been curious to how it looked like inside. It’s located in the area behind Scientific Center and it was an old palace. Blogger Maha Alessa along with photographer Bedour AlAwadhi managed to get access to the palace and take some photos. Sadly the photos are a bit abstract and leaning towards the artistic side instead of journalistic so you can’t see much. A bit of a missed opportunity so I’ll see if I can get permission to visit the place and take photos myself. For now though you can check out the photos they took by clicking here or viewing Maha’s Instagram story here.

There’s a new drive-thru-only Starbucks that popped up overnight in front of AUK in Salmiya. I think this might be the only Starbucks in Kuwait with just drive-thru and no seating option. The location is pretty great for them, they’re right next to Arabica and Toby’s while also being right off the Gulf Road so it should get pretty packed.

The popular shawerma place Shakir is opening up in Samiya, they’re moving into the old McDonalds location on top of Johnny Rockets. It’s a pretty good location (for me) for a number of reasons, first being that it’s in my hood and secondly because it’s going to be located on top of one of my favorite cocktail shops. The cocktail juice at Shakir sucks (sorry Shakir) but now I can order a cocktail from my juice place while waiting for my Shakir order. Perfect combo.

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Has anyone tried the new ferry to Failaka? It went into service towards the end of January and I’m curious to know how fast it gets there and if the journey was bouncy? Like am I gonna get seasick?

Update: Forgot to mention the cost which is around KD50 for a return trip depending on the size of your car. This includes one passenger in the car, for every additional passenger, it’s KD10 extra.

Currently, only 6.9% of the community has been vaccinated, a low number, and some people are baffled by it and I’m not sure why. They’re mostly vaccinating Kuwaitis at the moment with a few exceptions so obviously the number is going to be low but, there also hasn’t been a proper government run vaccination drive campaign.

Thankfully though, the private sector has decided to step up and try to solve this issue by offering their vaccinated customers discounts.

If you search for the hashtag #خصم_التطعيم on Instagram you’ll find over 200 offers including ones from big names like Ooredoo, Circuit+, Spark, and some popular local coffee shops. STC and Zain aren’t offering any discounts at the moment but they are trying to help by running campaigns to encourage people to go vaccinate. Imagine if brands like Starbucks, IKEA or Zara also offered discounts how many more people might want to get vaccinated. I know it doesn’t sound logical to offer incentives to go vaccinate, you’d think not getting sick and dying would be enough incentive but you aren’t dealing with logic here.

If you’ve gotten vaccinated already then click here to see what deals are available to you. If you haven’t signed up to vaccinate yet here is the link.

Starting today we’re back to curfews and I’m really not looking forward to it and mostly because I’ve run out of TV shows to watch. If you have any recommendations on new shows, pleeeaassseee share them below. There are a couple of movies I’m planning to watch (Coming to America 2, Nomadland) but I don’t have any shows lined up.

On the other hand, I’ll be using this time to go back to working out again since I’ve been slacking off the past two weeks, and I will be doing lots of yoga and lots of video games. I’m still playing Valhalla and just started Dirt 5 last week which btw is the best rally game I’ve played since the original Sega Rally.

What do you guys have planned?

This weekend while at The Avenues I spotted a drive-thru PCR test area being set up at one of the Phase 4 entrances. Is it just me or does this sound like a bad idea? If you’re getting a PCR test it’s most likely because you’ve been in close contact with someone that tested positive or you have symptoms, so do you want people to go shopping after taking a test? Seems weird to me.

Some of you may have watched the video that went viral yesterday of the cats being killed (I chose not to watch it), supposedly the guy in the video got arrested but I haven’t been able to find a legit source for that info. On a more positive note, I recently noticed some “Cat Protection” boxes in Salmiya around the KISR gardens. They’re scattered around the property and they seem to be placed there to offer cats shelter.

I’m curious to know if they’re testing these out to later rollout around Kuwait.

Update: Here is the link to MOI where they mention his arrest