2:48AM - Entertaining Kuwait since 2003

Claudia Al Rashoud has been a photojournalist in Kuwait since 1979. She was the first professional female photojournalist at the Arab Times newspaper and has written a number of books on Kuwait’s history and heritage with beautiful pictures. She recently launched an Instagram account @claudia_alrashoud where she has been sharing stories from her long journalistic career and also launched a small website where people can purchase her books on Kuwait.

All sales from the website will pay for veterinary care for stray, abandoned, and abused animals from Touch of Hope Kuwait, so not only will you be getting some great books on Kuwait, but you’ll also be helping animals. So checkout her website.

Misfits is a local online store that sells vinyl records as well as record players and music-related merchandise. They currently have around 50 different records for sale but also a whole bunch of other things including record and cassette players, t-shirts and sweatshirts, and accessories like vinyl cleaning kits and vinyl storage.

If you’re looking for records or merchandise, check out their website misfitskw.com

The official iPhone 12 prices got published today and you can check them all out below:

iPhone 12 Mini
64GB – 256.900 KD
128GB – 274.900 KD
256GB – 310.900 KD

iPhone 12
64GB – 289.900 KD
128GB – 309.900 KD
256GB – 345.900 KD

iPhone 12 Pro
128GB – 359.900 KD
256GB – 395.900 KD
512GB – 469.900 KD

iPhone 12 Pro Max
128GB – 404.900 KD
256GB – 439.900 KD
512GB – 510.900 KD

How do the prices compare to US and UK iPhones? If we take the iPhone 12 Pro 256GB as an example then Kuwait is slightly more expensive than the US price but a lot cheaper than UK prices:

iPhone 12 Pro 256GB
Kuwait – 396 KD
United States – 377 KD (including US tax and shipping to Kuwait)
United Kingdom – 451 KD (including shipping to Kuwait)

If you’re looking for a new series to watch this weekend, below is a list of some shows I just recently watched.

What We Do in the Shadows
Based on the 2014 movie with the same name, What We Do in the Shadows is a comedy that came out last year on Hulu. If you’re a fan of mockumentaries like The Office and Parks & Recreation then you’re going to love this show. What We Do in the Shadows follows the lives of three vampires who’ve lived together for over 100 years, on Staten Island, in New York. It’s the funniest and dumbest thing ever, I highly recommend it.

Tehran
I started watching this series with low expectations because my friend undersold it to me but it turned out to be really enjoyable to watch. I think I binge-watched the whole season over two or three days. The show focuses on the conflict between Israel and Iran with an interesting storyline involving Mossad agents living in Iran trying to infiltrate it from the inside. If you were a fan of Homeland then this is for you. Tehran is available on AppleTV+.

The Queen’s Gambit
You’ve probably heard about this show since everyone has been talking about it for the past couple of weeks. The Queen’s Gambit is a mini-series that recently came out on Netflix and is about a young orphan girl who discovers and masters the game of chess. I really liked the show but this one I think was actually overhyped. The way everyone has been talking about the show led me to believe it’s the best thing to come out this year but it’s not. It’s fun to watch, but it’s not the best thing ever.

Ted Lasso
This was another show I think was overhyped. Ted Lasso originally started as a character in a 2013 NBC Sports promo and now turned into a proper TV series. Ted Lasso is an American football coach who is hired to coach a professional soccer team in England. Ted has never played soccer in his life, nor does he know the rules so it’s pretty funny watching him get to grips. But, that quickly wore off for me after a few episodes and honestly, the series trailer and the original NBC Sports promo show the funniest bits. Ted Lasso is available to watch on AppleTV+.

The new iPhone 12 was released by Apple recently but there hasn’t been any announcement of a local launch date yet. I figured it might be related to logistics and production issues due to the pandemic so I checked with a contact of mine who told me that the telecoms, Apple Premium (Gait) and Apple Authorized Resellers (Digits, Xcite, etc.) hadn’t received their unit allocations yet.

But, looks like they finally did because yesterday some resellers started announcing a pre-order date. Starting this Friday, November 13th pre-orders for the new iPhone 12 will begin. Previously you’d have super long lines outside Apple resellers on launch day but with the pandemic right now that wouldn’t be the best idea which is why most likely the only way to get your hands on the new iPhone 12 on launch day would be by pre-ordering online. If it’s going to be anything like the iPhone X launch then there will also be a very limited number of units at launch.

Oddly, there still isn’t an official launch date for the devices, maybe that will be revealed on Friday as well. I’m personally going to be trying to get my hands on the iPhone 12 Pro to replace my 11 Pro. I always loved the way the iPhone 4 looked like and the new phones look basically the same.

The all-new Xbox Series X officially launches today but I was lucky enough to get mine yesterday so I could play around with it and have a post ready for today. I purchased mine from Geekay on September 22nd when they launched the Xbox pre-orders. I was hoping to get a hold of a unit before the launch date by a few days but the Geekay shipment of Xbox’s only cleared customs yesterday afternoon and so only got to pick up mine after that.

Not sure about other local sellers but Geekay will be either delivering all the pre-orders today. They also contacted their customers and arranged a pickup timeslot for today if they didn’t want to wait for delivery. My brother for example is gonna have to wake up early today to pick up his Xbox at 9AM, so it was a lot of fun sending him photos yesterday of my Xbox.

There are a lot of unboxing videos and reviews on YouTube by much better gamers than me, but in this post I’ll go over some of the things regarding our Middle East edition.

• Firstly, the Middle East version of the box is bilingual. The front side is the same as the US version but the rear of the box and all the fine print are in both Arabic and English

• Once you open the box there isn’t a manual, but the getting started guide is bilingual

• The power plug is the UK Type G plug

• The console works with 220v so no need for a transformer

• There is no power brick, just a regular cable from the Xbox to the wall plug (this is the best thing ever)

• I have a US Xbox account and it works perfectly fine with the Middle East edition Xbox (well kinda)

• I ran into a minor issue buying games from the Xbox store and I think it’s because I have a US Xbox account but a Kuwait-based Microsoft account? I pay the monthly Microsoft Office subscription fee using a Kuwait address but I have my location on my Xbox account set to US so maybe there is some sort of conflict

• Because of the issue I had of purchasing games directly from inside the Xbox store I ended up using Amazon to buy the digital copy of Assassin’s Creed Valhalla. I used a Florida address so I didn’t pay any tax and got the game for the listed price of $59.99 and then installed it on my Xbox using the code Amazon sent me

• On starting the console there was a 775MB update I had to install. This was downloaded and installed by the time I was done setting up the Xbox

• On my Zain 5G, Valhalla took around 2 hours to download. It’s a 47GB file and was downloading on average at speeds of 45Mbps with the occasional jump to around 65Mbps and drop to 35Mbps. The game was ready to start halfway through the download but because I installed it before the launch date I couldn’t play it

• I only installed two games on my Xbox for now, Castlevania: Symphony of the Night and Killer Instinct. Quick resume worked perfectly when flip-flopping between the two games

• The packaging and overall design of the Series X is minimal and smart, I personally love it. I think the new PS5 is ugly (sorry Sony fanboys) while this is a lot less flashy and it fit into my TV cabinet perfectly

• The controller feels great, there is a new texture on the backside which gives it a much better grip when held

• The official price of the Xbox Series X in Kuwait is KD167 while the smaller Series S costs KD104

If anyone has any questions, let me know and I’ll try to answer it in the comments.

Recently while riding my bike on the Gulf Road, I noticed an Extreme Sports truck loaded up with bicycles parked in one of the lots. I didn’t know what it was for at first but then spotted an employee a few days ago and decided to stop and find out what they were doing. Turns out it’s an Extreme Sports bicycle rental truck. For KD3 an hour you could rent a bicycle from them to ride up and down the Gulf Road.

I’ve previously posted about their bike rental location at Marina Waves, this one on the other hand is located at the Green Island parking lot. If you don’t have a bicycle but feel like riding one, this is a pretty good option. Here is the location of the rental truck on Google Maps.

My shawerma life needs a bit of an upgrading. Anytime I feel like having shawerma I tend to hit up the old school place Jeita which is down the street from me or Shawerma Shakir and that’s about it. I passed by another old time favorite recently, Bader Al Badoor but the shawerma was pretty dry and unexciting unlike I remember it so I don’t think I’d go back there. But, yesterday I tried a place on Restaurant Street called One Cut (pictured above) based on a recommendation by @thetravelingapron and it was pretty great. Made me realize I’m probably missing out on so many new shawerma places that have popped up over the years.

So I’m curious, what are your favorite shawerma places right now? Might revive my old Shawerma Review series again (circa 2007) if there are enough places I should check out.

If you’re looking for a safe place to ride your bicycle, Kuwait Motor Town is bringing back bicycle days. Bicycle days are when they open the race track to the public so that people can ride their bicycles on the road in a safe car-free environment. Bicycle days are on the following two days:

Tuesdays: 4PM to 8PM
Saturdays: 6AM to 10AM

Access to the track is free and if you’ve never been to KMT before this is a great way to check it out. Here is the location on Google Maps.

I know it feels weird talking about Kuwait Airways and plane interiors when most of us aren’t planning to travel any time soon (or at least until the 2-week quarantine on arrival rule is removed) but, around a week ago, Kuwait Airways took delivery of the world’s first Airbus A330-800.

This is a brand new plane built from scratch for Kuwait Airways and can accommodate 235 passengers, 203 in Economy Class, and 32 in Business Class. The interior is as current as you can get and the Kuwait Airways Business Class finally looks competitive. Check out the interior yourself in the video above.

It’s been 5 years since I last posted about Big D, probably the most controversial musician I’ve posted about on the blog. For some reason, he used to get a lot of negative comments to the point he had to release a music video in which he responded to some of the hate. Love him or hate him though I like the fact he’s still going and “Open Your Eyes” is his latest track so check it out.

Last year the first McDonalds in Kuwait that was located on the Gulf Road closed down and Burger King and Pizza Hut took over the location. A few days ago they finally opened it up and it looks great. I didn’t try it since I haven’t had Burger King in probably a decade (sorry BK I’m a McD guy), but the place does look really cool especially with the LED panels that display color animations all around the structure. The new location is open 24/7 which is great for those late-night munchies. Google Maps

The new extension of Al Shaheed Park is currently under construction and will include a variety of new activities including:

Mountains playground
Maze garden
Outdoor skate and BMX park
Outdoor parkour and sky trail
Karting
Extreme sports building
Ice skating rink and snow park
Indoor Skydiving

The renderings in this post show the new ice skating rink, the indoor karting track and snow park. Our landmark ice skating rink was demolished earlier this year to make way for the new generic ice skating rink, and Discovery Mall is also meant to be demolished next, although nobody is gonna miss that. Check out my previous post on the new extension here.

Thanks Lovelykuwait

Back in September I posted about the Kärcher OC 3 portable pressure washer and how great it was. I had purchased it for KD43 from Ace but later found out it was actually mispriced and should have been sold for KD68 (which is too expensive).

But now Xcite is selling the same pressure washer for just KD33. That’s even cheaper than how much I paid!

So if you were interested in the washer but couldn’t find one or thought it was too expensive before, here is the link on Xcite.

Hello everyone, it’s Fajer the lawyer again, it has been a while since I have posted here, but Mark brought to my attention news of a couple that was filmed having sexual intercourse, in a residential area, in public, outside of a car, in broad daylight, and around people.

The incident reminded me of a fictional case study we studied in law school (my professor would come up with outrageous fictional crimes, for example, a man walking around with a fork and a human eye on it) for us to learn the law.  I just never in a million years thought that my professor’s outrageous fictional crimes would actually come to life.

So back to the incident, here are a few legal points related to this video:

Public Indecency
Addressed in Article 198 of Kuwait Penal Code.
This is pretty much a law in most countries, if not all regardless of the countries religious or political beliefs. The Kuwait law does not allow nudity or sexual intercourse in public. Punishment is up to one year in jail or up to one thousand rupees (the law was written in 1960).

Sex Outside of Marriage
Addressed in Article 194 of Kuwait Penal Code.
Sexual acts for those above 21 years of age (not 18!) outside of marriage is punishable with 6 months to 3 years of imprisonment. (for both the man and the women, although the law starts off by accusing the man and then says if the women agreed to it then she would also be punished!)

Now for article 194 to occur, it clearly states that one important thing needs to happen and that is an official has to walk in on them while they are in the middle of the act. While studying this in law school, my professor made it clear that when it comes to sexual acts specifically, video can not be used as evidence. The only proof that the court would accept is an official walking in on the couple, or if the couple admits to the act in court. The most likely reason for this is that they don’t want to encourage people to film such acts.

In conclusion, although the act of sexual intercourse outside marriage performed in public is completely illegal, the couple can not be punished under article 194 unless they admit to it. So, it will be interesting to see what the court decides and I wonder from a legal perspective if the sexual act itself is not punishable, can the video still be used as evidence for public nudity?

*plays “It wasn’t me” by Shaggy

Post by Fajer Ahmed – Legal Counsel
Have a Kuwait law related question? Email me at [email protected] check out @simplelaw.kw for free and affordable legal information

The legal opinions expressed in this post are those of the author Fajer. Opinions expressed by Mark or any other writer on mark248am1.wpenginepowered.com are those of the individual and in no way reflect Fajer’s opinion.