2:48AM - Entertaining Kuwait since 2003

Based on the comments people have been leaving on the blog related to booking supermarket appointments, I noticed there is some confusion or lack of clarity with the process, as well as some technical issues people are facing. So below are some of the most common questions and issues with their answers.

How do I book a supermarket appointment?
Visit https://www.moci.shop/

How do I use the moci.shop website?
Watch this video:

Can I drive to the supermarket?
Yes. When you get a supermarket appointment you’ll be given two QR codes. One will give you access to the supermarket, the second is a security QR code for when you get stopped by a cop or a checkpoint.

Can I walk to the supermarket?
Yes. When you get a supermarket appointment you’ll be given two QR codes. One will give you access to the supermarket, the second is a security QR code for when you get stopped by a cop.

How often can I book an appointment?
Once every 7 days.

How long can I shop for?
You’re allowed 30 minutes of shopping but readers have said they were allowed to shop for longer.

What is “Civil Serial” number?
You can find your “Civil Serial” on the back of your Civil ID card.

My Civil ID card is expired, can I still use it to book an appointment?
Yes, you can.

On the appointment website when I selected “My address doesn’t match my Civil ID info” it asked for my “Address Auto No”, what is that?
That’s your PACI number which you can find outside your apartment door.

When I select the option to change the address it isn’t recognizing my PACI and giving me the error “Auto Number is Unknown”, how do I fix that?
Find your building PACI number using this link: http://gis.paci.gov.kw/

When I tried to book an appointment I got the error message “Sorry!! Civil ID has no data.” what do I do?
Try again using a different web browser.

I never got a confirmation email with my reference number, how can I cancel my booking?
Call 101

I canceled my appointment but the website isn’t letting me book a new appointment, what do I do?
Many readers have reported this issue, try booking at a different supermarket and if that doesn’t work call 101.

Can I take my husband/wife/mum/friend/whomever with me to the supermarket? How many people can I take with me?
Appointments are valid only for one person so you can’t take anyone with you. If you want to go with someone else to the supermarket, they will have to get their own appointment.

Can an X amount of people go grocery shopping at the same time in the same car?
Yes as long as everyone has their own appointment and for the same time.

How can I book a specific supermarket like Lulu, Saveco or Sultan? I can’t see them on the list?
If you don’t see a specific supermarket in the options you’re given that means you can’t select them. You only have access to the supermarkets in your area.

I am on visit visa and so I don’t have a Civil ID card, can I book an appointment with someone else’s Civil ID?
No, you can’t. If you’re here on your visit visa you can enter the unified number mentioned in the visa in place of the Civil ID and Serial number. This will allow you to book an appointment.

I have a problem and I can’t find the answer to my question, what do I do?
Call 101

I didn’t go out for a walk yesterday but watched the large crowd from my balcony. I live inside the old Salmiya souk and my neighbor told me it was PACKED yesterday so might check it out today just to take some photos. In any case, I noticed a lot of people weren’t wearing masks nor social distancing even though they should.

Can we please cancel the 2 hours go out and mingle rule and just have a proper 24/7 lockdown till the end of the month? I'd rather do this right and get it over with instead of having to do another 24/7 lockdown once this 22/7 lockdown is over. #Kuwait pic.twitter.com/lHwOBWZepi

— mark248am (@mark248am) May 11, 2020

Personally, as I tweeted yesterday, I think these 2 hours should be canceled. But I also live in a large apartment and I have a rower for exercising so it’s easier for me to say that. I don’t understand why people don’t get the concept of social distancing. Are they just not taking the virus seriously? Or are they just not aware of how dangerous it is? It’s been the case ever since the pandemic started.

Looks like courier companies might go back to delivering packages. DHL posted that they will continue to deliver packages during the lockdown and I also heard that Aramex Shop&Ship will also resume service. I have a package coming in with UPS so I’m hoping they’ll continue delivering as well.

I haven’t posted a rant in years I think, but I’m really pissed off about two things, one that’s too late to be fixed, but the other one can still be.

The first thing I want to complain about is the way the lockdown was announced where it basically gave the whole population just a day to try and buy enough food for 3 weeks. That didn’t make any sense. The scenes I saw on Saturday were heartbreaking. It was survival, people tossed aside social distancing not because they wanted to, but because they were forced to. Supermarkets across the country were PACKED with large crowds, super long lines, and no social distancing. I shot the video below on Friday, BEFORE the lockdown announcement. It was a line for a mini-market down the street from my place so just imagine how long the lines were at major supermarkets across Kuwait on Saturday after the lockdown was announced. We don’t have a shortage of food in Kuwait nor a shortage of supermarkets, but the way this lockdown was announced late at night without having the proper infrastructure in place (like private supermarkets on moci.shop) or enough time for people to go out and stock up caused this chaos.

The second thing I’m really pissed off but is something that can easily be fixed is about how the information is being shared. 90% of the information is being shared only in Arabic. Why? I know Kuwait is an Arabic country so what? I’m Lebanese and I can barely read Arabic and I’ve lived all my life in Kuwait. What about the expats who aren’t Arab? What about the low-income workers who barely can communicate in their native tongue let alone read multiple languages? Kuwait is the home of many nationalities and in a crisis like this where it is important that every message gets across to everyone, you can’t have information being shared only in Arabic. You want everyone to use the moci.shop website to book appointments? Have it in multiple languages then. Right now if you visit the site its all in Arabic, even the option to change the language to English is in Arabic. At least have a tiny UK or American flag icon that people can click to translate.

You can’t disagree with me on this either, so don’t bother leaving a comment saying if you’re in an Arabic country you need to learn the language or gtfo. This pandemic isn’t the time for this. Right now the question should simply be HOW CAN WE GET THIS IMPORTANT INFORMATION OUT TO THE MOST NUMBER OF PEOPLE? And the answer is everything, needs to be published in multiple languages.

Instagram allows you to share multiple slides per post. Have the first slide in Arabic and then the next few slides in other languages. Hire people to do the translations, don’t have the money then ask for volunteers! And don’t just post on official channels. The MOH, MOI and other government agencies should coordinate with popular expat accounts like @kuwaitup2date and have important information published there. Go to where the people are and not just expect people to come to you.

Also, have all the information across all your media channels. I’m finding stuff for example on twitter.com/cgckuwait that isn’t on instagram.com/cgckuwait. Why? Why do I need to check all your social media channels to get all the info? Publish everything everywhere, it’s not hard to do.

Then you have other strange decisions. The visual I shared a while ago highlighting the different facilities that are available during the lockdown. The Arabic version was published as a permanent post in the @cgckuwait Instagram account while the English one was posted as a temporary story. Why? Why can’t both be stories and permanent posts? What if I missed your story today? So much stuff doesn’t make sense.

Just to be clear my issue isn’t just with the @cgckuwait account. All the issues I’ve mentioned above apply to all the official sources.

Anyway, I’m done complaining. Happy lockdown everyone.

Late last night private supermarkets became available as an option on the moci.shop website. Previously you could only book an appointment at the Coop, which was fine for low-density areas like Bayan and Mishref where the population is around 40,000. But Salmiya, for example, has a population of over 300,000 so sharing one Coop was not going to work.

I was actually super pissed about this because they had announced the lockdown BEFORE making private supermarkets available on the moci.shop website. This meant nobody could get a shopping appointment at the already fully booked Coops, so you ended up with the mass panic of the past two days where everyone was out scrambling to get enough food to store up for 3 weeks.

Anyway if you’ve never booked through the moci.shop website and want to know how it works, check out my previous post here.

If you’re wondering about courier companies, as of now they aren’t allowed to function. So no shipments can come in from abroad. Hopefully that changes.

Thanks Nibaq

Staying home for the next 3 weeks would have been such a chill plan if it wasn’t for the fact that I won’t be able to order food. I hope that rule gets loosened up cuz it would make my life so much easier being able to order lunch.

We get two hours a day to go out for a walk, and I was against that at first because if we are gonna lockdown, we might as well do it right. But then I realized this might be great for dog owners who need to walk their dogs, or for people to go feed the stray cats they usually take care of.

Anyway, below are all the details regarding the lockdown taken from @cgckuwait

Drive-In movie theaters have started making a comeback around the world amid the COVID-19 crisis. It makes sense since you’re isolated in your car away from everyone else. Sadly for us, the last standing drive-in movie theater in Kuwait was the Ahmadi drive-in pictured above and it got demolished last year. Maybe Cinescape can put together a makeshift one in some large parking lot because I really doubt normal cinemas are going to open up anytime in the near future.

Corona Care is a national counseling program that provides free counseling sessions to those affected the most by the COVID 19 pandemic:

– Medical health professionals on the frontline
– COVID 19 patients
– Individuals in institutionalized quarantine

Once you visit the website you’ll find a bunch of short FAQ videos and an interactive questionnaire you can take. Depending on how you answer the questionnaire you’ll be given different recommendations and if by the end of the screening you’re eligible for the free counseling, then you will be contacted to set up a counseling session with a mental health expert within the same week.

The sessions are held privately through an online platform and are completely confidential. If you think you need counseling and belong to one of the segments mentioned above, then check out the Corona Care website here.

How are you guys handling elevators right now? Do you share it? Has it stopped on a floor and you wouldn’t let someone from entering the elevator while you’re inside? Any drama yet?

In my apartment building where my elevator is around 1-1.5m square I’m trying not to share the elevator with anyone. If it stops on a floor and someone tries getting in, usually delivery drivers or workers, I tend to tell them to take the next lift. If they’re wearing a mask and glove I tend to let them share the elevator with me. If its a neighbor it’s usually more awkward, I haven’t told one I don’t want to share with them yet, some ask if I mind sharing which is the polite thing to do.

So how have you been dealing with it?

CoronaMaps Kuwait is a community-driven platform that is built by collaborating with multiple government and non-government organizations.

The platform is operated by volunteers with the goal of creating an information center for sharing community-related information during the Corona crisis in Kuwait. The site visualizes data collected from publicly available resources and will be mapping primary services like health care, home delivery of groceries, community responses and more.

The site launched yesterday night and is still in Beta phase but you can check it out by visiting coronamapskw.com

Puzzles and board games have made a comeback during this pandemic but if you’re looking for something a bit more advanced, then this is for you. Wood Crafter is a local online store that sells wooden models of ships, planes and buildings which you need to put together. Prices seem very reasonable when compared to LEGO but some of the models look incredibly complicated.

The website is pretty easy to browse so check it out here.
Also you can check out their Instagram account @wood.crafter

Yesterday an image and story went viral about a woman who was meant to be under quarantine spotted out shopping in a supermarket. She had entered the supermarket wearing an abaya covering the bracelet and was only discovered while she was waiting in line at the cashier. When confronted by employees she became loud and aggressive and in the end, left the supermarket with her groceries.

She was eventually caught with the help of the Shlonik app and was transferred to mandatory quarantine. Once the quarantine is over she will be referred to legal authorities. Source

I thought authorities would know if someone under quarantine left their home right away? Yesterday Concept15 on Snapchat was talking about how the authorities had called him up because they noticed his wrist bracelet hadn’t moved for some time. He told them the strap had broken so he left it on his desk. They told him to open the door because they were outside with a new one. So if they could tell that his bracelet hadn’t moved for some time, how could they not know when a bracelet completely leaves the home? Or maybe they did know and so were waiting for her outside her house when she got back? No idea.

These two videos embedded here document the Kuwait International Rally back in the 70s. One of the videos was shot in 1976 while the other 1978. Both feature a lot of great 70s style racing footage as well as snippets of Kuwait like the old Hilton Hotel and the Kuwait Towers.

These aren’t homemade videos but properly shot videos with groovy music and a 70s style British voiceover. It’s actually really entertaining to watch even if you aren’t into cars so please check both videos out.

Tareq Almulaifi is a Kuwaiti singer/songwriter whom I previously posted about a few years ago when he was living in New York. Since then he’s moved to LA and just a couple of days ago released his first track with his new band, Cobra Club.

For the past few years I’ve been really into 80s inspired cinematic synth pop music and Tareq’s new track “Razor” falls right into that category. It’s a great track which I’ve probably already played a dozen times since last night and the music video, which supposedly was shot on a low budget, is really well made and carries over the whole 80s vibe. Can’t wait to hear more of their stuff.

Make sure you check Cobra Club out on Instagram @cobraclubmusic and Tareq on @tarequlous. If you’d like to hear more music similar to this then check out my Spotify playlist “Not the 80s” where you’ll find some of my favorite tracks including Tareqs.