Nuqat is one of my favourite conferences that takes place in Kuwait and this year will mark their 10 year anniversary which they will celebrate over 10 days with activities including talks, workshops, exhibitions, and entertainment. Over the 10 years Nuqat has evolved and developed to become one of the largest creative conferences in the region and most of their activities are free to atend. Actually, all of their activities from talks to musical events are free to attend with only the workshops that require a registration fee.
This year’s Nuqat conference is titled “State of the Elastic Mind: New Mindset for Old Barriers” and will be taking place from November 20 to 29 at various venues around Kuwait. All the talks will be held from the 21st to 23rd at the Amricani Cultural Centre with the workshops, exhibitions and various music events being held in different places all over Kuwait.
There is A LOT going on and I spent the good part of the morning uploading all the workshops and cultural events to the events page and you can check those out here.
If you’re interested in attending a talk then you could check all the different talks talking place here.
Nuqat 2015
You don’t have to attend every single talk and I tend to pop in and out during the day just to watch a specific talk I’m interested in. It’s an informative and educational conference while also being a great event to network and socialize in. If you haven’t been to Nuqat before then I highly recommend you do.
To register for Nuqat (it’s free) just click here.
Kuwait’s first official Rimowa store opened a couple of weeks ago at the Avenues and I was curious to check out their prices. I bought a Rimowa bag from the Dubai store a couple of months back and so was curious to know the price difference between the two stores. Surprisingly, Kuwait is cheaper!
The Kuwait store is 5% cheaper than the Dubai store and the reason for that is the new 5% taxes you pay on items in Dubai. So a Rimowa Original Cabin size bag in silver aluminum costs KD325 in Dubai after-tax, but KD310 in Kuwait. Not that much of a difference but still a saving. So if you were trying to figure out if you should buy a Rimowa bag locally or abroad, you now know.
Last Tuesday I was invited to the premiere of Doctor Sleep by my favorite movie theater, Vox Kuwait at the Avenues Phase 4, and as usual for their premieres, the event was a pleasure for film geeks (full of thematic decor and even two little twin girl actresses which were adorable in their attempts to scare guests). After walking on a red carpet designed after the famous carpet from The Shining, we took our seats and the lights went down.
Regarding the elephant that’s always in the room, censorship, this film has been cut in a few places, but not in a way that makes it unwatchable. It doesn’t affect the plot and you’re aware of what’s going on, but some cuts do come at some moments where you’re really drawn into the film. But all the cuts were momentary, nothing like whole scenes removed. Anyway, onto the review.
You’ve got to have quite a pair to think you can pull of a sequel to The Shining. Not only is it a horror masterpiece, but it is perhaps one of the most obsessed over films in history (watch the documentary Room 237 for proof). Up until now, director Mike Flanagan has been a solid horror filmmaker with a fresh voice and a couple of strong entries under his belt, but he hasn’t attempted anything quite so ambitious as Doctor Sleep. Does it pay off? Well yes… and no.
To be fair, it’s near impossible to create a satisfying sequel to The Shining especially since Kubrick veered way off the Stephen King novel it was based on, creating instead an intimate horror film with a singular vision which benefits most from its ambiguity and its lack of a need for a sequel. So when adapting Doctor Sleep (King’s sequel to his Shining), Flanagan decided to take a route where he bridges the gap between King and Kubrick. The result feels like two interesting films in their own right mashed up messily. The script suffers a lot from it and it’s the script itself which is the weakest link in this film.
The storytelling and filmmaking, however, is where the film shines (ahem). Flanagan does an excellent job of building tension, creating mood, and allowing scenes to be paced calmly and correctly. He doesn’t rush you into “scares”, but rather allows you to get invested into the characters. This is most evident in the first 40 minutes or so where very little plot is divulged, and we are just getting to know our three main characters. These were some of my favorite scenes in the film because Flanagan directs them maturely and really allows us to connect to Danny Torrance’s struggle with his demons. I very much appreciated that the film did not rely on The Shining nostalgia or fan service to create excitement. In fact, the only time we are really given that kind of nostalgia is in the last 30 minutes of a 2.5 hour film, so by then you’ve already emotionally invested into this new story entirely.
Aside from the filmmaking, the performances stand out as well. Ewan McGregor is perfect in the title role, and Kyliegh Curran gives an Excellent child performance that is exciting and convincing. But really it’s Rebecca Ferguson as the antagonist who steals the film. I was worried from the trailers as her storyline looked cheesy, but she is somehow convincing and gives a very interesting performance of a character that is at once cold blooded but somehow understandable. I like her work in the Mission Impossible films, but now I’m a full on fan.
In the end, I felt Doctor Sleep was an entertaining film with some really strong sequences (the Astral Projection moment was visionary, and the Baseball boy sequence was extremely disturbing and effective), but it’s nods to the Shining only reveal how much stronger that film is. To me, this is a pretty weak Kubrick tribute, but a very strong Stephen King film adaptation. It’s different than most films coming out in cinemas these days, and some of it’s inventive filmmaking makes up for its flaws. I still recommend a watch to horror and film fans as it has an original voice and style to it that is a breath of fresh air amongst the hundred of cynical cash grabs posing as cinema today.
Back in September I posted that the popular UK based Italian bakery Princi was coming to Kuwait but didn’t know where they were opening. Well, they’re opening in Avenues Phase 4 since the store hoarding went up recently in the Grand Avenues. Princi was created by the restaurateur Alan Yau who is behind other popular brands like Wagamama and Hakkasan.
Baroue the kids store recently opened a snow park inside their Avenues store called Frostland. I passed by it over the weekend to check it out and was actually impressed. Mostly because I was not expecting their snow park to be so big but also because I didn’t think they would have actual snow.
Frostland is fairly huge considering its located inside a store but the Baroue store was always huge to begin with. The whole top floor of Baroue has now been converted to Frostland with different snow and ice related activities like ice slides, ice cars and the snow dome. Kids and parents are given winter gear to wear because its actually winter in Frostland and you’ll need to be properly dressed to play in the snow.
The ticket price for Frostland is 11KD for 2 hours and 6KD for guardians. If you want to check out some videos and more pictures of their snow park check out Frostland on instagram @baroue_frostland
The Improv Comedy Show by Staged in Kuwait is back again this weekend. If you’ve never been to one of their shows before then you should and there are still some tickets available if you haven’t already booked. Check out the full list of this weekends events below:
I’ve been meaning to order tires for my Lotus online for some time now since the local Michelin dealer didn’t carry tire sizes that fit my car. But I had heard two things:
1) The Michelin dealer wouldn’t order tires for you if they didn’t carry them
2) If you order tires online they’ll get stuck in customs and it would be very difficult to clear them
I didn’t follow up on the rumors right away since my tires were still in fairly good condition back then. But the new season at Kuwait Motor Town started already and now after 8 track days and 17,000KM mileage on the same set of tires, I knew it would be time to change them soon so I needed to find a solution.
This post is to clear the two rumors above which turned out to be false.
The Michelin Dealer
First thing I did was pass by the Michelin dealer on Canada Dry street to see if they would be willing to order the following tires for me:
Michelin Pilot Sport Cup 2 – 215/45 R17 x2
Michelin Pilot Sport Cup 2 – 285/30 R18 x2
They told me they could and I had two options, either ship them by sea freight which could take anywhere between 4 to 8 weeks, or by air which would take up to 2 weeks. They took my email and sent me a proposal that came to the following:
Total for 4 tires if shipped by air: KD540
Total for 4 tires if shipped by sea: KD374
Ordering Tires Online
I decided to check and see how much my tires would cost if I ordered them online myself and shipped them straight to Kuwait. I found my tires on Camskill.co.uk for a great price and they would be willing to ship them directly to Kuwait using FedEx. The total with shipping came out to just KD336 so I placed an order and within 5 days I had the tires. They cleared customs with no issue except for the fact I had to pay FedEx KD28 for the customs fees and clearance cost. The total in the end came out to KD364. So KD10 cheaper than the dealers sea freight cost but arrived in just a few days instead of a few weeks.
So if you need specific tires that aren’t available locally I would head to the local dealer first and see if they would order them for you or alternatively, you could order them online if you were in a hurry like me or just didn’t want to bother with Shuwaikh.
Last night I got on Carriage and got a pop-up message saying I needed to choose a new Carriage Black plan. There was previously just one option, KD3.5 a month for unlimited deliveries which honestly a too good to be true price and I’ve saved a ton of money because of it. But recently Deliveroo stopped their free delivery promo so Carriage has now updated their Carriage Black pricing structure as well.
The new pricing isn’t bad at all since I order from Carriage daily. I’ll probably go with the KD7.5 a month plan since I rarely order from the grocery section and if I do it’s nothing good, usually chocolates which I should stop ordering anyway. But I will miss the old days when Deliveroo was free and unlimited deliveries on Carriage was just KD3.5 a month.
Why do people not like parking inside multistory parking lots? We have probably the cheapest parking rates in the world and yet loads of people prefer parking illegally right outside the parking lot instead of legally and safely inside.
I was with a friend last time who was looking for parking in his brand new expensive car in a tight back road barely hitting other cars who were coming down the road the wrong way and I was like dude, look on your left, there is an empty multistory lot just go inside and park there wtf?
I’m not complaining, its actually better for me since this way I’ll always find parking inside those lots but I’m just really curious to why people don’t like multistory lots and I know it can’t be just a financial reason.
While we’re on the subject of Ahmadi today, here are some photos of KOC buildings from the early 60s. These were old postcards that were scanned and the descriptions were written on the back.
One of the married payroll employees houses at Ahmadi
I came across these photos years ago but when I searched the blog I realized I had only shared a couple of them. Below are some photos of a home taken by a family who used to live in Ahmadi back in the early 60s.
Ok this is going to be a long shot but does anyone have an Ahmadi Desert Motoring Club car badge for sale? Back in the old days (like 50s/60s etc.) people use to put badges on their car grills similar to the photo below and so I’m looking for the ADMC car badge to put on the front grill of my Alfa.
There are different variations of this badge either with the word Kuwait or Persian Gulf written on it, I’m not picky and fine with either one. I can’t find the exact date these badges were used by the club in Kuwait but I’m assuming it was in the 50s to late 60s, maybe early 70s.
If you have one or know anyone who would want to sell theirs, let me know!
Last year I posted about how much I hated the housekeeper’s category on the Q8 4Sale website since people were listing their housekeepers for sale. After my post, the 4Sale website started removing those posts and set new rules for the category but I still wished they had closed it down instead. Well it took a thorough BBC investigation and reporting for that to happen.
Over the weekend, BBC published its investigative video below exposing the trade by interviewing a number of people who were selling their housekeepers including a police officer and a woman who was selling her 16-year-old housekeeper!
Posing as a couple newly arrived in Kuwait, the BBC Arabic undercover team spoke to 57 app users and visited more than a dozen people who were trying to sell them their domestic worker via a popular commodity app called 4Sale.
The sellers almost all advocated confiscating the women’s passports, confining them to the house, denying them any time off and giving them little or no access to a phone.
The 4Sale app allowed you to filter by race, with different price brackets clearly on offer, according to category. Source
After the video and article went viral, Kuwait announced that it was cracking down on slave traders and I checked the 4sale website and it looks like they finally completely removed the housekeeper’s category. Hopefully, this will cause the government to consider reforming the kafala (sponsorship) system which in it’s current state is flawed and being abused. Check out the BBC articles on this subject below:
