2:48AM - Entertaining Kuwait since 2003

After closing down their original location near the Kuwait Towers, looks like Chili’s is reopening again on the Gulf Road but this time closer to Green Island. The place looks practically done and could open any day now and they’re also opening a Coffee Bean & Tea Leaf right next door. Here is the location on Google Maps.

This got me thinking if I should revisit all the old school restaurants of the 90s like Chili’s, TGIF, Johnny Carino’s, Nino’s, etc., and do some sort of nostalgic review? The best of the old school maybe? I don’t know, I need to think about this more.

In a bid to stop people from parking illegally the MOI have launched new “No Parking Vehicles” to drive around areas and ticket illegal parkers. The vehicles have cameras located on the outside to capture the license plate of violators automatically without having to leave the car making it really convenient.

Not sure how I feel about this, I think I preferred the previous method of removing license plates and towing cars since those were instant punishments that caused a lot of headache to the violators. I don’t think this new system will be as effective since violators will only know they got fined way after the incident.

In any case, not being pessimistic or anything but based on the history of MOI ideas, this won’t last long anyway before things go back to normal.

Thanks Meshari

Screenshot from Finding Steve McQueen

The movies below are now showing at Cinescape, Grand Cinemas and VOX:

New This Weekend:
A.M.I. (3.9)
Finding Steve McQueen (6.3)
The Kid (6.0)
The Lion King (6.2)
The Sonata (6.4)

Other Movies Showing Now:
Aladdin (6.5)
Anna (6.7)
Annabelle Comes Home (7.0)
Avengers: Endgame (9.2)
Crawl (7.1)
Escape Plan: The Extractors (4.4)
Spider-Man: Far from Home (8.2)
Stuber (5.7)
The Secret Life of Pets 2 (6.5)
Toy Story 4 (9.0)

The movies below are also now showing at the Scientific Center IMAX theater:

Amazon Adventure 3D (6.6)
Fly Me to the Moon (4.5)
Galapagos 3D (8.6)
Oceans: Our Blue Planet (7.4)
Volcanoes 3D (6.6)

Numbers in brackets refer to the IMDB rating at time of publishing.

Back in September, I posted about a cool new 3D printing service at Best Electronics where you can get a very realistic miniature figurine of yourself (and of you and your friends). That didn’t last long since the very next day Best were forced to close down the service due to religious reasons.

But, Best recently opened up a new store in The Avenues, it’s near Saveco in the basement in a pretty hidden location. But, the good news is they’ve brought back the 3D printing booth and have it set up there. So if you previously wanted to 3D print yourself but missed out, you should probably pass by Best quickly before it gets shut down again.

If you have a pet and are looking for something fun to do today and tomorrow, The Pet Lobby have an event taking place from 6PM to 10PM. For more info click here.

When Kuwait Airways introduced their new fleet back in 2016 my initial impression of their business class was that it didn’t look premium and it felt overcrowded with their 2-2-2 seat configuration. My favorite business class configuration has always been the Qatar Airways 1-2-1 arrangement on their 787 Dreamliners and it looks like Kuwait Airways will be adopting a similar setup on their new planes.

According to a recent press release, Kuwait Airways will be installing B/E Aerospace Super Diamond seats on their upcoming A330-800neo which are the seats used on airlines like Qatar Airways and Virgin. The current seats in comparison are the regular B/E Aerospace Diamond seats so it’s going to be a really good upgrade.

Kuwait Airways is expecting to enter 8 A330-800neo aircraft into service in 2020.

The current Municipal Council building would be turned into a museum under the umbrella of the National Council of Culture, Arts and Letters, said Chairman Osama Al-Otaibi Monday.

After relocating to a new one, the old building would be preserved due to its historic significance, Al-Otaibi told a press conference. Source

I’m so glad they realized the importance of the building and won’t be demolishing it. After the decision to demolish Sawaber and the Ice Skating Rink, I wouldn’t have been too surprised if they had decided to demolish this building as well.

The Kuwait Municipality building was designed by the architect Sami Abdul Baki and constructed between 1959 and 1962 by The Arab Contractors. I tried to find information on the architect but really couldn’t find anything other than a design he had proposed for the Martyr’s Square in Lebanon that never came to be. Interestingly, the Kuwait Municipality building features arcs similar to the one in his Martyr’s Square design (check below). So either that was his design signature or, maybe since it was never executed in Lebanon he decided to implement it into this building.

If anyone knows what other buildings he might have designed in Kuwait let me know in the comments below.

Image on top and building information was taken from Modern Architecture Kuwait 1949-1989

There is this app called FaceApp which allows you to change your age, hair color, hairstyle and other features, but unlike other apps that do similar effects, this one is actually incredibly realistic. Like scary realistic. Been having fun with it all morning so if you haven’t tried it out yet it’s available on both iOS and Android devices. Link

There are new ones being constructed near Khiran so my guess is that’s where this happened.

via reddit

If you’re vegan and are looking for a new place to eat there is a new restaurant that recently opened up called Wilgrow. I haven’t been to the place yet since I’m generally only interested in vegan food when my vegan best friend is in town but, going by the pictures alone, it looks like a cute place.

Wilgrow is located in Al-Bidea area at the Dhai Complex and you can find them on Google Maps. They’re open daily except for Sundays. @wilgrow.kw

Photos from @formkw

There’s a new ice skating place at The Avenues called Below Zero. It’s located in the basement right below The Forum (the large dome in Phase 4 where Arabica and Baker & Spice are). Sadly the place is just for children up to 13 years of age which got me thinking. Wouldn’t it have been nice if the whole lower level of The Forum was a large circular ice skating rink? Currently, that space is empty with nothing there except for those open-air elevators and a large robot.

While at the National Library recently, I found a few newspaper clippings related to James Brown when he visited Kuwait back in 1978. I was hoping to find more coverage in the papers but I searched through 1 month worth of AlQabas newspapers and only found a few ads and one article. I’m gonna go back and try to look for more in other newspapers but for now, I’m gonna share the ones I found. One is on top and the rest are below. If only the library didn’t have the most impractical opening hours…

Screenshot from Crawl

The movies below are now showing at Cinescape, Grand Cinemas and VOX:

New This Weekend:
Coconut the Little Dragon 2 Into the Jungle (5.7)
Crawl (7.1)
Escape Plan: The Extractors (4.4)
Stuber (5.7)
We Have Always Lived in the Castle (5.5)

Other Movies Showing Now:
Aladdin (6.5)
Anna (6.7)
Annabelle Comes Home (7.0)
Asterix: The Secret of the Magic Potion (6.8)
Avengers: Endgame (9.2)
John Wick: Chapter 3 – Parabellum (8.1)
Men in Black: International (5.6)
Red Joan (6.3)
Spider-Man: Far from Home (8.2)
The Secret Life of Pets 2 (6.5)
Toy Story 4 (9.0)

The movies below are also now showing at the Scientific Center IMAX theater:

Amazon Adventure 3D (6.6)
Fly Me to the Moon (4.5)
Galapagos 3D (8.6)
Oceans: Our Blue Planet (7.4)
Volcanoes 3D (6.6)

Numbers in brackets refer to the IMDB rating at time of publishing.

Last week I posted about a pet cat called Winston that got lost and later died at the airport after it was taken from its owner to be sent to the cargo terminal.

The cat owner has now set up a gofundme page to pay for her legal fees in suing NAS, the company that the airport uses to transport the pets from the main terminal to the cargo terminal and the ones who lost her cat. She also wants to try and change the procedures for arriving pets at the airport. From some of the comments I’ve read by other people who’ve traveled with their pets, the procedure at the Kuwait airport is inconsistent and in most cases unnecessary.

If you want to support her fight then here is the link to her gofundme.

Virgin Megastore which originally opened up in Marina Mall back in 2002 and then closed down in 2012 is now reopening again, but this time at The Avenues. Their new location is where the clothing store Express used to be located in Phase 1 and should (theoretically at least) prove to be a better location for them this time around.

Very few people know this but back in 2006 Virgin Kuwait bullied me and threatened to sue me over one of my posts. It’s a long story and made me dislike the brand and the company Azadea (who own the brand in the Middle East) for a very long time, but, I’m pretty glad they’re opening again since their Dubai store actually sells interesting things albeit overpriced.

No idea on when the opening will be.