2:48AM - Entertaining Kuwait since 2003

Gourmet Grocers is a new premium grocery store that recently opened a boutique at the Nasco building in Shuwaikh. They offer a curated selection of high-quality gourmet products to cater to customers with particular tastes. It’s like walking into a boutique where every shelf and corner is packed with the finest gourmet selections; a foodie’s dream come true.

Their product range spans various categories, including cereals and grains, condiments, snacks, beverages, and lifestyle items. They are resellers for notable brands like Bjorg, Lune de Miel, Nicholas Alziari, but they also carry other premium brands like Seggiano, François Doucet, Meurisse, and more. This extensive selection ensures that customers have access to exclusive and premium items not commonly found in the local market.

They also just launched their festive selection comprising of Panettone, Panforte, in addition to a Festive Gift Box and other products.

Speaking of gifts, if you’re looking for something truly unique, their custom gift boxes are a hit if you’re going to a gathering or want to gift something thoughtful to a food lover. Customers can pick from ready-made boxes or create their own by choosing from the store’s premium products to make the gift more personal and special. The packaging is also elegant which adds a touch of luxury to every gift.

In addition to their physical boutique in Shuwaikh, Gourmet Grocers provides an online shopping platform with complimentary delivery across Kuwait. Customers can place orders through their website gourmet-grocers.com, with same-day delivery available for orders placed before 2pm.

If you want to pass by their store, here is their location on Google Maps. For the latest updates, product highlights, or to start shopping, visit their Instagram @gourmetgrocers or head to their website gourmet-grocers.com

A few days ago I watched the Demi Moore movie, The Substance. What a crazy and fun ride that was. It’s over the top, features lots of gore and nudity, it was super entertaining and the art direction just crazy good. I highly recommend it.

Let me know in the comments what you recently watched or planning to watch.

Movies at the Cinemas
The movies below are now showing at the local cinemas:

New This Week:
Gunner (3.2)
Mufasa: The Lion King (6.7)
The Painted (N/A)
Survive (4.6)
The Princess Diaries (classic) (6.4)

Other Movies Showing:
Get Fast (3.6)
Gladiator II (7.0)
Home Alone (classic) (7.7)
Interstellar (re-run) (8.7)
Kraven the Hunter (5.7)
Moana 2 (7.1)
Panda Bear in Africa (5.5)
Red One (6.7)
River of Blood (6.7)
The Lord of the Rings: The War of the Rohirrim (6.8)
Wicked (8.1)

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

Last week I found a copy of the second Wizr book on a website in Czech Republic for like 2KD and bought it. It’s my second copy, and although I didn’t have plans for it originally, someone gave me the idea of scanning and digitizing the books so I might end up sacrificing this extra copy by taking it apart and scanning the pages.

I first posted about the Wizr 10 years ago. Wizr was a series of stories written by Keith Wells, a British journalist who was living in Kuwait back in the 70s. Keith used to work for Arab Times, and between 1979 and 1984, released three Wizr books with the help of Peter McMahon, an illustrator. To me the stories feel like funny blog posts inspired by his experiences in Kuwait, from dealing with ministry paperwork, to poking fun at the driving here. I was communicating with Keith this past week, getting some more info for this post, and he’s still a pretty funny guy. He left Kuwait in 1987 and is now retired living with his wife Suzi in Australia.

Keith originally met Peter at a party. Peter hadn’t read any of the Wizr stories so when Keith told him who Wizr was, Peter picked up a sheet of paper, scribbled away for a minute or two, then held it out and asked Keith, “Him?” It was perfect. After that, both became close friends.

Keith would write a story, take it to Peter’s flat every Friday, and he’d illustrate the cartoon. The combination became very popular and after a couple of months in the Arab Times, they were approached by Tony Jashanmal, who owned a department store on Fahed Salem St, and Bashir Khatib, who owned the ‘The Kuwait Bookshops’ to publish a book full of the stories. The first book one was launched at the British Embassy Gardens in November 1979. They sold 428 copies that night, and Keith and Peter left home with a bag full of cash.

The two carried on working together for around a year, then Peter was murdered, a long sad story (which I’m hoping to get more information on soon). The second Wizr book was published with cartoons that weren’t used for the first, and the third book used odd scraps and recycled pics. The books are pretty hard to come by so I was curious to how many copies were printed. According to Keith, in total, they printed 10,000 copies of the first two books, and around 5,000 of the third. There were only around 4,000 or so native English speakers in Kuwait back then, but according to Keith most people bought multiple copies of the books and sent them to relatives and friends abroad.

Keith still has around 50 copies of the books left, as well as Peter’s original cartoons, and several of his oil paintings. He’s digging through his stuff to see what else he might still have. We’re both trying to figure out what to do with all of it, maybe ship everything to Kuwait and hold an exhibition. I suggested maybe putting him in touch with the British Embassy and maybe have them bring him over and have some sort of event again in the British Embassy Gardens, like a 45 year anniversary thing. If you have ideas, let me know!

The books aren’t easy to come by, but they do pop up online every now and then. I scanned a few pages and illustrations from the book and uploaded them to Flickr. I’ve included the unedited scans, as well as scans I’ve edited where I’ve combined the stories and illustrations to fit on one page. You can check them out here.

UR Cookies first opened back in 2020—just a small spot, nothing fancy, it was primarily a pick-up and delivery location. But, they had a solid, satisfying cookie that wasn’t too big, not too sweet, and always fresh. They had a straightforward approach which I appreciated.

Recently, they opened a second, much larger location at The Avenues. The new spot offers plenty of seating, a cool trendy interior, and it’s much easier to visit (for me) since I’m at The Avenues once a week, usually more. Despite the bigger space and the busier setting, they haven’t lost the simple vibe, it still feels like a cookie place, not a cookie factory.

With the opening of their new spot, they also launched a must-try item called ‘UR Scoop,’ which I’d been seeing all over my TikTok feed. It’s a warm, thick, and gooey cookie dough scooped into a cup and topped with creamy vanilla soft serve. When I saw it on TikTok, I knew I had to try it when I’d pass by to take pictures for this post. It’s as amazing as it sounds, and I’m already looking forward to having it again this Friday when I’m back at The Avenues. It’s definitely worth the hype.

UR Cookies is located in The Avenues Phase 4, in the food court below Vox Cinemas. Their viral item ‘UR Scoop’ is exclusively available at this location and not available for delivery. The new location also has cold and hot drinks including milkshakes and specialty coffee. Swipe left to see the pictures I took and then head over to their account @ur.cookies.kw

Saw this Sadu inspired sweater the other day and loved it, sadly it’s a pre-order and won’t ship till February. Maybe I could wear it next year. Link

Back in 2017 I posted about how “Old Kuwait is Digitally Disappearing“. The article was mostly about how things are disappearing off the internet, it could be old articles, photos or videos related to Kuwait. Now I’ve realized we have another problem, people who were involved with Kuwait back in the 60s and 70s are starting to die.

There was a photographer I was in touch with last year called Tor Eigeland. He had visited Kuwait back in 1967 according to him although I think it was sometime in the 70s based off the photograph I had found of his of the Kuwait Towers under construction (the photo in this post). Yesterday I messaged him because I had some things I wanted to run by him and his wife replied to me letting me know he sadly passed away this past April at the age of 92.

There is a guy who reached out to me who was part of the team that brought the Marriott Hotel ship to Kuwait. I haven’t been able to get a hold of him for nearly a year now so I fear he’s passed away as well.

Yesterday I got in touch with Keith Wells, a British journalist who was living in Kuwait back in the 70s. I was worried he had passed away since the last time I spoke to him was 10 years ago, thankfully he turned out to be still alive.

But thats basically how things are at the moment, every time I email someone I used to be in touch with, I wonder if they’re still alive. I feel like there are still too many stories that need to be documented, and many will sadly never be told.

Since we are on the subject of Kuwait Airways, while browsing the New York Times archive I found an article from Feb. 11, 1974 which talks about the Kuwaiti parliament debating if Kuwait Airways should continue to serve alcohol on its flight:

---

Serving of Drinks on Airline at Issue in Kuwait

KUWAIT, Feb. 9—The National Assembly, Kuwait’s lively parliament, was in an uproar this week over whether Kuwait’s national airline should, continue to serve alcoholic drinks on its flights.

The Moslem religion prohibits consumption of intoxicating beverages, and this is a major issue between “liberal” and “fundamentalist” Arabs around the Persian Gulf.

It is an issue of some terest to Western oilmen and business representatives who are in the area in growing numbers, as well as for many Arabs who have studied or done business abroad, where they acquired a Western taste for a highball or cocktails.

Uproar in Assembly

One of these Arabs is Abdulaziz al‐Massaeed, the publisher of Dar Al Rai al‐Amm, one of Kuwaits leading morning newspapers.

Mr. Massaeed, an elected deputy in the 50‐member National Assembly, set off the uproar during a debate on the budget for the national airline when he replied to conservative members who said Kuwait’s “dry” law should apply to the state company’s international flights.

“I, as a free citizen, would refrain from traveling aboard any plane that does not sell liquor,” said Mr. Massaeed, who travels frequently to Europe on business and for holidays. He added:

“I take liquor. Ninety per cent of Kuwaitis drink and know many of the deputies drink also.”

This touched off a furor, With conservative members banging their desks and shouting for the floor.

Moslem Prohibition Brings Furor in Parliament and Blood‐Test Challenge

“I challenge the members to take a blood test to see who drinks and who doesn’t,” retorted Mr. Massaeed over the uproar.

$30 for Scotch

While Kuwait is officially dry, and no alcoholic drinks are served even in the big international hotels, there is a large black market in foreign liquors. For instance, a bottle of Scotch will be delivered to a guest’s room in one of the major hotels for $30.

In private homes, many Kuwaitis serve liquor to their Western guests, and hard drinking among Kuwaitis and other Arabs here who can afford it is not unusual.

But any public place, or even Private club, is subject to prohibition. When the Kuwait National Bank had a reception this week for visiting Western bankers at a hotel, it was for tea, not cocktails.

In other places along the gulf, the situation varies from the strict fundamentalism of Saudi Arabia, where travelers bringing liquor in their luggage can be arrested, to the relativey free‐wheeling habits of Bahrain or Dubai, where there are bars.

Drink or Pray

Supporting his argument for tolerance of drinkers aboard the Kuwait airline, Mr. Massaeed said that the ruler of Dubai, Shiek Rashid bin Said al‐Maktum, had told a protesting delegation of religious leaders that this was a matter for individual choice.

According to Mr. Massaeed, Sheik Rashid said: “Here there is a mosque and over there is a bar. Whoever wants to please himself can resort to either prayer or drink.” Sheik Rashid is noted for his business acumen, the newspaper official said.

In the end the budget of the Kuwait airline, which flies as far as London and New Delhi, as well as around the Middle East, was approved on the condition that Finance Minister Abdel‐Rahman Salem al‐Atigi make a “thorough study” of the effect that banning liquor sales might have on the willingness of non‐Moslem passengers to use the airline.

Last year, Kuwait Airways unveiled renderings of its revamped interior, and now, photos and videos have surfaced showcasing the final look.

Kuwait Airways took delivery of its brand-new Airbus A330-900 last week, the first of seven on order. The aircraft features new Business Class seats, and a new “Premium” Economy cabin which is a completely new addition to the Kuwait Airways product lineup. This new cabin class will be called “Comfort Plus” while the regular economy cabin will be called just “Comfort”.

Airline journalist @bo.waleed1 got a tour of the new plane once it arrived and was kind enough to let me share his images. The main image on top was also taken by Engineer @bin_ghareeb_83 who also got to see the new plane last week.

The A330-900 has 32 business class seats, 21 premium economy seats, and 225 economy seats. Business Class has a 1-2-1 cabin configuration, premium economy a 2-3-2 configuration while the regular economy a 2-4-2 cabin configuration. All the business class seats are now private cabins with sliding doors, which is pretty cool and puts Kuwait Airways on par with the top business class offerings from other airlines. The cabins also feature amenities like USB-C ports, wireless charging, plenty of storage, and of course, seats that fold flat into a bed.

View this post on Instagram

A post shared by Kuwait Airways (@kuwaitairways)

Kuwait Airways will be officially revealing the new interior soon, so follow them to stay updated @kuwaitairways. If you want to see more photos and videos of the interior, check out my post on Instagram @248am

Winter in Kuwait tends to mean cozy drinks which is why hot chocolate is always a favorite here. This season, Tim Hortons has perfected their milk hot chocolate recipe, making it more irresistible than ever. The new Milk Hot Chocolate is creamy, comforting, and great for chilly mornings or cozy evenings.

Tim Hortons have 12 locations across Kuwait, celebrated for their warm ambiance, 100% premium arabica coffee beans and, of course, their iconic freshly baked and dipped donuts and timbits. Visit @Timhortons.Kuwait and enjoy

Found this article while browsing through the NYT archive. I hadn’t heard of this incident before. Article taken from the New York Times Sept. 18, 1977 issue.

KUWAIT, Sept. 17 (AP)—Seven monkeys escaped from their cage in the Kuwait zoo and killed two children in panicked crowd, ‘ the police reported today. A zookeeper was seriously bitten in the incident Friday before policemen shot and killed one of the monkeys and captured the others in a long chase, the police said.

Here is a list of different events taking place this weekend.

Thursday, December 12
Night of Serenity
It’s Beginning to Look A Lot Like Improv!
Murouj Market
Mirzaam Expo
Sons of Yusuf New Album Listening Party
End of Season Recital
Bloom Market

Friday, December 13
Night of Serenity
Jahra Cultural Season at The Red Palace
Murouj Market
Mirzaam Expo
Kite Festiva
GR Yaris Cup Season 2
Farmers Market at the Terrace
GIG Battle Fitness Festival
Bloom Market
Kuwait Coffee Festival

Saturday, December 14
DAI’s December Family Day
Jahra Cultural Season at The Red Palace
Murouj Market
Mirzaam Expo
Winter Bazaar
KTAA Winter Bazaar
GIG Battle Fitness Festival
Bloom Market
NBK Run 2024
Kuwait Coffee Festival

This week I’ve just been rewatching Yellowstone and staying up to date on some other shows like Dune, Land Man, Silo, Matlock, Elsbeth. Need to start watching The Agency since the trailer looked good and it’s starring Richard Gere.

Speaking of trailers, the new 28 Years Later trailer is out and it’s by far the trailer of the year for me. Ridiculous! Can’t wait to watch the movie when it gets released.

Let me know in the comments what you recently watched or planning to watch.

Movies at the Cinemas
The movies below are now showing at the local cinemas:

New This Week:
Deer Camp ’86 (5.5)
Get Fast (3.6)
Kraven the Hunter (5.7)
Panda Bear in Africa (5.5)
River of Blood (6.7)
The Lord of the Rings: The War of the Rohirrim (6.8)

Other Movies Showing:
Armor (3.5)
Gladiator II (7.0)
Home Alone (classic) (7.7)
Interstellar (re-run) (8.7)
Moana 2 (7.1)
Red One (6.7)
Wicked (8.1)

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

The 26th Arabian Gulf Cup which goes by the awkward name Khaleeji Zain 26 is taking place in Kuwait in 10 days time. Tickets for the games went on sale a few days ago and start from 2KD and go up to 30KD.

If you want to buy tickets they can only be purchased through the Khaleeji Zain official website and app called Hayakom. Hayakom provides live news, real-time match updates, team details, stadium guides, touristic attractions amongst other things.

If you want to get tickets or check out the website, head over to hayakom.pas.gov.kw

Since food posts are back on the menu, here is a cool new spot that opened.

Bread Street is a new micro bakery and deli concept by the same team behind Upper Street and Table Otto. They just opened at JACC, and when I saw photos of the place I thought it looked great with its cool retro vibe, which is why I decided to stop by and check it out in person.

I got there at 8 AM this morning to take photos thinking it would be empty, but even though they had just opened the place was already busy with people. I ended up borrowing the photos for this post from Bread Street and @expensive.appetite, who kindly gave me permission to use his photos as well.

They’re an all-day concept, but I’ve always been a fan of Street’s and Table Otto’s breakfast, which is why I’m excited to try Bread Street’s this weekend. The team really excel at breakfast items, and with JACC already being my favorite Friday morning spot thanks to Cocoa Room, it feels like the perfect fit. They have both outdoor and indoor seating, but the indoor only has around four tables so it’s a fairly small space.

Click here if you want to check out their breakfast and brunch menu.

They currently open from 8AM to 11PM and if you want to check them out head over to @breadstreet.eats

It’s been two years since I launched my Instagram account, and what a year this one has been. Since we are at the end of the year I wanted to do a year in review kinda post so that I have a record of it somewhere.

It was a pretty stressful year trying to find content that would be suitable and engaging enough for Instagram. If a post won’t generate more than 1,500 likes, then I wouldn’t consider publishing it. It’s a difficult ask, and a lot of pressure, especially since I only have around 55K followers, but it’s one of these policies I created for myself so I could keep the quality of my posts high. Plus, I work better when pressured so this helps.

There are exceptions of course, sometimes I like to post things I care for, like I posted about British Film week recently, and another post about a local creative winning an award for a book design. Both posts I wasn’t expecting much engagement on, but I didn’t care really. Other times I post stuff not expecting much engagement, like my Primark post, but then it turns out to be my 2nd most reached and engaged post, and the most shared of the year. I haven’t figured out yet what post will blow up or not, don’t think I ever will. The biggest surprise was probably my post on the new IKEA store in Shuwaikh. I published it and went to walk my dog. I didn’t even check my account again for over an hour because I didn’t want to feel the disappointment of publishing an un-engaging post. To my surprise the post had blown up and it’s now my 3rd most reached and engaged post of the year, I think it has over 6,000 likes. No idea why, but I think the whole comparison to a movie set must have caught people’s attention.

One thing I’ve been trying to tackle is copycats. I used to have that issue back when there were so many bloggers, I’d post about something and then they’d post the same thing. With Instagram I’ve had to deal with people using my photos without permission, or copying content ideas or formats and always without crediting the source. It’s very frustrating obviously because it’s not easy coming up with new ideas or topics, and then people just copy it. But people aren’t just copying me, there is so much copying of each other it’s ridiculous. Someone flies a drone over a new project, posts about it, within hours you have a dozen other vloggers flying their drones to capture the exact same thing and post about it. Someone posts about some hole in the wall fatayer place, suddenly everyone is discovering hole in the wall fatayer places. Mostly, I just find other peoples content so uninteresting and so hard to watch. Why do most vloggers sound like car salesman on a TV commercial?

Financially, this year been really good to me, like a life saver since I got married and had a ton of things to spend on. I generated 0% of my blog income through the website, 100% through my Instagram account. That’s just crazy.

I compared the performance of this year to the past 10 years and 2024 was the highest performing. It’s not higher than 2012/2013 which was the blogs financial peek, but I’m getting pretty close.

Initially I was worried about labeling my ads as ads since I wasn’t sure advertisers would want that, but thankfully, they’ve all been fine with it. I think I only had one or two brands that refused to advertise with me unless I hid the fact it was an ad. Since I’m not in this for the money I obviously didn’t care. I’m also not accepting ads from brands that are being boycotted.

I’ve limited myself to 3 promoted posts a week which is a lot considering I post on average like 5 or 6 posts a week. But it’s good money and I don’t want to turn it away. So instead, I’m just more active trying to find more content to post. It’s a win win for everyone, readers get more content, I get financially rewarded.

Back to the subject of labeling ads as ads, I think my readers appreciate it which is why they’re actually more willing to engage with my promoted content. I still don’t understand how I’m one of the very few people who labels ads as ads. If it’s an ad just tell your followers its an ad, it’s not a big deal.

Now the plan for next year is to try and just keep things the same.

I don’t need more ads, at the current rate I’m more than good. I also don’t need more followers.

I think 55K is basically all my target audience in Kuwait. Anymore and I think I’ll be getting followers who shouldn’t be following me. I’ve had to block so many people this year, I just checked and as of this post I’ve restricted 371 people and blocked 584. I have zero chill. You get two strikes, first strike I restrict you, second strike I block you. The ability to restrict and block people are my favorite Instagram features.

Anyway, until next year.