2:48AM - Entertaining Kuwait since 2003

Right now it doesn’t look like there is a lot going on this long weekend but I’ll keep looking for events and adding them to the list. For now below is everything I could find, if I missed anything let me know.

Thursday
Exhibition: RE_USE
New Waves in Contemporary Egyptian Art
Exhibition: Suhaila Al Najdi and Mahmoud Maghraby
Kuwait International Speed Racing Championship Drag Race
From AlKout to Kuwait
Festival of Lights
Japanese Cultural Week: Movie Night

Friday
Exhibition: RE_USE
New Waves in Contemporary Egyptian Art
Kuwait International Speed Racing Championship Drag Race
From AlKout to Kuwait
Festival of Lights
The Meeting Point Food Festival
Murouj Market
Pro Truck Food Festival
Friday Morning Run
Yoga With Fatheya
Locals Day at Bunka

Saturday
Exhibition: RE_USE
New Waves in Contemporary Egyptian Art
Exhibition: Suhaila Al Najdi and Mahmoud Maghraby
From AlKout to Kuwait
Festival of Lights
The Meeting Point Food Festival
Murouj Market
Pro Truck Food Festival
Locals Day at Bunka
Movies at the Park: ET

Sunday
Exhibition: RE_USE
New Waves in Contemporary Egyptian Art
Exhibition: Suhaila Al Najdi and Mahmoud Maghraby
From AlKout to Kuwait
Festival of Lights
The Meeting Point Food Festival
Pro Truck Food Festival

Monday
Exhibition: RE_USE
New Waves in Contemporary Egyptian Art
Exhibition: Suhaila Al Najdi and Mahmoud Maghraby
From AlKout to Kuwait
Festival of Lights
Pro Truck Food Festival

Tuesday
Exhibition: RE_USE
New Waves in Contemporary Egyptian Art
Exhibition: Suhaila Al Najdi and Mahmoud Maghraby
From AlKout to Kuwait
Festival of Lights

If you’d like to share an event on the blog [Email Me]
For a full list of upcoming events click [Here]

Sometimes events get canceled or have details changed so always double-check with the organizers.

Screenshot from Dumplin’

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

New This Weekend:
Dumplin’ (6.8)
Fighting with My Family (7.8)
The Knight of Shadows: Between Yin and Yang (5.4)
Then Came You (7.0)
Upgrade (7.6)
What They Had (6.5)

Other Movies Showing Now:
A Dog’s Way Home (6.4)
A Star Is Born (8.5)
Alita: Battle Angel (7.6)
Aquaman (8.2)
BlacKkKlansman (7.5)
Cold Pursuit (7.3)
Destroyer (6.8)
Glass (8.1)
Green Book (8.3)
Happy Death Day 2U (6.8)
How to Train Your Dragon: The Hidden World (7.9)
Racetime (7.2)
Ralph Breaks the Internet (8.1)
Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse (8.6)
The Lego Movie 2: The Second Part (7.4)
The Prodigy (6.0)
The Quake (6.2)
The Upside (6.2)
The Vanishing (5.8)
The Wife (7.3)

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)
Penguins (6.7)
Planet Power 3D (N/A)

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

Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Interior Lt-Gen Sheikh Khalid Al-Jarrah has issued a decision to cancel residency stickers that are placed in the passports of expatriates. Such a decision is part of the ongoing upgrade process at various departments of the ministry, reports Al-Anba daily. [Source]

I wish they came out with this decision a few months ago before I got my new passport. Whoever stuck my residency sticker must have been blind because its tilted like 45 degrees, is partially occupying the adjacent page, and part of the sticker is also sticking out of the passport. Drives me nuts every time I see it.

If you’ve ever researched high-end music earphones or maybe you’ve purchased a pair before, you’d know that you can get custom sleeves for them. Earphones (the type you stick inside your ear) come with different sized rubber sleeves, usually similar to the ones below. These are made to fit the majority of ears but aren’t a perfect fit.

With high-end earphones, you can get custom silicon sleeves made to fit your unique ear canal shape offering your better sound isolation and a perfect fit. To get these custom sleeves done, you need to send the manufacturer an impression of your ear. A few days ago someone on Reddit asked where to get this done in Kuwait, so I figured I’d post that information here.

International Optics have a Hearing Center at their location in Central Plaza in Salmiya. At the hearing center they can take an impression of your ear and have your mold ready all within 15 minutes. Once they give you the mold you could then mail that to the silicon sleeve manufacturer abroad to create the custom sleeve for you. The cost for two earmolds (left and right) is KD15.

So if you’re ever looking to get molds done, that’s a place you can go to. Their phone number is 25714573 or 97234752 and they’re located [Here]

Today is my blogs 14th anniversary (maybe 15?) and around a week back it was my 16th anniversary (or was it 17th?) since I first started blogging. 2018 might have been the most stress-free year for me blogging-wise. I decided to kinda take a very chill approach to the blog, and not pressure myself as much where I have to post 2 or 3 times every day. If I have something to post I’ll post, if not I won’t. I know it sucks for you but I really am getting too old for this 😅.

I’ve mentioned this before but it is a lot of pressure having to constantly try and find stuff to write about every day, it’s also really difficult to do when I have a job, a social life and a lot of days where I just want to sit on my couch, watch a TV show and not leave the house.

Last month I started a new job and it’s taking up so much of my time so I don’t know how 2019 is going to turn out. I’m trying to wake up at 7AM every day to get the posting out of the way, and so far it seems like its working. Surprisingly (to me), this is probably the first time in a while where I’m not considering stopping the blog. I realized that the blog helps me stay current and active, so even with my busy work schedule, I’ll keep finding time for it especially now that I’m putting less pressure on myself.

Anyway, that’s all.

Now that Kuwait Airways has new planes and a new terminal, they’re finally catching up to other airlines and adding more destinations. They’re starting off with two right now, Guangzhou (China) and Sabiha (Turkey). Bizarre destinations but I guess there must be high demand for them. They’ll also soon be adding flights to:

Casablanca, Morocco
Nice, France (via Paris)
Larnaca, Cyprus (via Beirut)
Sarajevo, Bosnia
Baku, Azerbajan
Tbilisi, Georgia

I’d personally want to see European destinations like Amsterdam, Berlin, Moscow and Zagreb, but direct flights to Morocco is actually pretty cool.

Has anyone flown Kuwait Airways recently? The main old terminal never has any traffic anymore, but I’ve heard the Kuwait Airways Terminal now gets super busy with long queues at passport control. Also did anything new open up there, or is it still just Costa?

In May 1960, an international competition was held for the architectural project for this state museum to be located in the cultural district of the 1952 Master Plan. The rules of the competition organized the museum into four thematic areas: “Land of Kuwait”, which illustrated the natural geography of Kuwait; “Man of Kuwait”, which focused on the traditional Kuwaiti vernacular language; and “Kuwait of Today and Tomorrow”, which showed Kuwaiti technological advances. In addition, there was a section for temporary exhibitions.

The winner of the competition was the project of Michel Écochard, author of the Museum of Antioch and the Cité horizontale in Casablanca. Michel Écochard was also a follower of modern premises, and an important member of ATBAT-Afrique, a subsidiary group of CIAM. Écochard organized the museum into four brick buildings with a concrete roof. This allowed the visitors to choose the order of their visit to the contents of the museum. The buildings were connected by raised corridors, and a planetarium completed the whole. [Source]

AGI Architects published a very interesting article on the history of Kuwait National Museum. Sadly, the article doesn’t mention anything about the current plan, just that in 2014 it was decided to reactivate the National Museum. When I drove by the museum this past weekend, the exterior renovations look mostly done. But, I’m curious on what the current plan is and when are they expecting it to be completed. So if you have any information on this, please share it in the comments.

Around ten days back I asked if anyone had tried the Zain Beam internet service and a few of you responded with high praise for the service. Zain also read my post and got in touch with me with an offer to try the service for a month, so I jumped on the opportunity and yesterday they installed Beam at my place.

The installation process is supposed to be fairly simple, they install an antenna on your balcony or the roof of your building, and then run an ethernet cable to your apartment where they hook it up to an LTE modem. In my case the installation process was slightly more complicated and took around an hour and a half because they were having trouble finding a strong signal. My building which back in the 90s was the tallest in the neighborhood is now surrounded by much taller buildings and so it was difficult to find a good signal. Thankfully, just as I was about to give up hope, they found a spot on my roof with ample signal and then ran the ethernet cable from it down to my apartment.

First impression? It’s fast! I asked for the 20Mbps connection and I’m getting around 30Mbps which is similar to what other people are reporting. What’s also great is my upload speed is between 10-20Mbps.

This right now is the fastest connection I’ve ever had at home and it feels strange because I’m so not used to having a fast and stable connection at home. YouTube videos play instantly as well as HBO, Amazon, Hulu and Netflix. The video quality from the streaming services also looks to have improved because of my now faster connection. I also managed to update all the apps on my two ipads plus two macs really quickly. I know all this sounds very normal, but you have to keep in mind, my connection for the past year or so has been terrible and I now finally feel like I have fast internet like a normal person.

For those of you who are gonna leave a comment saying I should get LTE or B Wireless or whatever, those services might be great where you are, but not where I am. I’ve had B Wireless for the past 7 years but you need a direct line of sight to their tower for it to work properly. A few months ago I lost what little line of sight I had which is why I had to look for a B Wireless alternative. Regular internet services from telecoms also doesn’t work properly where I live. Zain Bolt which can easily hit 60-70Mbps at the office barely gets 12Mbps at my place and spends most of the time hovering at around 5Mbps. So I understand you might have super fast mobile or fiber optics internet at your place, at mine it’s a different story.

Its too soon to tell if the Zain Beam speed will remain consistent, but I’m optimistic since Zain are limiting the amount of Beams they install per area. A friend of mine also told me these antennas can be upgraded in the future to work with 5G, so Zain could potentially end up providing much faster internet than their current two options (20Mbps or 40Mbps). Personally, if the connection continues like this for a the next few days I’m not even going to wait for my one month trial period to finish, I’m going to sign up right away.

The cost of the service is KD25 a month for 20Mbps, and KD40 for 40Mbps. With both options you need to commit to 24 months which is a tough pill to swallow. But with no better option, I’m willing to commit. If you guys have any questions about Zain Beam or want me to try anything let me know in the comments below.

In a rare gesture by an official of high ranking, Minister of Public Works and Minister of State for Housing Affairs Dr. Jenan Boushehri apologized to the Kuwaiti people and residents of the country for the damage on the roads.

The action plan to repair the roads is proceeding rapidly, the minister said, however, she indicated that the competent authorities were carefully and closely checking specifications of the repair materials to avert recurrence of an identical problem in the future. [Source]

Finally! Not only are the roads gonna get fixed, but the new mixture they’ll be using for the tarmac will also hopefully solve the flying gravel issue in the long run.

Below is this weekends list of events. As usual, if I missed anything, let me know.

Thursday
Exhibition: RE_USE
New Waves in Contemporary Egyptian Art
Exhibition: Suhaila Al Najdi and Mahmoud Maghraby
The Syrian Journey; The Affordable Art Exhibition
9Bach and Nawaf Gheraibah Live Concert

Friday
Exhibition: RE_USE
New Waves in Contemporary Egyptian Art
Yoga With Fatheya
6th Men’s International Volleyball Tournament
IMPROV Show: We’re All Alone Together Comedy Night

Saturday
Exhibition: RE_USE
New Waves in Contemporary Egyptian Art
Exhibition: Suhaila Al Najdi and Mahmoud Maghraby
Yoga with Cats!
Picnic at Arabella

If you’d like to share an event on the blog [Email Me]
For a full list of upcoming events click [Here]

Sometimes events get canceled or have details changed so always double-check with the organizers.

Have you gotten your loved one a Shani today? [Link]

Screenshot from Alita: Battle Angel

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

New This Weekend:
Alita: Battle Angel (7.6)
Happy Death Day 2U (6.8)
Racetime (7.2)
Stan & Ollie (7.6)
The Quake (6.2)
The Vanishing (5.8)
Time Freak (5.7)

Other Movies Showing Now:
A Dog’s Way Home (6.4)
Aquaman (8.2)
At Eternity’s Gate (7.0)
Cold Pursuit (7.3)
Destroyer (6.8)
Dragon Ball Super: Broly (8.5)
Glass (8.1)
Ralph Breaks the Internet (8.1)
Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse (8.6)
The Kid Who Would Be King (5.8)
The Lego Movie 2: The Second Part (7.4)
The Prodigy (N/A)
The Unspoken (4.9)
The Upside (6.2)

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

Amazon Adventure 3D (6.6)
Oceans: Our Blue Planet (7.4)
Planet Power 3D (N/A)

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

Since I’m in Qatar for the week I asked my followers on Instagram to recommend restaurants for me to try out. Below is the list I’ve compiled of all the recommendations. I haven’t tried them all so can’t vouch if they’re any good or not, but at least it’s a starting point for when you’re ever in Qatar:

CUT by Wolfgang Puck
Flat White (coffee)
Gastronomy (dessert)
Graze (grand & go)
Hakkasan
Halo (dessert)
Kava (coffee)
La Mar
Market by Jean Georges
Morimoto
Nobu
Novikov
Opal by Gordon Ramsay
Spice Market
Sugar & Spice (dessert)
Toro Toro

If there is a place I missed that you think should be on the list, let me know in the comments below.

One of the advantages of flying out of the new Kuwait Airways terminal was the fact that their parking was free since they hadn’t installed the parking gates yet. But, that isn’t the case anymore. Here are the new T4 parking rates:

Short Term Parking
500fils for the first hour
500fils for the second hour
1KD per hour after that

Long Term Parking
2KD per day

Long term parking cost is the same in both the main terminal and the Kuwait Airways terminal. The short term parking, on the other hand, is different. Short term parking at the main terminal is 200 fils for the first hour and 400 fils per hour subsequently. It’s also a maximum (if I remember correctly) 5KD a day.

I got a WhatsApp forward of someone’s parking bill at the Kuwait Airways terminal, they had accidentally parked in the short term lot for 2 days and 9 hours and ended up with a bill of 55KD. So if you do fly out of T4, make sure you park your car in the correct lot.

My favorite local comedy show is back again this weekend. If you’re looking for something to do this Friday (Shani/Valentines Day) then you should consider the Staged in Kuwait IMPROV comedy night. They’re always hilarious and I’ve never gone and not had a good time.

Tickets are reasonably priced at KD10 and the show will take place at the American United School. For more details click [Here]

Update: A friend just informed me that Valentine’s is actually on Thursday not Friday. Oops.