2:48AM - Entertaining Kuwait since 2003

If you’re looking to fill up your free time this Ramadan with some TV shows, here are a few I’ve recently watched and liked. They’re fairly new so hopefully you haven’t watched them yet.

After Life
If you’re a fan of Ricky Gervais then you’re gonna love this show. It’s not funny in the same way his other stuff is funny since the subject matter of After Life is a bit sad and serious. This show actually reminded me of how when Louis C.K. came out with Horace and Pete which was also had a dramatic and serious subject with humor injected into it. After Life is available to watch on Netflix.

Black Monday
I’m a sucker for any show based in the 80s so when a friend told me about Black Monday I knew I had to watch it. The show is based around the big stock market crash of the 80s, but it’s a comedy and not a true life depiction of the actual events that took place. Black Monday has an all-star cast that includes some favorite actors of mine including Don Cheadle, Andrew Rannells (from GIRLS), Paul Scheer (from VEEP), and Ken Marino (from Party Down and Burning Love). It’s a Showtime series so it’s not available on the usual Amazon Video, Netflix, Hulu or HBO streaming services, but Showtime do offer a free trial subscription which you could use to binge watch the show.

Huge in France
I found out about the comedian Gad Elmaleh around a year ago from a Moroccan friend who was surprised I hadn’t heard of him. Gad is also Moroccan and is a super popular comedian in France. He released a stand-up special on Netflix called American Dream which was his first stand-up in English and it was hilarious. Now he has a new series on Netflix called Huge in France in which he plays himself, a super popular French comedian who moves to the US where nobody knows or cares who he is. A really funny show and very easy to get into.

Love, Death & Robots
This show caught me by surprise since I started watching it because of the name without knowing what the show was about. It turned out to be so good that I binged watched the whole season in just one seating. It wasn’t that hard to do since the episodes are fairly short, around 10 or 15 minutes long. Love, Death & Robots is an animation where every episode is a different animation style and a different story line not connected to the previous episode. Some episodes are extremely violent and gory while others aren’t at all so it’s difficult to recommend the show for everyone since it would be sort of a Russian roulette of gore, nudity and violence. A good litmus test would be watching the first episode, if you can get through it then you can handle the rest of the episodes. This show is available on Netflix.

You
Finally, this show was my least favorite on this list (and it’s also the oldest one), but it’s one of those shows you dislike but yet can’t stop watching. The show is about a guy who gets obsessed with this girl and uses the internet and social media to stalk her. It has a pretty high rating of 7.8 on IMDB which is surprising since although I couldn’t stop watching it, I wouldn’t have given it that high of a score. You is also available to watch on Netflix.

Have any other new show you’d recommend? Let me know in the comments.

Update: Just watched the first episode of the new HBO mini-series Chernobyl. It’s sooo good!

Al Salam Palace was built in the 1960s to accommodate visiting heads of state. During the 1990 invasion, the palace was completely destroyed and stayed abandoned for years until the restoration project started back in 2013. The palace is located right next to JACC and the plan was to transform the palace into a museum. I was lucky enough to visit the palace just before they closed it down for restoration back in 2014.

The museum is dedicated to the history of Kuwait told through its 15 rulers.

The restoration of the palace has now been finished and last week Al Salam Palace was officially inaugurated. The museum isn’t open to the public just yet, that’s supposed to happen in October of this year which is still a long way away. But in the meantime, the museum did publish the interesting video above which shows the process behind the restoration as well as the end result. If you want to stay posted on this project you can follow the museum on instagram @aspm.kw

A few days ago the new Sheikh Jaber Al Ahmed Al Sabah Causeway was officially opened and everyone’s been really excited about it because it’s our first overwater bridge. I decided to drive up and down both bridges (yes there are two) this past Friday and I have to say, it’s one super boring drive. Although in theory, the drive across the bridge sounds cool because you’re surrounded by water with a beautiful cityscape on your right, in reality, it’s just a pretty straight long 3-lane highway, you can also barely see the water or cityscape because of the high side rails and because of all the speed cameras, it’s a very monotonous drive. The nicest part of the bridge is pictured above when coming down from the highest point of the bridge.

As I mentioned there are two bridges, a long one that takes you from Shuwaikh Port all the way north towards Subiya, while the second smaller one takes you to Doha. The total drive time is around 18 minutes long on the main long bridge and once you get to the end there really isn’t anything there, just an empty desert. There are plans to build Silk City there (can we rename it to Sin City please?), but right now the road is blocked off and you have a choice of either heading back to Shuwaikh via the bridge, or taking the older and longer inland road back down to the city.

There are a total of 9 speed cameras laid out across the long bridge as well as average speed cameras. So if you were hoping for some spirited driving you’re out of luck. There are also two artificial islands along the way, the Southern Island and Northern island. These are two exit points along the way where you can get off the main bridge to stop and check out the view or to u-turn back. Eventually, there will probably be services on these islands like restaurants or mini markets, but right now they’re not open yet. The first island exit comes up 3 minutes into the bridge drive while the second exit comes up around 10 minutes in.

For some stupid reason, people have been parking along the bridge to take photos and selfies. It’s pretty dangerous since it’s basically a 3-lane highway with a speed limit of 100KM/h. But, when I was driving on the bridge there were police patrols making sure people kept moving and didn’t stop on the side. There’s a guy who posted the hilarious video below of him being the first one to make tea on the bridge, I doubt he was being serious, he’s most likely (I hope at least) poking fun out of the way people have been treating this bridge.

The second smaller bridge starts in Shuwaikh Port and heads west towards Doha. The total drive on this bridge is just 5 minutes which means you could be at Entertainment City in less than 10 minutes from Shuwaikh. Too bad Entertainment City isn’t open though or they would be getting a lot more visitors now. There are 2 speed cameras on this bridge as well as average speed cameras so no spirited driving here as well.

I recorded a video of the full drive across both bridges starting from the first island exit all the way to Subiya, turned around headed back down to Shuwaikh and then up the second smaller bridge to Doha. It’s a pretty long and boring video but here are some timestamps in case you want to skip through it:

0:00 – Southern Island
2:50 – Popular selfie point
7:50 – Northern Island
16:00 – End of the bridge
29:05 – Police car telling a guy parked to keep moving
29:55 – Lots of cars parked on the side
35:20 – Back to Shuwaikh taking bridge to Doha
41:15 – End of bridge to Doha

If you’re interested in cycling on the bridge it’s doable but there isn’t a protected bike path. You’d have to ride on the emergency lane and I didn’t see any “no cycling” signs, but I did see some cyclists. The way I’d do it if it was me is to park on the first island, get my bike off the car and then ride back and forth between the first and second island. But it’s too scary with idiots parking on the side so do so at your own risk.

Update: According to the MOI, since the opening of the bridge they’ve issued over 1,800 fines. It seems anybody who’s been parking on the side of the road, littering or doing anything illegal is being spotted by the hundreds of surveillance cameras located all over the bridge and are being issued tickets.

pic.twitter.com/R70AGY0wAZ

— وزارة الداخلية (@Moi_kuw) May 5, 2019

This is the last weekend before Ramadan starts and there are a few cool things taking place. Below is the list, if I missed anything, let me know in the comments:

Thursday
Exhibition: Foreign Architecture / Domestic Policy
Xe Loves You by Kuki Jijo
Abolish153 Exhibition
Exhibition: Digital Flow
Carnivale de Arte
Kuwait Baseball Club Closing Ceremony
SIK Open Mic Night #2

Friday
Xe Loves You by Kuki Jijo
Abolish153 Exhibition
Exhibition: Digital Flow
Fun Day with the Kuwait Sailing Club
The Cypher Effect #Kuwait 2.0

Saturday
Xe Loves You by Kuki Jijo
Exhibition: Digital Flow
2019 WFF Middle East Championships Pro-Am
Goodwill Tribe – Silent Sound Vol 2
Book Club: The Art of War by Sun Tzu

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 The Man Who Killed Don Quixote

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

New This Weekend:
A Vigilante (5.5)
Godzilla: Resurgence (6.7)
Office Uprising (6.3)
Strike (5.9)
The Intruder (N/A)
The Man Who Killed Don Quixote (6.5)

Other Movies Showing Now:
Avengers: Endgame (9.2)
Boar (5.0)
Captain Marvel (6.0)
Dragged Across Concrete (7.3)
Dumbo (7.1)
Little (5.2)
Missing Link (7.1)
Shazam! (8.1)
The Curse of La Llorona (6.4)
Triple Threat (5.6)
Wonder Park (7.1)

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)

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

I’m currently in Dubai courtesy of Ferrari. They’ve put me up in the gorgeous and very lavish Bvlgari Resort, and they’ve given me access to two cars to drive, their new Ferrari Portofino and the Ferrari 812 SuperFast. I actually have a lot of work back in Kuwait and shouldn’t really be here, but how could I say no to this right? When they first got in touch with me about this trip I was excited obviously but in my head I was also thinking, ok so I’ve already test driven these two cars, and I’ve already posted them on the blog, so how can I post about them again? Then it hit me, I could do Jebel Jais!

Jebel Jais is a mountain in the UAE with an elevation of nearly 2,000m. I found out about it from the popular car show Top Gear, (or maybe it was The Grand Tour?) and ever since I’ve wanted to drive it. The mountain has an incredible 3-lane winding road that takes you to the very top and is usually featured in “Top Roads You Need to Drive on Before You Die” style of lists. There isn’t anything on top, the bottom or along the way to the top, it’s just an empty beautiful road to nowhere.

I’ve contemplated shipping my Lotus to Dubai before so I could do the Jebel Jais drive but it was just too costly. I even considered maybe including it as part of a Oman drive where I’d ship my car to Dubai, do the Jebel Jais drive and then drive to Oman and do a drive there before sending my car back to Kuwait. It never materialized so when Ferrari told me I’d have access to the Portofino for a day I thought to myself, that would be a great car to drive up the mountain. So I accepted their invitation and here I am in Dubai.

Ferrari dropped off the Portofino yesterday morning to my hotel at around 10AM. I had two conditions, the first is I needed to have the car back by 5:30PM, the second is I could only do a maximum mileage of 350KM. Both weren’t going to be an issue. Before coming to Dubai I had already figured everything out, the drive from my hotel to the top of Jebel Jais was 160KM and it would take just over 2 hours. So, 160+160 is 320KM and say a 5 hour total journey time, that would still leave me with time to spare. The calculations worked, I was able to take the car to Jebel Jais, come back to the city, grab and lunch and have the car back at my hotel before 5:30 with around 15KM mileage to spare. It was close, but good enough.

The drive to Jebel Jais was pretty uneventful and boring, but I had a bunch of podcast episodes of Business Wars lined up and that made the time pass by quickly. There were also a ton of cameras along the way so I just put the cruise-control on the highway limit of 120KM and just cruised to Jebel Jais. Once I got to the bottom of Jebel Jais, I dropped the top down, put my favorite Spotify music playlist on and just blasted my way up the mountain.

There was no one, just me, the mountain and the incredible 3-lane winding road with no speed cameras all the way to the top. I loved the drive and the Portofino was just insane on that road. It’s such a fast car and it sounded amazing and aggressive all the way to the top. The temperature was around 28 degrees so it was perfect to drive with the roof down and I think I got a bit of tan as well. The drive up the mountain is around 16KM long and it took me around 20 minutes give or take. I stopped a bit on the way up just to check out the view, but I stopped a lot more on the way down to take some photos of the car.

Once I was back down the mountain I really wanted to just U-turn and make my way up again, but I knew if I did that I would end up exceeding the allotted mileage given to me by Ferrari, and I didn’t want to do that. So I put the roof back up and headed back to the city.

I finally got this drive off my bucket list and I couldn’t have asked for a better car to do it in. It was a difficult choice choosing between the Portofino and 812 SuperFast for the Jebel Jais drive, but I made the right choice because it doesn’t get better than flying up the mountain in a fast loud red Ferrari convertible. Ferrari are now dropping off the 812 SuperFast in a few minutes so if there are any spelling or grammar mistakes, sorry but I’m in a rush!

Remember the phase when cops were towing away illegally parked cars in the city or removing their license plates? Yeah well they’re over it now which makes me wonder why can’t they ever stick to a decision?

Eggslut, the LA-based gourmet food concept where all the items on their menu feature eggs finally opened up a couple of days ago. Because of all the controversy the name caused when their original hoarding went up, they’re now sticking with the confusing “censored” version of the name Eggslt. Confusing because it reads like Eggslot, but they’re calling it Eggslt yet everyone knows the name is actually Eggslut.

I haven’t tried them yet but here is a copy of their menu. They’re open from 7AM to 11PM inside Crystal Tower in Kuwait City. Their instagram account is @eggsltkw

If you haven’t been to the race track this could be your last chance since the season is ending. This Friday there are two events taking place at Kuwait Motor Town, the open track day on the main circuit, and Drag 965 at the dragstrip. The weather is great and there will be food trucks, music, lots of cars and much more.

Below is a list of all the events this weekend, if I missed anything, let me know in the comments:

Thursday
Exhibition: Foreign Architecture / Domestic Policy
Xe Loves You by Kuki Jijo
Garden Rendevous
Aliya Cycon Concert
Spring Festival

Friday
Xe Loves You by Kuki Jijo
Drag 965
Open Track Day at KMT
Adult Softball Championship Games
Spring Festival
Games at the Park

Saturday
Xe Loves You by Kuki Jijo
Drag 965
#Trashtag Kuwait Beach Cleanup
Guided Tour: A Photographers Tour
Ballet: Alice in Wonderland
TEDxAUK – Voyages
Movie discussion: Blade Runner (1982)
Spring Festival
Abolish153 Exhibition
Games at the Park
Movies at the Park: Matilda
Let’s Draw the Ice Skating Rink

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 Avengers: Endgame

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

New This Weekend:
Avengers: Endgame (9.2)
Boar (5.0)

Other Movies Showing Now:
After (6.3)
Captain Marvel (6.0)
Dragged Across Concrete (7.3)
Dumbo (7.1)
Hellboy (6.2)
Little (5.2)
Missing Link (7.1)
Shazam! (8.1)
The Curse of La Llorona (6.4)
The Hummingbird Project (6.6)
Triple Threat (5.6)
Us (7.3)
Wonder Park (7.1)

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)

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

Recently I realized another benefit Kuwait Motor Town has brought to Kuwait other than just racing, photography hobbyist now have something new to take photos of. During track events, you’ll find photographers walking about taking photos of all the different cars, and some even get media passes from KMT which grants them access to various corners around the track where they can hang out and capture photos of cars speeding by.

When you’re racing on the track you obviously can’t capture photos of yourself, so all of us drvers are always super grateful to have these photographers taking photos of us. The photographers also don’t ask for anything in return other than credit. Actually, none of the photographers who’ve shared photos with me have ever asked for credit, but of course, the least we could do is credit them when sharing their photos on our social media accounts.

There are a lot of photographers, I haven’t met all of them but here are a few whom I’ve interacted with and who have been showing up to practically every event:

@81gram
@azizbo7amad
@hamed__ashkanani
@lomanphotography
@p24photography
@pedrodasht
@phautographer

There are some really great photos on their accounts so be sure to check them and follow them if you’re into cars.

First photo captured by @hamed__ashkanani, second by @81gram

Jazeera Airways will begin flights from Kuwait City to London Gatwick using an Airbus A320neo this year. The Kuwait-based carrier said. Thanks to the aircraft’s additional range, the flying radius from Kuwait has increased to 6.5 hrs. [Source]

I wonder how much cheaper the flight would be with Jazeera compared to British Airways and Kuwait Airways? I just found a ticket for KD113 on Kuwait Airways and KD118 with British Airways, so I’m assuming a ticket with Jazeera would be less than KD100.

The Sheikh Jaber Al Ahmed Causeway project has now been completed and is set to open on May 1st at 10AM. Once it opens, the bridge will be the world’s longest with a total span of 48.53km.

The Better Books bookshop has been around for a very long time but I never got the chance to pass by the place until just a few days ago. Recently a friend of mine started volunteering there and when I looked up the bookshop on Google Maps, I realized it was actually walking distance from my apartment. So, I decided to pass by the bookshop and check it out.

Better Books have over 10,000 used books (and some new ones) ranging from children’s books to cookbooks, novels, self-help books, you name it. The place is small but also really cozy with different seating areas and is stacked with books everywhere. They also have a cool buyback policy. When you buy a used book from Better Books and you’re done with it, you can sell it back to them for half the price. If you also have books you don’t need they’ll also take them off you and give you store credit for them.

Better Books are located in Salmiya and you can find them on Google Maps. They’re open daily from 4PM to 9PM on weekdays and 10:30AM to 8PM on weekends. They don’t have an Instagram account or website, but they’re on Facebook.

Around a year and a half ago, Vigonovo, the cozy Italian restaurant that was located in Salmiya closed down. But, they’ve now found a new location and will be reopening tonight!

The new Vigonovo is located in the Khaleejia Tower in the City, and I passed by and checked it out last week. The space is a lot bigger than their older location but Chef Marco still managed to keep it cozy. They also now have an outdoor area that overlooks a busy intersection, and since the weather is still good right now, I think that’s where everyone will want to sit. The whole place just looks and feels a lot nicer than the older one and Marco also has a bigger team to help him out this time around.

If you’re looking for a new place to try out then pass by them. For more information you can visit their instagram page @vigonovo_kw