2:48AM - Entertaining Kuwait since 2003

Earlier this year I sold all my Nikon photography gear because I wasn’t really using them. They were large and heavy so I spent more time using my iPhone and compact but full-frame Sony RX1 camera instead. That setup turned out to be fine for 80% of my needs, but over the past few months, I realized how much of a handicap it was by not owning a DSLR with changeable lenses. So I started looking at compact mirrorless cameras, specifically the Sony A7 series and the newly announced Nikon Z and Canon R series. Mirrorless cameras had similar capabilities as much larger DSLR’s, but they’re a lot more compact. I was kinda leaning towards the Nikon Z mirrorless camera, until I found out that AAB World had recently become official Sony camera dealers. That news made my decision easier, I was getting the Sony A7 III.

Full disclosure, I have a long-standing relationship with AAB World. They’ve been very active with me and the blog over the years and they’ve lent me lenses and camera gear to review whenever I wanted and also hooked me up with discounts. I’m a huge fan.

I’ve had the Sony A7 III for around two weeks and I love it so far. My aim with the A7 III was for it to play two roles, I needed it to be compact when I needed something small and portable, but I also needed a full frame camera I could attach various lenses too˙. The A7 III has fulfilled both those requirements. First thing I did after buying the camera was to get the compact Sony 35mm F/2.8 prime lens for the A7 III. With the 35mm lens, the A7 III was not that much larger than my RX1 (check the picture above).

The second lens I picked up was the Sony 12-24mm F/4 lens and now I’m planning to get the Sony 24-105mm F/4 and Sony 70-200mm F/4 lenses. I’m going with F/4 lenses and not brighter F/2.8 lenses because the F/4 versions are lighter, smaller, cheaper and nearly as good for my needs.

The A7 III feels really great in my hands and I’m loving all its features and capabilities. I can understand why many are calling it the best camera of 2018. I’ll be posting a more comprehensive review after I get the rest of the lenses and shoot some more with the camera. But first impressions, the A7 III is great, it’s so good that I’ve actually decided to sell my Sony RX1, something I told myself I wouldn’t do.

If you’re interested in the A7 III, AAB World are currently out of stock but they should getting another shipment soon. Here are their preorder links on their website:

Sony A7 III (Body only) – KD679
Sony A7 III (Kit including lens) – KD749

Best Electronics have a new service which uses tech by the company Doob to 3D scan your full body and then print you out as a miniature figurine. The result looks pretty realistic and they have a lot of different examples on display for you to check out. I held one figurine and it felt light and fragile, so I wouldn’t give it to a kid to play with, they’re more for displaying not for playing with.

Although it’s pretty cool, especially if you end up getting a 3D scan of you and your friends together, there are two big negatives. The first is that they print these figurines in Germany, which means you need to wait around three weeks to see the results. The second thing is the cost. They can print different sizes figurines but the smallest one which is shorter than your iPhone costs KD40, while the largest size is KD230. If you and your friends get a group shot you have to pay per individual. So if you’re four guys and you want to print out the smallest size that’s 4 x KD40 for one copy.

If you’re interested to check this out, the “Doob” booth is located in Best Electronics at Boulevard in Salmiya. [Google Maps]

Thanks Sabah

As you probably noticed I haven’t been posting the weekend events list for the past couple of months and thats because everything stops during the summer. But, now that the weather is starting to cool down, things are starting to happen again.

I just added a bunch of events to the event page and will keep adding more as I find out about them so check them out. [Link]

Screenshot from The Predator

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

New This Weekend:
Destination Wedding (6.1)
Final Score (5.5)
Juliet, Naked (7.0)
Luis & the Aliens (6.0)
Peter Pan: The Quest for the Never Book (N/A)
The Predator (6.9) ★

Other Movies Showing Now:
Alpha (7.0)
Boonie Bears: The Big Top Secret (6.0)
Christopher Robin (7.9) ★
Mile 22 (6.6) ★
Mission: Impossible – Fallout (8.9) ★
Peppermint (6.0)
Reprisal (7.4)
Slender Man (3.0)
The Darkest Minds (5.5)
The Equalizer 2 (7.1) ★
The Little Mermaid (4.6)
The Meg (6.8)
The Nun (7.0)

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

Movies Showing Now:
Amazon Adventure 3D (6.6)
Amazing Mighty Micro Monsters 3D (7.4)
Hurricane 3D (7.0)
Oceans: Our Blue Planet (7.4)

Numbers in brackets refer to the IMDB rating at time of publishing.
★ is for movies I’m interested in.

With all these recent negative articles on Kuwait here is one that’s good. BBC Travel shared a list of five places that make living easy and Kuwait made the list. The five places in no particular order are:

Honolulu, United States
Budapest, Hungary
Kuwait City, Kuwait
Auckland, New Zealand
Taipei, Taiwan

Not bad right? Check out their article [Here]

Why is Kuwait Airways singling out “Overseas Filipino Workers” as a passenger type? Seems a bit odd…

I’ve been complaining about the emergency lane rules ever since they were announced a few years ago. I think they’re just too complicated and didn’t make sense, either convert the emergency lane into a regular lane or keep it as it is.

Does anybody here actually know what are the hours you’re allowed to use the emergency lane in?

a) 6AM to 10PM
b) 6AM to 10PM only in case of traffic congestion
c) 6:30AM to 9AM into the city and 12:30PM to 3:30PM out of the city
d) 6AM to 9AM and 12:30PM to 3:30PM
e) None of the above

I actually don’t know the answer since I’ve posted all the above previously on the blog. Maybe none of the above are right since the timings could have changed and I wouldn’t know.

Recently the sister in law of a friend of mine got into an accident. I’ve met her a few times since she helped out on the blog a few years ago, a super nice person. She was on the highway with her 4-month-old daughter and nanny when she felt something was wrong in the car, so she pulled into the emergency lane and stopped. A car speeding in the emergency lane (max speed is meant to be 45km) crashed into her car killing her daughter and sending her and the nanny to the hospital. Such a horrific incident.

This sometimes it’s an emergency lane and sometimes it’s not is just a confusing and stupid mess. Either convert the lane to a regular lane or leave it an emergency lane. I don’t understand why they’re being so timid. This accident has caused an outcry in the media and hopefully, they’re going to solve this before any more lives are lost.

This post is a jab at how slow Aramex is, but also shows how our postal service can be pretty good sometimes. I know we all like to hate on the postal service but my latest experience has completely changed my view on them, at least when it comes to shipping between GCC countries.

Last month I found a pair of Nike Metcon 4’s on the Sun & Sand Sports website based in Dubai, they had free shipping plus a 15% discount for new customers so the pair ended up costing me substantially less than if I had purchased it locally. Not only that, but they didn’t even have the color I wanted locally so it was a win win.

Sun & Sand Sports shipped my package via Aramex on August 29th and only just today, September 10th it’s being delivered to me (I still haven’t gotten it as of this post FYI). That’s 13 days from Dubai to Kuwait.

On the other hand, last week I ordered a package from Qatar which got shipped by regular post on September 3rd. I thought I was screwed and that the package might take forever to get to Kuwait but then on September 6th I got a call from the Hateen Post Office telling me I could pass by and pick up my package which I did. I thought the post office probably closed around 1PM but surprisingly they closed at 7PM. They were pretty friendly at the post office and an old guy behind the desk offered me some Quality Street sweets. The only awkward part was when the customs agent asked me what was in the package and I had to try and explain to him it was a musical ballerina figurine in an abaya, but other than that the whole thing went pretty smoothly.

So…

Qatar to Kuwait via regular post = 4 Days
UAE to Kuwait via Aramex = 13 Days

13 days from Dubai to Kuwait, that’s crazy. To put it in perspective, I had a pair of sneakers ship from New York on August 31st by PostaPlus, and I got them today!

New York to Kuwait via PostaPlus = 11 Days

When your express mail service is over 3x slower than regular Kuwait mail, you know you’ve got a problem.

I’m a big fan of the Habitat Museum at Al Shaheed Park but now not so sure. I was there over the weekend and it looked so sad. One part of the ceiling looks to have leaked near where the glass floor is with the sea creatures so there are plastic sheets covering part of the area where that happened, and then none of the 3D projectors were working. So you now have this large room with plain white empty tables but nothing projected onto them.

From what I understood from the employee is they’ve been like this for a while and they’re just waiting on the company that built the space to fix them. Hopefully, the issues get sorted soon since the weather is going to start getting cooler and the park will be busy again.

Although it doesn’t look like it, the Wrangler pictured above is the all-new 2018 version that’s been completely redesigned. It was released in the States earlier this year and since then I’ve been eagerly waiting for it to come to Kuwait so I can test drive it.

I finally did last weekend when I was given the Wrangler Sports edition to test drive for the weekend. It may not look that different on the outside, but I can tell you the new Wrangler is vastly different from the previous generation. Although the outside looks pretty identical to the previous generation, every panel was actually completely redesigned. You just can’t tell unless you put the old model side by side with the new one. Where you will notice major changes is in the interior.

The interior is where the new Wrangler has really improved. I owned the second generation Wrangler and I’ve rented the third generation one a few times so I’ve had a lot of experience with the previous models. The new fourth generation Wrangler is easily the most comfortable and featureful version yet. Even though I had the entry level Wrangler it was still packed with comforts. The interior felt more car-like than ever with a large touchscreen that had Apple CarPlay, keyless start, a reverse camera with probably the best quality footage I’ve seen on a reverse camera yet, USB and USB-C ports all around, AC power plugs, and because I had the 4-door version, there were rear AC vents, a feature I know a lot of previous 4-door owners wish they had.

One of the things I loved about the new Jeep was how solid and well-built everything felt. From the feel of the door to the rattleless interior, the Jeep felt well put together, much more than the previous models. Everything felt more premium including the steering wheel which felt great to hold.

A friend of mine wanted to collect rock samples from Mutla’a so I volunteered to drive them out there in the Wrangler. It was a long drive and the Jeep was fairly comfortable with the AC managing to keep the car cool in the very hot weather. The Sports edition I had doesn’t come with any roof padding which would have helped even more with the cooling as well as the wind noise. The wind noise was surprisingly pretty bad, I would have figured Jeep would have managed to improve that by now but looks like they haven’t. It’s actually my biggest complaint about the car. My other complaint would be with the suspension which I found too hard, I was feeling every crack in the road to the point I thought maybe the tires might have been overinflated (they weren’t).

There are three Wrangler editions at the moment, the entry level one is the Sports edition, you then have the Sahara edition which is more feature equipped and finally the Rubicon which is their top of the line model. The engine is the same in all three, a V6 3.6L which I found to be pretty punchy, it made my FJ feel very slow and heavy. Both the Sahara and Rubicon models have a larger touchscreen in the center console and a lot more USB and USB-C ports scattered around the car amongst other options like leather seats, roof headliner with insulation, LED lights and more. The new Wranglers start at KD10,850 but my personal preference would be the Rubicon model pictured above. It has a lot more options than the Sports version including a better suspension, larger tires, and more aggressive look. But it also costs KD15,999 which makes it a lot more expensive than the entry-level model.

If you’re interested to test drive the new Wrangler you could drop by their showroom and book an appointment or get in touch with them on instagram @jeepkuwait_

I’ve already posted about my portable lithium jump starter before but now that I’ve used it so much I can’t emphasize how important it is to have one in your car.

Lithium jump starters are small lithium battery packs that you connect to your car’s battery when dead to help restart the car. Just this week I used my booster to jump start four different cars, one for a friend and the other three were complete strangers. It’s so easy and quick to use, the whole process from me asking if they need help to me jump starting their cars takes around 2-3 minutes.

If you don’t have one in your car you should really consider getting one, check out my previous post with more details [Here]

According to a recent report from the World Health Organization, Kuwait ranked as the least active country in the world. The most active country, on the other hand, was Uganda.

Most Active Nations:
1- Uganda
2- Mozambique
3- Lesotho

Least Active Nations:
1- Kuwait
2- American Samoa
3- Saudi Arabia

The WHO defines enough exercise as at least 75 minutes of vigorous activity or 150 minutes of moderately intense activity per week, or any combination of the two.

According to the report, 67 percent of Kuwait’s population failed to hit WHO’s recommended exercise target. That sounds absurdly high considering how much more active everyone in Kuwait has become over the past few years. Check out the full report [Here] or the summarized version on Bloomberg [Here]

Photo on top from Battle of the East

Screenshot from Crazy Rich Asians

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

New This Weekend:
Alpha (7.0)
Crazy Rich Asians (7.6)
Boonie Bears: The Big Top Secret (6.0)
Peppermint (6.0)
The Nun (7.0)

Other Movies Showing Now:
Christopher Robin (7.9) ★
Mazinger Z: Infinity (6.0)

Mile 22 (6.6) ★
Mission: Impossible – Fallout (8.9) ★
Papillon (6.8)
Reprisal (7.4)
Slender Man (3.0)
The Darkest Minds (5.5)
The Equalizer 2 (7.1) ★
The Little Mermaid (4.6)
The Meg (6.8)

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

Movies Showing Now:
Amazon Adventure 3D (6.6)
Amazing Mighty Micro Monsters 3D (7.4)
Hurricane 3D (7.0)
Oceans: Our Blue Planet (7.4)
Tiny Giants 3D (8.0)

Numbers in brackets refer to the IMDB rating at time of publishing.
★ is for movies I’m interested in.

Not sure how I didn’t hear about this earlier but Anas Abdin, an expat living in Kuwait is currently suing CBS and Netflix in the US for copyright infringement. Anas is an indie game developer and the new Star Trek seems to have copied a lot of ideas from his game Tardigrades.

I just watched the video on top that explains the lawsuit and I can’t believe how much Star Trek ripped off from his game so I hope he wins.

He has a bit more information about the lawsuit on his website so check it out [Link]