In 1991, schools in Reggio Emilia Italy were named among the 10 best in the world by Newsweek. Kuwait Reggio Center is a new nursery that is inspired by Reggio Emilia and adapts its philosophy with U.S. curriculum standards. The school has amazing facilities including a large outdoor garden (that the children plant themselves), a water play area, bikes and construction area, and an indoor and outdoor playground. They have small class sizes (12-15 students with 3-4 adults) and highly qualified teachers. KRC also has the option of an English only program or a bilingual (Arabic/English) program. The nursery accepts students from 6 months to 5 years old.
This video explains the research, curriculum, and passion behind the school and its approach. If you like what you see in the video, please stop by to see it in person (Mansouriya block 2 street 25 house 9), call (98747518), or email ([email protected]) to learn more! There are still some spaces available for fall registration. If you are an educator who is interested in working with KRC, please email your C.V. to [email protected]
A friend shared the commercial above with me yesterday and my first reaction was wtf? In the commercial, a husband walks into a kitchen and starts screaming and hitting his wife for buying the wrong honey. The wife looks terrified and is being apologetic while the husband continues to shout at her before leaving the kitchen angrily.
The commercial got a lot of negative reactions for normalizing domestic violence so I assumed the brand removed the video from their Instagram account, except they didn’t.
Last week another friend of mine shared the screenshot above on her instastory which she took from a show on KTV called “Block” where they had a blackface character.
I don’t think I’m a very PC or an over sensitive person but, I do find it disturbing how the majority of people seem to be OK with this. I’m assuming the majority are ok with it or else the commercial would have been removed and the show would have apologized or been canceled for blackfacing. Yet neither has happened but oddly enough, the commercial below for Mug Coffee House was supposedly suspended by the Ministry because they found it Masonic. So bizarre.
Back in October, I posted a rumor that the American food concept Eggslut was coming to the Middle East. A lot of readers said that would never happen because of the name, well it’s happening. Yesterday I got confirmation from an inside source that the local company Al-Thiqa (who own Shrimpy) have gotten the rights to the Eggslut franchise. They’ll be opening their first location in Lebanon followed by a second location in Kuwait. They’re targetting Q4 of this year for the Kuwait location and if their under construction website is anything to go by, the Kuwait location will be based in The Avenues.
Eggslut is an LA-based gourmet food concept where all the items on their menu feature eggs. It currently looks like their Instagram account will be either @eggslutme or @eggslutkw so stay tuned.
The managing editor of the popular travel website The Points Guy recently flew with Kuwait Airways to JFK in First Class and wrote about his experience. Overall for the price he paid the experience was pretty decent, but the terrible airport and transit visa runaround were negatives that were too big to ignore.
Other issues included First Class not being up to First Class standards when it came to food (cellophane wrapped biscuits, cheese, and butter in supermarket wrappers etc). Check out his full post [Here]
Update: Turns out the managing editor and not the CEO of “The Points Guy” traveled with Kuwait Airways. Post was updated to reflect that.
Last month I posted a list of our terminal numbers that was put together using whatever information was available at that time, and a bit of common sense. But a few days ago, the Civil Aviation Authority released the official list of terminal numbers and the list I put together was pretty much on point.
When I posted my list there was a bit of a disagreement with the Terminal 3 name. I had used it for the Sheikh Saad Terminal but a reader noted that it was most likely reserved for the expansion of Terminal 2. I did a bit of research and turns out that was a possibility since the only time Terminal 3 was ever mentioned online was when they mentioned the Terminal 2 mirror expansion. Well now looks like that’s not the case and Sheikh Saad Terminal is actually going to use the Terminal 3 name.
Check out the official list of terminals below along with the descriptions by the Civil Aviation Authority:
I was on my way home when I spotted the billboard above near my house in Salmiya about the BK Whopper Donut. Turns out its National Donut Day and Burger King created a donut to mark the occasion.
They basically took a Whopper and cut a hole in the middle to create the first Flame-Grilled donut ever. They then took the middle part they cut out (the donut hole) and turned that into a “free” mini slider.
The Whopper Donut is only available TODAY, June 1st, at Burger King Salmiya Coop and Sadiq Branch so if you want to try it you’ll have to hurry up.
I’ve had a few friends ask me about places to store their cars and I didn’t have any I could recommend until I found out about The Vault, a hidden underground parking that provides vehicle management and storage solutions.
Parking in Kuwait is a mess, majority of homes and apartment buildings have outdoor streetside parking that’s usually overcrowded and messy. Unless you live in a pretty fancy area, you usually don’t want to park your nice car out on the streets. Kuwait’s weather is also pretty harsh so you also don’t want to leave your car parked outside all summer long especially if its an older classic car. That’s when a service like The Vault comes handy.
Accessing The Vault is an experience by itself since to get down to the basement you’ll have to take your car via one of the two car lifts. When I arrived at the complex someone was waiting for me outside and helped me take my car down. Once the doors of the lift opened up in the basement, I drove into The Vault to find a bunch of interesting looking Porsches parked on one side, and then a line of Ferraris parked on the other. I instantly knew I was in for a treat. I love cars so it’s always exciting to check out other peoples special cars, no matter what they are. Special cars don’t have to be expensive, they just have to be interesting or unique. Since The Vault can only hold 45 cars, the owner is being choosy with what cars he accepts, think of it as being a boutique parking lot. And like I said, it isn’t about how expensive the cars are. Inside The Vault I spotted the super cute Nissan Figaro and a 1975 Land Rover Defender, both of which aren’t that expensive. But then you also had a like-new-condition classic Ferrari 348 and Zaid Ashkanani’s championship-winning Porsche GT3 Cup car parked nearby.
The Vault stores both cars and bikes and their “promotional” prices right now are as follows:
They offer trickle charging for your car so the battery doesn’t die, they also offer car washes and they’ll check your car routinely and notify you in case your car develops a leak or something. Anytime you want to take your car out you can come to the facility, park your current car and drive off with the stored one. Really practical especially since The Vault is located near three major roads, the 6th Ring Road, Highway 30 and Gulf Road. If this is a service you’re interested in you can contact them on 94083166 or send them a DM @vmskw
Update: Their promotion is over and the prices have now changed.
There is a new inflatable water park on the Gulf Road next to the Swimming Pool Complex and Corniche Club. You might have spotted it when driving by since the setup is pretty big and uses brightly colored yellow and green inflatables. They’re open from 10AM to 6PM on weekdays and 8AM to 6PM on weekends (not sure about their Ramadan timing). They’re charging KD2 for an hour of fun or KD5 for a full day. There is a lifeguard, but if the children are under 8 then they require an adult with them. If this looks like something you’d be interested in, here is their location on [Google Maps]
When the all-new Lincoln Navigator concept car was previewed two years ago with its butterfly doors and futuristic looking seats, Lincoln brought the Navigator back into the spotlight. The Navigator was a pretty popular car for Lincoln when it had originally been released, but over time, it started looking dull and outdated (along with the rest of the Lincoln line up). The concept car was a way for Lincoln to show the market they were still relevant and it worked. A year later they released the all-new Lincoln Navigator and although it didn’t have the butterfly doors or the cool looking 3 piece fold out steps of the concept car, it pretty much retained everything else including the cool looking seats.
I’m generally not into large sized family SUV’s, but when I was asked if I was interested in reviewing the new Navigator I had two questions, did the test drive car have the cool seats and, did it have the cool car unlock light show? When I was told it did, I decided to borrow the car for the weekend.
First impressions, I was extremely impressed with the interior. The dashboard was pretty sleek with a large digital display that had super minimal but premium looking graphics. The buttons were all nicely laid out in the center console along with another large information screen. Even the gear change buttons were beautifully laid out in the center console. The interior oozed luxury and I wasn’t even in their top of the line “Presidential” model that used a more premium quality leather.
One of the things I was looking forward to were the seats because of how customizable and comfortable they supposedly were and I wasn’t disappointed. The seats had 11 different parts I could individually adjust as well as a built in massage feature and cold air ventilation. It had 30-way seat positioning so finding the most comfortable setup was super easy to achieve. Shorter people are also going to love the fact that the foot pedals are electronically adjustable and so can be brought in closer to the driver. The car I drove had a large panoramic roof which brought in daylight that lit up the incredibly large interior. Large is an understatement actually, the car is huge! The second row passengers have more legroom than most people do in the front seats of their cars, and then you have the third row seats to hold more people and you still had room behind those seats for your luggage. There is loads of storage space all over the car for your stuff as well as a huge storage compartment under the armrest and below the center console. The car also had multiple USB ports everywhere and even a wireless charging area.
The model I drove had a bunch of driver assist technologies including a lane keeping system, parking assist, brake assist, 360-degree cameras and adaptive cruise control. The combination of all these technologies made driving the humongous Navigator a lot easier and made driving, in general, a lot more comfortable. The adaptive cruise control works like cruise control on regular cars where you set a speed and the car would stick to it, with the Lincoln it also applied the brakes and slowed down for you when the car ahead would slow down or stop. Combined with a lane keeping system that can control the cars steering to keep you in your lane, you basically end up with a fairly autonomous vehicle when on the highway. The parking assist also made parking super easy. The car can perpendicular or parallel park for you and based on my short experience with the car, it worked pretty well all although it still scares the crap out of me everytime I let a car park for me. As you can see in the video above which I shot, the car takes full control of the steering and acceleration and all you need to do is apply the brakes to stop.
After spending a long weekend with the car I had to give it back and I was fine with that. The car was just too big for me and is clearly meant for large families. For a single guy like me the car felt overwhelming although I do miss the comfort and the serene interior. I had the car on the first day of Ramadan and even with all the traffic, I wasn’t bothered with the chaos that was taking place outside the car. It felt like I was sitting in my living room which is anice feeling to have while stuck in traffic. I do have some issues with the new Navigator though, none major but still worth mentioning. I really dislike the rear of the car, although I think the front of the car looked good, the back just looked super boxy and not in a cool way boxy, but more like the 90s outdated way. Then the stereo, even though the sound system in the car was pretty good, my issue with it was how the dashboard and doors rattled with the bass, and I’m not talking about rattles when I’m blasting the music really loud, I was hearing rattles at low volume as well. Not something I would expect from a premium car. Finally, I thought the suspension was too soft, it made the ride comfier obviously, but the car also tended to bounce a lot after going over a speed bump or hitting a pothole.
The price of the all-new Navigator starts at KD27,000 but the model I drove was the “Reserve” edition and that retails for KD29,000. For more information you can check out the Lincoln Alghanim webiste [Here] or their instagram account @lincolnalghanim
In my last post on accessing F1 TV in Kuwait, I wrote about how you can access it if you used a VPN and that it would probably start working with SmartDNS soon. Well two weeks later and my prediction came true, F1 TV now works in Kuwait using Smart DNS!
You no longer need to use a VPN which in my case improved streaming speed considerably. I’ve only tried it with my smartdnsproxy.com service (the same one I use for Netflix, HBO, Hulu, etc..) so not sure if it works with another provider. [Link]
Dylan’s Candy Bar is a chain of boutique candy shops around the US and they’re now coming to Kuwait. They’re opening their first location at The Avenues and I believe this will also be their first location outside the States.
I’ve only been to their LA location at The Grove and I remember it being pretty huge. Chalhoub Group is bringing the brand to the region and they’re expected to open six to eight stores in UAE, Kuwait and Qatar. They’ve got a few job positions open if you’re interested including a marketing position [Here]
I passed by a few dealerships last week to check out some cars with a friend of mine and below are some of the ones that interested me. These are approximate prices since they will vary depends on the options fitted, but it should give you a general idea of what the cars cost.
The best deal? Has to be the Alfa 4C pictured above. Used to be priced at KD24,000 but now selling for KD18,000. The most disappointing car, on the other hand, had to be the Volvo XC40. The local dealer got the most boring color combos and basically turned whats supposed to be a fun car for young people, into a boring looking car for my parents.
