Hey, this is your local film buff checking in on my yearly visit to this blog to spout out my favorite films of the year (because my opinion is right and everyone else is wrong). If this is your first time reading an article of mine, that’s normal cause I’ve written 5 over 6 years or so. My name is Tarek, I’m a filmmaker, ad director, and curator for Cinemagic rooftop cinema (I basically choose the films they show, so any complaints can come my way). Let’s get to the list!
Disclaimer: At the time of writing this article, I hadn’t seen the following highly acclaimed films that might have had a spot otherwise: Faces Places – Raw – The Square – Loveless.
You’ve probably come across Aesop hand soaps in restaurant washrooms, they’re dark bottles like in the picture on top, and they tend to smell amazing. If you’ve been to any of the Aesop stores around the world you might have picked up a bottle or two and brought them back with you. Or maybe even had a friend get you some when on vacation. But, it’s not really practical getting them while on vacation since the bottles take up luggage space, are fairly heavy, and what if you run out and need some more? A better solution is ordering them online.
There are a number of places online you can order Aesop from but the website I use is the UK based Cult Beauty. They have two kinds of hand wash available as well as a bunch of other Aesop products, but what I like about them is the cost of shipping to Kuwait. The maximum you are allowed to order is 6 pieces of hand wash the shipping cost with DHL is for 6 is £15. If you order 6 of each of their hand washes (so a total of 12), then they’ll ship it via DHL for free.
I haven’t bought 12 bottles at once but I have bought 6 pieces. If you order 6 then the cost per bottle after shipping and customs comes to KD11, which is the same price as if you purchased a bottle in the UK. How is that possible? When you order Aesop to Kuwait they remove the 20% VAT which brings the price down from around KD11 to around KD9. Adding shipping and customs to Kuwait and the price comes back up to the UK retail price of KD11. If you order 12 bottles then the price per bottle ends up actually being cheaper than the price per bottle in the UK since you don’t pay for shipping, just customs.
So if you’re looking to get Aesop hand wash, this is probably the cheapest way to get it to Kuwait. You can check out the full range of Aesop products on Cult Beauty [Here]
Update: I originally posted saying each bottle would cost you KD13 shipped to Kuwait but I completely forgot one important thing, when you ship to Kuwait they remove the 20% VAT. So the cost of the bottle with shipping and customs to Kuwait is actually the same price as if you bought a bottle while on vacation in the UK.
Bleach is a leading premium cleaning and housekeeping service provider that offers superior quality services with a Kuwaiti blend/twist.
Below are the different types of locations/venues we clean.
Service Packages
We have five types of service packages which all depend on the client we are serving.
1.Contracts and subscriptions
If you are looking for our premium cleaning service, this is the one to go for. There are 3 different packages to choose from:
a. Platinum that begins from one year and more, depending on the customer’s requirements.
b. Gold that is from six months to eleven months
c. Silver that is from one month to five months.
All the packages include a free evaluation visit. As soon as the agreement contract is signed, the cleaners will be cleaning in the agreed number of visits per month.
2. One Time Service
The Cleaning on Demand Service. For the entire place or parts of it, at any time you need. The dirt in your apartment/villa/office …etc can be unbearable, that is when the detailed Cleaning Service comes in.
How It Works
1. Register online or call
2. Free price evaluation visit
3. Quote Delivery – We will deliver your quote
4. Cleaning Appointment – Set a cleaning appointment
5. Down payment – Pay the down payment
6. Place the give away – You’ll receive the give away
7. Evaluate our service – You’ll have an option to evaluate our service
3. Corporate Daily Service
It’s a customized service for business owners, corporations, and institutions. Contact us for further information about the procedure.
4. Furniture and Carpet Cleaning Service
Our Furniture and carpet service is done through our evaluator who does an evaluation to the carpet/sofa in order to verify the procedure for accomplishing its cleaning and does a live sampling to the required work prior to agreeing on the suitable time for the cleaning.
Book your free evaluation visit through our [Website]
I didn’t travel over the holidays, instead, I stayed in Kuwait and just binge watched a bunch of shows. Some were better than others, below is the list of what I ended up watching:
Electric Dreams
This is a sci-fi series made up of short stories written by Philip K. Dick who also wrote Blade Runner, Minority Report, Total Recall and a bunch of other popular sci-fi films. Each episode is a standalone story by itself, and each one stars a really big actor like Steve Buscemi, Bryan Cranston, Terrence Howard and others. Sadly the show was underwhelming and even boring. Out of 10 episodes, I think I just liked two. Things got so bad I didn’t even bother to finish watching the last two episodes of the season. This show is available on Amazon Video.
Altered Carbon
After a disappointing experience with Electric Dreams, I was hesitant to watch Altered Carbon especially since I had read some negative reviews about it. But, 4 episodes in I was hooked and ended up loving the show which stars Joel Kinnaman from one of my favorite shows ever, The Killing. This show is available on Netflix.
Crashing
I heard about this show from the podcast Kill Tony since Tony Hinchcliff guest stars in one of the upcoming episodes. The show revolves around the struggling standup comedian Pete Holmes who finds out his wife was cheating on him. The divorce starts a series of events where he ends up meeting other comedians and crashing on their couches while touring with them. Lots of celebrity comedians make guest appearances including Bill Burr, Sarah Silverman, Jim Norton, Penn Jillette and more. This show is available on HBO Now.
Seven Seconds
No idea why I watched this honestly, but I ended up binge watching 10 episodes over two days and it wasn’t even that great a show. The acting was bad, the dialogue cliche and the story not that interesting. But, I was curious to see the story play out till the end and the whole thing was just a disappointing mess. The only good thing about the show is it got me hooked enough to binge watch it, but that’s the only positive thing I have to say about this. This show is available on Netflix.
The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel
From all the shows listed here, this was probably the best one. Mrs. Maisel is a housewife in the 1950s who decides to become a stand-up comic after her husband leaves her. The show is funny, Rachel Brosnahan who plays Mrs. Maisel is incredibly good and her wardrobe on the show… I think me and my friend spent more time talking about what she was wearing than we talked about the show. Beautiful wardrobe, incredible sets and locations, definitely watch this show if you had to pick just one from this list. The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel is available on Amazon Video.
Here and Now
Finally, Here and Now. I started watching this show over the holidays but only three episodes are out so far so it’s difficult to make a judgment on it. So far it’s interesting, I’m still trying to figure out where the story is going but the cast is great and there are enough different stories taking place to make it interesting. This show is available on HBO Now.
Below is this weekends list of events. ComFest is taking place this weekend, The Hound from Game of Thrones is no longer coming but the event should still be interesting to attend. This weekend will also be hosting the last Qout Market of the season, so if you haven’t been to it yet, this is your last chance until next fall. Check out the rest of the events below:
Hyperlapse is a technique in time-lapse photography that allows the photographer to create motion shots. The hyperlapse video above was shot by Sayed Husain Alhashemi and then edited by Abdulrazzaq Alsrayea, it took them 6 months of shooting and an additional 30 hours of editing to put it all together. Some of the scenes are pretty incredible so check out the video above or on [YouTube]
If you missed ComicCon last weekend because you were out of town, there is another comic festival taking place this weekend called ComFest. Last year ComFest turned out to be a fan favorite especially with cosplayers and its expected to be the same this year.
This year The Hound from Game of Thrones will be a guest at ComFest amongst other celebs who are mostly video game related. Entrance is KD5 and you can get a bit more details by clicking [Here]
Arabian Business has published an article about bitcoin mining and turns out Kuwait is the cheapest country in the GCC for mining bitcoins with a rate of $1,983 per Bitcoin. The reason for that is the cost of electricity in Kuwait is so cheap compared to our neighboring countries. Bahrain, on the other hand, is the most expensive GCC country for mining with a rate of $16,773 per Bitcoin. Check out the article [Here]
The Mogahwi stationary shop in old Salmiya had been around for over 30 years, it’s a nostalgic place that has looked pretty much the same ever since it opened. The store was fairly popular back in the 80s and early 90s, but as malls started popping up and old Salmiya started to die, so did the footfall at Mogahwi. Back in 2009 I posted about how I was worried they’d end up closing down and they finally did last week. It’s sad to see it go, especially since it was down the street from my place and I used to pop in frequently whenever I needed anything. Now I’m gonna have to get my stationary from somewhere else…
Kuwaiti musical artist Fatima Al Qadiri was recently featured on the Delta x VICE project ‘Launchpad’. It’s a 3-minute long profile on Fatima where she shares how she uses her global influences to create the music she makes today. Check it out above and then check out the rest of the films on the VICE website [Here]
