2:48AM - Entertaining Kuwait since 2003

Last month while visiting the Lotus dealer with a friend of mine, I was given the opportunity to upgrade my car. A friend had ordered a Lotus Exige 380 Cup, but once it arrived at the local dealer he decided he wanted the more powerful 430 Cup instead. So, the dealer gave me first dibs on the car along with a too good to be true buyback offer on my Lotus. So after a lot of deliberation in my head (which mostly sounded like yada yada yada, you only live once, yada yada yada, mid-life crisis, yada yada), I decided to pull the trigger and get the car.

So what are the biggest changes over the Exige I already had? (skip this paragraph if you’re not into cars)

To start with, the 380 Cup is over 100KG lighter than my previous already super light Exige. The Cup weighs in at just 1,057KG! It also produces 375 hp compared to the 345 my previous car made and does 0-60mph in 3.4 seconds. The aerodynamics of the Cup car is also much more aggressive producing over 250KG of downforce compared to my previous Exige. You can really feel the car being pushed down to the ground once you hit high speeds. The wheels are also lighter forged aluminum, and the tires are larger and come with the track and competition Michelin Cup 2 tires. The AP Racing brakes have been upgraded and the gearbox is now a manual instead of paddle-shift and looks incredible with all the metal gearing exposed. The suspension is two-way adjustable so I can make it softer for the road or harder for the track. Finally, the car is covered in carbon fiber, everywhere, from the roof to the interior, even the rear engine window was replaced with a carbon fiber hood to save weight. So yeah, loads of changes compared to my previous Exige and that’s not even including overall usability improvements. I should also add that the 380 Cup is limited to just 60 cars worldwide (and the only one in the region), so its super rare.

I’ve had the car for around 10 days now and I’ve put just a bit over 1,000KM on the car already so I’ve gotten a good feel for it. The Cup is a lot faster than my previous Exige, and because it’s more track-focused, it rides really rough, is pretty noisy and is now even more unpractical than what was already a very unpractical car to begin with.

But I love it.

Its raw, it’s not bullshitting you pretending to be something it isn’t, it’s as honest a car as you can get. And it’s not just me, EVO magazine gave it a 5 out of 5 and Road & Track called it “too much fun to be street legal”. It is too much fun.

I was planning to take the car to Bahrain for their open track day on February 15th, but turns out I need to have at least 3,000KM on the car before tracking it and I don’t think I can get that done in two weeks. So not sure when I’ll have the car on the track but hopefully pretty soon.

If you’re looking for a good place to take car photos by the way, I’d highly recommend the rooftop parking of the complex in front of Mayar in Shuwaikh. I took all the photos here with my iPhone on the roof and loved the spot because of the neutral colors and clean lines. Here is the location on [Google Maps]

Festivity is a local website that helps you plan your event by connecting you with different suppliers. Say you’re planning a birthday party or a gathering and need valet, food, music, a photo booth, balloons, and a trampoline. Instead of scouring the net or hiring an event company, you can find everything you need yourself on Festivity. For example, they have 5 different photo booth suppliers with prices ranging from KD180 to KD350. So you just select what you want and pay for it.

If you’re thinking of planning an event and need suppliers, then check Festivity out by clicking [Here]

Update: Festivity emailed me to let me know my readers can get a KD10 discount by using the code “248AM” during checkout.

Yesterday I found out that the popular German large format photographer, Andreas Gursky, had captured two photos of the Kuwait Stock Exchange. The one pictured in this post was auctioned off at Sotheby’s for KD280,000!

His two Kuwait Stock Exchange photos were captured one year apart. The first photo was captured in 2007 and you can view it [Here] while the second photo which is pictured in this post was taken in 2008 and you can view the larger version [Here]

The Staged in Kuwait IMPROV comedy night is back again and will take place next weekend. I got my tickets right away last night as soon as they went on sale and would highly recommend you get tickets to. They’re my favorite local comedy troupe and this season they’re holding their shows at the impressive American United School so even the venue is great. For more information, click [Here]

For those of you interested, the Russ concert is back on next month. Originally Russ had backed out of the concert after seeing how much the promoter was charging for the tickets, but now it looks like he backed down from his stance and the concert is back on.

The ticket prices were reduced slightly but not by that much:

VIP – KD250 KD225
Gold – KD200 KD180
Silver – KD150 KD135
Bronze – KD100 KD90
Normal – KD50 KD45

For more information and a link to the tickets, click [Here]

Thanks Mubarak

Lots of events this weekend including two coffee festivals. Check out the full list of events taking place below:

Thursday
Filipos Brekkie
The Human Capital Forum
Cofe District Festival
The Kuwait Motor Show
Global Game Jam 2018
Sadu Reimagined
Cinemagics Rooftop Movie: The Red Turtle

Friday
Charity Drive
Filipos Brekkie
The Kuwait Motor Show
Global Game Jam 2018
Sadu Reimagined
The Warehouse Series 0.2
Eighty Six Pop-up

Saturday
Filipos Brekkie
The Kuwait Motor Show
Global Game Jam 2018
Sadu Reimagined
Guided Tour: Landmarks of Old Kuwait City
Here Exhibit
Cinemagics Rooftop Movie: Things to Come

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 Death of Stalin

The movies below are now showing at either Cinescape, Grand Cinemas or Sky Cinemas:

New This Week:
All the Money in the World (7.1)
Dead Awake (4.6)
Guardians of the Tomb (7.2)
Maze Runner: The Death Cure (7.2)
The Death of Stalin (7.6) ♦
The Florida Project (7.8)

Other Movies Showing:
12 Strong (7.5)
Bunyan and Babe (5.0)
Coco (9.1)
Downsizing (5.8) ♦
Ferdinand (6.8)
Insidious: The Last Key (7.2)
Jumanji: Welcome to the Jungle (6.9) ★
The Bachelors (6.4)
The Commuter (6.8)
The Greatest Showman (7.9)
The Pirates of Somalia (6.9)
The Post (7.5)
Wonder (7.2)

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

A Beautiful Planet 3D (7.9)
America Wild: National Parks Adventure (N/A)
Dream Big 3D (7.9)
Extreme Weather 3D (6.6)
Tiny Giants 3D (8.0)
Watermelon Magic 3D (7.4)

Numbers in brackets refer to the IMDB rating at time of publishing.
★ is for movies I’m interested in. ♦ implies movie might contain censorship.

The Human Capital Forum starts today at JACC and comprises of talks and panels from speakers in different fields, with a common vision to highlight the importance of investing in creativity for social impact. Their outdoor setup (pictured above) looks super nice so pass by and check it out if you can. It’s free to attend but you need to register to get a pass.

For more information, click [Here]

A bunch of people and friends have been forwarding me the screenshot above taken from the account @kuwait_projects. Kuwait Projects post is a bit misleading since he makes it seem like an official Apple store is opening in Avenues Phase 4. That isn’t the case. The store in the picture above is just a regular authorized Apple store, not an official one.

Avenues Phase 4
The fourth phase of Avenues is on target to open up next month on February 25th. They’ve invited some of the media to take a tour of the new phase at the end of this month so we should get new photos of a nearly complete mall pretty soon.

Al Kout Mall
The new Al Kout Mall is expected to open up in March with an exact target date of March 15th. Al Kout Mall is replacing Al Manshar Mall which was torn down back in 2013.

Assima Mall
Finally, even though Assima Mall construction site caught fire back in June, they’re still planning to open by Q3 2019. I think the fire delayed the project by just a few months since 2019 was always their target date.

I thought Kuwait had canceled plans to build a nuclear power plant but a Russian company just applied for a building permit so they could construct one.

The Russian state corporation Rosatom has applied for building permit for construction of the nuclear power plant in Kuwait, announced the Russian Energy Minister Alexander Novak. Currently, the main talks on the implementation of the project are under way. [Source]

I have mixed feelings about this, I’m pro-nuclear power but in our case, solar kinda makes more sense since its sunny all year round and it’s safer. Nuclear is a lot more practical though:

– Kuwait consumes around 13,000MW of electricity

– The Ivanpah Solar Power Facility in the USA is the largest solar station in the world and it produces 392MW

– The Kashiwazaki-Kariwa Nuclear Power Plant in Japan is the largest in the world and produces 7,965 MW

So one nuclear power plant could supply more than 60% of Kuwait’s power needs while the largest solar station would supply just 3%.

Looks like Apple Pay is now starting to work in some places in Kuwait. Some of the new Knet machines that support wireless Knet payment now also work with Apple Pay. I haven’t been able to try this myself, but a friend of mine was able to paying using Apple Pay at Solo Pizza. You need to have a credit card already added to your phone from a country that has Apple Pay like the US for example.

There is no real advantage to using Apple Pay in Kuwait, if anything its actually more expensive when you factor in the cost to transfer money from Kuwait bank account to your US one. But for now, I guess there is a bit of a cool factor to using Apple Pay.

Update: Just tried my Apple Pay at Liquid and it worked!

Over the weekend I went to the movies to watch Jumanji, a good movie by the way, just censored the hell out of in Kuwait. Seriously this has to be the most censored movie I’ve ever watched in Kuwait, and I have no idea how that’s possible since it’s a PG-rated film.

So, originally we were planning to watch it at Grand Cinemas in Hamra Mall, but surprisingly, they didn’t have any theater that would accommodate a wheelchair. I don’t mean the theater playing Jumanji, I mean neither of their theaters playing any movie had wheelchair access.

So I gave Cinescape a call and they told me they had wheelchair access at ALL their theaters except for two, Laila and Central Place. The operator also told me that if the person was permanently in a wheelchair, then they could get a lifetime pass to watch movies for free at their theaters.

I think that’s pretty thoughtful of Cinescape and pretty odd of Grand Cinemas considering their Hamra theater is fairly new. The only feedback I would give Cinescape is to mark the wheelchair areas on the seating map since I had to call the operator and find out where they were. For example, the map above is how it currently looks like while the map below is what I think they should do (notice row J).

Anyway just wanted to thank Cinescape with this post for being so considerate.

RAW originally opened up back in 2016 in the industrial area of Shuwaikh but recently closed that location down. It was one of my favorite sushi places, but a lot of people had an issue with the location since at night the area around was super dark and creepy. So they closed that space down and moved to the city where they just officially reopened this past weekend across the street from Hamra Tower [Map]

Along with the new location, they revamped their menu by adding a lot of interesting and delicious new dishes that go beyond what you’d find at your typical Japanese restaurant. You can check out the full menu [Here].

I’ve been there three times so far (two tastings and a dinner), and really love the food. You really can’t go wrong by choosing any of the 20+ items on the menu.

RAW is currently only open for dinner, so you should call and reserve ahead of time just in case they’re busy. For more information check out their instagram @eatrawkwt

Note: Make sure you try the Koji Glazed Thigh (pictured above), the Tofu Croquettes, Sablefish and the Yuzu Yogurt dessert.

A reader recently spent over a month in prison for driving his mum’s car without having a driving license (he nearly got deported too). He wrote about his experience on his blog, and you can check out his post [Here]

The part I found interesting is how prisoners get free cigarette packs. I wonder if that decision was made to prevent or cut down on drug use and violence. It’s interesting because I’ve never heard of a prison doing that before. The cost on the government to supply cigarettes to all the inmates for free must be ginormous.

Update: The writer has now edited his post based on the advice of his lawyer and removed certain parts including the part about free cigarettes.