2:48AM - Entertaining Kuwait since 2003

A reader emailed me complaining about a new rule he recently found out from his dealer. The reader had purchased an Audi and the dealer had installed the regular square plates on the front. The problem was his car had a radar in the front grill for collision warning, and the square plate started interfering with it. So he took the car back to the dealer and asked them to install the rectangular “Euro” plates on the car but the dealer told him couldn’t get those plates because he was an expat.

According to the Audi dealer, the rectangular car plates are now only being installed on cars registered to Kuwaiti citizens and as an expat, he wouldn’t be able to get them. I told him it was probably BS, that the dealer messed up and was coming up with random excuses but the dealer showed my reader five other cars that were ready for collection, three were for expats and had square plates while two were for Kuwaitis and had the rectangular plates.

If this is a new rule then I think it’s an incredibly stupid one. Has anybody else faced this issue?

A couple of weeks ago there was a very interesting discussion on Reddit called “What if I don’t want to fast?” about the laws that punish people for eating in public during Ramadan. Since Ramadan is nearly over, I wanted to ask my readers what their opinion about this is.

Personally, because I don’t cook, my biggest issue is with the law regarding restaurants having to be closed during the day. I actually don’t know if its a law, or just an unspoken rule, but whatever the case is, I don’t think restaurants should be forced to close, not unless you also want to close other sources of food like supermarkets and baqalas. I’ve basically spent most of this Ramadan having Chinese food since China Kitchen is one of the few places that deliver from noon and they’re located in Salmiya so the driver doesn’t get stuck in traffic. I actually don’t think I’m having Chinese food ever again once Ramadan is over.

Do you fast? Would you mind it if restaurants were open during the day? Do you mind if people drink water in front of you? I’m curious to know.

There have been rumors for some time now that Mercedes-Benz was planning to leave the current dealership in Kuwait and yesterday a letter started making its way around social media which confirms it. According to the letter which was sent to employees, the dealership agreement between Mercedez-Benz and Al Bisher & Al Kazemi Group of Companies will be terminating on December 31st, 2018.

I’ve already contacted my source at the dealership to confirm the authenticity of the letter and once they get back to me, I’ll post an update here. But, if it is actually true, then the next question is who will be taking over the brand? Currently, the rumors are pointing towards Al-Mulla Group who are also the dealers for Acura and Mitsubishi, but I had also heard that Al-Sayer were interested in acquiring the brand as well (but I’ve been told that’s not happening).

Al Bisher & Al Kazemi have been the dealers for Mercedes-Benz in Kuwait since the 1950s. The last time a big change like this took place in the local car market was when Arabian Motors Group lost the Ford and Lincoln dealership to Alghanim in 2016.

Here is another positive airport post, a variety of improvements have been made to the main terminal to accommodate the extra traffic for Eid and the summer. Below are some of the main points taken from an AlQabas article.

– 15% fewer passengers due to the opening of the Jazeera terminal
– Terminal 4 opening in July will also reduce load on main terminal
– Some budget airlines will be moved to Sheikh Saad Terminal (T3)
– New hall for transit passengers
– New hall for visa issuing
– Improvement of air conditioning performance in the airport
– Additional support workforce for the airport
– Luggage drop-off outside the main terminal for Kuwait Airways and Jazeera Airways
– Self check-in machines
– Installation of shade and cooling sprinklers in departure drop off area
– Additional seating in the arrivals area and the check-in areas
– Check-in areas Zone 2 and 3 will have their on carry-on baggage security checks bypassing the main security check area
– Carry-on security check machines have been increased from 5 to 9
– An increase from two to four immigration entrances on departure. The new entrances are now divided up as follows: First Class and Diplomat passengers, Kuwaiti and GCC citizens, expats and finally, aircraft crew.
– Arriving luggage will be security checked before hitting the conveyor belts speeding up the exit process
– Luggage home delivery with Pearl Assist. They’ll pick your bags up from the conveyor belt and deliver them straight to your home.

There is no mention in the article if they improved immigration services on arrival since currently, that’s probably my least favorite part of the airport.

The brand new Kuwait Airways terminal (T4) will be opening next month on July 25th [Source]. All Kuwait Airways flights will depart and arrive from the new terminal which should greatly reduce the traffic flow at the main terminal.

According to an article in AlQabas newspaper, the opening of the Jazeera Airways terminal has alone reduced the traffic at the main terminal by 15%, so I’d expect the opening of T4 to reduce that by at least another 30%.

For my previous post on Terminal 4, click [Here]

Business Insider published an article a few days ago on the worst airports in the world and the Kuwait International Airport topped the list again. The data is compiled by the website AirHelp who score airports based on on-time performance, quality of service and passenger sentiment. The best airport in the world on the other hand was Qatar’s Hamad International Airport.

With the new Jazeera Terminal just opening and the new Kuwait Airways terminal opening up soon, this might be the last year Kuwait’s Airport comes out the worst.

Check out the AirHelp scores [Here]
Check out the Business Insider article [Here]

Thanks Musaed

I wasn’t planning to post about this because:

a) Nothing is going to be done about it
b) A lot of people will probably think there isn’t anything wrong with this

But, I’m being bombarded by people on instagram to write about this so clearly, a lot of you do think what he did was wrong.

Last night a video and photo started making their rounds on social media showing a local influencer unlocking the trunk of his car revealing his Chow Chow dog inside. The video is also accompanied by a photo taken I’m assuming on a different day of the same dog dead in the bottom of a pool with the caption that he committed suicide. Stuffing a Chow Chow in the trunk of your car in this heat is obvious abuse and sharing a picture of your dog dead is just tasteless. What makes this situation critical is that he has nearly 700,000 followers. When his followers see that he stuffs his dog in trunk, they might think that’s something normal to do (which it’s not).

If you want to read more on this and check out the videos/pictures, you can do so [Here]

Update: I’m curious to see if there will be any repercussion from his advertisers. If something like this took place in the States, his advertisers would drop him. So I’d be interested to see if any of his current advertisers like Kuwait International Bank (KIB) will distance themselves from him.

Screenshot from Solo: A Star Wars Story

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

New This Weekend:
Nothing

Other Movies Showing Now:
A Quiet Place (8.4)
A Wrinkle in Time (4.2)
Armed Response (3.8)
Avengers: Infinity War (9.2) ♦
Interrogation (4.9) ♦
Life of the Party (4.6) ♦
Masha and the Bear (7.9)
Peter Rabbit (6.5)
Rampage (6.5)
Show Dogs (2.7)
Solo: A Star Wars Story (6.3)
The Cured (5.5) ♦

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

Amazing Mighty Micro Monsters 3D (7.4)
America Wild: National Parks Adventure (5.9)
Dream Big 3D (7.9)
Hurricane 3D (7.0)
Solo: A Star Wars Story (6.3)
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.

A few days ago I was dropping some stuff at my frame guy to get framed when I spotted an interesting looking store down the street from him. Turns out it was an air guns store that also sold some outdoor gear. So I decided to drop by and check it out when I realized the store had a small shooting range in the back that was open to the public. Air guns is another name for pellet guns and they are guns that use compressed air to fire out little metal pellets. Pellet guns don’t have the same restrictions and costs involved as real guns and so, this shooting range is also far cheaper than the Mayadeen shooting range.

The shooting range at this store is priced by the half hour. 30 minutes of shooting a pellet rifle will cost you KD7.5 while an hour is KD15. The cost includes the rifle and an unlimited amount of ammo. In comparison, firing a real ammo rifle at Mayadeen costs KD8 for just 10 bullets. I did half an hour with a friend and it was pretty fun and therapeutic. We both found it therapeutic because you spend a lot of time focusing on the target and so you zone out of everything else.

If you’re looking for a fun activity to do, you should try this out. It’s not as intimidating as firing a real weapon and it’s also not as loud so it’s very accessible to everyone. The place is located in Shuwaikh and is called Gannas Al-Rheeb [Google Maps]. During Ramadan they’re open from 12PM to 5PM and then from 8PM to 12AM. During regular days they’re open from 11AM to 9PM. You can find them on instagram @airguns.q8

We made it to BBC. [Link]

The Ministry of Interior app wasn’t working for me for the longest time but they’ve finally gone and updated it and it now works with the latest version of iOS as well as making the app take advantage of iPhone X’s extra tall screen.

The app allows you to check a bunch of things including your traffic violations, driving license status, car registration status, travel bans etc.. as well as allowing you to pay any fines. If you don’t have the app you can download it from the Apple Store by clicking [Here]

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.

Since you’re ignoring me on twitter figured I’d ask here. Why are you guys blocking my section Kuwestions?

Update: Got a call from Ooredoo and they’re fixing this