2:48AM - Entertaining Kuwait since 2003

Last week I passed by the vintage radios shop Moqtanayaty and ended up picking up a 1960’s Dynatron Mazurka record player for myself. I didn’t have any music records, nor did the store so I needed to buy some and didn’t want to resort to ordering them online since they would have taken at least two weeks to arrive. Instead, I decided I’d over to the antique shops basement in Salmiya to check and see if they had any for sale there.

The first shop I went into had a large pile of records piled up in the corner of the shop. So I sat down on the floor and started going through them one by one. Anything that was remotely interesting I put on the side. By the time I was done I had found around 14 potential records which I ended up reducing down to 10. The 10 records I decided to go with were actually pretty great and included the likes of Simon & Garfunkel, Frank Sinatra, Cat Stevens, Marvin Gaye, Andy Williams, Nat King Cole, Fats Domino and more. The buying process though wasn’t so easy. The shop was originally closed (it’s always closed whenever I visit) but the basement janitor has the key. So I had him open up the shop for me and after I chose the records I wanted, he had to take pictures of each one and send them to the owner. Originally I was quoted KD30 for the 10 records but managed to haggle the price down to KD25 which is pretty reasonable considering the stuff I got.

There are a couple of other shops that had records for sale as well but I wasn’t in the mood to go through their piles so there could be more treasures waiting to be found. So if you’re looking for records, I’d head over to the basement as soon as possible before anybody else does (including me). For directions and more information on the basement, check out my previous post [Here]

Update: Kuwait now has a local online record store! vinyldestination.com

Over the weekend the WWE (World Wrestling Entertainment) announced that they signed Nasser Alruwayeh, the first Kuwaiti ever to join the WWE. I haven’t watched WWE since back when it used to be called WWF, but I still think this is a pretty cool signing.

Nasser is a crossfiter who took part in the invitation-only tryout in Dubai last April. He managed to impress the WWE coaches and training personnel which is why they decided to sign him along with Shadia Bseiso, the first Arab woman to sign with the WWE.

For more information on the signing you can check out the WWE website [Here]

Yesterday local musician Ghaneema released a music video for her track “You Got Me” from her EP “Bad Habits”.

It’s her first music video ever and you can check it out above or on [YouTube]

If you’re looking for things to do this weekend, here are some of the things that are taking place:

Thursday
Puss in Boots – The Pantomime
Japanese Speech Contest
Air, Land & Sea – Augmented Reality Experience
Cinemagics Rooftop Movie: A Ghost Story

Friday
Puss in Boots – The Pantomime
Red Bull Car Park Drift Finals
Touch Rugby Tournament
Gifts & Food Fair
AMG Family Seasonal Concert
Book Launch: Modern Architecture Kuwait Volume 2

Saturday
Puss in Boots – The Pantomime
A Better Shot Workshop
Architectural Photowalk & Sketching
Yoga with the 3
Annual Tour: Camel Races
Cinemagics Rooftop Movie: The Killing Fields
Jazz & Jam: The Zaid Nasser Jazz Quartet & The Afterthought

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.

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

New This Week:
Beyond Skyline (5.9)
Brad’s Status (6.7)
Jungle (6.7)
Just Getting Started (5.8)
Marrowbone (6.7)
Polaroid (N/A)

Other Movies Showing:
Acts Of Vengeance (5.6)
Breathe (7.0) ♦
Coco (9.1)
Daddy’s Home 2 (6.2)
Johnny Frank Garrett’s Last Word (5.0)
Justice League (8.1)
Murder on the Orient Express (6.7)
Paddington 2 (8.3)
S.M.A.R.T. Chase (4.8)
The Mountain Between Us (6.3)
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.

If I was stuck on an island and could choose to have one dessert with me, it would probably be an eclair (or a Kinder Bueno). It’s one of my favorite desserts and I recently found a place in Kuwait that had a good variety of eclairs to choose from as well as millefeuilles. The place is called Millesaveurs and until a few moments ago I thought it was a French franchise. But, while trying to get some information for this post I realized its actually local creation. I haven’t tried anything other than their pastries so can’t recommend the food, but what I can say though is that their eclairs are pretty good and you should try them out if you’re an eclair fan. Their packaging is also pretty premium looking and presentable so it would make a great gift when invited to dinners.

If you’re interested, Millesaveurs is located in the basement of Crystal Towers but they’re also available on Carriage. Their instagram account is @millesaveurskwt

Later today some parts of highway 50 and the 5th ring road will be closing down due to the GCC Summit. There are expectations that the closures will result in traffic chaos, but as of 9AM, there seems to be less traffic than usual. This will probably change once the roads close down at noon, but not a bad start to the day.

Update: A reader made me realize that at 12PM Google updated the map of Kuwait to highlight the closed roads. Impressive.

Madison & Heig which I posted about back in September have finally opened up their doors. Madison & Heig is a locally created bistro and bakery with the main menu created by @chefbasmah, and the desserts by @faysbaking, both of whom are super talented chefs. They’re currently in their soft launch phase so they’re only open from 5PM to 11PM.

For photos and the exact address, you can check out the Madison & Heig instagram account [Here]

Refit is a local app that allows you to connect with various freelance fitness trainers in Kuwait. Say you want to learn how to box or how to play basketball, or maybe you just want to get fit, then you’d use this app to find a suitable trainer.

To find a trainer all you need to do is open the app, find the sport you’re interested in and then go through the list of the available trainers and book an appointment. You could also use the app to purchase supplements of healthy snacks.

Right now the app doesn’t have that many trainers to choose from but the more popular it gets the more trainers would sign up to it. The app is available on iOS and if you’re interested, you can download it from [Here]

The Cinemagics rooftop screenings are now back again after a long hiatus. During the time off they upgraded a few things including the cinema screen which is now larger than their older inflatable screen. The new screen is also permanently fixed and so will improve the overall image quality of the projected films. They also removed the bulky inflatable couches and replaced them with more compact and comfortable bean bags. This also means their roof can now fit up to 100 people comfortably.

The screenings will be taking place every Thursday and Saturday and are free. I’ve posted the first two movies up on the events page and you can check them out [Here]

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

New This Week:
Acts Of Vengeance (5.6)
Daddy’s Home 2 (6.2)
Paddington 2 (8.3)
S.M.A.R.T. Chase (4.8)
The Mountain Between Us (6.3)

Other Movies Showing:
Bounty Hunters (5.3)
Breathe (7.0) ♦
Coco (9.1)
Johnny Frank Garrett’s Last Word (5.0)
Justice League (8.1)
Murder on the Orient Express (6.7)
Thor: Ragnarok (8.2)
Victoria and Abdul (6.1)
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.

A friend of mine recently flew to Dubai with flydubai and ended up on their new 737 MAX aircraft. He sent me pictures of the interior and it looked ridiculously good. Firstly, business class now have flatbeds which will be super convenient for long-haul flights. The second thing I liked was the economy class seats which had a very tasteful color scheme and huge screens behind every seat.

In total, flydubai will have six of these 737 MAX aircrafts by the end of the year and they’ll be used to flyto their furthest destinations including Bangkok, Prague, Yekaterinburg, and Zanzibar. For more information and shots of their new planes, click [Here]

Thanks Tarek

So the reason I was in Bahrain this past weekend was to take part in the Bahrain GP Open Track that took place on Friday. During one of the racing sessions, I experienced my first spin out and captured it on video. It had been raining earlier in the day and although the track had mostly dried up, the red and white rumble strips on the corners were still damp and I drove over one after running wide and completely lost traction.

The interesting part for me was how the experience felt a lot longer than it actually was. As soon as I started spinning out, in my head I started to go back and try and remember what I learned when I took drifting lessons a few months ago. I then let go of the steering wheel while at the same time I started thinking, ok, I might be heading towards the wall on my right side, if I hit it, I’ll probably mess up the whole side of my car. Then I started wondering how much that might cost in repairs and how long I was going to have to wait for the parts to arrive. During this time I was also trying to figure out where on the track I was and which way I was facing. When I saw that I was starting to point in the right direction, I took a hold of the steering again to control the spin. Luckily, I ended up with a perfect 360 spin and didn’t hit a wall or another car (I was going somewhere between 150-170km/h at that point). As soon I was facing the right way again I just stepped on it.

All those thoughts and discussions I was having in my head happened in just 2 seconds although it felt a lot longer while it was happening. I think I now kinda understand when people say life flashes before your eyes just before you die, or in my case, spin out. Anyway, you can check out snippets of Friday’s open track day in the video below compiled by the Bahrain International Circuit.

A post shared by Bahrain International Circuit (@bah_int_circuit) on Nov 24, 2017 at 12:14pm PST

I’m not normally a presents kinda girl but I did ask for one thing last year; the Anova. If you aren’t familiar, the Anova is a home sous vide machine. With sous vide cooking you stick food in a vacuum sealed bag and cook it in a controlled water bath to ensure your meats (typically) come out at optimal juiciness.

The Anova is a great kitchen tool for anyone who loves home cooking. It’s extremely affordable at 100USD and super easy to use. You can control the temperatures from the app on your phone and the cooker itself will easily attach to anything from pots, to big plastic Ikea containers if you’re planning on going to town.

The results are amazing but it does take time, so don’t expect to be using your Anova daily. Though I have made sous vide eggs, which were spectacular, I’ve only done it twice in the past year. Why? Because it’s a 45 min process and lets be honest, eggs are eggs, and ain’t nobody got time for that.

The Anova is amazing though for proteins, your steaks will always come out picture perfect and your chicken breasts juicy as ever. I have a bunch of friends that have gotten Anova’s recently and they all seem to enjoy it too, it’s a tool that really makes you feel like a pro-chef in the kitchen at a fraction of the cost of most other kitchen gadgets. [Amazon Link]

Post by Hind
CoFounder of PantryBee where home cooking is made easy.

I really hate flying out of Kuwait on weekends and I hate it, even more, coming back at the end of the weekend. The airport is usually packed with travelers and immigration on arrival is usually total chaos for us expats. But, I think I’ve found a good solution, Hala Meet & Assist Service.

I’ve know about the Hala Meet & Assist Service for some time now but didn’t consider using it until recently. The way it works is fairly simple, first, you need to book the service before you arrive to Kuwait. When you land one of their employees waits for you outside the plane and then takes your passport and fast-tracks you through immigration by taking you through the VIP line. This allows you to skip the long endless immigration queues and the chaos associated with it.

The service isn’t cheap costing KD10, but on more than one occasion I would have been willing to pay double that just to get through the airport as stress-free as possible. The biggest downside to this service is the fact that sometimes you get to immigration and there isn’t a queue or anything, so the KD10 goes to waste. So its a gamble, you pluck the KD10 down in hopes that there is a huge chaotic scene at immigration (which is the case 80% of the time). If you’re interested in finding out more about this service, then click [Here]