2:48AM - Entertaining Kuwait since 2003

This week has been an uneventful TV week for me. Both the last episodes of House of the Dragon and Sunny were pretty boring, but Presumed Innocent I guess made up for those two with its last episode. Other than that been binge watching House of Cards and sometimes had The Veil playing in the background (pretty bad show).

Oh, I finished watching the last episode of the season for The Boys as well. The last episode wasn’t that great, not sure what I was expecting, maybe an end to the show but obviously that can’t happen since the show is still ongoing.

On the bright side, Deadpool & Wolverine is out this weekend, can someone let me know if anything is cut in it since I might watch it at the cinema.

Let me know in the comments what you recently watched or planning to watch.

Movies at the Cinemas
The movies below are now showing at the local cinemas:

New This Week:
Deadpool & Wolverine (8.3)

Other Movies Showing:
A Quiet Place: Day One (7.0)
Bad Boys: Ride or Die (6.8)
Despicable Me 4 (6.4)
Fly Me to the Moon (6.7)
IF: Imaginary Friends (6.5)
Inside Out 2 (7.9)
Longlegs (7.3)
The Garfield Movie (5.8)
Twisters (7.0)

The numbers in brackets refer to the IMDB rating at the time of publishing.

One of my favorite indoor activities with friends is mini-golf. It’s fun, it’s chill and it’s something we can do during the hot summer months. But, for some reason, the sport never caught on in Kuwait. I used to play mini-golf at Discovery Mall, but that place shut down years ago. For the longest time, there wasn’t any mini-golf in Kuwait until Venue 56 opened up.

Venue 56 is an adult arcade with lots of different entertainment options including mini-golf which is what I usually go for. Their golf course is one of a kind since it was designed specifically for them by a specialized UK-based company.

The owners of Venue 56 decided to open the arcade after noticing the lack of entertainment options for young adults to socialize. So, they decided to fill this gap by opening an arcade filled with a variety of social and electronic games not found anywhere else in Kuwait.

Other than mini-golf they also have racing simulators, interactive bowling with 3D projection, arcade games, VR games, tabletop games, and classics like billiards and darts.

Their prices are very reasonable, and they often have weekly offers, including a happy hour currently running throughout the summer from Monday to Thursday, where games are 30% off from 1 PM to 6 PM. They also have different packages for birthdays and team building corporate events.

Venue 56 is located in Salmiya, right across the street from Johnny Rockets (Google Maps). If you’d like to check them out, you can find them on Instagram at @venue56.kw

Is it me or does the interior of the newly reopened Jimmy’s smashed burger in Kuwait City look pretty similar to the popular London burger spot Supernova?

The Paris 2024 Olympics is set to begin this coming Friday, and nine athletes from Kuwait will be competing: five men and four women. Check them all out below to discover who they are and the disciplines they will be competing in. I’ve also included their instagram accounts in case you want to follow them:

Amal Al Roumi @_amalalroumi
Date of Birth: 22 Aug 1992
Age: 31
Discipline: Athletics
Event: Women’s 800m

Ameena Shah @ameenaaa64
Date of Birth: 24 Jan 2001
Age: 23
Discipline: Sailing
Event: Women’s Dinghy

Lara Dashti @laradashtiswims
Date of Birth: 24 Jan 2004
Age: 20
Discipline: Swimming
Event: Women’s 100m Breaststroke

Soaad Alfaqaan @salfaqaan2
Date of Birth: 3 Sep 1991
Age: 32
Discipline: Rowing
Event: Women’s Single Sculls

Khaled Almudhaf
Date of Birth: 12 Jun 1978
Age: 46
Discipline: Shooting
Event: Trap Men

Mohammad AlDaihani @_mh7md
Date of Birth: 1 Aug 1983
Age: 40
Discipline: Shooting
Event: Skeet Men

Mohamad Zubaid @mohammedswims
Date of Birth: 30 Mar 2008
Age: 16
Discipline: Swimming
Event: Men’s 100m Freestyle

Yousef Alshamlan @yousefalshamlaan
Date of Birth: 30 Aug 1998
Age: 25
Discipline: Fencing
Event: Men’s Sabre Individual

Yaqoub Alyouha @yaqoubalyouha
Date of Birth: 31 Jan 1993
Age: 31
Discipline: Athletics
Event: Men’s 110m Hurdles

Photo on top taken by @photographerq8_96

There is an Instagram account I find visually very interesting called @Dihrez. It’s run by a Kuwaiti designer fascinated in creating an alternate history for Kuwait, which is a subject I find very captivating.

I got in touch with the designer to find out why he started the account and what his story is. It turns out he works in the educational field, which is partly why he wants to stay anonymous for now.

Dihrez has always been interested in the concept of ‘alternate history’ in literary and artistic works. Similar to shows like ‘The Man in the High Castle,’ which is based on an alternate reality in which Germany wins World War II, or ‘For All Mankind,’ where the Russians were the first to land on the moon, Dihrez wanted to create an alternate reality for Kuwait.

The account is only two months old, so you can see how Dihrez is still figuring out the kind of content he wants to share and how it’s all evolving

In the beginning, for example, he started experimenting by creating visuals from old everyday life (1950s-1980s) and then adding imagined elements to them. The idea was to make the viewer feel that the scene is both familiar and unfamiliar at the same time. This feeling creates a momentary paradox and raises the question: Is this real?

Later, he started creating imaginary posters and ads. A few days ago, he began experimenting by taking popular old Kuwaiti photographs and animating them into short videos (the results are super cool). He uses a combination of techniques, including AI and his graphic design background, to create his work, resulting in pieces that are somewhat like collages.

You can see some of my favorites here, but definitely follow his account to see more of his work including his latest animated one @Dihrez

This is a summarized repost of the original post I published a few years ago. In case you’ve never heard the story, read on. I decided to repost it on Instagram since there is a chance Saif will be performing in the UK later this year with the help of Habibi Funk.

I found out about The Scorpions & Saif Abu Bakr through the former Australian Ambassador to Kuwait who one evening made me listen to their album ‘Jazz, Jazz, Jazz’. The album was a reissue by the label Habibi Funk and they had included an interview with the band who were Sudanese and had performed on KTV and in various hotels around Kuwait in the 70s. I took some photos of the album and shared them on my personal account when to my surprise, I got a message from a follower telling me that Saif was a colleague of hers and she was surprised to find out he used to be part of a popular band. She put me in touch with Saif and I invited him to dinner over at the ambassador’s house.

Saif was full of interesting stories. He was never meant to come to Kuwait, when he turned 18 he decided to leave Sudan and head to Germany. His plan was to head to Lebanon first so that he could then take the train to Germany, but due to a series of events and the fact he needed to make money, he got convinced to try his luck in Kuwait.

When he arrived, he met up with an old friend who hooked him up with a job as an English teacher for air traffic controllers, and a side gig where he would perform music on a KTV talk show. One day one of the producers at KTV asked him if he could put together a band because he wanted to record a performance for the station. Saif told him he could and called up his friends in Sudan whom he used to perform with called The Scorpions. The band ended up on KTV and you can actually watch that performance on YouTube since Habibi Funk uploaded the whole thing.

Saif eventually performed for a Kuwaiti event organizer back then called Hussein Abul. Hussein was the guy who brought the likes of Boney M, Demis Roussos, James Brown and Santa Esmeralda to perform in Kuwait. Saif actually had the job of driving James Brown around when he was in Kuwait.

Saif is still in Kuwait today and until recently was teaching English at a local aviation school. He still performs in Sudan every now and then with his old band. Jazz Jazz Jazz is available to stream on Spotify and you should check it out.

I watched Kingdom of the Planet of the Apes this past week and I didn’t really like it much. I also just realized that I hadn’t I watched the previous Planet of the Apes but thats not why I didn’t enjoy the new one, I just find the series boring now. There are just too many Planet of the Apes films similar to how there are too many Fast and the Furious or too many Transformers movies. I don’t enjoy any of them anymore, it’s just recycled content.

But, speaking of recycling, the new Terminator anime series looks like it’s going to be cool just based on the trailer above. I’m not big on anime but this is one I want to really watch.

This past week I also started rewatching House of Cards since my wife hadn’t watch the show before. I’m still 4 episodes into season 1 and I remembered how great a show it was. Over a decade later it still holds up really well and I now recognize so many actors who are now much more famous than they were back then.

Let me know in the comments what you recently watched or planning to watch.

Movies at the Cinemas
The movies below are now showing at the local cinemas:

New This Week:
Clawfoot (5.7)
Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire (Classic) (7.7)
Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban (Classic) (7.9)
Inspector Sun (5.2)
Longlegs (7.3)
Twisters (7.0)

Other Movies Showing:
A Quiet Place: Day One (7.0)
Arcadian (5.5)
Bad Boys: Ride or Die (6.8)
Despicable Me 4 (6.4)
Fly Me to the Moon (6.7)
Inside Out 2 (7.9)
The Garfield Movie (5.8)
The Last Breath (6.1)

The numbers in brackets refer to the IMDB rating at the time of publishing.

I’m a huge fan of flavored toothpaste and have been enjoying Marvis for the past two years so when HiSmile reached out and offered to send me some of their products, I didn’t have high expectations. But then I tried it.

HiSmile sent over a bunch of flavors for me to try, but the one that caught my attention first was the watermelon-flavored toothpaste. After using it the first time, I haven’t gone back to my Marvis. I liked it so much that I even asked HiSmile if I could focus this post on their toothpaste instead of their other products, since I really did like it.

There are two main reasons I’m now a huge fan of HiSmile. The first is the flavor, which I already mentioned I love, mostly because of how natural it tastes. The second reason is that I’m generally sensitive to most toothpaste. I tend to cough after brushing because of my sensitivity to one of the ingredients. This happens with Marvis as well as my previous toothpaste, Sensodyne. I don’t have that issue with HiSmile. I’m not sure why, but it’s a huge benefit for me.

Besides toothpaste, HiSmile also have a Whitening Pen which uses their innovative whitening formula PAP+. You can carry it with you and use to whiten your teeth instantly when needed. They also have traditional Whitening Strips that also uses PAP+ and are sensitivity and pain-free. Finally, in addition to the Watermelon flavored toothpaste, they also have Coconut Whip Cream, Mango Sorbet, Peach Iced Tea, Red Velvet, and Smooth Mint.

All the products are available to purchase now either from the dealers website Ultramedgcc.com, through Talabat, or you can pick them up from Sultan Center. For more details, check out @ultramedgcc and @hismile.kw

Eid Sari Al Azemi has a farm in Wafra and proudly calls himself the first banana farmer in Kuwait. While others have grown bananas in Kuwait before, Al Azemi stands out with over 2,000 trees supplying the local market daily with his Kuwait-grown bananas.

Al Azemi initially started with just eight banana trees as an experiment to see how they would turn out. After growing and tasting them, he decided to expand and grow more. Despite his friends and fellow farmers advising him to stick to tomatoes and cucumbers, Al Azemi was determined to innovate. He chose not to follow the crowd and instead pursued his vision of bringing something new to the table. So, he started growing bananas, and not just one kind, he grew bananas from Ecuador, Oman, Philippines, and Turkey.

He considers himself the first banana farmer in Kuwait since he was the first to grow over 1,000 banana trees with plans to expand to 30,000. While bananas are his primary focus, he also cultivates papayas, figs, and mangos. I thought mangos would be the hardest to grow in Kuwait, but interestingly, bananas were the most challenging in his experience.

Right now his bananas aren’t widely available yet due to the limited number he produces. He currently sells to a wholesaler in Sulaibiya but he recommend you pass by his farm and buy directly from him. He says he sells them cheaper than the imported bananas in the market, and you’ll also be getting them straight from the farm.

If you want to pass by his farm, here is a link to it on Google Maps. You can also follow Eid on instagram @kes.1971, and on TikTok @eid_alsari and Twitter @h_asdasd where he is more active

Last week, there was a heated debate in the Kuwait Reddit community about why anyone in Kuwait would get an electric car when fuel is so cheap. Curious to find out for myself, I contacted Mercedes and borrowed an EQS 450 electric SUV for a few days. Now, I think I have an answer.

It turns out EV owners in Kuwait never have to pay to charge their cars.

From what I can tell, all the public charging stations in Kuwait are free. There are currently over 40 different charging locations in Kuwait, including all along the Gulf Road, and in popular spots like The Avenues and 360 Mall. If you work at an office tower like Al Hamra or Al Raya, you also have EV chargers available there. That means you can charge your car for free while you’re at work or out shopping. But, in some apartment buildings like mine, there are power sockets in the parking that residents can use for free. So, when I had the car, I just plugged the car into one of the sockets and charged it overnight at no cost.

I also tried charging at one of the new EV chargers on the Gulf Road to see what that experience was like. They’re located in all the parking lots that were part of the recently refurbished waterfront. I chose to charge at the station next to the Kuwait Towers because I needed a nice shot for this post and it was super easy to use. I didn’t even need to use my own charging cable, the chargers have cables already attached. All I had to do was take the cable and plug it into the car, and it started charging right away.

I’m not saying you should buy an electric car just because you don’t have to pay for fuel. There are many other benefits to owning an EV, but free charging is definitely a nice bonus.

If you ever need an English copywriter, I’d highly recommend a friend of mine, Naz. Naz has been copywriting for over 20 years and was my editor for our school paper, the Voice of AIS, back in the mid-90s. Speaking of which, I need to try and find copies of those if they still exist.

If you’re a business, Naz can help you with your website content, write press releases for you and even help you come up with a name and slogan for your new business. To get in touch with her, send her a message on instagram @nazwriteswell

Four years ago I posted about the Burgan Blowout, an incident that took place back in 1964 and is now long forgotten. The Burgan Blowout was the largest oil well fire in Kuwait before the 1990 invasion. It took six weeks to extinguish and for that short period of time, was the biggest touristic attraction in Kuwait. Since I originally posted about the event I’ve now come across a lot more photos so I’m reposting the story again with a bit more details as well as the new photos.

The explosion took place at Burgan oil well No. 331 on December 29th, 1964. The gas was ignited by a spark as a worker tried to control a sudden upsurge of mud. Once work started on putting out the fire, it became the biggest tourist attraction in Kuwait. So, a plan was put into place to let the public come and see it, but in a controlled manner, so that it was safe and so that no one got in the way.

Once you got to Burgan you followed in a convoy to a designated parking area a safe distance from the fire. You’d then would walk the remaining way towards the viewing grandstands that were set up for the public. According to a reader (John Beresford) who was 10 years old at the time, as they drove towards the oil well, they could hear a moan that kept getting louder and louder. The force of the gas coming up was so powerful it was causing the ground to vibrate, and this was from quite a distance from the well. It was winter but the heat coming off the fire was so strong that the climate was getting warmer as they walked towards the viewing area. The sound was also getting louder to the point where they had to speak more loudly, almost shouting at each other. By the time they reached the viewing area the temperature had increased to a level that was unpleasant causing the skin facing the flames to get quite warm.

A couple of days after the fire started the famous American oil well firefighter Red Adair was called in to help. Adair became notable internationally as an innovator in the specialized and hazardous profession of extinguishing oil well blowouts. Amazingly, at the age of 75, Adair was called again 26 years later to help extinguish the 1991 oil well fires set by retreating Iraqi troops after the Gulf War.

The first image is from the @trmkuwait family archive, the second was taken by the John’s parents, and the remaining black and white photos were provided by @badshaiji

Interesting tidbit, the photo above is of Red Adair (left) and his fellow fire fighter lieutenant Coots Matthews (right). Coots formed his own competing company in 1978 called Boots & Coots. Combined, Red Adair Co. and Boots & Coots were responsible for extinguishing more than a third of the 700 oil well fires set by the retreating Iraqi soldiers in the Gulf War.

This is a collab I didn’t know I needed in my life. I was at The Avenues and noticed that Lush have a new line of Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles soaps from bath bombs to shampoo bars and they look like a lot of fun. They also had a weird soft and icky feeling Krang shower jelly which I think was my favorite item followed by the pizza slices bath bombs.

Kings of Maillard is one of those hidden gems that not many people know about, but it offers really great food. This fairly new concept opened this past February and is a chef-driven fire bistro created by the same team behind one of my favorite restaurants in Kuwait, Oak & Smoke. I’ve visited a few times since their opening, and this past week, I was invited to try their new summer menu.

One of the things I really like about Kings of Maillard is how they manage to blend flavors and influences from different cultures. It’s always interesting having dinner there since I tend to experience new flavors, or at the very least different flavors from my usual. You’re not going to find any sort of maple shrimp or popular pasta on their menu, that’s not what they’re about. Instead, they believe that food should excite, surprise, and delight customers and I think it works. Their long term goal is to eventually get a Michelin Star so that should give you an idea of how dedicated they are to this.

When I passed by earlier this week I got to try a few items from their set menu and ended up leaving with some favorites including the following:

Beef Tartare
nori crisp, green almand, arabic seven spice, shallot, red yuzu koshu

Wood Fire Roasted Cabbage
blue cheese emulsion, brown butter miso hollandaise, pickled apples and shallots, pistachio gremolata

Wagyu Picanha
truffle potato espuma, squid ink butter & dashi emulsion, fried enoki mushrooms

But I’d honestly go back just for the delicious complimentary bread with their pistachio flavored butter on the side.

If you’re looking for a new place to try, Kings of Maillard is open for lunch and dinner and they just launched their summer menu. They’re located in Shuwaikh right next door to Oak & Smoke. Check them out on @kingsofmaillard

Yesterday I started watching the new AppleTV+ show “Sunny” starring Rashida Jones (from parks & rec). Only two episodes are out and my first impression is that I like it. The aesthetics of the show give it a retro 70s vibe but it’s combined with tech from the future so it’s kinda like Fallout in that sense. Worth watching so far.

Also the teaser trailer for season 2 of Severance got released last night, that’s a show I’m looking forward to as well although not sure why release this teaser now when season 2 is scheduled to be released in January next year!

Finally, the trailer for Gladiator II got released this past week and I can’t wait for that movie to come out. I’ve actually only watched the original Gladiator once when it first came out, so I should watch it again now that the sequel is being released.

Let me know in the comments what you recently watched or planning to watch.

Movies at the Cinemas
The movies below are now showing at the local cinemas:

New This Week:
Arcadian (5.5)
Fly Me to the Moon (6.7)
The Last Breath (6.1)

Other Movies Showing:
A Quiet Place: Day One (7.0)
Bad Boys: Ride or Die (6.8)
Despicable Me 4 (6.4)
Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets (Classic) (7.4)
Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone (Classic) (7.6)Inside Out 2 (8.2)
Inside Out 2 (7.9)
Kingdom of the Planet of the Apes (7.4)
The Garfield Movie (5.8)
The Strangers: Chapter 1 (4.7)

The numbers in brackets refer to the IMDB rating at the time of publishing.