2:48AM - Entertaining Kuwait since 2003

If you missed the Cinderella Pantomime by Staged in Kuwait last week they’ve now uploaded the full video of the show online. Here is the video description:

SIK bring a brand new Cinderella script to the stage for their third pantomime, weaving some fun new characters into the age old tale in a story aimed to entertain the whole family. Sadly the video of this production was shot at the last performance against the backdrop of an extremely noisy audience who did not know how to behave in a theatre. One of the many problems we have yet to overcome in Kuwait.

To watch the video of the performance click [Here]

Back in July I posted that according to one of my sources, SaveCo supermarket would be getting Tesco products. Turns out my source was correct since yesterday while checking out the British Ambassadors instagram account, I spotted the photo above of SaveCo with an ad mentioning they now carry Tesco products.

I’m not interested in any Tesco products but if you are now you know where to get them from.

Today I thought we’d try something different – and throw conversation open for all of you to Ask Me Anything. For those of you familiar with reddit, you may recognize the idea.

I’m happy to take questions on any subject you want. If I can’t answer openly (which I will always try to do) I shall say so.

Please ask away – it’s good to talk!

Post by Matthew Lodge
British Ambassador to Kuwait
Instagram: @HMAMatthewLodge Twitter: @HMAMatthewLodge

Update: AMA session is now closed

Can anyone confirm if Oprah is in Kuwait? I got an email from a reader telling me she was at Avenues yesterday. If she is in Kuwait anyone know why?

Update: Turns out its the Oprah Winfrey lookalike Caroline Hodge [Link]

A video posted by جرايمq8 (@jraymq8) on Dec 12, 2014 at 12:04pm PST

A truly below-the-belt incident has taken place in Kuwait after one player was spotted jabbing his finger up an opponent’s bum mid-game.

Both players fall to the floor after contesting an aerial ball, and one doesn’t take too kindly to the challenge as he commits what might just already be the weirdest foul of the season.

There also appears to be a hint of a bite in there as well, and the victim unsurprisingly reacts pretty angrily to the whole incident.

Bizarre. [Source]

Hahahahahahaha WTF.

Thanks Ammar

The British Ambassador Matthew Lodge will be holding an Ask Me Anything (AMA) session today as part of his weekly “Mondays with Matthew” posts. The AMA session will be open from 4:30PM to 6:00PM at which time the British Ambassador will be online to answer any questions you might have. So if there is anything you’ve always been curious about and wanted to know the answer to, this will be your chance to ask him. So don’t forget its from 4:30PM to 6:00PM.

Dashboard cameras are cameras you mount in your car and record everything that takes place in front of you while you’re driving. I’ve been wanting to get a dash cam for sometime now but majority of the dash cams I had seen online were cheap looking no name ones. Although they were all very affordable and some had even gotten some great reviews, I was holding out for something better. If I was going to mount the camera on my windshield and have it in my face all day, I wanted something that at least looked decent and well made. Then out of the blue Garmin announced they were releasing a dash cam one day and I knew that was the one I was getting.

I’ve had the Garmin Dash Cam 10 for a few weeks now so I feel ready to give it a proper review.

[YouTube]

As expected, like all their products the Garmin Dash Cam is very well built. The unit feels very solid and looks great… until you mount it up on your windshield that is. I had a Garmin Navigator previously mounted in my car and it looked really sleek. I had the USB power cable come up from behind the dash board and plug in to the rear of the unit and because the suction cup is behind the unit the navigator looked like it was floating in front of the windshield. In my head I imagined the same would apply to the dash cam but I couldn’t have been so wrong. Even though the Garmin Dash Cam is pretty compact, once you connect the large suction cup to it and mount it into place it instantly doubles in height and becomes quite bulky. Then to make matters worse is the location of the USB plug, it plugs into the bottom right hand side of the device. That means I have ugly wire clutter around the unit adding to the overall visual pollution I now have on my windshield. I don’t understand why Garmin couldn’t have found a better solution, it’s like the designer who worked on the unit didn’t take anything into consideration. I mean they should have know people would most likely mount the dash cam on the left side of the windshield near the driver like everyone does with their navigators or that they will be mounted in the center of the windshield. So why would you have the power plug on the right? Wouldn’t it make sense to have it either on the left, the back side (like with my Garmin Navigator) or on the top left side of the device?

With those negatives out of the way it’s time to talk about some of the positives. The device works great. I have my unit set up to turn on and start recording automatically when I start the car and then to shutoff and stop recording when I turn off the car. I also have it set up so that once the memory card runs out of space to start recording over older videos. That means the dash cam operates continuously without any sort of action from me which is very convenient.

[YouTube]

The video quality isn’t anything close to say GoPro quality but then again these videos serve a different purpose. The camera can record up to 1080p and as you can see in the sample videos the license plates are easy to read both during the day and night. Obviously having a clean and crack free windshield improves the quality and in my videos you can see one of my window cracks on the right side of the footage which is a bit annoying but there isn’t anything I can do about it.

The Garmin Dash Cam 10 costs $200 which is really expensive compared to other more popular no brand dash cams. I originally didn’t mind paying this much because I expected a product that would be visually pleasing when mounted but now I know the Garmin is overpriced. The quality of the footage isn’t so different from the no name dash cams neither is the operating method so the Garmin really doesn’t have a major advantage to cost this much. But, since I already bought mine its too late for me but for anybody else I’d recommend they look at the alternatives carefully before deciding on the garmin.

For those interested, here is the dash cam on [Amazon]
They have the Dash Cam 20 as well which comes with GPS and records other data like your speed. I would recommend not going with that option if you tend to speed a lot.

I was just catching up on the news and found out about this sad incident. Not sure what more has to happen for the authorities to start cracking down on people keeping dangerous wildlife as pets.

A Filipino domestic helper died in Kuwait days after she was attacked by her employer’s pet lion, a report on “24 Oras” said Thursday.

The report said Lourdes Abejuela was brought to a hospital after she was attacked by the lion, which escaped from its cage, but she was immediately discharged.

Quoting Abejuela’s friend, the report said the domestic helper, who had been working with the same employer for years, experienced headaches days after the discharge.

This reportedly prompted Abejuela’s employer to bring her back to the hospital, where she died Wednesday.

The report said investigation is ongoing to determine the Filipino woman’s cause of death.

[Source]

I just realized it’s Friday and that yesterday I forgot to post the activities list for this weekend. So better late than never here is the list for today and tomorrow:

Friday
Musica: Evita
KLL Car Boot Sale
Standup Comedy: Warehouse No. 005
Music: Karen Edwards

Saturday
The Secret Garden Project
Bright Minds Winter Bazaar
Kreate 4.0
Rooftop Movie: Synecdoche, New York

Back in October I posted about a new Argentinian restaurant that was opening up called La Brasa and I was just told it’s now officially open. La Brasa is an Argentinian Grill owned by the popular local photographer Gustavo Ferrari who’s been living in and documenting Kuwait for 38 years now. He was always known for holding amazing barbecues and so he finally decided to open up his own place. All the meat is imported straight from Argentina and everything I tried during the tasting I went to was delicious.

The restaurant is located in the basement of Dar Al Awadi in Kuwait City and are open daily from 12PM to 11PM. On Friday’s they open at 7PM only if they have any bookings otherwise for the time being they’re close. Their instagram account is @labrasaq8

I’m at the airport now on my way to Cape Town for a week long vacation. I will be posting while there but very lightly since I will be at the beach most of the day. Sorry not sorry.

Snapchat has really been picking up traction in Kuwait recently and I’m finding it a lot more enjoyable than Instagram. Just like on Instagram, I only follow my friends on Snapchat and I mostly use Snapchat for the stories. For those of you who don’t know how Snapchat works, there are two ways, the first is you send a self destructing video or image to a friend directly and the second is by adding an image or video to your stories wall which then self destruct after 24 hours. It’s actually pretty annoying to get a direct snap (unless nudity is involved) since you get a notification every time but right now 99% of the people I follow only use stories.

Recently I’ve also started following Snapchat celebrities. The first one I followed was Sheikh Majed Al-Sabah (Snapchat: majedalsabah) based on a recommendation. His snapchats are like a reality show of his life and he snaps an average of like a 1,000 seconds a day which is just insane. The second Snapchat celebrity I started following was Bibi Alabdulmohsen (Snapchat: bibii_63). I’m not a big fan of her Instagram but I met her yesterday and found out she was on Snapchat so I started following her. Surprisingly, not only am I finding her really entertaining to watch but she’s also pretty hilarious and really good at Snapchat. She has an advice segment similar to “Dear Abby” where people ask her for her opinion and she replies with very witty and funny comments. Definitely worth following.

Both those Snapchat accounts are in Arabic so for non-Arabic speakers they won’t be very useful. But, if you have any recommendation of interesting local Snapchatters to follow (English or Arabic) let me know in the comments.

Today – 9 December – is United Nations’ World Anti-Corruption Day. Is this just another “World Day”, or is it something that really matters and that we should take an interest in?

Before you answer that, let me note a few things about Kuwait that I have learned or have been reminded of since arriving in the summer:

Kuwait is an open society, with a rich history built on trade and commerce. Kuwait’s political system is more open and genuinely democratic than almost all of its neighbours in the region. This is a society with an independent judiciary, where Kuwaitis believe in the rule of law, value their rights and cherish their ability to express their views openly and freely. Kuwait is also a rich country – with abundant wealth which the Government uses to provide extensive, high quality services for Kuwaiti citizens. Kuwaiti assets are invested across the world and in international markets. But not all Kuwaitis are rich. Kuwait, like all societies in the modern world, needs to think about how best it can maintain social harmony and address the legitimate expectations of all its people.

True? I believe so. You may argue some points of detail, but the key elements are accurate.

So let’s now turn to corruption, former UN Secretary General Kofi Annan said:

“Corruption…undermines democracy and the rule of law, leads to violations of human rights, distorts markets, erodes the quality of life and allows organised crime, terrorism and other threats to human security to flourish…corruption hurts the poor disproportionately by diverting funds intended for development, undermining a government’s ability to provide basic services, feeding inequality and injustice”

Undermining democracy? Distorting markets? Undermining a government’s ability to provide services? Feeding inequality and injustice?

Left unchecked, those strike me as pretty serious risks for any society. I would argue that tackling corruption is something that should matter to us all – British, Kuwaiti or whatever our home or nationality. No country is immune. Corruption is present in every society.

Some may argue that it is part of every-day life, necessary to get things done. Even if it is, sadly, true to say that a favour here, a back-hander there can help to get things done, that doesn’t make it right. It doesn’t change the fact that corruption erodes trust between people, within societies, between businesses and amongst nations. Corruption diverts resources from where they are most needed, fuelling inequality and holding back development. Corruption also stifles economic growth and investment, and it increases the cost of doing business.

So what are we going to do about it?

Kuwait signed the United Nations Convention against Corruption in December 2003, and today the Kuwaiti Government is taking concrete steps with the establishment of Kuwait’s Anti-Corruption Public Authority. This body – and the wider fight against corruption – deserves our full support.

What are you going to do? Do you think corruption is a problem? Do you even have a clear view on what is and isn’t corruption? How do you think we can help combat it? It’s down to each of us individually to take a stand, and try to make a difference.

Post by Matthew Lodge
British Ambassador to Kuwait
Instagram: @HMAMatthewLodge Twitter: @HMAMatthewLodge

Over the weekend two local rugby teams competed in the Gulf Men’s Open that was held in Dubai, the Kuwait Lions RFC (pictured below) and the Kuwait Scorpions (pictured above). Not only did both teams perform really well but the Kuwait Scorpions went all the way and won the Gulf Men’s Open tournament!

The Kuwait Scorpions team was established in Kuwait back in the 1940s and it’s great that they’re not only still around, but they’re also kicking ass. Here is a link to the Kuwait Scorpions Facebook page and here is the link to the Kuwait Lions RFC page.

Not sure how I missed this when I watched Interstellar two weeks ago but Cinescape has a new logo. Not sure how I feel about it since I just saw it now for the first time but side by side with their older logo it looks like a step in the right direction.

The new logo along with the website gives the brand a much needed facelift, it looks brighter and more current than their previous logo which I really liked back when it was first introduced. One thing I’m curious about it where is the Arabic version? Their website uses the same English logo for both the English and Arabic sections and I didn’t spot the Arabic logo on their Instagram account either. Curious if they’ve decided to completely drop the Arabic (which I don’t mind honestly).

In any case maybe Avenues can give them a call and find out who did their branding because two years later and the Avenues logo still looks like crap.