2:48AM - Entertaining Kuwait since 2003

It’s been two years since I started using WiMD for my internet and yesterday I went and renewed my connection for the third time. I have a 10Mbps WiMD connection which I love since I’ve rarely ran into problems with it and when I did they were usually fixed right away. My only other option for a reliable internet connection is DSL but my phone line can’t handle anything higher than 2Mbps. The issues I’ve ran into with WiMD are varied but the biggest one is when my connection speed dropped overnight from 10Mbps to under 1Mbps. After coming over and investigating it turned out that a new building had been constructed down the street from mine and blocked my direct line of sight to the WiMD tower. I was lucky enough to get my issued fixed just by moving my receiver on the roof higher up and further to the edge but I’m not sure what I would have done if I couldn’t do that.

Other than that issue my biggest issue with WiMD over the two years has been their prices. They were expensive. When I first subscribed with them it cost me KD523 for a year while the second year was slightly better costing me KD480. But, yesterday when I went to renew my connection it turned out they had lowered their prices substantially and I ended up paying a much more tolerable KD310 for 10Mbps.

KD310 signed me up for their 10Mbps connection with a 200GB download limit every month while the previous two years I had subscribed to their unlimited package. But according to WiMD’s records, the maximum I used the past year was 150GB a month so a 200GB limit was more than I needed. After two years I would still highly recommend WiMD as an alternative to DSL in areas where the DSL speed is severely limited by old infrastructure. You just need to make sure you have a direct line of sight to their tower.

A friend sent me the video below of what are supposedly locusts in the Al-Salmi border area. That’s a lot of locusts…

[YouTube]

I’ve been making an amazing smoothie recently and figured I would share my simple recipe here. It’s very easy to make and really tastes delicious, here is what you need:

– 2 scoops Whey Protein
– 1 large ripe banana
– 5 pieces of frozen strawberries
– 4 pieces of frozen blackberries
– 8 pieces of frozen blueberries
– a spoonful of honey
– 4 large ice cubes
– 150ml water

Put them all in a blender and blend. The smoothie comes out pretty thick and the quantity is enough for two people although I drink the whole thing myself. For the Whey Protein I use the strawberry flavored VPX SRO Zero Carb Protein which you can find locally at Health Planet. For the frozen fruits you can find them at Sultan Center and they’re pretty economically priced. Finally, you could replace the 150ml water with almond or soy milk but you really don’t need to.

For those of you with Gulfnet who were having difficulties accessing my site, everything seems to be back to normal again. I tried to contact them to figure out what was going on but their email form on the website kept giving an error so I contacted them on twitter and facebook but they ignored me and when I finally called them up to complain, the customer support rep told me he couldn’t file a complaint for me because I wasn’t a customer. So thanks to everyone who contacted them about this, my guess is my blog was blocked accidentally or they had some technical issue.

Over the weekend I finally got around to watching the movie ‘Saving Mr Banks’ and I have to say I was completely taken by surprise with how good it was. The movie is about the author P.L. Travers who wrote the Mary Poppins book and deals with her childhood as well as her dealings with Walt Disney who wanted to adapt her book into a movie. Because of the subject of the movie I was expecting it to feel like a Disney movie or a movie aimed towards children which is why I was taken aback when I realized it wasn’t.

The movie stars a ton of great actors including Tom Hanks, Emma Thompson, Colin Farrell, Paul Giamatti, B.J. Novak and Jason Schwartzman. Saving Mr Banks is an emotional roller coaster ride and never seems to slowdown or get boring in the full 2 hours of the movie. If you haven’t watched it yet you should do yourself a favor and get it and don’t worry if you’ve never watched the original Mary Poppins movie, you’ll still understand everything. [IMDB]

A couple of weeks back an announcement was made regarding a commission by the National Council for Culture, Arts and Letters on Kuwait’s pavilion at the 14th Venice International Architecture Biennale that will take place from June 7 until November 23, 2014. I was planning to go to the announcement and ended up missing it but luckily someone shot the whole thing on video and put it online.

Aqcuiring Modernity_Kuwait Pavilion from youraok on Vimeo.

Depending on if you’re interested in Kuwait’s history or not, this video can end up be very boring or very interesting to watch. I personally found it interesting which is why I am posting it here but I might be bit biased since I have friends who’re taking part in this project. If you want to get into the presentation right away just skip to the 3:25 minute mark.

Udupi is a popular Indian restaurant with a few branches located around Kuwait. I recently found out there was one that was fairly close to my home in Salmiya so I ended up passing by there with a friend for dinner. Even though we went mid week the place was packed and we had to wait for a table to free up. It’s a hole in the wall place with two different seating areas, you have the main area where the entrance is and which also has a large window overlooking the busy kitchen, and then another seating area in the back which I personally think is claustrophobic since there are no windows.

The menu is vegetarian based and and made up mostly of South Indian dishes like Vada, Upma, Dosas and Thalis along with a few rice dishes. We ended up ordering a bunch of things including the Thali (which is unlimited refill) but what had to stick out the most for me was the Gobi Manchurian, a fried cauliflower dish which tasted more Chinese than Indian. It was delicious and I’m not even a cauliflower fan.

The waiters don’t really speak English and the menu is just a list of items with their prices so your best bet when ordering is:

1) to go there with someone who knows what everything is
2) use google to try and figure out what everything is
3) order by looking around the restaurant and point at peoples dishes
4) Russian roulette, just choose items off the menu without knowing what you’re ordering

One thing I’m curious about and maybe someone here can answer has to do with the tea. The tea comes in a steel cup with a steel bowl and everybody at the place was using the two to drink the tea. They would pour the tea from the cup into the bowl and then back into the cup and they kept doing that over and over as they were drinking. I figured this was either to keep mixing the tea or it was a way to cool it down.

The place if very affordable with the most expensive dish on the menu being a special Thali which is only available on Fridays and costs KD1.5. In comparison, a regular Thali is just KD1 while the Vada is 300fils, Gobi Manchurian 900fils and a plain Dosa just 550fils. Other than the Gobi Manchurian, everything else I had I thought Saravanaa Bhavan did better. But Udupi is a lot cheaper and it’s also basically walking distance from my house which makes it much more convenient for me. The Udupi I went to was in Salmiya [Map] but as I mentioned earlier they have a bunch of locations around Kuwait and you can check out the full list [Here]. Definitely worth checking out.

Kuwait’s Ministry of Interior has started the implementation of a comprehensive plan to ease traffic jams and congestion and lessen road accidents, which includes 15 projects aimed at ensuring smooth flow of traffic throughout the country through the installation of CCTV cameras to closely monitor the traffic movement.

One main aspect of these projects is the functioning of the Central Control Room (CCR) of the Operations Department at the General Department for Traffic Affairs in the Ministry of Interior. Currently, there are more than 300 intersections in Kuwait and the CCR is connected to and can control 180 of the main intersections through 72 cameras, with near future plans to sign a contract to install an additional 100 CCTV cameras at various locations.

[YouTube]

One thing I’m curious about after watching this news report is why nothing is being done to stop people from driving down the emergency lanes on the highways. It’s an issue that happens frequently and one that doesn’t seem to be dwindling down.

Kuwait is expecting unwelcomed guests next week – swarms of desert locusts are set to arrive to the country due to climate change and increased temperature, a veteran meteorologist said. The swarms are expected to be considerably large compared to recent years, according to forecasts by “some environmental and agricultural groups”, said Dr Saleh Al-Ojairi in a statement Monday. [Source]

Deep-fried locust anyone?

Last week a car crashed into a juice store called Frullato and it was captured by the shops security camera. That guy on the left is incredibly lucky, check it below.

[YouTube]

via Frankom

If the car started off on the right hand side of the ditch, the front wheels should have gotten stuck before the rear. But, if it reversed into the ditch from the left side, how did it get over that dirt hill?

via @instaq8cars

Although it was a lot more popular in the 80s and 90s, ice skating can still be fun if you go with a group of friends and when you want to escape the summer heat. The place is usually empty and theres a McDonalds there plus Fat Burger and Maki across the street if you want to combine it with lunch or dinner. Below are the timings and prices:

Skating Sessions:
8:30AM to 10:00AM
10:30AM to 12:00PM
12:30PM to 2:00PM
2:30PM to 4:00PM
4:30PM to 6:00PM
6:30PM to 8:00PM
8:30PM to 10:00PM

Fees:
Entrance + Ice Skates – KD1.500
None Skating Escort – KD0.500
Monthly Membership – KD40.000
Lessons – KD10 for 4×30 minute lessons
Skate sharpening – KD1.000
Lockers small/large – KD0.250/KD0.500

Telephone: 22411151/2/3

Last month I was contacted by Bazaar for an in depth interview for their May issue. That issue is out now and if you’ve ever wanted to know more about me or my personal views on the whole blogging thing, check it out either by picking up a copy from one of their many locations (like Starbucks) or read it online [Here]

Thursday
Exhibition: 50 Years of Printmaking
GAME Expo 2014
Cinemagics Rooftop Movie: Frances Ha
*CANCELED*
Friday
GAME Expo 2014

Saturday
GAME Expo 2014
3rd French Short Movie Festival
Guided Tour: Grand Mosque
Cinemagics Rooftop Movie: Nostalghia

Photo above by Allan Santiago

It’s pretty staggering how high these drones can fly! Check out the video below to see a guy fly his drone higher than the Liberation Tower.

The Liberation Tower – kuwait city from husain_ on Vimeo.