2:48AM - Entertaining Kuwait since 2003

Spotted these 4 streaks in the sky on the way to Kuwait City this morning. No idea what they are…

‘Playtime’ is a short film by Kuwaiti writer and filmmaker Hamad Al-Tourah. The film is about Matthew, 10, who lives with his mother in Kuwait. One night, when his mother leaves him alone, Matthew finds company in Dalal, a Kuwaiti girl who lives down the street and eventually makes a plan to escape with her. If you’re interested the film is going to be screened tonight at Cinemagics at 6:45PM. Here are the details:

Date: Thursday, December 26th 2013
Time: 6:45PM
Location: Cinemagic Rooftop [Map]

Make sure you wear something warm since this will be a rooftop showing. Here is a link to the [Trailer]

The Shakshooka market is not taking place tonight but instead will be taking place this coming Saturday from 1PM to 4PM at Bayt Lothan. Alongside their regular farmers market they’re going to be holding their first ever cookout as well.

Don’t forget to bring cash and a carrying bag if you will be buying stuff. Also bring picnic blankets this time as well.

Date: Saturday, December 28th 2013
Time: 1PM to 4PM
Location: Bayt Lothan [Map]

Photo above by @faisalthef

Beautiful commercial for the upcoming International Forum for Islamic Art which is going to be held from December 29th to January 9th 2014.

This is going to be the 6th time the forum is being held in Kuwait. The forum will feature various exhibitions and workshops but sadly all the information I could find was in Arabic so I don’t have the exact specifics of whats taking place. If you do read Arabic though you can check out the official website for this event which has the full schedule of all the activities [Here]

I’m not a big fan of local home businesses, but that probably has to do more with the fact that most just sell different implementations of cupcakes and don’t really bring anything new to the local food scene. Pasticceria Di Pietro on the other hand is something new and going by the photos alone looks very appetizing.

According to the website, Pasticceria Di Pietro is the first family business Sicilian pastry shop in Kuwait owned by married couple, Mays and Luciano Di Pietro. They sell Sicilian Cannoli’s which are hand-rolled, crispy golden pastry shells filled with different cream stuffings.

I haven’t tried them out yet since they just started taking orders yesterday but their prices start from KD1 for the small sized cannoli up to KD1.750 for the larger ones with chocolate shells. If you’re interested, you can order directly from their website [Here]

Thanks Mohi

I’ve had my Toyota FJ Cruiser for more than 3 years now and after just completing my 80,000KM service I think I’m in a good position to write a review about my experience with the dealer. My biggest concern when originally getting the FJ was the local dealers success. They sell a ton of cars everyday and I was worried I wouldn’t get any attention or be given any importance as a customer after the sale was completed. I was also concerned because of the amount of cars they sell, a simple oil change might be a very time consuming process. I got those concerns and more answered and they’re in my review below which I’ve divided into 4 parts; the buying experience, the quick service experience, the spare parts/service prices and finally the customer service.

The Buying Experience
This is by the far their weakest aspect. I purchased my FJ from their large showroom in Al-Rai, it’s not a pretty showroom and the cars are just lined up side by side like a supermarket shelf. They seem to have very few salesman and too many customers. I don’t think there is any other dealership in Kuwait that gets as crowded as the Toyota dealership. Not a good starting experience, but everything actually gets a lot better once you do buy a car.

Quick Service
If the buying experience was the weakest aspect, their quick service garages are their strongest. After buying my FJ I was given a list of quick service locations around Kuwait which I could go to to service my car. I found my preferred quick service location and started to pass by over the weekends to get my oil changed and the experience wasn’t that great since there would always be a long line. Then I found out that my quick service garage would actually stay open till 9PM and that’s when things became so much better. I just started passing by in the middle of the week during the evenings and the quick service garage would be completely empty. Actually, even if you pass by during the day in the middle of the week there would probably be just one car ahead of you, super convenient.

Spare Parts / Service Prices
I just performed my 80,000KM service which according to the service employee is the most expensive service for my car. I paid KD200 and that price included changing front and rear brake pads. A regular oil change also costs me I think like KD11 (my FJ takes 7 liters of oil). I had also purchased a discounted service package right after buying the car which lasted me till 60,000KM. Basically if the total amount of services was going to cost me say KD450 over the years, they offered me to pay around KD250 in advance and all my services would be covered till 60,000. They even offered me another discounted package when that had expired but I decided not to take it since I wasn’t sure if I was going to keep my FJ for another 3 years.

Customer Service
I love the customer service at Toyota from small things like getting a phone call to remind me about my car services to more complicated things like customer treatment. I actually had a really good experience with one of their employees just last week which is what actually led me to wanting to write this whole review. I won’t go into details because it’s a bit complicated to explain the whole scenario, but basically the service advisor called me and told me my car would be ready at 1PM the following day. I tried to push for the car to be done by 12PM since I had a meeting at 2PM and the service advisor said he would try his best. Next day I headed to Avenues which is near my service center to kill some time. 12:45PM the service advisor calls me to tell me my car is done but I would have to pass by after 2PM to pick it up because they have to wash it and the service center closes between 1 and 2PM for lunch. I got super pissed and told him how he had promised me to have the car done at 1PM even though I was pushing for 12. I also told him he should have told me they had a lunch break from 1 to 2PM since I could have been at the service center before 1PM to wait for my car to be ready. I told him I was at the Avenues now and would need more than 15 minutes to get to my car and then to get to the service center. He told me not to worry and that he wouldn’t go on his lunch break and I could come by between 1 and 2PM to pick up the car but that it wouldn’t be washed (which wasn’t an issue at all for me). So I got there around 1:15PM and the employee was extremely professional with me. Even though everyone else was on a lunch break, he got all my paperwork signed and walked me himself to the cashier and the collection point and then even brought up my car from the garages basement himself. I told him I was really impressed at how professional he was and loved how he managed to keep his composure while I was blowing up on him on the phone (I can be a dick when I’m pissed). I was really impressed and I don’t get impressed.

At first I thought I would email the dealer my feedback on my experience but then I was like you know what, it’s been three years of great service and people generally tend to write about stuff when things go wrong (like me with my bank last week). So I figured I would take the time and write up a review about my positive experience with a company in Kuwait. If you’re considering getting a car from Toyota, you should know you’re also probably getting the best after sales service as well.

This actually makes me want to fly with Kuwait Airways. Check out @dali_duran’s instagram account for more of his videos. [Link]

A few years ago I posted about Abdullah Al-Moussawi (Sayed in Europe), an 11 year old Kuwaiti boy with incredible football skills. Someone had uploaded a video of him on YouTube playing football and the video ended up catching the eye of a football scout in Holland who later tried to get Sayed to move and train in Holland. Sayed became a sensation in Holland and was given the nickname “the Pearl of Arabia”. But, there was a bit of controversy and the move never happened. You could read my old post for the full story [Here]

I just wanted to post an update on Sayed. Even though he didn’t end up moving to Holland he was flying there every now and then to train with the top Dutch club SBV Excelsior. But last Wednesday, the director of TT (TrainingTrips.eu), an organization affiliated with professional players and football clubs (among them FC Feyenoord, Ajax, Manchester City, Liverpool, Club Brugge and FC Barcelona), welcomed Sayed into the organization and will now be taking care of his football career.

According to Jeroen Gösgens the director;

“Sayed has the potential to make it as a professional player. That’s why we’re convinced that it’s vital to make the next step right now. We work exclusive with top- talents and academies throughout Europe and it’s in our strong believe that any delay at this stage of the process won’t be in the best interest of Sayed’s development.

Since the first time that we saw him play 5 years ago, we’ve followed him carefully and now he’s ready to make the next step. Therefor his attendance at a pro-academy is an absolute requirement for his career.

We’re confident about Sayed’s motivation and capacity. Our expectations of Sayed are high. We only work with our own selected players and make no concessions whatsoever in this regard.

That Sayed comes from Kuwait is special in the way that we never had a player from the Gulf Region before. However, we want to convey him because of his exceptional- talent, determination and passion for the game. Considering that Sayed has reached his current level basically on his own strength with just help from his father, family and friends is already an amazing accomplishment by itself. We’re happy to welcome Sayed in our ‘family’ and will support him in every way to become what he really wants to achieve; being a valuable, creative player in a major league in Europe.”

It’s a pretty cool outcome and an incredible story considering all this started because of his low res YouTube video and with no support locally.

Early on in the month I posted my favorite tracks of the year and after a bit of a struggle I’ve managed to choose my top 10 albums of the year which I’ve listed below. I use the word struggle because there were quite a few good albums this year but in the end, the albums below were the ones that meant the most to me. I’ve also taken the liberty to arrange them in order of my favorite the Jon Hopkins – Immunity album being my most favorite. It’s just a ridiculously good album and one that I spent a lot of time listening to. Check out my top 10 albums below, I’ve even gone ahead and pulled out a track from each album so you could listen to it.

1- Jon Hopkins – Immunity

2- White Lies – Big TV

3- Moderat – II

Local newspapers today are reporting that the Ministry of Commerce and Industries is working on providing a service for locals to apply/obtain commercial permits online. The Municipality, Fire Departments and Civil Services will all be connected online. It should be up and running early next year and it will take a lot less time and a lot less paper work to get things done. It’s a system that’s already in place in neighboring countries like UAE and Qatar. [Source]

Post by Fajer Ahmed – Legal Counsel
The legal opinions expressed in this post are those of the author Fajer. Opinions expressed by Mark or any other writer on mark248am1.wpenginepowered.com are those of the individual’s and in no way reflect Fajer’s opinion.

According to Kuwait Times, the zoo is going to start selling some of their animals because they have too many of them and not enough space. My recommendation is to go for a Pygmy Goat, they’re just too damn cute (they’d make great funny YouTube videos). [Link]

Those white decorative stones that have started appearing around various streets in Kuwait… yeah they’re not the best idea in the world.

What I liked about this video other than the realism and the location is the fact they used a drone to shoot some of the footage. [YouTube]

I spotted the flyer above stuck on a wall near Sultan Center Shaab and thought it was pretty thoughtful. A quick check of the instagram account @santanimals reveals its an account with the goal to help stray animals in Kuwait as well as creating awareness on animals in general. A great initiative.

Not sure when this took place but according to the guy in the video, the bus lost control and slammed into a parked red car before coming to a stop just outside the Centro Electronics store in Kuwait City. [YouTube]