2:48AM - Entertaining Kuwait since 2003
PinkGirlQ8 spotted a Shake Shack coming soon hoarding outside Fanar Mall in Salmiya. I thought the location was a bit odd but I guess they want to drive traffic away from the Johnny Rockets branch that’s just a few shops away.
I also found out the Harvey Nichols launch date at Avenues Phase III is now confirmed to be around end of September early October. This will be their first store in Kuwait.
According to AlMaha, Pink Moon Boutique are inviting graffiti artists to come and spray paint the exterior wall of their shop located in the Seef strip near Slider Station. That should be interesting to see how the wall is going to be shared with different artists. For more information check out the post on AlMaha [Here]
I’ve seen shops and restaurants closed down by the Ministry before but never a whole supermarket.
Thanks Quintin
This was in the paper around 10 days back but I just read about it on “Traveler’s Random Mental Wanderings & Contemplations”
A man was taken to the Psychiatric Hospital after coastguards plucked him out of the sea where he had been, reportedly, looking for mermaid. Coastguards reported to the scene, near the Messilah Beach, following reports of a man walking into the sea with his clothes on in what passersby thought was a suicide attempt. After the man was located and rescued, he told officers that he was simply looking for a mermaid he believes to be in the area. After failing to convince the adamant man out of his plans, the officers offered to help him go to another beach and search for mermaids there. Their ploy worked and they instead escorted the man to the mental facility.
Pretty strange and funny. Anyway check out “Traveler’s Random Mental Wanderings & Contemplations”, I just started reading it awhile ago and so far I find the guy really entertaining to read. [Link]
Friday at Salhia from Moayad Hassan
I love that area of Kuwait City even though most of it is falling apart. Lots of life.
For the past 10 days I’ve been sleeping on an AeroBed Mattress while waiting for my furniture to arrive and I think I’ve spent enough time with it to give it a proper review. I purchased the AeroBed mattress from Ace Hardware and brought it with me here to Lebanon since I wasn’t sure where I could find them here. Ace had two or three different versions but this queen sized AeroBed was the only one that came with a motor to inflate it. The other air mattresses required the purchase of a separate pump (different options available) but I didn’t want the headache and instead wanted an all in one solution.
The air mattress came in a small box that included a storage bag and aqn electrical pump. I had to purchase a 220v to 110v converter since the electrical pump that was included in the box worked on the US standard 110v. To inflate the mattress it’s a very simple process, just plug the pump into an electrical socket and then place the pump over the plastic ring located on the side of the mattress and rotate until it locks into place. Once the pump locks into place it will automatically activate and start pumping air. The mattress starts inflating instantly and within 60 seconds it’s ready to use. If you prefer the mattress to be firm you can let the air pump work for another minute or two before removing it.
The mattress is surprisingly comfortable and I really wasn’t expecting it to be. The top side of the mattress has a velvety texture which allows the bedsheet cover to grip onto it stopping it from sliding around. That combined with a coil construction (the mattress isn’t flat but has large dimples) helps reduce the feeling that you’re sleeping on what basically is a large balloon. The only negative thing I found is that the sides of the mattress are not very firm so if you get too close to the edge there is a high chance of the edge folding under your weight resulting in you rolling off it in the middle of the night.
If you’ve got relatives coming over for a visit or if you have friend’s come over often then this could actually be a practical solution. When deflated the bed takes up very little space and when inflated it’s actually very comfortable. I wouldn’t recommend it for camping just because it requires a power source to inflate. The cost of the AeroBed was around KD30 for the queen sized version and I found it at Ace Hardware. Here’s a link to the [Product Page]
[Source]
Update: Here is a video of the fire from yesterday. According to a reader who works opposite the building everyone was fleeing the area surrounding the building because fireballs started flying out. You actually see the fireballs in the video below which started hitting car shades on the street below and also the building nearby which also caught fire. Haven’t been able to find any information on the fire in any of the English papers as of now.
[YouTube]
Update2: Here is another video with photos of the fire.
The International Associations of Multidisciplinary Research (IAMURE) measured both the noise and air pollution levels in Kuwait and concluded that the pollutants in the air are reasonably low while on the other hand the measured ambient noise levels were pretty high.
The noise levels were measured in 10 different locations during various times of the day and week but they don’t mention which locations they chose. I live in Salmiya right on the main shopping street and never really thought it was very noisy or at least not nosier than any other city anywhere in the world. I’d be more interested in the pollution levels of the sea now that summer is here.
You can read their full findings on their webpage [Here]
In just 2 hours, our team of 2 volunteers and 1 staff collected 21 bagfuls of waste weighing a total of approx. 130 kgs waste. This stretch of Doha beach – home to migratory birds, colonies of mudskippers and many different crabs – is presently polluted with debris left behind by spring campers, including upto 6 intact toilet installations. Our team focused on clearing over 200 sandbags in over an hour, hacking each plastic bag open and dislodging the sand. Remarkable dedication by our volunteers Ching and Fahad!
Great initiative and this is with just 2 volunteers. [Link]
The Kuwait national women volleyball team will head to China Saturday to participate in the third Asian beach volleyball tournament, scheduled June 12-22. In statements KUNA, Chairwoman of Kuwaiti Women Sports Federation Sheikha Naeema AlAhmad AlJaber AlSabah said Kuwait will be represented in the event with two teams, each comprises two players Sheikha Naeema that the Federation was keen to participate in the Asian tournament to show the progress of women’s sports in Kuwait and to enrich players expertise to improve their performance in coming international championships.
But out of adherence to Islam’s teachings and Kuwait players will wear modest uniform,” she said” Sheikha Naeema noted that the Federation had prepared well for the tournament through an intensive training program for players and the participation in the Arab women volleyball championship that was held recently in Jordan. [Source]
Firstly I didn’t know Kuwait had a women’s beach volleyball team and secondly what exactly is a modest uniform? It’s a sport that takes place on the beach so I can’t imagine them being covered up too much. I tried to find pictures online of the team but didn’t have any luck. I also tried to find a random picture of a women’s beach volleyball match that didn’t involve a skimpy two piece swimsuit but also didn’t have any luck. I imagine they might be wearing a burkini (pictured above)?
The total number of active Twitter users in Arab countries is now up to 1,311,882, says new data through to March of this year. Kuwait leads the way with a Twitter population penetration of some 8.13 percent, ahead of Bahrain (4.28 percent), Qatar (2.22 percent), the UAE (2.16 percent) and Saudi Arabia (1.37 percent).
Kuwait sent almost sixty million tweets in the month of March. The most popular topic across all Arab countries was the #Bahrain hashtag.
That’s alot of tweets. [Source]
The other day I posted about the new camera system that’s going to be active starting the 15th of June, well I just found out from The Buz Fairy that they’re talking about the First Ring Road average speed cameras that were installed back in 2010. Not sure what took them so long to activate them.
When I started blogging back in 2003 I really didn’t want to do it. My friend proposed the idea and I told him I thought blogging was stupid but I’d try it just for fun. Now, a decade later I’ve left my full time job at an ad agency to blog for a living instead.
Some people saw this coming, others are a bit surprised and many don’t really understand how blogging can be a job. Honestly even I’m having difficulties grasping that concept even though it’s a really simple idea.
I used to work from 9 in the morning till 7 in the evening and three times a week I had gym from 8 to 9 so I never had time for anything else. I never had time to go meet with people, pass by art exhibitions or even see my friends. Now that blogging will be my full time job I should have a lot more time to do all the things I wanted to but never had time for.
Things aren’t that simple since without a “real” job I can’t get my residency renewed and banks also don’t seem to like me unless I have a salary coming in every month. But I’m working on it.
Other than that issue I’m looking forward to this since I’ll have so much more free time on my hands to do whatever I want. I might help Nat out with her work, I’m thinking of maybe doing my Masters, taking one hour Muay Thai sessions at Core, signing up again at Sidekick for some Jujitsu and maybe even take Scuba diving lessons or some other activity I previously never had time for. One thing I’ve always wanted to do is ditch work and drive to Entertainment City instead. I can’t ditch work anymore since I no longer have a job but maybe I can wake up in the morning and pretend I’m going to work and then go to Entertainment City? I don’t know I’ll have to see how I can get that idea working right.
But, more importantly, I will now have a lot more time to focus on this blog, I have a couple of projects that have been pending for ages which I want to get a move on, I also have the Kuwait Blogs app I need to fix because right now it keeps crashing and even my 248AM iPhone app needs an update as well. I’ve even handed over my blog’s media to a media company called Dot Backspace so they could take care of the blog’s advertising while I focus all my attention on the content.
I’m excited (and a bit worried) about blogging fulltime but I’m also looking forward to it. I’m currently in Lebanon for the next 10 days on my summer break so I won’t really notice anything different until I get back to Kuwait and realize I don’t have to wake up at 7:30 the next day to go to work. We’ll see how things will pan out.
Taken from Arab Times:
Last weekend in Kebd, farm areas: Volunteers found a horse in a terrible condition in front of a farm on a paddock. When we arrived the horse was lying lifeless in the middle of the sun, that time we had about 46 Degrees Celsius. We tried to inform the people inside of the farm but nobody answered. Without hesitation we went inside and tried to motivate the horse to move into the shaded area at the corner of the paddock. When the horse got up we realized his terrible constitution …he was sighing under great pain and was not able to stand on his front legs, he tried to jump on his shivering back legs into the direction we asked him to…after an hour for us endless time the horse made the 4 m distance and fell down in the shade with a scream of pain and desperation. We fixed provisionally fences around him that he couldn’t roll back into the sun, then we immediately pored cool water over his whole body and had a closer look on his front leg hoofs…the picture was indescribable…
He was obviously suffering of an advanced laminitis, the coffin bone becomes detached from the horny wall and may rotate or sink. In lay terms, this is known as “founder,” from the maritime term meaning to sink.
Early treatment of a Laminitis is necessary, a delay of even a few hours can literally be the difference between continued healthy living and euthanasia. This horse was obviously not treated properly or at all for days or even weeks…
I sent the pictures of the hoofs to a horse vet, he never saw a laminitis in this stage, the sole of the hoofs were already gone…
We tried as good as possible to disinfect the raw feet, padded the hoofs and applied bandages to protect it from further infections. Actually in this stage there is no other solution than to euthanize a horse. He was in agony, his eyes were broken and he was the whole time sighing that we all had to fight our tears.
After half an hour finally the staff of the farm came out and were quiet surprised about the activity outside. We asked for the number of the owner and asked them to move the horse inside but they were unable to do anything, they haven’t be aware of the serious situation. They told us the horse was treated a while ago and showed us some old medicine, they didn’t even have betadine, bandages or anything else which was appropriate.
After taking care of the horse we had to leave and hoped to reach the owner at least to euthanize the horse in a humane way as it was his duty…but the following hours taught us cruely about the ignorance and arrogance of some human beings.
A few hours later I was called back and was accused to have stolen dogs from the property, I was accused of entering a private property without permission. The Kuwaiti lady was threatening me to send me to jail, she could find out my place of living and tonight her brother would show up with the police to arrest me…I offered her to meet her brother at the police station, because I just helped an animal in pain and asked her if she would be able to pray tonight with a clear heart and without any regrets to leave a creature of GOD/ ALLAH in this condition outside without any medical support or even supervision; her answer was:
“This is my country and I can do whatever I want with my animals, it’s not your business!’’
Really? Is she right? Is it that what this country wants and needs?
I explained to her that any suffering animal or human is our all business, education, empathy and humanity are the keywords for a modern world, for a modern society..
The threats and calls continued, I begged her to euthanize the suffering horse, but she refused. At least her brother, the owner, went out that night to have a closer look….
A conversation with a local horse vet confirmed me in my believe that Kuwait needs urgently regulations, screening, registration, statistics, research when it comes to animal husbandry or breeding.
Animal Pharmacies allow every private person to treat their animals by their own good will, with or without medical background. Thousands of animals are suffering in farms and breeding stations due to wrong diagnoses, wrong treatment and unprofessional care. Most of the animals which are later sold are suffering from incurable diseases, cost the owner a lot of money to cure these diseases or lead to abandoning cases.
I would love to tell you a happy end of this tragic story, but there is none…when we visited the place at the next day the horse was gone…
By: M. Winkler
The answer is yes. If you ignore the news then you won’t notice anything out of the ordinary over here. Beirut is very quiet and safe and the weather is just great right now. The mornings and evenings are pretty chilly and during the day you can drive around with just the windows down. Plus, because of the warnings the various governments have been passing on to their citizens the country currently isn’t jam packed with tourists which means less traffic and crowds everywhere you go. Now is the perfect time to come to Lebanon.