2:48AM - Entertaining Kuwait since 2003

From the cover of the tape, this film “explores the rapid social evolution and economic transformation of Kuwait from a small pearling and trading community in the 1940s, to a country now occupying a pivotal position in world affairs.”

Kuwait a Dream Suspended is a rare documentary film about Kuwait in the 80s. I haven’t had the chance to watch it all yet but from what I saw it looks interesting. [YouTube]

Thanks om3ali

Last night I noticed that they’ve decorated the Gulf Road palm trees with lights which looks pretty cool. [YouTube]

Today is the first day of the InfoConnect exhibition. If you’re looking to get a new Internet subscription or to renew one, InfoConnect is usually the best time to do it since they usually have the best deals going on. I still don’t have details on any of the offers taking place but as soon as I get them will post them here.

Location: Kuwait International Fair Grounds, Hall 6
Date: January 30th, 2011 to February 5th, 2011
Time: 9am – 1pm and 5pm – 9pm

The entrance is free. For more information click [Here]

The Kuwait Riders are holding their first bike show ever this coming Friday at the Marina Crescent parking lot. There will also be a competition between 19 categories of custom, classic and sport motorbikes, here are the details:

Date: February 4th, 2011
Location: Marina Crescent
Time: 1pm to 5pm

There will be plenty of activities as well. For more information visit their Facebook page [Here]

The Choowy Goowy restaurant is currently open this week at 52 Degrees with a small menu as a pre-soft launch kind of thing. They will be closing again next week before opening up once again but with a fully featured menu but for now you can pass by and get a taste of some of their dishes. I just got back from Bahrain today so I still haven’t had the chance to pass by but Fahad did and he loved the food. They’re open after 5:30PM and you can check out their current trial menu [Here]

Some pretty creative ideas there. [YouTube]

Today was the first day of GulfRun6 and it was exhausting. This year I’m helping them out with the video so I spent all day with a camera man walking around the track and setting up the framing for him. NegativEffect will be editing the video like last year so should turn out really good. Anyway I did manage to take some still shots with my camera, 3 of my favorite I’ve shared in this post.

This video isn’t new but I just saw it for the first time today. The comedian Kathy Griffin came to Kuwait and thought it smelled like crap so she put it in her monologue. Do you find it offensive or funny? [YouTube]

Thanks Cajie

Awtar at Marina Mall got shot down by the ministry of trade and commerce which is I guess not a big deal with all the recent places that were shutdown at the free trade zone.

But one thing did grab my attention and that is the fact the closure sign says they were shut down due to cheating (if I translated it right). I wonder what they were caught doing…

Thanks Alain

Update: I got an email from the owners of Awtar explaining the reason behind the closure, turns out it’s just a technicality, here is what they had to say:

Hi mark,
Regarding your Awtar post i would like to clear it out if possible. since we as part owners were extremely surprised by the closing down of the restaurant (it will open up again any day now as soon as the paper work is done).

Turns out back in November the purchasing manager decided to purchase Sadia chicken (not kuwaiti) instead of the Kuwaiti chicken which was declared on the certificate for the ministry. A representative showed up and gave the restaurant a warning regarding this matter. Awtar took care of the issue and informed the purchaser to stick to the Kuwaiti brand of chicken as declared in the certificate. Management thought the issue was over. The right thing to do (we had to learn the hard way) was to not only switch back to the declared chicken but also go back and follow up with the ministry and get a representative to inspect this change again and clear the restaurant from any penalties. Because we didn’t do that the ministry acts only on paper work and based on their paper work Awtar didnt switch back (which is our fault we should have followed up with them) and in that case they had to shut down the store for cheating in the kind of chicken we use.
The lawyers are sorting it out i hope this was helpful

Thanks

According to recent figures published in the Arab League’s annual economic and social report, Kuwait has the second highest life expectancy in the region. Kuwait came second with a rate of 77.4 while Qatar came first with 78 years. That’s not bad at all considering our eating habits. [Link]

Radisson Blu have posted pictures on Facebook of the demolition of the Peacock Chinese Restaurant. Looks pretty sad.

I also read online that Radisson Blu will be documenting the whole revamp of the hotel online via YouTube, Facebook and other social tools which is pretty cool. Other than the Peacock pictures they’ve also started posting pictures up of the rest of the hotel being dismantled like the picture above of one of their rooms with all the furniture removed. Check out their Facebook gallery for more pictures. [Facebook Gallery]

Thanks Jay

Back in December I posted about a rumor that Alshaya was signing a deal to bring The Cheesecake Factory to Kuwait and the Middle East and today it became offical. Alshaya got the rights to franchise The Cheesecake Factory in the Middle East, North Africa, and Central and Eastern Europe. They will be opening up 22 restaurants within the next 5 years. Arabian Business has more details [Here]

via 2:48pm

I’m currently in Beirut and supposed to get back to Kuwait tomorrow (Jan 25, my flight is at 2PM with Wataniya Airways) but for those of you following the news all hell has broken loose here in Lebanon due to politics. Tonight while I was out shopping they people started blocking the main roads with burning tires including the main airport road. Hopefully its going to be cleared by tomorrow although I doubt that is the case. I can’t wait to get out of here, have another flight on the 26th to Bahrain for Gulf Run and would rather be there then stuck here with all this crap going on.

Update: Just got to Kuwait. I left to the airport early this morning which was a good thing since I managed to get there before they blocked the main airport road. Now I’m back home and catching up on all my emails before I head off tomorrow to Bahrain for Gulf Run.

Picture by hibrme

Brett Jordan is still scanning and uploading pictures of Kuwait from the early 60s. So far he has uploaded over 100 pictures and he’s still uploading. What I like about his collection of photos other than the fact they’re being scanned in super high resolution revealing some amazing details but also the fact some of them show Kuwait in a way I hadn’t seen it before.

He’s got some really great stuff there, the three pictures here are just some of the new one’s he’s uploaded. Here is the link to his collection [Link]

This is the latest GulfRun 6 video and although it’s short it still kicks ass . I’m currently in Lebanon and get back to Kuwait on the 25th and then the following day will head out to Bahrain to catch up with the guys. If you’ve never been to a GulfRun event you should at least once. [YouTube]