2:48AM - Entertaining Kuwait since 2003

Back in May I linked to a PDF taken from a 1969 issue of National Geographic and spoke about the Villa pictured above because I loved the design of it. Well a reader just landed across my post and commented the following:

Hi, this is our house, it used to belongs to my father and 2 brothers, Mohamed, Nasser (my late father) and Faisal Al-Duaijani. It was built and finished in 1968 and we moved into it when I was 5 years old after previously living in Do3′a (Farwaniya now).

The house is located at the intersection of the 4th ring road with Damascus street in Al-Rodah and it was sold to Mr. Al-Mokeazeam (cant recall his first name.. sorry) back in 1985. There was some modifications done to it, they completed the 3rd floor and closed the balconies which really made it lose its futuristic (at that time) looks. The villa was also shown in (Tarbiya Wataniya) elementary school book back in 1979 as one of the landmarks of Kuwait with my uncle Faisal shown standing in the first floor balcony. The villa just next to it was built and owned by my aunt and her husband the late Mr. Jasem Al-3otaiby. It had the same features and it still exists (also with some modifications) but it was sold directly to Al-Banwan family which i guess they’re still living in it.

I’m sorry I can’t recall the name of the architect and I’ll try to ask about it and give tell you if I find out. From what I recall we had big disputes with him about the mocked copies of the villa, the one in 3deliya and the one in Khaldiya about the exclusivity of design and rights to it which believe it or not was stronger back in the 60′s & 70′s than today!!

Aaahh, I’m 45 years old now, where did the good old days go??!!

Thanks,
Abdulla

Saw this article in Arab Times today and thought it was worth sharing.

Is this guy really a DJ on 99.7?? If yes then I would like to take this opportunity to thank the people behind the invention of the cassette tape, compact disc and iPod. [YouTube]

Update: The video was removed

Cute. [YouTube]

My brother went to the abandoned Amiri Hospital in Kuwait City and took a bunch of pictures. The place looks extremely freaky. My favorite shot has to be the one above, the coffin plus the word HELP scribbled onto the wall is just chilling. You can check out some of the pictures he took on his flickr account [Here]

Update: Below is a screen shot of my brothers flickr statistics, it shot up from 200 views to 10,100 views a day.

Please do not take this seriously! I love Kuwait, and I’m proud to be a Kuwaiti. Just wanted to poke fun at some things we do.

Don’t forget to Rate, Comment & Subscribe. 🙂

This one is for the home crowd, next vid will be more international based.

Thanks!

Note: If you like this one, I can make a “How to be a Kuwaiti woman” Just let me know if your interested to see it. Keep in mind, IF I do my life will be on serious thin ice lol.

Step 4 and 7 are my favorite. [YouTube]

I was showing a friend of mine a couple of weeks back a post a friend of mine did on Blog Baladi about a popular taouk place in Lebanon called Massaad. My friend told me that the brother of the owner of Masaad actually has a small place here in Kuwait where they made similar taouk sandwiches and that the place was near my house. So I decided to go there and try it out.

I am a huge fan of a place in Lebanon called Malak al Taouk. They’re another popular Lebanese taouk place and they’re known for their HUGE sandwiches (check picture above). Tilal Lebanan doesn’t have sandwiches as big as theirs but they do have taouk sandwiches that are the closest thing to a Malak al Taouk sandwich in Kuwait.

Finding the place was pretty easy for me but I drew a map for anyone else who’s interested in finding the place. It’s located on traffic light street in Salmiya, I don’t know what the name of the street is but if you are on the 4th ring road and you take a right to exit Amman Street, head left on the first traffic light and then you should find the place tucked off the side of the road after I think the second or third traffic light. The place doesn’t look fancy at all, he has a few tables outside and inside but I just pass by pick up my sandwich and leave. He does a taouk platter and other variations of the taouk but I’ve just tried one of their sandwiches which is their regular taouk sandwich. It usually comes with garlic and pickles but I tell them to make it with fries and cabbage salad (similar to Malek al Taouk). I would recommend you have the sandwich my way since for one thing you don’t have the garlic issue.

I think their taouk sandwich is really great. I’ve had it a few times already and I love it. I do wish their cabbage salad was a bit better and they added more of it (an easy fix) but overall I think it’s the best taouk sandwich I’ve had in Kuwait. Price? Just KD1. One sandwich can be filling, I usually have around one and a half though. Their telephone number is 25615218

Update: I was just informed that Tilal Lebnan no longer belongs to the brother of the Lebanese Massaad restaurant. Seems he recently got into a fight with his partners and he has left Tilal Lebnan.

Salad Creations are opening their second branch at 360 Mall. Their first branch is located near my office in Baitak Tower which is practical during work days but not on the weekends or evenings since Baitak Tower is like a ghost town after working hours. The 360 Mall branch should make their healthy salads and wraps easily accessible to a lot more people and hopefully start a trend with more healthy restaurants popping up at shopping mall food courts. They’re soft launching this Monday and I wish them the best of luck. [Link]

So I’ve previously post about Kuwaiti rappers and a country musician and so here is a Kuwaiti metalhead called Yousef. He has 4 sounds online, below is the metal one but you can hear his other songs [Here]

Lost by yahguitar

A reader emailed me to tell me that while collecting newspapers and magazines from the late 50’s he found an article about schools in Kuwait in the 1960’s. He managed to scan and email me the article (it’s a few pages long) and I put them together in a single PDF to make it easier to download and view. The article is in Arabic and here is the [Link]

Does anyone recognize the school in the picture above on the right side?

Thanks Camil

Kuwait has the highest ratio of domestic workers to citizens in the Middle East. The country’s more than 660,000 migrant domestic workers constitute nearly a third of the work force in this small Gulf country of only 1.3 million citizens. But domestic workers are excluded from the labor laws that protect other workers. They have minimal protection against employers who withhold salaries, force employees to work long hours with no days off, deprive them of adequate food, or abuse them physically or sexually.

[YouTube]

The weather is great and so the Cinemagic movie nights are back on. For this month they have everything from chilling thrillers to hot dramas, from warm romances to cool comedies, everything that will enrich your taste and love for movies.

Thursday, October 14th at 7:30PM
REVANCHE
Director: Gotz Spielmann
Country: Austria
Release: 2008
Genre: Thriller | Drama
Running time: 122 minutes
Language: German | Russian | English Subtitle
Awards: Winner BIFF 2008, Oscar Nominee Best Foreign film 2009
Rated: R

Saturday, October 16th at 7:30PM
ONCE
Director: John Carney
Country: Ireland
Release: 2006
Genre: Drama | Music | Romance
Running time: 88 minutes
Language: English | Czech Subtitle
Awards: 18 awards and 13 nominations
Rated: R

Thursday, October 21st at 7:30PM
THE WIZARD OF OZ
Director: Victor Fleming
Country: USA
Release: 1939
Genre: Adventure | Fantasy | Musical | Family
Running time: 101 minutes
Language: English | English Subtitle
Awards: 2 Oscars, 5 other wins and 8 nominations
Rated: PG

Saturday, October 23rd at 7:30PM
SURPRISE FILM
Director:
Country: Germany, France
Release: 2006
Genre: Drama | Thriller
Running time: 147 minutes
Language: English | English Subtitle
Awards: 12 wins and 12 nominations
Rated: 15+

Thursday, October 28th at 7:30PM
THE HOST
Director: Bong Joon-Ho
Country: South Korea
Release: 2006
Genre: Horror | Drama | Comedy
Running time: 120 minutes
Language: Korean | English Subtitle
Awards: 6 wins and 1 nomination
Rated: R

Saturday, October 30th at 7:30PM
CZECH DREAM
Director: Vit Klusak, Flip Remunda
Country: Czech Republic
Release: 2004
Genre: Documentary | Comedy
Running time: 88 minutes
Language: Czech | English Subtitle
Awards: 6 wins and 1 nomination
Rated: PG

Cinemagic Kuwait, is organizing these events as part of its efforts to contribute to the development of an internationally competitive Kuwaiti audio-visual production industry, partly by bringing the filmmakers and audiences together and by Increasing the public’s interest in – and appreciation for – the art of film-making. Cinemagic movies are screened in the old Salmiya, on the roof on top of Alghanim Electronics and LG. There is a KD1 charge for the venue fees which includes refreshments, popcorn and much more. Here is a link to their facebook group [Link]

A reader just sent me a link to a section of the Al-Diwan Al-Amiri website which contains really old photos of Kuwait, like the one above which was taken in 1911 or the one below that was taken in 1919 when Sheikh Jaber Al-Ahmed with Prince Faisal bin AbdulAziz visited London to mark the end of the First World War.

A lot of gems on the website and each photo has a description underneath. Check them all out by clicking [Here]

Thanks Avay!

A sheep, known for its particularly good breeding ability, has sold for a record KD25,000 in Kuwait. The sheep is named Mayzoon and breeders are willing to pay up to KD200 for use of it for just one evening, Kuwaiti daily Al Rai reported on Tuesday.

I am at a loss for words. [Link]

via The Buz Fairy

A friend at work just forwarded me this cartoon scan taken from a Simpsons comic which I hadn’t seen before. At first I thought it was a fake that someone put together but it turns out its really from an actual comic. Pretty funny. You can check the comic un-cropped [Here]