2:48AM - Entertaining Kuwait since 2003

Today’s Google homepage in the Middle East showcases an illustration created by the talented Kuwaiti illustrator, Ahmed Al-Refaie (owaikeo).

Google is celebrating the Kuwaiti comedian and national icon Abdulhussain Abdulredha on his 83rd birthday. Abdulhussain Abdulredha is widely considered to be one of the Arab community’s most significant actors and playwrights.

Ahmed has uploaded the process behind the illustration as well as some more information which you can check out on his Instagram account @owaikeo

I just added my NBK debit card to Apple Pay on my phone and watch, but couldn’t activate it. To activate the card it says I need to verify it by calling NBK but when I did, they told me to check the card in a few hours and then call back. I couldn’t add my NBK credit card or my American Express, only my debit card.

The NBK Apple Pay page is still down as of now. Officially, Apple Pay is meant to launch tomorrow (Dec 7) which is why everything isn’t working right yet.

MEI LI is a new Pan Asian fine dining restaurant that is opening at the end of this month at the Grand Hyatt.

I briefly posted about MEI LI in my Grand Hyatt sneak peek post. Back then I wasn’t able to show too many photos of the space but now that they’re getting ready I wanted to share the photos I had taken because it really is a beautiful-looking restaurant.

The restaurant is located near the main lobby of the hotel and their Instagram account is @mei_likw although as of this post there isn’t anything there.

OVO, the vegan, vegetarian, and flexitarian restaurant located in Bnaid Al Gar is opening their new location next month. The new location is located in Shuwaikh, inside the Design District, the same complex where the restaurant Cure and the gallery CAP are located.

The new location looks really great and will have both indoor and outdoor seating. It’s also located in the back of the complex overlooking a courtyard so once you’re inside it doesn’t feel like you’re in Kuwait.

If you’re a fan of Pret you’re probably aware that in the UK, any unsold food is always donated through the Pret Foundation.

So this got me thinking, what about Kuwait? Last week I reached out to Pret to find out and it turns out that in Kuwait it’s no different.

Locally, Pret A Manger has partnered up with the local non-profit organization re:food to try and make a difference. Every day any unsold food is donated by Pret to re:food who then take it and pass it along to the people who need it the most.

It’s a win-win for everybody and so I hope more places start doing this.

The weather is perfect right now to visit Green Island which has gotten a bit of TLC over the past couple of years. It got freshened up with new paint, the fountains are working and there is lots of brand-new signage everywhere. They also have cute quadracycles available to rent which is a fun way to explore the island with. There are two versions, one that carries two people and one that carries four.

Prices:
3KD 2-person quadracycle
5KD 4-person quadracycle

The entrance fee to Green Island is 1.5KD. You can also bring your own bike if you want and they rent normal ones there as well.

Urban Outfitters, the lifestyle retailer opened its first store in Kuwait at The Avenue this past weekend. I passed by to check out my favorite section which is the lifestyle area that usually has vinyl records, film cameras, and various books but they didn’t have any of that here instead they had just homeware items. My guess is that wasn’t really in their control.

Pricewise we are pretty similar to the Dubai store prices if not exactly the same, but we’re around 7-10% more expensive than the stores in Europe (the tags all have the Euro prices on them to compare).

Urban Outfitters is located in Avenues Phase II, between Dean & Deluca and Baroue.

10 years ago this month (December 2012) I got the Instagram account @248am. I really wasn’t planning on using it and whenever anyone told me I should move to Instagram I was always quick to kill the idea. I couldn’t see my content working on Instagram and so I wasn’t interested in moving. One of the best things about my blog is that it serves as a major resource for google searches. Anytime anyone searches for anything related to Kuwait, they’re most likely going to end up on my blog. With 13,500+ posts and counting, I’ve covered basically every single topic relating to Kuwait. This vast archive of content accessible by anyone with just an easy google search is something that Instagram just can’t compete with.
 
Then, 6 weeks ago I randomly came across a plugin for the blog that would automatically post my content to Instagram. It wouldn’t require any work from my side so I decided to give it a shot. It didn’t take long for me to realize my content wasn’t really working there. I’d refer to a link on my blog post but since I can’t have links on Instagram it wouldn’t show there. Or I’d refer to a bunch of photos in a post but the plugin I was using would just post one photo. It looked like I didn’t care and I hated that, so I started adjusting and editing my posts a bit to get them more Instagram-friendly.

A month in things just clicked, and I quickly got a grasp of what was working and what wasn’t, I reworked my logo, created a new template for posts, and deleted everything I had posted before that. I also made a new internal set of rules, a list of what I would or wouldn’t post on Instagram, and what kind of topics I would or wouldn’t cover. Things quickly took off and the response has been incredible.

The amount of people I’ve reached, the number of engagements, shares, it’s all been really overwhelming.

The biggest difference I realized between my blog and Instagram is all the feedback that Instagram gives you. With the blog, even though I get thousands of people to come through it every day, the only way I can tell is if I check my stats which I rarely do. But on Instagram, there are so many ways for people to interact with you, people can share posts, they can heart posts, follow you, leave a comment, send you DM’s, tag you, tag a friend, repost you, etc. It’s also super easy for brands to interact with you by reposting your content or just sending you a thank you or a heart. The whole experience so far has been a nonstop bombardment of interactivity that has really gotten me excited about blogging again.

I’ve been blogging daily on this exact same platform for close to 20 years now. That’s obviously incredibly tedious and repetitive work so Instagram is now a new and very exciting challenge for me. I’m taking everything I’m good at and everything I’ve learned and applying it to that platform. My blog isn’t going to go anywhere, it will continue to be my main platform with the more varied posts, but Instagram is now going to play a much larger role and I’m really excited to see where this is all going to go.

@248am

Kei, the first and oldest Japanese restaurant in Kuwait is reopening next month outside Assima Mall.

Kei first opened in Kuwait in 1980 and was initially located at the now-demolished Hilton Hotel in Bneid Al Gar. When the hotel got demolished, they moved to JW Marriott where they remained for 20 years until they had to move out again because the hotel was undergoing a major renovation. Kei is now moving to Assima Mall and for those of you who’ve been long-term customers, you’ll be pleased to know the majority of the old staff will be coming back as well.

The new Kei will be called Kei Downtown to differentiate it from the Kei Restaurant that will eventually reopen again at the JW Marriott. The new Kei will be a more casual dining experience with a more relaxed atmosphere.

The new location is in Assima Mall but on the outside and on the back with no mall access and adjacent to the entrance of the soon-to-open Marriott Executive Suites. To stay posted on the opening, follow @kei_downtown

Since Souq Mubarakiya is under renovation due to the fire earlier this year, an architect asked the question, what if we redeveloped it with trams? Using the artificial intelligence program Midjourney, he was able to generate a few images which I think look great.

Souq Mubarakiya might be too small to need a tram but it could work if it started in the old village under construction across from Seef Palace and then continued through the market and back down to the Kuwait National Museum and library. Check out more photos @architect_abdulahad

The 12H HANKOOK KUWAIT race started at 12 PM today and will last till midnight. This is the first-ever international circuit racing event to be held in Kuwait so you probably don’t want to miss this important moment.

It’s a 12-hour endurance race which is why it’s going on till midnight, but the benefit of that is you can come by anytime during the day to chill in the grandstands and watch the race. It’s open to the public and tickets are 3KD. There are also food and coffee trucks as well as a kid’s area.

If you’ve never been to the Kuwait Motor Town race track, here is the location on Google Maps.

Below are all the events I found taking place, if I missed anything let me know in the comments:

Thursday, Dec 1
Theater: The Tempest
WIZARD of OZ – The Panto!
Meet Me At The Terrace
THRF Pop Up Anniversary
The Avenues Winter Edition
Festival of Art and Dance – FAD 2022
Korean Street Food Festival 2022

Friday, Dec 2
Theater: The Tempest
WIZARD of OZ – The Panto!
Meet Me At The Terrace
Saracen Race 2022
The Gig Battle 2022
Sailing: Friday Sunset Cruising
Festival of Art and Dance – FAD 2022
Kuwait Coffee Festival
THRF Pop Up Anniversary
Hankook 12H Kuwait

Saturday, Dec 3
Theater: The Tempest
WIZARD of OZ – The Panto!
Meet Me At The Terrace
Treasure & Scavenger Hunts
Jusoor Run 2022
Grounding Park Art
Story Time: The Snail and The Whale
80s Journey Tour
Barba Saturday Brunch
Eco Tours: Mudflats
Kuwait Coffee Festival
Festival of Art and Dance – FAD 2022

Exhibitions
Art Recycle Exhibition
The Divine Agent by Lilia Nour
The Passage by Rouzan Seropian
Ghada Al Kandari x Mercedes Benz

Activities
Albohayra Farm
Ascend Rock Climbing
Indoor Karting
Little Jungle
Murouj Farm
Movement Classes at Omni Studio
Roller Blade at Roller Hub
Yoga at Darātma

Museums to Visit
Abdullah Salem Cultural Center (ASCC)
Amricani Cultural Center Museum
Bait Al Othman Museum
Tareq Rajab Museum

The movies below are now showing at Cinescape, Grand Cinemas and VOX:

New This Weekend:
As Good As Dead (N/A)
Bed Rest (N/A)
Interstellar (Re-release) (8.6)
Pil’s Adventures (6.1)
Violent Night (7.0)

Other Movies Showing:
Black Panther: Wakanda Forever (7.4)
Black Adam (7.5)
Devotion (7.0)
Lamborghini: The Man Behind the Legend (5.2)
Lyle, Lyle, Crocodile (6.5)
Poker Face (5.1)
Super Furball 2 (6.4)
The Nutcracker and the Magic Flute (4.7)
The Woman King (6.3)

The classic films below are currently showing at the 1954 Film House:

Home Alone – 1990 (7.7)
The Good, the Bad and the Ugly – 1966 (8.8)

Numbers in brackets refer to the IMDB rating at the time of publishing.

According to my source, Pret A Manger is planning to open three new locations in Kuwait after the successful opening of their first one in Al Hamra Tower.

The three locations are:
– Argan Bedaya, Sabah Al Salem
– Hybrid Outlet Mall, Al Khiran
– Argan Square, Salmiya

I’ve reached out to Pret for confirmation and I’m currently waiting for their response.

Thoubha is a local domestic abuse app created by the team behind @abolish153. The app is disguised to look like a fashion news streaming app that has a hidden menu button that takes you to resources covering domestic violence in Kuwait.

The domestic violence section in the Thoubha app contains documents covering the ABC’s of domestic violence in Kuwait, information on creating a safety plan, and other self-assessment documents. The application also has a live chat which is handled by volunteers that have been trained by heads of shelters and helpline centers to handle and deal with abuse survivors. Finally, the application also connects survivors with needed services such as life coaches, lawyers and medical professionals.

If you’re a victim of domestic abuse or know of someone who is, please download or have them download Thoubha. The download link is in the @abolish153 bio or click here.