2:48AM - Entertaining Kuwait since 2003

Yesterday Sultan Center launched their new Adailiya store and unveiled a brand new identity with it. They dropped the word Center from their name so it’s just Sultan now which is what everyone called it anyway. But, their new icon feels too generic with one friend describing it as looking like an energy company.

The new Adailiya store is part of the company’s original plan to launch 20 new stores between 2020 and 2025, with 14 stores already launched. Their 2025 vision is to have a Sultan store within a ten-minute reach from any point in Kuwait’s inhabited areas. There are currently 46 Sultan stores in Kuwait.

So what do you think about the new logo?

So just a quick announcement, I’ve updated the blog theme slightly. Basically, I’m doing away with the sidebar since I no longer need it plus, the majority of my readers access my blog through their phones and so most people weren’t seeing the sidebar anyway.

I still have work to do with the theme so you’ll probably be seeing various little updates over the next week or so like adjusting text sizes or image sizes and various spacing all around.

So it’s been 3 or 4 months now since I started my Instagram account and things aren’t going to plan. I mean they are in one sense, the account is doing really well and my engagement level is extremely high, but it’s also what’s causing issues with the blog.

I’m now running basically two completely different platforms whose contents aren’t very interchangeable. Originally the plan was whatever I post here, I just republish there, but I quickly realized that wasn’t going to work. A lot of the content that I post over here wouldn’t work for Instagram like the one I just posted about the newsletters from the 1990 Gulf War. There is very specific content that my Instagram followers like and it’s not easy to come by, so I’m constantly thinking about what to post next on Instagram and not thinking about what to post next on the blog. It’s a total mess.

To make matters worse, Instagram is draining mentally because every post is being judged publicly. If a post gets a lot of likes, shares, interactions etc.. that’s a thumbs up. If a post doesn’t get a lot of likes or a few interactions, that’s a thumbs-down. So it feels like I’m performing at a talent show every single day in front of judges. I had one post that went viral and got over 9,000 likes, then it’s like ok how do I top that for my next post? I know how I am, I keep trying to top or match my previous post and eventually I stop posting because nothing is good enough. It’s why I no longer post photos on my personal Instagram accounts and it’s something I went through with this blog as well. So I’m trying to loosen up and not try and have every post be THE POST but it’s hard to do when I treat the number of likes as a rating.

But honestly, it has reinvigorated me. Launching the blog on a new platform and having to deal with those challenges has gotten me excited again because it’s completely changed my routine. I feel like the underdog on Instagram and I really like that. I’m just doing what I’ve been doing for the past 20 years and it’s working.

I’ve also started generating income from my Instagram account in the form of promoted posts. I didn’t have plans for it originally but I started getting DM’s from businesses wanting to advertise so I quickly had to figure out how I could make that work. As always, I’m fully transparent with which posts are paid for and so all my paid Instagram posts are marked with a “Promoted” logo and labeled as a “Paid Partnership” on Instagram.

So that’s pretty much where I am with this whole Instagramming thing right now. I’ll post another update maybe 6 months from now, maybe things will be different then.

Back during the 1990 Iraqi invasion of Kuwait, the internet didn’t exist the way it does today and so it wasn’t easy to find out what was happening in Kuwait other than watching the news or talking to someone who was still living in Kuwait at that time. But there were various newsletters at that time and a good way to describe them was blogs before the internet. Two of those newsletters were “Ku-WAITing for News” which was compiled by American wives of Kuwaitis, and “Voice of Kuwait” which was compiled by the Kuwaiti Student’s Union-USA.

These newsletters were compiled by various volunteers, printed, mailed out, and then photocopied and redistributed again over and over.

One of the old school local bloggers Desert Girl who left Kuwait a few years ago and is now living in the States found copies of these newsletters in her sister’s basement and was nice enough to digitize them and share them with me as a PDF file.

There are 106 pages so I haven’t fully gone through it yet but I did skim through the newsletters reading various articles to get a feel for the kind of content they contained. I remember life before the internet and so I can imagine how important these newsletters must have been.

Pre-internet you really were isolated from the rest of the world, I remember having a pen pal in England and it felt like a big deal to me because there was this kid living in another part of the world sharing their life with me. So while going through these newsletters, understand that to many Kuwaitis living in exile in the US at that time, these newsletters were their internet and source of information about the war that didn’t make it to the mainstream news.

Click here to download the PDF, it’s around 10MB.

Click here to read Desert Girl’s post about these newsletters.

The Q8 Comedy Club have a show tomorrow night and as of this post, tickets are still available (they’re free). The show is a combination of improv comedy and stand-up and is hosted by Ahmad Alshammari (@ahmad_comedy) from @shenoya3ni_tv. He’s obviously extremely funny, but so are the rest of the comedians, especially when you consider the fact we don’t even have a comedy scene in Kuwait.

The show is in Arabic and is taking place in Salmiya inside Dalal Complex. As I mentioned, tickets are free and if you want to get them you need to hurry up, the link is in their profile @q8comedy1

Update: It’s now sold out but you can follow them to stay posted on their next show.

Jarir Bookstore is opening a new location outside The Avenues, near the Ikea and Xcite entrance of phase 1. Nothing ever survived in that corner block of The Avenues including Nandos, Johnny Rockets, and Chilis so I’m really curious to see how Jarir will end up doing. There isn’t really a large bookstore or an art and office supplies shop in Avenues, so this could potentially work.

If you’re looking for an outdoor activity this weekend, the 2nd Gulf Bank Off Road Challenge is taking place in Bnaider this Friday, March 10th from 10AM to 5PM.

Participants in the challenge will compete on specially equipped natural and artificial obstacle courses which will range from easy to medium difficulty. The obstacle courses will contain sand, rocks, water basins, and other challenges that the participants must pass in order to complete the challenge.

There will be food trucks, large screens, and bleachers for attendees to sit and watch the event from. Entrance is free and since it’s taking place next to the Al Farsi Kite Show, you could hit up both on the same trip.

If you have a 4×4 vehicle and want to participate in the event you can also do that. The cost of registration is 20KD and you could win prizes up to 750KD. To register your car, visit the website www.suffix.events.

Here is the location of the event on Google Maps.

Below are all the events I found taking place this weekend. If I missed anything, let me know in the comments:

Thursday, March 9
Kuwait Rolling Race Championship
Al Naira Expo
Spring Festival
Play: Mother Courage
Ramadan Food Expo
KASA Expo 2023
ZAI EXPO 2023

Friday, March 10
Mariachi ROMATITLAN
Kuwait Rolling Race Championship
Kites Show
Al Naira Expo
Spring Festival
Play: Mother Courage
Ramadan Food Expo
Gulf Bank Off Road Challenge 2023
KASA Expo 2023
ZAI EXPO 2023
965 MX Junior Championship
Kuwait Track Challenge

Saturday, March 11
Guided Tour Grand Mosque *Canceled
Al Naira Expo
Spring Festival
Play: Mother Courage
Ramadan Food Expo
KFH Obstacle Challenge
Sunset Kayaking
KASA Expo 2023
Discover Kuwait Car Tour
Joy of Watercolors
Drive of a Woman
Trashtag Beach Cleanup
ZAI EXPO 2023
SADI 2023
Mirror House Art Festival
Kuwait Track Challenge
WBC Muay Thai World Title Fight
Feather Aerial Studio Show

Exhibitions
A&F Fashion Exhibition
Alexander The Great in Kuwait

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

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

New This Weekend:
Chebi: My Fluffy Friend (5.8)
Moonbound (4.8)
Out of Exile (7.0)
Savage Salvation (4.6)

Other Movies Showing:
65 (5.7)
Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania (6.7)
Avatar: The Way of Water (7.8)
Creed III (7.4)
Marlowe (5.8)
Missing (7.3)
Mummies (6.2)
On the Line (5.4)
Plane (6.9)
Play Dead (5.1)
The Accursed (4.2)

The classic films below are currently showing at the 1954 Film House:
Cinderella – 1950 (7.3)
The Sound of Music – 1965 (8.1)

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

Looking for a convenient and safe ride? Choose Careem and get 25% off with a special offer for my 248AM readers.

Careem was founded in the UAE and is currently active in 80 cities and 10 countries across the world.

In Kuwait, Careem offers convenient, safe, and affordable rides through the ease of its “SuperApp”. The App offers several services such as quick grocery, food delivery, P2P payments, personal delivery services, and more.

Currently, Careem Kuwait offers ride-hailing services in the form of Taxi and Comfort rides.

Comfort rides offer clean, comfortable private cars at an affordable price. What’s great about the app is that you can book your ride in advance if needed, track your ride, or share your ride details (including the map, driver name, car plate, and number) with friends for safety. You can also pay directly through the app with a card or using Apple Pay and avoid having to carry cash with you.

Using Careem’s more affordable Taxi service, you can avoid having to hail a ride on the street or haggle for a rate with the driver. It’s much more convenient and stress-free.

As I mentioned at the top of this post, Careem is offering a special offer for 248AM readers.

Use the code C248AM and get 25% off your first 3 rides with Careem in Kuwait.

OVO, the popular and my favorite vegan and vegetarian restaurant that’s located in Bnaid Al Gar recently opened its second location in Shuwaikh. The new location is in the design district, the same complex that houses the restaurant Cure and the gallery Contemporary Art Platform.

One of my favorite things about OVO besides their food is the atmosphere. The restaurant is located in the back courtyard of the Design District and so once you’re inside it doesn’t feel like you’re in Shuwaikh anymore. The new location has outdoor seating and plenty of indoor seating as well as a private room located in a separate area of the courtyard.

With the new location, they’ve also introduced a breakfast menu which I’m hoping to try this coming weekend. If you’re looking for a new good place to try out, OVO in the Design District is open daily from 9:30AM to 5PM. They’re on Instagram @ovokwt and here is the location on Google Maps.

I just got back from watching Formula 1 in Bahrain and honestly, I always found it super boring watching the races live. You only watch an F1 race live for the experience, not the actual race since while you’re at the track you’re really only watching a corner or two of the race.

My favorite way to watch Formula 1 is through the official F1 TV app. It’s really the best way to watch F1 since you get to watch all the practice sessions, post-race shows, and of course the qualifications and races. For the races, you get to choose between two different English commentary teams as well as have access to multiple cameras and race data. The subscription costs around $80 for the whole year which isn’t bad if you’re an F1 fan.

Technically, Kuwait isn’t a supported country in the app, but there is a way to get around that.

Firstly, you need to get an F1 TV Pro subscription. You can’t use your credit card to subscribe because it won’t accept Kuwait-based cards so you’re going to need an Apple device and a US Apple Store account. If you have those two then can subscribe to F1 TV from inside the F1 TV app and pay for the subscription using your Apple account.

The second thing you need is a VPN or a SmartDNS service, similar to the ones you use to access streaming services like HBO, Hulu, etc. I prefer using SmartDNS since it’s super easy to set up on the Apple TV. I get mine from smartdnsproxy.com (affiliate link) and it costs me around $5 a month.

Once you have your SmartDNS set up, it’s just a matter of launching the app whenever there is a race and you’re set. Easy.

Below are all the events I found taking place this weekend. If I missed anything, let me know in the comments:

Thursday, March 2
Hala February Expo
Full Moon Healing Circle
Mirzaamiyat Ramadan

Friday, March 3
Hala February Expo
Pontiac Classic Cars Meetup
Mirzaamiyat Ramadan
Embroidery Workshop
Art N Dine: Downtown Reflections
Mopar Drag Race Championship
Action Team Carnival
BLS Weekend Coffee
Yoga in the Desert
KTAA Spring Bazaar

Saturday, March 4
Hala February Expo
Mirzaamiyat Ramadan
The Kuwait Cycling Club Race
Mopar Drag Race Championship
AWARE Charity Spring Bazaar
KAACH Open House
Discover Kuwait Car Tour
Girl Power

Exhibitions
Ala Taraf Lisan Al Ard
Life Forms & Indigo Expressions
Speculative Horizons

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

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

New This Weekend:
65
Creed III (7.4)
Play Dead (5.1)
The Accursed (4.2)
The Tiger’s Nest (5.6)

Other Movies Showing:
Ambush
Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania (6.7)
Avatar: The Way of Water (7.8)
Ghoster (3.9)
Marlowe (5.8)
Missing (7.3)
Mummies (6.2)
On the Line (5.4)
Plane (6.9)
Winnie the Pooh: Blood and Honey (4.7)

The classic films below are currently showing at the 1954 Film House:
Cinderella – 1950 (7.3)
The Sound of Music – 1965 (8.1)

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

Fadel Al Dosari, the CEO of the Touristic Enterprises Company recently revealed a bunch of details during an interview with KTV relating to the second season of Winter Wonderland. Here are some of the points I found the most interesting:

• Winter Wonderland will close on April 1st
• Work on Winter Wonderland season 2 will start immediately after closure
• Season 2 will occupy a 40% larger footprint
• Season 2 will increase the number of games from 22 to 35
• The number of restaurants and cafes will be increased
• Season 2 will be ready to open by September and will remain open for 6 months
• Season 2 operating hours will be longer and start earlier in the day
• It’s expected by the end of the current season, 600,000 visitors would have visited the park
• They’re aiming to receive 1.5million visitors next season and up to 15,000 visitors a day

If you’d like to watch the interview, click here.