2:48AM - Entertaining Kuwait since 2003

Here is something you didn’t think we needed, a luxury driving school. UDrive is a new driving school that just opened and they currently have two premium learner cars, an MG SUV and a Porsche Macan.

The Porsche is what caught my attention since I’ve never seen a Porsche learners car with two steering wheels. I didn’t even know they made them or would be willing to make them.

Currently, UDrive offers two courses, the first one is Introduction to Driving 101 and is intended for brand new students who’ve never driven before. It’s a 12-credit course and the cost is 379KD and will use the MG SUV.

The second course they have is called Advanced Driving 102. This is also a 12-credit course but costs 679KD and uses the Porsche as the learner’s car.

Both courses provide you with all the necessary education and training needed to get a driver’s license in Kuwait. If you’re looking for a “premium” learning school, their Instagram account is @UDriveKW and their website is udrivekw.com

Has anyone ordered from Amazon directly to Kuwait and had the item shipped with Aramex? The last few items I ordered were shipped with Aramex and I noticed an odd pattern once the package arrived to Kuwait.

Once the package arrives to Kuwait I start getting “errors”. For example, Amazon would first email me the following:

Unfortunately, ARAMEX wasn’t able to complete your delivery and needs additional information to try again. We’re sorry for the inconvenience.

and then a day later:

Unfortunately, a problem occurred during shipping and we had to cancel your delivery. The package is being returned, and we will issue a refund within 3 – 5 business days after the return is processed. We’re very sorry for the inconvenience.

The first time that happened to me I freaked out and of course, there is no way to contact Aramex. Their call center number won’t allow you to talk to a real person and so you have to send them an email. When you do email them you’ll get a generic response asking you to resend your complete address so they can deliver your package.

I learned that if you ignore all the errors both Amazon and Aramex spit out, or the email request for your address, Aramex eventually delivers your package a few days later.

I didn’t think of it much until my friend complained to me about the same issue. So, I have a theory to why this is happening.

Amazon probably has expectations from Aramex on delivery time. Because Aramex can’t meet it, they put the blame on the customer by saying the address isn’t complete. That way they no longer are the reason for the delayed delivery, the customer is. It’s bad business practice.

So I’m curious as to how often this happens, it’s happened with my last 3 deliveries, has it happened to you? Just to be clear this isn’t using Shop&Ship, this is Amazon straight to Kuwait via Aramex.

I’ve been putting together a list of shows that you should watch (or not watch) and because I didn’t post it sooner the list is fairly huge. So I’m going to go through it fairly quick:

Cheer – On Netflix, a reality show about cheerleaders, I enjoyed this a lot more than I thought it would. Got totally sucked in just 5 minutes into the first episode.

Reacher – On Prime Video, it was fun to watch.

Severance – One of the most beautiful shows in a very long time or maybe even ever. It’s also starring Adam Scott, Christopher Walken, Patricia Arquette and John Turturro whom I all love. But, I did find the show very slow moving but it’s still worth watching. It’s on AppleTV+/

Julia – I wasn’t expecting much and was caught off guard. A great show, really entertaining, it’s based on a true story and it’s starring Niles and Lilith from Fraiser.

We Own This City – If you’re a fan of The Wire you’re gonna love this. Like The Wire, this series is also based in Baltimore and stars a ton of actors from The Wire (but now 20 years older). One of my favorite shows on TV and it’s on HBO.

Star Trek: Strange New Worlds – Although I’m a Star Trek fan I couldn’t really get into this. It’s on Paramount+.

Obi-Wan Kenobi – I’ve been loving all these Star Wars shows and just like The Mandalorian and The Book of Boba Fett, this one was great. It’s on Disney+.

The Essex Serpent – Started watching it because of Claire Danes but quickly got bored of it. It’s on AppleTV+.

Physical – I had bookmarked this show ages ago but only started watching it recently. It was really really good and nothing at all like I expected it to be. Definitly recommend watching it. It’s on AppleTV+

The Baby – It’s on AppleTV+, I got bored by episode 3.

The Terminal List – The series stars Chris Pratt which is the biggest issue with it. It was fun to watch but I’m so used to Chris being the goofy character on Parks & Rec that it feels really weird watching him try and be this serious angry maniac. It’s on Prime Video.

Industry – What Euphoria is to Sex and the City, Industry is to Billions. Would definitely recommend it. It’s on HBO.

The Patient – Just started watching this new show starring Steve Carell. I’m two episodes in and it seems interesting but I have a feeling I might get bored in a couple of episodes. It’s on Hulu.

Welcome to Wrexham – Rob McElhenney from It’s Always Sunny in Philadelphia and Ryan Reynolds partner up to buy a football team in Wales. This isn’t a joke, it’s actually based on real life. So bizarre. It’s streaming on Hulu.

I Love That for You – Light-hearted comedy, would watch or at least have playing in the background. It’s on Showtime.

City on a Hill – If you can’t tell I’m a huge fan of crime dramas and this show is no exception. Stars Kevin Bacon who is so incredibly good, like one of my favorite actors on TV right now. Season 3 is streaming right now on Showtime and is produced by Ben Affleck and Matt Damon.

While prepping for my previous post on Pinot, I was going through some old emails and found one where he sent me photos of the old Al-Manara Bookshop that was located in Salmiya next to The Video Club.

Al-Manara was a fairly popular bookstore but there aren’t any photos of it available online. It’s one of those places you never thought about photographing and eventually it’s gone. The photos were taken on March 28, 2008 with a Nikon Coolpix P1.

via Pinot

Pinot is a digital artist that was living in Kuwait up till 2014 and is incredibly talented in pixel art and animation using vintage computers. He gained worldwide fame through the service Vine which back before Twitter acquired it, used to allow users to share six-second-long looping video clips. Eventually a digital agency in New York found out about him and offered him a job so he packed up and left Kuwait with his family to work and live there. Since then he’s gotten even more popular with nearly 400K followers on Instagram and even ended up on an MKBHD episode where he showed Marques how to paint on an old Mac.

His Childish Gambino video that went viral

Sadly back in June he suffered a stroke and fell into a coma. Since then he’s been gradually progressing ever so slowly and eventually was taken off life support since he started breathing by himself. He also started making hand gestures and moving one of his arms and legs and is still slowly improving.

Art for Pinot is an initiative from the Indonesian NFT community to help him by inviting fellow creators to donate their artwork as a form of support. If you’re an artist reading this you can help by donating an artwork. For more information visit bit.ly/ArtforPino

View this post on Instagram

A post shared by Pinot (@pinot)

If you’re not an artist but still want to help, there is a GoFundMe page.

If you’re just curious and want to check out some of Pinot’s work, his Instagram is @pinot and his twitter (which he posts animations in progress) is also @pinot

If you want to stay updated on his progress, his wife is sharing updates on her Instagram @ditut

If you’re a Disney fan then you’ll probably be excited to know that two different Disney shows are coming to Kuwait soon. ‘Disney on Ice‘ is coming to THE ARENA, while ‘Disney Princess – The Concert‘ is coming to JACC.

Not sure how the “ice” part of Disney on Ice is gonna work inside THE ARENA, maybe using fake ice? They also haven’t announced a date although they are on tour in Saudi in September so they’ll most likely come to Kuwait after that. Dates for the Disney Princess show on the other hand have been announced and it will be taking place in October.

It’s been a month since I got my Toyota Hilux and since then I’ve done two Saudi trips and driven over 5,000KM in it. I’ve also started personalizing the car with various upgrades similar to what I did with my FJ Cruiser 12 years ago and my Wrangler before that. But, the difference this time around is that I’ve mostly managed to find everything I needed locally instead of having to ship things in. Here is what I’ve gotten done so far and from where:

Window Tint
The first thing I did was get my windows tinted, I previously used Huper-Optik on my FJ and decided to use the same brand again since I didn’t have any issues with it after 12 years. Motorworks are the dealers for it so went and got my tint done there at their new workshop. They took over the old Mercedes garage on the 4th Ring Road so their place is now HUGE. I dropped the car in the morning and picked it up in the afternoon and it cost me 110KD. Need to actually take one of my other cars back there to get tinted as well now that I think about it.

Paint Protection Film
For PPF I decided to get it done at ProTech Monte-Carlo. To save money I originally went and got it done at another place first, but they didn’t do a good job and had missed some spots so I decided to get it done again at ProTech. This happens when you try to save money, you end up spending more than if you had done it right the first time around. I only got the front of my car done, so full hood, full fenders, front bumper etc. I think I paid around 190KD but that’s because I kept some of the previous PPF from the first place on. ProTech are really the best at details with the aim of making sure you can’t tell there is any protection on the car. I really regret not going there to begin with but oh well.

Wheels
I originally was planning to buy my wheels online but the vast amount of options available was giving me anxiety, especially since you basically have to imagine them on the car. In the end I decided to go local and ended up trying to decide between two brands, EVO Corse (Epic Overland are the dealers) or BRAID (Formula Wheel are the dealers). I decided to go with BRAID and now that they’re on the car I think I made the right decision. The original Hilux wheels were 18″ but I went with 17″ BRAID’s because I prefer having more rubber between the road and the car. I tend to hit or scrape my tires on curbs so more rubber means less chance the wheels are getting scratched. I paid 590KD for 4 wheels.

Tires
I’m a big fan of BF Goodrich and Michelin tires, the same dealer (KAICO) sells both brands and they’re the only two tire brands I use on all 7 of my cars. I decided to get the BFG All-Terrains for the Hilux, the same ones I had on my FJ and they’re great because they’re pretty much puncture proof. The original tires on the car were 265/60/R18, I decided to go larger and so went with 265/70/R17. They’re just over an inch taller and I was able to fit them with no bodywork modification. Other than looking better and raising the car height, my speedometer is now also accurate instead of it being around 10km off. Four tires cost me 420KD.

Lift Kit
To fit the larger tires and also improve the ride quality a bit I had to get a lift kit. There is only one place I trust for any 4×4 work and its ORP. I posted about them 12 years ago when I had the lift kit on my FJ installed there. Back then they had just opened, it was a tiny garage and they were just getting started. Since then they’ve grown a lot and now have a pretty big showroom with a much much larger garage in the back. They are also dealers for multiple 4×4 brands including Old Man Emu, ARB, WARN, Rhino, Mickey Thompson, Fabtech, Total Chaos, Method, TJM, FOX, you name it. They’re so good that people from around the GCC bring their 4x4s to them to get them modified for offroading. They’re so miles ahead of everyone and their customer service is the best there is.

Anyway, because I’m continuing to stick to brands I trust I went with Old Man Emu for my suspension again which is the same brand as what I had on my FJ and my Wrangler before that. ORP was out of stock on my rear shocks so had to get those from Alsayer who are also the dealers. I then needed OME upper control arms and both ORP and Alsayer were out of stock so I checked in Dubai and Riyadh since I had trips to both places. Dubai was also out of stock but I did find one last piece at the OME dealer in Riyadh and so got it from there. In total it cost me around 450KD for everything including installation and alignment (which ORP do in-house). Installation took a day so dropped the car in the morning before work and then picked it up after work.

Sound System
The last thing I did to my Hilux was upgrade the sound system and I decided to go with FOCAL since they made speakers that were plug and plug with my Hilux. I ended up installing the speakers myself which were relatively easy and only took a few hours following a step-by-step video on YouTube. What a difference the speakers made, I can’t believe they sound this good and they didn’t even require me to install a separate amp. I ended up ordering them from a website in South Africa called Angrijeep because the price there was 50% cheaper than anywhere else. They cost me 115KD and another 35KD for shipping plus I ordered a Dynamat Kit from Amazon which cost me 30KD plus 16KD for shipping. I definitely got the best bang for my buck.

Whats Next
I’ve pretty much done everything I wanted to do except I now need to get a roll cover for my tub in the back. That way I can put tools and gear in the back and not worry about them getting stolen or damaged by the weather. I want a Mountain Top EVOm roll cover and the only dealer in our region is Arctic Trucks Dubai, so I’m heading there in a couple of weeks. Since I’m driving all the way there I’m also going to get a few other things including a Mountain Top spots bar and Rival 4×4 skid plates. Once I get those fitted the only thing left will be installing a tailgate control locking kit since right now the tailgate doesn’t lock and unlock with the remote. I think I’ll be done after that, I hope.

If you have any questions or are curious about the availability of any brands locally, let me know in the comments.

Update: Ended up driving to Dubai and getting the Mountain Top EVOm roll cover installed, plus the sports bar and the Rival Underbody guard. Got it all done at Arctic Trucks Dubai.

Back in August, I broke the news that Alshaya is bringing the Los Angeles-based yoga brand Alo to Kuwait. I also mentioned since they’re direct competitors to Lululemon that I’d imagine Alshaya would give Alo a premium location in The Avenues. Well looks like that location is right at the end of the Grand Avenues, in the Grand Plaza right next to the Mercedes dealership. You can’t get a better location than that right now.

Thanks @inspirededibles

A few days ago Saudi Arabia announced that any GCC resident can now apply for a tourism eVisa. Previously you could only apply for an eVisa if you were from specific countries, while everyone else had to go through a more complicated process that included getting bank statements and visiting the embassy.

With the new announcement, there are still some requirements like your passport being valid for 6+ months, your residency valid for 3+ months and your occupation should be listed as eligible, but these are just minor things.

Once you get your visa online, you can choose to fly to Saudi or just drive there. Al Khobar and Bahrain are around 3-4 hours after crossing the border while Riyadh is around 5. If you missed my guide to driving to Saudi check it here, or apply for a Saudi visa by going to visitsaudi.com/visa

Below is the list of things you can do this weekend. As usual, if I missed anything please let me know in the comments:

Thursday
Back to School at The Avenues
JACC: Baligh Hamdi, King of Melodies

Friday
Back to School at The Avenues
Owl Be There Painting Experience
JACC: Baligh Hamdi, King of Melodies
Workshop: Polymer Clay

Saturday
Back to School at The Avenues
Gate Mall Expo
Come Play with Us! (Chess, Backgammon and/or Scrabble)
Interactive Children Book Reading
Qesati Storytelling: How it all started
Ceramics Workshop: Qahwa Cups

Activities
Ascend Rock Climbing
Cable Park
Ice Skating at the Winter Games Club
Indoor Karting
Movement Classes at Omni Studio
Roller Blade at Roller Hub
Try Windsurfing
Yoga at Darātma

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

Exhibitions
Exhibition: Matter of Material – Sculptures from CAP Collection.
Exhibition: My Name Is Woman – Maha AlAsaker
Exhibition: ASEAN Textile Exhibition & Craft Workshops

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

New This Weekend:
After Ever Happy (4.5)
Spider-Man: No Way Home – The More Fun Stuff Version (8.3)
Stoker Hills (4.2)
Stowaway (3.1)
The Harbinger (9.0)

Other Movies Showing:
Beast (7.7)
Bullet Train (7.5)
DC League of Super-Pets (7.9)
Fall (6.5)
Jurassic World Dominion (6.2)
Minions: The Rise of Gru (7.4)
Nope (7.3)
Orphan: First Kill (6.0)
Tad the Lost Explorer and the Emerald Tablet (4.7)
Top Gun: Maverick (8.7)
Where the Crawdads Sing (7.1)

Classic Movies Showing:
Jurassic Park – 1993 (8.2)

The films below are also showing at the Scientific Center IMAX theater:

IMAX Movies Showing:
Antarctica
Ocean Odyssey
Wings Over Water 3D

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

@datingkw is a TikTok account where the owner shares her Kuwait Tinder date stories. The account reminded me of some of the previous ones I’ve shared before like Single in the Shires and I Date Kuwait, both of which are no longer active.

There are currently a few stories up, hopefully, she keeps adding more since they’re pretty entertaining. Check out her account here.

Alqabas newspaper published a list of 7 different things that could get you deported. A redditor translated the 7 things and they are:

• Fishing in the Kuwait Bay without permission
• Littering or Dumping waste in non-approved areas
• Driving without a valid license
• Taxi drivers who commit Serious traffic violations
• Indecent public behavior
• Working a different job than what’s on your work permit
• Not renewing annual residency

I like the idea of deporting people if they litter but if that were actually enforced, Kuwait’s population would probably be reduced to a million or less. I guess you could just enforce it for a short time, maybe deport a few hundred people to make a point and that would probably stop people from littering.

According to Kuwait Times, Kuwait is currently in advanced negotiations to host the Winter Wonderland this winter season. One of the proposed locationswould be the Shaab Park spot and the event would be run by the same company that managed Winter Wonderland in Riyadh.

With the current lack of entertainment parks in Kuwait, this would definitely be a huge hit so hopefully it does work out cuz we desperately need it. Also, it would be cool to have it open up down the street from me.

The LOYAC Academy of Performing Arts are looking for dance teachers. If you’re interested, click here.