2:48AM - Entertaining Kuwait since 2003

I’ve always been very fascinated with compact computers I guess ever since I saw the original Nokia Communicator 9000 with Val Kilmer in the 1997 film, The Saint. Since then I’ve had a bunch of mini computers including the Nokia Communicator 9110, Sony Clie UX-50, Asus Eee 900, and the MSI Wind. I think this is why I’ve always wanted an iPad Mini and after spotting the purple one at an Apple store in Amsterdam while on vacation, I decided it was time I got one. So after getting back to Kuwait I got in touch with Xcite and managed to get my hands on one.

Full disclosure, I have a long-standing relationship with Xcite who provided me with this iPad. They’ve been very supportive of the blog from the very early days and they’ve lent or given me a number of items over the years to review, as well as hooking me up with discounts. I’m a huge Xcite fan.

Firstly right off the bat, I’ll tell you that I tried my best to capture in the photos how beautiful the purple color of this new iPad Mini is, but I’ve failed at doing so. The purple Mini combined with the dark cherry Apple cover I got for it looks amazing, you really need to see it in person because my photos don’t do it justice. Color aside, I also love the new form factor of the Mini which now follows the updated design language of the larger iPads and new iPhones. Gone are the curvy soft edges which are now replaced with the sharper sides that I think give it a timeless look. One reason I felt so comfortable with the Mini right away is that it feels like a Kindle in my hands, and side by side with one, you’ll see below they’re pretty close.

The iPad Mini is tiny and incredibly light, especially when compared to my huge 12.9″ iPad Pro. It’s not as light as my Kindle, but it’s light enough that I can hold it for an hour while reading magazines and not feel bothered by the weight. And yeah, I’ve mostly been using my Mini to read magazines, RSS feeds, and documents. Although my iPad Pro’s larger screen makes the magazine experience more natural due to the size of the pages on the screen, it’s a much more comfortable experience on the Mini because of how lightweight it is. One thing I found surprising, the iPad Mini is actually small enough to fit into the front pockets of my pants. I wouldn’t walk around with an iPad in my front pocket, but the idea that I could, if I needed to, makes it very convenient.

I’ve had the iPad Mini for a few weeks now and it’s replaced both my laptop and iPhone for casual browsing while watching TV. It’s kinda like having a phone in your hands but better because of the larger screen. But, it is a very odd size and I’m not sure who I would recommend this iPad for. It’s not going to replace your phone since it’s not a phone, but it’s also really small so if you’re thinking of getting an iPad, it wouldn’t be the size you’d want to get. It’s not even the cheapest iPad so it wouldn’t be the one you’d get for your kids either.

I think the iPad Mini is meant for people like me who already have a regular-sized iPad and a regular-sized iPhone and are looking for something in between. It’s not something I need, but something I’m finding uses for. For example, I currently take my iPad Pro with me when I travel so I can watch shows on the plane. But I don’t like taking my MacBook Air with me when I do that since my backpack becomes too heavy. Now I can take both my MacBook Air and iPad Mini with me and the weight is fine. I’ve also started using the iPad Mini when working on my cars to load up documents. Previously I was using my iPhone, but the Mini’s larger screen makes reading instructions from a distance much easier. If you get a Mini you’ll find uses for it.

One issue I should mention I have with the Mini is the battery life. According to Apple, both my larger iPad Pro and new iPad Mini have a similar battery life, but that can’t be the case because I feel my iPad Mini’s battery drains a lot faster. Maybe it’s because I spend so much time on it, more than I would on the Pro, but I don’t think so. Another thing I’m kind of disappointed about is the fact Apple doesn’t make a keyboard for the iPad Mini. It’s the one thing I really wish it had because my idea of a mini computer always involves a keyboard. There are some third-party ones available, but I haven’t found one yet that I liked. I do have the Apple Pen which works with the Mini, but I rarely use it. Finally, the last issue I have with the Mini is the Touch ID. The iPad Mini doesn’t have facial recognition and instead uses Touch ID which is located on the power button to unlock the iPad. You’re meant to touch it and it scans your fingerprint and then unlocks. It’s been a few weeks and I still haven’t gotten used to it yet and I tend to spend a lot of time accidentally turning off the iPad when trying to unlock it. It’s super annoying.

When I spoke to Xcite about getting an iPad Mini I requested the entry-level 64GB model because that’s really more than enough for my needs. Also, because this is going to supplement my various Macbooks, iPads and phone, it doesn’t really make sense financially to get anything more expensive than the entry-level model which already costs quite a bit at KD160. So that’s the model I’d recommend, I also wouldn’t bother with the 5G models since you can always tether your iPad to your phone.

In conclusion, I’m loving my Mini. Not sure who to recommend it to but if you’ve been thinking about getting one I’d pull the trigger and get it. It’s fast, the speakers are loud and the size is perfect. To check out the various iPad Mini models and colors available, here is a link to the Xcite website.

Every year an updated ranking of all the world’s passports is released based on the number of destinations their holders can access without a prior visa. Previously I used to use the Passport Index for the rankings but their website is a bit of a mess with mismatched data on different pages which makes it difficult to know what’s right and wrong. So starting from this 2022 edition, I’ll be using The Henley Passport Index instead which is the original, authoritative ranking of all the world’s passports. Henley’s compares 199 passports and 227 travel destinations for their list and here is how Kuwait’s passport ranks compared to some other countries:

1 – Japan
6 – United States / United Kingdom
7 – Canada
15 – United Arab Emirates
53 – Qatar
54 – Kuwait
62 – Bahrain
65 – Saudi Arabia
84 – India
91 – Egypt
102 – Lebanon

The Kuwaiti passport allows you to travel to 95 destinations without a prior visa. To check out the full rankings and to see what countries your passport allows you to travel to without a prior visa, click here.

If you’re interested in taking part in a Staged in Kuwait play, they’re holding auditions tonight (Sunday) from 6PM to 9PM for their upcoming performance, Arms and the Man. For more information, click here.

There is this pothole in Qurtoba that I pass over when leaving my friend’s place and it’s been like that for three years, maybe longer. I usually tease my friend on it and ask them when they’re planning to fix it or that they should bring it up in the next town meeting ala Parks & Recreation. Then yesterday while I came across a post on @q8needsyou about the pothole because it turns out someone living on that street (not my friend) decided to finally fix the pothole themselves.

If a huge pothole on a prime street in a nice Kuwaiti neighborhood like Qurtoba isn’t getting fixed, you can imagine the state of the roads in other less nice areas like Salwa or Salmiya. This has got me thinking that maybe I should just fix the potholes that bother me myself as well. There are two construction sites on my street and I’m sure I can just pay a worker to go around filling up potholes in the neighborhood with concrete. But maybe someone needs to start a pothole-filling business. Customers would WhatsApp the location of the potholes, they then get a payment link and within 24hours of paying, someone will go fill up the pothole. Easy-peasy so please steal this idea and then get in touch with me!

Below are all the events I managed to find for this weekend. As usual, if I’ve missed anything, let me know in the comments.

Thursday
Exhibition: Art from the Islamic Civilization
Exhibition: Modern Architecture in Kuwait 1949-1989
Exhibition: Saad Hamdan – The Spirit of Ceramics
Exhibition: The Private Collection of Mahsa Azimi
Exhibition: Abdulwahab Al-Awadhi – The Sound of Silence
Exhibition: Abduljalil Al Shareefi – Nostalgia
BBT Picnic
Expo: Kuwait Building Show

Friday
Exhibition: Art from the Islamic Civilization
Exhibition: Modern Architecture in Kuwait 1949-1989
BBT Picnic
Albohayra Farm
Expo: Kuwait Building Show
Raptors in the Desert

Saturday
Exhibition: Art from the Islamic Civilization
Exhibition: Saad Hamdan – The Spirit of Ceramics
Exhibition: The Private Collection of Mahsa Azimi
Exhibition: Abdulwahab Al-Awadhi – The Sound of Silence
Exhibition: Abduljalil Al Shareefi – Nostalgia
Grand Mosque Tour
BBT Picnic
Albohayra Farm
Expo: Kuwait Building Show
Sailing: Saturday Cruising
Visit the Camel Races
KMT: Cycling Open Day
Storytelling and Art Therapy Session

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

New This Weekend:
Best Sellers (6.2)
C’mon C’mon (7.6)
C.I.Ape (3.1)
Fortress (3.2)
WarHunt (4.2)

Other Movies Showing Now:
Christmas Thieves (5.1)
Encanto (7.8)
House of Gucci (7.1)
Scream (7.9)
See for Me (6.0)
Sing 2 (7.2)
Spider-Man: No Way Home (9.2)
The 355 (4.6)
The Commando (3.3)
The King’s Man (6.8)
The Matrix Resurrections (6.1)
Trash (5.9)

Classic Movies Showing Now:
Groundhog Day (8.0)
The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King (8.9)

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

IMAX Movies Showing Now:
Antarctica (N/A)
Asteroid Hunters 3D
Backyard Wilderness 3D (7.7)
Turtle Odyssey (7.2)

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

A few years ago I shared some photos of when the Buffalo Bill’s Wild West Show came to Kuwait in 1986. One of the performers of the show had shared them with me after reading my initial post on the show asking if anyone remembered it or had any info on it. The performer had promised to send me more photos but never did and I forgot to follow up with him until recently. While working on my Kids’r’us post I came across two photos of Kids’r’us staff at the Buffalo Bill’s event since they had a pop-up there. So I sent the photos over to him and turns out his brother was one of the performers posing in the photo. He then sent over all the photos he had of their trip here.

Now they’re not the best quality photos since he took photos of the photos with his phone and the lighting isn’t that great. But it’s better than nothing. I uploaded all the photos to Flickr so they can be downloaded by anyone and you can see them all by clicking here.

The weather suddenly got a lot cooler last week so I decided I’d get a heater for my apartment. I didn’t have any heaters since I tend to buy those cheap 8-10kd oil heaters and then give them away at the end of winter because they take up a lot of space. To stop myself from giving the heater away this year, I decided I’d splurge and get a nice fancy one, that way I’d be forced to find a place to store it till I need it again next year.

I checked out Best, Xcite, Eureka and the new Cloud9 store for oil heaters and I narrowed my options down to two, a DeLonghi and a Heller. But, I also spotted an interesting-looking heater on the Xcite website, the Princess Smart Glass heater. It was a convection panel heater, came with Wifi and also had the option to connect to Alexa and Siri. Since I wanted the heater that same day, I decided I’d head to Xcite Al-Rai and pick it up myself instead of having to wait for them to deliver it.

The Glass Heater comes in two colors, black and white. I ended up going with the black which compliments my living room nicely. It’s a slim heater and so I managed to tuck it into a dead corner of my room which actually means I can keep it there all year round and not have to store it anywhere. Setting up the heater was fairly easy but I wasn’t able to add it to Alexa. The Alexa “Skill” required to be installed to add the heater is located on the Amazon UK website while my Alexa is set up to use the Amazon US website which doesn’t have the required skill. But I did download the heater app on my phone and I now use it to turn off and on the heater as well as control the temperature but I would have preferred to just say “Alexa, turn on the heater”.

As a heater, the unit performs really well. I tend to turn it off when I leave the house and then turn it on remotely before I’m back again. My living room is around 5x5m and it heats it fairly easily. At KD55 it’s one of the most expensive home heaters you can buy but it’s such a nice looking heater that I don’t mind. Plus, the ability to connect to it remotely is also a big benefit since it means I can just turn the heater on before getting home instead of having to come home to a cold room and then turn it on and wait for it to heat up.

Now the only issue is that as of this post, both the black and white versions of the heater are sold out on the Xcite website. I think I picked up the last black one and there was another guy who I think bought the last white one at the same time while I was there. They did have both models on display in their Al-Rai showroom so you might still be able to buy the display models if they haven’t been sold already.

Here is the link to both the black and white versions on Xcite. Link

Since we are on the subject of beautiful buildings that are being demolished, the Palace of Justice building in the city is next once the new location that is under construction is completed. The Palace of Justice building was designed in the late 70s by the Scottish architect Sir Basil Spence, the same architect behind the Coventry Cathedral.

There has been an uproar in this decision on Twitter with people asking that the building be saved and repurposed into a hotel or something. Hopefully, that happens but doubt it.

Photos were being shared last week of the old KPTC bus station in Kuwait City (Al Baloush) looking like it was being demolished. After demolishing Al-Sawaber, Entertainment City, Shaab Park, the ice skating rink and many more important buildings, it wasn’t a surprise that the old station was also next on the chopping block. But, turns out that wasn’t the case. KPTC ended up publishing a post stating that the KPTC old bus station is currently under restoration and will soon turn into a museum. Now THAT is surprising, an old beautiful building being repurposed again.

The Al-Baloush bus station was interestingly designed by two Polish architects living in Kuwait back in the 80s, Andrzej Bohdanowicz and Krzysztof Wiśniowski. They both designed the Kuwait Port Authority Complex in Shuwaikh and later the Al-Baloush bus station in 1986.

View this post on Instagram

A post shared by Kuwait Public Transport Co . (@kptckuwait)

KPTC also recently finished restoring one of their first busses dating back to 1965 which I’m guessing will be part of the museum display.

For the past few weeks, I’ve been preoccupied researching, interviewing, and scanning photos related to Kids ‘r’ us and I think I’m finally ready to share all my findings. For those of you too young to remember, Kids ‘r’ us was a huge and very popular toy store that opened in Kuwait (Dajeej) back in the early 80s. They later opened smaller locations around Kuwait including one in the old Salmiya souq which was popular after the 1990 invasion. A few weeks ago I got a comment under one of my old posts from a person called Khaled Al-Qutub saying he was part of the original team that opened Kids ‘r’ us. So right away I got in touch with him by email and later by Whatsapp to get his story. Here is everything I’ve managed to gather over the past few weeks.

Background
Firstly let’s get some background information out of the way. Kids’r’us was not an imitation of Toys “R” Us nor was it inspired by it. Kids’r’us was Toys “R” Us. Why we have a different name, logo and mascot isn’t very clear, from what I was told they wanted to create a new more relatable brand for the Middle East, but if that was the case then why would you go with a koala bear for a mascot and not say a camel or another animal from our region? Alghanim was granted a limited right to open Toys “R” Us stores (Kids R Us) in Kuwait and 13 other countries located in and around the Middle East that included Bahrain, Egypt, Iran, Iraq, Jordan, Lebanon, Oman, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, Sudan, Syria, United Arab Emirates and Yemen (source). From 1982 to December 1993, Alghanim opened four toy stores, all in Kuwait. Kids R Us lost over 2 million Dinars over the 11-year period from 1982 to 1993, and turned a profit only in one year of this period. (source).

The Begining
Khaled Al-Qutub was a Jordanian expat born in Kuwait back in 1964. Like many of the original Kids’r’us employees, he was young when he joined the team. According to Khaled, they were around 25 employees and 6 managers that helped launch Kids’r’us (most pictured above). When they joined and visited the store for the first time it was completely empty with just tiles and columns. Over the next months, they had to install all the gondolas (what they call the store shelves), receive the containers, and unload items into the warehouse and onto the shelves. The store was composed of three floors. The warehouse was located in the basement and was 2,500sqm, the main store was on the ground floor and was also 2,500sqm, and there was a small 500sqm mezzanine floor that originally held offices but later got turned into a buy-as-is damaged goods area. The original location is still in Dajeej, it’s now where Sears is located.

Two or three guys from Toys R Us (USA) came to Kuwait to train the Kids R Us staff. They brought floor layouts with them and showed the staff where to put everything. When the toys arrived in the containers they had Toys”r”us labels on them.

Dabdoub
One day while they were busy setting up the store Khaled got called into the office by the manager back then, Rawi Alkhatib, and his deputy Amal Haddad. They had gotten delivery of a large blue box that morning and it was now in the office and they asked Khaled to open it. That was when he saw the dabdoub costume for the very first time. It was huge! Khaled was told that he would be dabdoub and was given some basic set of rules to follow, feel free to do whatever you want to make the kids happy, but you’re not allowed to make a sound or talk. Later after Khaled left Kids’r’us other people took over the job, but he was the original mascot.

The Opening
Before the store opened the employees went around giving out bumper stickers to people on the street telling them about Kids’r’us. A while back I found some newspaper ads for the opening and you can see one of them above.

Kids ‘r’ us officially opened on November 10th, 1983 it was considered to be the largest toy store in the region at that time with over 10,000 toys. According to Khaled, the first day was crazy with thousands of people, families, and children all visiting the store. You couldn’t move inside.

The Work Environment
Khaled only stayed with Kids’r’us for 2 or 3 years and then left. After talking to him I realized I might be able to find other Kids’r’us employees who might also have information and photos to share with me. So I did the most basic thing, I searched LinkedIn. I wasn’t expecting to find anyone but somehow I did, I found another Khaled, Khaled Saqer.

Khaled Saqer joined Kids’r’us around the same time Khaled Al-Qutub left and one thing I found fascinating is how both of them talked so highly about their experience working at Kids’r’us. The Kids’r’us managers must have been really great because the work environment seemed incredibly fun. All the employees were similarly aged, and all with similar mindsets. According to Khaled Saqer they all used to play football together and they used to even come into the store on their off days just to hang out in the back.

Khaled told me he was part of a Whatsapp group with around 14 ex-employees who were still in touch with each other which I was invited to join for research. It’s a group where they shared old photos they come across of Kids’r’us, but mostly it’s just like every other Whatsapp group where they share random videos and memes. During the Gulf War everyone ended up leaving to different places and since then over the years they’ve been slowly reconnecting and finding each other. For example, I ended up connecting them to Khaled Al-Qutub who is now part of their ex-employees Whatsapp group.

Not a lot of them have any photos from back when they used to work there except for Khaled Saqer. Not only did he have photos, but he also had documents and sketches all archived in an old photo album. He even still has his uniform. Khaled was one of the lucky employees to get training in the US, Alghanim sent him to Toys”R”Us in Atlanta for three months where he learned everything and came back and applied it to the store. Most of the photos I was able to gather were from him.

The Demise of Kids’r’us
As I mentioned at the start of the post, Kids’r’us wasn’t a profitable business. During the 1990 Iraqi invasion the Dajeej store was looted and burnt down and after the war, it was never restored. Alghanim also never ended up fulfilling their end of the deal with Toys”R”Us, so in 1993 when the contract was up for renewal, Toys”R”Us handed over the franchise rights to the UAE group Al-Futtaim. But, Toys”R”Us made a mistake and handed over the franchise a bit earlier than they should have so Alghanim took them to court for breach of their agreement, and on July 11, 1996, the arbitrator awarded Alghanim $46.44 million for lost profits (source).

So that’s the story of Kids’r’us. I’ve uploaded all the photos and documents including the floor plans for the Dajeej store to my Flickr account so they’re available to download in high resolution. You can check them all out by clicking here.

Last month the Environment Public Authority officially opened the Jahra Nature Reserve to the public. The reserve is considered to be the first eco-tourism project in Kuwait with the aim of increasing environmental awareness and appreciating the landscape.

There are two different observation outposts at the reserve and you will be able to visit one of them during your trip which is limited to an hour and a half. The cost of visiting the reserve is KD10 for up to 5 people and increases the larger the group it. Because it’s a reserve the visit will be guided and so you won’t be able to wander off on your own and are limited to visiting just selected areas.

If you want to visit the reserve then you need to request an entry permit from the EPA and pay the fee. Here is the link to the form on the EPA website. Link

Top photo by sam_blue, bottom by Oboch

They were installed back in 2018 and doesn’t seem people were using them. They might have been ahead of their time since we don’t have a recycling culture here and it’s going to take more than just one machine to change our habits.

Back in September, the Ford dealer brought in some demo Broncos to display in their new showroom but the actual cars are now finally being delivered to customers who pre-ordered. I’ve seen one on the road so far and two are currently up for sale at a used car dealership in Sharq. As expected, the prices are currently inflated due to high demand and not enough cars. The Sharq dealer was selling the 2-door ‘Big Bend’ model for 16,500KD and the 4-door for 17,500 while the actual dealership price is 12,400 and 14,400 respectively.

If you don’t want to pre-order a car and have money to splurge, here is the location of the used car dealership on Google Maps.

Below are all the events I managed to find for this weekend. As usual, if I’ve missed anything, let me know in the comments.

Thursday
Exhibition: Art from the Islamic Civilization
Exhibition: Modern Architecture in Kuwait 1949-1989
Exhibition: Saad Hamdan – The Spirit of Ceramics
Exhibition: The Private Collection of Mahsa Azimi
Exhibition: Abdulwahab Al-Awadhi – The Sound of Silence
Exhibition: Abduljalil Al Shareefi – Nostalgia
Exhibition: Fadi Yazigi
BBT Picnic

Friday
Exhibition: Art from the Islamic Civilization
Exhibition: Modern Architecture in Kuwait 1949-1989
BBT Picnic
Albohayra Farm
Kuwait Duathlon 2nd Edition
Sailing: Friday Sunset Cruising
Beach Movie Night

Saturday
Exhibition: Art from the Islamic Civilization
Exhibition: Saad Hamdan – The Spirit of Ceramics
Exhibition: The Private Collection of Mahsa Azimi
Exhibition: Abdulwahab Al-Awadhi – The Sound of Silence
Exhibition: Abduljalil Al Shareefi – Nostalgia
Grand Mosque Tour
BBT Picnic
Albohayra Farm
Yoga in the Park
Community Catch-and-Throw Frisbee
Anti Bullying Workshop with Horses
Street 965 at Ooredoo Roof Parking
KMT: Cycling Open Day