Search: “ace”

Back in October I picked up an iPhone XS from Digits. My previous iPhone X had failed due to water damage and so wasn’t covered under warranty even though the iPhone X is meant to be water resistant. Anyway, last month I noticed the volume on my iPhone XS wasn’t that loud. Turned out the bottom speaker had stopped working. Since it was covered under warranty, I decided to take it back to Digits to get repaired. But Digits wanted to keep the phone for a few days and since I didn’t feel like wiping everything off my phone and handing it over to them, I decided I’d just live with the speaker issue or maybe take it to an unauthorized Apple repair shop and have them fix it for me while I wait. It would void the warranty, but it would also be a lot more convinient.

I called up my favorite iPhone repair shop to see if they stocked the iPhone XS lower speaker but they didn’t, which ended up turning out to be a good thing! Around a week after passing by Digits, my iPhone XS modem started to fail and I was getting a weird cellular update message. My phone stop connecting to my cellphone network and removing or reinserting my sim card wouldn’t make a difference. The modem would just stop working, I’d get an onscreen update error, then my cell coverage bars turn into a warning triangle. All I could do was wait for it to start working again.

So I backed up everything on my phone, wiped it clean and dropped it off at Digits for them to repair. Around 10 days later, I get a phone call from Digits telling me that they’ve replaced my phone with a brand new one under warranty, and to come by and pick it up.

If I had gone to my usual unauthorized repair shop to fix the speaker, my warranty would have been voided and my phone would not have been replaced for free when the modem failed. This whole experience has changed my view on iPhone repairs. I usually replace my cracked screens at unauthorized repair shops because they’re a lot cheaper and a lot quicker, but after this incident, I don’t think I’m going to do that anymore. Something to keep in mind next time you crack your phones screen.

A couple of months ago a new hot pot place opened in Salmiya called Da Wang. It’s a small hole in the wall located right behind Holiday Inn. I passed by in the evening and the first thing that stuck out for me was how incredibly bright the interior was. Just super bright white lights with very white walls. The place was empty except for one table that had a couple who were finishing up their meal and watching TV which was hanging on the wall in front of them.

Da Wang’s menu is fairly small [Link], on one side they have 10 Asian dishes with favorites like Bulgogi and Bibim Bap, while on the back side they have their Hot Pot menu. Their Hot Pot menu is pretty cool, you get to choose between a normal chicken broth, a spicy one, or a hot bot split into two, normal and spicy. You then have a large list of all the proteins and veggies you can order for the hot pot and since we were there for the hot pot, that’s what we ended up ordering.

If you don’t know what a hot pot is, this is how wikipedia describes it:

Hot pot is a Chinese cooking method, prepared with a simmering pot of soup stock at the dining table, containing a variety of East Asian foodstuffs and ingredients. While the hot pot is kept simmering, ingredients are placed into the pot and are cooked at the table, in a manner similar to fondue.

But if you’ve never had a hot pot before you shouldn’t worry, what I loved about Da Wang the most was the extremely friendly service. Every step of the way the waiter would double check with us if we knew what to do and if we didn’t, he was willing to step in and show us or explain things.

The reason I felt like having hot pot is because I recently had an amazing experience at a place in Dubai called Fujiya. It was an eat all you can eat Wagyu Shabu Shabu Japanese restaurant that a friend recommended, and there might have been a lot of alcohol involved, but I do remember the food being incredibly good.

My experience at the Da Wang wasn’t as good as at Fujiya, and it’s mostly because of the quality of the meat. I ordered lamb and beef and between the two I preferred the beef but, it could have been sliced a lot thinner and the quality could have been a lot better. A friend told me I did it wrong and I should actually buy my own meat and then take it with me to Da Wang. I guess I’m going to have to try that.

The bill didn’t come out to much but if you do decide to go to Da Wang make sure you take cash with you since they don’t have knet yet. If you forget it’s not that big of a deal since there is an ATM machine inside Holiday Inn across the street. Da Wang are on instagram @dawangkuwait and here is their location on [Google Maps]

If you have a favorite hot pot place in Kuwait let me know about it.

Yesterday I took part in the first open track event at Kuwait Motor Town and I had such a great experience I had to share it on the blog. The day after it still feels a bit unreal, not only do we finally have our very own race track in Kuwait, but it’s a great one as well!

National Circuit (4,540M)

Our track layout is just incredible! They had the National Circuit layout open for yesterdays event (pictured above) and compared to the two track layouts I’ve raced on in Bahrain, I think ours is way more fun. It’s fast, long and there is a lot going on all the way. I was worried the track might favor larger more powerful cars but I think it works really favorably for mine.

The video above is a full lap around the track starting from the pit lane exit. Sorry about the sound, and RIP little bug my GoPro killed halfway through.

The open track started from very early in the morning. According to the schedule they sent us we were meant to arrive around 8:30 so we could start with the registration process before the drivers briefing at 9:20. I got there early around 8:15AM and to my surprise, there were cars there already. People actually started showing up on time and so the drivers briefing started on schedule with a brief about the track, the different warning flags as well as giving us a bunch of safety tips. Super informative for first time open trackers.

This is probably a good time to highlight the fact that the team working at KMT yesterday were extremely professional. Everyone knew what they were doing and the whole thing was extremely organized. It didn’t feel like their first open track event, it felt like it was something they had been doing for years and that was impressive.

I didn’t count the number of cars yesterday, but I think we were around 60 in total since I was #59. They divided us into two groups, I was in Group B. Another example of how organized they were, they handed out lanyards with our names and group letter on the front, while the backside had the days schedule. That was incredibly practical, in Bahrain we’re always asking what time lunch is or when our turn is etc..

Once we were done with the briefing we took our cars into the pitlane. The pits I think were the most disappointing part about KMT. They were small, had low ceilings and the bathrooms felt cheap and flimsy. That’s one thing I prefer about Bahrain’s circuit over ours and it’s my only complaint about Kuwait Motor Town. But, it’s not a deal breaker.

The first sessions of the day involved following a lead car. This wasn’t at very high speeds and it was to familiarize ourselves with the track and the racing lines. Once those practice sessions were done, it was flat out racing and it was so much fun. I had a bunch of friends in the same group as me so we just spent the day racing each other. The video above was shot from inside my car and kind of gives you an idea of how it feels to race in an open track event. The track is overexposed in the video but you can still make out the tarmac and the cars so it’s watchable. Keep in mind there are no winners in an open track event, it’s all just for fun.

The event finished at 5PM just as the sun was setting. It’s a beautiful track and looked even better as the sun was setting. I really had such a blast yesterday and now I can’t wait till the next open track event. No offense to ASCC and JACC, but this is by far my favorite Diwan Al Amiri project. Thank you KMT for hosting such a great track day. For more information about Kuwait Motor Town and a list of their upcoming events, here is a link to their [Website]

Kuwait Motor Town are going to start running their own Open Trackdays at the circuit starting from March. An open track is when drivers can sign up to race their cars around the circuit for fun.

Their first open track is this coming Saturday (March 2) with a car and driver entry fee of KD75 which is pretty good (Bahrain International Circuit is around KD70 for example). I think the open track limit is 50 or 60 cars and they sold out of spots a few hours after announcing it. I managed to book a spot for me, so I’ll be participating with my Lotus Cup car this Saturday.

The only issue I’m concerned about is there is no fuel station at the track and the nearest fuel stations are a bit far out so its a BYOF (bring your own fuel) situation which is annoying. In Bahrain, I tend to get three 30 minute sessions done before needing to refuel, but there is a gas station inside the track and a couple outside, across the street from the circuit. I probably need to go scout the gas stations around KMT before Saturday and figure out which one would be the quickest to get to and back without wasting a lot of time.

I’m super excited about this since I’ll be able to take part in a lot more track days compared to before, and it’s going to save me a lot of money since I no longer have to keep shipping my car to Bahrain every time I want to track the car. If you missed signing up to this open track there will be more coming, here was the link to the sign-up page [Link]

Update: I ended up heading towards KMT this morning to check out the fuel situation. For those taking part, or planning to take part in the future and want to know what the fuel situation is, here is what you need to know:

Once you’re at the track the closest fuel station with Ultra 98 fuel is in Ali Sabah Al Salem area [Google Maps]. It takes around 10 minutes to get there from the track without any traffic and all the traffic lights green. It then takes around 12 minutes to get from there back to the track. So if you include the fueling process, it will take you over 30 minutes to leave the track, fuel up and come back.

Update 2: Spectators are allowed to come and watch from the grand stands. There is no entry fee, it’s free. Here is the location of the track on [Google Maps]

Right now it doesn’t look like there is a lot going on this long weekend but I’ll keep looking for events and adding them to the list. For now below is everything I could find, if I missed anything let me know.

Thursday
Exhibition: RE_USE
New Waves in Contemporary Egyptian Art
Exhibition: Suhaila Al Najdi and Mahmoud Maghraby
Kuwait International Speed Racing Championship Drag Race
From AlKout to Kuwait
Festival of Lights
Japanese Cultural Week: Movie Night

Friday
Exhibition: RE_USE
New Waves in Contemporary Egyptian Art
Kuwait International Speed Racing Championship Drag Race
From AlKout to Kuwait
Festival of Lights
The Meeting Point Food Festival
Murouj Market
Pro Truck Food Festival
Friday Morning Run
Yoga With Fatheya
Locals Day at Bunka

Saturday
Exhibition: RE_USE
New Waves in Contemporary Egyptian Art
Exhibition: Suhaila Al Najdi and Mahmoud Maghraby
From AlKout to Kuwait
Festival of Lights
The Meeting Point Food Festival
Murouj Market
Pro Truck Food Festival
Locals Day at Bunka
Movies at the Park: ET

Sunday
Exhibition: RE_USE
New Waves in Contemporary Egyptian Art
Exhibition: Suhaila Al Najdi and Mahmoud Maghraby
From AlKout to Kuwait
Festival of Lights
The Meeting Point Food Festival
Pro Truck Food Festival

Monday
Exhibition: RE_USE
New Waves in Contemporary Egyptian Art
Exhibition: Suhaila Al Najdi and Mahmoud Maghraby
From AlKout to Kuwait
Festival of Lights
Pro Truck Food Festival

Tuesday
Exhibition: RE_USE
New Waves in Contemporary Egyptian Art
Exhibition: Suhaila Al Najdi and Mahmoud Maghraby
From AlKout to Kuwait
Festival of Lights

If you’d like to share an event on the blog [Email Me]
For a full list of upcoming events click [Here]

Sometimes events get canceled or have details changed so always double-check with the organizers.

Screenshot from Dumplin’

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

New This Weekend:
Dumplin’ (6.8)
Fighting with My Family (7.8)
The Knight of Shadows: Between Yin and Yang (5.4)
Then Came You (7.0)
Upgrade (7.6)
What They Had (6.5)

Other Movies Showing Now:
A Dog’s Way Home (6.4)
A Star Is Born (8.5)
Alita: Battle Angel (7.6)
Aquaman (8.2)
BlacKkKlansman (7.5)
Cold Pursuit (7.3)
Destroyer (6.8)
Glass (8.1)
Green Book (8.3)
Happy Death Day 2U (6.8)
How to Train Your Dragon: The Hidden World (7.9)
Racetime (7.2)
Ralph Breaks the Internet (8.1)
Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse (8.6)
The Lego Movie 2: The Second Part (7.4)
The Prodigy (6.0)
The Quake (6.2)
The Upside (6.2)
The Vanishing (5.8)
The Wife (7.3)

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

Amazon Adventure 3D (6.6)
Fly Me to the Moon (4.5)
Galapagos 3D (8.6)
Oceans: Our Blue Planet (7.4)
Penguins (6.7)
Planet Power 3D (N/A)

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

Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Interior Lt-Gen Sheikh Khalid Al-Jarrah has issued a decision to cancel residency stickers that are placed in the passports of expatriates. Such a decision is part of the ongoing upgrade process at various departments of the ministry, reports Al-Anba daily. [Source]

I wish they came out with this decision a few months ago before I got my new passport. Whoever stuck my residency sticker must have been blind because its tilted like 45 degrees, is partially occupying the adjacent page, and part of the sticker is also sticking out of the passport. Drives me nuts every time I see it.

If you’ve ever researched high-end music earphones or maybe you’ve purchased a pair before, you’d know that you can get custom sleeves for them. Earphones (the type you stick inside your ear) come with different sized rubber sleeves, usually similar to the ones below. These are made to fit the majority of ears but aren’t a perfect fit.

With high-end earphones, you can get custom silicon sleeves made to fit your unique ear canal shape offering your better sound isolation and a perfect fit. To get these custom sleeves done, you need to send the manufacturer an impression of your ear. A few days ago someone on Reddit asked where to get this done in Kuwait, so I figured I’d post that information here.

International Optics have a Hearing Center at their location in Central Plaza in Salmiya. At the hearing center they can take an impression of your ear and have your mold ready all within 15 minutes. Once they give you the mold you could then mail that to the silicon sleeve manufacturer abroad to create the custom sleeve for you. The cost for two earmolds (left and right) is KD15.

So if you’re ever looking to get molds done, that’s a place you can go to. Their phone number is 25714573 or 97234752 and they’re located [Here]

Around ten days back I asked if anyone had tried the Zain Beam internet service and a few of you responded with high praise for the service. Zain also read my post and got in touch with me with an offer to try the service for a month, so I jumped on the opportunity and yesterday they installed Beam at my place.

The installation process is supposed to be fairly simple, they install an antenna on your balcony or the roof of your building, and then run an ethernet cable to your apartment where they hook it up to an LTE modem. In my case the installation process was slightly more complicated and took around an hour and a half because they were having trouble finding a strong signal. My building which back in the 90s was the tallest in the neighborhood is now surrounded by much taller buildings and so it was difficult to find a good signal. Thankfully, just as I was about to give up hope, they found a spot on my roof with ample signal and then ran the ethernet cable from it down to my apartment.

First impression? It’s fast! I asked for the 20Mbps connection and I’m getting around 30Mbps which is similar to what other people are reporting. What’s also great is my upload speed is between 10-20Mbps.

This right now is the fastest connection I’ve ever had at home and it feels strange because I’m so not used to having a fast and stable connection at home. YouTube videos play instantly as well as HBO, Amazon, Hulu and Netflix. The video quality from the streaming services also looks to have improved because of my now faster connection. I also managed to update all the apps on my two ipads plus two macs really quickly. I know all this sounds very normal, but you have to keep in mind, my connection for the past year or so has been terrible and I now finally feel like I have fast internet like a normal person.

For those of you who are gonna leave a comment saying I should get LTE or B Wireless or whatever, those services might be great where you are, but not where I am. I’ve had B Wireless for the past 7 years but you need a direct line of sight to their tower for it to work properly. A few months ago I lost what little line of sight I had which is why I had to look for a B Wireless alternative. Regular internet services from telecoms also doesn’t work properly where I live. Zain Bolt which can easily hit 60-70Mbps at the office barely gets 12Mbps at my place and spends most of the time hovering at around 5Mbps. So I understand you might have super fast mobile or fiber optics internet at your place, at mine it’s a different story.

Its too soon to tell if the Zain Beam speed will remain consistent, but I’m optimistic since Zain are limiting the amount of Beams they install per area. A friend of mine also told me these antennas can be upgraded in the future to work with 5G, so Zain could potentially end up providing much faster internet than their current two options (20Mbps or 40Mbps). Personally, if the connection continues like this for a the next few days I’m not even going to wait for my one month trial period to finish, I’m going to sign up right away.

The cost of the service is KD25 a month for 20Mbps, and KD40 for 40Mbps. With both options you need to commit to 24 months which is a tough pill to swallow. But with no better option, I’m willing to commit. If you guys have any questions about Zain Beam or want me to try anything let me know in the comments below.

Screenshot from Alita: Battle Angel

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

New This Weekend:
Alita: Battle Angel (7.6)
Happy Death Day 2U (6.8)
Racetime (7.2)
Stan & Ollie (7.6)
The Quake (6.2)
The Vanishing (5.8)
Time Freak (5.7)

Other Movies Showing Now:
A Dog’s Way Home (6.4)
Aquaman (8.2)
At Eternity’s Gate (7.0)
Cold Pursuit (7.3)
Destroyer (6.8)
Dragon Ball Super: Broly (8.5)
Glass (8.1)
Ralph Breaks the Internet (8.1)
Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse (8.6)
The Kid Who Would Be King (5.8)
The Lego Movie 2: The Second Part (7.4)
The Prodigy (N/A)
The Unspoken (4.9)
The Upside (6.2)

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

Amazon Adventure 3D (6.6)
Oceans: Our Blue Planet (7.4)
Planet Power 3D (N/A)

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

Since I’m in Qatar for the week I asked my followers on Instagram to recommend restaurants for me to try out. Below is the list I’ve compiled of all the recommendations. I haven’t tried them all so can’t vouch if they’re any good or not, but at least it’s a starting point for when you’re ever in Qatar:

CUT by Wolfgang Puck
Flat White (coffee)
Gastronomy (dessert)
Graze (grand & go)
Hakkasan
Halo (dessert)
Kava (coffee)
La Mar
Market by Jean Georges
Morimoto
Nobu
Novikov
Opal by Gordon Ramsay
Spice Market
Sugar & Spice (dessert)
Toro Toro

If there is a place I missed that you think should be on the list, let me know in the comments below.

My favorite local comedy show is back again this weekend. If you’re looking for something to do this Friday (Shani/Valentines Day) then you should consider the Staged in Kuwait IMPROV comedy night. They’re always hilarious and I’ve never gone and not had a good time.

Tickets are reasonably priced at KD10 and the show will take place at the American United School. For more details click [Here]

Update: A friend just informed me that Valentine’s is actually on Thursday not Friday. Oops.

I posted about the ReQueue app last year, it’s an app that allows you to add yourself to a restaurants waiting list before getting to the restaurant. When I posted about ReQueue the only restaurant on it that interested me was Table Otto, but I’ve stopped going there so I stopped using the app.

But, recently a friend made me aware you could reserve a table at one of my favorite breakfast places, Lunch Room. Lunch Room is small and always busy on weekends, and unlike Cocoa Room, I can’t call in ahead to add myself to their waiting list. Now with ReQueue, that issue is sorted.

There are more restaurants on ReQueue now so might be worth checking it out again. It’s available for both [iOS] and [Android] devices.

The Abdullah Al-Salem Cultural Centre (ASCC) opened nearly a year ago and since then I’ve visited it nearly a dozen times. It’s right down the street from my place and so it’s really convenient for me to drop by whenever I want. One of the things I was concerned about when the museums first opened up was how it would hold up to the abuse.

Well I’ve got good news, all six museums are still pretty much intact. I passed by on Thursday and went through all the exhibits and I could count the number of exhibits that were out-of-order on my hand. Not only that but since my last visit a few months ago, new cafes have opened up and a couple of new exhibits were added.

Best part about the museum is that there rarely is anyone ever there. For example I passed by Thursday evening and there were barely any people which is great if you don’t like crowds.

If you haven’t been to the museums yet then I’d highly recommend you do so, it’s just a cool place to walk around and chill with loads of outdoor spaces to explore as well as the actual museums themselves. For more information click [Here]

As you’re probably aware by now, last month demolition started on Al Sawaber even though people tried to stop it from happening. I heard a bunch of stories about how the contractor wasn’t supposed to start demolition because of a court order or how the whole thing was a miscommunication between various ministry departments. But all the stories aside, what’s happening to Al Sawaber now?

Basically, the contractor started demolition by removing all the pedestrian bridges that connect all the Al Sawaber buildings together. From what I could tell the buildings have been untouched so far. Activists went to court early in the month to stop the demolition from taking place with one of the reasons being that Al Sawaber is classified as a modern heritage building so it should be protected not demolished. On February 19th the court will make their decision and if they agree with saving Al Sawaber, then the contractor will supposedly have to rebuild what they’ve demolished.

If you want to stay posted on everything Al Sawaber, then your best bet is to follow the @save_alsawaber account on Instagram.