Search: “cop”

This fire took place late last night so there isn’t much info out on it yet. I did find one article this morning saying it was extinguished but based on snapchat video below shot by a firefighter at around 7:45AM, it looks like the fire still hasn’t been put out.

This past week I’ve been seeing more and more people without masks on which is concerning since come Tuesday, malls and shops are going to open up. I’ve had three different instances over just these past two days involving masks.

1) I was shopping at a supermarket on Friday and there were people inside shopping without their masks on

2) I visited another supermarket yesterday and the volunteer at door wasn’t wearing a mask wanted to take my temperature, so I told her to put her mask on first and she responded by saying “don’t be afraid”

3) I visited a car dealership where no one at the dealership had a mask on

I’ve also had to tell my neighbors a few times to put on their masks before sharing the elevator with me. I think maybe because the government is easing up on restrictions people think the situation has gotten better? I mean I don’t get it. I’ve tried a variety of different masks on myself and haven’t been bothered by any of them. I don’t find them restrictive or annoying.

If you’re out in public then wear your mask, easy. That includes when you’re in your car and are ordering food from a carhop service or when you’re at a gas station. It’s risky enough that these employees have to interact with so many people throughout the day, at least help by making their environment as safe as possible.

This issue isn’t just in Kuwait obviously. Someone online did a video mashup recently where they took scenes from the comedy, Parks and Recreation, and combined it with footage from townhall meetings in the US on masks. Because some of the arguments are so absurd (5G conspiracies, government hoaxes), they actually blended in with the show seamlessly.

If you also weren’t aware it’s actually compulsory to wear a mask in Kuwait or you risk a KD5,000 fine. But, this obviously isn’t being enforced.

Pictured on top: Ai Weiwei MASK

Although gyms aren’t meant to reopen until the final stage of the government plan, I’ve been told that some gyms have presented a case to the government for permission to reopen sooner. A couple of days ago Alqabas newspaper visited Circuit+ to get an idea of how this could work safely and I think it could work.

Basically, Circuit+ will split up their gym into different large areas and give every member one of those areas to work out in. The area will contain all the equipment their member would need for that class so they don’t have to leave their section or share equipment with other members. Once the class is over the members are expected to wipe down the gym equipment they used and once they leave, the gyms cleaning staff come in and resterilize everything again for the next class.

Obviously this idea won’t work with every gym. Circuit+ isn’t a regular gym where you can just walk in and work out and leave, they function with classes that hold a limited number of people which works for them in this case. Also, their Shuwaikh location is HUGE as you can see in the video so they can manage to split it up and give each member a large section to workout in.

I think this could also apply to smaller and more private personal training gyms like mine (X.Athletic). Before the pandemic my gym would only allow a maximum of 4 gym-goers at any given time so it was never crowded. There was also a cleaner who was constantly wiping down the equipment and benches after they were being used, and this was on a normal day before COVID. By taking a few more extra precautions, I can easily see my gym also providing a safe space for me to work out in. Damn it, now all this gym talk is making me miss my gym and trainers.

But again, this setup wouldn’t work for every gym, just the very large class-based ones and the more premium exclusive gyms.

Kuwait had one of the first Karting tracks in the region and was a pretty popular sport before the 1990 invasion. Back in the 80s the Gulf Championship, the Middle East Championship and the World Championship were all held in Kuwait at the karting track in Ahmadi. One of the former racers Graham Hobson sent me the video above featuring his team back then called GH Karting. Graham used to work for KOC between 1983 and 1986 but now lives in Australia.

The video is an hour-long so you can skim through it if you want. He’s got one more video he’ll be sending me and I’ll upload that as well once I get it.

Update: Just uploaded a better version of the video with better sound
Update2: Below is the second video of the Middle East Karting Cup that was held in Kuwait back in 1986.

If you have Amazon Prime Video here is a good show for you to binge-watch, Hunters. The show is based in the 70s and stars Al Pacino as a leader of a secret team of Nazi hunters. The first season is only 10 episodes long so you’ll be done over a few days.

Back in April, I posted about the difficult to find book “Aftermath: Kuwait, 1991“. Well here is a pretty bizarre thing that happened to me. As I mentioned in that post, when the book was published back in 1992 there were two editions, the French edition called “FAIT” and the English edition called “AFTERMATH”. I posted about the French version since that was the copy I was able to get a hold of, but before getting the French version, I tried to get the English one.

Because the books were printed in limited quantity, they’re incredibly difficult to find and the prices can range from 100-200KD depending on the condition of the book. But, back in October, I found a used bookstore in Turkey selling the English edition of the book for just 2.5KD. It didn’t make any sense and it sounded too good to be true but because it was only 2.5KD, I decided to buy it to see what I’d get. Even the “Books on Books” edition of the book cost at least 10KD, so worst case I would get that.

I bought the book from Turkey and had the seller mail it to my PostaPlus MyBox UK account. He gave me a tracking number and it showed that it was delivered a week later, but it never showed up in my account. I waited and waited and nothing. So I figured the seller must not have put my mailbox number on the package, it’s happened before so I got in touch with PostaPlus after waiting two months and was like hey, I have a package missing, I’m guessing the seller didn’t put the mailbox number, here is the tracking number can you see if you ever received it? They replied saying they hadn’t received a package with that tracking number. I was upset obviously because I had found this incredibly absurd deal on a rare book and now that book is lost.

I eventually forgot about the whole thing and a few months later found a reasonably priced French edition of the book and got that instead.

Then, a couple of weeks ago, out of nowhere, a package shows up in my mailbox marked as a DVD. Right away I realize it could be the book since it’s around the same size as a DVD case. Sure enough, nearly 8 months after buying the book it finally got delivered to me last week!

I somehow managed to get AFTERMATH for just 2.5KD which is incredible, and now I have both language editions of this hard to find book. So here is life pro tip, ALWAYS make sure you and the seller put your forwarding mailbox number in the address.

The post office has been closed since the start of the pandemic but it looks like they’ll finally be opening up on June 21st.

Even once open expect a delay in getting your package since they’ll have quite a backlog to go through. I saw the video above yesterday which is exactly how I picture our mail sorting facility on the first day of reopening.

Private couriers are also struggling with a backlog of orders while being understaffed, so be patient with them as well.

After this past weekends press conference with the announcement of the 5-stage plan to recovery, there were many things left unclear, and some things that were just plain confusing. A lot of you had questions which is understandable.

Language Barrier
This is something I’ve already mentioned before. The majority of the messages shared right now are only shared in Arabic. The biggest issue with this is other than the fact a large part of society isn’t getting the messages, it results in a lot of fake news being shared with no way to verify if it’s true or not. It’s not that difficult to get stuff translated and information shouldn’t just be translated to English either since a lot of the low-income workers read neither English nor Arabic.

Too Many Channels
Another issue I think is how the information is being shared across multiple channels. There isn’t one official source where you can check to get all the Covid-19 related announcements, laws, and whatever. Right now there are around 6 different official Instagram accounts but they also share different information across their different channels. So you might find something on the Twitter account that’s not on their Instagram account, or you might find something on their Facebook page which is neither on the Twitter or Instagram pages. So not only do you need to follow all the Instagram accounts but also all their other social media channels as well just to make sure you’re getting everything. And that’s if you speak Arabic, if you don’t then you have to rely on random Instagram accounts or google translate newspapers.

My Blog
Which brings me to my main subject, the blog. Anybody who knows me personally knows that I love knowledge. I want to and need to know everything and I’m always curious which is why I’ve had no trouble finding content to post daily for the past 15+ years. I also love sharing and during this crisis, I realized there was a demand for information in English so I naturally started helping people by posting all the information in English so everyone knows whats going on. It’s a role I took on because nobody else was doing it right. But then the questions started rolling in. People had questions and they were coming to me because nobody else was answering it for them. The official accounts seem to ignore questions and so people had nowhere to go except blogs like mine or places like Reddit to try and get answers.

But this past weekend people had A LOT of questions after the press conference especially those who were either in locked-down areas or areas that were going to be locked down. I didn’t have any answers and the questions kept coming in and in. Add to that the angry and frustrated comments people were leaving and the Kuwait vs Expats arguments that were taking place and I just couldn’t take it anymore. I ended up closing down a number of posts for comments but then people started emailing me questions or direct messaging me on Instagram and Twitter. With everything that’s going on right now, I don’t need this anxiety.

It’s not my job to translate news to English or answer questions about area lockdowns or know if you’ll still be able to take your wife to the hospital. I’m sorry, but I don’t have any of these answers. I wish I did but to answer your questions I have to sift through various information all in a language I can barely read to try and make sense of things that don’t make sense.

So I’m no longer gonna do this. I’m going back to posting about things I find interesting no matter how superficial it might feel reading about a burger review with everything going on in the world. But that’s what my blog has always been about, just random shit I think is interesting to share. Happy Stuff.

This post is also closed for comments.

The local band Galaxy Juice just released a new track and it’s their first one in Arabic. The track is called “Subiya” (الصبية) which is the name of a desert in Kuwait located by the sea. The song is from their upcoming album, “Galaxy Juice and the Forty Thieves”.

For more music by local artists click here.

Today is the first day of Stage 1 and this means partial curfew for most of Kuwait. If you’re in one of the areas still in lockdown, I’m sorry about that, it must really suck. Salmiya blocks 10, 11 and 12 seem not to be in lockdown this morning even though it was originally announced they would be.

I was up early around 7 this morning and headed straight to the nearest Arabica to pick up coffee. The streets were pretty busy, the falafel near my place was packed and Trolley in Salmiya which is always empty had a queue outside. When I got to Arabica there were 6 cars waiting which wasn’t too bad compared to the Jabriya Starbucks line you can see in the video above. The Gulf Road was pretty busy and a lot of parking lots had the entrance barriers moved aside by people and cars were going in to park in the lots.

Everyone is obviously relieved the lockdown is over, I just hope everyone takes wearing a mask seriously and respects social distance. I’m hoping Avenues opening up in Stage 2 is enough incentive for people to follow the rules over the next 3 weeks. Stay safe everyone.

Yesterday during the press conference a 5 stage plan for the gradual return to normal life was shared. Because the information wasn’t made available in English, a reader took the time to translate the presentation himself so non-Arabic speakers could also read it. Please keep in mind this is an unofficial translation and so there might be inaccuracies.

Download the official Arabic version
Download the unofficial English version

Thank you Fawaz Al Hathal!

Update: Temporarily removed the English copy because I’m trying to edit and fix stuff in it including flipping around all the graphics. Check back in an hour.

Update2: File is back up

One item I was lucky enough to purchase just before the lockdown was a CTEK battery charger to use on my cars. I was planning to get one anyway for my Alfa since I was planning to park it during the summer but it turned out to be useful for the lockdown as well. If you’ve ever traveled on a long trip and got back to find your car battery dead, it was most likely because your car managed to drain the battery while you were away or the battery just lost its charge. A battery charger is a great way of keeping your battery healthy when parked for long periods of time and the CTEK is one of the best money can buy.

What makes the CTEK so great is how it takes care of your battery with its 8 stage approach combined with the simplicity of it. All you need to do is connect one end of the CTEK to your car battery and then plug the other end of it into a regular wall power socket and the CTEK will automatically take care of the rest. It will run the battery through some tests, check the condition of it and then charge it. Once the battery is fully charged it then trickle charges your battery to keep it alive and healthy until you need to use the car.

I’m lucky that my building parking lot has power plugs in various spots so right before the lockdown I charged the batteries of my cars just so I know they’d have enough juice to last through the lockdown. The CTEK came with two different plugs to connect to my battery, alligator clamps which just easily clip on to the positive and negative terminals on the battery, and eyelets that screw onto the battery. I installed the eyelets on my Alfa since it would be using the charger the most while I used the alligator clamps for my FJ and Lotus. In the photo on top you’ll notice the CTEK placed outside the car but that was just for the photo. You can actually place it under the hood so that way it’s protected from the weather as well as from getting stolen. If you have your own private garage then you can just leave it outside or on the floor.

If you have a car or motorbike that you plan on parking for a long time it’s worth investing in a battery charger. The CTEK is one of the best you can buy and the MXS 5.0 model which is the one I got sells for KD39.5. If you’re interested in picking one up you can order one from the local dealer, their Instagram account is @ctek.kw and their website is audodepotkw.com

This post originally was going to be about how you should watch the show Little America on AppleTV+, but then it was going to be a post about how you should watch For All Mankind on AppleTV+. But, I’ve now discovered and gotten hooked on the AppleTV+ series The Morning Show“>The Morning Show so this post is about how you might as well get AppleTV+ and just binge-watch all three.

Little America
This is a really great feel-good series, something we all need right now. There are 8 episodes available and each episode is a different story based on a real-life one.

For All Mankind
I was hesitant to watch this at first, I knew it was space-related but that was about it so I thought it was going to be a space story based on real-life events. 5 minutes into the first episode I realized, I was wrong. Not going to spoil the idea for you but it’s a show based on the space race of the 60s, but none of the events on the show match what actually happened in real life. It’s much more interesting. The show stars the incredibly talented Joel Kinnaman from The Killing and Altered Carbon and I think it might be the best show I’ve watched this year.

The Morning Show
I started watching this last night after being disappointed by Defending Jacob and I couldn’t stop watching it. I initially started watching it hoping it was similar to one of my all-time favorite shows, The Newsroom and although it isn’t as good, it got me hooked. I’m now more than halfway through the series and looking forward to finishing it up tonight after I’m done with work. The show has an all-star cast with Jennifer Aniston, Reese Witherspoon and Steve Carell.

Apple had a promo going on where if you purchased certain hardware from them they’d give you a year of AppleTV+ for free. I’m not sure because I wasn’t paying attention when I signed up but I was able to get a year for free I think because I recently purchased a new MacBook Pro. But if you haven’t purchased anything from Apple recently then they’ll give a one week free trial which should be more than enough time to binge-watch all three shows. Have fun, here is the link.

Update: Oh not sure how I forgot but if you’re a fan of It’s Always Sunny in Philidelphia, then you should also watch Mythic Quest: Raven’s Banquet on AppleTV+. It’s funny and stars Mac and Cricket.

A short video recorded back in 1988 showing various parts of Kuwait including the now-demolished Al Salam Building, Souk Mubarakiya, the stock exchange and Sultan Center (which looked a lot better than it does today). If you want to check out other videos recorded back in 1988 including one of ASK, click here.

via Reddit

I recently found out the U.S. Embassy in Kuwait has a COVID-19 information page that contains answers to a lot of common questions that aren’t answered anywhere else. For example, a friend of mine was asking me about curfew passes to the airport, how does that work? If you have a flight to catch can you just show them your ticket or do you need a special pass? What if you don’t have a car, can a friend drop you off? According to the U.S. Embassy website:

How can I drive to the airport during the curfew?
It is our understanding that passengers traveling directly to the airport to depart Kuwait will be permitted to travel with their passport and a copy of their booking and/or ticket showing departure. They should allow additional time for possible stops by relevant authorities and should be wearing face masks while outside their homes.

Can a family member or friend drive me to the airport?
It is our understanding that one person can take passenger(s) directly to the airport as long as they have a copy of the ticket of the traveler. The driver should allow additional time for possible stops by relevant authorities and should be wearing a face mask while outside the home.

The page looks like it’s being updated whenever there is anything new so worth bookmarking since there is very little information out there in English and some of the info isn’t even listed anywhere else to my knowledge. So check it out here.