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Back in 2016, a beautiful wall mural by the award winning artist Jad El Khoury was commissioned on the side of the National Council for Culture, Arts and Letters (NCCAL) building. The project had been sponsored by Jedareyat, a local volunteer group that scours the city for dead walls, and artists who can transform them into picture-worthy landmarks.

In 2020, controversy arose when the mural was painted over with white paint, completely destroying it. A lot of people were obviously upset about the incident, and what was a beautiful wall in the city turned into a generic white surface.

But there is now some good news! 

Jad has been brought back to Kuwait and has been commissioned to paint a brand new mural on the same wall again. The new artwork was commissioned by Froyo, the National Council for Culture, Arts and Letters and in collaboration again with Jedariyat.

The building has been undergoing preparation over the past few days and is now ready to be painted on. Jad will be starting work tomorrow (Friday) and is expected to complete the artwork by next Wednesday. If you want to watch him paint his new mural, then you can pass by over the coming days during the day to check him work.

Jad’s previous artwork was titled “Single Man” and was inspired by him moving from Lebanon to Kuwait for work. The mural had represented a single person trying to fit into a new chaotic environment.

If you’re a UFC Arabia subscriber then you probably already know they’re shutting down the service at the end of the month. UFC Arabia was the best way to watch UFC fights if you live in Kuwait (or the GCC). The service and features were great and the price was cheap, like 2KD a month and it included pay per view events which cost around 25KD each in the US.

But, they’re now shutting down the service and telling everyone to sign up to STARZPLAY, the new home of UFC Arabia.

I signed up to it and watched the last PPV event (UFC 299) on STARZPLAY and it SUCKED. I had two major issues:

First issue, you can’t rewind a live event. Most of the pay per view events start in the middle of the night and by the time I wake up around 7AM they’re nearly done. What I used to do with UFC Arabia is get on, press play, and quickly rewind to the start of the event so I don’t see any spoilers. I can even pause after rewinding so I can then make my coffee, sit down and start watching the fights.

With STARZPLAY you can’t do that, you have to watch live where the event is and you can’t rewind. So if I get on and it’s in the middle of the fight it’s like tough luck, I can’t do anything about it except maybe just not watch the fights in the morning as they’re happening and instead wait till after work or something. 
The second issue I had was that midway through the fights the STARZPLAY video stream died and didn’t come back. Thankfully UFC Arabia was still functioning so I just got on that and continued to watch the event there.
The whole STARZPLAY interface also sucks and it’s just too busy with so much going on. I tried watching old fights but it wouldn’t even let me change the commentary language, so I was forced to watch it in Arabic. It’s just a horrible experience compared to UFC Arabia.
So basically, if you’re a UFC fan living in the GCC you’re pretty much out of luck now.

Lumière have been around since 2017 and are famous for “Fluffs”, their super soft and fluffy stuffed donuts. But, Lumière also have a very large selection of cakes and desserts as well.

Other than their usual popular cakes like their Cream Brûlée Cheesecake and Pistachio Trifle, this Ramadan they’ve launched a number of exclusive items. Firstly there is a new chocolate cake they’ve called “Billionaire”. It’s a cake that they’ve been working on for sometime now and decided to launch it finally since they’ve managed to perfect it.

The Baklava Cheesecake is their other new Ramadan exclusive cake. They’ve taken their popular cheesecake base and infused it with baklava stuffing and crispy pastry layers on top.

Finally, they also launched two new Ramadan exclusive Fluffs, a rahash stuffed Fluff and a saffron stuffed Fluff. Their Fluffs not only look pretty in the photos, but they also look like that in real life. They’re also as soft and fluffy as they look.

All the new items are available to order right now. They’re available on Talabat and Deliveroo but you can also order directly through them.

Here’s some good news to start the day, according to TEC, the Wall of Peace sculpture by Kuwait artist Jafar Islah which is located behind Burger King on the Gulf Road will NOT be demolished as part of the refurbishment of the waterfront.

Even more good news, I managed to find out the names of the two saluki dogs owned by the Dickson’s from my post the other day. Brian Duggan, the author of Saluki: The Desert Hound and the English Travelers Who Brought It to the West managed to dig up the old letters Zahra had sent him and in the letters she mentions the names of their two dogs, Dhabaan and Khataaf.

Update: Not only will the Wall of Peace not be demolished, but according to TEC it will also be restored to it’s original marble state!

Last month the first phase of the waterfront refurbishment was completed from Green Island to the Kuwait Towers, and now they’ve started the second phase which is from SVN all the way to Green Island.

They’ve already started bulldozing all the greenery and it’s really sad to watch. It didn’t really show much when they did it in the first phase because that strip wasn’t that green to begin with, but the strip from SVN to Green Island is actually very green with dense trees in some areas. The refurbishment although looks really nice lacks much greenery and so it’s going to be a pretty grey view on my way to work once the second phase is completed.

One thing I’m worried about is the wall of peace sculpture by Jafar Islah which is located next to Burger King. I saw them working in that area today, hopefully they’re not planning to remove it.

Update: Looks like a lot of people are up in arms about the removal of all the trees so TEC issued a statement about it which you can read here.

Update2: According to TEC, the Wall of Peace will NOT be demolished.

When Chocomelt got in touch with me for this ad, I was familiar with their brand, but what I didn’t know was that since they launched 7 years ago, they’ve expanded to the rest of the GCC and now have 20 branches.

This year for Ramadan, Chocomelt are launching a special cake, one they’re so confident in that they’ve decided to name it after the brand, “The Chocomelt Cake”.

The Chocomelt Cake blends chocolate praline and creamy milk chocolate with buttery biscuits and a delicate layer of artisanal wafers. I tried the cake yesterday, and it was actually really delicious. I loved the combination of the slight crunchiness with the soft layers of chocolate, but also the fact that it wasn’t too dense and heavy.

What really impressed me as well was the packaging. The cake came inside a ceramic serving dish with Chocomelt written on the side, and that was inside a thick round cake box that came inside a special cake carrier. The whole thing felt very premium and so is perfect to take to gatherings.

Chocomelt just launched this new cake along with favorites from the previous years, and they’re all available now to order in Kuwait, Bahrain, Qatar, Saudi Arabia and the UAE. To get the cake, head to delivery.chocomelt.net and choose to either pick it up from any of their branches or have it delivered to you at a scheduled time. @chocomelt.kw

If you’re a fan of Joe & The Juice like me, then you’re also going to be excited to know that they’ve now started delivery exclusively on Deliveroo.

I never had Joe & The Juice until they opened in Kuwait, but now I’m a regular and a fan of their club sandwich and “Pick Me Up” juice. I also really appreciate that they list the calories, not that I calorie count, but I do like knowing how many calories everything is.

Deliveroo is currently offering free delivery if you order from Joe & The Juice, so if you’re looking to order something for breakfast, lunch or dinner, now you know what. @deliveroo_kw

While in London this week I watched Dune 2 in the cinema and it was the worst experience. I looked for a cinema in central London that was showing it in the IMAX 70mm format, and I think I found 3 or a handful of cinemas that were showing it in that format. The two best places for IMAX in London according to Reddit were BFI and the Science Museum, but I was booking on Saturday to watch on Sunday and both those theaters had Dune 2 sold out for the whole week. Eventually found seats at Odeon in Leicester Square. Wasn’t too excited about it since I hate that area because it’s so busy and packed with tourists, but whatever.

I wish I watched it anywhere else, even if it wasn’t in IMAX. The theater was huge, and the screen was probably huge, but because the theater was much much larger than the screen, the screen looked tiny. I swear I was like wtf, I could have just watched it on my iPad or at home on my TV, you can see in my photo above how small the screen looked like.

When the movie started I thought about leaving and just watching it once I was back to Kuwait, but thankfully I didn’t because it looks like Dune 2 was removed from the cinemas here. Both Cinescape and VOX are no longer showing Dune 2, most likely because it’s been banned due to scenes and a storyline related to religion? Not sure, but it’s not showing anymore. Oh well…

Update: Never mind, it turns out Cinescape removed Dune 2 from the cinema and will show it again in April, I guess during Eid. I don’t think I’ve ever understand this thinking process, but for those of you in Kuwait you now have to wait till April to watch Dune 2 while the rest of the world is watching it and talking about it now. On the bright side, at least it’s not banned, but by April it’s probably going to be available to stream for free on HBO MAX anyway from what I’m reading as well.

Let us know in the comments if you’ve watched anything interesting this week.

Movies at the Cinemas
The movies below are now showing at the local cinemas:

New This Weekend:
Phoenix (5.1)

Other Movies Showing:
Argylle (6.2)
Bob Marley: One Love (6.5)
DarkGame (5.9)
Fast Charlie (6.2)
In the Land of Saints and Sinners (6.1)
Madame Web (3.8)
No Way Up (5.3)
Red Right Hand (5.3)
The Beekeeper (6.8)
The Holdovers (8.0)
Wish (5.8)
Wonka (7.4)

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

Last year while visiting the set of the Netflix show, The Exchange, I saw an old Kuwaiti village being constructed for another show. The village was looking amazing and very realistic, but I couldn’t take photos to share since the show hadn’t been released yet.

A few weeks ago I remembered the village again and got in touch with Beyond Dreams, the studio behind The Exchange to see if I could pass by to take some photos. Turned out my timing was perfect since they had built an even larger village since my last visit, and it was for a new show that is airing on TOD and beINDrama this Ramadan called “Zaman Alajaj” (Time of Dust).

The village is huge, if you stand on one side you can’t see the other, there are alleyways, animals, and even a small farm with real vegetables growing. There is a street filled with shops, a village square, homes, and even a graveyard. So many details and all very realistically reproduced.

What is even more incredible is that the village is located in the suburbs, and not out in the middle of the desert. So one minute you’re stuck in traffic, and the next you’re walking around an old village with no cars in sight. The feeling is very bizarre, and because there are no tall buildings outside the wall, it really adds to the feeling that you’re in a village in the middle of nowhere.

All the structures are real and functional, so it not just a facade. If you open a door there is something behind it, it could be someone’s home, or it could be a shop selling spices, there will be something. The details are all there, and I remember it was the same thing when I visited the set of The Exchange.

Zaman Alajaj is being produced by Abdullah Boushahri, and the same team behind The Exchange. The story follows Wijdan (played by Mona Hussein), a woman seeking refuge from her abusive father and ends up infiltrating this simple village. It’s a drama with an intense and suspenseful storyline filled with conspiracies and conflict.

The series was produced for TOD and so will air exclusively on TOD and beINDrama. If you want to check out the trailer, it’s now up on @tod.tv

Note: This is a private set built for the show and so it not accessible to the public.

I’m currently in London for the week and I haven’t been here since 2022, before we got Apple Pay in Kuwait.

One cool benefit I realized I now have on this trip is that I can use the London Underground by just tapping my phone on the yellow card readers. I don’t even need to double tap the side button or even activate Face ID, I just take my phone out of my pocket, touch the yellow card reader and it automatically takes the money from my account and lets me through. It also works if you have Google Pay but I haven’t tried that.

Another cool thing I got to try on this trip is the eGate at the airport. Because I have the Canadian passport and I was alone, I was able to use the egate at passport control which meant I didn’t have to wait in any line and was through passport control in under a minute. Anyone who’s had to wait in line for an hour at LHR knows going through in under a minute is just insane.

Other than that its freezing and wet over here right now. I keep forgetting how cold it really gets outside of Kuwait and so I never pack enough winter clothes.

UPDATE: Due to the bad weather, the air show has been postponed till tomorrow, February 26.

The Kuwait Army has a number of events taking place today at the Kuwait Towers on the occasion of National & Liberation Day:

2:00 PM – Military Band Performance
4:00 PM – Airshow
4:30 PM – Folklore Band Performance

The Kuwait Army are also displaying some of their military vehicles in the Kuwait Towers parking lot for the public to explore.

If you want to head to the towers but don’t want to get stuck in traffic, then it would be a good idea to park in the city, in the area around Hamra Tower for example, and then walk over. @kuwaitarmyghq

The first phase of the new refurbished waterfront has now officially been completed. The first phase stretches from the Green Island all the way to the Kuwait Towers and has been given a complete facelift with new sidewalks, dedicated jogging and bicycle paths, as well as new lights, bins, benches and more.

The second phase of the project is from Green Island to Al Shaab slipway and is expected to be completed in October.

Runners will be glad to know that the running track is cushioned so it will be easy on your knees. Both the running and bike paths have distance markers so you can also tell how far you’ve run or cycled. For more pictures, click here.

On the occasion of National Day and Liberation Day, @alshaheedpark in collaboration with @martyrskuwait created a light installation composed of LED roses. There are 1,329 roses in the garden, each representing a Kuwaiti martyr.

The installation is located in Al Shaheed Park Phase II, and if you want to take photos, I’d recommend visiting during sunset so that your photos don’t end up very dark.

Cinescape is launching their new rooftop cinema tonight and they’re calling it Skyline.

Located on the rooftop of Al Assima Mall, Skyline will be the only outdoor cinema in Kuwait playing new releases and officially licensed films. It will also be Cinescape’s first outdoor cinema since Cinema Al Saifi (Fahaheel 1959, Hawally 1965), and the Ahmadi Drive-in Cinema (1980-2004).

Skyline will be playing current English and Arabic films as well as classics a couple of times a week. There will be 3 movies a day showing every day and you will be able to book them through their app.

Food will be available including exclusive cold weather items like soup, hot chocolate, sliders, pizza and more.

Tickets will be for 5KD and this will be a yearly seasonal cinema, not a temporary popup. It will close down once it gets too hot but then reopen again later in the year once the weather cools down again.

To stay posted on Skyline, follow @cinescapekuwait

Nando’s will officially be opening in Kuwait next week at The Warehouse Mall on February 21st according to the Nando’s team (20th will be a private event).

I was invited yesterday for a sneak peek and to take some pictures. The coming soon hoarding was still up so I couldn’t get a shot from the outside, but I did take some interior shots which you can check here.

I also found out that they will be opening Nando’s in Salmiya, and very near to where I live. Along with The Warehouse Mall and the Al Kout Mall locations, it would mean there will be at least three Nando’s in Kuwait opening this year.

Their Instagram account is now live so if you want to stay posted on the opening and more, check out @nandos.kw