Search: “kuwait”

The concept consists of a plan in the shape of infinity, around the existing Jaber Stadium and a new man-made lake on which will float three Olympic sized stadia. Contained within the main superstructure are another Olympic stadium, a five star hotel and a shopping centre. The tower, working within the long tradition of Kuwaiti tower-based architectural icons, contains a seven star hotel as well as luxury apartments, VIP suites for the stadium, and a Michelin star restaurant with extraordinary views. [Source]

I’m guessing the project was never approved since the last I heard of this was back in 2011. [Vimeo]

The Kuwait National Assembly have a logo competition taking place, if you’re interested to give it a shot head over to their website [Here]

The rules and details are in Arabic and I can’t seem to find the English version. Don’t worry though the last day to submit a logo is November 1st so you have lots of time to have someone translate it for you.

Oh and the first prize is a cool KD5,000.

Photo by Jeff van der Wees
Thanks Rayboy

Update: Mustapha translated the competition guidelines into English. You can check it out [Here]

Arabian Business has a list of top 20 banks in the region and I was expecting NBK to be like in the top 3 but according to them, NBK came in 10th place. The only other Kuwaiti bank in the top 20 was KFH who came in 12th place. Check out the full list [Here]

This latest video by TJCfilms is a “Best of Gulf Run” compilation. Gulf Run is an event in which guys from Kuwait send their cars to Bahrain and spend two days racing on the Formula 1 circuit with other drivers. Check out the video above or watch it on [YouTube]

Anyone know where I can find seedless watermelons in Kuwait? Dean & Deluca used to carry them like three years ago.

Photo by gwenweber

Visual Therapy presents their first ever art show, “Not Just a Pop-Up”, featuring original artwork and prints by Kuwaiti artist F160 and Brooklyn-based artist Zebadiah Keneally.

Local graffiti artist Monstariam will be painting a live mural during the show which will also include a graffiti shop offering a unique selection of street art supplies and merchandise. In addition, the shop will debut Visual Therapy‘s 2nd t-shirt collaboration. This time they teamed up with Iranian artist A1one, a pioneer of the street art movement in Tehran.

Date: July 16th 2013
Time: 8-11PM
Location: Dar Al-Funoon.

Please visit www.visualtherapyonline.com for more details, and follow @VisualTherapy on Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram.

A couple of weeks ago I was driving on the highway when a Jaguar F-Type drove past me. It was the first time I had seen one in person and I thought the rear end looked amazing which is why once I got home I emailed my contact at Jaguar asking if I could borrow the car, which I did, last week.

The F-Type turned out to be smaller than I was expecting it to be and that’s a good thing since I’m not a fan of large sports cars. It’s a 2-seat roadster convertible with a soft top that comes with either a V6 or a V8 engine. The model I tested had the V6 S-type engine which has 40 more horsepower compared to the regular V6.

The F-Type is by far the best looking Jaguar in production right now and is easily one of the hotest looking roadsters available on the market. I love the direction they went with the rear end but even the front of the car looks slick and aggressive. The interior of the car I drove was a combination of black and tan. I’m not usually a big fan of tan but since the dashboard and everything else was black and just the leather seats and leather trim in tan, the combination looked pretty good.

Performance wise although the car I drove was the F-Type S it wasn’t as fast as I was hoping it would be. Don’t get me wrong, I risked deportation a number of times while driving the car (by accident of course) but it wasn’t the “this car is going to kill me” kinda fast. On the other hand the car sounds INSANE! The model I drove was the fully loaded F-Type S with the optional exhaust system installed and if there is one option you have to get with this car this is the one. The exhaust system by default sounds fairly normal but there is a little switch on the centre console which once pressed transforms the exhaust into a completely different beast. The car was easy to drive (slow and fast) and it felt pretty responsive and agile weaving in and out of traffic.

I didn’t have or spot any major issues with the car during the time I had it but I was supposed to drop a friend off at the airport with the car and I couldn’t. The trunk of the F-Type is so small that I couldn’t fit a medium sized bag into it. I also had an issue with the car dials, during the day they just seemed a bit dark and I kept wishing they were much brighter. Finally the soft top, it’s not just with this Jaguar but in general I’m just not a fan of soft tops in Kuwait. For the good part of the year the roof is going to be closed and a foldable hard top would be much more practical solution for our weather.

One thing that surprised me about the car was the price. Whenever a friend asked me how much the car was worth I told them I didn’t know but that I assumed it cost upwards of KD30,000. When I was returning the car I found out the car actually starts at around KD22,000 which I felt was undervalued. The car looks like it’s worth a lot more than that and if you look at what else is available at that price range the Jag looks like a great buy. Of course with all the extra options the price does add up. If you want the F-Type S that starts at 25,000 and the model I drove was a fully loaded F-Type S (exhaust, rear camera, 20inch wheels etc..) which costs 29,500. The V8 model is even more expensive of course.

Anyway if you’re interested in test driving the car yourself you can pass by the Jaguar dealer in Al-Rai (Al-Zayani) and check it out there.

Oliversan is a new Asian cuisine restaurant that has opened up in Burj Jassim Tower in Kuwait City. The concept belongs to the same owners as Maki and right now they’re in their soft launch phase opening in the evening from 7 t 11PM.

They serve mostly Chinese and Thai food and they’re located on the mezzanine floor. I haven’t tried them out yet since I just found out about the place and they were still closed when I was there.

Why do we have three different security checks at the Kuwait Airport? You have the baggage security check before the check-in counters, you then have one before the emigration counters and finally a third one before entering your departure gate. Can’t they all be combined into one proper security check like most airports? I think at least the one before the check-in counter should be scrapped since in the summer at peak travel season the lines it generates is just ridiculous. From the three security checks that one is the least strict.

Bel Jerm El Machhoud is a Lebanese TV series similar to the US show COPS. Its a reality show that follows the Lebanese Internal Security Forces behind the scenes and in their recent episode they foil a kidnapping attempt of a Kuwaiti citizen. It’s not one of their most exciting episodes but it’s still worth watching. [YouTube]

Action starts at the 15:20 mark if you want to skip it all.

Thanks Camil

I don’t listen to 99.7 at all but a lot of people do and a couple of weeks back a friend asked me if I had heard the morning show recently since Linda was no longer on and instead two other hosts instead who are supposedly a mess. Then a few days back some readers started complaining about the two new hosts under one of my posts and awhile ago someone left the following comment:

Right now the rumor is that Linda from 99.7 has left Kuwait permanently which comes as a surprise to all of us. Though she wasn’t a favorite of everyone, she was certainly a part of Kuwait in her own way. She hosted the morning radio show for as long as I can remember. I’m sure not hearing her in the mornings must be a stark reminder of the changes Kuwait is currently experiencing.

I originally figured she just left on vacation but I wonder if she had a Latina Mina incident on air and had to leave the country like her?

Yum Galore – Pasta Ravioli from Yusif on Vimeo.

Yum Galore is the blog of Sarah, a Kuwaiti chef in training who’s currently living in London. Recently she started posting cooking videos and I just checked them out and I really like them. They’re more artsy than your regular cooking videos with gorgeous colorful shots and great framing. If you like the one above then you can check out the rest of her videos on her blog [Here]

According to a friend of mine the sinkholes on the King Fahad Highway (40) are being caused by ongoing pipeline projects. They’re micro-tunneling under the 40 passing pipes from one side of the highway to the other and because the ground beneath the road is not stable it’s creating sinkholes [1,2].

In case you missed the Red Bull 5 Pics exhibition at 52 Degrees, photographer Alex Dennis Bolado created a virtual tour of the exhibition that took place there a couple of weeks back. Red Bull 5 Pics was a competition in which each photographer using just 5 photographs had to answer the brief “Kuwait through your eyes”. Check out the virtual tour [Here]

Once you’re done with the tour you can check out all the submissions including the winners on the Red Bull website [Here]

“Beating the NBA: Tales From a Frugal Fan” is a book by Kuwaiti author Motez Bishara. I thought the subject was very interesting since I purchase most of my concert tickets from “secondary markets” so I emailed Motez and asked him to tell me more about himself and how he came up with the book and this is what he had to say:

I am a Kuwaiti who grew up between New York and Kuwait, before going to university in Boston and grad school in New Orleans. I now reside in London (so I’m kind of all over the shop).

I have been a big fan of the NBA since I was a kid at ASK, where I played high school basketball. Going to Boston University during the end of the Larry Bird era, I had to find ways to buy tickets to see the Celtics on a low budget. From there, I developed a set of guidelines that ordinarily allowed me to gain entry to live events of every nature (theater, rock concerts, etc.) for less than the price printed on the ticket.

About eight years ago websites like StubHub and Craigslist allowed fans to find ‘secondary market’ tickets much easier. Buying off of scalpers on the street was now just one option, instead of the only option, aside from the box office. Conversely, sports teams kept raising their prices to the point where they were not in line with demand. As more and more season ticket holders in the United States started using the likes of StubHub and eBay to sell unwanted tickets, I would often find deals for a fraction of what teams were charging.

[Radio Interview]

As a fan, and conscientious consumer, I was insulted that sports teams — NBA teams in particular — were still clinging to their antiquated model, while it was obvious that their ticket prices were not reflective of the actual market value of those seats. A point I drive home in the book is that fans (and consumers of all goods) should pay no more than the market value of what they are purchasing. And if they can get away with paying less, then all the better. I show people how to do just that.

Beating the NBA: Tales from a Frugal Fan is a collection of stories from my trips around the United States, Canada and London which document how I, along with other fans I met, go about getting good deals. It is sprinkled with anecdotes and interviews from my travels to 31 games.

If you’re interested in purchasing the book its Available on Amazon as paperback [Here]
The Kindle version will be available any day now as well.