Categories
50s to 90s Shopping Toys Video Games

Plug & Play Mortal Kombat

Mortal Kombat

I am a HUGE fan of the original Mortal Kombat game. I used to play it non stop back in 1993 in Canada at the arcades and I then got the SNES version and Sega GameGear version to satisfy my addiction. I even wanted to try and get the arcade machine for my house here in Kuwait but I couldn’t find a place that had it.

Mortal Kombat

Anyway I ordered the Plug & Play version of the game last week from Amazon and I got it today and its amazing! They’ve basically squeezed the game into a joypad that runs on AA batteries and you just plug the joypad into the TV and play a version of the game thats extremely close to the arcade original. Its very practical and it costs only KD2!

If you’re interested here is the link to the game on Amazon. [Link]

And if anyone knows where I can buy the arcade machine from please tell me!




Categories
50s to 90s Kuwait Photography

The good old days

Drive through cinema

I just found this incredible book about Kuwait dating back to 1975. It has a ton of great pictures which I will scan every now and then and post over here. The caption under the picture above reads:

Kuwait also enjoys some of the more sophisticated pleasures of the West, and even the Far West. Here, for example, is a drive-in cinema in the open air not far from the city. In order to enable you to watch a film in comfort without moving from your seat, two large “pumps” introduce into your car the sound track of the film being shown and the air-conditioning which is essential at the height of the summer. All you have to do is to watch.

It sucks that no one has invented the time machine yet!




Categories
Food & Drinks Information Kuwait

Arby’s is opening! ARBY’S IS OPENING!!

Arbys Kuwait

According to The Avenue’s website Arby’s is opening there! They have a list of all the restaurants that are open and opening at The Avenue’s and Arby’s is on that list!! Just go to their website, click on restaurants and then on the burger picture. [Link]

I heart Arby\'s




Categories
Events Kuwait

Event: Night of Horrors

night of horrors

Name: Laylat Al Ro3b / Night of Horrors
Date: Thursday October 30th (This Thursday)
Time: 6 PM – 10 PM
Entrance Fee: 3 KD
Location: AUK, American University of Kuwait Salmiya ,Salem Al Mubarak Street, Opposite to Plaza Complex

Entrance Fee Includes:
Haunted House
Water Fight
Costume Contest

Other Activities:
Mask Making
Face Painting
Fortune Teller
Fire Performance
Laser Show
and much much more!

Here is a link to a jpg they sent me with the event details. [Event Flier]




Categories
Guest Bloggers Information

Bassam Al-Ghanim resigns from Gulf Bank.

Bassam Al-Ghanim

According to Alhamour.com; Bassam Al-Ghanim has submitted his official resignation as the Chairman of the Gulf Bank. Gulf Bank still has not announced his replacement, but they expect it to be someone from the Al-Ghanim family. This is a result of the Gulf Bank Shipwreck; which has resulted in a total loss of US$ 1.2bn (KD 313 mm), an amount that represents 70% of Gulf Bank’s Tier 1 & 2 Equity.

Update: Kutayba Al-Ghanim is the new Chairman of Gulf Bank.

Posted by K.




Categories
Information Kuwait

Ali Al-Mufidi has passed away

Ali Al-Mufidi Legendary Kuwaiti actor Ali Al-Mufidi passed away today morning in Jordan. He originally used to work in television before he moved to acting and quickly rose to fame after staring in the popular show Darb Al Zalag.

Here is a link to YouTube where you can over 200 clips of him. [Ali Al-Mufdi on YouTube]

He will be missed.




Categories
Kuwait

Money money money

Lots of vans

I am standing in front of the main Gulf Bank building in Kuwait City and I can count 12 money truck parked in front of it. There are also a ton of security guards (probably the money truck drivers) all standing on the side of the building waiting. I can’t tell if they are moving money in our about to get ready to move money out but my uneducated guess is they are probably getting ready to move money to their branches around Kuwait. I took a picture which I will post here once I get back home.

update: Just added the picture to the post




Categories
Guest Bloggers Information Kuwait

Gulf Bank aftermath.

Gulf Bank

I decided to stop by and check out some of the Gulf Bank branches yesterday; there was a long queue at every location. Customers almost caused a riot trying to withdraw their money. Gulf Bank were limiting the amount a person could withdraw, but the customers still managed to withdraw over 4 million KWD in cash from the bank!

The aftermath of this issue is going to result in some major overhauls at the Gulf Bank. For an explanation of what happened to Gulf Bank check out the article Gulf Bank of Kuwait Shipwrecked.

Posted by K.




Categories
Animals Events

Animal Friends League Christmas Charity Bazaar

AFL

Animal Friends League of Kuwait if holding a charity bazaar this coming Saturday, here is the information I got by email:

Christmas Charity Bazaar

Saturday 25 of October,
from 10am to 2pm

Mulbarak Al Kabeer,
Block 1, Street 25, House 32.

All profits in support of
Animal Friends League.

Please come and browse through the tables pilled up with hand made items, fabric related decorations, Christmas ornaments, pearls, Swarovski crystals, labels… Animal Friends League will have a table promoting their work here in Kuwait with pictures of the animals in need of a friendly home.

Please DO NOT PARK on the street, there is some construction going on right in front of our house and there is plenty of room in the Co-op parking lot.

Please contact AFL if you need more information:
https://www.animalfriendskuwait.org




Categories
Food & Drinks Information Kuwait

The Nut Tree

Nuts

After having lunch at Quiznos yesterday in Baitak Tower I found this cool place called The Nut Tree. Unlike regular nut shops in Kuwait The Nut Tree had flavored nuts like glazed, honey dipped and more. They even had some dipped in chocolate, I ended up getting dried banana dipped in chocolate and also hazelnut dipped in chocolate. Both were REALLY good. When I got back home I googled them and it turned out they’re a small British chain, you can check their website [Here]




Categories
Information

The hunt for the perfect home gym

Weider 4870

I am lazy, super lazy and there is no way I am going to drive all the way to a gym and work out there for an hour or two when I could be home watching my favorite shows on television. Thats why I decided the only way I would consider working out is if I brought the gym to me.

I went to every place in Kuwait which I knew of that sold home gyms and here is what I found:

Go Sport
They have a handful of treadmills, found a very decent Pro-Form treadmill for KD215. They also carried Weider and Vectra brands of multi-gyms. They only had two small Weider’s gyms with the exact same features, one for KD74 and the other for KD115. What I was interested in was the Vectra gym. Vectra make some of the best home gyms in the world but they are expensive. The Vectra gym they had on display costs KD1,300. Overall I thought their prices were pretty decent specially considering the fact that they’re located in the Avenues.

Sears
Loads of treadmills (Pro-Form and other brands). They had a good selection of multi-gyms (mostly Weider brand) but all of them except for one worked using resistance instead of weights. The only one that worked with weights was the Nordictrack 360. It looked cool but after watching the demonstration video I realized it was just too complicated to work. I also felt their prices were pretty expensive.

Ace Hardware
Not much selection there. I think they had only two treadmills which were over priced and they had like three multi-gyms made by an unknown Chinese brand and the prices were also expensive.

Nasser Sports
I heard they had a building next to their Avenues branch that was dedicated to home gyms so I was expecting to find the holy grail… I didn’t. They had a bunch of treadmills, nothing that stuck out and they had a few multi-gyms of some unknown cheap brand. I didn’t find anything interesting.

Sports Corner
They’re located in the old Salmiya where Boushahri used to be. I found the best collection of Treadmills there, they carry around three different brands but in the end I went with a Reebok Series 3 treadmill. They had a 20% discount promo going on but I was able to haggle and get a 25% discount which brought the price down to KD285. They only had one multi-gym which was of some unknown brand, looked pretty flimsy and was already sold out.

Sportsman
They have two branches, one next to the old Video Club in Salmiya opposite Zahra Complex while the other is across the street in the building where Hald Rock Cafe used to be next to NBK. They had maybe three treadmills and I found them all too expensive. No multi-gym.

Wataniya Mall
I found two stores in this small mall which is also located in Salmiya but opposite NBK and Eureka. If you go down to the basement there is a store on right corner and one on the left. The one on the right caters mostly to gyms and not homes. The cheapest multi-gym they had was for like 4000KD or something. They also are the dealers for Everlast and CCM brands. The store on the left side had maybe two treadmills, one multi gym and a few other items. They carry the Carl Lewis brand you need to definitely haggle with them. The same Carl Lewis boxing bag available at Go Sport for KD90 they were selling for KD150. I managed to bring them down to KD100 and probably could have brought them down to KD90 to match Go Sport. Same with the home gym, they had it for KD150 and I brought them down to KD100. I was actually going to get it until I spotted the gym I really wanted at Sultan Center.

Sultan Center
I first went to the Sultan Center in Al-Rai and really didn’t find anything there. I don’t remember seeing a treadmill and they had one multi-gym that was in terrible condition from the brand Body Sculpt or something. Then by chance I was at the Souk Sharq branch when I spotted the Weider 4870 (pictured at the top of this post). It was pretty full featured and I right away knew this was the gym I wanted. I asked a salesman there how much the price was and he told me 300KD which is less than I had expected. A couple of days later I went back to buy the gym and I noticed they had a price tag of 230KD stuck on the gym which was even better! I quickly purchased it and they are now actually installing it for me while I am writing this post.

So, in case anyone is looking for a multi-gym my recommendation is to hit Go Sport unless you want the gym I got which is only available at Sultan Center. For treadmills I think the Reebok’s were really good value for money and they’re available at Sports Corner who had a very nice collection and their prices are negotiable. The Pro-Form treadmill at Go Sport for KD215 is also a really good value.




Categories
Cars & Bikes

1979 BMW M1 for sale

BMW M1

Will someone in Kuwait please buy this car? Someone is selling a 1979 BMW M1 on eBay for KD50,000 which is a steal when you consider the fact that soulless Gallardos go for more. This is one really incredible car. [eBay]




Categories
News

We’re all in the Arab Times

Arab Times printed an article in today’s paper on Latina Mina’s drunk deejaying the other night and the whole article was just all quotes from the post on my blog and all its commentators. Its cool that blogs are actually being taken seriously but they should have actually mentioned 2:48AM instead of calling it just “a blog”. I guess they should have also written an article instead of just taking quotes from everyone and sticking them together. Here is the link to the article on Arab Times and if it doesn’t open up for some reason I’ve saved a pdf version which you can download below. Maybe I should just call them “a newspaper” from now on.

Link to article
PDF version

Update: Latina Mina has fled the country. Here is the latest article on this from “a newspaper”. [PDF version]

Update2: According to someone working at 99.7, any employee at the station who asks for a recording of the session will get fired on the spot. The ministry really does not want the recording to make its way online.




Categories
Events Kuwait

Event: “FIVE60” Grand Opening

Five60

Local blogger Ansam sent me the following by email to share with everyone:

You are cordially invited to celebrate the Grand Opening of “FIVE60”

An introductory event for our new concept, an opportunity to tour our indoor showrooms and patio area, and a chance to get to know the main purpose of the group activities.

Thursday & Friday – October 16-17, 2008
From 12:00PM TO 10:00PM

The location is Al Rawda, Block 5, Street 60, House 4

Looking forward to seeing you
FIVE60 Group

I posted about Five60 back when they held the Charity Ghabga. The event above will contain many things including a display of furniture, photos, illustrations, food, clothes, and more.




Categories
Food & Drinks Kuwait Personal Reviews

Review: Wok Master

Wok Master

Wok Master is a tiny Chinese take away and delivery place I found out about just 3 days back. I got an email from the owner of the place last week asking me to try it but I didn’t think it would interesting so I ignored him (yes I know, its not nice). The owner emailed me again and I replied the second time asking if the place had dine in. He replied saying no it didn’t so I replied apologizing telling him the only food I ordered delivery was either Papa Johns or Hardees. So the owner gave up and passed me the home delivery phone number and address in case I ever got interested. Thats when he grabbed my attention. Wok Master turned out to be just two streets away from where I live which made things interesting so I decided to give the place a shot.

Yesterday night I passed by and ordered sweet & sour chicken and plain fried rice. The place was easy to find and it looked very clean but I really wasn’t expecting much from the food. When I got home and opened the package I was caught by surprise. The sweet & sour chicken looked amazing. The sauce was a nice red color and looked pretty thick which is exactly how I like it. I quickly mixed my chicken with the rice and dug in and it was actually really good. I was so impressed I passed by and picked up dinner again tonight. This time I had the Manchurian chicken and plain fried rice while Nat decided to try their shrimp noodles. Well it looks like I am probably going to pass by again for dinner tomorrow evening and try something else since everything I’ve had so far I’ve liked.

I didn’t have any major issues with the place. Their menu is pretty ugly and has over a hundred dishes listed (where is Gordon Ramsey to see this). The packaging was ok, the rice and noodles came in those typical Chinese food packaging while the chicken plates came in the less impressive aluminum foil dishes. One thing i noticed tonight is that they charged me 950fils for the rice although in the menu it says it should be 750. Which brings me to their prices. They’re pretty decent, the sweet & sour chicken and the Manchurian chicken each cost KD1.950 while the shrimp noodles costs KD1.750. Overall I really like the place and I love how out of no where its suddenly became one of my favorite Chinese places in Kuwait. And its right next door! For the final score they’re going to get a 4 out of 5 from me.

To order from Wok Master call them on 5750081
They’re located right behind Kuwaitana restaurant on Baghdad street which is nearly right in front of La Baguette .