Search: “kuwait”

In their red, white and blue uniforms, Kuwait’s first female ice hockey team is training hard in the desert ahead of their debut world tournament later this month.

Affectionately dubbed the “ice ladies” by local media, athletes in hijab or with their hair hastily tied in topknots pull on their helmets before taking to the rink in the Kuwaiti capital — where temperatures top 40 degrees Celsius (104 Fahrenheit) on a sunny October afternoon. [Source]

The team will play their first international game on October 30 at the Ice Hockey World Championship in Bangkok.

I have to admit, I don’t know much about bridge other than the fact its a card game. But, when I was invited to pass by a Kuwait Bridge Club game night, I jumped on the opportunity. There are lots of random things that take place in Kuwait that not a lot of people know about and I love bringing them into the spotlight.

The Kuwait Bridge Club was originally established in 1958 and in 2010 was officially recognized by the government. They’re a very active club that meet up and play twice every week. I passed by this past Wednesday to check them out and I left impressed. Usually the club holds their games at the Kuwait Graduate Society on the Gulf Road but they’re currently temporarily having them at the Safir Hotel. They have a pretty legit looking setup and when I dropped by there were around 6 or 8 different games taking place.

Their website is pretty active with the latest scores from every game night posted up right away, and they have a Facebook group with pictures and information as well. The cost of taking part in a game night is KD2.5 and if you’re into bridge then really this is where you should be every Sunday and Wednesday night. If you’re interested in joining the club or want more information, visit their website [Here] or contact Mr Numan Al-Turki on 99707404 or by email on [email protected]

Back in 2015, Kuwait passed a law making DNA tests mandatory for all residents. Anybody who refused testing would end up facing a prison sentence along with a hefty fine. I obviously found this an invasion of privacy and made that clear in a number of posts on the blog, but some people were actually for this and were defending the decision. Thankfully, it doesn’t matter anymore, Kuwait’s Constitutional Court overturned the law ruling it unconstitutional.

This means the government will not be collecting DNA samples of every resident in Kuwait as well as tourists. Thank you to the lawyers who fought this law in the courts. If you want to read a bit more about this, Ars Technica has an article about it [Here]

A lot of events taking place this weekend, check them all out below:

Thursday
Consumer Gifts Exhibition
The Beatles! Sing-along
Middle Eastern Cuisine Course
Concert: Kalthoumiyat – Reham AbdulHakim

Friday
Consumer Gifts Exhibition
Purrlates – Pilates with Cats
Good Game: Magic – The Gathering
Wellness Workshops with Ana Mattos – Women’s Health
Live Music at Boulevard
The Beatles! Sing-along

Saturday
Consumer Gifts Exhibition
Yoga with the 3
Chess & Backgammon
Family Film Fun: The Iron Giant
Good Game: Pokémon Tournament
CO-EXIST Kuwait Concert

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.

The movies below are now showing at either Cinescape, Grand Cinemas or Sky Cinemas:

New This Week:
Blade Runner 2049 (8.5) ★ ♦
My Little Pony: The Movie (6.3)
The Foreigner (7.5) ♦

Other Movies Showing:
American Made (7.5) ★ ♦
Flatliners (5.7) ♦
Home Again (5.7) ♦
IT (8.5) ★ ♦
Kingsman: The Golden Circle (7.6) ★ ♦
Mark Felt: The Man Who Brought Down the White House (6.3)
Nick Off Duty (4.1)
Open Water 3: Cage Dive (4.2)
The LEGO Ninjago Movie (6.8)
The Son of Bigfoot (6.2)
Victoria and Abdul (6.1)
Wind River (8.0) ♦

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

A Beautiful Planet 3D (7.9)
Dream Big 3D (7.9)
Humpback Whales 3D (7.2)
Jean-Michel Cousteau’s Secret Ocean 3D (N/A)
Tiny Giants 3D (8.0)
Watermelon Magic 3D (7.4)

Numbers in brackets refer to the IMDB rating at time of publishing.
★ is for movies I’m interested in. ♦ implies movie might contain censorship.

Staged in Kuwait, the local community theatre group are looking for singers and actors to take part in their upcoming productions over the next two months. Their auditions are very informal and friendly so if this is something you think you might be interested in, their first audition is this coming Tuesday. For more information, click [Here]

A few days ago, Heathrow released its latest “Fly Quiet and Clean” report which shows which airlines are using the quietest and cleanest aircrafts at their airport. The report also shows which airlines are using the noisiest and dirtiest (pollution wise) aircrafts and Kuwait Airways topped that list.

At first I thought it was because Kuwait Airways was flying their old planes to London but I just checked the route while writing up this post and they’re actually flying their new 777 planes. Since this report is for Q2 of this year which runs from April to June, I figured Kuwait Airways might have been running their older 747 planes back then. So I asked a friend of mine who’s a flight attendant with Kuwait Airways and flies the Kuwait London route and I was right. Kuwait Airways has only been using their new 777 plane on that route for just the past two months. This means Kuwait Airways should end up much higher on the list in the next report because of their quieter and less polluting new planes.

Anyway you can see the full rankings over [Here]

A few different events taking place this weekend from musical performances to a ladies rugby match. Check out all the events taking place below:

Thursday
Consumer Gifts Exhibition
RAF Red Arrows Airshow
Music: The Ashes

Friday
Consumer Gifts Exhibition
Good Game: Magic – The Gathering
Fairouz Musical Night
Kuwait Scorpions Ladies Team vs Doha Team

Saturday
Consumer Gifts Exhibition
Yoga with the 3
Guided Tour: Arab Organization Headquarters
MARKETSPACE by ARTSPACE
Book Club: Ancillary Justice by Ann Leckie

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.

The movies below are now showing at either Cinescape, Grand Cinemas or Sky Cinemas:

New This Week:
Home Again (5.7) ♦
Flatliners (5.7) ♦
Mark Felt: The Man Who Brought Down the White House (6.3)
Nick Off Duty (4.1)
Open Water 3: Cage Dive (4.2)
Personal Shopper (6.2) ♦
Stronger (7.6) ♦

Other Movies Showing:
American Made (7.5) ★ ♦
Kingsman: The Golden Circle (7.6) ★ ♦
IT (8.5) ★ ♦
It Comes at Night (6.3)
The Hitman’s Bodyguard (7.3)
The LEGO Ninjago Movie (6.8)
Wind River (8.0) ♦

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

A Beautiful Planet 3D (7.9)
Dream Big 3D (7.9)
Humpback Whales 3D (7.2)
Jean-Michel Cousteau’s Secret Ocean 3D (N/A)
Tiny Giants 3D (8.0)
Watermelon Magic 3D (7.4)

Numbers in brackets refer to the IMDB rating at time of publishing.
★ is for movies I’m interested in. ♦ implies movie might contain censorship.

Zipjet (an online laundry and dry cleaning service) analyzed a 150 cities, and then put a list together highlighting the most and least stressful ones using various factors such as green spaces, public transport, air pollution, traffic and race equality. Based on those factors, Kuwait City was ranked as the 23rd least stressful city in the world and coming second in the region just behind Abu Dhabi. Here is how Kuwait compared to other countries in the region:

1 – Stuttgart, Germany
19 – Abu Dhabi, UAE
23 – Kuwait City, Kuwait
32 – Dubai, UAE
60 – Doha, Qatar
73 – Manama, Bahrain
75 – Muscat, Oman
92 – Amman, Jordan
97 – Riyadh, Saudi Arabia
98 – Jeddah, Saudi Arabia
101 – Beirut, Lebanon
140 – Damascus, Syria
145 – Tehran, Iran
146 – Cairo, Egypt
150 – Baghdad. Iraq

For the full rankings and analysis, click [Here]

Thanks Sharan

The iPhone 8 just went on sale a few days ago in the States and its already available in Kuwait. Since it hasn’t officially been released in Kuwait yet the prices as expected are pretty ridiculous at the moment. Here are some of the current prices:

Best Electronics
iPhone 8 Plus 256GB: KD400

Blink
iPhone 8 256GB: KD315
iPhone 8 Plus 256GB: KD400

Eureka
iPhone 8 Plus 64GB: KD300

Mobile 2000
iPhone 8 Plus 64GB: KD300

The official Kuwait prices in comparison are as follows:

iPhone 8 64GB: KD245
iPhone 8 256GB: KD297
iPhone 8 Plus 64GB: KD278
iPhone 8 Plus 256GB: KD332

A bunch of places have pre-orders for the official release including Xcite and Jarir. The expected release date is September 30th.

If you’re hoping to get your hands on the iPhone X then you’re going to have to wait a bit longer since the iPhone X is scheduled to be launched in the US on November 3rd.

Thanks Frankom

The movies below are now showing at either Cinescape, Grand Cinemas or Sky Cinemas:

New This Week:
Estranged (5.4)
It Comes at Night (6.3)
Kingsman: The Golden Circle (7.6) ★ ♦
The LEGO Ninjago Movie (6.8)

Other Movies Showing:
American Made (7.5) ★ ♦
Birth of the Dragon (4.1)
IT (8.5) ★ ♦
The Hitman’s Bodyguard (7.3)
The Limehouse Golem (6.4)
The Nut Job 2: Nutty by Nature (4.5)
Victoria and Abdul (6.1)

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

A Beautiful Planet 3D (7.9)
Dream Big 3D (7.9)
Humpback Whales 3D (7.2)
Jean-Michel Cousteau’s Secret Ocean 3D (N/A)
Tiny Giants 3D (8.0)
Watermelon Magic 3D (7.4)

Numbers in brackets refer to the IMDB rating at time of publishing.
★ is for movies I’m interested in. ♦ implies movie might contain censorship.

Last week Apple released the series 3 Apple Watch and introduced the option of having cellular connectivity. Unlike with phones, the Apple Watch won’t use a regular sim card but instead uses what Apple calls the eSIM, which is a digital sim card. So will it work in Kuwait? No, it won’t, not for now at least.

According to my contact at one of the local telecoms, the eSIM technology is not yet available in Kuwait. This means if you do order the Apple Watch with LTE, you won’t be able to benefit from the cellular function for the moment, not until the local operators start supporting eSIM technology (I wasn’t given a timeframe to when that might happen).

If you’re also thinking of buying the LTE version now in hopes of being able to use it later once the local operators get eSIM, then you need to make sure you get the correct version. Kuwait uses the LTE frequency bands 4 and 5 and different versions of the Apple Watch support different bands. Check out the chart below which I took from iMore:

So if you want to get the LTE version from now, your best option is to order the watch from the States since it supports both frequency bands 4 and 5. The UK version for example just supports 5 which means you’ll only be able to use it with Ooredoo (if this source is correct). My guess is that local operators are currently scrambling to get eSIM fast so they could say they’re the first, so I wouldn’t be surprised if we get eSIM support by early next year. But thats a guess…

Looks like all the events this weekend are taking place on Saturday. Check out this weekends to do list below:

Thursday
Nothing happening

Friday
Kuwait Knitters Meetup
Karaoke Battle
Good Game: Magic – The Gathering

Saturday
Yoga with the 3
K’S PATH Free Pet Adoption Drive
ChefKB’s Manaeesh 101 Cooking Class & Brunch
TEDxAlShuwaikh
Minion Lunchbox Workshop
Good Game: Pokémon Tournament
The Divan’s JamJam: The Afterthought Concert

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.

The movies below are now showing at either Cinescape, Grand Cinemas or Sky Cinemas:

New This Week:
American Assassin (7.1) ♦
Car Go (5.1)
Polaroid (N/A) ♦
The Limehouse Golem (6.4)
The Trip to Spain (7.1)
The Vault (4.6)
Victoria and Abdul (6.1)

Other Movies Showing:
American Made (7.5) ★ ♦
Annabelle: Creation (7.2) ♦
Birth of the Dragon (4.1)
Captain Underpants: The First Epic Movie (6.4)
IT (8.5) ★ ♦
Seven Sisters (6.9)
Terminator 2: Judgment Day 3D (8.5) ♦
The Hitman’s Bodyguard (7.3)
The Nut Job 2: Nutty by Nature (4.5)
Wind River (8.0) ♦

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

A Beautiful Planet 3D (7.9)
Dream Big 3D (7.9)
Humpback Whales 3D (7.2)
Jean-Michel Cousteau’s Secret Ocean 3D (N/A)
Tiny Giants 3D (8.0)
Watermelon Magic 3D (7.4)

Numbers in brackets refer to the IMDB rating at time of publishing.
★ is for movies I’m interested in. ♦ implies movie might contain censorship.