Search: “mis”

A few weeks ago I decided to finally upgrade my toolbox with a proper set of tools. Over the years I’ve been buying tools as I needed them and that has resulted in a bag full of random brands, missing pieces, and duplicate items. Since I use my tools a lot because of my cars, I decided to reboot my toolbox and put together a nice set of some great brands and great tools.

There are two very popular hardware stores in Kuwait, Ace Hardware and Bin Nisf, but there are a ton of other smaller or more specialized stores in Kuwait which is mainly why I wanted to put this list together. There isn’t one store that carries everything so if you want to build a kit with the best of different brands you’re going to have to visit different locations. Below is a list of my favorite places that carry some great brands, most of them are only available in the stores they’re listed under. I’ll only be listing the brands I think are worth mentioning, for example, Bin Nisf carries a lot of brands but not many quality ones. Also, some brands like Bosch, Dewalt, Stanley, Makita, etc are sold in all hardware stores so I haven’t mentioned those as well. Check out the places below:

A friend of mine put this list together on Twitter of the various trends we’ve gone through over the years and I thought it was so on point!

2010: Year of the Cupcake
2011: Year of the Froyo
2012: Year of the Gelato
2013: Year of the Karak
2014: Year of the Pistachio
2015: Year of the Pudding
2016: Year of the Chicken Burger
2017: Year of the Lotus
2018: Year of the Coffee
2019: Year of the Healthy Diet Boxes
2020: Year of the Shawarma
2021: Year of the Matcha

The only thing missing is the San Sebastian cheesecake phase we went through back in 2018.

via @_M87

I noticed recently on Twitter a lot of people complaining about Aramex. I thought I was the only one having problems with them recently but it looks like it’s everyone. Yes, I’m aware a lot of you don’t like them and prefer using other services, but from my experience, they offer the best bang for the buck. You also get what you pay for, so very affordable shipping but also fairly slow shipping which is why I don’t have an issue with their speed.

Recently things have been a disaster though. Not sure if it’s because of lack of staff or what exactly but not only are packages being delivered much slower than usual which I’m fine with, the mistakes they’re making is what I have an issue with. For example, I had one package go out for delivery only for the driver to say I rejected the package which I didn’t. It then took 2 weeks, 6 to 7 phone calls, 3 complaint tickets, and contacting their social media team twice just to get the package redelivered again.

This brings me to my post. Which company has the worst or best customer service in Kuwait? Everyone makes mistakes, that’s fine but good or bad service for me is based on how you go about trying to solve the mistake.

Worst: Aramex (Shop&Ship)
Like I said, it isn’t because they’re slow, it’s because they’re just terrible at solving problems when they do happen.

Best: Babel
This was difficult to choose because of the lack of options, but in the end I decided to pick Babel. I order delivery from them and their customer service is great. They always call to make sure the food arrived or call the next day to make sure if everything was ok. But really the reason I chose them is because of the one time I had an issue with my order, they went beyond what was required to make me happy even though I wasn’t even upset. They forgot to put the tabbouleh dressing with my order so I called them to let them know just as an FYI. They were very apologetic and insisted on resending the whole order again and even included dessert to make up for it even though I tried to tell them not to. Been a big fan ever since.

I’m curious to know what everyone’s Worst and Best is. Based on social media I’d assume it’s going to be either Aramex, Xcite or one of the telecoms.

Update: I was right! Looks like the majority of readers rank Aramex Shop & Ship, Xcite and Ooredoo as the worst followed closely by Talabat. When it comes to best customer service it looks to be Deliveroo which I also agree with.

I’ve been collecting old video game ads from the 80s and uploading them to my Flickr account. I’ve got over 20 ads so far in the album including ads for the Intellivision, Coleco, Amiga, and Atari consoles. I also found some newspaper clippings of old video game tournaments which I thought was cool.

The big players in the video game business back then based on the ads were Alamiah, Alghanim (Xcite), and surprisingly, Marafie. Check out all the ads I’ve found so far here.

One of our company employees has been stuck in the US for months due to the restriction on expats coming into Kuwait and while there she got her vaccination. When the airports reopened she uploaded her vaccination paperwork to the MOH website to be validated but it still hasn’t gotten approved even though it’s been nearly a month.

She ended up missing her flight back to Kuwait so instead, she applied for a Saudi visa online since we have an office there, and in contrast, it took just 3 minutes to get her vaccination validated and visa issued!

Based on the responses under my previous post, I know a lot of you are still waiting for your vaccinations to get approved, but for those of you who already got it approved, how long did you have to wait??

A couple of weeks ago while flipping through an old newspaper I accidently found a Kids ‘r’ us 1-year anniversary ad. So right away I thought to myself, if I go back one year then I’ll most likely find the original opening ads, and I did! I found the pre-opening ads, the grand opening ad, and a few more and uploaded them all onto Flickr to be downloaded freely in full resolution.

Kids ‘r’ us officially opened on November 10th, 1983. According to the ads it was the largest toy store in the region at that time with over 10,000 toys. The original store was located in Dajeej near where Sears is right now. That location was destroyed during the 1990 invasion but post-invasion they had a smaller store in old Salmiya where Xcite is at the moment. Kids ‘r’ us was an Alghanim Industries concept, the same Alghanim that has Xcite and Chevrolet today.

If you want to check all the ads out, click here.

If you’re into MMA then check this out. Kuwaiti fighter Mohammad Alaqraa just got called a beast by UFC champ Khabib Nurmagomedov. I hadn’t heard of Mohammad up until now, his MMA record is currently made up of just 1 win with 0 losses and he seems to be training out of the popular gym AKA. Based on a video Khabib posted it looks like Mohammad was sparring with Khabib’s cousin and must have impressed Khabib. If you end up missing Khabib’s story, here is a screenshot and you can follow Mohammad on Instagram @mo_alaq

Thanks Azzam

Yesterday I was driving by the Abdullah Salem Cultural Center and it was PACKED. There were cars backed up all the way outside the museum entrance, a scene I hadn’t seen since the museum first opened. That reminded me that I should probably post about the fact that museums are finally reopening again! If you’re looking for something to do, below is a list of my favorite museums and their current opening hours:

Abdullah Salem Cultural Center (ASCC)
They’re open from 10AM to 8PM with the last admission at 7PM.
Fridays they only open from 2PM to 8PM and Sundays they’re closed.
You can find photos and information on the museum here.

Bait Al Othman Museum
They’re open daily from 9AM to 1PM and then evenings from 4PM to 8PM.
Fridays they only open in the evenings.
You can find photos and information on the museum here.

Tareq Rajab Museum
They’re open daily from 9AM to 1PM and then from 4:30PM to 8:30PM
You can find photos and information on the museum here.

Al-Salam Palace Museum
One museum I think a lot of people are interested in visiting is the Al-Salam Palace Museum. That museum was set to open just as the pandemic hit. Their Instagram says they’re opening soon but they haven’t mentioned a date. A friend of mine who had previously booked a tour before the pandemic hit got a call recently though to set up a new date so I think right now they might be going through the backlog of people who had booked early last year. I was lucky enough to get a tour of the museum before they opened and you can check that post out here.

Update: Due to high demand, ASCC now opens from 10AM instead of 2PM.

I used to purchase my US Apple store and iTunes digital cards from Xcite but someone a few months ago left a comment on my blog letting me know I could actually purchase them from Amazon. I assumed that would be the cheapest option since Amazon is selling the $100 gift card for $100, with no extra fees or commission which I assumed Xcite or any other store locally would be adding.

But, Redditor noooris did a bit of math and turns out if you purchase the $100 gift card from Xcite for 29.750 KD, you’re actually only paying $98.94 for it once converted to US Dollars. On the other hand, it cost me 31.072 KD to purchase the $100 gift card from Amazon after converting the amount to Dinars.

So if like me you routinely purchase Apple cards to top off your US Apple Store account, Xcite is the cheapest option I’m aware of for purchasing $100 cards. Here is the Xcite Link

Update: Xcite have now increased the price of the $100 card to KD31. So it’s back to ordering from Amazon again.

Decathlon, the French sporting goods retailer opened their second store in Kuwait at The Avenues Phase I. They’re the third sports shop to open in that very location, GoSports was the first followed by Lillywhites and both ended up closing down. But, Decathlon are doing things a bit differently since they were able to take over some shops on the main side and open up a main entrance there. They now have two entrances, one off to the side where GoSports and Lillywhites had their entrances, and a second new main entrance in the front. This could make a world of a difference to them trafficwise.

The store itself is pretty huge, not as big as their Marina Mall location but I didn’t notice anything that was missing. All the main sections are there just a bit smaller than the Marina location. For some more photos you can check out their post on Instagram here

A few years ago, I posted about digitizing your old videos using a video capture device that plugs into your computer. It’s a great way to convert all tapes, but the downside is you needed the actual tape player. If you just had videotapes but no means of playing them then the capture device was pretty much useless. This was my dilemma, I had an old Betamax tape of a school ski trip and no means to play it. I considered buying a Betamax player but the cheapest I found was 50KD and so wasn’t going to be worth it for just one video.

Someone ages ago told me Al-Nazaer converted videos but since all their stores closed down years ago I couldn’t just visit them and ask them about it. So last week while feeling nostalgic I decided to call their head office in Subhan and ask about it. Turns out they have a small media academy in Hawalli that was still functional, and that’s where their digital conversion studio was located.

I headed straight to the studio with my Betamax tape and headed to their conversion studio. I asked if they could convert Betamax tapes and they said yes and took my tape and played it on their screen so we could check and see if it was working. A few seconds later my 11-year-old self popped up on the screen.

It was the first time I had ever seen myself as a kid in the 80s on video and it felt SO WEIRD!

During the 1990 invasion, we took most of our family videos to Lebanon and stored them away in our family home without any means to watch them. So no one in my family has watched any of our family videos that were filmed in the 80s for 30+ years. Since I had no idea what was on this video and since I had never seen myself on video as a kid, it felt like I was watching a video of myself in another dimension. That’s the best way I could describe it in words, it was a very strange feeling.

But anyway, back to the subject of converting videos, Al Nazaer can convert any video format to digital. So camcorder videos like Hi8 or miniDV, VHS tapes and Betamax tapes are all no issues. The cost of converting depends on the kind of tapes you have and how many you want to convert. They charged me KD10 to convert a single Betamax tape and I got the footage on a DVD as well as a digital file. The more tapes you have the better price. Their studio is located on the first floor of the building across the street from Muhallab Mall. Their phone number is 1888900 and here is their location on Google Maps.

You can also find them on Instagram @alnazaer

Back in 2014, a German documentary on used tires aired and Kuwait was featured prominently in it due to having the world’s largest used tires mountain. Recently the documentary made its way to YouTube and in English with no region lock and I just watched it now. Although a few years old I think the documentary is still worth watching although some things have changed since then.

Since the documentary aired I believe at least two tire recycling facilities have been set up including Green Rubber Recycling whom I posted about last year.

When I visited the tires graveyard back in 2012, the tires were all piled together in one large pile (pictured above). Due to safety issues and the continuous number of fires that take place there, the tires are now compartmentalized into smaller piles so that if a fire breaks out it’s contained in one area. Fires happen so frequently that it even shows on Google Maps.

While watching the documentary above just be aware that the info is not up to date. YouTube

Thanks Syed

Good Game, the popular tabletop gaming store is finally allowed to have in-game play at their store again. The only provision is that you need to be vaccinated to do so. If you are vaccinated then you will need to show your green vaccinated status on the Immune app to play or participate in any events at the store.

If you previously missed the announcement, Good Game moved to Salmiya into a much larger space. Make sure you check out their Instagram @goodgamekw

It’s hard to tell from these videos if the vaccination drives were only for mall employees or open to the public but whatever the criteria was, it looks like it was total chaos.

There was also a video that showed a police officer aggressively shoving and hitting people waiting in line to get vaccinated. After the video went viral the MOI quickly released a statement saying they’ve summoned the involved officer for questioning and that it was an individual act and in no way reflects the police department’s mission which is to serve and protect the community.

Has anyone else noticed how active and reactionary the MOI Instagram account has become? Whenever there is an incident that goes viral they’re always on top of it. From all the government accounts I think the MOI and Traffic Department are my two favorites.

Last week I found this old 80s KDD advert and one thing that struck me about it was the sheer amount of flavors that don’t exist anymore. And, on top of all the missing flavors, turns out KDD had push-up ice cream (back row, right of the Rockets)which I don’t ever recall. Also if you’re wondering about the blue and green colored ice cream sticks in the back, the green is coconut flavored but the blue I’m not sure. You’ll also notice two Columbia flavors, turns out they’re both similar except one doesn’t have the ice cream center.