Search: “mis”

Middle Eastern Eatery or M’EAT for short is opening a second location, right across from Little Ruby’s and PICK in the city. Their current location on the Seef Strip opened up back in 2017 but it was a pretty small space and not really walking distance from much. This new location looks to be bigger and right in the heart of the city.

M’EAT is a build your own bowl place created by the guys behind PICK. If you missed my previous post on them then click here.

Screenshot from The Farewell

The movies below are now showing at Cinescape, Grand Cinemas and VOX:

New This Weekend:
Countdown (N/A)
Dark Encounter (4.4)
Killerman (5.2)
Mary (4.4)
Princess Emmy (5.5)
The Farewell (8.1)

Other Movies Showing Now:
Abominable (7.3)
Angel Has Fallen (7.0)
Born a King (8.8)
Dora and the Lost City of Gold (5.9)
Gemini Man (5.2)
Joker (9.4)
Maleficent: Mistress of Evil (7.0)
The Lion King (6.2)
Zombieland: Double Tap (7.3)

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

Movies Showing Now:
Amazon Adventure 3D (6.6)
Backyard Wilderness 3D (8.4)
Journey to Space 3D (6.4)
Oceans: Our Blue Planet (7.4)
Volcanoes 3D (6.6)

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

A couple of weeks back I posted snippets from an old book on my instagram account and a lot of people wanted to know what book it was and where they could get it from. So I decided not only to post about the book but also scan it all and make it available to download.

The book is a children’s book called Hamad the Diver and was published back in 1967. The story is about an Arab pearl diver living in Kuwait called Hamad. The story doesn’t mention specifically if Hamad was Kuwaiti or not but we do find out he is poor as many Kuwaitis were back then and that he was married with children. The second story taking place in the meantime is about a rich Iraqi girl called Fatima living in Basra whose father is trying to get her married. I don’t want to spoil the story too much but eventually, Hamad and Fatima end up getting married.

If you want to check out the book then you can download it from this link.

Update: The missing pages have been uploaded

Screenshot from Zombieland: Double Tap

The movies below are now showing at Cinescape, Grand Cinemas and VOX:

New This Weekend:
Abduction (6.0)
Killers Anonymous (6.2)
Maleficent: Mistress of Evil (7.0)
Zombieland: Double Tap (7.3)

Other Movies Showing Now:
A Shaun the Sheep Movie: Farmageddon (7.2)
Abominable (7.3)
Ad Astra (7.4)
Angel Has Fallen (7.0)
Born a King (8.8)
Dora and the Lost City of Gold (5.9)
Downton Abbey (7.8)
Joker (9.4)
Gemini Man (5.2)
Little Monsters (5.9)
Rambo: Last Blood (8.1)
The Lion King (6.2)

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

Movies Showing Now:
Amazon Adventure 3D (6.6)
Backyard Wilderness 3D (8.4)
Journey to Space 3D (6.4)
Oceans: Our Blue Planet (7.4)
Volcanoes 3D (6.6)

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

If you’ve been reading my blog for a long time then you might remember my posts on the garbage situation behind my house in Salmiya. It’s been a problem thats been ongoing for over a decade now and I’ve posted about it a number of times on the blog before. Usually what happens is I post pictures of the garbage dump behind my house, baladiya find out about it and send trucks to clean up, a week later problem is back again.

For YEARS I’ve posted about how there aren’t enough garbage bins and since then more buildings have popped up which means more garbage but instead of the bins increasing over the year they’ve decreased.

A while back I gave up and decided to no longer post about the garbage because I was starting to sound like a broken record and honestly, I’m just too tired and exhausted to fight. I’ve really become a pretty chill person and very little really bothers me nowadays. But things are also just getting worse and worse and today I just couldn’t take it anymore. Before I left to work I decided to take and tweet the picture above and then left the house. A few hours later while in a meeting I found out my tweet went viral and since then I’ve been getting a ton of support but also some stupid comments I really don’t want to have to deal with.

To summarize my Salmiya garbage issue, basically, the garbage overflows every single day because there aren’t enough garbage bins to cater to the residents and shops. Tomorrow someone will come and clean up the mess because of my tweet but nobody really is solving this problem and so it keeps happening over and over again. I keep saying we need more bins and I’ve been saying that for over a decade now but nobody cares.

As I’m writing this post my brother who lives next door sent me the picture above. The baladiya are here now picking up the garbage. I’m really grateful for sure, and I’m not trying to sound pessimistic here but, unless they add more bins, this overflowing garbage issue is going to keep happening.

Update: So they cleaned up one corner last night but the other side where there were 6 bins and I posted saying that 6 weren’t enough and we needed more, well, today they came and took 3 of the bins leaving just 3. I feel like they might be trolling me.

Below are all the events I could find that are taking place this weekend. Make sure you don’t miss The Beatles Sing-along concert, the video above is from the ABBA sing-along that took place last year and it looked like a lot of fun.

Thursday
Exhibition: Conversations in Colour
Motor Show

Friday
Motor Show
The BEATLES Sing-along Concert
Sky Observation Night

Saturday
Exhibition: Conversations in Colour
Yoga at the Park
Motor Show
Al Hamra Rowing Race
Scott Kelby’s World Wide Photowalk

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.

Here’s some good news, the ice skating rink will no longer be demolished! After it was decided that the ice skating rink was to be demolished to make way for Al Shaheed Park phase 3, the demolition was canceled thanks to the National Council for Culture, Arts and Letters (NCCAL).

The NCCAL determined that the Ice Skating Rink was a national landmark due to it’s historical and cultural value and so cannot be demolished. Al Shaheed Park phase 3 construction will continue without the demolition of the rink.

Thanks Mishal! Photo above by Zeri Crafts

Barbecue that spreads over the entire terrace of Al Bustan Restaurant of Radisson Blu Hotel promises an amazing dining experience and offers variety of freshly grilled specialties inspired by local, European and South Asian urban cuisines. Innovative setup of the ‘all you can eat buffet’ features live grill, cooking and carving stations. The terrace hums with live music throughout the evening to complement that soothing ambiance.

The outdoor terrace is transferred into a live cooking / grill show and our Chefs make sure the food is prepared exactly the way you like it! From live BBQ grill section that offers everything from kebabs and grilled meat to selection of fresh fish and seafood including prawns, sea bass, salmon, hamour to live carving section offering whole stuffed lamb, short ribs, prime ribs and more. The special ethnic stations showcase the best of Chinese and Indian cuisines. The buffet will be seasonally updated by the specials of the season bringing even more variety to the menu.

Wrap up the perfect evening with a scoop of ice cream or glass of delicious mocktail while you just sit back and listen to the live music produced by our band. Al Bustan Restaurant is a place to be, make sure you won’t miss it. BBQ is held every Wednesday night at Radisson Blu.

Al Bustan Restaurant & Terrace, Radisson Blu Hotel, Kuwait
Wednesdays from 18:30 to 23:00
E-mail: [email protected]
T: +965 2567 3410

I canceled my live TV cable connection around 5 years back and signed up to Amazon Video, HBO, Hulu and Netflix for my TV fix. In addition to subscribing to those 4 I also have a YouTube, F1 TV and a UFC Arabia subscription bringing the total number of subscriptions to 7. But, even with all those subscriptions, I was still missing out on a lot of content, mainly shows on the History Channel and Food Network so I recently decided to sign up to Philo.

Philo is an internet television service that allows you to stream live TV channels as well as watch them on demand. There are over 50 channels on Philo including Food Network, History Channel, HGTV, Discovery and Motortrend. Since I signed up I’ve been mostly binging on Forged in Fire and Wheelers Dealers, two shows I like but previously only got to watch in hotel rooms during my trips.

I downloaded the Apple TV app for Philo and I found it fairly easy to flip through the channels and watch stuff, but it can be a bit overwhelming when there is so much TV. You can choose to watch shows currently playing live or watch older episodes that are archived and the combination of the two means you spend a lot of time just flipping through a ton of channels trying to figure out what to watch.

There are two main issues with Philo with the first being the price. Although it’s one of the cheapest options you can sign up to for watching live TV, it still costs $20 a month. That’s the most expensive subscription I have at the moment and to make matters worse, it’s full of commercials! At first, I didn’t mind the commercials because I hadn’t watched any in ages, but then when I realized I couldn’t skip through them and that they popped up frequently, it started getting really annoying very quickly. I wouldn’t mind paying $20 for live TV but to pay $20 and be forced to watch commercials I don’t think I can handle that.

It’s been less than a month since I subscribed to Philo and I am yet to decide if I will continue with my subscription or not. I’m still enjoying a bunch of shows and so I might keep the subscription going for another month or two before I make my decision. Like other subscription services, you need to use a VPN or a Smart Proxy service (which is what I use) to trick Philo into thinking you’re living in the US or you won’t be able to access the service.

If you’re looking for ways to stream live US channels, Philo is currently the most affordable route I’m aware of. For more info you can visit their website here.

Review written by Tarek J

Movie studios have been purchasing and investing in properties over the past few years as their main currency: Marvel, DC, Disney, Star Wars… What property can we own and milk for years and years to come. But there’s one property no one has a monopoly on: Nostalgia. In this age of endless information, bad news, white nationalism, prejudice, and dabbing, people have had a need to relive the good old times. But when a film adaptation of IT was announced off the heels of the success of Stranger Things, I said “here we go again”. Surprisingly though, Andy Muschetti’s film turned out to be one of the most entertaining and well directed films of the year.

So when Vox Cinemas invited me to the premiere of IT Chapter Two, I didn’t hesitate. The event itself was quite fun, every seat had a gift bag with a poster, a funky pop Pennywise doll, and a few other little trinkets. For added effect, each seat had a red balloon tied to it. But the standout was an extremely dedicated actor dressed (with some impressive makeup) as the titular character. He would provide some fun jump scares to the guests as they walked into the theater (but thankfully disappeared when the actual film started). As a whole, it was a great experience from Vox and I hope they do this with every major release. Now let’s get to the film:

IT Chapter 2 picks up 27 years after part one, and after a disturbing opening sequence, we catch up with our characters all grown up, mostly successful, but separate from one another. However, after the resurgence of a familiar string of missing people back home, it becomes clear that they have to reunite and fulfill the pledge they made to each other at the end of the first film. And that’s as much as I’ll spoil in terms of the plot, because half the fun of the film is discovering it as it reveals itself.

It Chapter 2, like its predecessor, is one of the most entertaining films of the year. There was not a moment where I shifted in my seat or looked at my phone. The film is exciting, at times surprisingly hilarious, and sometimes pretty scary. The best thing about these films remains the characters and the performances. The casting of Chapter Two is impeccable. Probably the best casting I’ve seen where the adult actors look like their child counterparts. The characters themselves are fully developed and individual enough that they always keep the film entertaining. The performances by James McAvoy and Jesica Chastain are solid as always, but its clear the standout here is a hilarious but ultimately moving performance by Bill Hader (Barry fans rejoice!). The film as a whole doesn’t take itself too seriously and is aware that some of its plot’s sillier aspects (faithfully adapted from the original Stephen King novel who has a fun little cameo here) aren’t given too much weight to take away from the film itself. The story itself and the turns it takes is a bit disappointing, but it’s clear that Mushcetti has a lot of love and passion for this story and for filmmaking itself. Which brings me to the production. A second highlight of this film is its production value, specifically the cinematography, musical score, and directing itself. It’s directed with a strong visual and emotional intelligence, harkening back to the days of early Speilberg and Zemeckis, giving the film a kind of 90’s bravura of big visuals, big sound, a living camera, and little bit of cheesiness. As a director, Muchetti is definitely a talent to look out for. Some of the more “harrowing” sequences are beautifully shot and executed, and having a big budget horror spectacle like this is rare these days, so that alone is worth the watch.

However, not all things are great. Midway through the film it’s clear that the scares (while “bigger” here) aren’t as effective as the first time around. There is some creativity with the way Pennywise manifests the character’s fears, but it slowly gives the feeling of when you’ve seen one scary sequence you’ve seen them all. In addition, the themes of the different trauma’s the characters and the town endured growing up and how that helps them in the end, while clear to me as a book reader, didn’t translate so well in the finale.

And that brings me to the final 20 minutes of the film, which are exhilarating. I was kind of dreading it as everything the film was building towards felt a bit like the final sequence would be predictable, but I was so happy to be wrong. The film builds and builds and then it delivers a non-stop rollercoaster ride of horror, comedy, and emotions that by then I felt I could overlook the issues I had earlier on.

All in all, this is a GREAT time at the cinema. It’s not a perfect film, and it’s not as solid as the first one, but it’s definitely worth the price of the ticket, and is the kind of horror film that everyone (above 18) can enjoy.

If you’ve been reading my blog for a long time you probably already know how nostalgic I am which is why I also love old video games. Over the years I’ve posted about a variety of game consoles including ones that allow you to play old video games like the Pandora and Dingoo. LDK Game is a console I recently picked up and I’m so in love with it!

Firstly just a bit of background. My first game console ever with the Coleco which my parents got in me in the early 80s. Since then I’ve gone through everything from the Sakhr MSX2 and Commodore, up to the current consoles like the PS4 and Switch. My favorite console ever would have to be the Super Nintendo followed closely in second by the Sega Dreamcast.

The LDK Game is a pretty tiny portable unit that plays nearly every console from the 80s and 90s including a lot of games from the original PlayStation. For such a small (and cheap) game system it just blows my mind how well it does playing some of my favorite games. Out of the box, all you need to do is plug the unit into your computer via a regular USB cable and it will then show up as an external hard drive. You can then just drag and drop the games (roms) onto the unit in the proper folders, so SNES games in the SNES folder and PlayStation games in the PlayStation folder and that’s pretty much it. You then just launch the games using one of the many built-in emulators. If there is a missing emulator (like the MSX or Coleco one) you can then just download them and install them easily. Currently, I have games from the following consoles running on my LDK:

Coleco
DOS
Gameboy
Gameboy Advance
Mame
MSX
NeoGeo
Nintendo Entertainment System
Sega Game Gear
Sega Genesis
Sega Master System
Sinclair
Sony PlayStation
Super Nintendo

In addition to the above, I also have Doom, Quake, Wolf 3D and Duke Nukem 3D installed. I really have 90% of my favorite games ever running on this tiny console.

All the games I have installed run flawlessly. Older consoles like the NES and Gameboy obviously run flawlessly on many other systems but I used to run into issues running some SNES games on my previous game consoles. I don’t have that issue here, and not only that, somehow this unit can run PlayStation games. Not all of them mind you, 3D intensive games like Tekken run but aren’t playable on this but 2D games like Castlevania, NBA Jam and Mortal Kombat Trilogy run perfectly, and games like Ridge Racer, Tony Hawk 2 and GranTurismo seem to also run really well. Another surprise was the fact that it also ran DOS games. I managed to install some really old games like Prince of Persia, Test Drive 3, Captain Comic and even the original Need for Speed and they all ran flawlessly. Oh and even sprite intense NeoGeo games like Metal Slug and Mars Matrix run without a hint of slowdown.

The screen has a 4:3 ratio which means you can play old games without having awkward black bars on the sides like you do when playing old games on your new TV. The sound is also fairly loud because there are two speakers on the back but you can also plug in your headphones if you prefer. The LDK has 6 buttons, four on the front and two shoulder buttons which means you won’t have issues controlling SNES or PlayStation games.

The coolest thing about the LDK Game though is that it sells for just $56! That’s not a lot to pay for a game console that can basically run ALL the cool old games. In fact, if it only ran Castlevania Symphony of the Night I would have paid $56 to get it and not only does it run it and really well, but I can also play Super Metroid, NHL ’94, Neo Drift and a ton of other games all on the same device. I still can’t believe I can play Symphony of the Night on this! Even the battery life is great running at over 4 hours and because it uses a standard USB port, you can charge it on the go with any battery pack.

I ordered the console from the LDK website and shipped it to my US forwarding mailbox. But, the device ended up shipping from China so if I was to order it again I’d ship it straight to Kuwait or at least my Shop&Ship Chinese mailbox. If you want to get one, here is a link to their website.

Early this year I decided I wanted to get a cool classic car and not sure how exactly, but I ended up deciding on an old Alfa Romeo, specifically the 1750 GTV. So I started looking all over the web for a car that fit my requirements and I ended up finding a couple in the US, one in Sweden and one in Germany but in the end, I found a perfect one in the Netherlands at a family-run classic car dealership called Gallery Aaldering. After a few emails back and forth, I decided to fly out to Holland to check the car in person. The place was insane! It was 4 floors and filled with so many beautiful and pristine condition classic cars. It was like a museum except everything was for sale. While there I actually didn’t give the Alfa much attention at first because I ended up falling in love with a Lancia Fulvia Coupe 1600 HF. But after I test drove the Alfa and left the dealership did it start to settle in and I knew I wanted it.

This was back in April and once I got back to Kuwait I proceeded with the purchase. It took around 8 weeks to finalize the paperwork and get the car registered for exporting and it finally shipped to Kuwait this past Monday.

One thing I realized through this whole process is that very few people in Kuwait know what the process is for importing a classic car. There is a lot of misinformation and the whole thing is just confusing so I decided I would share the process on the blog.

So this is what I was told, but keep in mind laws change all the time and there are various exceptions that can be made so use this info just as a starting point. Firstly cars are divided into three categories and each has different rules:

New Cars
Cars less than 5 years old are considered new. Both expats and Kuwaitis can import these cars without much of a hassle.

Old Cars
Cars older than 5 years but less than 40 years are considered old. Expats aren’t allowed to import old cars while Kuwaitis are allowed to import one old car in their lifetime.

Classic Cars
Cars that are older than 40 years are considered classics. Expats aren’t allowed to import classic cars while Kuwaitis are allowed to import one classic car every two years.

Now I’ve also heard from people I know that cars older than 20 or 25 years are considered classic. I can’t verify that since I was told by a car importer that it has to be older than 40 years old. But I was also told exceptions can be made. If you get a paper from a dealership stating the car you’re importing is special or rare, then from my understanding, the car doesn’t follow any of the rules listed above.

Since I’m not Kuwaiti I’m importing the car under a friends name. I’m using a local logistics company called Transcrate to get the car from the Netherlands to Kuwait and they’ll also be getting all my paperwork done. They’re pretty pricey compared to other companies, but their customer service is great, I’m communicating with them in English by phone and email (haven’t visited them in person yet), and they’ve been updating me with photos on the progress of my car. The company also belongs to a friend of mine so I feel really comfortable dealing with them. Other companies I approached either didn’t take me seriously, only communicated in Arabic or were pretty slow in responding to simple questions or requests.

The car is now expected to arrive at the end of August and once the car arrives I’ll post Part 2 with information on the registration process.

It’s a tiny list but there are some pretty cool things happening this weekend. Check out the list below and if I missed anything let me know.

Thursday
Al3ab Village
Cultural Festival – South Korea

Friday
Al3ab Village
Cultural Festival – South Korea
O I Summer Residency featuring Kade B.
Vi by Vogularity x Bunka Pop-up

Saturday
Al3ab Village
Cultural Festival – South Korea

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.

In a bid to stop people from parking illegally the MOI have launched new “No Parking Vehicles” to drive around areas and ticket illegal parkers. The vehicles have cameras located on the outside to capture the license plate of violators automatically without having to leave the car making it really convenient.

Not sure how I feel about this, I think I preferred the previous method of removing license plates and towing cars since those were instant punishments that caused a lot of headache to the violators. I don’t think this new system will be as effective since violators will only know they got fined way after the incident.

In any case, not being pessimistic or anything but based on the history of MOI ideas, this won’t last long anyway before things go back to normal.

Thanks Meshari

Back in September, I posted about a cool new 3D printing service at Best Electronics where you can get a very realistic miniature figurine of yourself (and of you and your friends). That didn’t last long since the very next day Best were forced to close down the service due to religious reasons.

But, Best recently opened up a new store in The Avenues, it’s near Saveco in the basement in a pretty hidden location. But, the good news is they’ve brought back the 3D printing booth and have it set up there. So if you previously wanted to 3D print yourself but missed out, you should probably pass by Best quickly before it gets shut down again.