Search: “mis”

I just read that the incredibly fantastic architects Foster+Partners will be designing the new Kuwait Airport terminal. That’s basically amazing news because I was just recently starting to wonder when we would go back to awarding great designers with large landmark projects. I can’t wait to see a rendering of the new terminal and I can’t wait for it to be built. [Link]

Note: Picture above is of the Beijing airport which was designed by F+P

Update: In case you’ve missed my older post, the current airport (before all the ugly updates made to it) was designed by the legendary Japanese architect Kenzo Tange. Here is a link with some pictures of the airport in it’s original state. [Link]

In addition to the videos of the fireworks I posted about earlier, Cajie a photographer posted some great shots of the fireworks display in his flickr page which you can see [Here]

Update: Here is another link to photos taken by Bu Yousef. My favorite one is below. [Link]

In case you missed it. [YouTube]

I received an email yesterday from a reader who told me that his internet provider had limited his DSL download bandwidth to just 1.6GB a day. He told me that according to his provider every internet provider in Kuwait will be doing the same thing to their customers in the next coming weeks as well. I thought he might have misunderstood and it could have been a problem he was having but I just read in the forum that another person also ran into a similar problem. His internet provider downgraded his speed from 2MB to 512kb because he was downloading on average 3GB a day.

This freaked me out so I called up my provider (Qualitynet) and asked them if they had implemented the same system and according to the customer support guy I spoke to they haven’t. He actually told me I could relax and download the whole Internet if I wanted to and I would be fine.

Anyone have any more information on this?

re:kuwait posted an updated map of the yet to be built Kuwait Metro. It seems there were some major changes done to it but nothing that effects me. According to the new map I still have a metro stop 5 minutes from my house in Salmiya and one across the street from my office building in Kuwait City. Should be super convenient except it currently takes me around 15-20 minutes from my house to work every morning and back every evening so I doubt I would use the metro for my daily commute. What I would use the metro for is Avenues on a weekend. Should be more convenient than trying to find a parking spot. [Link]

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Update: I got the following email from a reader, I can’t verify if its accurate or not

Hi Mark,

In relation to the latest post about Kuwait Metro Project, and since your blog gets a lot of hits, i just want to bring to your attention that the information provided by re:kuwait which they got from KOTU is totally not true.

There is a new governmental entity in Kuwait called the Partnerships Technical Bureau established sometime in 08/09 if my memory serves me right to execute a very ambitious development program namely the first IWPP power plan in Kuwait operated by the private sector, the metro project and Failaka Island development.
The below links are proof of what actually is happening now with regard to the metro. There is no map deveopled or finalized everything is still under study and they should finalize it very soon.

1. E&Y kicks off work on ‘Kuwait Metro’

2. Kuwait Metropolitan Rapid Transit System Project in Kuwait: Consulting Services for Transaction Advisor

Anyways just wanted to clear this misunderstanding in Kuwait i know alot of people read your blog.

Anyway great job keep up the great posts.

Bayt Lothan have an event that started a couple of days back and will last every night up until the 23rd. The event showcases craftsmen working like they used to in the past and then at night they have traditional live music hosted by a variety of famous Kuwaiti artist like Basem al Radhan and Ferqat el Television amongst others.

Date: February 19th to February 23rd
Time: 9am to 1pm and 5pm to 9pm
Location: Bayt Lothan

Here is the flier for the event [Link]
Do not miss this!

Update: Here is the music schedule for the next few days
Monday – Laylat Haban
Tuesday – Bassem alRadhan,
Wednesday – Hamad Bin Hussein
They’re playing from 7pm to 9pm

As part of a series of events to celebrate the 50th Anniversary of Kuwait’s independence and the 20th Anniversary of the liberation of Kuwait after the first Gulf War, the British Council brings the Arun Ghosh Quintet to Kuwait for two live music performances.

First Show
Date: Thursday, 17 February 2011
Time: 7:30pm
Location: The Performing Arts Centre, The English School

Second Show
Date: Friday, 18 February 2011
Time: 1:30pm to 3:30pm
Location: The Avenues, Phase 2 outside Dean & Deluca

Admission is free to both events but for The English School performance it’s strictly on a first-come, first-served basis and you should arrive in good time in order to secure a seat. For more information visit this [Link]

Thanks Guy

I just found out from local blog Brake Banzeen that Valentino Balboni, the famous Lamborghini test driver was in Kuwait during the Concours d’Elegance. I also found out Wayne Carini from Discovery Channel’s Chasing Classic Cars was also there. Not sure how I missed them since I was there that day. Luckily Brake Banzeen spotted them and you can check out his two posts below:

Chasing Wayne Carini on Brake Banzeen
Valentino Balboni at Concours d’Elegance

PechaKucha Night #7 will be held tomorrow, Wednesday the 16th of February. 20 images x 20 seconds will be presented by:

Najiba Marafie
Bader Al Bassam
Haider Al Mosawi
Monira Al Qadiri
Naif Al Mutawa
Mohammed J. Aldhubaib
Najwa Marafie
William Schuilencerg
Ola Alrefai

Date: Wednesday, February 16th 2011
Time: 7:30 pm
Place: Open air ampitheater at Gulf University of Science & Technology campus, West Mishref
Email: [email protected]
Website: https://www.pecha-kucha.org/cities/kuwait-city
Facebook: Pecha Kucha Kuwait

Update: Just corrected the dates above, it’s February 16th NOT 17th

Canadian coffee chain Tim Hortons will be opening up in Kuwait. Back in 2004 I took the picture above in Salmiya, supposedly Tim Hortons was opening up there but Dunkin Donuts ended up opening instead. [Link]

Thanks Omar

A reader emailed me awhile back asking me if I could use this blog and my readers to help me create a list of places that are open 24 hours in Kuwait. I thought that was a good idea so I’ve started the list below with some places I know of that are open 24/7. If you know of any place that’s open 24/7, post it in the comments below and I will add it to the list.

Places open 24/7 in Kuwait:
• Burger King – Bneidar Gas Station 1, Bneidar Gas Station 2, Farwaniyah, Fintas, Hawalli, Khaitan, Messilah, Plajat, Sadiq South Surra and Salmiya opposite Sultan Center.

• Caribou Coffee – King Fahad Road (towards Chalets)

• Coffee Republic – King Fahad Road (towards Kuwait City)

• Co-op – Al Adan, Al-Faiha, Al Qousor, Al Qurain, Dasma, Mishref, Qurtoba, Salmiya and Yarmouk

• Costa – Dar Al Shifa Hospital, Hawalli

• Debenhams – Airport

• Dunkin Donuts – Amman Street (Salmiya) and Fintas

• Fedex Kinkos – Fahad Al Salem street, Kuwait City

• Geant Easy – Salmiya

• Hardees – Khaldiya, Rumathiya and Salmiya (opposite Fanar)

• KFC – Kuwait City, Salmiya (opposite Fanar)

• McDonalds – Al-Qosour, Al-Rai, Bayan, Bnaider, Fintas, Gulf Road, Jabriya, Surra and Yarmouk

Pizza Hut – Faiha, Fintas, Hawalli, Mishref and Salmiya City Center

• Platinum Gym – Salmiya and Kifan

• Prime & Toast – Seef

• Subway – Khaldiya

• Sultan Center – Dajeej, Fahaheel, Hawalli, Jabriya, Mangaf, Al Rai, Salmiya, Salwa and Souk Sharq

• Viva – Airport

• Wataniya – Airport

• X-Cite Electronics – Al Rai, Fahaheel and Hawalli

• Zain – Airport

Last month I posted an email by a 27 year old Kuwaiti girl who wrote about how the one thousand Kuwaiti Dinars grant would make a difference in her life. The girl has a birth defect (severe overbite) and she was saving up to get the operation done because she wasn’t able to get any help from the public health care since no one knew what to do with her and they just kept bouncing her around in a circle from one person to the other. Well thankfully a dentist working in the government sector read her message and was able to contact her, diagnose her and send her to the right doctor. She is now scheduled for two operations and this is the update she emailed me:

First of all i would like to thank Mark for posting my story and thank everyone for their support, the comments were so overwhelming and made me cry.

I have been contacted by a doctor who is not a doctor at all but an angel, he helped set up a meeting with a surgeon and he even came with me and took care of everything.

The boring details are that my case is so bad that they need to break both of my jaws, not only one, and I will be needing a pre-operation to help set up my condition for the main operation. All of this will take months of work, but at least I am on the right track now.

I don’t like to talk much because each time I do everything comes out of my mouth wrong, I prefer writing instead and this puts me in awkward situations many times and I hope I don’t offend anyone or say rude things especially to the kind amazing doctor who is helping me now. He is being so sweet and kind and giving me some of his time to help me get through this.

There were times where I felt like a burden, and wanted to call it off just because I don’t want to get anyone involved and annoyed by my condition, but I need this, I really need this. I am suffering almost everyday and I want it to stop.

I really appreciate everyone who tried to help me and everyone who emailed Mark. Thank you so much. AlI I need now is your prayers for this pain to stop and for my operations to be easy and painless.

Thank you so much.

In case you missed the original post here is the [Link]

In 2011 Cinemagic is continuing the journey of the old, the latest and the best. Films that would never see the light in Kuwait and films that you should never miss. From the list of movies this month the only one I have seen is Four Lions which although was funny I thought dragged a bit too long. Here is the full schedule:

Thursday, February 3rd at 7:30pm
THE GIRL WHO PLAYED WITH FIRE
Director: Daniel Alfredson
Country: Sweden
Release: 2010
Genre: Crime | Drama
Running time: 129 minutes
Language: Swedish | English Subtitle
Awards: Winner Best Actress, Best Foreign Film
Rated: R

Saturday, February 5th at 7:30pm
THE TIME THAT REMAINS
Director: Elia Suleiman
Country: UK | ITALY | FRANCE
Release: 2010
Genre: Drama
Running time: 109 minutes
Language: Arabic | English Subtitle
Awards: 3 awards, Best DIRECTOR, Best Film…
Rated: PG

Thursday, February 10th at 7:30pm
DEPARTURES
Director: Yôjirô Takita
Country: Japan
Release: 2008
Genre: Drama | Music
Running time: 130 minutes
Language: Japanese | English Subtitle
Awards: 34 wins, Best Film, Actors, Cinematography, editing, sound, costume.
Rated: PG

Saturday, February 12th at 7:30pm
FOUR LIONS
Director: Christopher Morris
Country: UK
Release: 2010
Genre: Comedy | Drama
Running time: 97 minutes
Language: English | English Subtitle
Awards: 7 Nominations, Best Director, Best Film, Best Screenplay
Rated: R

Thursday, February 17th at 7:30pm
THE SECRET OF KELLS
Director: Tomm Moore
Country: France | Ireland
Release: 2009
Genre: Animation
Running time: 75 minutes
Language: English | English Subtitle
Awards: Best Animation
Rated: PG

Saturday, February 19th at 7:30pm
NO ONE KNOWS ABOUT PERSIAN CATS
Director: Bahman Ghobadi
Country: Iran
Release: 2009
Genre: Drama
Running time: 106 minutes
Language: Persian | English Subtitle
Awards: Cannes – Un Certain Regard, Special Jury Prize
Rated: PG

Thursday, February 24th at 7:30pm
SURPRISE FILM

Cinemagic Kuwait, is organizing these events as part of its efforts to contribute to the development of an internationally competitive Kuwaiti audio-visual production industry, partly by bringing the filmmakers and audiences together and by Increasing the public’s interest in – and appreciation for – the art of film-making. Cinemagic movies are screened in the old Salmiya, on the roof on top of Alghanim Electronics and LG. There is a KD1 charge for the venue fees which includes refreshments, popcorn and much more. Here is a link to their Facebook group [Link]

Here are the internet prices for Qualitynet and KEMS from InfoConnect. They’re basically exactly the same except the 1Mbps one year price for Qualitynet is slightly more expensive than KEMS. Also with KEMS you have a setup and router fee with Qualitynet you don’t.

Annual subscribers will be eligible to:
1. Winner of the draw will get four round trip tickets to any destination in the world.
2. A draw on a trip to attend Real Madrid FC vs FC Barcelona match Prize includes two round trip tickets to Madrid, 3 nights hotel accommodation, and two match tickets
3. A draw on a trip to attend Manchester United vs. Chelsea FC matc: Prize includes two round trip tickets to Manchester, 3 nights hotel accommodation, and two match tickets

Every annual subscription is eligible for one scratch and win card:
1. 4 Mbps Annual Subscription
2. Second place: 1Mbps Annual Subscription
3. Third place: 512Kbps Annual Subscription

Scratch and win coupon for the following prizes:
1. 1TB External HD
2. iPads
3. Cash of 100 to 1000KD
4. Money back

If there is a mistake above please tell me about it. Also I don’t have the Fasttelco prices so if someone has them please share them with me.

Update: Here are the Fasttelco prices

Update2: A reader set me the following email

Regarding the ISP prices… I’ve been a Mini-DSL QNet (4 Mbps) last year.. Now its 357 or something like that. I got a call from them today (expiry today), and they gave me an offer I couldn’t resist (258 for 4mbps). I took it.

Last week X-Cite sent me a Kinect to review for the blog. I had been reading a lot about it online (mostly all the cool hacks people were doing) and was interested to try it out. The Kinect is Microsoft’s answer to the Wii and the Sony Move except unlike either of those two, the Kinect doesn’t use a physical controller, you become a controller. When I first opened the box I was surprised by the size, I was expecting it to be smaller but the Kinect is pretty big. I struggled to find a place to put it (you’re supposed to have it either on top of your tv or below). The second issue I ran into was space, the Kinect requires you to be standing at least 1.8 meters away from it. My living room is pretty small so it was having trouble detecting me. Finally I moved the Kinect to my other TV where I had more space in front of it and managed to get it working there.

The Kinect is freaky, it recognizes you, your hands, your head, your legs… your whole body. With the Wii and PS3 you need to actually hold a controller in your hand and move that around but with the Kinect you don’t need any of that. It’s like a much more advanced version of the PlayStation Eye. In the games I was playing, if I put my hand on my head so would my character in the game, if I clapped my hands or started stomping my feet so would my character. It felt like I was inside the game.

The Kinect comes with a game called Kinect Adventures. Inside it there are five different games that show off the Kinect’s abilities. The games are:

20,000 Leaks – In this game you’re basically standing in a glass room under the sea and fish and sharks come and bang the glass to create leaks. You need to try and cover the leaks as they happen. In some cases you get 5 leaks at the same time so you have a hand on every leak, your head covering another leak and each foot on a leak as well. It’s fun for a few minutes but gets boring quickly. In two player mode it’s slightly more fun.

River Rush – You’re on a raft going down the river and you should avoid obstacles by either shifting your weight to one side of the raft or by jumping. I didn’t find this fun even when playing it two players.

Rally Ball – This was my favorite game, it’s a mixture between the classic breakout game and dodge ball. You have to throw a ball towards objects down a hallway and try to get rid of them. Sometimes you hit objects that doubles or triples the amount of balls so you have to start moving quickly trying to throw them all back at the objects. Me and my brother enjoyed playing this the most.

Reflex Ridge – The most physically exhausting game of the bunch since it’s kinda like a track and field game. You’re standing on a moving railway cart and you need to avoid objects by other jumping, ducking, moving left or moving right. Video games shouldn’t be this physically active and after one round I was all sweaty and out of breath.

Space Pop – The most boring game of the bunch, you’re in space and you need to float up and pop balloons all around. Not fun, didn’t even bother playing it two players.

Playing the games two players is more fun than alone. You only need one Kinect to play games two players but you need to stand at least 2.2meters away from the Kinect device. The games that come with the Kinect aren’t that great but since they’re free you can’t complain that much. There are more games you can buy that work with Kinect but I didn’t have a chance to try them. The PlayStation Move is more advanced than the Wii and sometimes like in a first person shooter it would be cool to physically hold an assault riffle, but the Microsoft Kinect is a more advanced system than the Move and because your whole body becomes a controller it really opens up a lot of doors. I’m giving it a 4.5 out of 5. I just wish the games that came with it were more fun.

The Kinect is available at X-Cite as either a standalone for KD54.9 or with the Xbox Slim 4GB for KD126 or with an Xbox Slim 250GB for KD148.