Search: “salmiya”

I am in Lebanon for a few days so I managed to pass by my parents house where all the family photos are stored. They were one of the few things we managed to take with us during the 1990 Gulf War and I haven’t flipped through the pictures in ages so not really sure whats there. I am really hoping to find pictures of Salmiya from the glorious days but any other cool photos of Kuwait from the 80s would be great. Whatever I find interesting I will scan and post here.

Sports Corner in Salmiya is getting rid of all their athletic equipment because they want to focus just on sports clothing. So they’ve got 50% on all their sporting gear from treadmills, to Mongoose bikes, pool and table tennis tables, baby foot, boxing gear, workout equipment etc.. They’ve put all the stuff on their top floor and everything is half off. They have an elliptical machine for example that originally cost KD1300 and is now priced at around KD600. Even the Nike + iPod sport kit is now KD11.500 instead of KD20.

Cinemagic’s rooftop movie nights are starting again now that the weather is getting cooler. Here is their schedule of upcoming movies:

Saturday, November 14th, 2009 at 07:00 p.m
THE BANISHMENT, RUSSIA 2007
Director: Andrei Zvyagintsev
Genre: Drama | 146 min | English Subtitle

Thursday, November 19th, 2009 at 07:00 p.m
LET THE RIGHT ONE IN, SWEDEN 2008
Director: Thomas Alfredson
Genre: Drama | 115 min | English Subtitle

Saturday, November 21st, 2009 at 07:00 p.m
SURPRISE FILM

Tuesday, November 24th, 2009 at 07:00 p.m
DEATH NOTE 1, JAPAN 2006
Director: Shusuke Kaneko
Genre: Adventure | Mystery | 126 min | English Subtitle

Cinemagic movies are screened in the old Salmiya, on the roof on top of Alghanim Electronics and LG. Attendance is free of charge and snacks and refreshments will be served.

I got the following by in my mail about an Improv Comedy Troupe that’s in affiliation with LOYAC:

Are you the funniest person in your family? Do you make people laugh with your clever wit and humor? Is Jokey your favorite Smurf?

If you answered YES to any of the above questions, then
Audition for Kuwait’s first ever Improv Comedy Troupe

When?
Saturday, November 1st from 4:30-6:30pm
Monday, November 2nd from 6:00-8:00pm

Where?
Bayt Lothan – Room 78 (Drama Studio)
Bayt Lothan is located right next to Marina Mall in Salmiya

Who?
Males and Females, age 18+, all nationalities are welcome, proficient English speakers only.

No preparation necessary.
For questions, contact Hassan at 97211327.

Kuwait for Kenya will be holding a photo exhibit next week at Bayt Lothan under the patronage of U.S. President Barak Obama Mrs. Farah Pandith, Special Representative to the Muslim Communities for the U.S. Department of State. All proceeds from the exhibit will go towards the funding of future K4K projects. For more information about K4K visit their website [Here]

Location: Bayt Lothan in Salmiya near Marina Mall
Date: October 28-29, 2009
Time: 6-8PM

Update: I updated the time and date above.

I started barbecuing during Ramadan but since the weather has improved a lot more people will start barbecuing now. Actually by visiting Sultan Center you can tell its BBQ season since the Sharq branch for example is now highlighting BBQ equipment when you first come in. So here are some tips by me if you want to start barbecuing:

The Grill
One of the best grill brands you can get in Kuwait is Weber. Sultan Center, Ace Hardware and Sears carry Weber brand grills. From the three Sears is the cheapest while Sultan is the most expensive. Problem with Sears though is they don’t have a large variety of grills nor accessories. Ace Hardware on the other hand is just slightly more expensive than Sears but have the largest variety of grills in Kuwait with a ton of accessories. I picked up the 18 1/2 inch Weber grill pictured above for KD34 from Ace. It was KD36 at Sultan and KD33 at Sears. There are cheaper Weber grills and a lot more expensive and bigger ones but if you don’t want to spend you can find some no brand grills for under KD5.

The Coals
Two best places to buy coals are Sultan and Ace Hardware. Again I found Ace Hardware cheaper and they alsonhad a larger variety of coals some of which you can see in the picture above.

Fuel gels, starter cubes or lighter fluid?
Personally I hate waiting for the coals to get ready so I use a combination of starter cubes and fuel gel to light up my coals. Gel is better than lighter fluid since it doesn’t leave any smell or flavor behind. Both Sultan and Ace sell fuel gels, both cost KD2.200 but the one at Ace is a better brand plus if you’re picking up your grill and coal from there you might as well pick up the gel. For cubes Sultan has them while Ace doesn’t. Another tip, have a blow dryer handy since it helps speed up the process considerably. I got a cheap one for KD4 from Carrefour and combined with the fuel gel and cubes I could have a grill ready in 10 minutes.

Accessories
Both Ace and Sultan have a large variety of accessories. If you want a chimney starter to help speed up the coal burning process then you need to get it from Sultan Center where they have two models to choose from. For gloves, BBQ tools, cleaning brushes etc.. I’ve mixed and matched from both Ace and Sultan, it’s really personal preference and both have cheap and expensive options to choose from.

Burgers and more
I’ve been making some great burgers with fresh Sultan Center meat patties. Just go up to the meat fridge and tell the employee you want burgers. They will ask you what kind and what weight, I usually go for the 95% lean and a 200 grams patty for me while a 100 grams one for Nat. I don’t make them add any spices although you can ask them to, I prefer adding my own spices at home. For chicken taouk I get it marinated and ready on skewers from Dean & Deluca. 1KG is for KD2.500 compared to Sultan’s KD3.900. It’s really good and the only thing I do to it is swap the green peppers for fresh mushrooms before I grill them. Finally for kebabs I get them from the butcher which is located between La Baguette and Dodo on Baghdad Street in Salmiya. He makes two kinds, one with onions the other with garlic, I prefer the onions version. 1KG is for around KD2.500 and he prepares it for you while you wait. I can’t recommend any other items to BBQ since I haven’t tried anything else. Actually I did try to BBQ a steak but didn’t like the result because I think I chose the wrong type of meat. If you can recommend me something that would be great, just leave it as a comment below.

And that concludes my BBQ post. The prices I mentioned above are 99% accurate, my memory isn’t that great and I round up numbers so if they don’t turn out to be exactly the same don’t shoot me. If you have any tips, suggestions or questions just leave them below.

I was sitting at home all cozy watching tv when Nat calls me up on her way back from the gym. She had spotted a dog near our house playing with a cat by the side of the road and she was worried the dog might run into the street and get hit by a car. So I put on some shorts, got a towel, dog bowl and leesh and then waited for her to come home so we could go together in the Wrangler to rescue it.

When we got there it turned out what she had thought was a cat was actually another dog. They were both medium sized dogs and when they saw us they started barking and wagging their tails as if they were happy to get some company. They were playing on the grass near a puddle of water on one of those islands that are located near intersections (see picture below) and they seemed to be very friendly. When we got close one of the dogs came up to us and we started petting him but the other one kept his distance. I went back to the car to get a leash and the other dog that was keeping his distance crossed the road behind me and then ran off towards some buildings and disappeared. Nat was still petting the other dog and so I was able to get close and put the leash on him and then made him cross the road where we fed him some treats and gave him some water. We called Animal Friends and arranged a drop off location but as we were about to take off the car wouldn’t start. My Jeeps battery had died (I had just done a full service a week ago in which I would think they would have checked the battery condition at least).

Its always an awkward position to be in when the car doesn’t start but now I had a dog with me which made things more complicated. Luckily I was in my neighborhood so I called up this car electrician who is located near my place (thats what I love about Salmiya everything is near my place) and he came 5 minutes later and jump started my car. I then had to drive to his place and swap out my car battery while the poor dog waited in my trunk confused and scared with all these things going on around him. Finally around midnight I was able to get to the Animal Friends drop off point and hand them over the dog.

As always I would like to remind everyone that Animal Friends is a non-profit organization and they need donations to be able to keep rescuing all the animals. If you would like to donate click on the following link to find out how. [Donation Link]

[YouTube]

Thats pretty messed up. Back in 2005 I shot pictures of the cops shoot out with some terrorists in Salmiya and you can see those [Here]

Thanks Kent

Salmiya will never be the same without you.

Last year I posted about a casting call for the first locally produced musical short film and I just got an email telling me that the project has been completed and the film will be premiering this weekend. Here is the email I got:

Attention all film lovers!

Shashati.TV, in association with Cinemagic Kuwait, are proud to present “The Shashati Show” – Kuwait’s biggest Audio-Visual variety performance!

Hosted by ShowTime’s very own comedy superstar, Wonho Chung, the evening will include the Kuwait premier of the highly anticipated, all-singing, all-dancing musical short film “Wonderful World”.

The show will also include a selection of the latest and greatest shorts from across the region, including Emirates Film Competition Winner “The Beggar and Moustafa’s Brain”, as well as Jordanian Filmmaker Fadi Haddad’s critically acclaimed film “Once upon a Piano”. The show will also feature a selection of the most recent prize-winning Kuwaiti short films presented by the filmmakers themselves.

But that’s not all! Screening for the very first time to a public audience in Kuwait will be ikbis.com’s hilarious “Doublage” comedy skits, as well as some innovative Kuwaiti audio-visual comedy clips & sketches!

Join us for a fun-filled evening full of laughs, tears, and above all films!

The event will take place at 7:30 p.m., on Thursday, June 11th at Cinemagic’s Rooftop Venue in Old Salmiya. Tickets will be available at the location for the price of 2 K.D – but advance booking is advised, as seating is limited. Send an e-mail to [email protected], or call 97996100 to reserve your ticket today!

Although in most places around the world the BlackBerry is used as a business tool in Kuwait its become a social one. With all my friends practically owning one the built in BlackBerry Messenger is a perfect way to stay in contact with all of them through out the day and a much more efficient way to communicate quick messages. Google Latitude is another application that also helps in being more social by showing you where your friends are around the world at that moment. Basically how Latitude works is you need to install the application on your BlackBerry and then sign in using your gmail account and add other friends who also have Latitude installed. You will then be able to see them on the map like in the picture above.

Latitude has many useful uses, I personally use it to find friends nearby like if I am at the Avenues I check and see which one of my friends is there or like last week I was at Kinkos in Salmiya waiting for something to get printed and then I noticed on Latitude Marzouq was just down the street. Latitude also helped a friend get to a BBQ I was at. He didn’t have the address but since I was already at the BBQ he just looked for me on Latitude and then drove towards me.

But the software isn’t perfect, when you’re indoors the GPS usually doesn’t work so the software uses cell towers to estimate where you are. Sometimes for some odd reason Latitude thinks I am in London or a friend is randomly in Belgium or Pakistan. It doesn’t happen frequently but when it does it can be funny or annoying depending on the situation.

Latitude works on the following phones:
– Android-powered devices, such as the T-Mobile G1
– most color BlackBerry devices
– most Windows Mobile 5.0+ devices
– most Symbian S60 devices (Nokia smartphones)

Its free and you can get it from [Here]

I don’t know how many of you remember Mogahwi or even know what it is so I figured I would post about them. Mogahwi I believe is one of the best if not the best stationary and art supply store in Kuwait. They’ve been around in Kuwait since 1940 but the Salmiya branch which I’ve been visiting since I was a kid I think has been around for 30 years but not really sure. The place hasn’t changed much since they first opened, I think they still even use the same bags. They’ve got everything there from the regular stuff like pens and papers to the more interesting stuff located in the basement which is the art supplies. I’ve taken a few shots of the place which you can see below. I don’t think they get as many customers as they used to back in the 80s and 90s so I hope they don’t close down. They’re located in the old Salmiya near Alghanim Electronics.

I passed by the Salmiya clinic in the morning to get the H1N1 flu paper I got from the airport signed. It was my first time there and I have to say the place is disgusting. Can’t believe that’s actually a medical center, it looks more like a big kitchen or bathroom. I even found a big dead bug on a dirty and stained floor, gross!

Anyway went to the proper department where this woman with a really large book took down my name and travel information. She asked me if I was sick, I told her no so she told me to come back on Sunday and that was it.

As part of Earth Week celebration, Starbucks Salmiya will be screening “The Story of Stuff“. Here are the details they emailed me:

You like STUFF?
Want to know where STUFF comes from?
Where STUFF goes when it turns to trash?
And what it does along the way?

Come to the Starbucks Earth Week celebration to watch “The Story of Stuff”, an interesting English short film, and enjoy a very special coffee tasting.

Where: Starbucks Salem Al Mubarak St. (opp. Fanar Mall)
When: Monday April 27, 2009 6pm – 8pm

Seating is limited, so please confirm your attendance by return email: [email protected], or sign up at the store.

For more information, please call: 22581680

This Thursday Cinemagic will be showing an Ingmar Bergman movie called The Seventh Seal (Det sjunde inseglet). Ingmar Bergman is one of the greatest directors of all time and The Seventh Seal is one of his most popular movies but its black and white and in Sweedish so it might not appeal to everyone.

Time: Thursday, April 23rd, 2009 at 7:00 PM

Cinemagic movies are screened in the old Salmiya, on the roof on top of Alghanim Electronics and LG. Attendance is free of charge and snacks and refreshments will be served. [Facebook]