Cinescape just signed a deal with the company CJ 4DPLEX to bring their ScreenX theater technology to the Middle East.
ScreenX is cinema technology that brings a 270-degree viewing experience to the movie similar to the picture above. The technology projects the film onto the screen in front of you as well as the walls on the left and right of you and then seamlessly connects the three. Movies need to be filmed with ScreenX technology in mind for this to work and since the technology is new, not a lot of movies support it yet. Black Panther was a recent movie that had ScreenX support and the upcoming movie Ant-man and the Wasp will also support it so it’s going to start picking up.
I personally enjoy watching my films in 2D on a large iMax screen but ScreenX might be interesting since it doesn’t involve the use of 3D glasses and isn’t as gimmicky as 4DX. Check out the press release [Here]
A couple of weeks ago there was a very interesting discussion on Reddit called “What if I don’t want to fast?” about the laws that punish people for eating in public during Ramadan. Since Ramadan is nearly over, I wanted to ask my readers what their opinion about this is.
Personally, because I don’t cook, my biggest issue is with the law regarding restaurants having to be closed during the day. I actually don’t know if its a law, or just an unspoken rule, but whatever the case is, I don’t think restaurants should be forced to close, not unless you also want to close other sources of food like supermarkets and baqalas. I’ve basically spent most of this Ramadan having Chinese food since China Kitchen is one of the few places that deliver from noon and they’re located in Salmiya so the driver doesn’t get stuck in traffic. I actually don’t think I’m having Chinese food ever again once Ramadan is over.
Do you fast? Would you mind it if restaurants were open during the day? Do you mind if people drink water in front of you? I’m curious to know.
There have been rumors for some time now that Mercedes-Benz was planning to leave the current dealership in Kuwait and yesterday a letter started making its way around social media which confirms it. According to the letter which was sent to employees, the dealership agreement between Mercedez-Benz and Al Bisher & Al Kazemi Group of Companies will be terminating on December 31st, 2018.
I’ve already contacted my source at the dealership to confirm the authenticity of the letter and once they get back to me, I’ll post an update here. But, if it is actually true, then the next question is who will be taking over the brand? Currently, the rumors are pointing towards Al-Mulla Group who are also the dealers for Acura and Mitsubishi, but I had also heard that Al-Sayer were interested in acquiring the brand as well (but I’ve been told that’s not happening).
Al Bisher & Al Kazemi have been the dealers for Mercedes-Benz in Kuwait since the 1950s. The last time a big change like this took place in the local car market was when Arabian Motors Group lost the Ford and Lincoln dealership to Alghanim in 2016.
The brand new Kuwait Airways terminal (T4) will be opening next month on July 25th [Source]. All Kuwait Airways flights will depart and arrive from the new terminal which should greatly reduce the traffic flow at the main terminal.
According to an article in AlQabas newspaper, the opening of the Jazeera Airways terminal has alone reduced the traffic at the main terminal by 15%, so I’d expect the opening of T4 to reduce that by at least another 30%.
Business Insider published an article a few days ago on the worst airports in the world and the Kuwait International Airport topped the list again. The data is compiled by the website AirHelp who score airports based on on-time performance, quality of service and passenger sentiment. The best airport in the world on the other hand was Qatar’s Hamad International Airport.
A few days ago I was dropping some stuff at my frame guy to get framed when I spotted an interesting looking store down the street from him. Turns out it was an air guns store that also sold some outdoor gear. So I decided to drop by and check it out when I realized the store had a small shooting range in the back that was open to the public. Air guns is another name for pellet guns and they are guns that use compressed air to fire out little metal pellets. Pellet guns don’t have the same restrictions and costs involved as real guns and so, this shooting range is also far cheaper than the Mayadeen shooting range.
The shooting range at this store is priced by the half hour. 30 minutes of shooting a pellet rifle will cost you KD7.5 while an hour is KD15. The cost includes the rifle and an unlimited amount of ammo. In comparison, firing a real ammo rifle at Mayadeen costs KD8 for just 10 bullets. I did half an hour with a friend and it was pretty fun and therapeutic. We both found it therapeutic because you spend a lot of time focusing on the target and so you zone out of everything else.
If you’re looking for a fun activity to do, you should try this out. It’s not as intimidating as firing a real weapon and it’s also not as loud so it’s very accessible to everyone. The place is located in Shuwaikh and is called Gannas Al-Rheeb [Google Maps]. During Ramadan they’re open from 12PM to 5PM and then from 8PM to 12AM. During regular days they’re open from 11AM to 9PM. You can find them on instagram @airguns.q8
In 1991, schools in Reggio Emilia Italy were named among the 10 best in the world by Newsweek. Kuwait Reggio Center is a new nursery that is inspired by Reggio Emilia and adapts its philosophy with U.S. curriculum standards. The school has amazing facilities including a large outdoor garden (that the children plant themselves), a water play area, bikes and construction area, and an indoor and outdoor playground. They have small class sizes (12-15 students with 3-4 adults) and highly qualified teachers. KRC also has the option of an English only program or a bilingual (Arabic/English) program. The nursery accepts students from 6 months to 5 years old.
This video explains the research, curriculum, and passion behind the school and its approach. If you like what you see in the video, please stop by to see it in person (Mansouriya block 2 street 25 house 9), call (98747518), or email ([email protected]) to learn more! There are still some spaces available for fall registration. If you are an educator who is interested in working with KRC, please email your C.V. to [email protected]
A friend shared the commercial above with me yesterday and my first reaction was wtf? In the commercial, a husband walks into a kitchen and starts screaming and hitting his wife for buying the wrong honey. The wife looks terrified and is being apologetic while the husband continues to shout at her before leaving the kitchen angrily.
The commercial got a lot of negative reactions for normalizing domestic violence so I assumed the brand removed the video from their Instagram account, except they didn’t.
Last week another friend of mine shared the screenshot above on her instastory which she took from a show on KTV called “Block” where they had a blackface character.
I don’t think I’m a very PC or an over sensitive person but, I do find it disturbing how the majority of people seem to be OK with this. I’m assuming the majority are ok with it or else the commercial would have been removed and the show would have apologized or been canceled for blackfacing. Yet neither has happened but oddly enough, the commercial below for Mug Coffee House was supposedly suspended by the Ministry because they found it Masonic. So bizarre.
I’ve had a few friends ask me about places to store their cars and I didn’t have any I could recommend until I found out about The Vault, a hidden underground parking that provides vehicle management and storage solutions.
Parking in Kuwait is a mess, majority of homes and apartment buildings have outdoor streetside parking that’s usually overcrowded and messy. Unless you live in a pretty fancy area, you usually don’t want to park your nice car out on the streets. Kuwait’s weather is also pretty harsh so you also don’t want to leave your car parked outside all summer long especially if its an older classic car. That’s when a service like The Vault comes handy.
Accessing The Vault is an experience by itself since to get down to the basement you’ll have to take your car via one of the two car lifts. When I arrived at the complex someone was waiting for me outside and helped me take my car down. Once the doors of the lift opened up in the basement, I drove into The Vault to find a bunch of interesting looking Porsches parked on one side, and then a line of Ferraris parked on the other. I instantly knew I was in for a treat. I love cars so it’s always exciting to check out other peoples special cars, no matter what they are. Special cars don’t have to be expensive, they just have to be interesting or unique. Since The Vault can only hold 45 cars, the owner is being choosy with what cars he accepts, think of it as being a boutique parking lot. And like I said, it isn’t about how expensive the cars are. Inside The Vault I spotted the super cute Nissan Figaro and a 1975 Land Rover Defender, both of which aren’t that expensive. But then you also had a like-new-condition classic Ferrari 348 and Zaid Ashkanani’s championship-winning Porsche GT3 Cup car parked nearby.
The Vault stores both cars and bikes and their “promotional” prices right now are as follows:
They offer trickle charging for your car so the battery doesn’t die, they also offer car washes and they’ll check your car routinely and notify you in case your car develops a leak or something. Anytime you want to take your car out you can come to the facility, park your current car and drive off with the stored one. Really practical especially since The Vault is located near three major roads, the 6th Ring Road, Highway 30 and Gulf Road. If this is a service you’re interested in you can contact them on 94083166 or send them a DM @vmskw
Update: Their promotion is over and the prices have now changed.
When the all-new Lincoln Navigator concept car was previewed two years ago with its butterfly doors and futuristic looking seats, Lincoln brought the Navigator back into the spotlight. The Navigator was a pretty popular car for Lincoln when it had originally been released, but over time, it started looking dull and outdated (along with the rest of the Lincoln line up). The concept car was a way for Lincoln to show the market they were still relevant and it worked. A year later they released the all-new Lincoln Navigator and although it didn’t have the butterfly doors or the cool looking 3 piece fold out steps of the concept car, it pretty much retained everything else including the cool looking seats.
I’m generally not into large sized family SUV’s, but when I was asked if I was interested in reviewing the new Navigator I had two questions, did the test drive car have the cool seats and, did it have the cool car unlock light show? When I was told it did, I decided to borrow the car for the weekend.
First impressions, I was extremely impressed with the interior. The dashboard was pretty sleek with a large digital display that had super minimal but premium looking graphics. The buttons were all nicely laid out in the center console along with another large information screen. Even the gear change buttons were beautifully laid out in the center console. The interior oozed luxury and I wasn’t even in their top of the line “Presidential” model that used a more premium quality leather.
One of the things I was looking forward to were the seats because of how customizable and comfortable they supposedly were and I wasn’t disappointed. The seats had 11 different parts I could individually adjust as well as a built in massage feature and cold air ventilation. It had 30-way seat positioning so finding the most comfortable setup was super easy to achieve. Shorter people are also going to love the fact that the foot pedals are electronically adjustable and so can be brought in closer to the driver. The car I drove had a large panoramic roof which brought in daylight that lit up the incredibly large interior. Large is an understatement actually, the car is huge! The second row passengers have more legroom than most people do in the front seats of their cars, and then you have the third row seats to hold more people and you still had room behind those seats for your luggage. There is loads of storage space all over the car for your stuff as well as a huge storage compartment under the armrest and below the center console. The car also had multiple USB ports everywhere and even a wireless charging area.
The model I drove had a bunch of driver assist technologies including a lane keeping system, parking assist, brake assist, 360-degree cameras and adaptive cruise control. The combination of all these technologies made driving the humongous Navigator a lot easier and made driving, in general, a lot more comfortable. The adaptive cruise control works like cruise control on regular cars where you set a speed and the car would stick to it, with the Lincoln it also applied the brakes and slowed down for you when the car ahead would slow down or stop. Combined with a lane keeping system that can control the cars steering to keep you in your lane, you basically end up with a fairly autonomous vehicle when on the highway. The parking assist also made parking super easy. The car can perpendicular or parallel park for you and based on my short experience with the car, it worked pretty well all although it still scares the crap out of me everytime I let a car park for me. As you can see in the video above which I shot, the car takes full control of the steering and acceleration and all you need to do is apply the brakes to stop.
After spending a long weekend with the car I had to give it back and I was fine with that. The car was just too big for me and is clearly meant for large families. For a single guy like me the car felt overwhelming although I do miss the comfort and the serene interior. I had the car on the first day of Ramadan and even with all the traffic, I wasn’t bothered with the chaos that was taking place outside the car. It felt like I was sitting in my living room which is anice feeling to have while stuck in traffic. I do have some issues with the new Navigator though, none major but still worth mentioning. I really dislike the rear of the car, although I think the front of the car looked good, the back just looked super boxy and not in a cool way boxy, but more like the 90s outdated way. Then the stereo, even though the sound system in the car was pretty good, my issue with it was how the dashboard and doors rattled with the bass, and I’m not talking about rattles when I’m blasting the music really loud, I was hearing rattles at low volume as well. Not something I would expect from a premium car. Finally, I thought the suspension was too soft, it made the ride comfier obviously, but the car also tended to bounce a lot after going over a speed bump or hitting a pothole.
The price of the all-new Navigator starts at KD27,000 but the model I drove was the “Reserve” edition and that retails for KD29,000. For more information you can check out the Lincoln Alghanim webiste [Here] or their instagram account @lincolnalghanim
If you grew up with Swatches in the 80s then you’ll most likely recognize the X-Rated Swatch that was released in 1987, the GB406. I never had one, instead around that time I had the more colorful Swatch Navigator, the GB707. A couple of days back I was on eBay looking for a clean, but well-priced GB707 when I noticed someone selling a boxed X-Rated watch for around $120 which seemed weird. Usually, the original black X-Rated watch sells for around $500, and one in this condition would be even more. I realized something was up and quickly googled the X-Rated Swatch to find out Swatch had re-released the model last month!
It was around 11PM but since its Ramadan, I knew shops were still open. I called up one of the Swatch stores and asked if they had the watch in stock and I was told that the black ones had been pulled from the stores, but the red one was still available. I knew I could order the watch online but figured I’d head over to the store and try the red one out to see how it looked on my wrist, but also to get clarification on the “pulled” aspect of the black ones. I’ve had situations similar in the past with Swatch where a highly desirable model is usually put aside for their good customers/collectors.
I get to the Swatch store and start talking to the salesperson who turned out knew their vintage Swatches. She actually pulled out the store’s copy of the highly desirable and difficult to find “Swatch-Clopedia” and we started going through it. After reminiscing over classic Swatches from the 80s and early 90s, and then showing me some stock of old Swatch Guards they still had in store, I was about to leave when she told me to hold on. She picked up the phone and called her brand manager and told him there was a customer in the store who wanted the black X-Rated Swatch. She hung up the phone, went away for a minute and came back with a black X-Rated watch. She told me her brand manager told her it was ok to sell me one and I ended up paying the KD21 price and leaving with it.
The watch is pretty great looking and practically resembles the original 1987 version with very minor differences. Old Swatches tend to have small diameters but the new X-Rated is 41mm which is similar to most modern watches, I think it looks really good when worn. If you’re interested in this watch and can’t get it in Kuwait, there are a ton of people on eBay selling it for around $120 which is still reasonable. But of course, nothing beats walking into a store and paying retail price for one.
If you’re not fasting during Ramadan and want to order food before Iftar, then below are some restaurants that will deliver early. It’s not a big list but it’s still better than nothing.
One thing that has always annoyed me with local online shopping services is that you couldn’t save your payment details like you do on Amazon for example. Looks like Knet are finally allowing your payment details to be saved because with the latest Carriage app update, you now have the option to save your payment information. This means when you place an order, all you need to do is enter your pin code instead of having to enter all your numbers and expiry date every time you place an order.
All I can say is finally! This is going to make online shopping in Kuwait a lot more convenient for everyone.
Update: So I got a phone call from Carriage awhile ago on this subject and they clarified to me one important point. Customer data related to bank details are saved on the user’s device, not on Carriage’s servers. The information is encrypted and then stored in your iOS or Android keychain, and you still need to input your pin on every transaction.
Ramadan starts tomorrow and for those you who’ve never spent Ramadan in Kuwait, here are some things you need to know:
– If you are caught eating or drinking in public during fasting hours, you can be fined up to KD100 and/or jailed for 1 month.
– Restaurants can’t serve food during fasting hours. That includes dine-in, delivery, and takeaway. But, over the past few years, some restaurants have started operating and serving food during fasting hours but not dine-in. I usually put together a list of these restaurants every year, so stay tuned to one again this year.
– Carriage starts delivery 5PM onwards during Ramadan.
– The law states that during Ramadan, the maximum working hours is 36 a week.
– Shops and malls change their working hours during Ramadan. Everything tends to open later and then stay open a lot later. I’ll be sharing a list of Ramadan timings next week.
– Nothing tends to get done during Ramadan since everything moves at a much slower pace. So you need patience.
I think those are the most important things to note. For more details on the above you can check out these two Ramadan Law posts [Here] and [Here]
