Back in January, I posted about how the Traffic Department set up a Whatsapp account (99324092) where residents can report violations. I tried them once and got no response so really didn’t bother contacting them again. But, they’ve recently been reminding people about this service and they even posted the video above with some examples of violations that were reported.
I think I’m going to give them another shot, maybe starting with something easy like reporting people who park in handicapped parking spots. Oh and those guys who drive up and down the Gulf Road going 10km/h trying to chat up girls. Yup, I’m going to be a snitch. If it works then maybe I’ll have a reason to upgrade my now 6-year old dashcam with a 4K version.
Has anyone tried this Whatsapp service recently? Did they respond?
The 2020 Formula 1 season finally kicked off last week after being delayed due to the Corona pandemic. The second race of the season is taking place later today but like last year, you’re pretty limited to how you can watch it here in Kuwait. The only network in our region that broadcasts the races is MBC Action but it’s in Arabic and I couldn’t find a way to stream it online. The other (and better) option is watching it directly on F1 TV.
I’ve posted about F1 TV before but I mentioned you needed a U.S. credit card to sign up since live broadcasts aren’t available for Kuwait. But, my U.S. credit card expired and I still haven’t gotten my replacement card so I was worried I wouldn’t be able to subscribe again this season. Turns out you don’t need a U.S. credit card!
If you’re on an Apple device and have a US Apple Store account, then you can subscribe to F1 TV from inside the app and pay for the subscription using your Apple Store account. It’s a neat loophole that should make Formula 1 broadcasts easily accessible to more people.
The other day I posted a link to photos showing Entertainment City taken over by mother nature, but I figured it wasn’t very recent since when I passed by the park a couple of weeks back there was some sort of demolition taking place. The video above though is more recent and shows what’s really happening to the park. According to one of the guys in the video, it’s getting completely demolished and the land turned into an empty sand plot as part of the handover process.
This is really sad like all the other landmarks in Kuwait that are getting demolished one by one except maybe this might even be sadder. I’ve been visiting the park from when it first opened in the 80s and kept going even towards the end of the parks life. I really believe the issue with the park was the lack of maintenance and not because the rides weren’t exciting. Towards the end most of the rides were just not working and so people had no reason to go there. I wish they kept the park and just renovated it and expanded it but not completely demolish it like this.
I was told there was a warehouse in Entertainment City where the old arcades from the Ice Skating Rink and Entertainment City were being stored. If anyone knows anything about this let me know. Also if you want to see a video of the park during its better days, watch the video above starting from the 8:34 minute mark.
The original McDonalds location on the Gulf Road is turning into a Burger King and Pizza Hut. The building is looking pretty nice so far and I saw it a few months back at night while they were testing the lighting and all the vertical lines around the structure were lit up by LEDs. I just hope it doesn’t end up looking tacky and ruining the Gulf Road landscape.
The CAP Bookshop which carries publishers like Taschen, Assouline, and Thames & Hudson is now online. Sadly though, the process of ordering a book isn’t as simple as adding it to your cart since the website just lists all the books they have and their prices, but to order a book you need to send them a DM on instagram.
Still, if you’re looking for an Architecture, Art, Design, or Fashion book you’d be hard-pressed to find a better collection anywhere else in Kuwait. Here is the link to their online store, and their Instagram is @capbookshop
You could of course just visit the store now that they’ve reopened, they’re located inside Life Center in Shuwaikh, upstairs next to CAP.
This fire took place late last night so there isn’t much info out on it yet. I did find one article this morning saying it was extinguished but based on snapchat video below shot by a firefighter at around 7:45AM, it looks like the fire still hasn’t been put out.
The 1992 IMAX documentary ‘Fires of Kuwait‘ is now available on Hulu to watch. The film is a testimony to the remarkable resourcefulness and heroism of the men and women who extinguished and controlled over 600 burning and gushing oil wells sabotaged by retreating Iraqi troops in the aftermath of the Gulf War. The movie was frequently showing at the Scientific Center IMAX theater but I never got the chance to watch it. But, Hulu recently partnered up with IMAX to exclusively carry 16 of their movies one of which is Fires of Kuwait so I’m finally gonna get around to watching it.
If you have Hulu and haven’t had the chance to watch the film, here is the link. If you don’t have Hulu but want to know how to get it to work in Kuwait then click here.
Arby’s, one of my favorite fast-food restaurants has closed all their locations in Kuwait. I first heard about this from a reader a couple of days ago but didn’t believe it until I called them up myself to confirm. The employee on the phone said this was permanent but I’m still hoping this is just a temporary thing until the pandemic is over.
If you call them up right now you’ll get Johnny Rockets instead so maybe because of the lack of staff or resources, they’re putting all their focus on their big money maker. I hope that is the case.
Yesterday, Kuwait’s Communication and Information Technology Regulatory Authority (CITRA) launched an official internet speed testing portal as part of the Kuwait Internet Exchange. The reason for CITRA launching their own speed test website from what I’ve been told is for two reasons transparency and data collection.
By using the CITRA speed test website, users will have an accurate way of comparing the internet performance of the different networks in Kuwait when it comes to speed and international latency (which is good to know for gaming). CITRA also wants to use this website as a way to collect data to better help them understand the performance of the different providers in the market.
How is this useful for you? Once enough people have used the website it will provide a fairly accurate representation of internet speeds between the different providers in Kuwait. You will visually be able to see who is providing the fastest speeds and who is the slowest. In the next site update I’ve been told they’ll also be adding area comparisons so you’ll be able to compare internet speeds in your area.
I’m using Zain 5G as my internet provider so according to the website, I’m killing it compared to the average internet speeds in Kuwait. I still haven’t gotten over the fact how fast my internet is, 5G is really just the best thing ever.
If you want to run a speed test on your internet connection, click here.
BBC published an article today bringing into spotlight Kuwait’s Shlonik Covid-19 contact-tracing app calling it once of the most invasive in the world along with Bahrain’s BeAware app. BBC goes even further by describing them both as “mass surveillance tools”.
Most contact-tracing apps rely solely on Bluetooth signals, but Bahrain and Kuwait’s capture location data through GPS and upload this to a central database, tracking the movements of users in real time.
The researchers say Bahraini and Kuwaiti authorities would be able to easily link this sensitive personal information to an individual, as users are required to register with a national ID number. Other countries’ contact tracing apps anonymise users. Source
I’m guessing citizens under forced home quarantine can’t do much about this but everyone else will probably delete the app once the article makes its rounds today. It will also be interesting to see how Zain will distance itself from all this since this can’t be a good look for them.
Back in March, on the very first day I was going to start working from home, my Breville Oracle espresso machine decided to break down. I thought about repairing it myself which I’ve previously done since there is no local dealer, but I hated working on it the last time since the machine was not easy to self-service. I didn’t know what I was going to do at first, do I buy a new machine? Do I wait until things reopen and find a guy to fix it? Do I take it with me to the Dubai dealer when airports eventually reopen? I was actually close to reordering the same machine from Amazon UK but then I asked myself, why do I want to get the exact same machine I had which will eventually breakdown again?
I decided to go down the classic car route direction, I wanted a new coffee machine that was mostly mechanical, very little to no technology, and easy to fix in case something went wrong. After doing a lot of research and watching hundreds and hundreds of coffee-related videos on YouTube, I decided to go for the Rocket Appartamento.
Rocket is an Italian company that are known for making great quality prosumer machines that are also beautiful looking. They have 7 different machines they make and the Appartamento was their entry-level machine that would fulfill my requirements. All I really needed was a machine that looked good, had very little that could go wrong with it, if something did go wrong I could easily fix, and finally, a machine that would allow me to steam my latte milk while pulling an espresso shot at the same time.
The Rocket Appartamento fit all my requirements and was fairly reasonably priced compared to its larger siblings. I looked for the machine locally first and even though I found a couple of small businesses that sold Rocket machines, they were all out of stock. In the end, I decided to order my machine online from Espresso Coffee Shop who are based in Italy and ship to Kuwait. Their prices were great since they remove the VAT when exporting and with the price of shipping to Kuwait the machine was turning out to be around 50KD cheaper than the price of the machine when it was available locally. It seemed too good to be true but I checked online reviews and they seemed legit. But, Espresso Coffee Shop were also out of stock on machines since the Rocket factory in Italy had shut down due to the pandemic. But I called them up and they told me that the factory had reopened and I’d be in line to get one in their next shipment which was in around 2 weeks time. That was fine with me so I ended up ordering a few things from them:
The guys at Espresso Coffee Shop were pretty helpful and patient even though I’m sure they were swamped with orders. I actually amended my order four different times while waiting on my machine to be back in stock by adding and changing different items. The Acaia scale alone I had changed three times mostly because of my willingness to pay so much money for a scale. Through all my indecisiveness, Espresso Coffee Shop were very accomodating and patient with me. I did all my communication over the phone and never had to wait longer than a minute or two to talk to someone on their team. Once my machine was finally in stock they shipped everything to Kuwait for KD110 via UPS. It took only a few days to get to Kuwait from Italy but it arrived mid May during our lockdown and UPS wasn’t delivering so I had to wait until last week to finally get it delivered to me. I was worried they’d send me the wrong items because of how many times I amended my order but thankfully the most expensive and important items which were the coffee machine, grinder, and scale arrived correctly. The only item that didn’t arrive was my milk jug which they forgot to pack. So I called Espresso Coffee Shop and they were very apologetic and refunded me the amount on the spot.
I’ve now been using the machine a few times daily since I got it and it’s been great, I love it. So if you’re looking to buy an espresso machine I’d really recommend checking out Espresso Coffee Shop. Here is the link to their website.
Completed all the way back in 2003, the Villa Moda department store in the Free Trade Zone was way ahead of its time. The building still stands there today but isn’t currently being used although a few years ago I heard a TV station or newspaper was going to take it over.
The owner of Villa Moda was the fashion entrepreneur, Sheikh Majed Al-Sabah who had a vision for a state-of-the-art retail experience. The exterior was designed by Italian architect Pierfrancesco Cravel who came up with the idea of creating the giant glass shell that mimicked the shipping containers in the port nearby. The 12-meter high steel poles in front of the building represented ship masts while sails were used in the parking lot to protect vehicles from the sun.
When Tyler Brûlé, the founder of Wallpaper* magazine heard Sheikh Majed was developing a new department store for luxury brands in Kuwait, he recommended he work with the London based interior designers Eldridge Smerin.
Eldridge Smerin were responsible for the design of Villa Moda’s main entrance area and lounge, public spaces and staircases, two levels of multi-brand fashion space, restaurant and café managed by @capriceholdingsrestaurants, as well as the landscaping around the building.
Villa Moda opened its doors in 2003 housing brands like Gucci, Prada, Bottega Veneta, Salvatore Ferragamo, Fendi, Etro and more. The total duration of the project from conceptual design to construction completion was impressively, less than a year.
The original Villa Moda is still standing and was also ahead of its time (pictured below). The original Villa Moda was located on the Gulf Road opposite where Chilis used to be. Not sure when it opened but I remember going there back in the 90s.
Update: This post has been updated with more precise information. Also the Villa Moda building has now been demolished.
Global research company OMDIA released a 5G Market Progress Assessment report which shows Kuwait ranked 2nd worldwide. The report was based on five different assessment criteria that included spectrum availability, service launches, network coverage, 5G adoption and the development of a supporting ecosystem. You can check out the full report here.
One of the best things I did was get 5G, it’s been incredibly fast and even during the lockdown when every internet connection slowed down, I was still getting over 400Mbps. On average though, my connection both at home (Salmiya) and in the office (Kuwait City) hovers at around 550-650Mbps.
Since I joined my gym (X Athletic) 10 years ago, this is the longest I’ve gone without gymming. With the new government 5 stage plan to normality, it’s also going to be at least 3-4 more months before gyms are allowed to reopen. That’s why this weekend I caved and ended up renting some gym equipment.
A friend had shared a story on their Instagram account about her gym renting out equipment. They had two packages, one that included dumbells, kettlebell, skipping rope, a mat and a cardio machine for 175KD a month, and another which included a bar with weights and a bench for 100KD a month. Both options weren’t cheap, but I was desperate.
I tried finding equipment to buy but everything was just absurdly overpriced. For example, I found a pair of 22.5KG dumbbells for 90KD, an adjustable bench for 320KD and a barbell without any weights for 90KD. None of it made any sense financially, so I decided I’d just rent for now. I figured I’d try the home workout thing without investing too much money, and if I liked it, I could then take my time looking for gym equipment.
So if you’re looking for a place to rent equipment from, I got mine from Elite Fitness. You can DM them on Instagram @elitefitnesskw or Whatsapp Anthony directly on 60603720.
Gym 37 also have rentals but they only have heavy equipment remaining and so I didn’t ask about their prices. You could DM them @gym37kw to check. Let me know if there are any other places renting and I’ll also list them below.
After this past weekends press conference with the announcement of the 5-stage plan to recovery, there were many things left unclear, and some things that were just plain confusing. A lot of you had questions which is understandable.
Language Barrier
This is something I’ve already mentioned before. The majority of the messages shared right now are only shared in Arabic. The biggest issue with this is other than the fact a large part of society isn’t getting the messages, it results in a lot of fake news being shared with no way to verify if it’s true or not. It’s not that difficult to get stuff translated and information shouldn’t just be translated to English either since a lot of the low-income workers read neither English nor Arabic.
Too Many Channels
Another issue I think is how the information is being shared across multiple channels. There isn’t one official source where you can check to get all the Covid-19 related announcements, laws, and whatever. Right now there are around 6 different official Instagram accounts but they also share different information across their different channels. So you might find something on the Twitter account that’s not on their Instagram account, or you might find something on their Facebook page which is neither on the Twitter or Instagram pages. So not only do you need to follow all the Instagram accounts but also all their other social media channels as well just to make sure you’re getting everything. And that’s if you speak Arabic, if you don’t then you have to rely on random Instagram accounts or google translate newspapers.
My Blog
Which brings me to my main subject, the blog. Anybody who knows me personally knows that I love knowledge. I want to and need to know everything and I’m always curious which is why I’ve had no trouble finding content to post daily for the past 15+ years. I also love sharing and during this crisis, I realized there was a demand for information in English so I naturally started helping people by posting all the information in English so everyone knows whats going on. It’s a role I took on because nobody else was doing it right. But then the questions started rolling in. People had questions and they were coming to me because nobody else was answering it for them. The official accounts seem to ignore questions and so people had nowhere to go except blogs like mine or places like Reddit to try and get answers.
But this past weekend people had A LOT of questions after the press conference especially those who were either in locked-down areas or areas that were going to be locked down. I didn’t have any answers and the questions kept coming in and in. Add to that the angry and frustrated comments people were leaving and the Kuwait vs Expats arguments that were taking place and I just couldn’t take it anymore. I ended up closing down a number of posts for comments but then people started emailing me questions or direct messaging me on Instagram and Twitter. With everything that’s going on right now, I don’t need this anxiety.
It’s not my job to translate news to English or answer questions about area lockdowns or know if you’ll still be able to take your wife to the hospital. I’m sorry, but I don’t have any of these answers. I wish I did but to answer your questions I have to sift through various information all in a language I can barely read to try and make sense of things that don’t make sense.
So I’m no longer gonna do this. I’m going back to posting about things I find interesting no matter how superficial it might feel reading about a burger review with everything going on in the world. But that’s what my blog has always been about, just random shit I think is interesting to share. Happy Stuff.
