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For my last post on the home gym build, I’ll be writing about training racks. I needed a compact and versatile set up since I was using only half of one of my rooms for a gym and still wanted to be able to perform a variety of exercises. I decided to get a squat rack because I’d be able to perform chest, shoulder, legs, triceps and back workouts, basically, the whole body using this one set up which made it very versatile.

I found a bunch of local companies that sold racks but I narrowed it down to three options:

Sports World – They had a Torque brand squat rack
Nomad Strength – A very cool local brand that custom-build racks
AFE Fitness – Another local brand that custom-build racks

Sports World sells the Arsenal 7 squat rack by Torque Fitness but it was priced at KD480 and ready-made so you couldn’t customize it if you needed to. Nomad Strength sell their squat rack for KD350 without any attachments. AFE Fitness on the other hand sell their squat rack for KD155. So I decided to go with AFE. Their work looked really solid and they’ve built rigs for commercial gyms so I knew I’d be getting a rack that could take abuse. But, what I also liked about AFE is they had a pretty cool website that allowed you to build and spec the rack as you wanted. This is such a smart idea because I went from a KD155 rack to a fully specced out one for KD242 with just a few clicks.

The way the AFE website works is you pick which piece of equipment you want, you then get to pick if you want it in their signature red color or fully matt black. You then have addons you could get so I got the dips bar attachment (KD30), the safety bar attachment (KD20), Ground Rotational Landmine (KD20), installation (KD10), and delivery (KD2). I also asked for the height of the setup to be reduced by 10cm. It was a super easy process, got everything I wanted, and more for a good price plus I was even was able to customize it for my room.

The rack was built and delivered to me in around a week and I’m loving it so far. As expected it’s really well built but it also has great details like cut out numbers next to the holes so you can keep track of where you’re putting the attachments. In my case, I’ve started sticking labels on the side to help me set up my rack quicker for the various exercises I’ll be performing. The only negative I could think of is that the J-hooks that hold the bar aren’t rubber/plastic protected so they’re already starting to get scratched up. It’s fine for my J-hooks to get scratched (pictured below), but my expensive bar has a black zinc coating and that’s gonna end up getting scratched and not sure I’m going to be too happy about that. If it got scratched over a long period of time that’s fine, makes me feel like I’ve been working out. But, I don’t want the thing to get totally scratched up from the first week, that’s not rewarding.I might find a DIY solution but haven’t really given it much thought yet.

Other than that quibble it’s a great rack. I liked it so much I just placed an order this morning for their dumbbells storage unit (also customized the length for my needs). They have a whole variety of racks and rigs so if you’re looking for anything else from a simple pull up bar to a full-on 2x1m outdoor training rig, check out their website arabakw.com

If you missed my previous build parts here are the links:
Home Gym Build: Part 1 – The Floor
Home Gym Build: Part 2 – The Equipment

I know this is a totally random thing to review but this little device is just amazing. For the past couple of months I’ve been looking online for a portable pressure washer. I wanted to be able to wash my Alfa whenever I needed to as well as random stuff like my apartment AC compressors, or my BBQ grill, just random things that don’t have water access nearby. Anyway, I didn’t really find anything interesting and basically gave up until I spotted the Kärcher OC 3 at Ace hardware. I had actually checked out Kärcher pressure washers during my research but for some weird reason never came across the OC 3 which is exactly what I was hoping to find.

The OC 3 is a compact pressure washer with a built-in rechargeable battery and a 4L water tank which makes it extremely portable and practical. So far I’ve been using it to wash my bike after rides but this would also be great to take to the beach for example so you can wash your feet from sand when done or to spray down your wakeboard gear from seawater before shoving them into the back of your car.

There is one major negative with the OC 3 which could be a deal-breaker depending on what you’re planning to use it for. The OC 3 can hold 4L of water which is around 2 minutes of continuous spraying. 4L is more than enough for washing my bike but if I want to wash my car it means I need to find a tap nearby to refill the unit or I need to bring a larger water source with me (like a bucket) and use the included suction hose attachment. I originally thought the 15-minute battery life would be an issue but didn’t realize I would run out of water first.

Other than the water capacity limitation I love this thing. Ace carries the unit with the adventure pack which is an addon storage unit that clips to the bottom of the OC 3. The adventure pack includes a brush attachment that you can use to wash mud and dirt off a bike for example and it also contains the suction hose so you could use an external water supply. The cost of the OC 3 is KD43.750 and Ace only had a couple on display so not sure if they have more in stock. I couldn’t find it anywhere else in Kuwait so if you want one you should probably try to pass by ASAP to see if they still have them.

Update: Looks like I lucked out on the price because according to the local Karcher dealer, the price I paid was for a different unit (the K2). Ace mispriced the OC 3 and the actual cost of the machine is around KD68 not KD43.

Enviroserve is a local recycling facility that is trying to solve the e-waste problem in Kuwait. E-waste or electronic waste is basically discarded electrical appliances and devices which the majority of people generally throw out with regular garbage. Some examples of e-waste are laptops, computers, tablets, phones, refrigerators, IT equipment, lighting, and air conditioners. Enviroserve takes your e-waste and recycles them for you in an eco-friendly manner.

There are two ways you can dispose of your e-waste:

Drop off: Enviroserve have a bin at the Scientific Center (inside next to Starbucks) that can be used to drop off small appliances and devices

Pick up: They can pick up your e-waste but they charge a fee. If your e-waste fits in a small car the cost is KD5, if your e-waste requires a large car the cost is KD10.

If you’re a company and are getting rid of your old computers, they also have a data protection service where they secure the picked up hardware until all the hard drives are destroyed along with any confidential information that might have still been on the drives.

If you want to find out more about Enviroserve or if you want to request a collection, here is the link to their website.

Back in 2011 KDD dropped the old school names and packaging for some of their ice creams and replaced them with the generic Blitz name and packaging. But, it looks like KDD is bringing back the original names and designs again. The KDD app is now showing Failaka, Burgan and Columbia again as well as some other new items like lolly sticks.

I don’t know if this a temporary marketing thing or not but I hope it stays. I also hope they’re not gonna kill off the lolly pyramids and replace them with these new sticks. Also KDD, why did you close down the KDD store near my place in Salmiya??

via @inspirededibles

If you missed my Part 1 post on my home gym build, you can check that post here. For the second part, I wanted to talk about some of the equipment I got, where I got it from, and what options you have for getting the same as well. The pandemic started this home gym craze which has left the market bare of decent gym equipment, and when you do find any available, they tend to be overpriced. The quality of some of the equipment being sold is also questionable with lots of clones and overpriced poor quality hardware being imported by people who are looking to make a quick buck.

For my gym needs all I really needed was weight plates, an Olympic bar, a curl bar, and dumbbells. I managed to get everything except for dumbbells. Not sure what pre-corona prices were for dumbbells, but right now they seem incredibly expensive, at least to me. I can’t just get one set of dumbbells either, I’d have to get a whole range since depending on the exercise I might need anything from 10KG up to 36KG. So for now, I’ve put the thought of getting dumbbells aside unless I want to spend over 700KD which I’m not gonna do.

Weight plates aren’t that difficult to find, but finding a whole set of weights is. I was originally planning to get my plates from ProSports, but they had certain weights out of stock when I first checked which meant for example I could get 20KG plates but couldn’t find maybe 5KG or 10KG. I then decided to get bumper plates from Nomad, but they were out of stock. Gym Doctor? Also out of stock. Nobody had a full set of weight plates and I didn’t want to mix and match different brands or looks since my OCD wouldn’t be able to deal with it. I also needed them to be in KG not Lbs since I’ve only ever used KGs at my gym and didn’t want to change that. At one point I found all the weights I needed on the ProSports website but they were out of stock on the 7ft Olympic bar. I decided to wait until they got the bar in stock, but by then some of the weights were out of stock. Waiting until everything you want is available to order isn’t gonna work.

Eventually, while going through my Instagram explore page I noticed Sports World were selling a Torque brand package that included a full set of colored bumper plates (5KG, 10KG, 15KG, 20KG), a 7ft black Olympic bar and 2 collars all for 392KD. They also had a Torque adjustable bench for 220KD. I also bought extra 2.5KG plates from them. It was around 10PM at night, maybe later and the owner quick responded to my questions on Instagram and I managed to place the order and pay for my items all through Instagram DM. It was an impulse buy but it had to be if I wanted to make sure I got what I wanted before they sold out. The prices might sound expensive, but they’re actually acceptable for what you’re getting. For example, the bumper plate package retail cost is around KD340 in the US (pre-corona) so we’re only paying a slight premium here. What I’ve actually noticed is that the no-brand Chinese stuff is being sold for a pretty high price while the premium brands which have proper dealers in Kuwait kept their prices fairly stable.

So the difference in price between the no-brand clones and premium brand items has narrowed to the point you might as well pay a bit more and just get the premium brands. This price discrepancy is more obvious with things like the adjustable bench. At 220KD I think the bench I got is a steal compared to other benches in the market that cost 150-200KD. The Torque bench is commercial grade and pretty much bombproof and so is gonna withstand all the abuse I give it. But I’ve seen no-brand benches sold for just slightly less that look like they’re gonna start wobbling a week into use. The only thing left that I needed to get was a curl bar and Sports World didn’t have any in stock. I saw one on the Wawan website but they were selling it for 50KD which sounded overpriced. I eventually found one for sale on an Instagram account called @gym__home123 (can it get any more generic?) for 30KD and the guy delivered it the same day so not bad.

I really love the stuff I got, the colorful bumper plates look great and so does the black zinc coated Olympic bar. Since these items were going to be mine and used by me hopefully for a very long time, I wanted to get a proper set of gym equipment and so I’m glad I found these by Torque. I also ended up getting a squat rack to use with all the above but I’m leaving that for the final third post since there is a lot to talk about with that. For now I’ll leave you with a bunch of links below to where you could try and find stuff you need for your own home gym:

Sports World
ProSports
Nomad Strength Co.
Beyond Equipment
Gym Doctor
Perform Athletics
Sports Group
Wawan
@gym__home123

Update: Thanks to a reader ended up finding dumbbells that were priced extremely well, a set from 10KG up to 25KG in 2.5KG increments for just 225KD! Got them from @gymequipmentskwt

Ghazi Al-Mulaifi is a Kuwaiti musician whose brother is Tareq Al-Mulaifi of Cobra Club whom I’ve posted about a few times. Both brothers are super talented and have completely different music styles (like opposites) which is amazing to see. While Tareq is into 80s inspired cinematic synth-pop music, Ghazi on the other hand is interested in Kuwaiti pearl diving music and global jazz. He formed the ensemble Boom Diwan where he and traditional Kuwaiti musicians combine Kuwaiti bahri (sea) music with global jazz for the purpose of creating new Kuwaiti music that revives a musical tradition of dialog and exchange. It’s a bizarre combination but going through their Instagram account it actually seems to work really well.

In the fall of 2018, Ghazi was approached by Bill Bragin who is the executive artistic director at the Arts Center at NYUAD. He was inquiring about six-time grammy award winner Arturo O’Farrill and the Afro Latin Jazz Orchestra (Arturo is the son of the late and famed Chico O’Farill). Arturo was looking for musical ties between Afro-Cuba and the Afro-Khaleej and he and Bill visited Kuwait and stayed with Ghazi for a few days. Ghazi invited the members of his ensemble over and that meeting resulted in two Cuban-Khaleeji Project concerts, the first took place in 2019 (video above) while the second took place virtually a few days ago (video below).

It’s all pretty fascinating and I love the fact they’re looking for ways to keep the traditional Kuwaiti pearl diving music alive. If you want to listen to more of Ghazi’s music or if you’re just curious to explore all this further, here are some links:

GhaziMusic.com
KhaleejiMusicAlliance.com
@Boom.Diwan
NYU Abu Dhabi introduces new course on Khaleeji music

When gyms reopened a couple of weeks back I was still undecided if I’d go back to mine or I’d continue to workout at home. Well, the choice was made easy when I found out my gym was sold to another gym. At first, I considered signing up to Inspire since all my friends go there, but their Bida’a location was closed for renovation and their second location was just too far away. So I decided I might as well just workout from home.

For the past few months I had been working out at home using some basic gym equipment I had rented. I was really limited with my workouts due to the equipment I had on hand, but I was still disciplined enough to work out 3 times a week keeping with my previous gym schedule. So I decided I’d just put together a proper home gym and continue to work out from home. Due to the high demand for gym equipment because of the pandemic, finding everything I needed for a gym and at a reasonable price was going to be a difficult task. Thats why I decided I would detail my process in three parts. I’m going to mention where I got what from along with the prices I paid so that anybody else looking to set up a home gym can follow my steps if they want to. In this first part I’m going to be talking about the easiest part of this home gym, the floor.

Back in April I posted about a company called Green Rub that used recycled tires to make rubber fitness tiles. The tiles come in 1x1meter sizes and in two thicknesses, 2cm and 4cm. The 2cm thick tiles weigh 16kg while the 4cm tiles weigh 32kg. Going by the photos on their account I had difficulty deciding on the thickness of the tiles. Green Rub had recommended 4cm if I was planning on dropping weights from a height and since I never drop my weights I went with the 2cm. I’m glad I did because after having the tiles installed I realized they were more than enough.

The price of the tiles is 6KD per square meter and the minimum they sell you is 6 meters. I measured my space and ordered 8 meters which turned out to be perfect. Installation is easy, there is no sticking and it’s not permanent, they just lay the tiles on the floor for you wherever you want. In my case since I was covering a whole section of the floor in one of my rooms, I needed the pieces to be cut to fit perfectly edge to edge. They were able to do that for me at no extra cost and the whole thing cost me 48KD.

The end result turned out great and the tiles feel premium like they belong in a proper commercial gym. The gym floor isn’t a necessity but it does help me mentally to feel like I’ve got a proper gym. When I work out I’ll be in this newly defined gym zone which should put me in a gym mode whenever I’m in it with an added benefit of not having to worry about setting my weights down gently on my parquet floor. If you want to get this flooring for your place, here is a link to their website.

Update: I noticed they’ve now increased their price from 6KD per square meter to 7KD.

Late last week the most popular car upholsterer Ehsan burned down. Ehsan was considered one of the best if not the best upholsterers in Kuwait and there were customer cars that were parked inside being worked on that all sadly burned. One of the cars that was confirmed to have burned in the fire was a beautiful white 1990s Honda NSX that belonged to the owner of B-Tune Performance.

I heard the fire supposedly started at around 3AM and when I passed by in the afternoon (picture on top) there was still smoke coming out of the building and fire trucks parked in the back still putting off the fire. I passed by again the following day and there were still fire trucks there and I saw that the whole building had collapsed into itself. I feel really bad for everyone that lost their car and I hope they get insurance money although I know that won’t bring their cars back.

A lot of people dislike TikTok and I think it’s because they associate it with just videos of people dancing to cheesy music. I actually love TikTok to the point I avoid it because once I start watching videos I don’t stop until I start running out of battery. It’s pretty addictive, fun, and can also be informative. During the Mahboula lockdown for example I started following a few low-income workers who were living there and they basically were providing me with their point of view on how life was there during the lockdown. During the US riots recently TikTok was providing me with on the ground footage of what was happening there. But I also follow some completely stupid shit but that’s what makes TikTok so great, it’s whatever you want it to be.

My account is just filled with so much random (not even curated) stuff from various people living around Kuwait it’s become super entertaining especially now that TikTok knows what I like and so shows me more of the same. I tried to put together a list of some interesting accounts I follow and below are a few of them:

@sadiqleader – An employee at Jawad AlSaffar. It’s exactly what I’d expect their TikTok to be except it’s his personal account and it’s in Indian.

@fahad9881 – A firefighter, posts videos of various fires he’s fighting as well as cute animal rescue videos.

@in_ga_me – A Ukrainian female motorbiker living in Kuwait. The account is of her and her Honda CBR cruising up and down the Gulf Road.

@kuwaitrescueteam1 – Account of a local rescue team and it’s mostly videos of them getting cars unstuck from sand.

@_7xvo – The account of a Al Qabas newspaper journalist, was pretty useful during the lockdown.

@gooshbaker – Guy posts videos of interesting places around Kuwait. Kinda like a blog but tiktok.

@x_dexter_x1 – This is an account of a Syria guy living in Kuwait who re-engineers everyday appliances or electronics but using random bits and pieces of scrap. Kinda like science projects.

@alsarheed82 – Account of a shawarma place owner, he posts videos of his shawarma.

@shahibwtayb – A odd old guy with a super long white beard who drives a bright green Camero and never wears the same sunglasses or hats twice.

@ismayeelrana – This guy is an employee at Alsarraf Motors and posts videos of the cars they have as well as of him driving them around like they’re his.

@amorsisilin – Probably the most popular account I follow and also the most tiktokish. Belongs to a 24-year-old Kuwaiti hybrid and the videos originally were mostly of her dancing to music around my neighborhood, but now it’s mostly just dancing with her friends in different places.

@venudancer..kuwait – Lots of super cheesy skits, so cheesy and lame to the point they become good. Stuff that’s so bad you save the video to show your friends. It’s in Indian (I think) with lots of terrible acting. It’s great.

If you have interesting/weird/fun local TikTok accounts I should follow, let me know in the comments.

Last week the new Microsoft Flight Simulator got released and with it the realistic rendering of every city around the world. The game developers used various techniques to build a 3D world including using 3D data from maps as well as using AI to convert 2D satellite maps to 3D world. It’s actually a very interesting process by itself which you could read a bit more about here.

Anyway, the video above is a Kuwait flyover if you’re curious to see how Kuwait looks like in the game. Some buildings like Hamra Tower and Souq Sharq seem to be there but some popular landmarks like the Avenues, Kuwait Towers and the National Assembly are missing. JACC is even still an empty sand plot in the game. Check it out the video above and some in-game screenshots here.

Thanks James and _madlib_

Gyms will officially be opening up in a couple of days and I’m still deciding if I’m going to go back or not. The number of cases isn’t going down, the number of tests isn’t increasing and we’re all kinda just going about our lives trying our best not to catch it.

So far I think I’m most likely going to go back to the gym again. I’ve been renting gym equipment for the past few months but the gym is going to want them back now since they’re reopening. It’s also still pretty impossible to buy proper gym equipment so that’s not really an option.

I’ve been checking different Instagram accounts of various gyms and all the ones I’ve checked are trying to make sure their environment is as safe as possible. They’re all going about it differently but the gyms that lucked out the most are the ones that have classes where each client uses the same equipment throughout the class. Other gyms where you share equipment is going to be slightly sketchier but if you bring your own towel and disinfect the equipment before and after you use it, then it should be ok.

I guess I might just wait a couple of weeks for things to settle before deciding.

Picture on top from @inspirepurefitness

The last time I bought a bicycle was just over 10 years ago. It was a full-suspension mountain bike meaning it had shocks both in the front and in the rear which you’d need if you were doing some crazy ass downhill mountain riding. Since I wasn’t riding down any mountain, I quickly realized over the years that although the bike looked good, the full-suspension setup was overkill for my needs. My favorite bike path is from Corniche Club all the way up to the Kuwait Towers and back so I really didn’t need any sort of mountain bike frankly.

One night during the lockdown, I came across a video on YouTube called “Reasons you only need a gravel bike“. That caught my interest since I was curious to know what a gravel bike was and so over the next 6 days I watched 196 videos on bicycles (I counted them). By the time I was done I had decided that it was time for me to get a new bike and I wanted one from the brand Canyon. What differentiates Canyon from other bike manufacturers is that they sell directly to consumers, no middle man, and so there are no shops that carry their bikes, it’s just you buying directly from their website which means you get a lot more for your money and it also means it’s perfect for us in Kuwait. Since their business model revolves around online orders, then they can easily ship a bike to Kuwait and the package you get includes everything you need to get your bike set up since all their customers have to do it worldwide because there are no local dealers.

I ended up ordering their Roadlite CF 8.0 bike, they had different versions of the bike to choose from but I decided to splurge and buy their higher-end model since I was buying a bike just once every 10 years. The top of the range model was the Roadlite CF 9.0 but I ended up going for the CF 8.0 instead which was specced out with Ultegra components, DT Swiss wheels, carbon fiber handlebar and seatpost, and a bunch of other great components. The 9.0 came with the Dura-ace components instead of Ultegra but that would have been a waste of money for my needs (even Ultegra honestly is a waste of money for my needs). For those of you who don’t know, bicycles are made up of different components from different manufacturers. So brands like Canyon, Trek, Scott, Santa Cruz etc.. design a bike frame and then fit wheels, handlebars, drive terrains, brakes and shocks from other manufacturers who specialize in these components. The performance, weight, quality, and price of those components vary greatly which is you can have a bike costing $1,500 but the same frame with higher-end components costing $6,000. The reason I went with their Roadlite series and not another model was because of my requirements so what works for me might not work for you.

Canyon ship directly to Kuwait via UPS and shipping cost me around 100KD. It arrived well packaged with a step by step manual and all the tools needed to put it together. If you’ve never put together a bike don’t worry, neither had I and turns out it’s not that complicated. You only need to connect the handlebar, seat post, pedals and the wheels to the bike which are all very easy to do especially if you’re good at following instructions. Canyon sell a lot of accessories and gear on their website as well so I had ordered other items with my bike like a bell, a bottle cage, water bottle, rear LED light, some Canyon stickers and probably my best purchase of the year, the CLUG bike rack. Seriously the CLUG is incredible, so simple and yet has made storing my bicycle so practical.

I’ve now had the bike for over a month and been riding it around 3-4 times a week and loving it. One of my favorite things about the bike is that it weighs just 8.3kg. That’s so light I could literally lift the bike with one finger (I actually tried it). My previous mountain bike really wasn’t considered that heavy at around 14.3kg, but the difference in weight between my old bike and the new one is night and day. I notice it mostly when I’m carrying my bike around but also while riding in a headwind or jumping off curbs or raised bits of the road. The bike is so light that when I fit my two water bottles in my bottle cages, the bike ends up feeling considerably heavier.

I didn’t really have a budget when I initially started looking at bikes but I assumed I would pay somewhere in the range of 300-400KD. In the end, I ended up paying 700KD including the 100KD for shipping. It was way more than I ever expected to pay for a bicycle but the odd thing is, it’s not even that expensive compared to some other models. Maybe I’m out of the loop in the bike world or something, but top-end mountain bikes are in the 1,500-2,500KD range with most basic ones starting somewhere around 400KD. So yeah, it all depends on your mindset and how deep your pockets are more than anything else really. In my case, I’m having a lot of fun riding again so that’s made the bike worth it for me.

If you’ve been thinking about getting a bike and didn’t like the locally available options then you should really check out Canyon. Their customer service has been pretty great as well, I’ve had to get in touch with them about some technical questions and they’ve been very quick in getting back to me. Here is a link to their website.

Just a quick post because I like the shop and want to support this small business. My favorite custom picture frame guy had to move his shop location due to the fact they’re demolishing his old building. He’s now still in the same area (Shuwaikh) but just a few blocks further down. If you want to get a custom photo frame he’s the guy I get most of my frames done at. He’s quick, he’s affordable and during this pandemic, he wears a mask properly. So check him out.

I’ve been blogging for what now 15+ years? and I can count the number of posts I’ve removed. Even the Benihana posts which I went to court over and lost are all still up on the blog. I’m very against removing posts which is why I’m upset I had to remove one now.

Earlier today I posted about a new online business that launched and then someone from that business started leaving fake reviews in the comments. They were so obvious, not only because of the tone of voice or the fact they shared similar IPs, but also because some of the comments were responding to comments that were still under moderation waiting for me to approve them. Meaning only I and the original commenter could see those comments and nobody else.

As much as I hate removing posts from my blog, any business that has to resort to this kind of bullshit and waste my time is not going to get any sort of promotion on the blog.

I found out about the Exotic Snax website because a friend of mine bought Lucky Charms from them. Ignore the part where they say they’re the only online candy store in Kuwait since obviously that’s not true but, they do actually have an interesting selection of products. Most of the items can be found in other places in Kuwait if you know where to look but there are also some I haven’t seen anywhere. There is also the convenience factor of having all these products in one place and being able to order them to your home so check out their website exoticsnaxkw.com