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My dog woke me up this morning at 5:30AM for his morning walk, and as I was leaving the house I noticed I had 6 new SMS messages from last night. When I opened them, it took me a few seconds to make sense of it.

The messages all came in at around 10:58PM Kuwait time when I was already fast asleep.

• Your account has been debited with GBP 0.00 at 19:58:32PM

• Your OTP for card ending with XXXX at Microsoft, 1249.99 GBP is XXXXX. Do not share etc..

• There is insufficient funds in your account to authorize your transaction at 19:59:24

• Your account has been debited with GBP 279.99 at 20:00:32

• Your account has been debited with GBP 279.99 at 20:02:12

• There is insufficient funds in your account to authorize your transaction at 20:03:15

Being half asleep because it was so early in the morning, I had to really work my brain to try and figure out if this was me or not. I’ve placed pre-orders before on things that get charged and shipped months later, and so I was trying to figure out if I might have ordered something from Microsoft months ago. I logged into my NBK bank app, clicked on my credit card and saw I had 0 pending transactions. I then assumed maybe this was my work’s credit card (I get those messages to my number as well) and that one of the employees might have been trying to purchase something for work.

But, I looked at the last 4 digits and it wasn’t the work credit card. Then it hit me, this wasn’t my credit card, it was my debit card! So I went back into the app, clicked on my debit card and checked under pending transactions, and sure enough there were two. This wasn’t me, so I called my bank up right away to report the fraudulent transactions.

The call lasted exactly 20 minutes which I think was a bit too long, at least for me that early in the morning while walking the dog. The first thing the bank did was lock my cards, lock my access to the app and online banking website, write a report up after asking me a bunch of questions, and then submit a request for a new debit card. In the next 24 hours, someone from the fraud claim request department is going to call me for more information.

I guess this was bound to happen eventually even though I’m really careful and smart about where I use my cards. But, I didn’t think it would happen with my main debit card since I never use that online. I don’t even use my debit card to withdraw money from ATM machine’s when I travel, I don’t even physically use it anymore since Apple Pay became available nearly 2 years ago! And thats whats confusing about all this.

If this was my credit card I can at least try and imagine how it might happened. I don’t use my credit card on dodgy websites, but I do use it online a lot so I can come up with plenty of scenarios on how someone could have gotten my credit card number. But my debit card? I have questions!

• This is a brand new card I was issued around 20 days ago

• I don’t have my debit card number saved on any website since I use my credit card for subscriptions or online purchases

• I just got back from a trip to Greece but I only used Apple Pay while there

• I don’t use my cards to withdraw money from ATM machines when I travel so a card skimmer couldn’t have been used

• Based on the messages I got, the bank requested an OTP number for the large 1249.99 GBP transaction. But the message right after says the order couldn’t go through because I had insufficient funds. Does that mean whoever tried using the card had somehow gotten the OTP number but the order didn’t go through because I didn’t have any money? Or does the bank ask for the OTP first and at the same time check to see if I have funds which is why I got both messages? I’m curious about that.

• Finally, why did NBK allow the two other transactions without requiring an OTP or Pin code? It’s not like they were small amounts, they were 100KD+ each and I’ve been asked for an OTP for much smaller amounts

It’s really really odd, only because this was my debit card AND it’s brand new, I got it issued earlier this month. It’s the same old debit card number I’ve had for years, but with a brand new expiry date and CCV number. It’s been around 20 days since I got this new card so it isn’t difficult to know where exactly I’ve used it. Physically, like actually taking the card out and touching or inserting it into a machine, I think I’ve only used it at a couple of ATM machines, and only locally. That’s it. The rest of the time I’ve used it through Apple Pay. So, brand new debit card, with a brand new CCV number, how did they get it? I have a lot of questions to ask the fraudulent department when they call me!

Right now I’m leaning towards the idea that one of the ATM’s I used must have had a skimmer installed. I think I only used two ATM machines with this new card, a Warba machine inside a Trolley near me, and a Burgan Bank drive thru machine. So I might pass by them today and try and see if there is a skimmer installed, in case the bank’s hasn’t already found it.

Update: So I just got a call from the fraud department. The amount is still pending so they’ve submitted a claim to release it back into my account and I should get it in around a week. That’s the good news.

I then discussed how this could happen and although they’re still investigating, the person I spoke to seemed to be leaning towards the fraud happening online. He made it seem like ATM skimmers weren’t a thing anymore or at least they weren’t a thing in Kuwait because our ATM machines are newer and more advanced. I told him that it’s a new card issued just 20 days ago and I hadn’t used it online. He said he could see I used it with Talabat and PayPal. When I asked if they would inform me after their investigation where the fraud happened, he said they wouldn’t.

The bank would inform the other party about the fraud but not me. So for example if the fraud was due to Talabat having some sort of security leak, they wouldn’t tell me about it. I thought that was very odd.

Anyway, if I get more information I’ll update this post but I think for now they’ve considered the issue sorted with me. Other than my new ATM card and the amount refunded back to me, I don’t think the bank will be communicating anything else with me about this.

Update2: Looks like the issue might be with Talabat! A friend just sent me a link to an article on @dailyarabi that points to an article about a database belonging to Talabat being leaked.

Update3: I got my money back a week later.

Blastoff Events, the same company that brought Bassem Youssef to Kuwait, is now bringing the popular show Peter Pan on Ice next month.

Produced by The Imperial Ice Stars and based on J.M. Barrie’s classic tale, Peter Pan on Ice transforms the familiar story into a mesmerizing experience with beautifully choreographed routines set to music. Intricate costumes, set designs, and lighting transport audiences to the magical world of Neverland. The show also incorporates aerial stunts, giving the illusion of flying, and features beloved characters like Peter Pan, Wendy, Captain Hook, and others.

Peter Pan on Ice will be taking place at JACC where an ice rink will be built specifically for this show. This will be the first time JACC hosts an ice show since it opened back in 2016 so it’s going to be a unique experience for Peter Pan fans.

There will be a total of 4 shows taking place:

13 September at 2:00pm
13 September at 6:00pm
14 September at 2:00pm
14 September at 6:00pm

This is an adventure for the whole family (ages 5+), with ticket prices starting at just 5 KD. To book, click here.

It’s a slow week since I’m out of the country so really haven’t watched anything new except for one show, Bad Monkey. It stars Vince Vaughn whom I’m a fan of, so I’m watching it because of him. I just started so don’t have strong opinions on the show yet but it was good enough to get me started at least.

Let me know in the comments what you recently watched or planning to watch.

Movies at the Cinemas
The movies below are now showing at the local cinemas:

New This Week:
Blink Twice (6.9)
Cinderella’s Revenge (3.4)
Deep Sea (6.7)
Sound of Hope: The Story of Possum Trot (7.3)

Other Movies Showing:
Alien: Romulus (7.5)
Borderlands (5.3)
Deadpool & Wolverine (8.3)
Despicable Me 4 (6.4)
Harold and the Purple Crayon (N/A)
Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows: Part 1 (classic) (7.1)
Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows: Part 2 (classic) (8.1)
Imaginary (4.7)
Inside Out 2 (7.9)
It Ends with Us (7.2)
Longlegs (7.3)
Oddity (7.5)
Starve Acre (5.3)
Trap (7.2)
Twisters (7.0)

The numbers in brackets refer to the IMDB rating at the time of publishing.

Sir Wilfred Patrick Thesiger was a British military officer, explorer, and writer. His first visit to the Gulf was in 1945, shortly after the Second World War, when he accepted a position as a researcher with the British Middle East Anti-Locust Unit (MEALU).

Based in Saudi Arabia, Sir Wilfred was able to travel to Kuwait and Bahrain, thanks to having access to a car. He made a second visit to Kuwait in 1949.

During both trips, Sir Wilfred captured numerous photographs, including some of Souk Mubarakiya, which I found particularly interesting and am sharing in this post.

These pictures are part of the collection at the Pitt Rivers Museum and are available to view online. If you’re interested in seeing more of the photos he took during his time in Kuwait, you can explore them at prm.web.ox.ac.uk or by checking the two links below:

Thesiger’s Journeys in Arabia – Hejaz and Nejd, Saudi Arabia 1945
Thesiger’s Journeys in Arabia – Kuwait and Saudi Arabia 1949

So many places have closed down in T4, in fact, once you pass security the only places with food still left open are Raising Cane’s, Shake Shack, Starbucks, McDonalds and Al Rifai nuts. So if you’re boycotting brands, your only option for food and coffee is basically Al Rifai.

The Sunshine School first opened its doors in 1978 and has been a pioneer in early childhood education since then. For many of us, it’s where our early memories of school life began and it is where I spent my nursery and kindergarten days in the early 80s. You can check out some old photos I had previously scanned and shared by clicking here.

The Sunshine School has now evolved into The Sunshine Kindergarten (TSK), continuing its long-standing tradition of pioneering early childhood education. Today, TSK remains true to its roots in leading the way with a holistic curriculum that makes learning feel like an adventure for every child who walks through its doors.

Recently, the school went through an incredible transformation of its campus. In partnership with talented architects and educational experts from Edge Hill University in the UK they have worked to create an extraordinary child-centred learning environment. The result? An incredible nurturing environment that sparks curiosity, encourages exploration and makes social interactions feel as natural as playtime.

Some of the cool innovative areas in the redevelopment include:

• Active play spaces, including a climbing wall
• A beautiful and cosy library curated to ignite a love of reading
• A specialist music room where future musicians can get creative
• Quiet spaces like a sensory pod for times of relaxation and sensory exploration
• Free-flowing indoor and outdoor areas, perfect for playing and gardening

On top of all this, TSK is putting a big focus on STEAM (Science, Technology, Engineering, Arts and Mathematics), making sure children develop a lifelong love for learning and innovation. Following their time at TSK, students move on to their partner school, The British School of Kuwait, where they’ll continue their education and benefit from special partnerships such as their unique curriculum collaboration with Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT).

View this post on Instagram

A post shared by The Sunshine Kindergarten (TSK) (@tsk.edu.kw)

Registration is now open for the new school year, starting in September 2024, for children from 19 months to 4 years. You can apply through their website tsk.edu.kw or reach out via WhatsApp at +965 9300 0504. Also, check them out on Instagram at @tsk.edu.kw

Like the current waterfront project that extends from Kuwait Towers to the SVN resort, Shuwaikh Beach is also getting redeveloped as part of Kuwait Municipality’s ongoing efforts to enhance leisure and recreational spaces in Kuwait.

The project was designed by the multidisciplinary architecture firm Pace, and is sponsored by NBK. With the designs now finalized, the project has entered the tendering phase.

The 1.7km-long project will feature upgraded facilities, including a running track, bicycle track, mosques, and several main areas tailored to community needs like sports fields, recreational areas, and extensive green spaces.

Based on the renderings, one of the cool things I like about the Shuwaikh Beach project is that it looks like it will be a lot greener than the new waterfront near Kuwait Towers. The sandy beach area is also getting revamped, and wooden benches will be installed to provide a peaceful and comfortable coastal experience.

This project is expected to be completed by May 2025.

I’m traveling tomorrow so started downloading shows to watch on the plane. It’s only a 4 hour trip but I like to take more shows and movies than I can watch. So far I have these downloaded to watch:

Shows
Bookie
Clarkson’s Farm – Season 3 (got 4 more episodes to watch)
Conan O’Brien Must Go
Hacks
Lady in the Lake
Loot
Palm Royale (2 more episodes to watch)
Ripley
The Acolyte (2 more episodes to watch, worst Star Wars ever)
The Instigators
The Sympathizer

Movies
Airplane! (wife never watched it)
Joe Rogan: Burn the Boats
Lawrence of Arabia (don’t think I’ve watched it before weirdly)
One Life
The Naked Gun (wife never watched it)

Let me know in the comments what you recently watched or planning to watch.

Movies at the Cinemas
The movies below are now showing at the local cinemas:

New This Week:
Alien: Romulus (7.5)
Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows: Part 1 (classic) (7.1)
Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows: Part 2 (classic) (8.1)
Imaginary (4.7)
Starve Acre (5.3)

Other Movies Showing:
Bad Boys: Ride or Die (6.8)
Boneyard (4.1)
Borderlands (5.3)
Cat and Dog (5.1)
Deadpool & Wolverine (8.3)
Despicable Me 4 (6.4)
Detained (4.8)
Harold and the Purple Crayon (N/A)
Inside Out 2 (7.9)
It Ends with Us (7.2)
Longlegs (7.3)
Oddity (7.5)
Trap (7.2)
Twisters (7.0)

The numbers in brackets refer to the IMDB rating at the time of publishing.

I previously posted about the club back in 2011, but I’m reposting it again today with more information because today is the first day of their pre-season training.

The Kuwait Scorpions Rugby Football Club is the oldest sports club in Kuwait, and very possibly the oldest in the region.

The club was originally formed by expatriates from the Kuwait Oil Company, who began training together as a hobby. In 1946, the team formally became the Kuwait Scorpions Rugby Football Club when they played the British Army in the region’s first recorded rugby fixture. In the 70s, as rugby community clubs started forming around the region, the Scorpions began traveling and competing in neighboring countries. Rugby in Kuwait continued this way until the 1990 invasion when the team was dispersed.

Following the invasion, the rugby club gradually reformed as its members returned to Kuwait. They were renamed the Kuwait Nomads, a name inspired by the way they reunited. The team played as the Nomads until the 2000s, when they reverted to their original name and relaunched the club as the Kuwait Scorpions.

The Scorpions are still very active, and in fact, their pre-season training starts today. If you’re interested in having fun and getting fit, bring plenty of water and a good attitude, and head to KOC Ahmadi Park. They train every Monday and Wednesday from 7 to 9 PM. For directions and more info, check out their Instagram @q8scorpions

Last week, KDD launched a new line of drinks that contain 0% sugar and zero calories. These beverages aren’t technically juices since they’re not made with real fruits. Instead, they’re more like flavored water. Currently, they come in three flavors:

Apple & Raspberry
Mango & Peach
Mojito (Lemon & Mint)

The fruits are added as natural flavors to the water, along with vitamins A, D, C, and B6. None of the three flavors contain any sugar; instead, like the ‘Good For You’ line of ice cream, they use natural sweeteners.

I only managed to get the Apple & Raspberry and Mango & Peach flavored drinks since the Mojito was out of stock. The Mojito flavor was the one I was actually interested in because I’m hoping it tastes like lemonade. I tried the other two flavors and didn’t like them, but that’s because I really dislike both raspberry and peaches. So, don’t take my word for it.

KDD sells them in a carton of 18 for 1.980 KD or a pack of 6 for 660 fils. However, I picked up 8 individual pieces from my neighborhood KDD store for 800 fils, which comes to 100 fils per pack.

If you’ve tried the Mojito flavor, let me know how it tastes.

House of the Dragon season finale was this week and it was disappointing. Felt like the whole season was a lead up to nothing really. I don’t want to say too much so not to spoil it for people who still haven’t watched the last episode, but I think this season needed at least two more episodes.

On the bright side, season 3 of Industry starts on Monday and The Lord of the Rings season 2 is coming back in 3 weeks.

Let me know in the comments what you recently watched or planning to watch.

Movies at the Cinemas
The movies below are now showing at the local cinemas:

New This Week:
Borderlands (5.3)
Cat and Dog (5.1)
Detained (4.8)
It Ends with Us (7.2)

Other Movies Showing:
A Quiet Place: Day One (7.0)
Bad Boys: Ride or Die (6.8)
Boneyard (4.1)
Chief of Station (4.7)
Deadpool & Wolverine (8.3)
Despicable Me 4 (6.4)
Harold and the Purple Crayon (N/A)
Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince (classic) (7.6)
Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix (classic) (7.5)
Inside Out 2 (7.9)
Kung Fu Panda 4 (6.3)
Longlegs (7.3)
Oddity (7.5)
Trap (7.2)
Twisters (7.0)

The numbers in brackets refer to the IMDB rating at the time of publishing.

A friend of mine sent me the video below on Tiktok a couple of weeks back where supposedly a guy in Kuwait (@moneir_almousawi) found a 20 calorie brioche roll at the supermarket. That video was shared with Blake from @thenutritionnarc who ended up posting the video below.

@thenutritionnarc Are these 20 cal brioche buns legit? @RIENOM | منير الموسوي #greenscreenvideo #greenscreen ♬ Paris – Else

Obviously something was up, but I figured maybe the guy had misread the label. But it turns out he hadn’t misread the label since someone else went and checked on the label and sent Blake a message with a breakdown of the ingredients who ended up posting the updated video below.

@thenutritionnarc Update on the 20 cal brioche buns, we got to the bottom of it @RIENOM | منير الموسوي #greenscreenvideo #greenscreen ♬ original sound – Blake | NARC

Makes you wonder how big of an issue this is in Kuwait with restaurants and brands not being accurate with their calorie count.

Update: According to Wooden Bakery, there was a misprint on the brioche packaging, and this batch of products has already been recalled from the market.

Last night, Pottery Barn opened their new location in Avenues Phase III, and it’s a significant improvement over the previous store. The old location felt somewhat cold, but the new store, particularly the top floor, is much cozier and more inviting.

They took over the space previously occupied by Williams Sonoma in Grand Avenue, which I think is a much more fitting location for them. It’s worth checking out if you’re in Avenues and looking for something for your home.

It’s been a slow TV and movie week for me. Other than starting season 2 of House of Cards, catching up on the latest House of the Dragons and season finale for The Kardashians, the only other thing I watched this week was the old movie Prozac Nation.

I’m traveling in a couple of weeks so need to start saving shows for the plane ride. I was also planning to watch Deadpool this week but heard there were over 10 scenes cut so decided I’m either going to watch it when I travel, or once it’s out to rent. Not gonna watch a movie cut that much no matter how minor the cuts are.

Let me know in the comments what you recently watched or planning to watch.

Movies at the Cinemas
The movies below are now showing at the local cinemas:

New This Week:
Boneyard (4.1)
Chief of Station (4.7)
Harold and the Purple Crayon (N/A)
Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince (classic) (7.6)
Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix (classic) (7.5)
Oddity (7.5)
Trap (7.2)

Other Movies Showing:
A Quiet Place: Day One (7.0)
Bad Boys: Ride or Die (6.8)
Deadpool & Wolverine (8.3)
Despicable Me 4 (6.4)
IF: Imaginary Friends (6.5)
Fly Me to the Moon (6.7)
Inside Out 2 (7.9)
Kung Fu Panda 4 (6.3)
Longlegs (7.3)
Twisters (7.0)

The numbers in brackets refer to the IMDB rating at the time of publishing.

I found these really old aerial photos of Kuwait City while browsing through the Tareq Rajab Museum photography archive so decided to scan them to share. There wasn’t a date on them but I’m assuming they were taken in the early 1950s. I came to that assumption since in one of the photos I could see the Thunayan Al Ghanim Building under construction, and that was completed in 1954.

Thunayan Al Ghanim Building is the old building on the corner of the Sheraton Roundabout. It was considered to be one of the most advanced buildings in Kuwait at the time, and one of the first to have an elevator. There are stories of bedouins coming in from the desert to watch “the flying horse” that could go up and down. The Thunayan Al Ghanim building housed the original KOC offices, the British Consulate, the first English bookshop in Kuwait, as well as the Sultan Gallery and the Rolls Royce dealership.

It’s kind surreal looking at these photos since it was really that long ago. In some of the photos you can make out the new buildings that were popping up beside the old houses. If you want to see how it would have looked like if you were in one of the alleyways looking towards the more “modern” buildings, click here.

All these photos were taken from a plane and I’m assuming on the same day, but don’t quote me on that.