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52 years ago to this day, boxing legend Muhammad Ali visited Kuwait as part of his broader trip to the Gulf region, which included his religious pilgrimage to Mecca.

During his visit to Kuwait, he engaged in various activities including meeting with local leaders, interacting with fans, and spreading messages of peace and unity. He was given a hero’s welcome and everywhere he went he was accompanied by an entourage of famous media personalities and athletes.

Thanks to the archivists Bader Alshaiji, I was able to get a hold of some photos of Muhammad Ali’s visit to share with my readers. A lot of these photos haven’t been seen since they were originally published 50 years ago.

For more photos from Ali’s visit, click here.
Make sure you visit Bader’s Instagram account if you’re interested in more old photos of Kuwait @badshaiji

A couple of years ago I bought an Amazon Smart Air Quality Monitor for my home and for the longest time ever, I found it totally useless. The data for my indoor air quality never changed, it was always stable, so after reading the data for the first time it felt like the device was useless. I think I actually might have even left a review on Amazon saying how useless the device was because I wasn’t using it anymore since the data was always the same. But, I just bought two more of the same devices for my home.

Recently I’ve been renovating my apartment, I had ceramics work, painters, guys doing microcement, and more. All the work took place over different points in time and the data my smart air quality monitor was collecting and showing me was actually pretty helpful, and kinda scary.

The Amazon Smart Air Quality Monitor connects with my Alexa devices on the network and provides me with the following data:

Temperature
Humidity
Particulate Matter (PM 2.5)
Carbon Monoxide
Volatile Organic Compounds (VOCs)

With the ceramics people there was a lot of dust caused by the cutting of the tiles, and so the PM would spike up, with the microcement guys some of the chemicals they were using would caused the VOCs to spike, with the painters my apartment humidity level shot up and the PM levels were pretty high cause of the plastering. It was constant data and alerts to the point I went out and bought two air purifiers and a de-humidifier to try and help keep the levels down and stable. It actually got me so interested with my apartments air quality that I decided to get two more devices and plug them into some other spaces around the house.

The device is tiny, fits in the palm of my hand and runs on USB power so you can hide it pretty much anywhere. I tried to see if there were alternative options that were maybe cheaper or better but I couldn’t find any, Amazon’s device is the best bang for the buck. They sell the device for around $55 which seems like a bargain when compared to other devices on sale. IKEA have a device they sell for 17.5KD, but theirs doesn’t connect to wifi so you can’t monitor the data or check the history through the phone.

If you’re looking for an air quality monitor for your home, check it out. Amazon won’t ship direct to Kuwait so I had to ship to my Shop&Ship account.

Yesterday SALT, the Dubai based burger concept opened in Blajat and the line to get in was HUGE. Their marketing agency sent me a couple of photos of the line, and I measured the distance of it using Google Maps and the line was basically at least 70m long. Insane.

A lot of people online were poking fun out of people who were waiting in line and I don’t get why. Sometimes if you want to experience something thats popular, you’re going to have to wait in line. Thats how it is.

When I was in Paris a couple of years ago I waited in line for over an hour and a half to try out a ramen place. I also waited 40 mins in line to try Shake Shack in NY back in 2010. I waited more than FIVE HOURS in line for a Foo Fighters concert because I wanted to be up right in front of the stage. So I have zero issues with people waiting in line for things, be it a burger, a Pokémon card or whatever. There is nothing wrong with it.

Let people be.

If you want to pass by check the place out, they’re open daily from 4PM to 12AM (last order at 11:30PM). Here is their location on Google Maps.

Principale, the Italian chef-driven restaurant on the Gulf Road is launching a new seasonal outdoor restaurant in their garden right by the sea.

If you aren’t familiar with Principale, it’s the rebirth of the old popular Italian restaurant Nino, and opened up in Nino’s original location near the Kuwait Towers.

Olivio is being described as a “pure alfresco Italian restaurant inspired by coastal Italy” and will have a fixed menu serving mostly grilled food. They will be soft launching tomorrow (Sunday) but by invitation only. It will remain by invitation only until the official launch of the restaurant on January 25th.

I’m invited tomorrow so I might post updates here after. But, to stay posted on their opening, follow them on @oliviokw

Update: Here is some more info they just sent me, there will be light art installations at the pop-up and they were created by Berlin-Kuwait based architecture and design practice BBPJ DESIGN. The installations were inspired by Pantelleria Island located off the coast of Sicily.

Atyab Al Marshoud is Kuwait’s oldest fragrance company and was established all the way back in 1925. Atyab Al Marshoud also has the distinction of being the first fragrance company in the Gulf region.

It’s a family owned business and the new generation has been successful by adding a modern edge to keep the brand current, without losing the historic and traditional aspects that are at its core.

In the last 5 years, Atyab Al Marshoud has been expanding around the GCC and now has over 56 branches. A few years ago they also started venturing into Europe with their first store opening in Knightsbridge, London back in 2018. Now, they’re about to open their second European store, this time in Marbella, Spain.

Atyab Al Marshoud is expected to open in Marbella this coming February, and they’ll be located in the popular Puerto Banús area. To stay posted on the launch, follow @atyabalmarshoud

Not much happening because the county is still in mourning but here are some events taking place this weekend, let me know if I missed anything:

Thursday, January 4
The Avenues Sky
Shlonik? Healing Circle

Friday, January 5
The Avenues Sky
Super Run Race
3rd Show Jumping Event

Saturday, January 6
The Avenues Sky
Creative Printmaking Conference
3rd Show Jumping Event
Snail Mail Workshop for Kids

I haven’t watched any TV all week since I’ve been in Abu Dhabi and Dubai. I did get to watch Wonka last night and it wasn’t bad, didn’t realize it was going to be a musical until it actually started. I didn’t realize “The Iron Claw” was released or would have watched that instead!

Let me know what you watched this week in the comments below.

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

New This Weekend:
Ferrari (6.8)
Night Swim (N/A)
The Iron Claw (8.1)
Three Robbers (6.9)

Other Movies Showing:
Alice in Terrorland (3.2)
Aquaman and the Lost Kingdom (6.0)
Migration (7.5)
Napoleon (7.0)
Thanksgiving (6.9)
Wish (6.0)
Wonka (7.4)

The classic films below are currently showing at the 1954 Film House:
Rush Hour (7.0)

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

I’m still out of the country on vacation so posting is going to be slow till I’m back. But, I did come across an interesting TikTok account that might be my favorite at the moment.

@jahra.removals is an instagram account I’m guessing run by the Jahra baladiya or someone that works there and it’s basically non stop videos of bulldozers destroying illegal structures constructed there. There is a bit of ASMR involved and what I love is the fact there is no prep work, the bulldozers just destroy things as they are.

@jahra.removals #بلدية_الكويت #بلدية_الجهراء #فريق_الازالات #ازالة_المخالفات #قسم_ازالة_المخالفات #سعد_العبدالله #جنوب_سعد_العبدالله #الجهراء ♬ الصوت الأصلي – jahra.removals

Clearly other people are also entertained by these videos with a few having over half a million views and one video (above) with 1.7million views.

Here is the link.

B.SOCIAL is a new bakery that just soft launched in time for New Years.

They’re a cake shop but not an ordinary one, you can customize cakes based on anything and everything that comes to your mind. They want to be your go-to place whenever you need a customized cake for a special occasion. You can customize your own cakes by contacting their number on their instagram account, and it will be delivered by January 1st onwards.

View this post on Instagram

A post shared by 𝗕.𝗦𝗢𝗖𝗜𝗔𝗟™ (@bsocial.kw)

The name B.SOCIAL is inspired from the concept of cakes being the focal point in any social gathering. They will have 3 product categories to start with; Bento, celebration cakes and customized cakes. They also just released a special New Years cake they’ve created.

The cake is for chocolate lovers since it’s composed of 6 different layers of chocolate, and large enough for 6 to 8 people. If you’re looking for a special cake for this New Years, this could be the one.

For more info and to order the cake, check them out @bsocial.kw

There isn’t much happening this long weekend, but if you’re in Kuwait and are looking for something new and fun to do, you could try skydiving.

Kuwait Skydive has been open since 2017 and I remember when they first launched they were charging 160KD for a tandem jump (that’s when you jump while attached to a professional skydiver). That price eventually dropped down to 99KD, and now it’s dropped even further. They currently have an end of year offer where you could skydive for just 79KD.

For comparison, I paid 80KD to skydive in Cape Town years ago, and in Dubai, it costs around 200KD to skydive right now. So 79KD is a great price, and if it’s something on your bucket list, this is a great chance to check it off.

The skydive center is located in Khiran and so the view while jumping is of the Sabah Al Ahmad Sea City. The whole experience takes less than 2 hours from start to finish. Once you arrive to the center you’ll first be asked to fill in some paperwork before getting a quick orientation and your jump harness ready. The plane ride up is around 15 mins long, and then once you jump, you free-fall for around a minute before the parachute opens. After that it’s a chill 5-7 minute ride back down.

The Kuwait Skydive center is open everyday this long weekend including January 1st. They’ll be open from 9AM till sunset and it’s highly recommended you pre-book your jump online before arrival. To book a jump, click here.

I watched the recently released sci-fi film Rebel Moon a few days ago on Netflix, not sure why it got negative reviews it was actually pretty entertaining. I also finished rewatching the old World War II mini series Band of Brothers, and just started on the follow up to it, The Pacific.

So far I think Band of Brothers was a much better series, only because it mostly took place on the battle fields while The Pacific has a lot more stories that take place off the battlefield. Both are really great shows and you should watch them if you haven’t before (they’re on Netflix).

Both those shows are 10 years apart and now around 10 years later, they’re releasing another companion to the series called Masters of the Air. It comes out next month and you can watch the trailer below.

Let me know what you watched this week in the comments below.

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

New This Weekend:
Alice in Terrorland (8.0)
Aquaman and the Lost Kingdom (6.0)
Priscilla (6.8)

Other Movies Showing:
Migration (7.5)
Napoleon (7.0)
Thanksgiving (6.9)
The Hunger Games: The Ballad of Songbirds & Snakes (6.9)
The Inseparables (7.0)
Wish (6.0)
Wonka (7.4)

The classic films below are currently showing at the 1954 Film House:
Anastasia (7.1)
Die Hard (8.2)

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

Dubai’s burger concept SALT is opening their beach pop-up next week at the new Blajat project in Salmiya.

The pop-up is located right on the sandy beach and has both indoor and outdoor seating. The pop-up will be there for 6 months.

Both the Blajat and TEC accounts just dropped a teaser video awhile ago, you can check it out on their accounts @tecq8 and @blajatkw

Back in July, Chipotle announced that they had signed an agreement with Alshaya Group to open locations in the Middle East next year. The initial plan is for two locations each in Dubai and Kuwait.

According to a source of mine, Chipotle’s first location in Kuwait will be at The Avenues in place of where Blaze Pizza was located, near Gait and VOX Cinema.

All the Blaze Pizza locations in Kuwait recently closed down and I’m assuming permanently. Blaze, I believe, was Alshaya’s third attempt with pizza, the first two being 400 Gradi and Spontini (I loved Spontini) both of which also closed down.

I reached out to Alshaya for confirmation regarding Chipotles first store and they responded stating they would not comment on speculation, but that as they’ve previously mentioned, Chipotle is set to open in Kuwait in 2024.

This week I started watching the animated series Scavengers Reign on HBO Max and it’s amazing. Very interesting, very creative and extremely weird. The series follows different crew members who evacuated a damaged deep space freighter and got stranded separately on a beautiful but dangerous planet. Watch it.

Let me know what you watched this week in the comments below.

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

New This Weekend:
Aquaman and the Lost Kingdom (N/A)
The Sacrifice Game (5.4)

Other Movies Showing:
Boudica: Queen of War (4.4)
Invitation to a Murder (5.1)
Little Bone Lodge (6.1)
Migration (7.5)
Napoleon (7.0)
Role Play
Silent Night (5.9)
Thanksgiving (6.9)
The Hunger Games: The Ballad of Songbirds & Snakes (6.9)
Wish (6.0)
Wonka (7.4)

The classic films below are currently showing at the 1954 Film House:
Anastasia (7.1)
Die Hard (8.2)
Die Hard 2 (7.1)

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

This is a bit of an odd one, but I haven’t used Google as my primary search engine in three months. Instead, I’ve been using a search engine called Kagi and I love it.

I first heard about Kagi through the blog Daring Fireball or maybe his podcast “The Talk Show“. I tried it out for a few days and liked it, so I subscribed and I’ve been using it since.

I like Google a lot obviously and I’ve been using it ever since they launched. My favorite search engine before Google was HotBot which was launched in 1996 by Wired Magazine, but I haven’t used anything other than Google since. I tried Bing, I tried DuckDuckGo but neither of them did anything for me.

This past year I’ve been experimenting with trying new things that could possibly improve my online experience. Earlier in the year I dropped my favorite browser Google Chrome for Apple’s Safari. It’s been nearly a year and it’s still something I’m getting used to. Google Chrome had become too bloated and on Macs, it drains the battery a lot quicker than Safari. So I dropped it. It was difficult at first mostly because of some extensions that are only available for Chrome, but it’s been a mostly positive experience and I’m glad I’m now using Safari. It’s so much faster and feels lighter.

With Google, my issue was that it became harder to find what I wanted quickly without having to first sift through a bunch of shitty websites that are filled with Ai generated content, or I have to dig past sponsored posts to get to what I want. So I decided to try Kagi and it works really really well.

I started with the free trial which is limited to 100 searches but I went through it really quickly. I then had the choice to pay 5$ a month for 300 searches, or 10$ for unlimited searches. I went with the unlimited searches which was the right choice because looking at my search usage, I’ve exceeded 300 searches every month.

Usage
Oct 2023: 739 searches
Nov 2023: 1319 searches
Dec 2023: 643 searches

Setting up Kagi as my primary search engine on Safari on the Mac and on my phone was a bit of a hassle since Safari doesn’t have Kagi as a search engine for me to pick from, but Kagi have an easy step by step guide which did the trick.

The experience has been really good, I mean it has to be if I’m paying 10$ a month for it instead of using the free Google. All the results I get are relevant all the time. I no longer, or at least very rarely get sent to one of those Ai generated sites and the whole search experience is ad free.

The only time I ever use Google is when I want to search for images. Images.google.com is still better than Kagi’s image search so I always check Kagi first, not find what I want and then head to images.google.

So yeah it’s weird but I don’t Google anymore and surprisingly it’s working out really well. The next step is to try to use Apple Maps over Google Maps just to see if there are any benefits, but I think that is going to be a struggle since Google Maps is pretty great at what it does.

If you want to check out Kagi, here is the link.