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Mercer’s Quality of Living rankings list was recently released and the regional order has pretty much remained unchanged. I thought Saudi Arabia might move up from the previous years because of the recent changes that have taken place there but their ranking hasn’t really changed. Mercer puts together this list by evaluating a number of factors including recreation, housing, economic environment, consumer goods availability, public services and transport, political and social environment, natural environment, socio-cultural environment, school and education and medical and health considerations.

1 – Vienna, Austria
74 – Dubai, United Arab Emirates
78 – Abu Dhabi, United Arab Emirates
105 – Muscat, Oman
110 – Doha, Qatar
126 – Kuwait City, Kuwait
136 – Manama, Bahrain
164 – Riyadh, Saudi Arabia
168 – Jeddah, Saudi Arabia
231 – Baghdad, Iraq

The list above shows Kuwait’s ranking compared to neighboring countries but if you’d like to see how your home country ranks in the world, you can check out the full list on Mercer’s website [Here]

Thanks Basmah

Recently a decision was made to cancel the use of residency stickers inside passports. Instead, you’ll need to have a valid Civil ID card when traveling as a means of verifying your residency. The name on the Civil ID card has to match your name in your passport or you’ll risk being denied travel in or out of Kuwait. Having weird spellings or incorrect data on the Civil ID is pretty common, so if your info doesn’t match your passport, you now have to fix it. Yesterday someone on Reddit posted the steps below on how to go about doing this:

Step 1) Go to the PACI eEnvelope system website, if the website is in Arabic you can change the language to English, there’s an option at the top of the page

Step 2) Click on non-Kuwaiti Renewal

Step 3) Enter your Civil ID and serial no. which is shown on the back

Step 4) You’ll have to verify your mobile no. so they’ll send you a verification SMS

Step 5) Enter all data required (blood type is optional but if that needs changing too then you’ll need to also upload a lab report)

Step 6) Upload the required documents

Step 7) You’ll be sent an application’s reference number to your registered mobile no., which you can use to track your application’s progress

Step 8) Wait and wait, this will take a few days as your application needs to be checked manually, once it’s approved you’ll be sent a link on your mobile to make the payment of KD5, after that you’ll just go have to go to South Surra to replace your old ID with the new one

Thanks Stafa!

Since I’m in Qatar for the week I asked my followers on Instagram to recommend restaurants for me to try out. Below is the list I’ve compiled of all the recommendations. I haven’t tried them all so can’t vouch if they’re any good or not, but at least it’s a starting point for when you’re ever in Qatar:

CUT by Wolfgang Puck
Flat White (coffee)
Gastronomy (dessert)
Graze (grand & go)
Hakkasan
Halo (dessert)
Kava (coffee)
La Mar
Market by Jean Georges
Morimoto
Nobu
Novikov
Opal by Gordon Ramsay
Spice Market
Sugar & Spice (dessert)
Toro Toro

If there is a place I missed that you think should be on the list, let me know in the comments below.

Just over a week ago Deliveroo went live and since then I’ve only managed to use them once. Not because I had a bad experience or anything, my food actually got delivered ahead of time. But the reason I’ve used them only once is because only one of the restaurants I frequently order from are on Deliveroo while the rest are still only Carriage.

But, I have been hearing a lot of good stuff about them, mostly about how their customer service is so great. I think Carriage’s biggest weakness is their customer service which is why Deliveroo might be focusing so much on it. People have been getting Deliveroo credit for late orders, some people have gotten hand written apology notes and I personally had a good experience when I posted the photo above of one of their drivers looking super dope and asked for the jacket. They actually sent me one the next day and it’s actually a very cool jacket.

So what has your experience been like?

As many of you know I’ve been working on a blog redesign for sometime now. I don’t mind change, but I also like routine and when I’m used to a website being a certain way I don’t like it when they suddenly change things. With the redesign I tried to keep most of the things in the same place and just simplify the design a bit. I also had two issues I wanted to improve with the redesign:

1- I wanted the images and videos to be displayed larger on the blog
2- I wanted a mobile friendly version of the blog

I got the first issue sorted, with the redesign both the images and videos would now be embedded in a larger size. I did that by basically killing the middle column of the blog and integrating it into the sidebar.

What I haven’t been able to sort out is the mobile friendly version of the blog. My current theme can be adapted to become mobile friendly with a click of a button, and so can the new theme. But my issue isn’t with that, the problem I have is the fact there doesn’t seem to be a way to have the advertisement banners show while in the mobile friendly version of the blog. The banners are my only source of revenue for the blog and so have to be on the blog at all times. Right now if I turn on the mobile version of the blog, the banners get shoved down to the bottom of the page and that’s not good.

If anyone has any idea how to sort this out let me know, or if anyone has an idea on a different income model for the blog that doesn’t rely on banners also let me know. I’m open to suggestions.

If you want to give me your opinion on the new redesign, check out a live preview of the new design [Here]

Niqashna is a platform for open debates that was launched early last year. Every few weeks they discuss an interesting subject and tomorrow night they’re debating the subject of Christmas and other foreign holidays and their effect on Kuwait’s identity.

The debate is in Arabic but the Q&A will be in both Arabic and English. If you’re interested in attending (its free), you can get more details [Here]

Looks like the next big thing foodwise in Kuwait could be pizzas! This past year a number of local pizza concepts have popped up and I think more and more places will be popping up soon as well. I’m trying to compile a list of these local concepts (not franchises) similar to how I did with my coffee list and below is what I’ve come up with so far:

BARBA.
Brooklyn
Doppio
Feynman’s
Flame
Ovenly
Piccola Milano
Pinocchio’s Pizza
SOLO Pizza
Super Slice
Table Otto
The Tiny Table
Trapani
YELO!

I’m sure I’ve missed out on a bunch so if you know of any that should be on this list, let me know in the comments below!

Picture on top taken from @solopn

Over 4,300 books have been banned so far in Kuwait since 2014 with 700 of them being banned just this year alone. Random books like the Little Mermaid were banned as well as books written by local authors. The book bans were so absurd that New York Times last month published an article about it which you can read [Here]

Over the weekend, local designer Mohammad Sharaf installed a book graveyard next to Kuwait’s Annual Book Fair to protest the banning of the books. The book graveyard got removed by the authorities quickly but the pictures went viral sparking a conversation on the subject again.

Now Alqabas newspaper is reporting that the appeals court have overturned the Ministry of Information’s book ban stating we live in a different time where the world is a much more open place. This is obviously great news so I really hope its true. I’m hoping this ruling could possibly encourage someone to open up a large bookstore in Kuwait. The book fair was incredibly packed when I visited it with people buying books so there definitely is a market.

Can an engineer with experience in this field explain to me and my readers why our roads got ruined after the rain last week? In Lebanon and London, for example, it rains a lot but the roads survive, how come they didn’t in Kuwait after just a weekend of rain?

Also, why did some roads survive and some not? You can see that clearly on the Gulf Road where you would be driving and the road is perfectly fine but then get to one area where the whole top surface had disintegrated.

If for some reason you need to leave your house during this storm, you can find out about road closures via Google’s Live Traffic feature. Just go to Google Maps and make sure the traffic overlay option is turned on and any closed roads should be highlighted. [Link]

The Cross Cultural Diwaniya have a discussion coming up this Wednesday on Kuwait’s urban infrastructure. It’s a perfectly timed discussion after all the chaos that occurred last week because of the rain. So if have an opinion or want to hear other peoples opinion on this subject, register for this event. For more info, click [Here]

Luna & Beau is the hottest new pet store in Kuwait and I’ll be posting about them soon. But, for now, I do want to post about their Halloween party tonight. I passed by last night and saw them setting things up and it looks like it going to be a lot of fun. So if you have a pet and are looking to do something tonight then consider dropping by Luna & Beau. They’re holding the event in their cafe and its going to run from 7PM to 11PM.

Here is their location on [Google Maps] and their instagram account with more info is @luna_beau

Golfania is an indoor miniature golf park that’s located in the basement of Discovery Center. They’ve been around for a few years now, but I only tried them out for the first time last night. It’s not a large park but it does offer a bit of fun if you’re in a group or on a date. There are 12 holes in total and depending on how large a group you are, you could zip through them pretty quick. But even if you do end up flying through the course, once you’re done you could head next door to Cosmo for bowling or maybe a game of pool so your trip to Discovery Center would still be worthwhile.

The cost for one round of golf that includes all 12 holes is KD3 per person. It looks a bit lame but we were a group of 4 last night and had a pretty fun time. Here is the location of Discovery Center on [Google Maps]