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All the events seem to be taking place on Saturday this weekend which is perfect since it means you can visit the new museums today and tomorrow!

Thursday
Cinemagics Rooftop Movie: Faces Places

Friday
International RC Aircraft Competition

Saturday
International RC Aircraft Competition
Alnowair Carnival
Kin’s Vegan Brunch Popup
Turathi at the Sadu House
Game Developers Meetup
Science Experience
Cinemagics Rooftop Movie: Loving Vincent

If you’d like to share an event on the blog [Email Me]
For a full list of upcoming events click [Here]

Sometimes events get canceled or have details changed so always double check with the organizers.

Screenshot from Tomb Raider

The movies below are now showing at either Cinescape, Grand Cinemas or Sky Cinemas:

New This Weekend:
Boonie Bears: A Mystical Winter (6.2)
The Arabian Warrior (9.6)
The Leisure Seeker (6.5) ♦
Tomb Raider (7.3)

Other Movies Showing:
Black Panther (7.2)
Black Water (N/A)
Cold Moon (4.3)
Death Wish (6.4)
Hangman (5.1)
Jumanji: Welcome to the Jungle (6.9) ♦ ★
The Shape of Water (7.6) ♦ ★

The movies below are also now showing at the Scientific Center IMAX theater:

A Beautiful Planet 3D (7.9)
Amazing Mighty Micro Monsters 3D (7.4)
America Wild: National Parks Adventure (N/A)
Dream Big 3D (7.9)
Extreme Weather 3D (6.6)
Tiny Giants 3D (8.0)
Watermelon Magic 3D (7.4)

Numbers in brackets refer to the IMDB rating at time of publishing.
★ is for movies I’m interested in. ♦ implies movie might contain censorship.

If you’re a GUST student I’ll be at your campus today (Wednesday, March 14) for a Q&A session. The session will be led by Motez Bishara, a visiting instructor at GUST who also happens to be a good friend of mine. I met Motez through the blog 5 years ago when I posted about his book “Beating the NBA: Tales From a Frugal Fan” so this should be pretty fun.

The Q&A is taking place in theater W1-010 at 12:30PM.

Coucou and Tiger Tiger are two new restaurants that are opening next week. Coucou is a breakfast and brunch spot while Tiger Tiger is a Pan-Asian restaurant. They’ll both be operating from the same location in Kuwait City, with one brand running in the morning while the other in the evening.

I tried both places yesterday and they visually looked like two very different restaurants even though it’s just the lighting that changes. While Coucou is bright and colorful during the day, Tiger Tiger has a completely different look at night with red ambient lighting and louder music playing.

Coucou is a breakfast and brunch spot but will also have a grab and go aspect to it for employees working in the area that don’t have time to sit and eat. Their menu consists of a variety of egg-based dishes including interesting ones like breakfast quesadillas, croque madame and spicy sausage shakshuka. Their opening hours will be from 8AM to 2PM.

Tiger Tiger isn’t a new brand, they’ve had a couple of pop-up events before and they’ve been on Carriage since last year. But they’re now going to have dine-in and a lot more new items on the menu. I loved the space at night with the moody red lights, good music and the night view of the street outside. It didn’t feel like I was in Kuwait while having dinner, and then when I walked out of the place, it felt like I was walking out of a pub or club. Such an odd feeling to get in Kuwait. Tiger Tiger’s opening hours will be from 4PM to 11PM.

I love the location of the restaurant, it’s located in the same building as Habra and Joa, but it’s right at the start of the building with large windows that overlook the busy road. Both restaurants close on Sundays and they’re both having trials this week with the aim of opening by next Monday. So if you’re looking for a breakfast spot in the city or a Chinese restaurant that is a step up from your average hole in the wall, it’s worth checking the place out. You can check them out on instagram @coucou.kw @tigertiger.kw

Here is their location on [Google Maps]

According to Avenues, phase 4 will be opening at the end of the month. They wouldn’t give me an exact opening date but I heard from one of their contractors that internally, they’re aiming to open on March 25th if nothing changes.

All construction related work will stop on March 15th so that they can then start the cleaning process. The two photos in this post were taken this week.

Update: I received a copy of a letter sent by Avenues to its investor with an opening date of March 22nd. [Source]

A Redditor spotted a Tesla charging station in the Al Shaheed Parking lot. We don’t have a Tesla dealer in Kuwait so I was curious to how this station came to be. Turns out it was donated to the park by a Tesla owner as a way to support the growing local EV (electric vehicles) community. The charging station is located in the basement of Al Shaheed Park 1 and the spot is reserved only for electric vehicles. Owners of any electric vehicle can park their cars in that spot and use the station to charge their cars for free. And yes, you can use the Tesla charging station to charge other electric vehicles like the Chevy Bolt or BMW i3 if you have the correct adapter.

A fighting game community (FGC) is a group of video gamers who get together to play fighting games like Street Fighter and Super Smash Bros. FGC Diwan is one of Kuwait’s first fighting gams community with a dedicated streaming and tournament room.

Even though they’ve been open for around a month, they’ve already hosted their first event, a Dragon Ball Fighter Z Tournament where 13 entrants competed for first place.

Pricing is pretty reasonable:

2 Hours = KD 1
7 Hours = KD 3
12 Hours = KD 5

If you’re interested in fighting games and competing, check out their instagram @fgcdiwan

They’re also active on Twitch @fgcdiwan

This post is a throwback for those who’ve been reading the blog from the early days. Do you remember my posts on Shark of Kuwait? He was an interesting looking character that used to always park his vintage blue Buggati outside Starbucks opposite Fanar in Salmiya. Not sure what reminded me of him but I decided to check and see if he was on instagram and turns out he was! So if you want to see what he’s been up to for the past 10 years, check him out @sharkofkuwait

I should probably put together a series of posts called “Where are they now?” in which I get in touch with previously popular personalities I’ve featured on the blog and see what they have been up to. Like where is Big D??

Founded in 1868, the George Enescu Philharmonic Orchestra of Bucharest is one of the oldest musical institutions in Eastern Europe and they’ll be coming to Kuwait at the end of the month to perform at JACC.

The George Enescu Philharmonic Orchestra will be performing over three nights in Kuwait, from March 29th to March 31st. Because going to an orchestra isn’t a common thing in Kuwait yet, JACC were able to convince the orchestra to create a tailored program that would connect more with a local audience. The first night will feature their standard program, but the last two nights will have a slightly different one.

Amani Al-Hajji, the popular Kuwaiti opera singer will be collaborating with the George Enescu Philharmonic Orchestra and performing two songs on the second and third nights. In addition to collaborating with Amani, the Philharmonic orchestra will also be performing 15 minutes of Kuwaiti songs on the last two nights.

To make the event even more accessible to the general public, JACC have also made the ticket prices affordable with prices starting from KD15 and going up to KD55 for the platinum seats.

So if like me you’ve never watched a live orchestra performance before, this would be a great opportunity. For more info and tickets, you can check out the JACC website [Here]

Not a lot of events this weekend but there are a couple of live performances taking place that are free to attend including the musical The Revenge of Peter Rabbit and the Armenian State String Quartet Aram Khachaturian. Check out the full list of events below:

Thursday
SnowTown in K-Town
IWD Hackathon 2018
Cinemagics Rooftop Movie: The Intouchables

Friday
SnowTown in K-Town
The Revenge of Peter Rabbit
Red Bull Car Park Drift
Armenian State String Quartet Aram Khachaturian

Saturday
SnowTown in K-Town
The Revenge of Peter Rabbit
QRun Kids Marathon 2018
Guided Tour: Grand Mosque
Live Music at Key’s Coffee
Cinemagics Rooftop Movie: The Florida Project

If you’d like to share an event on the blog [Email Me]
For a full list of upcoming events click [Here]

Sometimes events get canceled or have details changed so always double check with the organizers.

Screenshot from Borg McEnroe

The movies below are now showing at either Cinescape, Grand Cinemas or Sky Cinemas:

New This Weekend:
Borg McEnroe (7.0) ♦
Bullet Head (5.2) ♦
Cold Moon (4.3)
Cops and Robbers (3.9)
Hangman (5.1)
The Oddsockeaters (5.9)
The Shape of Water (7.6) ♦ ★

Other Movies Showing:
Black Panther (7.2)
Black Water (N/A)
Coco (9.1)
Death Wish (6.4)
Game Night (7.4) ♦
Gnome Alone (6.0)
Journey’s End (7.3)
Jumanji: Welcome to the Jungle (6.9) ♦ ★
The Greatest Showman (7.9)
Wolf Warrior 2 (6.3)

The movies below are also now showing at the Scientific Center IMAX theater:

A Beautiful Planet 3D (7.9)
Amazing Mighty Micro Monsters 3D (7.4)
America Wild: National Parks Adventure (N/A)
Dream Big 3D (7.9)
Extreme Weather 3D (6.6)
Tiny Giants 3D (8.0)
Watermelon Magic 3D (7.4)

Numbers in brackets refer to the IMDB rating at time of publishing.
★ is for movies I’m interested in. ♦ implies movie might contain censorship.

Alan Villiers (spot him above) was an Australian adventurer who came to Kuwait in the 1930s. He ended up joining the crew of the Kuwaiti dhow ‘Triumph of Righteousness’ and set sail with them, passing through numerous East African and Arabian ports documenting his experience with words and pictures. He eventually published the book “Sons of Sindbad” as well as “Sons of Sindbad: The Photographs”. I only found out about Alan a couple of days ago and was really intrigued by his story especially since I hadn’t heard of him before.

You can find both his books on Amazon [Here] and [Here] but, you can also find some great photos of Kuwait taken by him in the 1930s similar to the ones in this post. The photos are from the National Maritime Museum (Greenwich) and are available to purchase. So if you want to check out Alan’s photos of Kuwait, click [Here]

Supposedly there are still thousands of photos taken by him of Kuwait that need to be digitized.

Update: Supposedly both books are available for sale at the Al Hashemi Marine Museum.

Cinescape is putting together an Oscars film festival next week where you’ll be able to binge watch 10 award-winning films that include:

· The Shape of Water
· Coco
· I, Tonya
· Phantom Thread
· Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri
· Loving Vincent
· The Insult
· Get Out
· Darkest Hour
· The Post

The film festival is taking place from March 11 to March 14th at Cinescape Laila Gallery in Salmiya. The ticket cost for this festival is KD10 (that will get you access to watch all the films). For more information and the film schedule, click [Here]

Hey, this is your local film buff checking in on my yearly visit to this blog to spout out my favorite films of the year (because my opinion is right and everyone else is wrong). If this is your first time reading an article of mine, that’s normal cause I’ve written 5 over 6 years or so. My name is Tarek, I’m a filmmaker, ad director, and curator for Cinemagic rooftop cinema (I basically choose the films they show, so any complaints can come my way). Let’s get to the list!

Disclaimer: At the time of writing this article, I hadn’t seen the following highly acclaimed films that might have had a spot otherwise: Faces Places – Raw – The Square – Loveless.

You’ve probably come across Aesop hand soaps in restaurant washrooms, they’re dark bottles like in the picture on top, and they tend to smell amazing. If you’ve been to any of the Aesop stores around the world you might have picked up a bottle or two and brought them back with you. Or maybe even had a friend get you some when on vacation. But, it’s not really practical getting them while on vacation since the bottles take up luggage space, are fairly heavy, and what if you run out and need some more? A better solution is ordering them online.

There are a number of places online you can order Aesop from but the website I use is the UK based Cult Beauty. They have two kinds of hand wash available as well as a bunch of other Aesop products, but what I like about them is the cost of shipping to Kuwait. The maximum you are allowed to order is 6 pieces of hand wash the shipping cost with DHL is for 6 is £15. If you order 6 of each of their hand washes (so a total of 12), then they’ll ship it via DHL for free.

I haven’t bought 12 bottles at once but I have bought 6 pieces. If you order 6 then the cost per bottle after shipping and customs comes to KD11, which is the same price as if you purchased a bottle in the UK. How is that possible? When you order Aesop to Kuwait they remove the 20% VAT which brings the price down from around KD11 to around KD9. Adding shipping and customs to Kuwait and the price comes back up to the UK retail price of KD11. If you order 12 bottles then the price per bottle ends up actually being cheaper than the price per bottle in the UK since you don’t pay for shipping, just customs.

So if you’re looking to get Aesop hand wash, this is probably the cheapest way to get it to Kuwait. You can check out the full range of Aesop products on Cult Beauty [Here]

Update: I originally posted saying each bottle would cost you KD13 shipped to Kuwait but I completely forgot one important thing, when you ship to Kuwait they remove the 20% VAT. So the cost of the bottle with shipping and customs to Kuwait is actually the same price as if you bought a bottle while on vacation in the UK.