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This is a pretty cool track and video by Altersal, the lead singer of my favorite local band Galaxy Juice. It’s his first single from his solo debut album “Wifi Dreams” which comes out early next year. [YouTube]

Last week I passed by the vintage radios shop Moqtanayaty and ended up picking up a 1960’s Dynatron Mazurka record player for myself. I didn’t have any music records, nor did the store so I needed to buy some and didn’t want to resort to ordering them online since they would have taken at least two weeks to arrive. Instead, I decided I’d over to the antique shops basement in Salmiya to check and see if they had any for sale there.

The first shop I went into had a large pile of records piled up in the corner of the shop. So I sat down on the floor and started going through them one by one. Anything that was remotely interesting I put on the side. By the time I was done I had found around 14 potential records which I ended up reducing down to 10. The 10 records I decided to go with were actually pretty great and included the likes of Simon & Garfunkel, Frank Sinatra, Cat Stevens, Marvin Gaye, Andy Williams, Nat King Cole, Fats Domino and more. The buying process though wasn’t so easy. The shop was originally closed (it’s always closed whenever I visit) but the basement janitor has the key. So I had him open up the shop for me and after I chose the records I wanted, he had to take pictures of each one and send them to the owner. Originally I was quoted KD30 for the 10 records but managed to haggle the price down to KD25 which is pretty reasonable considering the stuff I got.

There are a couple of other shops that had records for sale as well but I wasn’t in the mood to go through their piles so there could be more treasures waiting to be found. So if you’re looking for records, I’d head over to the basement as soon as possible before anybody else does (including me). For directions and more information on the basement, check out my previous post [Here]

Update: Kuwait now has a local online record store! vinyldestination.com

Yesterday local musician Ghaneema released a music video for her track “You Got Me” from her EP “Bad Habits”.

It’s her first music video ever and you can check it out above or on [YouTube]

If you’re looking for things to do this weekend, here are some of the things that are taking place:

Thursday
Puss in Boots – The Pantomime
Japanese Speech Contest
Air, Land & Sea – Augmented Reality Experience
Cinemagics Rooftop Movie: A Ghost Story

Friday
Puss in Boots – The Pantomime
Red Bull Car Park Drift Finals
Touch Rugby Tournament
Gifts & Food Fair
AMG Family Seasonal Concert
Book Launch: Modern Architecture Kuwait Volume 2

Saturday
Puss in Boots – The Pantomime
A Better Shot Workshop
Architectural Photowalk & Sketching
Yoga with the 3
Annual Tour: Camel Races
Cinemagics Rooftop Movie: The Killing Fields
Jazz & Jam: The Zaid Nasser Jazz Quartet & The Afterthought

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.

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

New This Week:
Beyond Skyline (5.9)
Brad’s Status (6.7)
Jungle (6.7)
Just Getting Started (5.8)
Marrowbone (6.7)
Polaroid (N/A)

Other Movies Showing:
Acts Of Vengeance (5.6)
Breathe (7.0) ♦
Coco (9.1)
Daddy’s Home 2 (6.2)
Johnny Frank Garrett’s Last Word (5.0)
Justice League (8.1)
Murder on the Orient Express (6.7)
Paddington 2 (8.3)
S.M.A.R.T. Chase (4.8)
The Mountain Between Us (6.3)
Wonder (7.2)

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

A Beautiful Planet 3D (7.9)
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.

Yesterday some drone photos of the Kuwait Motor Town race circuit were floating around on WhatsApp. Not sure why I didn’t think of going there and taking a drone photo of the circuit myself since Google Maps really hasn’t updated the view since construction started. These drone photos, on the other hand, show that a lot of progress has been made and that the hardest part of the construction, the paving of the track asphalt is basically done. You can also see the dragstrips in the photos as well as the grand stands under construction.

The first phase of the Kuwait Motor Town Race Circuit is targetted to open by the end of March, I’m hoping that’s still on track. I’m so excited!

Later today some parts of highway 50 and the 5th ring road will be closing down due to the GCC Summit. There are expectations that the closures will result in traffic chaos, but as of 9AM, there seems to be less traffic than usual. This will probably change once the roads close down at noon, but not a bad start to the day.

Update: A reader made me realize that at 12PM Google updated the map of Kuwait to highlight the closed roads. Impressive.

Madison & Heig which I posted about back in September have finally opened up their doors. Madison & Heig is a locally created bistro and bakery with the main menu created by @chefbasmah, and the desserts by @faysbaking, both of whom are super talented chefs. They’re currently in their soft launch phase so they’re only open from 5PM to 11PM.

For photos and the exact address, you can check out the Madison & Heig instagram account [Here]

Refit is a local app that allows you to connect with various freelance fitness trainers in Kuwait. Say you want to learn how to box or how to play basketball, or maybe you just want to get fit, then you’d use this app to find a suitable trainer.

To find a trainer all you need to do is open the app, find the sport you’re interested in and then go through the list of the available trainers and book an appointment. You could also use the app to purchase supplements of healthy snacks.

Right now the app doesn’t have that many trainers to choose from but the more popular it gets the more trainers would sign up to it. The app is available on iOS and if you’re interested, you can download it from [Here]

The Cinemagics rooftop screenings are now back again after a long hiatus. During the time off they upgraded a few things including the cinema screen which is now larger than their older inflatable screen. The new screen is also permanently fixed and so will improve the overall image quality of the projected films. They also removed the bulky inflatable couches and replaced them with more compact and comfortable bean bags. This also means their roof can now fit up to 100 people comfortably.

The screenings will be taking place every Thursday and Saturday and are free. I’ve posted the first two movies up on the events page and you can check them out [Here]

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

New This Week:
Acts Of Vengeance (5.6)
Daddy’s Home 2 (6.2)
Paddington 2 (8.3)
S.M.A.R.T. Chase (4.8)
The Mountain Between Us (6.3)

Other Movies Showing:
Bounty Hunters (5.3)
Breathe (7.0) ♦
Coco (9.1)
Johnny Frank Garrett’s Last Word (5.0)
Justice League (8.1)
Murder on the Orient Express (6.7)
Thor: Ragnarok (8.2)
Victoria and Abdul (6.1)
Wonder (7.2)

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

A Beautiful Planet 3D (7.9)
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.

A friend of mine recently flew to Dubai with flydubai and ended up on their new 737 MAX aircraft. He sent me pictures of the interior and it looked ridiculously good. Firstly, business class now have flatbeds which will be super convenient for long-haul flights. The second thing I liked was the economy class seats which had a very tasteful color scheme and huge screens behind every seat.

In total, flydubai will have six of these 737 MAX aircrafts by the end of the year and they’ll be used to flyto their furthest destinations including Bangkok, Prague, Yekaterinburg, and Zanzibar. For more information and shots of their new planes, click [Here]

Thanks Tarek

Kuwait Skydive is the first skydiving center to open up in Kuwait. They’ve only just opened and they’re offering tandem jumps out of a plane with an instructor, as well skydiving lessons.

The cost of a tandem jump with Kuwait Skydive is KD160. That’s KD5 cheaper than the cost to skydive in Dubai which was where everyone was going previously.

Kuwait Skydive also offers an AFF course for KD1,000. The course includes 8 jumps and takes around 7-10 days to complete. Once you’ve completed the course you’ll receive your own jump log book and you’ll be able to start jumping out of the plane by yourself.

Their jump location is in Khiran and they’re open daily except for Sundays. Currently, they’re only accepting booking via phone since their website is under construction. So if you’re interested you can call them up on 65566226. For more information you can also visit them on instagram @kuwaitskydive or kuwaitskydiveco.com

I recently found out about an instagram account in Kuwait that sells cool looking vintage typewriters. The majority are in Arabic but they do get English ones every now and then as well. Vintage typewriters can make a great gift, especially to a writer. For example I once bought a friend of mine who used to write poems a vintage typewriter, the same one Leonard Cohen used to type up his first poetry book (pictured above). They loved it and it was fully functional so they were able to use it right away. So if you’re looking to get one for yourself or as a gift, check out the instagram account @8.6s

Thanks barwaleathercraft

So the reason I was in Bahrain this past weekend was to take part in the Bahrain GP Open Track that took place on Friday. During one of the racing sessions, I experienced my first spin out and captured it on video. It had been raining earlier in the day and although the track had mostly dried up, the red and white rumble strips on the corners were still damp and I drove over one after running wide and completely lost traction.

The interesting part for me was how the experience felt a lot longer than it actually was. As soon as I started spinning out, in my head I started to go back and try and remember what I learned when I took drifting lessons a few months ago. I then let go of the steering wheel while at the same time I started thinking, ok, I might be heading towards the wall on my right side, if I hit it, I’ll probably mess up the whole side of my car. Then I started wondering how much that might cost in repairs and how long I was going to have to wait for the parts to arrive. During this time I was also trying to figure out where on the track I was and which way I was facing. When I saw that I was starting to point in the right direction, I took a hold of the steering again to control the spin. Luckily, I ended up with a perfect 360 spin and didn’t hit a wall or another car (I was going somewhere between 150-170km/h at that point). As soon I was facing the right way again I just stepped on it.

All those thoughts and discussions I was having in my head happened in just 2 seconds although it felt a lot longer while it was happening. I think I now kinda understand when people say life flashes before your eyes just before you die, or in my case, spin out. Anyway, you can check out snippets of Friday’s open track day in the video below compiled by the Bahrain International Circuit.

A post shared by Bahrain International Circuit (@bah_int_circuit) on Nov 24, 2017 at 12:14pm PST