If you’re expecting a package to arrive to Kuwait through the local post office then this info might be beneficial to you. There is currently an issue with the post office internal tracking system and so at the moment they won’t be able to track your packages. Neither you nor them will know where your package is until they get the issue sorted out.
Previously when a package arrived to Kuwait you would be able to check on the status by visiting tracking.moc.gov.kw but now you’ll just get a “No information, please check your item identifier” error.
No timeline on when this will get fixed, supposedly they’re waiting on the Minister who is currently MIA.
The upcoming Sheikh Jaber Al Abdullah Al Jaber Al Sabah International Tennis Complex is expected to be completed sometime next year and I just saw interior renderings of the complex for the first time so figured I’d share them here.
The International Tennis Complex is part of the 360 Mall expansion project and is expected to become one of the world’s best tennis facilities. It will house two main arenas with a combined stadium seating for over 7,600 spectators, eight indoor courts with over 500 seats and eight outdoor courts with 1,500 seats. For more pictures and information on the project, click [Here]
According to the instagram account @tafteesh_kw, the government has stated that Entertainment City will be reopening by 2021. There aren’t any other details but I’m assuming the park is set to get renovated during this time.
Originally I heard the plan to renovate the park was put on the back burner after the price of oil plunged below $50 a barrel since the government decided to be more frugal with spending. The aging rides desperately needed an update and by the time the park had closed down, majority of the big rides like the Australian Log Ride and the rollercoasters weren’t working.
There were rumors about Six Flags being involved in the original renovation project, no idea if that is still the case or not but I guess we’ll find out soon enough.
For those of you wondering what that huge plume of smoke in Kuwait City was, according to Al Rai newspaper it was a bunch of tire garages that caught fire. The fire is under control now and no injuries were reported. For more pictures click [Here]
Timmycatdog (Taymour Khajah) has a new music video out for his track “Flower Power”. The video also features appearances by Mosab, The Goddess Dalal and Turk Himself. If you like the track you can follow Taymour on instagram @timmycatdog
Mark Lowey (AbuJack), a construction project management professional and an amateur photographer lived in Kuwait between 1985 and 1988. The past few months he’s been scanning and posting some of the pictures he took during his time in Kuwait (and KSA) on his twitter account. I’ve taken a few of his photos along with the captions and shared them here but you can check out more photos on his twitter account @molowey
High technology in 1987?
A man and his dog, Mangaf Beach, Kuwait in 1988.
Shopping in Fahaheel, 1988.
Jack bin Mark and neighbor friends in Mangaf, Kuwait, 1988. (One cool kid has a sling-shot.)
Toshiba power plant at Mina Al-Zoor in southern Kuwait. Under construction in 1985; nearly completed in 1987.
The popular breakfast spot The Early Bird is expanding with two new locations. The first (pictured above) is going to be located in Central Plaza Salmiya, the same mall that houses International Optics and Costa Coffee.
The second new location and the one I’m interested in is going to be in Crystal Tower in Kuwait City. It’s the same tower as my gym and right across the street from Arabica Coffee.
Movies get censored in Kuwait, thats a fact and no matter how much we complain about it there isn’t anything that can be done. Knowing and accepting movies get censored, how can movie theaters improve the experience for movie goers? One reader proposed an idea recently in the comments and it got me thinking, why haven’t local movie theaters implemented his idea yet?
The reader (Ally) suggested that local movie theaters should start declaring if a movie has been censored or not, and if it has been, then they should declare the duration that was cut and what was cut. So for example:
Right now with my weekly movies list, I check the films content advisory on IMDB, and if I read that there is nudity or scenes of sexuality, I mark the movie on the list that it might contain censorship. But this isn’t accurate and a lot of times movies I marked as not containing censorship ended up being censored. The most accurate way right now to tell if a movie is censored or not is to ask someone who has already watched it, but that isn’t practical obviously.
So Cinescape and Grand Cinemas, if you’re reading this, start being transparent with us, let us know if a movie is censored or not.
I wasn’t planning on posting about the DJI Spark until I got to use it on my upcoming trip, but because of the amount of interest I got on it from my instagram story and twitter over the weekend, I decided I’d at least post my first impression. First full disclosure, DJI released the Spark last month and when I saw Xcite had a preorder page for it, I got in touch with them and asked them if they could send me one over to review. They couldn’t get me a Spark from their first shipment since it quickly sold out, but Thursday they got in touch with me to let me know they secured me a drone from their second shipment and I passed by and picked it up.
The DJI Spark is tiny, like super tiny. Its around the same size as my iPhone 6 and it weighs just 300 grams. But don’t let the size fool you, this isn’t an indoor drone and it’s packed with advanced features of its older brothers. I’m not going to go into too many details since there are a ton of YouTube videos that do that, but I will highlight some things in this post which I think are cool.
There are three ways to control the Spark, either with your phone, with the optional remote, or using hand gestures. The last one is a bit of a gimmick but it works and it can be useful.
Hand Gestures
The Spark has a sensor at the front that will recognize your face and then detect your hand gestures which you can use to control the drone. You wave goodbye at the drone and it will fly up and hover away from you. You want it to snap a photo of you? Just give it the correct gesture and it will take your photo. This is pretty cool because it keeps things simple for those who don’t want more out of the drone other than snapping selfies. You can watch the video above of how this works.
Using Your Phone
The Spark doesn’t come with a remote control, instead you can download an app onto your phone and use it to control the drone using wifi. This means you don’t have to carry a remote around which keeps the Spark portable. The only downside is that the Spark’s flight height is limited to 50 meters and the flight range to just 100m when using the phone due to the wifi’s limited range. The top speed is also limited to 20km/h.
Remote Control
The first thing I did after picking up the Spark was buy the optional remote control. Personally I can’t use virtual control sticks in apps, maybe I’m old fashioned but I like physical buttons and joysticks. The second reason I wanted to get the remote control was because it increases the flight height from 50m to 500m and the flight range from 100m up to 2KM. That’s a HUGE increase. With the remote control you can also put the drone into sport mode which increases the top speed to 50kmh. Really impressive specs for something so freakin tiny. I still can’t believe how high it can fly.
I spent the weekend playing around with the Spark and as a complete drone newbie, I did find the experience overwhelming at first but that’s probably because I didn’t read any instructions and just winged it. Friday morning I woke up early and headed to my favorite open area in the desert to take some photos. There was an overcast so my photos were coming out very flat and dull, but I did manage to take one photo which I added to my instagram story. Saturday morning I decided to take the drone near Scientific Center and fly it there, that was a pretty scary experience because when I told the drone to come home and land, I freaked out because I got worried it would decide to land in the sea. It did’t thankfully and instead came back down to it’s original launching point. That same afternoon I wanted to see if I could fly the drone from my hand and then have it land back in my hand when I was done, all without having to leave my car. It worked! Because the drone is so tiny you could use your palm as a launch and landing pad.
If you’re a beginner like me, the drone has a bunch of automated and smart flying modes that will make your videos look professionally shot including:
Active Track: You highlight the subject you want the Spark to follow and it will follow it Tripod: Keeps the drone stable and slow allowing you to film cinematic shots Rocket: Starts filming you from eye level and then flies straight up while still focusing on you Dronie: Starts filming you from eye level and then angles out and away from you while still keeping you in focus Circle: The Spark films you while rotating around you Helix: Rocket + Circle combined
Battery life is my only issue with the Spark so far. The total flight time is just 16 minutes which isn’t a lot especially if you factor in the time it will take you to get to the height you want, position your drone and also the amount of time the drone needs to fly back down to you. You’re definitely gonna need more batteries and I already ordered 2 from Amazon and they’ll be waiting for me in L.A. when I get there end of the week.
Overall I love this little thing. It kinda feels like having an invisible photographer friend with you everywhere you go. When I went out to the desert to take some photos, I tried the active tracking feature and had the Spark follow my car around shooting video of it while I was driving. In the winter when I go snowboarding I could have the Spark follow me shooting video of me face planting all the way down the slope. It’s tiny and light enough to take everywhere with you which is why I’m looking forward to using it on my trip.
If you’re interested in the DJI Spark, Xcite are selling them for KD169. Here is the [Link]
I only first heard about Blaze Pizza last week when I read an article on Bleacher Report about how LeBron James was a part owner, and how the brand was off to fastest-ever start for food chain. Then a few days later, Blaze Pizza announced that they’ve partnered up with Alshaya to open locations in Africa and the Middle East.
What makes Blaze different from other pizza places is that it was modeled after the Chipotle concept with a made-to-order approach. Customers create their own pizza which then gets cook in a high-temperature open-flame oven in just 3 minutes.
According to the press release, first location should open up in 2018. [Link]
If you’re interested in coding electronics and are looking for Arduino or Respberry Pi kits, RTC Electronics in Hawalli have kits as well as a pretty decent selection of components to go along with them. I’ve posted about RTC on this blog before, they’re a large electronics supply store and they really have everything you could think of from transistors to equipments for events.
Their prices aren’t that cheap though, the Raspberry Pi3 kit costs KD32 (includes a case, hdmi cable, power adapter and SD card) while the Genuino starter kit costs around KD35. But like I mentioned, they also carry components like RGB color sensors, servo controllers, temperature and humidity sensors just to name a few and those wouldn’t be worth buying online, not unless you were shipping them with other stuff since they don’t cost much anyway.
If you’re interested in passing by RTC, here is their location on [Google Maps]
Update: Just found out you can also find Raspberry and Arduino kits locally [Here]
An explosion ripped through one of the restaurants at the Mishref Coop earlier tonight. Eight people were injured, four of whom are in intensive care. According to reports the explosion was a result of a gas leak at one of the restaurants at the coop. I got a few videos taken at the scene through whatsapp awhile ago and I’ve combined them into one video which you can watch below.
The Dewaniya Show on Marina FM brought up my post on my parents having to leave Kuwait for good and discussed the topic of long term expats on the air. They’ve only shared the first two and a half minutes online which you can watch above, but I’m hoping to get a hold of the whole episode since I’m curious to what peoples opinions on the subject was. Once I do I’ll post it up here.
Update: Ali Khajah the host of the show also wrote an article on this subject in Aljarida newspaper which you can read [Here]
Major legal changes to the Kuwait Labor Law (6/2010) were issued today (July 9) and they’re to the benefit of employees. I have simplified the most important points and explained them below:
When can you apply for a holiday (paid leave)? Previously: You can apply for leave after working for 9 months Now: You can apply for leave after working for 6 months
How do you calculate the amount of leave days you have? Previously: 6 days a week, even if Saturdays are not working days Now: 5 days a week, employer can’t include weekends The minimum amount of leave days a year by law is 30 days. With the new law if you take 30 days off that would amount to a total of 6 weeks since weekends can no longer be included in your leave.
Termination indemnity for Kuwaitis Previously: When you quit your job the company would deduct the amount they paid towards your social security from your severance package Now: Employer cannot deduct you social security payments from your severance package Some companies are now issuing cheques for the previous employees with the amounts they had deducted
Kuwait is progressing noticeably and these new updates to the labor law are a great change.
For any legal inquiries, please email me on [email protected] and my team or I will get back to you within 24 hours.
Post by Fajer Ahmed – Legal Counsel The legal opinions expressed in this post are those of the author Fajer. Opinions expressed by Mark or any other writer on mark248am1.wpenginepowered.com are those of the individual’s and in no way reflect Fajer’s opinion.
