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Washington Post have an article on muslim female athletes and Kuwaiti athletes are featured prominently in it. It’s an interesting article that highlights the struggle muslim female athletes go through in the Arab world but it also kind of shows how liberal Kuwait is (or can be). Kuwaiti athletes won’t be able to participate at the Rio Olympics this year under the Kuwaiti flag due to the ban imposed on Kuwait by the IOC, but I believe there will be a number of Kuwaiti female athletes competing (Faye Sultan is confirmed), I’m just still waiting to get the final list so I can share it. Here is the link to the Washington Post [Article]

Temperatures Thursday reached an incredible 54°C (129.2°F) in Mitribah, Kuwait, setting the record for the warmest temperature ever recorded outside of California’s Death Valley, according to a Weather Underground report. [Source]

That was it? I guess there isn’t much of a difference between 54°C and our usual 51°C weather. Today felt like just any other day.

Thanks Kinda

This latest seizure netted over 10 million Captagon pills with a street value of KD25 million. If the whole population is 3.3 million, that means this one haul was large enough to give every single person in Kuwait 3 pills. How popular is this drug in Kuwait? [YouTube]

Thanks Gravity

The Sheikh Jaber Al-Ahmad Cultural Centre was expected to open back in February but it’s now expected to open in November. It looks ridiculously good.

Thanks lovelykuwait

Burger Boutique are opening their second location in The View Tower, the same building as Marks & Spencer and Whole Foods. I only noticed it a couple of days back and according to them they’ll be opening in around a months time. Burger Boutique was what set the trend for locally created burger joints and their only other location is in Arraya Complex in the city. There is a Burger Boutique Black in Murooj as well but that it their more upscale version of the brand and has a different menu. If you don’t know where The View Tower is, here it is on [Google Maps]

Meme’s Curry is a Japanese curry restaurant that opened a few years back by two Kuwaiti chefs. It originally started off as a home business before opening their first location… in Rihab Complex. I was never a fan of the location for obvious reasons but a couple of weeks ago they opened up in a new location in The View, the same complex that houses Marks & Spencer and Whole Foods in Salmiya. So if you’ve been meaning to try them out but been put off with their original location, here is their new location on [Google Maps]

According to a recent news report on Al Rai, the Kuwait Airport have updated the security screening stations on departure. The airport increased the security stations from a previous total of four to a new total of six. One station for first/business class passengers as well as flight crew, two for GCC residents and three machines now for expats.

On a related note, Kuwait Airways no longer flies direct to New York but instead has to stop in Ireland for a security check before continuing to the States. I understood that it’s due to the poor security checks at the Kuwait Airport. United Airlines stopped their Kuwait – Washington route earlier this year and one of the rumored reasons was because of poor airport security and it makes sense now. Last year there were also rumors that British Airways would halt all flights from Kuwait unless security at the airport was improved.

Back in the 90s, White Tower in Salmiya used to be similar to Rihab Complex, the whole top floor was full of video game stores but there were also a bunch of arcade shops. It was the place to go to if you wanted to play fighting games against other people but also if you wanted to play now classic games like Metal Slug. Oh the amount of money I spent on Metal Slug…

Anyway, I passed by White Tower a couple of days ago to see if anything was still open and to my surprise there was still one arcade shop still standing. It wasn’t in the best of state but they did have recent games. Some of the games they had were the following:

Street Fighter V
Street Fighter IV
Street Fighter III: 3rd Strike
King of Fighters (all of them)
Marvel vs Capcom

And if I understood correctly they had a bunch of NeoGeo games as well. Best part is it still costs exactly the same as it did back in the 90s to play a round, just 100fils. If you win you keep playing for free of course. If you don’t know where White Towers is, here it is on [Google Maps]

If you’re fasting quickly look away since this list isn’t meant for you. On the other hand if you’re not fasting and want to order food before Iftar then below are some restaurants that can deliver you food:

Adobo Burritos
Deliveries start after 1PM
Telephone: 69957242

China Garden
Deliveries start after 11AM
Telephone: 25720010

China Kitchen
Deliveries start after 11:30AM
Telephone: 25738754

Finger Sushi
Delivers anytime, they’re open 24 hours
Telephone: 60002929

HanHum Restaurant
Deliveries start after 2:30PM
Telephone: 22270234

Marina Thai
Deliveries start after 12PM
Telephone: 23720040

Max Restaurant
Deliveries start after 12PM
Telephone: 25750647

Noodles Restaurant
Deliveries start after 1PM
Telephone: 25749933

Osaka
Deliveries start after 10AM
Telephone: 22637331

Poele
Deliveries start after 12PM
Telephone: 69998291

Q Cafe
Deliveries start after 12PM
Telephone: 22495067

Sauceges
Deliveries start after 9AM
Telephone: 51474777

Sea Taste Restaurant
Deliveries start after 12PM
Telephone: 66395655

Zafran
Deliveries start after 12PM
Telephone: 22285203 or 97281007

Finger Sushi is open 24 hours so you could order from them anytime but there are a few other places that open up before noon as well like China Garden, Osaka and Sauceges. I’ll be updating the list above as I find out about more places, if you know of a place that delivers before Iftar let me know in the comments.

Hello everybody and Ramadan Mubarak to you and your families. Since a part of Ramadan is being grateful to the things around you, I thought I would write to let you all know (and Mark) that I am very grateful for the chance I get to connect with you all through 248am and share my legal knowledge.

A lot of my readers are concerned about working hours in Ramadan, yet the law is very clear about the maximum hours. They are 36 hours a week, that averages to 6 hours a day because it is a 6 day working week (usually with Saturdays off as a paid leave).

I know that a lot of businesses have divided their shifts into two, one before and one after iftar, and a lot of you are asking, is this legal? Yes it is as long as you don’t work for more than 36 hours a week (anything more you should be paid overtime with cash and not extra days off, unless that’s what YOU want).

I hope that helped, and I hope you all have a lovely Ramadan.

Feel free to email me on [email protected] with any legal questions. I do not have the capacity to answer everyone for free (but I try), and I am happy to announce that I am currently working with a great team and therefore we are able to reply back to all emails with a reasonable time frame.

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.

Looking for somewhere different to travel to during Eid?

Thanks Pat

A few months ago I found out that the Oula gas station near the Jawazat roundabout in Salmiya had a 24/7 car wash. Even since I’ve been wanting to just randomly drop by like 2AM or something to try it out but haven’t had the time to until last night. My Datsun had been at the mechanic for the past two weeks getting a number of things installed (will post about it separately) and last night I dropped by around 11PM to pick up the car. There were still some minor things that he was working on and he ended up finishing at around 3AM. So after leaving the garage, I decided to drop by the car wash on my way home to test it out.

So I get there and sure enough the car wash was open. I assumed they just had an exterior wash since no way they’d have staff available to clean the inside of the car after midnight but surprisingly, they had a full team on stand by. So I got my car washed in the middle of the night and it cost me just KD3 for an exterior and interior cleaning (without tip).

So if you ever want to wash your car in the middle of the night, this is the place to go. This carwash by the way uses a touch free automated system called the LaserWash which I posted about back in 2010. Here is the location of this car wash on [Google Maps]

Maybe he could let us know if we’re on track to becoming the world’s food capital by 2030.

Seriously though I think he might like it here. For local cuisine he could go to Freej, Dar Hamad and maybe somebodies diwaniya. Then we have a bunch of trendy places he could drop by like Cocoa Room for breakfast and Street by Al Makan for dinner. We have cool coffee places like Vol.1, a bunch of interesting Indian and Thai hole in the walls and most importantly, we have Sidekick Academy which is a great jiu jitsu facility so he could roll with some of our US Open champions.

If you’re wondering why your internet has been slow the past two days its because one of the main fiber cables providing internet to Kuwait was cut. No sharks were involved this time around since it was a terrestrial cable that was cut and not a marine one.

The cable was supposed to be repaired by the next day but MOC must have run into issues since it’s now been 2 days now and the issue still hasn’t been sorted. A redditor who works at one of the local internet providers has been posting updates over the past couple of days keeping us posted on the current status:

[23/5/2016 11:00am] So far its not resolved. MOC contractor is working on restoring the links. Hopefully within next 1-2 hours it should be restored. I will update you guys.

[23/5/2016 12:45pm] Links are up now. Cheers!!

[23/5/2016 2:00pm] Links came up for some time and went down again. Seems like they are still doing quality testing on the link. More update to follow.

[23/5/2016 6:55pm] As per latest update, MOC contractor has stopped working. All links are still down. They will continue working tomorrow. Seriously don’t know why its taking soo much time. Normally terrestrial fiber cut are restored in few hours. 🙁

[24/5/2016 9:25am] Seems like the cut is in no man’s land between Saudi and Kuwait. As per fresh update, team is on site and have started the work. More update to follow.

[24/5/2016 12:30pm] Looks like the cables are severely damaged. Contractors are considering replacing the whole segment between the two manholes.. More to follow.

To stay posted on the latest status of the internet situation in Kuwait, keep checking the original reddit thread [Here]

Also here is an interesting tidbit he shared which might explain why my mobile phone connection is faster then my home one at the moment:

Whenever there is any cable cut in the region, these ISP will limit bandwidth for residential users in order to provide additional bandwidth to mobile companies since they pay more per MB bandwidth than residential users.

InstaSalla is a new app that allows you to order groceries from your local co-op and have it delivered within 90 minutes. Based on my short experience with the app it seems they have ALL their products available online to purchase which means this might be more comprehensive than the likes of Taw9eel or the LuLu web store.

The app is mainly in Arabic although there is an English option (swipe left to reveal the sidebar). Sadly not everything was translated to English, if you try to order anything or even register an account you’ll be met with Arabic menus even if you had chosen English as the app’s language. Still, not bad for the first release.

InstaSalla is available on both [iOS] and [Android]

Thanks umterchia