I don’t recall coming across a photo of Kuwait’s shoreline that was older than this. I was doing some research for an upcoming post when I went down a rabbit hole and ended up coming across a report from 1903 that contained photos, maps and some interesting information on Kuwait. One of the photos was the image above of Kuwait’s shore which I hadn’t seen before, but there were also some other ones inside I also hadn’t seen which I’ve shared below. The report is made up of 2 volumes and the original copy is part of the British Library: India Office Records and Private Papers . The report was ..read more

This past week I finally binge watched The Gentlemen, the Guy Ritchie series on Netflix. It was pretty good, lots of fun and rarely ever a slow or dull moment. I love the character he gave Vinnie Jones, and now I feel like rewatching some of Guy Ritchie’s original films all over again. I also finally started Baby Reindeer and I’m half way through that show and so far and it’s ok. I can understand the appeal, but not my kind of show. As soon as I’m done with Baby Reindeer I’m going to start Sugar. It popped up on my feed a few times this past week because the last episode had some sort of cra ..read more

I just read a nice little article by Bothayna Al-Essa on her story of how she opened Tawkeen Bookshop. It was a pretty entertaining read and she basically explains how things first started, and some of the struggles she had. If you’re looking for something to read, check it out ..read more

The Northern Salmiya Building is located in the old Salmiya souk on Salem Mubarak Street. It’s over 50 years old, and since I grew up down the street from it, I’ve seen so many shops come and go there. It’s the same complex that used to house Kids’r’us (Alghanim Automotive before that) and it’s the same building that had the old National/Panasonic store that used to have the NeoGeo in the window display. The corner shop was Boushahri where everyone used to go to get their passport photos taken. Mogahwi was also located there, the first Alshaya stores also all opened there including The Bodysh ..read more

The British Bank of the Middle East was originally called the Imperial Bank of Persia and operated out of Iran. In 1952 it abandoned the Iranian market and renamed itself to British Bank of the Middle East. In 1959, BBME was acquired by The Hongkong and Shanghai Banking Corporation Limited (HSBC). Last week while looking for information on an old photography studio called “Studio Sharq”, I ended up coming across old photos of BBME in Kuwait (they were credited to Studio Sharq). HSBC scanned old photographs of two of their old branches, the first location that opened in 1952 as well as their ..read more

YISWA is an interesting local auction app where it works the other way around, prices go down instead of going up. It’s a new way to shop where the longer you wait, the better the price gets. But, wait too long and someone else might snatch the item up. The way YISWA works is items go on sale one at a time in the app. They first get listed with the retail price, and then quickly start dropping down in price. The price keeps dropping until people buy the item and it gets sold out. Because there is no way to tell how many pieces are left in stock or how many people are interested in it, you wa ..read more

This might be one of my favorite projects so far in Kuwait. Inspired by Kuwait’s traditional courtyard houses, the Zen Villa features a deliberate minimalist design intended to envelop residents in a panoramic view of surrounding palm trees and horse barns. It was designed by the local award winning firm Fikrr Architects, and is located in Wafra. Each room in the Zen Villa was designed with expansive windows spanning the full width of the walls, connecting the family with the surrounding nature.The interior palette and materials were influenced by the surrounding landscape, echoing the deser ..read more

Although I haven’t been to Palm Palace restaurant in Salmiya since the 90s, it is pretty sad seeing it getting demolished. They’ve been around since 1979 and they were located next to my home so I grew up right next to them. I actually wanted to go back to it for nostalgic reasons but never did and now it’s too late. Actually, I just realized the last time I was there I think was in the early 2000s? I remember a friend had just gotten the first Nokia with the camera and he was showing it to me there ..read more

I started watching Franklin this week, but couldn’t make it through the first episode. I did start watching X-Men ’97 and am loving it, for one it reminded me of Saturday mornings back when I lived in Canada, but also the plot is pretty good so I’m really enjoying it. I watched the movie The Holdovers, it was good, don’t think I’d recommend it but it was fine. I’m a fan of Paul Giamatti but I remember I also found his movie Sideways by the same director also just fine even though it had gotten rave reviews back then. Other than that I’m still watching Mr. & Mrs. Smith and just finished Th ..read more

Comedian and television host Bassem Youssef is coming to Kuwait to co-headline a comedy night alongside popular standup comedian, Maz Jobrani on May 25th at the Kuwait International Fairground. Bassem Youssef went viral late last year after his appearance on the Piers Morgan show and it will be his first time performing in Kuwait. Maz, on the other hand, has performed in Kuwait multiple times and was part of the popular ‘Axis of Evil’ comedy group. Tickets will go on sale later today at 5PM and will be available on eventat.com The show will be in English, and tickets will start from 30KD ..read more