http://cjni.com/wp-json/wp/v2/categories/52 
For a while now, perhaps a couple of years or more, every unit in Kuwait whether residential or commercial, even cinemas, has a little plaque by its door from the Public Authority of Civil Information (PACI) alongside a long unique number. I was baffled at first but then was told that the number is an address that can be used to find wherever place you want to head to in Kuwait electronically. I thought it was a marvellous idea especially in Kuwait where we do not have Zip codes and the postal system is particularly non-existent, but I never did get to know how to use that system whatever it was until the day when my husband ordered some lunch from a popular local doner place called Slice. On the packaging of the doner, you could find the words “Kuwait Finder” and the number next to the logo of PACI! Read more »
Personally I wouldn’t have reached into a novel that talks about WWII and the Nazis on my own. Though I love history I often find the atrocities of war too depressing to consider as quality time reading. However, everyone was raving about the book so much, I decided I had nothing to lose if it was indeed in my library waiting for the right moment to come. Better safe than sorry I suppose. A few weeks back I had nothing better to read and while browsing my book shelves the heavy novel kept finding its way back into my hands therefore I decided why not, so be it. Read more »
Ever since GIA opened up their doors in October 2013 they’ve been creating a buzz with the food loving population of Kuwait. Gia was always busy, and I’ve yet to encounter one person who dined there and didn’t love the food or the atmosphere. They’ve been open for less than a year and a half but they’ve already closed down to expand to the next door shop due to popular demand and now its even bigger with more room to breathe and relax. So what was next for Gia? Why, breakfast of course! Read more »
One favourite spot of mine in Kuwait is the old and traditional Mubarkiya souk. I tend to spend mornings or evenings there, casually strolling in the alleys , my vision split into what I’m seeing for real and what I imagine it must have been in the old days, who must have walked these very steps or touched these very walls. It’s a charming spot deeply saturated with history and many of its standing buildings have not been changed since they’ve been built. Read more »
I’ve always wanted to dine at Street by Zubabar. Even before they were officially open, when they were setting up the place and posting pictures of their progress on their instagram account, I’ve been watching and anticipating their opening. The day they were officially open I meant to go have dinner but a quick look at their menu told me that I wouldn’t be able to order much, the fussy vegetarian that I am. I wanted to go for coffee and dessert and enjoy the atmosphere, but never could find someone at the exact time and place to go with me. Time went by, but I always promised that the next time I’m going out for coffee with a friend, we would be going to Street. And then their brunch happened… Read more »
Delivering stuff to your doorstep is a very big concept in Kuwait, meaning that over the past few years a considerable number of delivery companies were setup to bring anything to anyone anywhere. Sometimes delivery prices can be obscene but if you know who to call and deliver to a good nearby place you might get away with a couple of KD’s for a delivery fee. Most delivery companies, if not all, offer a subscription to businesses that deliver stuff all the time and I image big companies do have their own drivers and means of delivery to finish up whatever paperwork they need and if they operate restaurants then of course they do have a dedicated delivery guy. Read more »
I was sipping a very fragrant and dense cup of Turkish coffee while writing this post because I couldn’t type down a word without having a caffeine fix! Almost a fortnight ago I’ve been fortunate enough to be in Kuwait City around noon time running an errand that was a tad irritating. Once I was finished I was so happy I wanted to celebrate, and I just happened to be across the street from a very newly opened little coffee shop that I’ve passed by before, peered in through the glass to find it closed, made a mental note to keep an eye out for, and saw a picture of an iced latte in snapchat earlier on the day about. I didn’t waste anytime crossing the street… Read more »
I intended to read only the first chapter of daughter then move on to other first chapters of other new books I have in my collections. The story was so intriguing from the very first few pages and I knew I didn’t have to read the other first chapters from the other books, this one was what I wanted to read. Again, it was a book I finished in almost one day, resisting the urge to flip through to the last page and discover the fate of the missing daughter. Read more »
Do you still bring back souvenirs for your friends and family when you travel abroad?
I love travel souvenirs, or soogha as we call them in the Kuwaiti dialect. I love receiving them of course and I enjoy picking them out when I roam shops and markets of different foreign lands. It doesn’t have to be something extravagant or expensive, sometimes a quirky fridge magnet or a bar of exotic chocolate would do the trick just fine and clearly spell out the exact message you want to convey with a travel souvenir: I was thinking about you while I was away. Sadly some people upon receiving their “soogha” these days would sigh and glare at it miserably, viewing it as both a debt they have to repay and a challenge they’d have to overdue, something that kills the entire spirit of the soogha and perhaps why many people do not bother anymore. Read more »
If you have been to see the movie “The Imitation Game” recently then you’d know exactly what Bletchley Park is all about, its where parts of the movie were filmed btw. If not, then let me tell you about my visit to one of the world’s best kept secrets: Bletchley Park, home of the code breakers. A place that was well hidden all these years even the local residents thought it was an psychiatric asylum. The park was neglected in later years and was about to be demolished and turned into a shopping mall but thankfully it was saved and restored and opened for visitors to explore. Read more »
Because I’ve taken quite a liking to hot chocolate this winter I’ve been drinking nothing but the biggest steaming cups topped with the most voluptuous dollops of whipped cream of hot chocolate. I was in London and I decided to go and try the most highly acclaimed cups of melted cocoa and milk around the capital, and one of the first that I got on my list was Choccywoccydoodah’s hot chocolate. Read more »
This year I didn’t write down a list of “resolutions”. I’ve often found that my mind tends to file away whatever I’ve put on a list for “later”. Maybe because whatever it is on a list is saved there somewhere hence it will never be lost as an idea, does that make any sense? Maybe not, but I do realise now that if I want something done, I better start doing it right away or else it will stay as an entry on a list under a pile of a hundred other lists somewhere. And that is exactly why I’m writing this post up, because I made a resolution in December of last year and I’ve decided to go ahead with it right away. The Resolution? Smile for no reason at strangers. Read more »
Another book, another debut, and also another gripping-from-page-one read that I couldn’t put down. I have a new reading system to determine what I want to read, I get a collection of books and read the first chapter of each then decide where to go from there. Only when I picked up The Book of You, and it was the first in the collection, I finished chapter one and continued on forgetting all about the other first chapters that were waiting to be read. Read more »
Back in December the much loved and very popular Turkish cafe Mado finally opened its doors in Kuwait. The opening followed a long period of anticipation on instagram with many devoted followers asking about the opening date. I was travelling when it did open, early December 2014, and I’ve heard a lot of mixed reviews about it all of them advising me me to wait a bit until they get on their feet and ran things smoothly. Read more »
The debut novel by Jessie Burton caught my eye with two things: the patterned wallpaper-like cover and the fact that it was placed on a table with a card declaring it 2014’s best read in the bookstore! Read more »
I opened up my blog intending to write a long post about something, but I was overcome by an overwhelming urge to recount a fabulous dinner I had when I was just in London. It was a long and busy day in mid-December of last year where I had barely nothing to eat all day. I was tired and the weather was freezing cold and needed a good wholesome meal. By dinner time I wouldn’t have minded dining on old stale fries but with what was left of my energy I made my way towards Wardour St. in Soho where Princi Pizzeria is located. I’ve passed by Princi before but never managed to dine there though it generated quite a few raving reviews. Read more »
Well, 2014 did pass by in a blink! The fact that it is actually the year 2015 refuses to sink in still with me.
2014 was, well, decent. I got so many good things to be grateful for yet it wasn’t all good and dandy. I’ve grown a little bit up, that’s for sure, and now that I realise I’m 34 years-old I tend to panic a bit, I’m feeling that I’m somehow running out of time, youth time that is, but that entire age paranoia could eat up this entire post.
At the beginning of 2015, I know one fact for sure, I’m a mess. Read more »
If you know me personally or have been hanging around my blog for a while then you’d know that I’m a crazed LOTR and Hobbit fan and was looking so much towards the third and final movie of the Hobbit trilogy, and also the last Peter Jackson movie about Middle Earth. I’ve even set up a counter, an alarm reminder, and basically waiting, rather impatiently, for the movie to pick up where DOS have left off. Read more »
You know I’ve never dreamed there would come a day when I think about cassette tapes and render them obsolete. When you grow up using something and you take it for granted, somehow you think it will always be there till the end of time. The other day I was tidying up around the apartment when I came upon a collection of my old cassette tapes and my heart skipped a beat. Not only have I stopped using those tapes, I’ve forgotten all about them as well! Read more »
The other day I was just walking in a busy place, heading towards somewhere, minding my own business when a couple walking nearby began discussing something animatedly. Normally I wouldn’t listen in to other people’s conversations as its non of my business, but this time something really caught my attention and made my head involuntarily snap towards the chatting couple, they were discussing “Dandemra”. Read more »
When I want to describe how I felt reading this book, using the word “gripping” would be an understatement. No, hooked won’t do it either, I guess my mood was rather bordering on obsessed for I couldn’t let go from paragraph one. The story is grim and dark, just like its title, the state of mind of Libby Day, the 30-something grown up who survived the massacre of her entire family at age sever then testified against her older brother sending him to jail, is both compelling? and disturbing. Nothing is sugar coated, everything that can go wrong in a person’s life does indeed happen. Read more »
A while back I received an invitation from Elevation burgers to celebrate the opening of their newest branch in Bidaa area. Elevation’s invitation was quite different this time, for it arrived with a tiny cherry tomato shrub with little green cherry tomatoes on the branches, all waiting to ripen up and be eaten! I thought it was a fake one first, living in a country with a dessert climate like Kuwait’s means meeting fruit bearing greens and shrubs are a cause of wonders, therefore you can understand how thrilled I was at the sight of this teeny tiny shrub. Read more »
I initially thought of skipping this years book fair for the number of banned books and novels have risen noticeably from the previous years. But then I couldn’t. A book fair is something that resembles a Disney Land to me, just being nearby and filled with endless books and reading materials is haunting. I resisted for a few days then succumbed to my urges on Saturday morning when I woke up early – and I never wake up early- and went out the door without breakfast just to wander the halls decked with books. Read more »
Have I told you before that I’m not a cheesecake person?
I’m not. I’m not the kind of person who’d go gaga over a picture of slice of cheesecake. I’m not really a fan of the dense cheesy heavy centre sandwiched between a crunchy crust and a liquid topping. If there is nothing else on the table I’d eat a forkful or two just fine, but I wouldn’t necessary lose sleep craving cheesecakes and wishing I had a slice or two to wolf down. I can live without cheesecakes. Read more »
Ever since I’ve walked out from the cinema after watching The Hobbit: The Desolation of Smaug movie and I’ve been in some sort of daze. On one hand, I loved DOS so much I wanted to see it again -and I did, several times-. On the other hand, I wanted to continue watching the movie, or rather the third movie that was named There and Back again and was set for a July 2014 release then pushed back to December 2014 and renamed into The Battle of Five Armies. I wanted to watch the last movie so bad, an entire year of waiting seemed like torture. I began counting down the months, one by one, and because life goes by in a blink there I was, with only one month left to go and now counting down the DAYS! No more counting of months, its merely a matter of days, until it was finally time to watch the last of the Hobbit and bid it farewell. Read more »
