Celebrating A Year in the Life of Gilmore Girls #GilmoreGirlsRevival
http://civilwarbummer.com/wp-content/uploads/cgialfa By danderma | December 2, 2016
http://alvinghamvillage.co.uk/?p=154 
At this moment I’m sitting by the open window, a dark cloud is looming in the horizon and thunder has been rumbling on loudly for about ten minutes now. I’m the dictionary definition of a pluviohile, I literally open my eyes wide and begin to operate on an entirely different level when it rains, rain charges my soul the way Superman charges by the sun, hence this post that has been playing around again again in my mind.
I’ve also decided that perhaps I should have pursued a career in book-publishing. Why didn’t I? I don’t know, perhaps because it doesn’t pay too well? Perhaps I’m going to one day but until then I will stick to writing whatever comes to my mind in my little blog and you, my readers, will be the lucky ones to suffer through :p Read more »
For a while now almost every bookworm social media account I’m following was rearranging their collection of books in a colour-coded book theme so the end result would resemble a rainbow. I have an ancient photo of my bookshelves when I was a kid back in the early 90’s, my collection of some magazines were arranged Rainbow style but I have to look for the picture and scan it before I can share it with you, most likely in this post. Anyway, since my bookshelves are overflowing and organising the books in a readable manner became one messy affair, I thought I’d dedicate myself to this task and arrange all my books rainbow-style. After all, how hard can it be, right? Read more »
If you’ve been around my blog for a while then you’ll know how much I love and admire f2o’s artistic talent and designs, so much that my book cover is actually illustrated by f2o<3 Just before Ramadan was out and everyone ready to flock the country to their summer vacations Fatima Al-Othman, the lady behind f2o, sent me a bag of her latest products: colouring books, a current trend in its own, featuring f2o’s children, Essa and Asya, with the Alphabets in Kuwaiti dialect. Read more »
Book Review: Harry Potter and the Cursed Child, the long awaited 8th book!
By danderma | August 1, 2016
I’m writing this post with a head buzzing with thoughts, heart fluttering with feelings, and eyes brimming with tears as I’m in a roller coaster of emotions that’s been tumbling since I returned home from work and sat with my iBook copy of the long awaited 8th book of Harry Potter, the one with the Cursed Child.
Is it really an 8th book? A proper sequel to the battle of Hogwarts set 19 years later? I couldn’t allow myself to get too attached the the book nor let myself believe it was a “real” or “100% authentic” new Harry Potter book. I was afraid. I didn’t want to be let down by it, I know its based on a sold out play and its not only J. K. Rowling’s name on the cover, I’m not sure what to expect and I had a feeling that… well.. this story is only make belief and this Harry book is a fraud. Read more »
What makes you crave something? badly?
Me? Believe it or not its cartoons! Anime to be exact, the Japanese ones that we grew up watching. Whenever they gather around a dining table, those glittering dishes, specifically those steaming bowls of soups with a side of little bread. I was always hungry after watching an episode with food, and don’t get me started on Ninja Kabamaro’s chowmein insatiable appetite! Read more »
I wouldn’t usually and willingly go into a cinema to watch a movie about sea pirates, not even pirates of the Caribbean, but if it was a Tom Hanks then it’s a must see movie regardless of the story or the trailer. I went to watch Captain Philips yesterday and I have to say I wasn’t disappointed at all. Read more »
What pulled me to this book is the notion of “running away” and leaving everything behind to start a new life on a whim. Emily wakes up one day and boards a train from Manchester to London without telling anyone, leaving her loving family behind because of something grave that happened a while back. The idea of the book is to accompany Emily through her days as a new unknown person in London while trying to figure out what went wrong exactly in her life. Eventually you will know what her secret was and how having a twin sister doesn’t guarantee a friend for life and indeed you will be quite surprised at the twist in the story. Read more »
My friend and fellow blogger Ansam has been busy lately. A couple of weeks ago she finally was going to share her love of food with the rest of us with the launch of “Karak Gholam”, Kuwait’s newest Karak cafe where Ansam is a co-owner. Karak is a drink that’s basically tea, milk, sugar, and Indian spices cooked together. Rather, its the equivalent of a spiced chai latte and I’m not sure if Karak is the official Indian name for it but its been forever popular in neighbouring GCC countries like Qatar and the UAE and is currently taking Kuwait by storm. Read more »
I think it was back during the holy month of Ramadan when I first started following the instagram account of GIA cafe. They were testing their dishes and I knew by looking at what they had to offer that I wanted to try them out, really wanted to, for they reminded me of Ottelenghi’s in London. After a long wait, they finally opened their doors yesterday afternoon and I wasted no time heading over to GIA’s for some lunch. Read more »
Last week I went to see the movie Prisoners which I’ve been looking forward to watching for a while since its starring Hugh Jackman and Jake Gyllenhaal. I did cave and watch a bit of the trailer to know the general feel of the movie I was anticipating and then when I noticed the trailer was going to go on forever I stopped it but I had an idea on what I was going to be watching. Read more »
I’m a big fan of Salad Boutique, always been and always will. I’ve ordered their salads on many occasions before, either to take with me for a gathering or to simplify salad making for gatherings held at my place. I don’t usually order them for my own meals though since the portion is too big and it takes me several days to finish one salad which ends up old and wilted, and wilted salads are not that fun per-say. I always wondered why they don’t introduce individual portion salads suitable for one person and they didn’t until last week when they launched their new corporate solution menu. Read more »
I received an invitation to attend the advanced screening of the movie “Rush” by Cinescape which took place yesterday and since I love everything movie related I was on my seat at 8:15 P.M. sharp waiting for the movie to start. Frankly, I didn’t know what the movie was about because I have a policy regarding not watching trailers anymore but I knew it was about car racing, based on a true story, its soundtrack is composed by Hans Zimmer, is starring Chris Hemsworth, and there is popcorn involved as well. What more could you ask for? Read more »
Back in June I managed to visit the very last Shakshooka pop-up farmers market before the start of summer and I fell in love with everything shakshooka! The concept, the carefree spirit, the mystery of waiting for the next market and not knowing where it’s going to be until just before it happens, and most importantly the food items you could buy: all organic, healthy, natural, and delicious! Then summer came and went and fall arrived, bringing the Shakshooka market back! Read more »
Ever since I began cooking quinoa I really wanted to use it with one particular dish, maraq bamiya (okra stew). You see, if quinoa passes the maraq bamiya test, it can reside their proudly on my pantry for the rest of time, banishing every last morsel of rice from the premises. The dieticians in Kuwait have been urging us to replace rice with quinoa and I already tried that twice with the quinoa mushroom risotto and the quinoa with dill & broad beans (bajela w shbent) and both time quinoa posed as the perfect protein-packed fiber-laden replacement to white rice therefore I Read more »
When Robert De Niro and Michelle Pfeiffer star in a movie, you expect it to be one worth watching and their latest movie, Malavita a.k.a. The Family, was one good movie I watched recently. The movie is about the family of an ex-mafia boss who ratted out on his friends therefore the FBI had to change his identity and hide him and his family all they way in Normandy, France where they should be able to live in peace, but their old violent habits happen to sneak back on them and eventually, their old mafia friends discover their whereabouts and come back for revenge. Read more »
Lately I’ve been doing nothing but trying to concentrate on making my diet work and trying to stick to a healthy life style, therefore you will be seeing a few more diet food related posts every now and then on my blog. Earlier this week, I’ve seen Ansam cooking a dish on instagram using quinoa bread she got from J’s Bakery. Read more »
She got in her little silver car after a long exhausting day at the office. Already late for her lunch and nap time because of work, she sluggishly pulled out of the parking and onto the traffic light. This traffic light in particular is the worst one she ever stood for, for it takes almost five minutes until it lights up again. Eye-lids drooping dangerously, she feared she might fall asleep on the ride back home so she forced herself to listen to the noisy radio station, cranking up the volume as high as she could. Read more »
Last week was the opening diner, a new burger place in Kuwait City and the newest addition to the thriving and already saturated burger scene in town. Why would I go to another burger place? Because they are the first in Kuwait to serve the Ramen Burger, the latest burger craze that took NYC by a storm, replacing the bun with Ramen noodles.
Dreading the moment the coach calls out to them to spilt into teams, she fidgeted in her wake, not exactly sure what to do with her hands. What was she doing with her hands a moment ago? When she wasn’t so aware of the fact that the time has come for the ultimate popularity battle? Read more »
I’ve always heard that the exhibitions that are held in the UAE were spectacular and amount of effort that goes into those expos was unparalleled. I’ve never had the chance to go to an expo in Dubai before but while I was visiting this past Eid holiday I learned from the instagram account of fellow blogger Karamillah from the Abu Dhabi, that her cookie business, K’s Cookies, will be participating in a Ramadan Night Market expo in Dubai and I knew I had to pass by and check it out. Read more »
When I first started writing in my blog, almost five years ago, choosing the language to write it wasn’t an issue. Most of the blogs out there were in English, expressing yourself in Arabish wasn’t frowned upon or considered annoying, plus the language of the internet whether you like it or not is English and so are all your settings and blogs you read. Personally, I chose my laptops without an Arabic keyboard just because I find Arabic and technology a bit exhausting. Read more »
Growing up, rice with broad beans & dill or what we call in Kuwait “Bajela w Shbent” was a favourite lunch dish of mine. It is traditionally made with chunks of meat and daqqos tomato sauce at home but I’ve always opted to mix it with low fat yoghurt instead. I was craving it the other day but since I’m still on the path of losing the Ramadan weight and testing out quinoa in recipes I’ve decided to make the dish, subsituting rice with quinoa and see how it would turn out. To my surprise the recipe turned out to be a success and had I not made the dish myself I wouldn’t have realised I was actually eating quinoa! Read more »
The first thing that comes to mind when you hear the word “Atari” is the Atari video games we used to play in the very early 80’s, therefore when a new restaurant with the name Atari opened up a while back the name did catch my attention and made me want to dine there, and I finally had the chance to do so last Thursday. Read more »
Last week we had the pleasure of being invited to a private tasting event of the new menu at The Butcher’s Den. I’ve been to the Butcher’s Den before and liked it a lot although the service was a bit clunky since they were in their soft opening phase still. Now that they are operating full time I expected the service to be top notch and indeed it was. Read more »
“We Are the Millers” movie is currently third on the US box office chart for the fourth week since it’s release and since it just arrived to the cinemas of Kuwait I wasted no time booking tickets for a movie with such box office success. Read more »
