Hello August

Let's see what you have in store..

Gotta Love The Momma's Face - Another Car Ride With A Teen

His Youtube account is Moretoki and he is hilarious.

Woohoo! Nailed Project Bread

I've been dying to use this for the longest time. My previous attempts at bread have been
not so great. And I think I know why...

It's wonderful to have this bread making machine which takes out a lot of
work but I think the real secret is the flour and the easy yeast.
So worth the extra money. Both were purchased at TSC in Shaab.

Once I had deciphered the instruction booklet which I found unnecessarily complicated I was all set. It really is very simple. It took less than 4 minutes to weigh ingredients and that's it, select the button and you have bread. Okay it takes a long time (up to 5 hours for some breads from mixing to finished bake time) but really, really easy and the outcome was fabulous.

And here she is.. A big beautiful granary bread, perfectly baked and smelling divine. Had to have a chunk slathered in butter before bed. The verdict: Heavenly.

Have you ever seen anything more gorgeous? Feeling very pleased with myself.

I would definitely recommend this bread maker. Don't be daunted by the instructions it was really pretty simple and for a first attempt I am really motivated to try other breads. I have a brioche with chocolate chips in the magic maker as I blog and it should be ready for afternoon tea. Fingers crossed.

I will get around to using the timer, eventually, so that I can set it at night and wake up to freshly baked bread smell in the morning. 

So far I'm loving the bread maker. Have I said that already? 

It's easy to clean just wipe with a damp cloth. A few pointers; always put your yeast and sugar in first followed by flour, salt, liquid, etc. Take bread out as soon as baked so it keeps a crunchy crust. Take out and place on a rack to cool. And that's it. Happy bread making. 

Thank you so much to my fabulous sister-in-law (Suad and family) for buying this for me as a gift for Christmas. Your thoughtful kindness is eternally appreciated and freshly baked bread will be coming your way very soon. Big love xxx

Only For The Non-Muslim Doggies Out There

Pork flavoured nibbles from The Sultan Centre in Shaab in the non-hilal section.

Arabic Courses at AWARE Center

Levels 1 Intermediate, 1 Advanced, 2 Introductory and 2 Basic (18-hour courses) can be offered on-request of 4 or more students.

To request the aforementioned levels, kindly email saleha@aware.com.kw the following:

• your full name and contact number
• level that you are interested in
• do you wish to have a class twice a week or once a week (if you chose the option of once a week, course duration will stretch to 9-weeks)
• day & time preferred (day and time chosen by the majority will be chosen)

- Courses can be customized to fit the schedules of the students (this is applicable for a group of 5 or more students only). To request a customized course, kindly email info@aware.com.kw

- Advanced courses can be offered on request of 5 or more students only

- AWARE Members receive 20% discount off their course fee

- Some courses will require the course book, which will be sold separately at KD 1

​0

- Your seat in the class will be secured upon payment of the fee (cash) in person at the AWARE Center. 

Download full details pdf [here].

Trampo Promenade Ladies Night

Every Saturday from 06:00 PM to 10:00 PM. 

Run Q8 2016

Registration is now open for November 12th. Save the date! 
We love to consider your requests, and this year we will have 2 official distances: 5km and 10km. 
You can register in our locations at Salmiya and Hawally or online at http://www.runq8.org/
Now you just have to chose a distance, register for the run and try to guess the color of this year's t-shirt.

Rent a Beach House in Kuwait

 Different sizes, some with pools and reasonably priced. www.gobgob.com I haven't tried them out yet but it looks like a great idea for a little summer break.

Dasmania Teen

Mark The Date - Kuwait Baseball Softball Challenger League Registration Nights

Reserve your spot by registering online now @Www.q8bsc.com

Thank You Le Pain Quotidien, Avenues

After a disappointing visit and review last week I was delighted to hear from LPQ who promptly apologised and wanted to make amends by inviting us back. I was delighted to see the place full of people and every table abundant with bursting, yummy, deliciously fragrant bread baskets. As my friend and I weren't too hungry, and we were really in Avenues to walk, we settled on sharing an eggs Benedict dish but couldn't decide on the same - so one had her half with salmon and spinach and the other had beef bacon. Thank you for accommodating us. Happy tummies indeed. Many thanks to Crystal and staff who took extremely good care of us. 

I really need to place a weekly standing order for the heavenly focaccia and the sour dough bread from LPQ, I will check if they are on Talabat.

8/10 - Only because it should be standard to supply two small knives with butter so that we are not double-dipping our used knives. Cappuccino is only ever warm and not hot. And would really, really like the poached egg on toasted sour dough bread or that divine focaccia instead of the untoasted brioche bread. But thank you very much you have redeemed yourself and I shall be back.

Good Morning People

Scotch & Soda Coming Soon To Kuwait

Finally! Coming soon Scotch & Soda clothing brand store in Avenues behind Katsuya.

Ugandan President Delivers Embarrassingly Hilarious Speech To Netanyahu and Israeli Government Officals During Commemoration of Raid on Entebbe

Ummmmm? 

The Trump Family Circus - God Help America

Being an insensitive, pompous a-hole is genetic, obviously.


Source

What Kuwait Means To Many Expats

I came across this on Expat Mums in Kuwait FB page and loved it's familiarity and eloquence. We wish you well Fai.

Leaving Kuwait….

As I sit here, by the pool in our home in Mahboula, enjoying some rare quiet time (we have a 1.5 year old) smoking a shisha, I think back on these past two years in Kuwait.

Kuwait has had some seriously funny and interesting challenges. Anyone trying to sort out their residency or drivers license knows it could be like solving the Da Vinci Code out here trying to get things done. A lot of the times I was pretty annoyed, It was hot, it was complicated and I do not speak Arabic. I’m sure my feelings are not unique, and it’s the case with many of the expats that come to any country that isn’t their original home.

However, I wanted to say, as difficult as each step you want to complete is…the people you meet along the way are at times…wonderful. The Kuwaiti people are some of the most helpful, and earnest people I have met. Time and time again, I would run into someone, in some office of some governate that was willing to go above and beyond their job description to help me along the often times confusing route of getting paper work sorted. I would meet wonderful women and men that were interested in my problem and would truly try to gather all the information they could to try to help me. I cannot tell you how many people I have in my phone book now that are listed with the pronoun “helpful _______”, or “ amazing ______”. Thinking back, I will most miss this uniqueness about this country. Yes of course there are crummy people everywhere, but my goodness, there is hospitality and generosity here.

Now as an expat it's normal to want to find people you can connect with from home, and this is why I'm writing this rather long, goodbye to Kuwait. The community of expats is massive and amazing. We are able to join clubs and groups online and meet other people, sometimes from our own hometowns here on the other side of the world. Much thanks to Mark Zuckerberg, and whoever invented Whatsapp (how else would we get to where we are going without that helpful ‘send my location’ pin). Through these clubs, I've met one of my best friends I've ever made, here on the other side of the world (Canadian here) in a country that is native to neither of us. We shared our pregnancies together, having our first babies, much of the paperwork adventures together and a whole lot of fun going to our favorite restaurants. And when we were homesick, we had each other to talk to and we knew how the other felt. We were each others lifelines, and it gave me family here that I really needed. She made me banana bread and I made her pasta, she’s an excellent baker, and I'm a mediocre chef, ha ha.

I've made some wonderful friendships here with women that are inspiring and loving. These are relationships that I am lucky enough to continue through Whatstapp, Skype and Facebook. We have countless invites to different countries to visit dear friends in their homes, some offers that are basically demands ha ha ha. This is something special you get to enjoy when you have a great community of expats, meeting people from all over the world. I cant wait to go to Serbia, Greece and South Africa.. one day.

The Expat Mums group on Facebook was a place that was a sort of a refuge. You could go with your questions, grievances and general wonder. Time and time again I was surprised by the kindness of what were more or less complete strangers, but we were all united by this title of “expat” and it connected us. I am so thankful to these moderators and creators of this group for giving us a space to do that safely. Where you could have disagreements with people (while staying respectful) and move on and have a laugh with them on another post. I loved waking up and seeing funny comics, and I loved even more being able to help anyone out where I could. It’s a place where we can go and post questions about a rash we have never seen, or ask if anyone has a bouncy ball that you want to buy. We come from all over the world, all walks of life, and live all over Kuwait…and we all connect here. It has been such an exciting and yes challenging experience. But as it comes to an end, I sit here thinking, man there are some things I will really miss.

So thank you ladies for helping each other, helping me, and cultivating our expat community with so many rich and lovely personalities.

I wish you all many great friendships, many great finds, and loopholes in getting any paperwork done.

Fai x


LWDLIK - Kuwait is what you make it. 

 ;)

DAI Story Craft for Kids

Review: Le Pain Quotidien, Avenues

Shockingly poor experience. We have a saying for people who can't cook we say "they can't even boil an egg," so here you go PQ here's a chart for you.

Mine was a 1 minute, both times.

Had brunch there today, my friend ordered the salad Nicoise and I had the salmon, boiled egg brunch with granola. We were offered bread two very similar types, no bread basket, just on a plate. We had to ask for butter and jams. I noticed some of my friend's potatoes in her salad had some black spots and my boiled egg was raw. Sent egg back. Another egg arrived also raw. I told the waitress not to bother as I had now finished my food. Bizarre. Waitress did try to make amends by bringing over a strawberry tart which didn't go down too well as my friend doesn't eat strawberries and I was stuffed with croissant. 

I paid the full price as didn't want to make a fuss in front of my friend but I was surprised they had the cheek to charge me full price for 3/4 of a breakfast. The bread wasn't very fresh but we were hungry and it's hard to complain about something you've eaten.

Come on PQ you can do much better than this.

The salmon and croissant were delicious. Granola boring, I've had much better jams in Kuwait and the cappuccino was cold.

1/10 and won't go back. 


Update - You can always eat your words if they are on yummy focaccia bread. A wonderful response from LPQ, an apology and an invite to redeem themselves; which they did. [link].

One Reason Why You Don't See Ice Cream Vans in Kuwait

Kuwait Open Swimming Championship 2016

Male Only Event 
Age Groups 
8 and Under 
9-10 years
11-12 years 
13-14 years 
15 and over 

Happening This Weekend at Al Shaheed Park

Review: Promenade Ice Skating Rink, Hawally

Super fun for kids aged up to 13. Take socks, leggings, gloves and a jacket with you - it's freezing in there. Best to call ahead can get very busy you may have to wait for the next session. 

Reasonably priced at KD 6 per hour which includes skate hire, an extra KD 1 for a polar bear skate buddy to keep you upright. There are coaches available for private lessons and all the staff seem very professional and helpful. 

My daughter and her friend had a great time. I was happy that there is an age limit as the bigger boys can be scary charging around, but saw none of that here. Well supervised by the staff, lots of smiling happy kids even if there were turning a bit blue.

Promenade Ice is located in Promenade Mall, Hawally above the Sultan Centre (there are two Sultan Centres in Hawally so please see map). Map

Website

Big bonus is that the restaurants in this mall are NOT McDonalds or Burgerking. 

10/10

Q8 Needs You

At first when I stumbled across their Instagram (much more active than their FB page) I thought it was just a citizen's attempt at trying to make a small individual effort to attract attention and bring about little changes to beautify and make the streets a bit safer. I'm happy to say that it seems an on-going larger effort to really make a difference. Al Baladeyya (the municipality) has an Instagram page too and it's following through with all the complaints, rectifying them and really making a concerted effort. So if you have some safety issues or environmental hazards sat outside your home, school, work place, etc please take photos, write location (even share location) and whatsapp to above number. 

Review: Burger and Lobster Restaurant in Avenues

Lobster roll in a yummy toasted brioche-type bread

Above shows half the order which was enough for two to share; half a burger, half a lobster, side of salad and fries and above a lobster roll.

Death by Chocolate inc in the special offer.

A delicious lunch, great atmosphere with some cool music and stylish interior and good prompt, professional service. We were four and chose the Burger and Lobster special for two priced at KD 26 which was a perfect amount and a chance for us to try a few of their signature dishes. Was absolutely enough food for all of us and worked out very reasonable for four persons at KD 6.500 each. My only qualm would be that the Death By Chocolate dessert (1 dessert included in the price so a spoonful each - the hips were thankful) was not as chocolatey as I would have liked; but the novelty chocolate lobster with a caramel center was too cute.

Burger and Lobster is in phase 2 upstairs above Texas Roadhouse near Cheesecake Factory.

9/10

The Ultimate Mystery Game - Trapped Inn

TRAPPED INN ESCAPE GAMES

Trapped Inn is a real life escape game which provides a thrilling team building experience in a mysterious hotel setting. Each room of this hotel will take you through a spectacular adventure to a world beyond your imagination. 

Trapped Inn Kuwait beholds the largest escape game facility in the Middle East with eight different scenarios in one place. With its great location (Symphony Mall, Salmiya ) and ease of access, Trapped Inn is not far from you to live your 60 minutes of great adrenaline rush experience. 

The rooms are full of puzzles and riddles that require logical thinking, communication, observation and analysis to solve. It is a great opportunity to stretch your limits, test your skills, and unleash some hidden talents you did not know you have. 

Trapped Inn team will provide some clues to make your game experience more entertaining. It is easy to get in but what is inside is unexpected. Satisfaction is guaranteed in Trapped Inn; however, escaping is not. Book your room online now and let the fun begin.