Danderma's Blog, page 47

Book Review: Wedding Night by Sophie Kinsella

I’ve always been a fan of Sophie Kinsella’s writing and novels, ever since I’ve gotten my hand on the first Shopaholic book. Therefore, you can understand how happy I was to get my hands on a copy of her latest novel, Wedding Night. To me, a Sophie Kinsella novel always meant laughter: tears streaming out of your eyes and laughing out loud in the middle of the night when you are supposed to be reading quietly in bed kind of laughter.

In this book, Lottie is disappointed when a marriage proposal she was expecting doesn’t happen so she decides to marry her rebound guy who also happens to be her first teenage love and spend their honeymoon in Ikonos where they first met, two weeks after her break up with the guy she wanted to actually propose. Fliss, Lottie’s older sister whose in the middle of a very bitter divorce war decides she couldn’t allow her sister to consummate her marriage in order to enable her to get an annulment instead of a divorce and actually follows the happy couple to Ikonos to wreck the honeymoon.

It was a very easy and quick read, but I can’t say I enjoyed it much. For one thing, Fliss was so annoying you could reach inside the book and strangle her. How dare anyone interfere in other people’s lives that way even if they thought they had their best interest at heart. Another thing, there is this whole fire incident in the past that is well-played in the prologue and comes back again in the end but then it ends on very feeble notes. The thing that I was looking for, laughing out loud, didn’t happen though. I did crack a smile or two but this time I wasn’t laughing. This book is certainly my least favourite Kinsella Book.

New Blog Sponsors: Aqua Tots

Please join me in welcoming Aqua Tots as my new blog sponsors and just in time for the summer swimming season! Aqua Tots are an international franchise with more than 30 indoor swimming centers around the world dedicated to providing an ideal environments for teaching children how to swim safely. With 8 swimming levels, they take in children starting at 6 months old up until 12 years-old. Yes, babies can learn to swim to and Aqua Tots is the place to teach them.

For more information about Aqua Tots you can contact them by calling +(965) – 6027711, check their website (link),  follow them on Twitter (@AquaTots_Swim) or on instagram (@AquaTots). Their location is in Khaldiya block 2 St. 29 in the Women’s Cultural and Social Society building.

Philosophy’s Radiant & Defined Anti-aging Kit

One of my personality traits is my inability to resist any beauty product that comes with with an anti-aging or anti-wrinkle label. I’m bordering on obsession really, I have tried many products in an attempt to stop ageing signs since I refuse to acknowledge that I’m grown up and -gulp- middle aged. I also am obsessed with kits and things that come in neat little packages -air plane food, Hello Kitty toiletry bag in Kindergarten, etc.- Therefore when I saw that one of my favourite beauty brands, Philosophy, is selling a trial kit of products aimed towards fighting the first signs of ageing, I couldn’t resist it and I had to, just had to have it.

The name of the anti-aging product line is ‘Hope in a Jar’ and I’ve already had it recommended by two friends. You are supposed to try the products inside twice a day, morning and night, and hopefully you will see a difference in your complexion.

Inside is three miniature products: the used to wash the eyes and face. A hydrating antioxidant serum to be used afterwards to tighten the skin and close the pores, and a high performance moisturiser to finish up the deal.

I reckon there is enough products in the mini jar to last me a couple of weeks and perhaps see some encouraging results. What usually works for other people doesn’t work for me and vise-versa but if it does work I will let you know. I don’t know if the kit is available in Kuwait or not but I know the brand Philosophy is stocked in both Sephora and Harvey Nichols and if you are interested you can check them out or buy the kits from Philosophy’s website (link).

Madam Sucre Vintage Dessert Boutique

I always feel a warm sensation in my heart when a small home-based Kuwaiti business grows and opens up a shop, especially if it’s a distinguished and different business like Madame Sucre and who doesn’t love Madame Sucre gorgeously wrapped succulent desserts? 

Madame Sucre Vintage Dessert Boutique is located in Al-Faiha Co-op right beside cashier number 8. You can’t miss, the elegant furniture and flowered baby blue wallpaper really stands out from the co-op surrounding. The Boutique is small, cute, with plenty of little details and trinkets to gaze at. Classic Madame Sucre.

Madame Sucre’s boutique sells not only desserts but also the vintage looking victorian cups, books, and other items on display around the boutique.

What did I get? I was there for the desserts and my eyes fell on these plump little eclairs. They are Mocha eclairs, mind you, and are very soft and coffee-y and sweet and quiet delicious. Highly recommended.

I love Madame Sucre

Madame Sucre Vintage Dessert Boutique is located in Faiha Co-op right beside cashier number 8. They are still in the soft opening phase therefore their working hours are from 1 – 7 P.M. daily. For more information you can contact Madame Sucre by calling +(965) – 99515599, checking their website (link), following their account on Twitter (@MadameSucree) or Instagram (@MadameSucre).

Nestle Tollhouse Cafe Grand Opening in The Avenues

Earlier this month I had the opportunity to attend the official opening of Nestle Toll House cafe’s newest branch in the Soku District of the Avenues Mall. I arrived fashionably late as usual to a full house. I’ve never been in Nestle’s Avenues branch before, my favourite is still the original cafe in The Village, and I was surprised at how big and spacious it was.

Many bloggers were allowed to decorate their own big cookies and write down quotes to be printed on cafe mugs. By the time I got there my dear Jacqui was decorating her very own Jacqui doll cookies.

I have to say she did a great job indeed! Had I decorated my own, it would’ve been a disaster for sure. Well done Jax!

Then it was time to go and what do you think a cookie cafe would have as an opening event giveaway? Cookie boxes of course!

I love Nestle Toll Houses’ cookies and I love the cookie recipe on the back of the Nestle Toll House chocolate chip bag! It always reminds me of Pheobe in the episode with the best cookies of Friends. Nesleee toloosee

Thank you Nestle Toll House Cafe of Kuwait and Joumana Soufi for the lovely eventful opening night and the invitation to attend it. Keep up the good work and can’t wait for more of your branches to open up.

Nestle Toll House Cafe is located in the Soku district of the Avenues. For more information you can check Nestle Cafe’s account on Twitter (@NestleCafeKw) and Instagram (@NestleCafeKw).

Lunch at Véranda of Harvey Nichols

The best part of Thursday starts the moment you’re done with your work and you begin feeling all free to begin enjoying your weekend. I love having lunch outside on Thursdays and one of my favourite dining spots recently is in Véranda of Harvey Nichols. I cannot get enough of the place! keep going back for the great food, the calm yet bubbly atmosphere, and the excellent location overlooking all the action in the grand Avenues yet undisturbed by the crowds while you are dining. 

If you decide to go for lunch, I’d highly recommend their salads. Their fattouch is very good and their summery watermelon and feta salad is quite refreshing and perfect for this hot weather. Juicy, crunchy, salty, with hints of dill and orange peel topped with different types of nuts. Simply delicious!

I also love Veranda’s Hummus and Moutabbal especially the moutabbal served on a baked slice of aubergine. Mix that with the fattouch and you have an excellent meal.

Every time I’ve been to Veranda my dining companions -different each time- order this shrimp tempura thing that comes with a delicious yellowy side sauce. If you are a shrimp fan you will want to try this.

Veranda also have pizzas and pastas on the menu. I personally didn’t enjoy their pizza much, too thin and biscuit like for my taste but their mushroom pasta is lip-smacking! So good it shouldn’t be shared with other fellow diners.

The last time we dined there I was surprised to see sliders on their menu and my fellow diners ordered them. I didn’t try them but judging from the way they look and by how delicious everything else I’ve tasted was, I’d say they are worth a try.

Now, tell me, where are you eating your Thursday lunch? Wishing you all a very happy weekend

Véranda is located on the first floor of Harvey Nichols Kuwait overlooking the Grand Avenues walkway in the Avenues Mall. For more information and pictures you can follow Harvey Nichols Kuwait on instagram (@HarveyNicholsKuwait) or view the instagram hashtag #VerandaKuwait.

My Summer 2013 Reads

I haven’t had much time to read recently and I miss grabbing a book and losing myself in words dressed up in ink and dancing between the pages. This summer three of my favourite authors had new novels out and I know, I just know, that a nice reading  hibernation period is just around the corner.

I read a chapter from Dan Brown’s inferno the day it was out, I read two chapters of Sophie Kinsella’s wedding night when I got my hands on it, and I can’t wait to start reading Khalid Hosseini’s new And the Mountains Echoed novel which might be the book I’m going to read next. Fourth on my list to read is Maggie & Me by Damian Barr which I’ve heard so much about and can’t wait to read and Ian McEwan’s Sweet Tooth, another gripping thriller that I saw wherever I turned in book shops.

I’ve already finished one book in my summer 2013 reads, The Newlyweds by Neil Freudenberger which was quite interesting and I should be reviewing it soon on the blog. Hopefully I will have more books to be reviewed soon as well. What about you, what will you be reading in Summer 2013?

Movie Review: The Hangover III

One of the movies I’ve been looking for to watching in 2013 was the third and supposedly last instalment of the Hangover series. I’m glad I didn’t wait to see it in Kuwait’s cinema for it would have been chopped up beyond recognition and you are left trying to piece together what went on in the movie. To my surprise the third hangover movie wasn’t like the first two, it is more tame, less funny, and the way the movie unfolds is different too.

There is no wedding in Hangover III. No opening scene where Phil is making a call to a distressed bride stating they cannot find someone, no bachelor’s party where the wolf pack is drugged by Alan and no waking up to total chaos then running around trying to find your friend and figure out what happened. They simply are thrust into a bad situation and they have to find Chow, who is on the run, to get out of their dilemma. There is just too much Chow in Hangover 3, and I never liked Chow and I believe for that reason it wasn’t as funny as the two previous movies.

Even in the end they don’t find pictures and play them as the credits are rolling! I don’t understand why the third and last movie of Hangover should be that different. Interestingly, the very last scene of the movie is the very Hangover-y and suggests that maybe perhaps there is a fourth Hangover movie. If you ask my opinion I think the third movie should have started at that point. I’m not sure I’d want to watch it a second time when I was disappointed the first time I watched it but I might just buy it to complete the trilogy on my DVD shelves.

Visiting Bait Al-Outhman Museum – Part 2

Continuing my Visiting Bair Al-Outhman Museum post (post), one of the museum section is labelled the “Drama Museum” and its all about the “Kuwaiti Drama”. How so? One wall surrounding the covered courtyard resembles an old Kuwaiti souk with well known names of Kuwaiti merchants still operating like Al-Faris Jewellery and Al-Marshoud Arabian Perfumes. 

Check out the old blue plastic bag used by Al-Faris Jewellery! I remember shops using such bags in the 80′s.

The old grocery store, growing up I’ve heard tales on how a 250 fils allowance was enough to buy you some KitKat and Pepsi with change to spare from the grocery store in the neighbourhood. I guess they looked that way back then. Check out the old merchandise especially the old wooden crated filled with ancient soft drink bottles!

An old barber, I don’t know if there was a barber with the same name or it’s just a display.

Now this corner of the shops didn’t really exist in the old souks of Kuwait but it’s an exact replica of the one used in the popular Kuwaiti TV series “Darb Al Zalaq”, right down to Nabaweya Shibshib, dog meat cans, and the stock of only left-pair white sneakers. You have to watch it to understand it, quite hilarious actually. The covered white slabs are supposed to be blocks of ice imported and sold by breaking them into customer’s bowls upon request which is how they sold ice in pre-refrigirator Kuwait.

If you look up, you will notice a flying carpet with a woman and a man on top. This is a scene from the popular old operette “Bsat Al-Faqor” which happens to be my favourite operette where the actors ride a magic carpet to fly to different regions.

From the courtyard you go into a room that displays old relics and costumes used by actors in popular shows and plays of the past with pictures and shorts scenes of the costumes in action.

This is theeb thyab bnaider’s dishdasha from the 80′s Kuwaiti show “Rqaya and Sbeecha”. The yellow dress in the back belongs to Huda Hussein character ‘Shams Al-Shmoos’ in an old children’s play. I only remember the song, I can’t remember the play.

This is Nahash’s dishdasha from “Bye Bye London” play, my favourite Kuwaiti play of all time.

Next stop? The Kuwaiti Publications and Newspapers room! Wait for my next post tomorrow by god’s will or better yet, go visit the museum yourself and check it out personally, its worth the visit and the pictures in these posts don’t cover a quarter of what’s on display! The drama section alone can take one hour to go through.

Bait Al-Outhman Museum is located in Abdullah Al-Outhman Street in Hawalli and is managed by Kuwait’s Heritage Team. For more information you can contact them by calling +(965) – 69999760, emailing mawrothkw@gmail.com, following them on Twitter (@Heritage_Team), or on Instagram (@Heritage_Team). Stay tuned for post two of my visit to Bait Al-Outhman Museum.

Visiting Bait Al-Outhman Museum – Part 1

A year ago I’ve been driving in Hawalli when I saw a big old house with men wearing traditional guards costumes standing outside. As I got closer, I could make out the sign over the door, “Bait Al-Outhman Museum” it said in Arabic! I wanted to go inside but back then it was still not open to the public. A year later and finally my lovely friend Pink Girl passed by and reported back to me that it was open indeed and it was breathtaking. I adore everything historical therefore I wasted no time grabbing my camera and visiting the museum to check it out. 

The museum is located in Abdullah Al-Othman street in Hawalli, named after the same owner of the house-turned museum and you cannot miss it for it occupies almost a 10,000 m2 space of land and has a big parking long across the street from it with old cars from the Historical, Vintage & Classic Cars Museum of Kuwait (post).

This is just an introductory post by the way, for Bait Al-Outhman museum is very vast and filled with beautifully renovated rooms and historical artefacts. I almost filled up an entire memory cards with photographs and there will be around four more posts to cover the rest of the museum. Now, entry to the museum is not free but its quite cheap. 1 KD only at the door and you get to spend as long as you want roaming inside. It took us hours to go through the entire museum, here are our tickets.

When you get the tickets you are given a brochure explaining about the museum and its history with a museum map on the back. The museum was renovated and put together by the Kuwait’s Heritage Team and they did a spectacular job preserving an old run-down house into a pride-worthy historical account of the heritage of Kuwait. Something we seriously lack in Kuwait and would love to see more of.

The first thing you see as you pass by the ticket gate is the big area which once must have served as the courtyard of Al-Outhman house built in the traditional Kuwaiti style architecture with big courtyards and smaller rooms surrounding the central courtyard, long round arches decorating the corridors, wooden ceilings, dotted yellow and green floor tiles, and wooden doors and windows with black metal bars and flower patterned glass panes.

There is a small cafeteria by the entrance managed by Bazza Cafe which I personally think is the perfect choice for the museum’s cafeteria. However, Bazza Cafe is not open yet but there is a Bazza cafe waiter roaming around with an Arabian Coffee Dallah -flask- handing little cups of very good aromatic Arabian coffee to tired museum guests.

Now a few more pictures before the end of the post, all from the main courtyard. First, these two green chairs are the old-style Kuwaiti “koosha”. A Koosha is where a bride and groom sit on their wedding night while watching the wedding celebration around them. I love that shade of green and the koosha is right at place in the corner of the biggest courtyard of the house where weddings must have taken place in the past.

I can almost hear wedding songs and smell the bukhoor as I took the pictures of the koosha. Once upon a time people lived here, this was their home and a wedding must have taken place with songs and food and dressed up women happily dancing and clapping. Do you get that feeling, like you can play the past lives of the previous occupants in history in your mind’s eye as you visit an old place? I always do and that’s particularly why I love museums and historical sites.

Now for the first display: the Kuwait Airways corner! Check the Air Stewardesses’ uniforms!

I think one of these outfits were designed by the Italian designer Balenciaga, the far right one if I’m not mistaken. Check out the retro orange mini dress that looks right out of an Austin Power movie, did they actually wear that on the plane? Groovy!

I also like the 1985 uniform with the traditional black and gold Kuwaiti thoub on top of a black thoub. Very traditional indeed though I can’t imagine it worn by flight attendants.

What do you know, they did wear the thoub over the uniform after all! Very nice, I never knew that! Plenty of other relics from Kuwait Airways to see in that corner, including pictures of the old Airport which was located in Al-Nuzha area.

Going out of the Kuwait Airways display I found this old mail box in a corner. Battered and rusty yet beautiful still.

Look at the picture below and imagine how we now use the mail and the phone through a single tiny device called the smart phone! The world’ve come a long way since the 60′s indeed.

Next stop? The Kuwaiti Drama Museum! Wait for my next post tomorrow by god’s will or better yet, go visit the museum yourself and check it out personally, its worth the visit.

Bait Al-Outhman Museum is located in Abdullah Al-Outhman Street in Hawalli and is managed by Kuwait’s Heritage Team. For more information you can contact them by calling +(965) – 69999760, emailing mawrothkw@gmail.com, following them on Twitter (@Heritage_Team), or on Instagram (@Heritage_Team). Stay tuned for post two of my visit to Bait Al-Outhman Museum.