I had a long weekend this past – three days and no reason to come into the office. So mostly I slept, went to the gym, slept, ate, watched movies, and slept.

Welcome to Kuwait. Too hot. Too dusty. No activities.

I DID however make it out to the new Mall. Yes – just what we needed out here – more conspicuous consumption. The place is called the “360 Mall” because it is round. It’s out near the airport and I have been watching it grow since I got here. The Mall is not quite done. You first drive into a construction site and they haven’t created a good traffic flow just yet. I think I went through three traffic circles just to go 100 yards. I was worried about finding a parking space as dozens of SUVs were parked in a nearby dirt lot… as well as on curbs, behind cars, in fire lanes and any other bare spot they can find. However, this is just the way Kuwaitis drive. Inside the actual parking area – there were plenty of spaces.

As I said – it’s not quite done. Though it looks nice from the outside, the entrance is surrounded by small, decorative pools of water. The water has been sitting for some time and the mosquito population is beginning to bloom. Inside only a few of the chic, high-end boutiques were open. The rest are still under construction. But most of the food shops were active – from McDonald’s and Krispy Kreme to TGI Friday’s and Wagamama. The lower level has a large supermarket (same old stuff as everyone else) and a Toy’s R Us (which I think is the first in Kuwait). The BIG news is that the Mall sports TWO large glass sculptures by none other than Dale Chihuly! I thought they were his, but there was no mention anywhere near the sculptures. However, a quick buzz of the Interwebs bore me out. It does lend a little class to what would otherwise be just another mall.

However, the purpose of the trip was to go to the movies. This would only be the third time in Kuwait. The new cinema in the 360 has eleven screens – one of them IMAX. Yes – I can go see “Transformers 2” in head pounding IMAX sight and sound (IMAX makes me nauseous). Instead I saw the new Harry Potter. Which was good – not very action-packed, but well done and nice to look at. And censored. Kissing is not allowed on the screen in a Muslim country. Dismemberment? Okay. Love? Bad. Even the puppy-love that comes with a PG-13 flick. I probably wouldn’t mind so much if they hadn’t performed the editing with a dull butter knife. Esthetics and the Ministry have never met.

But at least I got out of the house…. Briefly.

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