Qatar Airways have been busy updating their site to make that little bit better. Hey! Who knows, perhaps ILQ will be influencing some change.
I just noticed that their new ‘Send to Mobile’ option is now active on the online check in section. I selected iPhone 3g as my model and it gave me a link with this.
All you need to do is show this at the gate. That’s your ticket! Pretty nice.
You’d think we live in an age of tolerance, understanding, and where stereotyping shouldn’t happen (especially since we’re all stereotyped) but that’s not the case.
It really annoys me that the Gulf-Times always wants to highlight where a person was from. The nationality of an individual should be additional information and not the headline.
Here are a few bits from todays news:
I personally believe it just stirs up hate and stereotyping. Sometimes it’s fine to highlight the fact of where someone was from just for the sake of highlighting, but professional news shouldn’t feel it’s necessary to ensure that everyone knows where they are from.
Rather than “Indian man kills pedestrian in road accident”. Why not “A pedestrian was killed in a tragic road accident. The driver, whom is from India, was driving a Kia” . I don’t know perhaps it’s all in the wording?
Yes sadly, I think that some nationalities are more prone to doing certain things than others (because of the norms) but perhaps it wouldn’t be necessary to highlight it?
It’s a confusing topic. What do you all think? Should nationality be mentioned in the news or not?
Just in case you ever wondered, this is how they get dressed up before going out.
Here’s a joke, Damac has said that there needs to be more transparancy in the market. (see here)
If we’re being honest and transparant, I’ve been waiting for hmm 5-6 months now waiting for my 10,000 QR to be paid back.
So yesterday was a day of Fog, today is an amazingly dusty day!
It started at 11 and the dust covered the city in literally a matter of seconds.
Let’s hope it snows tomorrow!
When we went out to take these photos I inhaled a good amount of this microdust, it was unbelievable. Believe it or not the time of these photos is 12pm
Sorry but I just had to mention this. This is an example of an article written the “WRONG WAY”. This one comes from The Peninsula.
Villa Gutted
Inmates of a villa in Al Hilal area had a providential escape as the part of a building gutted in fire due to a suspected short circuit, yesterday. It was a narrow escape for more than 20 resident living in the two storied villa.
Residents have noticed smoke emanating from a room in the second floor of the building at 7.00am and alerted the Police and fire fighters.
“Fire broke in side a room and smoke started spreading all over the villa around 7 in the morning. Every one was panicked and we quickly got out of the building,” said a resident.“Fire fighters rushed to the spot which brought the fire under control within an hour and investigations have commenced,” he added. Extensive damages are caused in a room in the villa which has 10 rooms.
1) Title leads reader to believe that the villa was ransacked
2) Inmates? The article should elaborate or else the wrong word was chosen. I do understand how some people feel they’re prisoners in their own home though
3) Fire’s cannot ‘gut’. Gut means ripped apart. The correct title should be Villa Fire-Gutted (IMO)
4) Grammar of first sentence is appalling
5) 2 story villa not storied. (I was corrected. Thank you adey.)
6) 20 residents not resident
7) Residents noticed
“On the second floor” not” in the second floor”
9) The final quote from a resident is too formal which means that either the resident is an official (which I doubt) or the quote was made up (tut tut).
10) Tense changes throughout the whole article.
11) The final sentence should have been included in the first paragraph.
12) Police capitalised but fire fighters not.
So my dear friends, that’s an example of a poor article. I don’t understand how that one got past the editor…
Note: I am not simply ranting, I personally know the editor. She’s fantastic and is working amazingly hard to improve the newspaper. I believe that it’s essential for people to highlight flaws and mistakes so that they can be improved just as some users on this blog are doing! It’s the only way we can learn. I’m also not a journalist myself, just a normal reader.
I just wanted to share a couple of bad experiences that happened yesterday. This is an example of how something going wrong can be resolved quickly 
I’m all pro-technology and simplifying life, however it seems that it only takes one mix up to mess up your whole day. I was booking a ticket online at Qatar Airways as usual after reaching the final page I get an error telling me that the page is down and that I should try again later. I give off a little *sigh*. As I’m about to start over my phone rings. I received an SMS. I look at the screen to see that I’ve been charged for the ticket! Nice! I’ve always wanted to be charged for nothing! Dream come true right now. Thanks to QNB’s sms system too for even letting me know!
I make a phone call to e-commerce sales which redirects me to a call agency in MUSCAT. Guess labour is cheaper over there. The woman gives me a Qatar switch board number in order to get in contact with the right guy. I call it. The guy on the phone, (who incidentally is also runner up to be Mr. Grouch of the Universe), gives me another number to call. I call it only to get connected to the FIRST woman. I’ve been given the run around.
Now I usually don’t get that stressed about a refund but this happened two weeks ago as well. I’m still waiting for a refund on both. I went over to the bank who told me no refund was initiated and in fact the payment two weeks ago was TAKEN.
My solution? Wait for a confirmation of reservation before charging the card. Yep, it’s that easy. The site just needs to wait if there are any errors before sending out a trigger to charge the card. That way, we don’t have to waste precious life minutes trying to chase up the refund.
On a side note, there are some friendly QA staff that are assisting with this as I type this but the point is, I should have never entered into this mess in the first place nes pa? That’s alright, I’m helping them out by providing a detailed list of suggestions to fix/change the site.
Time for a *BIG SIGH*
Check out the fog this morning.
These photos were sent to ILQ via email. I wish I knew who took these!
On a side note, do NOT have your hazard lights on for no reason! This isn’t the time! Have your dim or fog lights on! NOT the hazard!
You had a Driving License, Residence Permit, Work Permit, Alcohol Permit, and as if they weren’t enough cards to fill in your wallet you now need a ‘Fun Permit’. We covered this a while back. You can see a new article here
I think it’s absolutely stupid.
1) This is a way for them to keep tabs on certain people who go to clubs and to try and scare them away from entering once they see a membership is required. (A way of holding them back)
2) It wont affect anyone who would go anyway because people should be able to get an id card instantly at the door. (Take the photos then and there)
3) It will seriously affect tourism unless they make it an easy process.
4) Should help to keep tabs of trouble makers.
5) Will affect groups of friends going out (unless they allow signing up at the door).
I wish there was a law which said that with every new rule there must be justification. I wonder when we’ll need the Freedom Permit, Air breathing license, and Toilet Visa.
ILQ’s going to do what it did last year. On the 14th of February we’ll be sitting proud near the center of the corniche (by Orry) and giving the first 100 people we see a rose!
It’s valentine’s day and it’s time to feel loved! So if you want to come and get your rose, or even want to pick up a rose to give your special someone (yes yes we’ll help you with a small Valentines gift), come on over at 4PM!
Qatar’s definately a place where people love to share their hearts, last year many stores pulled out all the stops. See here.
Even Krispy Kreme is getting in on the deal with their heart shaped donuts!! So why don’t you think of a way to spread a bit of love!!
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