With all the updates going on at ILQ, I thought it was about time we tweaked the blog a bit.

On the right hand side, you’ll now notice a few changes. 1) There’s a tag cloud so you can find the most common tagged terms, there’s my twitter feed, and there’s the Qatar Events twitter feed.

For those who don’t know there are a few great ILQ powered Twitter channels.

QatarEvents – http://www.twitter.com/qatarevents

It’s updated with the latest events and happenings in Qatar.

QatarNews – http://www.twitter.com/qatarnews

Grab important news from a variety of sources related to Qatar.

I’ve been on the hunt for some indoor plants and some pots to match my house for a while now. I finally was lead to a great strip that has a wide selection of plants. Most of them are low maintanence as well!

So here are the places I’ve found:

1) Gardenia – Located on the road which leads up to Applebees, BK, Hardees etc.. and opposite of La Cigale Hotel.
Their plants are quite reasonable in price but their pots are crazily expensive! A large stainless steal was going for 950 QR!

2) The plan shop in Al Asmakh mall. It’s located on the second floor on the right corner of Home Center. They’re quite expensive in my opinion.

3) The Plant strip. Coming from Ramada on Salwa Road, once you hit Decoration roundabout, take a left. You’ll be heading towards Aramex (on the right). Once you hit the round about, turn right. Once you hit the next roundabout, turn right. You’ll find around 6 nurseries with a great deal to choose from. Shop wisely as prices can vary! Delivery of plants is free and remember to always ask for a discount after asking the price of each plant and once they’ve tallied up the total price!
THIS is the place to go for reasonable prices and a variety of choices.

I just thought that I’d share this URL with everyone http://www1.internationalliving.com/qofl2010/

Give it a peek. It’s the International Living standards database. They rate the final score based on cost of living, leisure & culture, economy, environment, freedom, health, infrastructure, risk &safety and climate.

Long story short: Qatar is ranked 130. A few countries that ranked HIGHER include, Nepal, Namibia, India, China, Ghana, and Vietnam.

Where Qatar’s rank was pulled down was in Climate, Infrastructure, and Freedom.

What do you all think? Should Qatar really be ranked that low. (I personally agree that the three they ranked low on were correct.)

Two tweaks have been implemented onto ILQ recently and I just wanted to share them.

1) The menu bar on the left is now compact! We’ve added a cool accordian menu style that shrinks after 2-3 seconds of being expanded. If it detects that you like clicking around on links that are usually hidden, it’ll stay expanded. What’s better? iPhone friendly!

2) We’ve added a new list on the main page that shows you what the current events, latest news, latest threads, and guides are in Qatar! Now you can go clickity click and you’re there in a …. click..

If you’ve got your own ideas, share them with me! Now get going to http://www.iloveqatar.net

And here you go! iLoveQatar.net’s teamed up with Vodafone for another fun event to make Qatar a happier place. What better a team than two companies who just want to make Qatar a better place! In fact, I think it’s quite suitable for me to use this japanese smiley face —>   ^_^

So for today, at the W hotel and Marriott, all guests will be greeted with a rose and a message from our hearts. On the 18th of February you’ll find ILQ and VF on the Corniche and at the Pearl. So come and claim your rose!

I wonder how many people will be able to take some awesome shots since there are so many photographers in Qatar.

iLoveQatar.net – Live Love.

I spoke at the IIC conference yesterday at Al Sharq Village and Spa. It felt good to be a part of a panel that had different topics to talk about. The beauty of it all though, we all flowed! Each presentation melded into the next. It’s quite luck to have that happen with 5 different presentations in a row.

I met up with some great people and we all shared our insights. Hope to meet them all again soon!

A great little invitation arrived at the ILQ offices yesterday. It was quite unique. It’s the type of thing that I expect from RedBull.

What appeared to be an ice-pack, contained a nice little flyer with a lanyard for entrance. Just goes to show that a little extra goes a long way.

If you’re interested in RedBull’s Crashed Ice – Click here