Passed by lagoona mall and it’s now open. A few shops are open so far but I thought you’d like to see what it looks like.

Click here for pics

Here’s a nice example of a positive experience from a company in Qatar. While driving back from a very poor experience at a restaurant (which will soon be reviewed at Dine out Doha), I had passed by a building that was right opposite of Blue Saloon and next to Regency Travel, it stood out because it looked modern, had some colorful lights on it and Rogers Diner grabbed my attention.

I drive up to the car park and parked round back. The good news is that they’ve got underground parking by the way! I know! I was pleasantly surprised myself. Walking into Patchi (a chocolate gift shop), I walked through a marble doorway and the first thing I see in front of me is this huge wall of colorfully wrapped chocolates. First impressions? This feels more like Japan than Qatar. Great to see someone stepping up standards.
A man came up to me and offered me some arabic coffee. To my right was the their silver-ware and glass ornaments, and to my left was special packaging for children and special occasions. Near the center were individual peices of chocolate on glass pedistal.

The general manager came up to me and Read the rest of this entry »

I just wanted to let you guys know of a brand new site launched by H.U.G. called ShipMyPad.com

If you’re looking for an iPad to be delivered to Qatar (since Apple doesn’t allow shipping Aramex forwarders anymore), and you don’t want to pay extortionate prices (shops are selling them for 4,500 QR for a 32GB wifi iPad) and would prefer to pay something reasonable like 2,700 QR -3,300QR (depending on the model), then this is the site to get it from.

It’s also delivered via special delivery and insured so it’ll be received in 3-7 working days

Enjoy!

If you know Mr. Q, you know he loves Apple products. Wait, why am I talking like that…?

Apple’s designs are amazingly simple and at the end of the day, ILQ shares the same love for simplicity. We’re trying to make things look as simple as possible for our users.

So I now need a great case to protect my iPad and make me look like… a.. man in a…. thobe with an ipad in a…. case…. (I couldn’t think of anything smart to say alright?!)

Searching on Google, I couldn’t really find a nice collection of cases (especially slim ones) so I took it upon myself to provide you all with…..

So click on to read more!

Read the rest of this entry »

Oh Apple why do you do this to me? Where’s the company that inspired us all to ‘Think Different’. If an Apple employee ever reads this, shrugs, and says “Yeah right”; it’ll be a true tragedy.

So I had ordered some iPads from the US store to be sent back home to me here in Doha. Most stores don’t send internationally, so Aramex’s Shop&Ship’s service comes in handy. For those that don’t know Aramex, it’s basically the Arabian FedEx, but more importantly, it’s our link to the West’s fantastic world of shopping.

What Shop&Ship gives you is a US and UK address so that you can order stuff online, send it to your new address and they’ll forward it off to you.

Sadly though! After ordering everything for the Apple store, I just received an email telling me that they don’t ship to P.O.Boxes OR Forwarders. They also told me that I had a day to change the address or the order would be cancelled. What’s more, they’re enforcing a ‘two per person’ policy.

*sighs* why oh why.

Anyway, so I posted on twitter and facebook that I needed a US address and luckily I had 9 people offer to help out. (Thanks everyone!) but the point is, I’m almost tempted to just cancel my order and give up on Apple…

*twiddles thumbs*

Edit: Want an iPad shipped to Qatar or anywhere?! Visit www.shipmypad.com and grab an iPad. (It’s around 1,000 QR cheaper than most shops in 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’m so excited whenever Apple wants to announce something. They hardly disappoint (except when they don’t actually announce something except for a software update). At the moment, Apple’s done a great deal of rumour mongering (whomever thinks that the rumours are not planned doesn’t know Apple’s game).

So what are people saying? Some are point to a touch screen device (a giant iPhone), some are saying that there’ll be a new iPhone announced, some are saying it’ll be just a 4.0 update announcement, some are saying they’ll be either adding something to iLife or updating it.

We’ve seen people using words like iSlate, iPad, and iTablet when refrencing this new device. Mainly because Apple registered all three words. My opinion is that it’s probably a decoy. I’m not saying there wont be a device, I’m just saying that there might be another name. iPad sounds too much like iPod, iTablet is a mouthful, and the Apple iSlate could be an inside joke ‘Apple is late’. Apple’s always been late in the game but they’ve always done something fantasmagoric.

Let’s see what happens in a week though when it’s time to announce it!

Someone dropped me an email today and I thought that a lot of people might want to benefit from this.

Here are the names of some fish and their arabic names

Grouper – Hamour
White Sea bass – Karoos
Red Snapper – Nahash Ahmar
white Snapper – Nahash Abyadh
Red Tuna – Tuna
Sea Bream – Shiboot

Other tasty fish are:

Chanad
Safi (delicious but small)

What are your favourite fish in Qatar?

Fish in Qatar – Species and Names in Arabic (Original Thread)

The iPhone is out! You can grab it now at any VF store! (They give you like 300mb for free and all customers get that until the end of September!)

Read news here

http://iloveqatar.net/forum/read.php?28,9743

I’m not the type of guy who likes to plug in advertisements or commercials on his blog, but I just had to mention this awesome offer, only because a) one of ILQ’s goals is to help visitors save money and b) I wanted to show the power of competition.

Vodafone’s offering a special promotion where you can call ANYWHERE in the world for only 50 dirhams a minute! That’s amazing! That’s the same price as a local call!

More info here http://iloveqatar.net/forum/read.php?28,9001