I’m sure that this national day is going to be a big one! With us winnning the 2022 World Cup as hosts, Qatar will probably want to show how awesome it can be.
Be warned though, if you are anywhere near the corniche, you’ll be stuck for a good couple of hours as people drive down on packed lanes, dancing, cheering, and waving flags.

Usually the westbay area has huge led screens showing different shows and arab celebrities (for those stuck in traffic and unable to watch the show on tv), trees are lit up with in themed colors (last year was purple and yellow), signs drip with led lights, banners and flags are waved all over the place and people parading to enjoy the festivities.

Around 6pm is when you should get on the corniche. That’s where you can see the sound and light show and enjoy the fireworks display. If you are lucky, you’ll also be able to get a table at Al Mourjan and enjoy some delicious food, desert, and if you’re partial to it, have some sheesha.

It’s going to be cold as usual, so make sure you come wearing a jacket. Last year was so amazingly cold and since the corniche is by the sea, I can assure you that you’ll regret not bringing something warm to wear.

So if you’re looking for a great guide to the events around Qatar (not just the official ones), visit http://www.nationalday2010.com You’ll find a bit of information about the history of Qatar, various events, some downloads, and you’ll also find some funny videos made by Qatar’s first Qatari comedian (and ILQ Ambassador), Mohammed Kamal! Thanks to Vodafone for helping ILQ put all this together. (To other companies, if you’re willing to partner up with ILQ and help us do other awesome stuff, please drop me a line!!)

Don’t forget to sign up to the ILQ newsletter. Registration on the site!

I thought I’d make a list of tweeters to follow. Now this list is based on people’s tweets that I enjoy reading and I find useful. It’s important to follow people that you enjoy following and dont spam your feed with either garbage or repeat posts. I’m going to go ahead and divide them by category too.

People:

@expatcookie – Fun tweeter

@sknox40 – Fun tweeter

@qatarvisitor – Posts some great articles.

News:

@qatarnews - A news aggregator that collects news from many different sources on everything related to Qatar. Including The Pen, GT, Arabian Business, BBC, etc…

@dohanews – Not only does Dohanews post Qatar related news, but I enjoy reading interesting chit chat and its not all Press releases!

@peninsulaqatar – The Peninsula Newspaper’s twiter

Events:

@qatarevents – Your daily fix on events happening in Qatar

@qatarhappening - Qatar Happening magazine’s twitter feed. They cover a lot of dining events.

Qataris:

@hndqtr – Qatar’s first female Comedian

@nazqatar – Just enjoy reading his tweets from time to time

@osamaalassiry – A fellow Qatari geek

@iloveqatar – that’s me!

@nawafalthani – Always finding out some cool Qatar news from this guy

@roosnamla – A Qatari sports nut. He knows where the best sporting spots are

@ahmedalbaker – A Qatari movie producer that’s working on Qatar’s first 3D movie!

Misc:

@dohafilm – The Doha Film Institute’s twitter channel. DFI is the company responsible for the Tribeca Film Festival too.

@greatdohafind – The idea is that this person tweets ‘gems’ that he finds around Qatar.

Sorry if I’ve left you out. This is off the top of my head right now.

Want to get on the list? Leave a message in the comment section below!

I’ve got some great news to share with everyone. MTV and Nickelodeon are ILQ’s new partners and supports. I got to know them in London after working on a number of different projects and meeting up with a few British people who wanted to help take ILQ’s vision to the next level! So we invited them over here to take a look at the developing nation that we call Qatar and to show them what we’ve been up to.

Besides being fantastic, positive and energetic people, they love what ILQ has been doing and support us all the way! So a very big thank you to these two networks and inshallah we’ll be able to bring some very fun and exciting stuff to Qatar.

Who’s excited?

Although I’m ill with a cold. I figured I’d be a bit more productive than just laying around watching tv. Tomorrow is the ILQ team meet-up so I figured I’d at least have a nice web update to share.

You can now view the spotlighted events on the front page. Besides the list of events, we’ll be highlighting major events or events that are special to ILQ.

We’ve also gone ahead and added a newsletter sign up box to the left of the site! (I’ll be adding one to the right on blog).

Want to sign up? Just click on this link and it’ll take you to the sign up page.  It’s called The Buzz http://eepurl.com/-WUE

Don’t worry, you won’t get spammed and we will never share your email address with anyone. You’ll get a monthly digest from ILQ that lists events that are coming up, note worthy blog and forum posts and maybe a few vouchers or offers here and there!

You heard me, there’s no excuse not to do something this Friday (unless you’re not in Qatar like me).

So what’s going on?

1) Red Bull’s Double Kick in partnership with Vodafone – Besides some great music, fun and games, you’ll also be able to grab some fantastic freebies! Be sure to stop by the Vodafone and ILQ booth!

2) Global DJs present DJ Goldfinger in partnership with iLoveQatar.net

3) Gold Circus

4) Got a few moments? Vote for Nouf and help support Qatar! Philadelphia Cheese has a small competition going and it would be great if you could help support Nouf! Visit http://www.spreadphiladelphia.com/story.php?id=98

If you’ve got something going on this Friday, let ILQ know!

Interested in some fun on the beach? Well Red Bull in partnership with Vodafone and support from the InterContinental and iLoveQatar.net are bringing you a fun event called Double Kick.

Teams will be competing to scores goals on the beach and the fancier the trick, the more points the team gets.

Besides that, there’ll be food, drinks, music, and some fantastic ILQ and Vodafone freebies!!

Stop on by!

More information here http://iloveqatar.net/forum/list.php?27

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

Well we’re busy running around and creating a great events list. We’ll have a great little suprise for everyone soon.

More importantly, ILQ and Vodafone have teamed up for a fantastic event at Aspire park. There’ll also be details released very soon.

So get ready to have a fantastic National Day!

More here

UPDATE! This site is ready! It has a complete list of events for what’s happening, including ILQ and VF’s own event at Aspire! I’ll cover more of that tomorrow

Visit http://www.nationalday2009.com

Just thought I’d mention that if you’re looking for Halloween Event in Qatar then head on down to ILQ’s events section. If you’ve got your own event going on, be sure to share it with us all as well!

Qatar Events <—- Click there!

It’s Ramadan 2009! As usual there’s a great list that’s constantly being updated to let you know about the Ramadan events! Why not head over to a tent and enjoy the Qatar Tent Events! Yes! I’ll call this…. *updates title* Tents and Events!

Click here to go to Qatar Ramadan Event Guide 2009