So one of ILQ’s forum users “Smoke” organized a nice little ‘Quiz night’ yesterday.

I thought I’d share a few photos of the crowd. People also won some nicely packed ILQ goodie bags!

Click here for more!

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!

Well I’m back! I wonder how many people missed my posts!

I have to admit that HongKong wasn’t as great as people made it out to be. I had a number of issues; a few of which were poor service and rudeness in shops. (I met some wonderful people too of course).

I had passed by Macau as well and stayed at the Wynn and to make a long story short, the lock in my room didn’t work, they had to fix the lock, the lock’s problem turned out to be bigger than they thought, I had to change my room, the room I was changed to was smaller, the lights stopped working at night, the ‘Tree of propserity” (which is one of the reasons I booked the Wynn), was down for maintanence, staff in the hotel were amazingly rude, and all I got at first was an apology and a bowl of fruit (two apples, an orange, a banana, and a guava….).

I told them that an apology means nothing and that I was going to write a letter to the management in US. After going out and coming back in, service was tremendously great… I was upgraded to an apartment suite, and even the managers carried my bags….  I was grateful… but still….

Having been upgraded on the final night pissed me off since all I got to enjoy was… well nothing much really since I went straight to bed.

HOWEVER, I have to say that the best hotel I’ve ever stayed in in my life is called The Mira. It’s amazing. Staff are fantastic and the design is gorgeous. It’s like the W Hotel, but it’s more stylish and you feel more personal. The staff go out of their way to make you feel at home. I wish we had a Mira in Qatar.

Anyway, going back go to Hong Kong. I had wanted to view some great fireworks and enjoy the new years, but sadly Hong Kong isn’t the place to go for new years. They don’t really have that much going on despite what some sites say. I’ve had first had experience (and so did a few others last year), and it’s nothing special. There are three places that have anything going on 1) The Harbour 2) TImes Square, and 3) Some park I forgot the name of.

The place to see fireworks is the harbour, so I went there to check it out. So I went ‘two hours’ in advance to get a good spot and the roads were already packed. As I was trying to pass through a mall entrance, staff stopped me and told me that I needed tickets… I asked how much and he told me $1,500. What?! No way! Then he told me they were sold out. “Screw that” I thought, and I decided to take another route. I asked a police man (from the many police there creating blockades) what was going to happen. He mentioned there would be a fireworks show that goes on for 4 minutes…..

Wait… 4 minutes… $1,500 dollars for 4 minutes. When I asked if I could go through, he said no because people have to pay. I was disappointed that it seemed that new years in HK was only for those willing to throw away money. New Years should be for everyone to rejoice…

“Screw that”, I thought again, I’m going to find another view since I don’t need to be so close to see the fireworks. Nope…. I was wrong.. Police had blocked every area where people could get a view of the fireworks. The streets were packed and full. It was an amazing sight. However many of them were very angry and I was worried for a moment there would be some sort of rebellion.

My lesson? HK is the last place to go for a New Year in Asia…

All in all though, I had a good time.

One of things that I’m very passionate about is taking care of the environment. Did you know that Qatar was the first country in the region to sign the Kyoto protocol? It’s a great step towards reducing our carbon footprint.

It takes very little for us to do our bit to take care of the environment!

Did you know that a white page takes around 72 watts to display? (of course if you’re using an LED backlit screen then you’re saving much more energy). I found out about this by Blackle, but since I set my homepage to my own custom page I thought I’d do the same!

So to do my part, I’ve gone and created an energy efficient Google page. You can find it by going to http://www.iloveqatar.net/search/black.html (I’ll be adding Hotmail, Gmail, Yahoo, QMail, and a few other quick links to it soon)

Yep, it’s just Google with a black background. It also comes with a nice light up ILQ heart.

So go ahead and set it as your homepage and save some precious juice!

I was pretty happy today to see ILQ in the newspaper

You can read the article here

http://iloveqatar.net/forum/list.php?5

ILQ’s gone through some amazing updates for all of you supporters!

Brand new events list
Get the latest events in Qatar! We search high and low to make sure you know what’s going on before its in the newspapers and it’s too late!
Qatar Events

Developments!
Our developments section is unrivaled. Find the latest projects going on in Qatar!
Qatar Developments and Projects

Exclusive News!
Get news before it’s in the newspaper or even days in advance! ILQ’s always trying to catch exclusive to keep you in the loop the moment it happens!
ILQ News

Classifieds!
We’ve relaunched our classifieds so that they’re now the most easiest classifieds to use! It’s still in beta but we’re working hard to make it smooth and look good!
Qatar Classifieds

Discounts!
Get exclusive discounts on places like Barzan Digital, Lovesac, King Koil, Dr. Hassan’s medical center, and more!

Competitions!
There are THREE competitions coming up soon!
Win a free Fatman Dock worth 4,000QR
Win a free dinner for two (three winners)
Win a free ILQ Gift bag!

Charities!
Our latest focus is with Road Safety! Let’s make Qatar’s roads safer and take a more proactive role!
Join us and participate!

Remember, ILQ’s purpose to make Qatar a better place, so why not join us and help!

There’s so much that we’re doing and we truly hope that we’ll be able to help all of you enjoy your life in Qatar!

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

Click here for more!

Think Pink was a great success yesterday. iLoveQatar.net has been seriously involved in ensuring that the event received as much coverage as possible. It’s all about Breast Cancer awareness. Over 400 people showed up and the event was fantastic. Karen did a great job (the founder).

I was slightly disappointed that the media did not even bother to mention ILQ’s involvement (although you would have thought it would be clear with the ILQ banners). I think that they don’t realize the importance of mentioning sponsors. It encourages sponsors to actually ‘sponsor’. *sighs*

I sponsored this event because I felt it was important. My grand mother, God rest her soul, died of a rare form of cancer. She was the only one awake when I went off to uni and travelled to the UK for the first time many years ago. She was the best. I also sponsored the event to show that it’s not something people can take lightly. Many people suffer from it and we’re inching ever closing to finding a better cure.