recently i was asked to be the photographer at a friends wedding, she wanted me to take photos of her henna as well as the zafah (wedding).

i don't have the best of luck when it comes to my cameras, for some bizarre reason things keep happening to my cameras. my first camera was a Nikon, absolutely fantastic camera, my dad borrowed it when he went on holiday to Greece, it ended up in the wrong hands, i.e stolen from my dads back pack.

so of i went and bought another camera, a Fuji fine pix, my Bangladesh shots where made by that camera, in October my mum was heading of to Dubai and requested to borrow my camera, so i handed it over, 10 days later my mum is back safe and sound,as for my camera, well lets just say that it some how landed at the bottom of a fountain in one of Dubai's hotels ????????

my poor mother was traumatised so she bought me a camera as a replacement, a Sony, now I'm particular about my cameras, it takes me a while to buy one as i review it, check out the pros and cons, test it out etc... before finally buying it, i couldn't this time as my mum had made the choice for me, i smiled, took the camera and plugged it into the charger.

between October and now, the camera has been functioning okish, its not what i would have chosen but its functional, so of i headed to the henna, and began to take pictures of the future bride, just before they started the ritual that is henna, my camera went on strike and decided it wanted to commit suicide, thus preventing me from taking any more photos, and unbelievably not a single person in the room had a camera on them!!!! my camera is stuck to me like glue, you never know when it could come in handy.

so unfortunately i wasn't able to take any photos of the henna.

the wedding was 2 days later, i borrowed 2 cameras from friends and went to the wedding hall, the bride entered and i began to take snap shots of her, she was walking slowly to the sound of specific bridal entrance music, people where sat from both sides and she was walking amongst them on a white carpet, i was ahead taking snap shots from all angles, walking backwards, walking walking walking not realising there was a a huge vase with flowers directly behind me as part of the decoration.

no one warned me, what ended up happening was i fell backwards due to stumbling over the vase, the vase topples over, smashes to a thousands pieces, the flowers scatter everywhere, white african is on the floor, camera still in hand, the brides mother is looking horrified, every one is watching, pointing, whispering, my mother is hiding under the table, the bride isn't even aware that anythings happened lol.

i had 2 options either get up, run away and never be seen again in the Manchester community OR get up, smile and continue to take pic, i chose option 2, but i did have the courtesy to apologise to the mother of the bride who responded 'khadit sawha'.

so yeh again i fell, i swear the floor seems to have some sort of attraction for me as I'm constantly falling, although i have to say in my defense i was wearing a long abayah and had heels on.

isn't it so annoying when some one is in a mood and they instantly spoil your own mood because of the intense messed up mood of theres.

you could be having a perfectly fine day up until you sit with a person who is in a foul mood and there mood rubs onto you so by the end of the day you finding yourself being all grumpy due to some one elses mood, how messed up is that!!!

whats worse is when they wont talk about it, theres only so many times you can say: 'is every thing ok?' and when they say fine you just want to bash them over the head with an inflatable iron because clearly there lying because the the whole world and its dog knows that some thing is up.

then later you get accused of not giving a damn!!!! well excuse me, but when i asked you a zillion times whats up? you told me nothing, so it took it to mean that NOTHING was up...

NOOOOOOO im supposed to read between the lines, i didn't realise im supposed to be telepathic, see im one of those people who cant jamil (i dont even know what the english word for this is, but its basically when you go over the top with politeness and asking if a person is ok, help me out bloggers what is the english word for mujamalah?) i might ask a person 3 times but then i feel stupid for continuously asking, so i will just say 'im here if you need me for anything' and thus leaving the ball in there court.

but some people need to be asked a trillion times before they finally break the ice and confess whats eating them up,

you know what really gets me as well is when they admit somethings up but say 'its not you, its just that i have issues at the moment' ok fine we all have issues but the fact that you have chosen to be in my presence i.e met up with me, means that you want to change your mood, you want your mood up lifted, now i am going to try my best to achieve this but please for the love of god its a 2 way thing, help me out with at least a smile, a sort of laugh, but to fold your arms through out and sulk and not say 2 words in an hour is slightly pushing it, what do you want me to do jump up and down and dance the Copacabana?

human moods are such funny things, why do we have them?

i learnt something new today that i would like to share with the blogging world.

its probably the best advice you might receive today, cherish it you never know when it can come handy.

its common sense really...

basically....

if it has ever crossed your mind...

even for a milli second..

to wear high heels when its icy outside...

DON'T EVER DO IT.....

best advice i can give for today..

don't be a whitelibyanafrican this winter and wear heels,its sure to make you look a fool if you do ;0)

tomorrow will be arafat, this time last year i was with 5 million others performing hajj, i cant believe that a year has passed, subhannallah!!!

i feel a sense of sadness for not going this year, that may sound selfish but believe me once you have tasted hajj then your heart yearns to perform hajj each year.

usually I'm not a t.v watcher, i don't really care for it, Arabic or English channels, but this year each time i walk past the television and if there showing anything to do with hajj then i find myself staring at the screen, and i could stand there for half an hour absorbed with the scenes unfolding on t.v.

oh how i wish i was there.....

inshallah i intend to fast tomorrow.

so much has happened since i came back from hajj, time flies yet so much change can occur, i pray that Allah swt grants us all the chance to perform hajj.

eid mubarak to you all, may you have a blessed eid full of happiness and la7am mmmmmm.

the other day me and tawhida where walking towards the mosque in town having a general chit chat, we turned round the corner, when i noticed that one of the buildings was being renovated, the whole front of the building was purely window, ie glass, so we could see what was happening inside, the builders must have gone home but what they left behind, to me, was what being British is all about :))))

the good old cup of tea!!!

cant live without it, put the kettle on and you receive instant relaxation, i love it...

why oh why is it so hard to wake up in the morning?

the initial process of opening the eyes when the alarm goes of is agony to the eye lids, but whats worse is processing the thoughts to your legs to get them to get out of bed!!!

you begin by sending messages to the legs but half way through your mind decides it doesn't really want to get up so the end result is half the body hanging of the bed with the head still stuck on the pillow aaaaaah.

and why is it time flies by when you don't want it to, the 5 minute snooze is more like a 2 second snooze, one of the most annoying sounds to be heard is the sound of the alarm, pretending to ignore it doesn't work because it gets louder and louder until you have to get up and shut it up.

life would be more easier if getting up in the morning wasn't such a chore...

or if we functioned through our dreams, now that would be cool, sleeping yet dreaming that your wroking, kill 2 birds with one stone, hmmmm now which drug on the market gives this affect.....

why does the weekend fly past at a speed of a squirrel being catapulted into the air? why? and the week goes by slightly slower, but today is Thursday, tomorrow is Friday and the weekend begins again :))))

anyway the issues raised this past weekend was smoking

i was basically walking past a corner shop fiddling with my mp3, when i noticed some one was talking to me, i looked up to see a teenage girl, you know the look, huge hooped ear rings, geled down hair with a pony tail, track suite bottoms, etc...

i hadn't heard what she had said so i said 'excuse me'

to which she replied 'can you buy something for me?' waving a five pound note in my face.

'what would you like me to buy?' i said

'pack of 10 ciggs, please' with a look of desperation on her face.

to which i said 'fraid not, i wont do it'

she walked away upset but within 2 seconds had found another 'adult' to ask, and from the looks of things he didn't mind getting her what she wanted.

see things like this irritate me, the fact that certain so called adults will buy ciggs and alcohol to under aged 'children', with out a care in the world.

the shop keepers are sticking to the law (not all of them) but many adults wont blink an eye lid to buying these products to juveniles. its disgusting behaviour...

the lack of responsibility and the failure of being an example to the youngsters is seriously frightening, the fact that decent role models are quickly diminishing in our societies is a scary thing to ponder on.

role models is an extremely important element, as humans its natural to look up to some one, especially a person that you admire, but if the persons qualities are questionable then admiration can be a dangerous thing that can have drastic affects on others around.

i think next time i see an adult buying such things for children then defiantly i will report them..