why is it that some people have to ruin your mood by saying something that is un-necessary and could have been a thought left in her mind rather than blurting it out aaaaaaaaaaaaagh.

i went to give my condolences today to family friends as the grandmother had passed away in Libya.

i walked into the hall (it was in the mosque) and saw about 25 ladies and obviously they have to give you the up and down look, and then you have to do the rounds (saying sallam to all) and every thing was running smoothly, nobody said anything negative to me, nobody put me down apart from the one comment about my pink socks, but that was ok as she had no taste ;) until i approached the last lady she just couldn't control herself, she had to say something horrible to me and i don't get it.....

why cant people keep the opinion to themselves, now if i had asked her for her opinion then that would have been another matter, but noooooooooooooo she had to force her opinion of me on to me, frankly I'm getting sick and tired of it so i kinda said to her 'fara7tee tawa?' (are you happy now?') to which she smiled and said cheekily ' yes i am' well i just wanted to pore the Arabic coffee all over her but being in a mosque that wouldn't have been appropriate plus the many Libyan eyes where watching and my mum would have been so shocked, so i walked away...

she spoilt my mood..

why cant people just read the quran, and do dhikir in these funerals rather than talk talk talk...

i was sent this image via email last night and i thought it was fantastic :))))
its called finding alternative means lol....

couple of weeks ago i took the year 7s to a Jewish museum and the year 9s to a Hindu temple as part of studying other faiths. OFSTED like to see evidence of pupils interacting with others from a different faith but as well as this we like to teach the girls about tolerance of other faiths and having respect towards others and these trips will bring an awareness and understanding to a certain extent of different faiths.

a rabbi speaking to the girls about the Jewish faith.
like mosques, synagogues are not allowed to have images of humans or animals so the stained glass windows are of nature, flowers, geometric shapes etc..
looking at the old scrolls...

the Hindu temple was a first for me as well...

the gods they worship in different forms ..
the priest showed us how he would pray, he began by blowing into a shell.
and chanted whilst moving the lit lantern in circular motions.

later he played some of the musical instruments much to the joy of the girls who probably thought they could sing along to as though performing for x-factor!

i was going to blog the usual eid mubarak etc.. but i wanted to bring to peoples attention the fact that in Libya, the government had ordered that the mosques be shut on eid day so that the people would not pray the eid prayer because gaddafi decided that eid would be on Thursday which we all know was the day of Arafat.

where does one start in trying to make sense of this!!!!!

i swear i thought that nothing could surprise any more when it came to Libya's disappointment in its leadership, but i was wrong again....

why would he do that? why?

no answer is enough to make sense.

the second eid (eid al adha) you cant get the day wrong, once Arafat is announced then eid follows, that has been the rule since Islam began, so who does this man think he is that he can change that rule? why is it that he continues to get away with his actions.

I'm so fed up of being continuously humiliated by him, the Libyans have had enough, and a light at the end of the tunnel, many of them refused this time to accept his demands and prayed eid prayer in a open field regardless of the on going threat.

so many people are saying the country's changing, its reforming, well i disagree, its not stable, and what a country needs most is stability, this is extremely lacking in Libya's case.

Ive always been one to be vocal in my opinion regarding this, and it is every Libyans right to express themselves but the years of oppression and fear have produced a nation that have become the silent walking, it is better to accept than kick up a fuss, and its understandable of them due to the reaction of the gove when a person does decide to talk.

but how long can this continue....

ok rant over.

eid mubarak...

more pictures of Syria, part2

outside the mosque

shop window for party dresses, ghastly...
whistle seller
traditional drink street seller
graves
hamam, open all hours..

restraunt with dancing dervishes.
thabits obsession with trampolines was taken over to syria as well.
the gathering of the cats
prickly pear stall, these where every where..
we went to homs for a day trip and i saw this little boy having fun with an empty drink bottle and water, the simple pleasures inlife :)
breakfast at a friends house in homs
we went to a castle in homs and this was the view from the entrance,
view from one of the windows
some of the art work in the castle
grumpy..

it takes sooooooo long to upload all the pic on to blogger but i was patient :) so here are samples of the syrian holiday, it was such a brilliant time spent with my family :)

i guess its too early in the morning for tabet, breakfast at manchester airport..
duty free in istanbul airport, 6 hours transit killerrrrrrr
the leader bashar al asad not in the flesh of course but his pictures are every where in syria, i guess like most arab countries its compulsary to plaster there face in all buisnessess as well as street corners like the above.
the shrine of ruqayayh the daughter of al hussain, they have built a huge mosque around her shrine sponsored by Iran.
inside her shrine.
the ommayad mosque minaret
in the courtyard of the mosque.
this is the tomb of prophet yahya's head (john the baptist), the story goes that his head was a request for mahr from a woman who hated prophet yahya.
inside the tomb.
inside the mosque, the feeling was so nice, kids playing, people resting, praying, contemplating etc..
stepping out into the courtyard, theres a building that has the above signes that translates to the 'tomb of the head of al hussain' the son of the great khalifah ali karam allah wajha. apparently the rest of his body is buried in cairo.
inside the tomb.

from the outside, thabit posing.
many people tie green ribbon around the railings of the tomb, i have no idea what this indicates, many where rubbing there scrafs and material on the tomb asking for blessings and cures for diseases, why ask the dead when one can ask allah?????
like this lady for example!!!
and this one..
rules and regulations of entering a mosque...
plastered on the mosque wall outside are many requests like the above 'kidney any one?'
the market opposite the mosque..
the holes in the ceiling are bullet holes from the french during the occupation.
round the corner from the great mosque is the tomb of salah al deen, the liberator of palestine, may allah have mercy on him, such a great man..
his tomb..

ok thats it for now, plenty more to come inshallah...