bank holiday weekend zoomed past in the speed of harry potter on a broom stick.

most of Saturday morning and afternoon was spent searching for face paint, every shop i went to seemed to have ran out of face paint, and i was beginning to panic as i had to get hold of some before Sunday as i was responsible for face paint at a charity craft fair.

hamdullilah when i had just given up hope i found a lady who happened to be selling them at a shopping centre, i swear i nearly hugged this lady, who bizarrely enough was dressed as a pixie!

any hooooo so Sunday came and i made my way to didsbury mosque where the craft fair was to be held, face painting is so cool, i used to love it as a child, i would collect my mums make up and draw cuts, bruises and scars all over my face, and all over my brothers face, one time my grandad was visiting and i had just finished painting a bruise on my eye which i have to say did look realistic from far, so i came up to my grandad (allah yar7mu) and said 'jadoo, shufut shin sar fee 3anee?' -grandad, have you see what happened to my eye?

to which he replied 'shinoo bintee?'

to which i said' dharabnee thabet fee 3inee, khalaha zargah oo imnfkhah kubrail dila3ah' - thabet hit me, and its gone blue and has swollen to the size of a melon'

so he reacts by shouting at thabet ha ha ha..

any way, the day began with face paints for the children and ended with a certain md hijacking the face paints and painting the adults faces, i swear i haven't laughed so much in a long time.

weary thank youuu so much for bringing tears of laughter to my face, that took guts to walk out the mosque with that face loooooool.

by the way can i just point out that for those people who say that my taste in shoes is questionable as well as weird, a little girl at the mosque fell in love with my sandals and i caught her wearing them so many times that i had to put them on the top shelf so she couldn't reach them, proof that others share my taste :)

hmmm interesting walk..

have you ever wanted something so much that your willing to risk the health of others in order to gain this want?

i know a lady who is pregnant and who is starving herself in a form of protest as she has been kept on a waiting list for accommodation.

she is not a happy bunny at the moment and she is determined to get what she wants from the council so she is black mailing them through her pregnancy, she refuses to eat, harming herself and her baby. now i don't know about you but i personally find this behaviour rather selfish and i get really annoyed when i hear things like this, i don't understand the concept of risking someones health for personal reasons!!!

if you want to do something to your body then so be it especially if your in the right frame of mind, i remember a couple of years ago a man protested about being sent back to his original country by sewing his mouth together to ensure starvation, not a pleasant sight but its his choice at the end of the day, and he was sane enough to come to that decision.

this lady on the other hand is in danger of damaging her baby (which by the way she does want to keep) for the sake of a 3 bedroom house, last time i saw her, she didn't look to good, and her health is getting affected, i mean when a woman is pregnant she goes through allot anyway usually needing iron tablets due to lack of iron in her body, dehydration sometimes due to vomiting, heart burn, aches and pain, the list can go on, so it doesn't really help matters when you starve your body from what it needs to make her survive as well as the baby growing in her.

she has every one bending over backwards because of this starvation business, and the sad thing is that no one is impressed by her actions, instead people are rolling eyes and expressing there disgust, the council have yet to comment, i don't think there buttons have been pushed far enough, clearly there not budging and inch and to be honest i don't blame them.

taken from www.shanghaidaily.com

THE man with the largest hand in the world will be looking forward to a normal life after undergoing radical plastic surgery at Shanghai No. 9 People's Hospital.

Liu Hua, a 24-year-old Jiangsu Province native, was born with a left thumb, index and middle finger much larger than normal.Liu was suffering from a rare disease called macrodactyly, a birth defect in which toes or fingers are abnormally large.

The cause of the disease is unknown but bone and soft tissue grows at an extraordinary rate.Liu's three fingers and arm grew dramatically as he grew older and this had a serious affect on his life and his ability to work.When Liu was hospitalized in Shanghai last month, his left thumb measured 26 centimeters, his index finger was 30cm and his middle finger 15cm. The overall weight of his left arm was about 10 kilograms.

"It was the biggest hand in the world," said Chen Zuliang, a hospital official. "Liu's fingers stopped growing in recent years so plastic surgery was at last possible to correct the malformation."On July 20 surgeons began a seven-hour operation to reduce the size of Liu's fingers and thumb. Doctors removed 5.1kg of flesh and bone in the procedure."This was the first stage. The patient will regain the use of most of his left hand after rehabilitation," Chen said. "A second operation is scheduled in six months to reshape his left arm and shoulder."

subhannallah, to think he lived with that hand for sooo long, alhamdullilah for what we have, i always complain about a small scar on my right pinky finger which occurred when i was washing dishes (i shouldn't as i have a habit of injuring myself each time) and i was even considering seeing a cosmetic surgeon to see if i can have it reduced, i decided a long time ago not to even bother, but when i saw this article, i remembered my foolishness over such a small thing as a scar.

seriosuly alhamdullilah.....

there is a misconception that after marriage, all woman gain weight, now this may be true to a certain extent, but what people fail to realise is that men also gain weight after marriage yet for some bizarre reason this is excluded from 'societies expectations'.

i think it really is unfair that the finger is pointed at the wife and not the husband, and even when it is mentioned, its usually through admiration, 'my isn't he content and healthy', 'lucky man, she must be a brilliant cook',

i googled the words 'gaining weight after marriage' and the results where 1,940,000 and i can guarantee the majority of websites are geared towards or are about woman, there was the occasional mention of men, in one website the article began in this manner 'MARRIED WOMEN AND men' looool so how come the woman gets the capital letters and not the man?.

one website gave these reasons for weight gain in married woman:

• You think you have found a partner for life, no need to attract him anymore.
• You need to let your hubby know that you are a good cook.
• You cook for the family, giving preference to their choice.
• You eat as much as your partner, talking and munching!
• You eat the left-over, trying not to waste food.
• Your partner encourages you to eat more showing that your extra fat is not going to turn him off.
• You want to be loved unconditionally, not happy with the marriage, feeling disrespected, rejected and unloved.
• Pregnancy occurs

well at least we have the excuse of pregnancy!!!! i just thought it was interesting, i was having a conversation with some one and even though we where jokingly commenting on reasons and what not, and at one point i had tears running down my cheeks from laughter as my imagination can get carried away, but at the end of the day i just want to point out that it can be both ways, men and woman.

another thing is when married woman point out to newly married woman 'my haven't you put weight on' and then have a full on conversation about the weight gain of the certain person, saying its a shame and what not, not realising themselves that they have no room to talk, literally.

anyway i always say so long as a person is comfortable in there own self, then whats the problem?

it's interesting how we can never be aware of certain things until some one points it out to you, otherwise it would never have really occurred to us.

the other day at work i was talking to an elderly English lady who had an appointment, she was sat down waiting to see the doctor and i do tend to have a chat with her when she comes in.

whilst chatting away, an Arab patient walks in and makes an appointment, talking to me in Arabic and of course i would reply back in Arabic.

when the Arab patient left, the English lady turned around to me and asked:

'so how long did it take for you to pick up the language'

at first i thought she meant the English language, and before i could answer she added:

'there language, how long did it take for you to learn that language that lady was talking to you in?'

to which i replied 'Arabic you mean?'

old lady: 'yeh, whatever it is'

me: well since a child really, my background is actually Arab'

old lady: 'what? your one of them?'

loooooooooool

me: yes.

old lady: 'i would never have thought it, I'm gobsmacked'

me: laughing 'whys that then?'

old lady: 'well, darling don't get upset or nothing, its just that whenever we come ere, your always offering us smiles and asking about us, and your all friendly like, and its always a pleasure to talk to you and to see you'

me: 'aaaaaaw thanks' (blush blush)

old lady: 'but what really gets me is sometimes when I'm sat here in reception, and there are a bunch of ladies talking in there language, i cant but help thinking that there talking about me, they would look over at me then turn to each other and start talking in there language, and i know your probably thinking there not talking about me but i cant help but think they are, and it really is one of my pet peeves, i cant stand it.

me: 'oh right, well no one likes to think there being spoken about'

old lady: 'yes well, i have spoken out before like the other day at the corner shop where every day for the past few months every time i walk in there, 2 Asian girls are doing exactly what i explained to you, and it reached a stage where i came up to them and said, listen young girl I'm old enough to be your mother! so if you have something to say to me then i would appreciate some common courtesy and say it to my face in a language i understand'

me: how did they take it?

old Lady: oh they where apologetic, telling me they meant no harm and that they weren't talking about me, but how am i supposed to know that.

now you could argue that this particular lady is one paranoid woman, or extremely nosy, but either way she does have a point to some extent, even in Islam it tells us that if there are 3 people in a room then don't whisper or talk quietly in front of the 3rd person for fear of making that person feel left out, feel that there being spoken about etc..

and we can easily do that in the presence of others through talking in a different language, and it can be frustrating.

i come from a circle of friends from many different backgrounds, and if i am with one friend who speaks Arabic and another who doesn't, then i wont speak Arabic, i will speak the language that we all share which is English so as not to make the person feel left out.

i thought it was interesting how this lady presumed i wasn't 'ethnic' due to the fact that i make an effort of 'smiling, talking to her in English, asking about her etc'.

we have to be aware of how we are seen by others.

does it not really disgust you to think who might have sat on the seat before you on the bus, or whether the person who touched the door handle before had washed there hands or not, especially the toilet door.

it doesn't help when you see such examples right in front of your eyes.

take the other day for example.

me and kitty where standing at the bus stop waiting for the wonderful 15 bus, as usual chatting about something or other (obviously intelligent conversations) when i noticed a sort of splashing sound next to me, so i turn ever so slightly to my right and low and behold there is a man urinating not far from where i was standing openly in front of all to see, amazingly people where looking out for the bus so no one noticed apart from me and i was in complete shock and only managed to turn around to kitty and say to her 'oh my god, did... did you just see that?' to which she made a disgusted look and announced that the bus was here.

but before we could actually board the bus, Mr. Urinate, decided he had first dibs on getting on the bus and not only that, decided to touch every single thing on the bus with his unclean hands, touching the door, the seats that he walked past, the metal poles, you name it he placed his fingers on it.

that's why it triggered the whole, 'who in the world sat in my seat before me?' thought.

some one should invent disposable covers for seats.

one way of de-stressing me is looking at my holiday photos, i get a sense of relaxation and calmness when i look at the captured memories.

whoever invented the camera should have a day of holiday dedicated to him.

so yeh I'm feeling tons better now, i kinda had a heart to heart with a certain person who was pressurising me in doing something that i wasn't totally convinced with and you know it wasn't as bad as i thought it might be, turns out the person was understandable and took it well, so thanks dearest bloggers for your kind words and advice, much appreciated.

any way back to Bangladesh, i love this part of the tour because it really did become so scenic, although getting up so high meant that i puked my insides out, but i can honestly say it was worth it. and as soon as i saw the trail up to the hotel then i knew it was gonna be an interesting night full of bamboo sticks.

the area we where visiting was called bandarban and the hotel was pretty cool, the only one in the area, its no longer allowed to build hotels in this area, this guy was lucky as he built it before the law took effect, it's basically bamboo huts, the best part was getting to the huts, especially in the dark, you have to watch your every step, creatures where lurking every where.

after resting and freshening up we where heading off again in the traumatising mini bus to the highest point in Bangladesh, again the views where fantastic and i managed to climb a tree so wahaaaaaaay:

check out this wonderful greenness, subhannallah:
we then headed to visit a tribal village, these people live a very simple lifestyle, it's easy to maybe fall into the trap of thinking that they probably envy us for the type of life style we live but i would honestly say that we envy there simplicity and contentment, look at how simple there home is:
we came across one of the men of the tribe:
as well as kids (the naked child is a very common sight to see)
interestingly it is the woman who is the bread winner and the man stays at home looking after the children:
after visiting the tribal village we continued to drive until we stopped to take photos of the beauty that is Bangladesh:

we then spotted those hard working ladies earning there living:
on our way back to the hotel we heard gushing water, and was told it was a water fall by the name of shaloprapat, a chance to dip our feet:
and a chance for me to capture more scenic views:
on the way back to the mini bus was a man playing a weird looking musical instrument:
back to the hotel for dinner where i completely made a fool of myself, but that's not really anything new now is it?.

ever been in a situation where you have your own methods of dealing with things but every one around you either expects you to deal in another way or pushes you to react how they want you to react?



its really frustrating and stressful, some times seeking advice can make things alot more worse lol.



and then you always end up having to upset some one because you didn't do as they expected, so instead of a feeling of release you feel trapped if that makes any sense.

i know most peoples intentions are in the right place and its nice to know that there are people who want to help but some times you cant but help thinking 'why did i open my mouth'

you know that saying 'to many cooks spoil the broth' i totally agree.

we left Chittagong early after breakfast towards Rangamati the drive was expected to be bumpy as it was hilly and snake like with curves in the road, i think i had given my self the evil eye because i was very impressed by the fact that i was not feeling travel sick what so ever, so i think i must have gotten big headed and my punishment was to be sick over and over again. the worst feeling though is being sick on an empty stomach, not nice trust me...

every one was aaaahing and ooohing the scenery, i was sat in a corner with my face in a plastic bag wishing to Allah that the journey ends sooooooon, so you can imagine my delight when it was announced that we had arrived.

i have never been more glad of landing on soil, actually that's not 100% true, the only other time where i was so grateful to be on solid land was when i was in Egypt and we where on hydro ferry going to sharks bay, i swear i must have puked no less than 15 times on that 4 hour journey, it was hell, and because my stomach was empty, i was vomiting stomach acid and my muscles where spasming, so painful, so yep this journey to Rangamati was not as bad but it was 40% similar aaaah just remembering it makes me feel queasy

we rested a while, well i did that's for sure, i was completely out of it and as soon as i put my head on the pillow i was out.

we where going on another boat ride on kaptai lake, as well as visiting a water fall by the name of shovolong, i think the best thing for me was most defiantly a scenic boat ride:

you've probably noticed that i take pictures of boats, there really is something fascinating about them and besides they look so pretty don't you think?

another thing i picked up on was how different Bengali features can be depending on the area we visit, so many different variates, at one point i kept forgetting i was in Bangladesh, seriously, it felt like i was in Nepal or china, so cool:

the guy with the umbrella is actually clever, although it doesn't look very sunny, the sun was out and managed to burn me!!!!! never happened in the history of white african.

we eventually came to an island:

and although the water fall was not Niagara falls it was still pretty to look at and very refreshing to stand under:
the place around the water fall was so lush and green subhannallah:
on the way back to the boat i spotted a lady selling drinks and snacks and she requested i take her photo, which i did without a hesitation because i found her face to be so interesting and full of life experiences:
even the police officers who where escorting us wanted in on the action and actually got our driver to ask me to take a photo of them, loool
i really enjoyed that experience and i felt so much better that when we later had to go back onto the mini bus to visit another site i wasn't as traumatised.

our next stop was visiting the palace of one of the few kings of Bangladesh, well of indigenous tribes, his palace is actually more of a home, very humble and not guarded amazingly, i stupidly forgot to take photos so i do apologise, i did manage to take photo of a monk we saw when we where crossing the lake to get to the palace, he looked so cool, every thing he had on was orange, and when it started to rain he took out an orange umbrella, so cute:

he was really nice, he came up to me and asked where i was from and how long i was staying in Bangladesh and whether i was enjoying myself, very welcoming, and later when we got caught in the down pour of rain we sheltered under his monastery.

whilst waiting to cross the lake i took a photo of the houses on sticks, how funky are they:
and also another boat with a man playing a musical instrument:
every where i looked was a photo opportunity, every things tells a story, one thing that simply amazed me was how simple life can be, it really is us humans who complicate matters, just watching people and how they live there lives really makes me wonder as to why we worry over materialistic matters, although many of the people i saw didn't have much to own in terms of belongings, there happiness and content was clearly evident in many of their amazing faces:
we where heading back to the hotel and on the way we stopped to buy a bunch of bananas which our tour guide hung in the mini bus, maybe so as to distract me from thinking of the drive back, hmmmm very clever it worked