the other day i had the pleasure of attending a henna, the bride was half Algerian (Mum side) and half Libyan.

she wore a traditional Algerian henna gown, red and gold with a crown so cool. the room was a mixture of Libyan and Algerian ladies and many of the Algerians where married to Libyans.

I've taken some photos of the henna stuff to share with you all:

a party wouldn't be a party without the tea and coffee

and the sweets that accompany it it was very similar to how Libyans have there henna, the candles, henna paste etc...
she placed henna in the middle of the candle holder

and then mixed it with perfume, first time i ever see this

and then of course the candles where lit
and before we left the handed us little favours
it was a nice night mashallah.

i bought some chest nuts from a local grocers as we are approaching winter and its chestnut season whooooo hoooo.

now I've never cooked them before, so it was a first for me, i washed them then i remember my mum cutting a little bit of the end off, so that's what i did.

popped them into the oven and just left them their for a while.

i was sat watching t.v when all of a sudden i heard a loud bang and it sounded like it was coming from the kitchen.

me and my husband ran into the kitchen, and the banging noises carried on, it was coming from the oven!!!

my husband wouldn't let me near the oven, he carefully approached the oven and opened the door at a snails pace, remembering to switch the oven off.

this is what he found:

dont even ask how long it took me to clean it. the rest that survived tasted pretty good if i say so myself lol.

what with the whole economy going down the drain all over the western world, i was slightly surprised to find a shop giving away its products for free!!

yep you heard or read correctly, free!!!

i swear i thought it was the funniest thing since ages so i decided to take a pic:

the owner stuck little yellow post it notes with the words free written on them, i wonder how long before all the bags where taken.

well life moves on and before you know it another few weeks have passed, each day i tell myself i need my blog entry, but in all honesty i either have no time or i seriously have nothing to blog about.


the highlight of the day is me coming home from work and the relaxing part of drinking cammomile tea before sleeping, mmmmm cammomile tea mmmmmm.

nothing particular to write about, although it did occur to me whilst cleaning the chicken (not a live chicken, but bits of the chicken) that i absolutely hate cleaning chicken, i prefer cleaning red meat, seriously before you decide to skip this blog entry, think about the last time you washed chicken, skinless that is, it has a horrible slimy residue and eeeeeeeeeeeeeew, i would rather have it prepared cooked and given to me.

also i cant stand chopping parsley and the other grass thing (kosbar and ma3danoos) the little green leaves get every where, and later when I'm cleaning the kitchen its not enough just brushing the floor, i have to get down on my knees and literally peel of those evil green leaves that manage to get permanently stuck on every surface imaginable.

ok enough ranting, the kitchen per say is not exactly my favourite place :)

i also hate peeling potatoes and garlic, my fingers are always wet when i want to peel garlic so that its skin is permanently stuck to my fingers.

im working again but the down side is the waking up sooooooo early, well to me its early, i dont usually wake up for 6:30 am unless its to wake up for prayers but then i would have the option of going back to sleep, not anymore, i have to catch the 07:15 bus to get into work to be their for 8am.

i so need to get my driving licence...

its not so bad once i get into work and have my cup of coffee, its just the initial waking up process at times its painful to my eyes, i have the 'i cant wake up till after 9am syndrome'.

Eid Mubarak to all dearest bloggers

have a fantastic eid full of happiness, joy and loads and loads of magrood.

some weirdo has vandalised my dads cat, and the poor thing is so distressed, it's continuously cleaning itself but to no avail, the green stuff refuses to come of.

its all over her mouth, paw and back, tabet gave the cat a bath and usually it would go crazy any where near water, this time it just sat there and let tabet scrub him with even a single meow.

the green stuff refused to come off and cotton the cat is depressed.

i did mention shaving it but no one was impressed by that idea lol.

as you can see from the above photo, my finger is in a bit of a state.

i welcomed Ramadan by cutting my index finger really deeply via the food processor, thankfully it wasn't on, i was packing it away (at the time i was moving home) and i was sorting bits and bobs in a box when the slicer fell out of its place, i put my hand in and pressed my finger down firmly, at first i didn't realise that i had cut myself so i continued to press down, then the pain hit me....

i pulled my finger out and low and behold i could see right inside my finger, that's when the blood began to gush and it wouldn't stop...

the pain was horrible and i actually fainted for a few seconds woke up and put my finger under the tap for a few seconds, then took a tea towel and wrapped it up and held it tight until my husband came home.

he walked in and found me really pale and holding my finger.

mr whiteafrican: whats wrong?'

me: ummm i kinda cut my finger'.

mr whiteafrican: 'again"

yes folks its an every day occurrence for me to either cut myself or burn my self, but not to this extent.

me: yes again but this time its different.

he then un wrapped the tea towel and took me straight to a&e.

Friday night so you can imagine the wait, hours later they had stuck my finger with glue, bandaged it up and told me to keep it dry and clean for a week.

lets just say i haven't cooked since :))))))))

Ramadan mubarak to all bloggers, may Allah accept your efforts and i hope every one gets the best out of the blessed month.

i love Ramadan...

oh and I'm so happy autumn is coming to hence the leaf shaped kaabah :)

I've not blogged in a while because I've been away doing umrah :)

mashallah it was fantastic and the atmosphere was amazing subhanallah.

i was really excited to go because the last time i was in mecca and madina was 2 years ago for hajj and that is where i met my husband who was part of our group, so we both experienced hajj but separately and this time we where to travel together and perform umrah together so it was nice aaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaw :)

we arrived in jeddah at around 10pm, we got driven to mecca which is about 40 -45 min drive, got taken to the hotel, rested a bit and then walked the 5 minutes to the haram, and seeing the haram again was amazing, the whole place takes over you and you forget about all your problems, life, bills, application forms etc... its simply serenity...

obviously i took pictures but the ones inside the haram where from my mobile as my camera is too big to hide and it would have been taken away from me, so my mobile it had to be and it did ok...

sun set on my way to medina...

they are alot more stricter in madina with the camera so i was only able to take the one photo :(

whilst i was there i took a pic of a cat what i didnt realise was that the cat was playing with something, my worst night mare a coakroach yuk!!!

finnaly some pic of the mountains on the way to jeddah

its always weird to come back after visiting mecca and madina, you kinda get absorbed by the life style of praying in the haram and listening to the adhan and generally having more ibadah in your life.

mecca and madina is filling up pretty fast with people who are coming especially for ramadan, by the time we left it was choca block...

oh and libyans where every where, seriously every time i would come to pray garenteed i would see or hear a libyan lol, mashallah :).

i passed my theory test wooooooooooooohoooooooooooooo, congrats to me, seriously its a big deal for me cause it means im closer to driving and think of all the time i could save yesssssss.

i have to admit this was third time lucky, i failed the lats 2 tests because of the stupid hazard perception that completly confuses me with all the ticks.

anyway i passed yipeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee.

ok next blog entry for the past month or so ive been ranting and raving about going to the zoo, and low and behold on sunday i was pleasantly surprised to be taken to the zoo unexpectadly, i was told to take my camera and i found myself in chester zoo much to my delight.

so here are the photos, enjoy...

i have 2 weeks left until i leave my work place.

but that does not stop the weirdo patients from attacking me with their words, you would think that that people would make my last 2 weeks as comfortable as possible, nope not gonna happen lol.


the other day this dude came in for a blood test he does not speak a word of English, and i do not speak a word of Farsi.


the guy is wheel chair bound, or so we thought, when it was his turn to see the nurse, i ushered him in, the nurses door closed and that should have been it.


after 5 minutes i hear shouting, the nurses door bangs open, the patient drags himself out (i say drag because he literally drags himself and the wheelchair with his right foot not using his hands) and blocks the reception entrance and starts shouting and pointing at me.


i asked the nurse what happened, and she said that he refused the blood test because he already had one 2 weeks ago, she tried explaining that his results came back abnormal so he needs further testing, but he refused to listen or accept anything and was intent on making my time at the surgery as miserable as possible.


he stayed for over 2 hours, repeatedly pointing at me and saying things in Farsi, and i swear bloogers i understood some of the words because i know some Urdu swear words from my time at high school and he was using those words at me, calling me b**** over and over again in Farsi, cheeky git, he was blocking my way so i couldn't go past him, i kept asking him for a telephone number of some one who understands English, he then throws his walking stick on the floor, throws his water bottle at me, and tries to get something out of his jeans pocket, but couldn't reach the bottom of his pocket so he unbelievably stands up and starts jumping (jumping!!!) up and down trying to reach to bottom of his pocket, he then pulls out a mobile, dials a number, sits back down again and gets through to some one and begins his ranting and raving all over again.


he passes the phone to me, i hear a man who speaks English, i asked him what the problem was with his friend, he said he said he wants to see the doctor not the nurse, i told him to tell him why he was asked to see the nurse and that his attitude is not acceptable.


i told the man that i will book his friend and appointment with the nurse and doctor for next week.


i passed the phone back to the dude, he listened for 2 seconds then began shouting, he switched the phone of, i gave him an appointment card, he threw it in my face and then began to shout 'you bad, you bad, you bad, you bad'


over and over again.


i was like 'mr, blah blah, im not going to accept this'


he was getting himself into a state that 'you bad was becoming 'youuuuuuuuuuuuu baaaaaaaaad' in a really high squeaky voice.


and i was finding it extremely amusing and i couldn't help smile which was making more annoyed, he actually left the surgery sounding like a ma3eeez shouting 'youuuuuu baaaaaaaaad' over and over again.


my 2 hour torment.

i handed in my resignation letter today.

feels really weird.
i wasn't working today but i came in specifically to hand it in, the manager was on his 2 hour lunch break so i left it on his key board addressed to him.

will find out tomorrow what the reaction will be.

ooooooooooooooh the excitement of it all.

quite frankly i cant be bothered with that place any more, and certain people their just are not worth getting stressed over and at the end of the day turning my back on them may just be the best thing for me.

will keep you updated......

ok so the dilema of the day on a daily basis is 'WHAT AM I GOING TO COOK TODAY?'

i actually wake up in the morning with feeling of dread as to what to cook, there is only so many times that i can cook imbakibkah, probably can get away with twice a week, but what about the 5 other days?

i ask mr white african about what to cook, and the dude just replies, 'anything, what ever you want' well that doesnt help.

i have a confession that i need to to take of my chest...

occasionly i will cheat and get pre-made meals and pretend that i made it

oh the shock!!!

i dont lie, i just dont answer, instead make convincing noises, for example

mr white african: this is nice

me: yeh it is isint it

mr white african: looks complicated

me: really?

mr white african: you poor thing, did it take you long to cook?

me: mmmmmh ummmm hmhmhm

(see the above could mean anything)

he understands it to mean yes, but thats not my fault, he chose to belive that i tired myslef out in the kitchen cooking complicated dishes, it would be evil of me to tell him other wise

hee hee hee

ever been in a situation where your mind just wanders of and your physical being works on its own.

confusing huh?

well the other day i had a visitor in the form of a Libyan lady, i dread these visits as i become all paranoid and my clumsy ratings hit the roof, seriously.

anyway she has a young baby girl who is teething at the moment, so the baby needs things to chew on, preferably not my curtains or pillows or at one point my toe!!!

the mother requests some dry bread to keep her sane and help with the chewing process and to rub against her gums, so i jump up with enthusiasm, go to the kitchen rummage around for a piece of the dry bread, she has 2 other children who think its a fun game to follow me around and be my shadow lol, so I'm entertaining them and decide to make them hyperactive by giving them a bar of chocolate each.

go back to the living room, walk up to the lady and offer her a big jar of coffee!!!!!!

my mind had not registered yet that i was holding a jar of coffee and offering it to the poor woman who i thought was being really weird and rude because she was staring at me and wouldn't take what i was offering her.

i kept saying tifadly (here you go) and she kept looking at my hand and then at my face with a puzzled expression on her face, i then thought maybe its not the right type of bread, so i started to apologise for only having pita bread and would that do or maybe a hard biscuit would be better.

to which she finally begins talking and says the breads fine but what has the coffee got to do with it.

people i seriously had not registered the fact that I'm standing holding a jar of coffee.

'kahwa'? - coffee,

'ama kahwa?' - which coffee?

to which she points at my hand

i look down and sure enough I'm holding a jar of coffee, my god you should have seen my reaction, all i kept saying was 'kahwa, kahwa, kahwa'

freak..

no wonder, her reaction was to laugh hysterically loud at me, and all i could do was apologise, run out the room and bring her a ton of dry bread.

my god, where did my mind go?

i woke up for fajr this morning as usual nothing new.

but i was granted a friend this morning in the presence of a spider.

see i had just finished reciting surah al-fatiha when i caught something moving from the corner of my eye, something coming down the curtain, crawling right towards me.

could i concentrate on my prayers after that, NO.. why?

because there was a HUGE spider crawling towards me...

walahi bloggers as a kid home spiders used to be tiny, you could hardly see them with your eyes, and they where harmless critters, the gypsy of the bug world, crawling through your home, never intending on staying, just passing through people.

now in the year 2008, spiders are genetically modified, British spiders that is, they are huge and freaky and you can see there beady eyes miles away looking at you, and they no longer are interested in camping a few days in your home, they are taking over and bringing there tribes.

why have they become soooooooooooooo huge? is it that just as the life style of humans have changed since the 2nd world war and humans have become bigger, so have spiders? flies are not enough for them any more, they are looking for bigger things, that's right, us!!!!

seriously i was so scared of doing sujud in case it jumped on my, so my eyes where working over time scanning the room whilst i was praying.

i never did see it appear after the first sighting, and when my husband woke up to pray, i didn't mention to him that there was a big ugly spider hiding some where, i was hoping it would pop out and jump on him ha ha ha.

it never did :(

is it just me or has any one else noticed that Libyan woman (might be the same with Libyan men) will point out every thing negative about you as soon as they see you rather than pointing out the positive. actually not just Libyans, Arabs per say (although Egyptians have a mighty sweet tongue on them).

say for instance you go to a gathering, say a wedding, people will come up to you and they have to give you the 'up and down look' you know the one, where she starts from your hair and scans you all the way down to your shoes then back up again.

these ladies would be perfect at working for airport security or maybe whilst shes scanning me with her eyes i could ask her whether shes detected any biological abnormalities in me, if your gonna be scanning me with your eyes lady then i might as well gain some sort of benefit by knowing whether i have long to live!!!

then its a case of 'you look so yellow', 'my god look at you, whats happened you've lost weight, your cheeks and eyes have gone in, you used to look so healthy before' or the opposite, 'my my you have put weight on, u had such a nice figure before' that extra weight on your toe will prevent you from getting married' (ok slight exaggeration).

or woman trying to constantly fix you some how, they cant help but reach out with their hands and change the hairstyle that took you 45 minutes to perfect, and every one is a qualified beautician, no matter how good you think your make up is some one is bound to say its not dark enough, or not enough per say...

blah blah blah blah blah blah

occasionally you will be shocked by a nice gesture from some one, but seriously why start with the negative. talk about 7ateming ma3naweeyatna.

sigh......

as you all know we have had some pretty funky good weather, which is amazing for manchester.

so libyans being libyans, they jumped at the oppertunity of having zardahs...

zardah season has come early.....

so i wanted to share some of the delights of eating bbq meat surrounded by trees :)))))

I've actually been meaning to blog but each time i want to i cant as i have no computer or Internet at my flat (yet, I'm working on it), and when i am around a computer I'm to busy to sit down :(

any way i got a text this morning from a friend who claims she is bored and that i need to blog! well ok then lol...

so here i am sat in an Internet cafe, typing away, aware of the fact that time is of the essence.

i know i know I'm supposed to blog about the holiday, wedding etc... i will, i need to be in a certain mood for that.

i started work yesterday, wooooopeeeedooo da day....

before that i actually was not sitting at home twiddling my fingers as some people have accused me of (you know who you are), instead i have been running errands for my husband!!! he went back to work straight after the honey moon and because I'm had taken more time of he thinks i should benefit from my time lol.

plus my family from Libya didn't get there visas in time for the wedding, instead they got it after the wedding so they decided they would come any way, so they entertained us for 3 weeks.

the reason they where not given a visa straight away is because of the darn bureaucracies,

'we need 3 months bank statements'

ok, so we faxed them over

to which then they changed there minds and said actually we need 6 months..

ok them so we sent over 50 pages via fax

after that they said ummmmm actually we need the originals not copies.

well Libya's fantastic postal system meant it was near to impossible for us to send it via post, so we had to wait until some one was returning to Libya from the UK so we could get them to hand over an envelope full of 6 months worth of bank statements.

by the time they agreed to give the visas, the wedding was over and i was flying to Egypt.

double bloody standards...

anyway i have been busy with the extended family, and it was great to see them, i had seen them all recently (2003) whereas my mother last saw her sister 24 years ago!!! long time.

anyway i will blog soon i promise...

its been a while fellow blogger, thank you so much for your kind words, duas and wishes.

time flies eh?

well its been 3 weeks since the wedding, i recently came back from Egypt, had a great time mashallah, will post the pic up soon.

back to normalcy that is life, not that I'm used to it yet, it takes time i guess, the weirdest thing was when i came back from honey moon, i kinda expected to be dropped of at my parents house lol, see that's what I'm used to, every time i come back from abroad i return to my parents house, this time it was different, and it felt weird.

anyway I'm not back at work yet so for the moment I'm doing the housey housey thing...

will blog later the arabic coffee is over flowing on the cooker...