Just another trip to the UK

Day 1. All packed?
It's freezing outside .. brr .. have to pick up little sister and get to Hoek van Holland. We're taking the ferry to Harwich and arrived 7 hrs later, 20.30 hrs local time.

My sister on the ferry :)

Have to go up all the way to Manchester, a 4,5 hr drive - It's snowing, it's dark and the only way to get there is to follow TomTom.. We arrived safely, at 02.15 hrs, time for some Cha and a nice soft & warm bed.

Day 2. Nice to see the relatives
It snowed throughout the day, had some fun in it.

Li'l Umar throwing snow at ..

..me, and after a while ..

this is what could happen ;p

It was a nice family day, we met the new inlaws and the new kids and had a real good meal. Also saw the final of "move like Michael Jackson", the Animaineax were awesome ;p It was a good day.

Day 3. Is it much farther papa smurf? This day we have mostly been travelling from Manchester to London .. Yes.. that sums it op quite well ..

Day 4. A day out with the family
Went with a couple of adults and a bunch of kids to have a fun day out. We went by tube, first time for Umar on an 'English train', he was very excited about it.

It was the excitement that tired him out ;p

We went for a meal in the Pizza Hut, saw the new Christmas Carol movie (very nice cinematics) and on to the lights of the fair.

The Pizza was too exciting as well ..

High up in the weel!

Day 5. Need a break
Let's not forget that I'm pregnant, all the fun is way too tiring for me, so I decided to take a break today. I did NOT go to Harrods, NOR to the National History Museum :`(

Day 6. Back with a vengeance
Visited some more relatives today, but the best part was too leave Umar with hubby dearest and go shopping myself!! Yeai.

Now this is graffiti that I like!

Day 7. Jummah
A good day to sit back and reflect, I was very good in the first part ..
No plans to go outside, my husband and the sisters went after the 'OMG how delicious was that?!!'-dinner. As they went sightseeing and Umar was playing with his cousins, I had some time to play a bit of WoW (fish don't leave footprints). I like this holiday :D

Day 8. (wait in the) Shop till ye drop
I think that most men probably already know this, but if you ever go shopping with a shop-a-holic, beware that you might end up waiting a long time until that person is done (if possible). I like to shop, but I also know what I like and what not and don't take up a lot of time thinking about it.. so this was a good experience reminding me of why I'd rather shop alone ;p
Still had a good day tho, because we also went to Hamley's - and that's where others have to wait until I'm done exploring :D

Going down ;)

Cheerful workers @ Hamley's (the one in red)

Went for a good walk all the way to Regent's Park after the shopping frenzy.

Before ..

.. & after

This is Naila Ghani, reporting LIVE from the BBC ..

Day 9. Time to go home now..
It was a good holiday, I had my share of fun, got relaxed, ate A LOT and .. got to see my family again after some years. The speediness of time is shown when I look at the little kids who don't seem to be little anymore. Hope to see you all rather sooner than later and as for the grown-ups, thank you for taking us in, for your kindness & warmth and I hope we didn't burden you too much.

Salaam,
Naila

Expanding

Not am I only referring to my size, I'm also referring to my family.
We've decided that we'd like to expand ourselves, meaning that we're ready for another kid (which probably explains the first expansion I was referring to).

Of course deciding you want a kid and having one are two seperate things, a lesson I learned 4 years ago. So far it seems that Allah(SWT) agrees with us, I hope all will stay well and that the little one is healthy and stays healthy and me too ;)

For those who'd like to know 'how far I am/we are': 16 weeks (on 21th of octobre 2009)

A timeless day

Time never seemed to be an issue in what now seems a former life.

I remember waking up, getting ready for school, enjoying the day, going back to home, play a little outside or indoors when raining, hanging in front of the telly and then off to bed.
None of these actions seemed to be related to time, of course some of them were, but I never had to pay any attention to time (that's my mum's job I realise now).
When it was time, it was, and when it wasn't I'd find something else to do in the meanwhile.

Nowadays it seems that everything has to be planned into details, taking traveltime (and delay due to traveling) into account, because things won't get done if not planned properly. I have like 3 calenders, not counting my workcalendar, I make lists almost every day to be as efficient as possible and get very upset when I'm behind on my schedule .. (for instande 14.30 it's time for groceries, and it's 15.15 already.. grrr .. supposed to dry the laundry now)

Well, not today.
Today I'm having a sunday like I used to - no rushing, no deadlines, nothing that HAS to be done, but getting things done nonetheless, in their own time.

And I must say, I'm really enjoying my day so far :)

The end of an era..

I agree with every critic who'll claim that the 'era' of Michael Jackson has been ended a long time ago. Totally true. I'm honest enough to say that his most recent songs (also a while ago) just weren't any good.
And I'm still shocked about the things I saw en heard in Martin Bashir's docu. After that, the image of Michael could never be the same, it was all too sad. And I was done with Michael, with respect for the genius he had been before and during my childhood.

But when I woke up today, 26th june of 2009, and saw on the 'breaking news' of CNN that Michael Jackson IS dead, I had to sit down and push back my tears.

This was the definite end of an era.

And it's weird. It's weird that someone who has been there my whole life, all of a sudden isn't around anymore. The story is over before it was. Or so it seems.

Won't remember him as 'agent M' tho, rather more a bit like this:

"Jaqeus" ?? ?

When I was a rebelious youngster, I thought tattoos were awesome and that I definetely needed one. I was thinking about something like this:

or this:

Of course the deal didn't go through, because I know my mum would kill me when she'd find out. And she would definately find out about it..

How great tattoos seemed, I'd never go for anyone's name tattooed anywhere on my body. Relationships are dynamical - yes, I knew this back then already - and in my opinion one would always regret a name tattoo eventually. And names tattood in 'plain' font aren't decorative anyway, they're ... ugly .. there I said it!

Sursprised was I to see a women with a name tattoo on the train today.
Not only because she apparantly DOES find name tattoos in worthwhile, but also because the name she had (probably painfully) tattood wasn't spelled correctly...


.. The only vowel after a "q" can be a "u" ..

Sins in arrogance

I've been thinking about some of the daily sins that I commit, like listening to music. Yes, in my opnion listening to music is haram and therefor it's arrogant of me to keep on listening (music isn't even the real issue here, just one example of the many unlawful things I do ;p)

Will Allah (SWT) forgive me, even when it's pure arrogance manifesting itself in my deeds? And will He still forgive me, when we both know that I will listen to some more music tomorrow - and perhaps even sing-along?

I hope He does .. I might have a little problem otherwise.

..but I'm afraid I have to repent in honesty and stop doing all the things that are wrong and I don't feel that I'm ready for that yet ..

Meanwhile I thank my mum for making me learn all the six kalima's and making me reading them every day before I fall asleep:

"I seek forgiveness from Allah, my Lord, from every sin I committed knowingly or unknowingly, secretly or openly, and I turn towards Him from the sin that I know and from the sin that I do not know. Certainly You, You (are) the knower of the hidden things and the Concealer (of) the mistakes and the Forgiver (of) the sins. And (there is) no power and no strength except from Allah, the Most High, the Most Great." - 5th 'kalima'

The first Islam Congres in the Netherlands

I was surprised to see the amount of people that showed up for this Congres.
The visitors were from across all of the Netherlands, from different nationalities and with different Islamic views.

As I looked around I realised that this was my Ummah.
Here were the muslims of the Netherlands that care about their religion and about eachother.
All differences set aside, here we were all muslims and acknowledged eachother therein.

I'd like to thank the organization for this beautiful experience, and Insha'Allah me and my Ummah will profit from this meeting and hopefully many more.

Honor exists

There was a man striving to do good in the eyes of Allah (SWT). He worked very hard to become one of those Allah(SWT) was pleased with, in the hope that he would be granted a place near Allah (SWT) in the hereafter.

Eventhough his goal was clear, his path wasn't.
He was struggling with he many decisions he had to make in life and this was getting weary on him. When asked about why making decisions was so difficult for him, considering he quite well knew what he wanted and how to get it, he answered:
"My wife and kids need security in this life, so that they can develop themselves into good muslims - and it is my task to provide this security for them, before I can work on my own development"

Upon hearing this, I was amazed. Amazed to see a person taking his responsibility further than anyone would expect from him. I could come with no other description of his thoughts then ' honorable'. For I think there's true honor in working as hard as he does, and reasons for his motivation. Insha'Allah he will be granted what he wishes for (Ameen).

The need to socialize

After a long resistance against hyves I had to yield, and now resistance against facebook seems futile as well.

I've had an account for ages, but now I've added some friends .. and to be honest, it seems a lot like 'hyves', so why another network in the form of facebook? I'm not that global yet, I don't have many international contacts - and frankly I don't think I'll have them any time soon. There seems to be no use for facebook.

Do I feel left behind, when not part of this network? .. yes, a little ..

So, for all the wrong reasons: facebook here I come!

.. it's 2009 now .. eh ..

Time sure flies ... and not only when having fun.
What has happened the past decade? Not only to the world, but to me, personally. I feel like my life has been frozen in 1998 and that I'm living someone else's life since. That's probably the reason why I don't age, not physically and not mentally - frozen in time, until the spell breaks.

I think it's time now. Time to snap out of it and realize that I am who I am! Still have to figure out what that means tho.

2009 .. already .. and what have I done with my life so far? And more important: what will I do with my life from this day on?

Of course, that it's 2009 doesn't have anything to do with this philosophizing, nor the fact that I'll turn 28 this month ;p

It's just time ..