





I meant to write about this experience for sometime but kept postponing it, this happened on my way back from a trip to Egypt although what happened is not only exclusive to Egypt, I had sort of similar experiences in other countries such as Tunisia and Jordan and always with their customs people but not the general population.Again as I mentioned before this seems to happen to a lot people that hold European/USA passports but are not of white origin and happens all over our so called not racist Arab world, if this attitude continuous then obviously Arab countries still have a very long way before they are even half civilised.
After days of confusion in Libya about which day to celebrate Eid, the authorities did not disappoint! they took the ridiculous decision of deciding that Eid is on Thursday 26/11 while the whole world celebrates Eid today 27/11.
My younger brother got married in Tripoli 2 days ago, I thought long and hard about going back to attend the wedding but it didn't happen, the children wanted to go too but they had school and it is not easy to take time off school here, we all felt a bit upset that we couldn't be with the family at this happy occasion, I wish my brother and his wife the best inshaAllah.
I have just bought one of these Digital Photo Frames, the kids have been asking me for a while to get one, I am not sure if everyone is like me but since digital cameras came out it seems we print less photos than when we used to have normal cameras with films (that seems like a very long time ago!) now computers and camera phones are jammed full with pictures that we seem to forget about, I downloaded 100s of photos into the new digital frame but after few minutes of viewing them I got really bored, I might be old fashioned but you cant beat proper printed photographs, viewing them on computers and these digital photo frames is just not the same, photos seem like they have lost their magic, technology isn't always that great or maybe my age is catching up with me and I am becoming an old boring man!





Taxidermy (stuffing animals) must be a dying tradition and the truth is that these animals do look quite freaky and there is no way that I would put one in my house, I think this shop mainly hire their animals as props for movies and shows and so on......



The last of the Dodo which has been extinct for hundreds of years=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=
The X Factor which has taken over British TV as it does every year at this time is in full swing, from what I have watched so far there aren't many talents this year but I do like 2 girls that seem to be talented and do have a good voice, one of them is Lucy Jones who comes from Wales, she has given good performances so far and I think she has a chance of winning the x factor this year, here she is singing My Funny Valentine on last night's show, very classy:
Here is the link to the song in case the above video does not work
Halal food is becoming more and more the norm in London, where ever you go there are shops and restaurants selling halal food, even most primary schools now offer only halal food as standard and it is becoming acceptable by most people, in fact many people I know have admitted that they do prefer the taste of halal meat and appreciate the fact that it doesn't contain blood.

above picture taken from: Libya Al-Mostakbal
A friend of mine who lives in London but travels a lot to Libya told me that it is nothing like that there, that food events are well organised and clean and that the Libyan community here need to move on, I am not sure why we are not trying to improve our standards here, I only see this with Libyan community, of course I am not saying everyone is like that but it does seem to be the norm with most, maybe we should look at other Muslim communities here that are lees fortunate than us yet they got it right, we can learn a lot from them.
Looking at the picture again, I bet the UK hasn't seen anything like this since Victorian times!
Yesterday I went to Ridley Road market for some vegetable and fruit shopping, another reason for going there is usually the excellent Turkish supermarket at the end of the road where you can almost always find clean mumbar (Masareen) for sale although I didn't buy any this time, this is a strange market, it is full of all sorts of nationalities, Asians Arabs Turks and a lot of Africans, a lot of African produce is sold there all sorts of weird looking veg, the butchers sell tripe, lamb heads and a lot of feet! cows lambs pigs legs and other parts too plus many fish stalls too so you can imagine what the smell is like, very stinky! usually when walking there I have to lift my trousers up a bit since the ground is wet with fishy water!Fatwa Du Ramadan!
Wishing everyone a blissful and happy Ramadan, here Ramadan starts tomorrow and as usual Libya starts Ramadan a day earlier and insists they are right and everyone else got it wrong!
Al-Megrahi returned yesterday to Libya, I too was hoping his return to Libya would be a low key event but he was received as a hero!