-Daily Production Line-
- Videoclip-
Oh Allah I am fasting... Oh Allah I am fasting... Oh Allah I am.......
Sheikh: in Ramadan, videoclip songs are Haram, especially Christina Aguilera's new song!!
Yesterday evening I decided to do a bit of Ramadan food shopping and so I went to the best area in London for middle eastern food. Wood Green is in North London and its known for its large Turkish community and its where most of the Libyans do their food shopping in London.
This is the famous Yasar Halim Turkish supermarket, butcher and bakery, this place is known by the Libyan community as its the only Place in London where you can buy frozen and neatly packaged raw Masareen (مصارين ) for making Osban ( عصبان ) which is called Mumbar in Turkish, the fruit and veg you get in this shop are of good quality and usually can not be found in big main stream supermarkets.
The bakery is really a no go area if you are fasting as it is full of all kind of hot breads and pastries and the smell is just great, you just want to buy everything which is not a good idea.
The street has many gold shops that sell by weight and most of the jewelry is of high quality, all the gold shops were empty of customers as I was walking by them, most people were interested in buying food at that time.
While the Turkish community in London is probably the friendliest Muslims here and are known for their good behaviour and hard work but you cant help but notice that many of them are not fasting and are actually sitting in cafes and eating at many of the local restaurants or just standing in the street smoking.
Many of the Turkish restaurants here are very plain with big tables that you share with others but the food is so good that they get so busy with locals and people from other areas, of course there are many fancy restaurants as well but I wonder if the food is as good.
Well this was my evening on the second day of Ramadan, I did buy what I wanted and I have no doubt that I will be going back there soon.
Check this site for Turkish Cooking: Binnur's Turkish Cookbook
Enjoy your Iftar
No not me! But thank you SafiaSpeaks for the picture
Well I am back after my brief stay at hospital, the day started early for me as I had to catch a train at 6:30 in the morning to go to hospital where I had to be at 7:30, I was there on time but the admissions department did not open until 8:00.After going through the admission procedure I sat on the same chair in the waiting room for nearly 8 hours! Having refrained from eating and drinking since midnight made it worse but I suppose it was like a practice for Ramadan, anyway I had my operation at 3:30 in the afternoon, after I woke up in recovery it was 5:30, they told me that I would soon go to my ward, that did not happen until 9:30, the reason is "they can not find me a bed" I kept telling them that my family will be worried and I need to talk to them but still I had to wait.When eventually I went to the ward at about 9:30, the kids were waiting for me with my cousin, they had been there waiting for 5 hours and it was way past their bedtime as they had school the next day, they went home soon after they saw me.At admission I filled a form which includes the type of food you can eat so I wrote no pork, since I was very hungry by then (22 hours with no food) I asked the nurse if I could have something to eat, I was told only sandwitches were available which is fine by me so I asked for a non pork sandwitch, 5 minutes later I get a HAM sandwitch, the nurse said that was all they had left, this is St Mary's Hospital, one of the best known hospitals in London yet they only had Ham sandwitches! anyway I ended up eating a pot of yoghurt and thinking that this was not my day and that it will get better.Actually things did get better, the way you get treated medically and personally is first class, the nurses are very well trained and never stop looking after patients, the dinner lady the cleaners and of course the doctors as well are all very friendly and kind and make you feel important, so much so that I really did not want to leave the hospital, I really enjoyed this treatment and the comfort of my great bed which had a remote control to adjust the height and bring the back forward and the knees up, I really wish I could have a bed like that at home.I had to leave the hospital yesterday afternoon after I was checked and everything is good AlHamdulellah, I was given a sick note to take 2 weeks off work and told to come back to remove the nose cast after 2 weeks, in the mean time I have to look like Hannibal Lecter as a friend put it.
Thank you all for your kind and lovely comments on my last post which I really appreciate.
Septoplasty / Rhinoplasty operations, basically this is to correct a defect in my nose which i had since birth which will InshAllah improve my breathing throught the nose.
Saturday 16th September 2006 is the 75th anniversary of the execution of our hero Sheikh Omar Mukhtar by the facsists.
The facsists posing with Sheikh Omar Mukhtar after his arrest
I have come across this website when i was reading a post by KhadijaTeri about an old building in tripoli.
Click the above box for the full story of Al-Motsarfiya building
What Youcef is trying to do is noble and should be an example to all of us, this is our heritage, our history that should be preserved for future generations, who ever built this building and for whom it was built whether the Royal family or anyone else is beside the point. Libya is one of the world's hidden treasures, we should be proud of our country and try our best to keep what has been left to us by our ancestors.
Show your support to this cause by signing the petition tell your friends, family and colleagues to sign the petition, help Youcef with this noble cause.
Libya should introduce Grading and Listing laws simillar to what they have here in the UK, historical buildings in the UK are graded and listed according to their historical values and then fully protected and preserved for the whole country to be proud of.
Today as im sure most people know is the 5th anniversary of the dreadful events of September the 11th, most of us remember where we were and what we were doing on that day 5 years ago, one of London's leading radio station, LBC, is broadcasting from New York this morning as they follow a British mother, Patricia Bingley who lost her only son in this disaster, she gives her thoughts and feelings as she remembers how she used to come and visit him regularly in New York, listening to this lady makes you realize even more that terrorism achieves nothing but heartache and sadness for innocent people.
I have been checking a website about the Jews of Libya which was offline for some time but I am glad its back online now, it is full of fascinating pictures and facts about the last Jews that lived in Libya.
This picture shows Jews in Hara El-Kebira in Tripoli, shame the site does not say which year this was taken.
I have once met a Jewish man in London who told me that his parents were born in Libya and although he does not know much about the country but he said his mother often cooks Haraime which he said is a Jewish Libyan speciality, the website lists other foods as being Jewish which in Libya are still regarded as traditional Libyan food, whether its true that this food is Jewish or not I can not say but its difinitly Libyan.
I sent mine and the result was as above (sorry for not showing my face!) apparently I am 66% Art Garfunkel look-alike! even though he is very blond and I am definitely not!!
The English National Opera (ENO) in collaboration with Asian Dub Foundation (ADF) are starting their new much publisisd opera Gaddafi: A Living Myth, which is about the life of Colonel Gaddafi, it will be held at the London Coliseum. 
