This is Wrong!

Little Madeleine McCann has been missing for nearly a month now, of course the media made sure that her disappearance is never out of the news and we all feel sorry for her and her suffering family and wish that she is found safe and sound but .... What her family are doing is completely wrong, I am a parent and Allah forbids if this had happened to me I would never leave my other children out of my sight even if the best world army offers to look after them.

Both parents who are a devout Catholics have travelled to the Vatican for an audience with the pope which is perfectly fine as many people find comfort in religion but what is not fine is leaving their 2 year old twins behind in Portugal with relatives! Why did they leave them behind? they just lost a daughter, this should make them even more attached to the twins, the other day the mother broke people's hearts by saying that her twins asked her about Madeleine as they were missing their sister, well doesn't the mother think that the twins will be asking where their parents are? The parents are planning other trips although I am not sure if the children will be going with them.

Another strange thing this family did was in the second week of the disappearance the father spoke publicly and asked people to donate money to their campaign to find their daughter which is fine but then he went on to say that they need people to donate to pay for the family's extended stay in Portugal, this was said in the second week! The father is a Medical Consultant and the mother a GP, that means they are a high earning couple that can surely afford to pay for their stay an extra week and much longer, I am sure the Portuguese government is helping them plus many British public figures too. sometimes I wonder if they were a poor British family would they had all this publicity and help? would Philip Green (owner of Top Shops) give them his private plane to fly them where ever they want?

The parents should consider themselves lucky that the media so far did not go on about the fact that they left their daughter alone, unsupervised just to go and enjoy a dinner on their own and I know they keep saying that they were only few hundred yards away, the matter of fact is that they left her alone.

It is wrong, the whole thing has gone wrong.

Spring Bank Holiday

I have read in some Libyan blogs how hot it has been in Libya recently, in fact I heard it got up to 47c which is way too hot for this time of year, Allah help all of you there! Here in England we are having a Bank Holiday weekend, so today is public holiday and the weather has been a typical British bank holiday weather, non stop rain, cold, grey & miserable so nothing new here. due to this awful weather not much has been happening except sit at home and allow the kids to get on your nervous, something they are professional at :o) I personally do not like very hot weather but at the same time I hate this miserable weather we are having, of course tomorrow I am back at work and I bet the weather will improve, this happens every time!

Saturday the kids had a day off Arabic school because of teacher training, their mum had to attend the training day so I looked after the kids most of the day.

We went out to a shopping centre (because of the miserable weather of course) at lunch time we had the perfect chicken & chips at Nando's the kids tend to eat their food there without me telling them to eat, they just love it.
They have been asking me to go to the cinema for the past few weeks to watch 'Bridge to Tarabithia' so straight after lunch we went to the cinema which actually had great reclining seats, of course White African's recommendation to watch the film made me look forward to watching it. It was a wonderful film with a hint of fantasy but mainly a drama that would be enjoyed by adults and children and yes it was very sad indeed, in fact I sat in the middle between the kids and I could see both of them wiping their tears quickly in case they are seen!

I asked them afterwards if they cried, they both said no but I know they did :o) although I did enjoy the film a lot usually I do not like weepies or heavy dramas, I think life is so full of problems and that we all have our share that's why I prefer watching an all action film and horror movies, I feel they are more value for money as they cheer me up but a weepie! well not my idea of entertainment, that is why I am not really into all these Arab films/soap operas, too miserable for me and I avoid them at any cost

Walking in the shopping centre we came across a real Chocolate Fountain! This stall was selling skewers of sweets and fruits at £1 each which you then dip in the chocolate fountain, it looked amazing but very gooey at the same time, neither the kids or myself fancied any :oS

No idea what we are going to do today, probably just sit at home and get on with home work and other stuff. wishing you all a good day.

A Blast from the Past!

I just found a Blast from the Past online!, do you remember Watani Al-Akbar nasheed? is it still shown on Libyan TV?

Its been more than 27 years since I saw this video and even then it used to be shown in Black & White but here it is in colour! how old is this song? I think it was made late 50s or early 60s maybe. I was actually pleased to see it again, it is a classic and has some of the most famous Arab singers then.

While watching I actually couldn't stop laughing, keep an eye on the dancers dancing in the back ground especially behind Faida kamel and Warda, what are they doing exactly? :oD

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The other day I was driving through a well known street in London for selling good quality clothes mainly for women, in fact this street is very well known to Libyan traders that come here to buy clothes from the mainly Turkish & Greek owned shops, there is 1 or 2 shops owned by Libyans as well. As I was waiting for the traffic to move, I noticed this shop called Cinderella on my right and it was not one of the best shops there, it had mainly grubby wedding gowns, then I looked up where they had another display, more grubby wedding gowns but wait, this wedding gown is green! never mind the pink one, I mean green! it looked very revolutionary,

فيلو ثوري lol :o)

Did I hear someone is getting married soon? :oD

Female Drivers vs Male Drivers

Listening to my favourite radio show this morning they mentioned a new research that apparently found the answer to the age old question (well at least since cars were invented) of who are the better drivers, men or women?

Ladies and Gentlemen, the answer is MEN are the better drivers

In my experience of driving in London and I have been driving for many years, I must admit I do find some women drivers very scary! no offence intended to all the lady drivers out there. The problem I find sometimes that when a car ahead of me suddenly stops because they want to turn left or right without indicating I always make a point to see who is driving and on most occasions its a lady driver, another thing many women become very aggressive while driving and I find that its impossible to reason with them if there is a problem, as they will just scream and shout and not give you a chance to say anything, men on the other hand can be a bit calmer I think and women tend to use the driver's mirror quite a lot and for the wrong reasons :o)

I have a friend who's wife is a very nice French lady, because she has a driving licence she tends to do more driving than her husband and on many occasions I had to travel with them while she was driving, those were probably some of the most stressful times I have ever had, her husband & I would be literally screaming while she is driving, checking her face in the mirror and talking non-stop while turning her head to look at me at the back seat! she would be oblivious to other drivers screaming at her to pay attention and as for turning corners she always remembers that she has to turn at the last second without indicating while we are holding on to our dear lives and the car seats.

Of course when it comes to breaking traffic laws I believe men are the worst offenders, its usually men that talk on their mobile phones while driving, its men that jump red traffic lights and its men that dangerously overtake other cars.

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OK, Guess what day it is today?

Yes its National Escargot (Snails) Day.

and no its not for petting snails or for telling them how lovely they are, its a day for eating snails :oS

I have been trying hard to stay away from the food subject but it seems its not that easy. I once was in a restaurant in Malta, a man sitting near by was eating snails, he had this metal tool used to pull the flesh out of the shell, every time he used it, you would hear this sucking squishy sound which made my stomach turn, suddenly the waiter put a plate of snails on my table, I was horrified and could not take my eyes of them, as for their smell it was like rotting socks, really bad, I said to waiter that I did not order any snails to which he replied that it was free with the compliments of the restaurant, I thanked him and told him that I did not want them and to remove them from the table, he said but sir these are our speciality you must try them, I told him that they stunk and that I was feeling sick so please take them away, he did reluctantly. Incidentally at this same restaurant once I tried Octopus with garlic, it was awful :oS

A Conference, A Funeral & A Bad Case of Chickens!

I have been invited to attend a conference to be held by the United Association - Jews of Libya, called: Devoting the Past for a Better Future, I got my invite today, the conference will be held on 31 May & 1 June 2007. a number of guests will be present including some Libyan people I know personally, there will be talks, an exhibition and even musical & theatrical performances by Libyan Jews.

I have met a couple of Libyan Jews before but it was very brief and a long time ago so I am exited and looking forward to this conference which is going to be led by Mr. Raphael Luzon chairman of the UK Jews of Libya.

You can read My Previous Post about Libyan Jews Here

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This morning a colleague at work told me that an old Irish neighbour living next to where I work had died and that her funeral was this afternoon, I really could not remember which one died as so many old people live around where I work. This is a picture of the funeral procession led by the Pallbearer who you can see wearing a black suit and hat. Well RIP old neighbour even though I can not remember you!

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Probably like me you have heard of these monstrous chickens that are bred specially for fast food chains such as KFC but have you ever seen what they look like? Check Besheshentra's blog Here and keep a sick Bucket handy.

If that did not put you off chicken and did not make you sick then look at Loza's blog Here, sick bucket anyone??

Sibling Rivalry

I over heard my kids arguing the other day, my 6 year old son was saying to his 8 year old sister "at least you have better things than me" to which she replied that it is not true and that he has better things than her, he then said to her: "well at least you had a bed when you were a baby, when I was a baby I used to sleep in a dog basket!".

This really made me laugh, when Amir was born we used to live in a 1 bedroom flat and there was no space for a second child bed so we bought him a Moses basket similar to the one in the picture, obviously he has seen pictures of himself sleeping in it and thought it was a dog basket :o)

We all enjoy funny comments but do you have a favourite one?

I myself think most of lebeeya's comments are hilarious but the comment that made me laugh more than any other was actually by White African and it was on her brother's blog, Life of Tabet, in one of his posts he referred to his upcoming 13th birthday (btw happy birthday ya Tabet) by saying the following:

it s nearly my birthday and it would be nice if you could bye me a prezy its on the 20 th of may thank u bye

white African replied with the following comment:

a thousand slaps that would be the perfect present

I found that comment very funny and it did make me laugh a lot, it just shows humour yet its full of sister/brother love and we all have been there with our siblings :o)

Allah bless all brothers and sisters.

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Regarding a previous post about Materfoods Start using Animal Products, I am glad to say that after a lot of pressure from the Vegetarian Society, Masterfoods have changed their mind and decided that only vegetarian products are to be used in the making of their world famous chocolates and have even apologised to vegetarians!

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The Cutty Sark, one of London's most impressive heritage sights was badly burnt early this morning, the 137 year ship which was situated in Greenwich and is a main tourists attraction in that area has been badly damaged in a fire in what the police believe may have been started deliberately.

Luckily many of the ships parts were removed earlier for restoration work.

The Cutty Sark

The Cutty Sark burning this morning

For more pictures of the beautiful Cutty Sark click Here

Wembley Stadium Officially Open

After 7 years of quiet traffic, Saturday saw the traffic jams come back to North West London, Wembley Stadium was officially opened by Prince William and played a host to the FA Cup final between Chelsea & Manchester United, of course I supported Chelsea because its a London team and they did win the cup 1 - 0 (sorry White African better luck next time).

The opening ceremony before the game was great, the English soprano Leslie Garrett sang but the sound was not great on TV, they then announced that the Red Arrows were going to pass over the stadium so I got my camera ready since I live quite close to Wembley stadium but I forgot that they do fly faster than the speed of sound so as soon as I heard them flying above I ran outside but all I could see was the trail of the coloured smoke they left behind so I borrowed this picture from the Internet.

Before the game started, a video appealing for help in finding the missing 4 year old Madeleine McCann was shown and watched by million of people around the world. Madeleine has been missing in Portugal for over 2 weeks now. All around us they have implemented this Wembley parking restriction zone which only applies when ever an event takes place at the stadium, parking is banned from 8am until midnight unless you have a permit, for the first time near my house I saw many cars with Penalty Charge Notices stuck on their windscreens, poor people!

There will not be another football match at wembley for a while but they have other activities planned for this summer including a concert by George Michael, American football match and the Princess Diana concert on the 10th anniversary of her death.

Although the stadium has already brought unwanted traffic and crowds to the area but still its a magnificent structure that is world famous and we are proud to have it.

Toilet Tissues (I meant Issues)

Apparently there is a market for customised toilet tissues to keep you entertained while you are busy :o)

Here is a selection of what I found, I could think of few more designs/pictures but I think I need to order them in case they are not available :o)

Good message!
Sudoku for hours of entertainment that's what I call recycling :o)

This is a present from ibeebarbie (Thank you ) :o)

no wonder he is there!

he had to be there



can you think of someone else??

too expensive even for him


too big perhaps??


NO WAY !!

The ultimate entertainment toilet seat

I have seen this before but it is very bad for the fish as every time the toilet is flushed, clean water full of chlorine enters the fish tank, it is poisonous for the fish (incidentally I am a Fish Keeper with many years of experience).

Finally, thank you Ema for this picture :o)

Nakba Day - يوم النكبة

Today is the 59th Nakba Day يوم النكبة anniversary, lets give a thought to the hundreds of thousands of Palestinian people who on this day either fled or were forced to leave their villages and became refugees who to this day are still living in conditions that can only be described as inhuman.

Palestinian people fleeing their villages in 1948

Refugee camp in 1948

Materfoods Start using Animal Products!

Some bad news for chocoholics who only eat Halal food. Masterfoods the company that makes some of the world's best loved chocolates is to add animal product rennet to make its chocolate, most of the famous brands will have rennet (Rennet, a chemical sourced from calves' stomachs, is used in the production of whey) including: Mars, Snickers, Twix, Bounty & Maltesers. The Vegetarian society has condemned the change and issued this statement "At a time when more and more consumers are concerned about the provenance of their food, Masterfoods' decision to use non-vegetarian whey is a backward step," .

I am not sure what they will do with products that are exported to Muslim countries, I suppose they will use Halal rennet.

So if you only eat Halal food then this will be a blow to you, otherwise if you eat non halal (in the West) beef & chicken just say Besmellah and enjoy your treat :o)

Of course by non halal, I meant in people of the book countries (Christian & Jewish) so please no fatwas :o).

Since many bloggers are still enjoying blogging about food, here is a picture of my breakfast this morning which I had in the office: home made Spinach Pastry, they were 3 but I ate one before I remembered to take a picture :o)

Finally I met 2 Bloggers

I was contacted by mani few days ago asking me if I wanted to meet up with him and a_akak (Ahmed), he told me he was coming to London from Brighton at about 11 in the morning today Saturday, of course I was happy to meet them and told mani that I would drive to Victoria Station to meet him & Ahmed after I drop the kids at their Arabic Saturday school. Mani had to catch another coach to Birmingham at 2:00pm.

I got a call from mani as I was driving into the station, I told him to wait for me, I parked my car and phoned him to check where he was, he kept saying that he was outside Sainsburys and I said that I was outside Sainsburys too but still we couldn't see each other, then I saw him, very tall MashaAllah dressed smartly and his face beaming with a huge smile :o)

This is my first sighting of mani

Ahmed phoned him and said that he was outside the main station entrance, we walked over and there was Ahmed waiting looking as smart as usual.

We walked inside the station and found a cafe, Ahmed got us coffee and we sat and chatted for nearly 1 1/2 hours, since we didn't have a long time before mani's coach we decided to go for a quick lunch, it had been few years since I have been to Victoria but mani was an expert and knew where to go.

We went to an Italian restaurant near the coach stop, we kept asking the staff there if they were open as it was completely empty, we had Pizza and the discussion continued, Ahmed and I demolished our Pizzas while mani was doing what he is best at, Talking :o)

We both kept reminding him to eat his untouched Pizza, he eventually had some but was of course looking forward to going back to Birmingham and his mum's cooking.

mani talking

I have found both Ahmed & mani very friendly and very down to earth very well educated young men, it was my pleasure to meet them both, I really enjoyed the 3 hours I spent with them and we talked about all sort of interesting things, I am looking forward to meeting them again soon InshaAllah.

mani delivered safely to the coach just to find out that he couldn't find his ticket, the driver told him that it was leaving in 60 seconds, after a frantic search of his pockets he found the ticket and was on his way. May Allah bless them both for a lovely afternoon in London.

Occupation 101

Occupation 101 is a documentary about the Palestinian-Israeli conflict, the film presents itself as the "voice of a silenced majority" and "The Re-education of America Project".

The film has recieved several awards during its run in various film festivals including:

Winner of the "Golden Palm" Award (highest honour given by jury) and for "Best Editing" at the 2007 Beverly Hills Film Festival.

Winner of the 2006 Artivist Best Feature Film Award under the category of Human Rights.

Best of all this film/documentary was made by 2 Libyan brothers: Sufyan Omeish & Abdallah Omeish (سفيان عميش و عبدالله عميش) .

It will go under general release on the 15th of May.
I am embedding a 26 minutes trailer of this documentary, the original lasts for 85 minutes, best of luck to the Libyan brothers inshaAllah, they need it with a film like this in Hollywood.

Update:

For Al-Jazeera TV interview with the brothers Omeish (in Arabic) click here

For an interview with the brothers Omeish on American Radio (Annie Armen Show) click here

For more information and how to buy this film, go to their main website, Occupation 101

A Bit of Fun :o)

I spent most of Monday with my 6 year old son as his sister and mother had their own things to do, as usual it was a pleasure and a happy day for both of us, Amir enjoys being with me more than anything else, even his bad eating habits improve when he is with me because he just wants me to be happy with him :o)

We went to the park so that he can have some fun and exercise, they had installed some new toys in the kids play ground, one of them reminded me of Libyan food straight away (yes I know that Libyan food is the main subject in many blogs at the moment) well this toy looked like an over size Libyan Gas3a (big serving dish)

here is Amir served on a Gas3a :o)

Staying on the subject of food, I thought I would show you what we had for breakfast which was really nice especially served with some honey:

home made sfinz

Now, if you want a guaranteed laugh then all you have to do is visit Life of Tabet's blog, Tabet is White African's 12 (nearly 13) years old brother, many of you are probably familiar with Tabet from white african's wonderful Haj Diary. OK now for that guaranteed laugh click HERE :oD

To welcome our new young blogger, Tabet, I am posting some funny pictures which I hope he likes and can copy and keep and I wish him success in his school and InshaAllah a lot of happiness, health and long life.

Leebeya, Take your pick :o)

Update:

Just to prove to Lebeeya that adults can fit in that gas3a thingy! here is a very tall man playing with it, bless :o)