Market Shopping....

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!

apparently the police raid this market from time to time because bush meat was found for sale there (illegally) bush meat is Monkey meat mainly, imported from Africa in dry form (like Gedeed) then sold illegally under the counter to certain customers.

The fruits and vegetables are usually quite good and it has to be the cheapest place in London to buy Mangos and other exotic fruits.

Most of the stalls are run by down to earth white English people, some are run by Asians and Africans. as you enter the market the first stall on your left is the one I like best, they have great variety of fruits and is always busy, the English lady working there was asking everyone if they were fasting, if they said no she said shame, if they said yes she would have a big smile on her face and says, good that you are fasting means you will be buying a lot of stuff from me and she was right, Muslims were buying her lovely fruits non stop, I got some too.

By the time I finished shopping, I was carrying about 10 heavy carrier bags full of fruits vegetables and cakes, Turkish bread, Kunafa dough and lots of nice and wonderful things from the Turkish shop, it was a struggle to walk back to the car but worth it since the kids loved everything.

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Here is something that might make you smile, I think its from Algerian TV, I thought it was very funny when I first saw it at a Friend's Face Book :o)

Fatwa Du Ramadan!

Hero Or Mass Murderer?

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!

Ramadan Mubarak

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A Hero or Mass Murderer?

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!
I do not know if he is guilty of this horrible crime but this man was convicted of killing 270 innocent civilians yet the Libyan authorities showed how distasteful they are at a time when the victim's families were watching in pain, to most of them this is not acceptable.
Al-Megrahi protested his innocence for 10 years then few days ago he dropped his appeal and therefore accepted his guilt, I know he is ill and dying but if he is innocent he should have stuck to his appeal to the end, his family were never prevented from visiting him or even living near by. at the end of the day whether he did this crime or not, Al-Megrahi was working for the Libyan intelligence and I do know from people that worked for Libyan Airlines in the 1980s that he was feared and was involved in many nasty acts against Libyans, this does not make him into a hero, what about the thousands of Libyans that died just because they cried freedom, people like Al-Jahmi and the hundreds that were killed in Bu Sleem prison and many others... they were the real heroes.
The Scottish government did take a courageous step by releasing Al-Megrahi to spend his last days with his family, whether they did it for compassionate reasons or purely for business is for you to decide.

If he was innocent, he should have stayed and died fighting to clear his name and the Libyan authorities have embarrassed themselves yet again