The kids had last week off school with half term, so thought I would take them somewhere easy and cheap. Our first choice was Epping Forest. This has a few visitor centres, but we opted for the one at High Beach, Loughton which has a small animal feeding area which attracts forest creatures which you […]
I hosted Eid the first day and decided to invite as many close and extended family as I could muster and get everyone fed in one go. I am a big believer that where two eat, three can share and where 20 can eat, another 10 can squeeze in insh’Allah. I planned the food a […]
This week has been super busy and chaotic with preparation for Fashionista Sisters wedding. With our penchant for fun, this has somehow turned into a long series of parties, with a few more days still to go. Last Friday was Fashionista’s henna. This involved a few days of preparation on the part of sisters, sister-in-law […]
As usual “on my mind” is everything: I haven’t done any Eid preparation How am I going to keep up with my Quran reading? I haven’t read much of the tafaseer on my bedside table yet The office messed up my pay, again – how long will this to take to sort out and what […]
Eid Mubarak everyone. Taqabbal Allahu Minna Wa Minkum (May Allah accept it from you and us). This Eid is tainted with sadness at events around the world – Syria, Burma, Afghanistan, Pakistan, Iraq and most recently Palestine. The latter especially has brought together Muslims in protest, prayer and charity work throughout Ramadan. “The Believers, in […]
This book has sat on my shelf for a fairly long time and despite its sticker saying “winner of the 1997 Orange prize for fiction” nothing about it particularly attracted me. I thought I would give it a go just for a change of sceneAnne Michaels was a poet before she was a novelist and […]
After two weeks, I felt like a human being again today, so decided to get going. We have all been eating junk and left-overs so I made some steaming hot and very spicy chickpea curry and mince kebabs for my sisters. After feeding the kids all sorts for the last few days, I decided to […]
You might be wondering what I mean by Asian Mean Time. It’s what one of my African friends also calls “African Time”. Partly, this is the inability of people to get to a place at an agreed time, but it’s more than that, it’s the idea that if you agree a time, you actually mean […]
I made a note of Islamic Awareness Week ages ago, so that I can mention it on this blog nearer the time, and then I promptly forgot in the chaos of the last few weeks. This year it runs from Monday 17 – Sunday 23 November and the theme is “Celebrating the Best of Britain […]
source (halal tandoori pizza) source (neatly folded pashmina’s) source (attar bottles) source (Senate House Library, UCL, London)
Remember the leaf bead I mentioned I liked but wasn’t sure what to do with? I did have some good suggestions from sisters, including my dear freind M who sent me this picture: image source Unfortunately, much as I want to learn the skill with which this pendant has been wrapped, I am not able […]
The 1 year anniversary edition of Mum and Muslim is now online (including my column). The editor, Sister Umm Imran has worked hard to co-ordinate the efforts of all of the writers to bring an edition packed full of brilliant articles. Sister Umm Imran says: “The features section has an interesting article with a muslim […]
We usually throw one Eid party a year for ladies and children but in the last year or two I had found these getting rowdy and moving away from my aim of providing a halal environment for my Muslimah friends to meet, enjoy and in some small way remember Allah (SWT): Abu Hurairah and Abu […]
You know those days, when things start going wrong and then they just keep going wrong? The kind of day better spent in bed until it’s over? That’s the kind of day I had yesterday. I was woken at am by a blazing toothache – both the tooth and sinus pain combined at a time […]
