A period of time that I have found most blissful is the early mornings. Not so much the hateful beeping of the alarm or slinking out of my warm cosy bed, but the little chink of time we get in the morning when everyone else is still asleep. I have started to use this time […]
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 […]
A period of time that I have found most blissful is the early mornings. Not so much the hateful beeping of the alarm or slinking out of my warm cosy bed, but the little chink of time we get in the morning when everyone else is still asleep. I have started to use this time […]
I finally got round to meeting the new team I will be working with hopefully at the end of this month insh’Allah. I turned up with the best intention to learn and work hard and prove myself but still annoyed that I had been pushed into the kind of work I was not looking for. […]
I have always been a keen reader of the blogs of both Brother Umar Lee and Brother Yusuf Matthews, finding their blogs interesting and insightful. Recently however some of what is emerging in their blogs has troubled me. Brother Umar posted this, which was responded to by Brother Yusuf with this. What followed was this […]
A good friend once told me she experienced guilt because after trying to have conceive for many years, when she finally had children, she found she didn’t like it much sometimes. It’s not something anyone wants to admit. Sometimes people don’t like being parents. I find I love being a mum, but occasionally find myself […]
I have been sharing my journey to get healthier and lose weight each month through my word of the Year for 2016: Health. January was about taking stock and trying to understand what the task ahead of me was: my good habits, the habits that needed attention, what was helpful and some reflection on my […]
I went through a phase with Little Lady where I would come home to find her dressed inappropriately every day. A vest and crop trousers when it was cold, party dresses and wedding gear. In the end I put my foot down and insisted she had better be in jeans and a top when I […]
The last few days have been consumed with packing and last minute shopping as my mother-in-law and brother-in-law prepared to return to Pakistan in time for Eid. Medicines to pick up, an extra suitcase, guests turning up with gifts for their relatives, and relatives coming to say goodbye and drop off more items for other […]
After relaxing on the first day of Eid, we decided that the next day we would invite guests to ours. With this in mind, the cooking began nice and early with the two of us (I and hubby) going as quick as we could. There was rice with peas, chicken curry, haleem and kheer (rice […]
I usually make fairy cakes on Eid, but as my in-laws (some of them anyway) are going back to Pakistan on Tuesday, I thought I would make some today. It would also give me the chance to try out the recipe for the icing. I decided to try buttercream icing and used the recipe from […]
Some people use their common sense, others learn things the hard way, guess which category I fall into? I have been struggling for a while with this pregnancy, but thought I would try and fast. I managed to fast through three previous pregnancies when the day was much shorter. I was desperate not to miss […]
Al Aswany’s novel tells the interconnected stories of the tenants of the once-grand Yacoubian Building, now housing a motley mix of Cairo’s citizens: gentlemen who yearn for the “golden era” when Cairo was like Paris, corrupt politician (what other kind are there?), a gay newspaper editor, a student demoralised by corruption and drawn to religious […]
I forgot it was Pakistan Independence Day today until someone reminded me they were going to have a flag-raising outside the town hall I work in and sing the National Anthem. The Civic Ambassador who is Pakistani gave a horrendously bad speech, The Deputy Mayor reminded us, that we may be Pakistani, but really we […]
