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Only the day before leaving, I actually looked closely :-(
Showing posts with label Random. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Random. Show all posts
Friday, August 3, 2012
Special offer? Perhaps not!
Only the day before leaving, I actually looked closely :-(
Friday, March 30, 2012
We do fun stuff at Hawza too!
There's an office in our Hawza (religious school) dedicated to culture! Their job is to organise non-academic stuff (e.g. we're doing a module on basic first aid/nursing skills this term) as well as competitions. Most of the competitions are hard! They involve reading a book and doing an exam... but since it takes me an average of 5 hours a night just to decipher my course books (learning the stuff takes another 5 hours!), the last thing I want to do is take on extra work!
So I was over the moon when they decided to hold a cooking competition- finally something I could take part in! I made a fake oreo cheesecake, but couldn't find the right kind of cheese, so it wasn't my best effort. On the day of the competition, they laid out all the food on tables and everyone helped themselves... it was a mad rush (so sadly no pics!).Results came out 3 weeks later at the mother's day celebrations! All the teachers who took part got a prize, as well as 6 students (all of them were Syrian!). There was some consolation in that I had helped one of the winners assemble her dessert!
There was also an arts and crafts competition. I managed to get some pics:
So I was over the moon when they decided to hold a cooking competition- finally something I could take part in! I made a fake oreo cheesecake, but couldn't find the right kind of cheese, so it wasn't my best effort. On the day of the competition, they laid out all the food on tables and everyone helped themselves... it was a mad rush (so sadly no pics!).Results came out 3 weeks later at the mother's day celebrations! All the teachers who took part got a prize, as well as 6 students (all of them were Syrian!). There was some consolation in that I had helped one of the winners assemble her dessert!
There was also an arts and crafts competition. I managed to get some pics:
Friday, March 23, 2012
New (ish) supermarket in Sayyidda Zaynab
(I took this pic a while back and forgot to upload)
A new supermarket opened up in Sayyidda Zaynab over the summer. It's called 'A&T' and like all Middle Eastern things started off really good. Now, 7 months down the line, it's starting to go downhill. Sometimes we have to ask the employees for basics like salt and flour and they don't have any?! But the upside is that they have a good (ish) selection of freezer things and its clean (er) than shopping in most of the other cockroach infested stores.
The joys of the third world.
Power cuts
Everyday we get an average of 8 hours without electricity. The cuts come in chunks of 4 hours and they change the pattern every Wednesday. We like it when the power cuts happen while we are at school (happens quite a bit) or in the middle of the night (rarely happens).
The power cuts were getting really disruptive - imagine having to study by candle light wearing 5 layers and gloves! So The Husband bought us a generator. Its noisy and expensive to run, but at least we have lights and the fridge works + one other appliance (micro or washing machine or hand blender or small heater). So no excuse to not cook or study!
The power cuts were getting really disruptive - imagine having to study by candle light wearing 5 layers and gloves! So The Husband bought us a generator. Its noisy and expensive to run, but at least we have lights and the fridge works + one other appliance (micro or washing machine or hand blender or small heater). So no excuse to not cook or study!
Tuesday, March 13, 2012
New blog category!
There are a lot of things in Syria that make me chuckle. Like the man that stands on the street corner with a ram, waiting for farmers to bring his ewes... and well you can guess what happens next! Sometimes they even have a lamb on display to show what the ram is capable of!
I read this on the back on a spring roll box and it made me laugh too (albeit a frustrated laugh):
"Please recycle"
Dude, please tell me where! I'd love to recycle bottles and cardboard and cans but the closest I've seen to recycling is the people searching through the garbage looking for things to sell and the cats eating the scraps of food! A little bit of me dies everytime I throw out plastics and paper and magazines with religious stuff? I take them back to London every summer!
I read this on the back on a spring roll box and it made me laugh too (albeit a frustrated laugh):
"Please recycle"
Dude, please tell me where! I'd love to recycle bottles and cardboard and cans but the closest I've seen to recycling is the people searching through the garbage looking for things to sell and the cats eating the scraps of food! A little bit of me dies everytime I throw out plastics and paper and magazines with religious stuff? I take them back to London every summer!
Friday, March 2, 2012
Pic from school...
The weather is still freezing here! It's so cold that even the marble floors that they love using in their houses are like ice! So much so that when we remove our shoes to enter the prayer room at school, it's very tempting to take off our shoes at the door, so our poor socked feet don't have to touch the ground, rather than put them on the shoe rack and having to walk across the frozen corridor.
That was until this pic went up at the end of the week...
And here's a close up of the sign they wrote up....
It translates:
Okay so the whole sign and picture thing was totally OTT. Although the message still stands... we are sooooo okay with throwing litter in public places, putting our shoed feet up on the seats in public transport and leaving the toilet messy and unflushed after using it. But we wouldn't dream of doing these things at home!
Back in London at our local Islamic centre, it was so common to see people going home without cleaning up after themselves and their children. Truly, it doesn't take more than 2 mins to leave your spot clean (i.e how you found it!) and save a poor volunteer having to stay back and clean up afterwards!
Message of the day - the world would be a much nicer place if we all pitched in a little!
That was until this pic went up at the end of the week...
And here's a close up of the sign they wrote up....
It translates:
"Dear Sister,
From the will of Imam Ali ibn Abi Talib (a.s) to his son Hassan:
Allah, Allah, organisation in your affairs
Dear sister, do you love order and organisation??? How are you in your houses? Perhaps this is how you put your shoes?
Which picture surprises you? We want your comments."
From the will of Imam Ali ibn Abi Talib (a.s) to his son Hassan:
Allah, Allah, organisation in your affairs
Dear sister, do you love order and organisation??? How are you in your houses? Perhaps this is how you put your shoes?
Which picture surprises you? We want your comments."
Okay so the whole sign and picture thing was totally OTT. Although the message still stands... we are sooooo okay with throwing litter in public places, putting our shoed feet up on the seats in public transport and leaving the toilet messy and unflushed after using it. But we wouldn't dream of doing these things at home!
Back in London at our local Islamic centre, it was so common to see people going home without cleaning up after themselves and their children. Truly, it doesn't take more than 2 mins to leave your spot clean (i.e how you found it!) and save a poor volunteer having to stay back and clean up afterwards!
Message of the day - the world would be a much nicer place if we all pitched in a little!
Tuesday, May 24, 2011
Thoughts from class.
We're covering 8th form verbs right now - for the Arabic groupies amongst you - thats the افتعل pattern. (verbs which indicate internally activism with will and determination)
Our teacher taught us a phrase:
الأقتصاد في النفقة نصف المعيشة
which roughly translates to 'economising in expenses is half of living'
So when I heard this, it made me think of a certain East African muliyani who always says that the wife has 3 duties to her husband - cooking, cleaning and economising. (LOL). Maybe someone forgot to tell her that cooking and cleaning aren't wifely duties religiously - but rather a wife does them out of love for her family.
Anyways, the saying is more applicable today than ever before. It really made me ponder on things. How easy is it these days to stock up on clothes, food and other things! With the advent of Primark, Tecso, Pound/Dollar/10 lira stores its so easy to pay next to nothing and fill our cupboards with things that we hardly use. This isn't economising at all!
And it made me think - I have clothes in 3 countries - I have no idea how much I have, let alone when I am going to wear it all! Do I really need so many clothes? Each summer when I go back to London, I try and de-clutter my things, but then end up splurging in Primark or Tesco, so end up with the same amount of things!
When we moved to Iran (almost 3 years ago), we set up our home with new things, splurged on kitchen gadgets etc (not that there is anything wrong with having nice things).But 2 years later when we packed up everything to move to Syria, it made us realise how much stuff we had accumulted in such a short time. And how much food stuff we had in the cupboards which we couldn't finish off before we left. We set up our home in Syria very differently. Rather than hoarding the 'good stuff' for a day which may never come, we just use what we have. And rather than buying things from the souk, I try and buy them from the 10 lira store, so I don't feel bad leaving things behind when we leave Syria.
A scholar once made an interesting point in a lecture -
In life, we can choose the car we buy, the house we live in, the job we accept and others. Buying an expensive car like a Jaguar or Lexus will get us to our destination, as will a cheap car like a Ford Escort or a Lada. The main difference is the price, although the ride may seem a bit smoother in a Lexus.
But if you look at the other costs, the operating expenses, petrol, insurance for a Lexus are much higher. A Lada on the other hand, can be maintained and operated quite cheaply. Anyone with half a brain can fix a Lada!
If someone wanted to borrow your car, you would lend a Lada to someone at the drop of a hat, but if someone wanted to borrow your Lexus, you’d think twice. You’d offer to drop them to their destination and pick them up! Don’t get me wrong, Islam does encourage us to earn a living and have nice things! But think about it, even though both cars get you to the same destination, the ride in the Lexus is more egotistical and so there is more attachment to the expensive luxury, and it is this that diverts us from what we want to achieve.
Imam Jafar as Sadiq (as) has said: imagine yourself going through customs with lots of luggage. Say I was going to Paris for a short trip. Even if the customs officer wasn’t suspicious of me wearing hijab and my husband with his beard and dishdasha, he will be once he sees my 2x 30kg suitcases and he’ll ask “What do you have in there? Gifts? Clothes? You’re staying for 2 days and you have 2 suitcases?” they will question me and make sure that I don’t have anything beyond my means. But, if they see me coming through with a small carry on bag, they’ll just let me through. The 6th Imam tells us that it’s exactly the same in the Hereafter, the more we have, the more responsibility we have and the more we have to answer for. So on the Day of Judgement, the less we have to account for, the faster we will be able to enter Jannah.
Our teacher taught us a phrase:
الأقتصاد في النفقة نصف المعيشة
which roughly translates to 'economising in expenses is half of living'
So when I heard this, it made me think of a certain East African muliyani who always says that the wife has 3 duties to her husband - cooking, cleaning and economising. (LOL). Maybe someone forgot to tell her that cooking and cleaning aren't wifely duties religiously - but rather a wife does them out of love for her family.
Anyways, the saying is more applicable today than ever before. It really made me ponder on things. How easy is it these days to stock up on clothes, food and other things! With the advent of Primark, Tecso, Pound/Dollar/10 lira stores its so easy to pay next to nothing and fill our cupboards with things that we hardly use. This isn't economising at all!
And it made me think - I have clothes in 3 countries - I have no idea how much I have, let alone when I am going to wear it all! Do I really need so many clothes? Each summer when I go back to London, I try and de-clutter my things, but then end up splurging in Primark or Tesco, so end up with the same amount of things!
When we moved to Iran (almost 3 years ago), we set up our home with new things, splurged on kitchen gadgets etc (not that there is anything wrong with having nice things).But 2 years later when we packed up everything to move to Syria, it made us realise how much stuff we had accumulted in such a short time. And how much food stuff we had in the cupboards which we couldn't finish off before we left. We set up our home in Syria very differently. Rather than hoarding the 'good stuff' for a day which may never come, we just use what we have. And rather than buying things from the souk, I try and buy them from the 10 lira store, so I don't feel bad leaving things behind when we leave Syria.
A scholar once made an interesting point in a lecture -
In life, we can choose the car we buy, the house we live in, the job we accept and others. Buying an expensive car like a Jaguar or Lexus will get us to our destination, as will a cheap car like a Ford Escort or a Lada. The main difference is the price, although the ride may seem a bit smoother in a Lexus.
But if you look at the other costs, the operating expenses, petrol, insurance for a Lexus are much higher. A Lada on the other hand, can be maintained and operated quite cheaply. Anyone with half a brain can fix a Lada!
If someone wanted to borrow your car, you would lend a Lada to someone at the drop of a hat, but if someone wanted to borrow your Lexus, you’d think twice. You’d offer to drop them to their destination and pick them up! Don’t get me wrong, Islam does encourage us to earn a living and have nice things! But think about it, even though both cars get you to the same destination, the ride in the Lexus is more egotistical and so there is more attachment to the expensive luxury, and it is this that diverts us from what we want to achieve.
Imam Jafar as Sadiq (as) has said: imagine yourself going through customs with lots of luggage. Say I was going to Paris for a short trip. Even if the customs officer wasn’t suspicious of me wearing hijab and my husband with his beard and dishdasha, he will be once he sees my 2x 30kg suitcases and he’ll ask “What do you have in there? Gifts? Clothes? You’re staying for 2 days and you have 2 suitcases?” they will question me and make sure that I don’t have anything beyond my means. But, if they see me coming through with a small carry on bag, they’ll just let me through. The 6th Imam tells us that it’s exactly the same in the Hereafter, the more we have, the more responsibility we have and the more we have to answer for. So on the Day of Judgement, the less we have to account for, the faster we will be able to enter Jannah.
Friday, May 13, 2011
Random Thoughts
Two things struck me the other day....
The first was seeing a little 3 or 4 year old boy with his parents visiting the shrine of Sayyidda Zaynab for the first time. He looked cute wearing his 'Friday' best - a little suit and red bow tie.
The second was meeting an aunty and uncle (who incidently turned out to be distant relatives!!) telling us about how their suitcases had gotton lost on the way. The aunty commented: 'It doesn't matter that my suitcase got lost because I had only packed old clothes, but uncle had packed all his good clothes'.
It really got me thinking - why shouldn't uncle be allowed to bring his nice clothes? Surely he has recognised the personaility that is is about to visit and wants to look his best!
Why is it that when we go for ziarat, we pack all our old clothes?? Seriously, do we want to be going to the graves of our ideals wearing old trackie bottoms and tshirts with holes in them and scarves that have seen better days??
One of the things we teach children from a young age is that if they are going to visit the queen/president, they would put on their best clothes, so when we pray, we should wear our good clothes too, because our God is far more important than the queen. Right?
So why is it that when we come to visit the Holy Shrines, we bring our oldest and ugliest clothes?! Don't the Imams/Holy Household deserve to see us wearing our nicest clothes and scarves?
OK, so the roads here are dusty and the laundry facilities are adequate, but when we go on trips to the far east and africa etc, we take our good clothes and the roads are just as dusty there and the laundry is just as third world.
The first was seeing a little 3 or 4 year old boy with his parents visiting the shrine of Sayyidda Zaynab for the first time. He looked cute wearing his 'Friday' best - a little suit and red bow tie.
The second was meeting an aunty and uncle (who incidently turned out to be distant relatives!!) telling us about how their suitcases had gotton lost on the way. The aunty commented: 'It doesn't matter that my suitcase got lost because I had only packed old clothes, but uncle had packed all his good clothes'.
It really got me thinking - why shouldn't uncle be allowed to bring his nice clothes? Surely he has recognised the personaility that is is about to visit and wants to look his best!
Why is it that when we go for ziarat, we pack all our old clothes?? Seriously, do we want to be going to the graves of our ideals wearing old trackie bottoms and tshirts with holes in them and scarves that have seen better days??
One of the things we teach children from a young age is that if they are going to visit the queen/president, they would put on their best clothes, so when we pray, we should wear our good clothes too, because our God is far more important than the queen. Right?
So why is it that when we come to visit the Holy Shrines, we bring our oldest and ugliest clothes?! Don't the Imams/Holy Household deserve to see us wearing our nicest clothes and scarves?
OK, so the roads here are dusty and the laundry facilities are adequate, but when we go on trips to the far east and africa etc, we take our good clothes and the roads are just as dusty there and the laundry is just as third world.
Tuesday, April 26, 2011
Long Johns
Syrians have an obsession with them... they even sell them in the summer!
Just a word of warning - to the visitors who come here and get excited when they see them - the elastic on them is rubbish! It is only stretchy on the first wear, after that, the long johns fall down. So it means one has to rush to the nearest rest room and pull them up every 10 mins.
Wednesday, March 23, 2011
More Syrian English
This is a picture of the carrier bags from the store that sells designer fake handbags and shoes (Ground floor of the Safir Hotel)
Since when did bags and shoes become 'needs' and not 'wants' ?????
Thursday, February 3, 2011
Iceland
We have one of these too! Albeit, selling different things from the UK chain.
One of the things that irritates me about Dubai and increasingly in Syria too is how they transliterate English words into Arabic. There is a perfectly good phrase for 'Ice Land' in Arabic, but yet they don't use it!
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