Jerusalem (part 1)

a.k.a Al-Quds in arabic.

I could honestly write a massive essay about how beautiful Jerusalem is, and what great experiences we've had, but it would probably bore the pants off of you, so I'll try to keep this post as succinct as I :D

I'm gunna post the pics n stuff in bits, because it will just be an incredibly boring long blah fest if I did it all in one post!

Warning!

The firs part of this blog is quite wordy, and is just me venting about my initial shitty experience, so feel free to skip the sob story and look at the pics 

:D

Monday

So if you've read my previous post you'll know that the trip didn't start off too great! We arrived in Tel Aviv at Ben Gurion airport (Thanks for remembering the name Arch Beast!) at approximately 6pm Israeli time, 4pm UK time.

We got held back for security, as expected, being muslims!
But it wasn't really a big deal, I kinda understood why they would wanna be extra secure with people who belonged to a faith they are kinda beefing with! So we ended up waiting for them to check our passports and blah blah out for 2 blooming hours.

I honestly would not have minded so much if there was somewhere to get food from!!
The flight from Manchester was 5 hours, and we only had a packet of crisps on the flight as we weren't really anticipating a long wait, but with no vending machines or shops near where we were waiting, we were extra grumpy and agitated.

So finally we get the all clear, and we head out and jump in a taxi to Jerusalem, which was appx 35mins from the airport.  My first impressions of the place was that it was very clean and so scenic! There are literally mountains and fields everywhere you look!

So me and my family being tired and hungry, set off in search for our apartment after the taxi dropped us off at the address we gave him.
We walked around in circles for about 15 mins, dazed and confused, and then finally I rang the guy who we owns the apartment.  He told us to walk down some nasty alley way (he didn't call it nasty, but it really was disgusting) and lead me to the apartment.

Now if you've read my last post you'll know what a shit tip the place was.
I regret not taking pictures of the place!! But I was honestly in so much shock that I didn't think to take some snaps of that atrocity.
Anyway, I immediately rang the guy and told him what a liar he was, and how the pictures he put up on tripadvisor.com where COMPLETELY different from the actual place, and that we did not feel safe staying here, so were going to go find a proper hotel to stay in instead (I mean, the front door handle fell off when I opened it for God's sake!!)


The guy was angry at this point and was all like 'Are you calling me a liar!?!'
To which I replied 'Yes you massive twat!!'  and hung up.
I didn't actually call him a massive twat, but I wanted to, so yeah.

at this point, it was about 10pm, and we were tired, hungry, and shelterless!
Thankfully  a wonderful taxi driver called Salaah pulled over for us, and after explaining our situation to him, he drove us to the 'Capitol Hotel'.  Once we dropped off our luggage in the hotel he drove us to a restaurant so we could stuff our faces!

Lamb Shawarma

Lasagna

Chippy Chips!

Mint Tea

I've had Shawarma's a few time in Manc, but I've never really liked it.  This Shawarma however, was delicious! My brothers Lasagne was so good too, and of course, no matter where on the earth we are, we have to have chips!

After eating so much that our bellies nearly exploded, we went back to the hotel and slept.

Tuesday

This is where the holiday got better.

We had a really busy day, first we went to Al-Aqsa (the collective term for Al-Aqsa Mosque and Dome of the Rock), then we went to see some Churches around the old city, popped in to see the Wailing Wall, and then went to the Mount of Olives, where they had the most amazing view of Jerusalem's Old City! 

Now Jerusalem is split into the Old city and the New city.  The Old city is the busiest place, and is where most of the significant events in the Abrahamic faiths happened (or are thought to have happened, depending on your religious beliefs!).

The heart of the old city is surrounded by these huge walls that are between 16-50 feet high (depending on the area) and are appx 10 ft thick!! The walls surround the heart of the old city for about 3/4 miles, and have about 11 gates to enter and leave.  Each gate is usually attached to one of the quarters that make up the old city. 

The four quarters are:

• The Muslim quater (Al-aqsa masjid)
• The Christian quarter (Church of the Holy Sepulchre)
• The Jewish quarter (The western/wailing wall)
• The Armenian quarter 

Our hotel was a 5 minute walk to Herod's Gate and Damascus Gate, so we were really lucky location wise!

I think the most popular languages are Arabic and Hebrew, but most people speak little or some english thankfully! 

Walking around the Old City wasn't much of a culture shock for us.  We've been going to Pakistan since we were kids, and we've been to Dubai and Marrakech so were familiar with the hustle and bustle of souks, the staring and the begggin! Oh the begging!

But if you've never been to any places like that, then it will defo be a big culture shock for you! In a good way though :)

Dome of the Rock

Inside Dome of the Rock

Inside Haram Al-Sharif (term for Courtyard of Al Aqsa and Dome of the Rock)

Al Aqsa

Al Aqsa

Dome of the Rock

Salaam, Peace, Shalom
True say <3

Church of the Holy Sepulchre
(feel free to educate me about this place! It's beautiful but I know nothing about it)

Golden Cross on Church of the Holy Sepulchre

Evangelistic Church of the Redeemer

More Shawarma!

Old City walls

Damascus Gate, the busiest gate in the Old City for the Souks

Souks

Souks again

Wailing Wall
You can see the Dome of Al Aqsa Mosque on the right!

Wailing Wall

View of Old City from Mount of Olives

Camellll

Dome of Ascension, Where Jesus is believed to have ascended to heaven from

I'll upload the rest of the pics from Wednesday and Thursday tomorrow, and will try to explain some the the religious significance of the places we've seen :D

Hope you enjoy xo

Hello Darlings

Salaam, Shalom, Peace....

I'm back from Jerusalem :D 

It was Amazing!

I shall write a proper post about my trip tomorrow or on sunday, as I'm still getting my shizzle together from yesterday! (That's when we arrived back.  Our flight was delayed by half n hour, so we arrived back in Manchester at 11pm, and got home for 12am after getting some munchies)

The day we arrived ended up being a nightmare! 

We had to wait 2 hours when we arrived at the airport in Tel aviv (I can't remember the airports name and cba googling it womp womp) due to security measures (I shall share more in tomorrows post or whenever I'm gunna do it!)

Then, we arrived at out 'apartment' that we booked in the Old city of Jerusalem (there's the old city and the new city, all the historical stuff is in the old city), but it ended up being a complete shit hole (pardon my french), good Lord words cannot describe how crap it was.  Tiles where falling off the walls, there was garden furniture instead of real furniture in the tiny living area, the bathroom was NOT a bathroom, more like a room with a weird looking toilet and a broken sink, AND the bedrooms where tiny, and in completely different buildings from one another!!! Completely different from the pictures shown on tripadvisor.com when we were booking it :/ 

The icing on the cake was that it was in some skanky back ally, where the keys where just left in an unsecured post box, making us worry that any random person could have made copies of the keys and come into the 'apartment' and pinch all our stuff while we where out!!

We didn't feel safe staying there, so in the middle of the night, in a foreign COUNTRY, let alone city or area, we where standing on the side of the street, praying a taxi would pull over for us and help us find a nice place to stay.

Thankfully, a frikkin guardian angel came and saved the day and rescued us and took us to a good hotel, and did not leave us until he was satisfied we got a good deal for our rooms and then dropped us off at a place to eat. One word... God-send!

Apart from that disaster of a first day, the rest of our time was lovely.  Here are a few pics from my phone to wet your palettes.

Hummus, Olives, and some kind of chickpea thingy

Dome of the Rock or Qubbat as-Sakhra (NOT Al-Aqsa!)

Kebaaaaaaaab (or Kebobs as the natives call it!)

Damascus Gate, the busiest gate in the old city.
You cannot escape the hoody....ANYWHERE!

Church of Maria Magdalene. So pretty!

Spice souk!

The dead sea in Jericho, Palestine

Church of All Nations

Masjid Al-Aqsa on the left, and Dome of the Rock on the right from outside the old city walls.


In Ze Meantime....

Have a go at Painting your own nebula! 

'Tis very fun and is a good way of procrastinating from actually doing work :P

xo

   

There better be some sun!

I'm off to Jerusalem tomorrow :D
I am seriously excited and cannot wait to get there and soak up everything around me.  I love the idea of being a city that means so much to a variety of religions, and being Muslim, I am excited to see all the beautiful old Masjids (mosques) and go to the souks! I'll probably find a camel to ride aswell :P

I really hope it's sunny, the weather is forecast to be around the mid twenties (degrees C) so I'm happy with that :) Could do with a break from the temperamental UK weather.

I read the other day that it might snow again in a few weeks! How mad.  I'll just blame global warming like everyone else.

Anyhoo you can look forward to the many many pics I'll be taking whilst I'm away, but in the meantime, enjoy the following :D

Story of my life

Noms

True say

Leave the doggies alone :(

Love Cyanide and Happiness!

KILL EM WITH KINDNESS! best advice ever

Pancake, strawberries, Nutella and cream :D

<3

I <3 Movies

Used to hate it....now I'm obsessed with it!

I'll leave you with this video for Morcheeba's song 'Gained the world'.

Both the song and the video are really good :D

xo

Things I need to get off my brain

Recently, I've seen some really good films that I wanted to blog about, because I feel they where so brilliant!

So this isn't really going to be a review, simply because I'm biased and I've chosen to talk about movies that I personally thought where awesome! I can't think of any negatives to say about them.

So the movies:

Memento

This is a Christopher Nolan movie.  Now I've only been familiar with Nolan's recent films (Inception, Batman Begins, The Dark Knight), and absolutely loved all the movies he directed, and he was kinda just outside of my favourite directors list, simply because I hadn't seen many of his movies, but after watching Memento, he has firmly found himself a spot in my list of favourite directors! (alongside: Scorsese, the Cohen brothers, and Tarantino (Guy Richie's almost there too!))

From wikipedia

So Nolan adapted the story to film from his brother Jonathan's short story Memento Mori.

The film is an offbeat thriller about a man called Leonard, played by Guy Pearce, who suffers from short-term memory loss  Despite him not being able to fully remember the crime, he is determined to track down the people who brutally raped and murdered his wife.  Because of his short-term memory loss and incapability to retain new memories, he uses notes, photos and tattoos on his body to keep track of what happens to him each day.

He is obsessed with getting revenge for his wife's rape and murder, and is convinced that her murderers are still walking the street.  He gets help from Natalie (played by Carrie-Anne Moss) and Teddy (Joe Pantoliano) to find the man who ruined his life.  

Now I'm not gunna do a whole spoiler thing and talk you through the conclusion of the film, because I really think it's a film worth watching.

Seriously though, this film...can only be described...as a MIND F**K.

Anyone who's seen this movie, or Inception or other Nolan films will now how much of a genius this man is.

Like...I was speechless at the end, and oh so confused.  It left my head hurting, which was a good sign, 'cuz it means that I have been thinking!

Seriously though, throughout the whole film I thought I was following it and understood what was happening...but then the ending just comes and smacks you in the face as if to say

'MWAHAHAHA ! YOU WERE'NT EXPECTING THAT WHERE YA?!' 

The way the film is set out is so original.  It switches between black and white sequences and colour sequences.  The film works backwards, so the start of the film shows Leonard killing the attacker of his wife, and the film then works back from that point to show how he came to his conclusions.  

The black and white sequences of the film take place chronologically before any of the coloured sequences.  The colour sequences take place after the black and white sequences, and are shown in reverse chronological order.  It sounds super confusing but you begin to follow it when you watch it.  

The film was made in 2000, and I just watched it in Jan 2012....and I honestly think it's one of the most original stories/films I've ever seen. 

Son of Babylon

This is an Iraqi drama directed by Mohamed Al-Daradji in 2010. 

The story revolves around a little boy Ahmed and his grand mother Umme Ibrahim (literally means the mother of Ibrahim).  It is set in 2003, 2 weeks after the fall of Saddam Hussein.

The 12 year old Ahmed begrudgingly follows his grandma across Iraq after she hears news that some prisoners of war have been found alive in the South.  So they set off from north Iraq to the south in quest of finding Umme Ibrahims son, Ahmeds father.  

Ahmeds father never returned from the Gulf war in 1991, so they hope he is one of the prisoners of war found alive in the south, but along the way, visit mass graves to see if they can find his name on the list of identified bodies.  

Now Yasser Talib, who plays Ahmed, is one of the best young actors I have ever seen in a film.

The film is spoken in Arabic/Kurdish with English subtitles

(if you don't like subtitled movies, this 'aint for you!) 

Now this film highlights how luck we are to live in democracies and countries that aren't run by psycho dictators with a lust for blood.

Honestly, if you're having a shit day, watch this movie, and you will feel so much better about your life compared to the millions of Iraqis who suffered in the hands of Saddam. 

WARNING: If you're a cryer like me, then you'll need a box of tissues for this film (but then again I cry in a lot of movies...I cried in Ong Bak 2 for God's sake!)

A Prophet

Heads up, this is a looooonnnngggg film! I think it's like two and a half hours long. But is worth the watch.

Again, it's an international film.  It's a French film about a 19 year old Arab man sent to a French prison, where he gets involved with the Corsican mafia who basically run the prison. 

It was made in 2009 and directed by Jacques Audiard, who claimed that the he aimed for the film  to "create icons, images for people who don't have images in movies, like the Arabs in France", but stresses the film is purely fictional and doesn't represent his vision of society.  

So Malik El Djebena (played by Tahar Rahim) is French but of Algerian descent, and is sent to prison for 6 years for attacking police officers.  Naive, alone and illiterate, he unwillingly falls under the sway of the Corsican mobsters lead by Cesar (played by Niels Arestrup), who is pretty brutal and derogatory to Malik.  

The prison is split between two main groups: the Muslims and the Corsicans.  Malik tries to keep to himself, but after being forced to kill a Muslim snitch in the prison for Cesar, he gains the protection of the Corsicans despite him being Arab.  The Corsicans basically treat Malik like dirt, treating him as their slave.

From wikipedia 

Malik makes a Muslim friend, Ryad, who teaches him to read and write, and slowly introduces him to more Muslims in the prison, increasing his influence and connections in prison.  

He eventually becomes torn between his loyalty to the Corsicans and his newly found Muslim friends.

It is a French/Arabic/Corsican language film with English subtitles, and despite being so long, is a  one of the best prison movies since Shawshank I think! 

Apologies if this post was too blah blah, but I really liked these movies and thought it was worth while sharing!

Let me know if you have seen any of these or are planning to watch any, they are all worth while! 

Prawns!

So on Saturday I went over to my good friend Z's house in Bradford.
Now I love going to Z's house for many reasons, some of which are:

-Her amazing family.  Her husband and 3 boys are honestly the loveliest family I've ever known!

-Her entertaining self- she is very funny and very wise, and always knows all the right things to say :D

-Now the main reason...her cooking! Oh my DAYS this woman knows how to cook! (Don't be angry Z, that's not the main reason...heh.heh....)

Many times I (and numerous other people) have told Z that she needs to make a cook book and get it published, cuz seriously, she's amazing.

But anyway when I went over I took these chocolates over as it was two of her sons b-days in Jan and Feb so I took these along as belated birthday presents;

Ninja chocolate!

I got these from this bakery/chocolate shop near our house called Slatteries, they do the most AMAZING novelty cakes and wedding cakes etc.

Now Z and her family all do Ju-Jitsu! (hence the martial arts themed chocs :P).  Her three sons; Ibz, Zee and Ee (not their real names...obvs!) are all black belts in Ju-jitsu! Although I think that's the junior level, but still that's pretty awesome for their ages! (Ibz is 13, Zee is 11 and Ee is 9.....i think!?!), so now their on to adult level stuff and they use bow staffs and nun-chucks and everything!

Also at Slatteries I stumbled across this mofo:

Giant easter egg! I think it was £95 or something! :/

So I always love going to Z's.  It's honestly like home away from home :) 

AND this time around, I played Tekken 6 with the boys and whooped their arses ;) I expalined to them that I've played Tekken since it came out on the PS1 and so that's why I was amazeballs.  

Usually, you see, I play Modern Warfare with them, which results in me dying multiple times as soon as I move two steps after re-spawining :/ so that's why I was happy playing Tekken 6 :P

So Me and Z have known each other for almost 4 years now.  We met at University as we where on the same course, and used to walk to and from the train station together.

I still remember on the first or second day of Uni, Z leaned over and asked if I wanted to walk to the station with her, to which I happily replied 'HELL YES!' (I was just happy that I made a friend you see).  

So when walking down she was telling me about how she's married and stuff, and you have to understand, Z looks like she's 18 years old....seriously.

So when she told me she was married I was like 'My goodness, she must have got married when she was like 16 or something!' as then she started to tell me about her son Ibz, who I assumed was  a toddler cuz the bloomin' woman looks 18 years old!!  

So I was like 'Oh how old is your little one?' referring to Ibz.  

Z replied 'Oh, Ibz is 9, Zee is 7 and Ee is 5', and at this point, I thought she got married when she was a child or some crap cuz it blew my mind that she was a mother of not one, but THREE, as she looked younger then me, AND had a better figure then me! 

So I asked her for her passport for proof (we brought in some form of ID on the first day of Uni to make our ID cards, don't want you to think Z carries her passport with her everywhere...ready to flee at any moment!).  Turns out she was telling the truth about her not being 18.  She was 30 something (I'm not being polite to hide your age Z, I just genuinely don't remember!)

I never really thought anything about our age gap to be honest.  I mean she as my first 'mature' friend or 'adult' friend, or whatever you wanna call it (I prefer mature, adult friend sounds a bit weird! Plus I iz an adult too!). 

But yeah, age aint' nothing but a number.  We're from two diff generations but still have so much fun and so much in common, and honestly she is one of my nearest and dearest friends.

Z's famous Bhujna Prawns with garlic bread and friend mushroom :D
My most FAVOURITE dish of hers.  She makes it for me every time I come bless her <3

So I urge you all, go and be-friend someone who is a generation older/younger than you (when I say younger, I don't mean too young....I mean like...you know...20's or something.  Let's not get creepy here)

It would also help if they where awesome cooks :D 

(although that's not what is important in friendship chaps and chapettes!)

P.s!

Z got me a box of chocs and some shoes for my birthday, which isn't actually until March, but cuz we see each other every few months she got them me now :)

Now my family are food fiends I tell you....fiends! 

Here is the box of chocs Z got me about 15 mins after they where opened...

A whole row gone!!
Thanks Z :D

And the shoes Z ordered for me;

I love these slipper style shoes :D

Thank you Z darling, Loves you xoxo

Quick message:

Uni work is getting pretty heavy, so my posting will be pretty infrequent :/ 

I've been trying to get the bulk of my dissertation done around now, as I go on a months placement back in the hospital I worked in last year, so will have no time/motivation to do any uni work then!

I feel like such a waste, as I only manage to write like 3 sentences every hour!! But I say this pic and it helped me keep going :D

So good luck to anyone who has any academic work, or just any work in general to do.  Remember this proverb and keep on going, even if it's only little by little at a time :) 

xo

Come Dine With Me

If you're not familiar with the funny channel 4 show, check out the clip below:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eHydOz3x-5I&feature=colike
(I can't upload the video for some reason :O)


Basically it's a competition where 4/5 random people in a city host a dinner part for each other, and they're secretly scored, and on the last night, the winner is revealed and they win a £1000 cash prize.

Me and my mates decided to do this! (Minus the secret scoring, and £1000 prize money darn it)
Now Tee hosted the first night back in December.  Hers was an X-mas themed dinner.
I hosted mine last Sunday, and mine was valentines themed.

Check out the menu:

The home made Pizzas where completely made from scratch, so I made the dough fresh and everything! (Thanks to Z's amazing recipe :D)

So I told Tee, M-dawg and Fiz to be at mine for 6pm...
But my friends, being the typical Pakistanis that they are, arrived an hour later.

(Pakistanis,Indians, ANY southern asians, in fact, automatically assume that whatever time you give them to be somewhere, you actually  mean that they should start getting ready at that time: FACT!)

So thankfully din dins went well!  Everyone enjoyed the food (thank God!) but most importantly, we all had a good laugh :D

Wouldn't be valentine without roses now, would it?

Ze Table

Breadcrumb chickennnnnn

My origami love heart napkins :D

Another one of Fiz's brilliant shots!

Pizza (home made)!

M-Dawgs presents! Zi Bo the panda (Tee''s) Tomylanthaloo the pink thing (mine) and Buzz the bee (Fiz's)  <3

Cookie dough! (wasn't as nice as pizza huts though!)

I do have to mention, before dessert, my mother salsa'd in with roses in her mouth, and danced around and gave a rose each to me and my friends ;) (actually, I don't think the roses were in her mouth, they had thorns!!)

Also big up to Z! Without your yummy recipe the pizzas wouldn't have tasted as good as they did! (they still were not as nice as yours though!!)

On the topic of Valentines......

I have to mention my girl crush: M.I.A

I first fell in love with her awesomeness when I was in high school and first heard 'Buckey Done Gun'

My love for her has deepened throughout the years, but after hearing this song and watching the video, my obsession has reached new levels:

So you've discovered that I can cook Manz and Womanz.

Now you know, if you ever find yourself wandering around Manchester hungry......

Dont come 'round to mine.

On a slightly less anti-social note, check out mine and panjys pancakes we made on pancake day yesterday :D

nothing like watching the brit awards whilst scoffing your face with pancakes :D

xo

Mummy

I dont mean this kind of mummy:

This is what I'm talking about:

WTF?

Well....I don't mean the dudes my mum, but he seems to know what I'm talking about so......

Well last week was my darling mothers birthday.  Anyone who knows me will tell you how close I am to my mum, and I know this is such a cliche and what not, but she seriously is my best mate!

Only children can appreciate and fully understand what their parents have been through and how much they do for us, so it's only proper that me and my bros and my dad spoil her on her Bday :D

We showered her with gifts, took her out to dinner, and most importantly, we got her SUPER BIG balloons!

Not mums real age, obvs, but you can figure it out!

So one of the gifts we got her (I say we, my dad actually bought them...but still....we) were these amazing cupcakes!

Hydrangea cupcakes!  My mums fav flowers.  'The Cake Deli' who made them are GENIUS!

They where almost too good to eat!! (almost.....I mean I still ates them)

We have a habit of getting amazing cupcakes made in our house, if you haven't already, check out the awesome cupcakes we got for my brothers birthday back in January here: >>>More nom nom cupcakes<<<

A few days later, I treated mother dearest to a spot of lunch at Bella Italia.

NOMS. Pepe Rossi Ripieni and Pizza Caprina

True say, plate

As you can tell by the empty plates, the food was UH-MAZING, especially the Pepe Rossi! which the menu describe as an: 'oven baked pepper stuffed with creamy red pepper risotto, basil and crumbled goat's cheese. Served with a crisp lemon dressed salad of baby gem, rocket, green beans, spring onion and cucumber' *drool*

So to summarise, I love mumsy lots and lots, all the way to the moon and back <3

Quick question.  We got my mums fav flowers made into a cupcake, what design would you want to have on your cupcakes? (I'm torn between Cookie monster and..like...rainbows or something!

check these bad boys out! 

Enjoy this alternative birthday song :D

Quick Translation of first verse:

Again and again this day comes,

Again and again my heart sings,

(repeat above)

You'll live for 1000 years,

That is my wish,

Happy Birday to you (x2)

Happy Birday to Sunita,

Happy Birday to you

xo