guest blogging, and confusing families.

Guess what?  The wonderful busy bee that is Michael Patrick McKinley has asked me to do a guest post for his blog!  No one has ever asked me to guest post, so I am extremely flattered, and excited!  Especially since his blog is so diverse and interesting!

His post's usually make you think about things you would never usually consider, and have a sweet humour to them too :)

Check his blog  'Let's start with a metaphor, shall we?' out: http://killerbeesmakethemostdelicioushoney.blogspot.co.uk/2012/08/quote-unquote-14-hungry.html

I'll let you know when my post has been published.  Sadly, I think it will just be a re-post :(

I would love to write something original, but given that my gran is over from Pakistan and we're constantly having people over to see her, or taking her to see people, anything original written right now would be half-arsed, and Michaels blog is too good for that!

Also, I thought I'd explain a bit about Pakistani families in this post briefly.

One of my friends txt me yesterday after reading my last post, and was confused about be referring to my gran as my 'Dadi Ami', so I told her i'd explain it in a post.

In Punjabi/Urdu, each relation has a particular name you refer to them as, not strictly, but just in general, like your dads parents, brothers and sisters have a certain 'title', I suppose you could say, and the same for your mums side. 

So here goes:

Your dads mum and dad= dadi ami and dada abu (literally translates to dad's mum and dad's dad)

Your mums mum and dad= nani ami and nana abu

Your dads big brother= Thai Abu (his wife would be your Thai Ami)

Your dads little brother= Chacha/Chachu (his wife would be your Chachi)

Your dads sister= Phupho (pronounced pup-oh..sort of..) (Her husband would be your phuphra)

Your mums brother, older or younger= Mamoo (his wife would be your mami)

Your mums sister= Khala (her husband would be your Khaloo)

Borthers, sisters and cousins don't have a particular title, but you usually call your big brother, or older guy cousin Bhai or Bhaijan, out of respect, and your older sister or older girl cousin Baji or Appa/Appi out of respect.  

We just call our uncles and aunties...Uncle and Aunty :P We've never really been traditional in that sense.

And I don't actually call my grandparents any of the traditional names above.  I call my mum's parents Barry mamy and Barry daddy (literally Big mum and Big dad :P) and my dads parents Ami gee and Abu gee.

Even if you don't refer to your family using the traditional names, they're still used a lot in conversation when explaining how 'so and so' is related to 'so and so'

Most Southern Asian cultures have traditional names for family members, but they'll vary depending on the language spoken and the country/region/area you're from. 

You can't say I don't educate you readers :P

Even if it is useless information you didn't need to know!

I was in a rush yesterday so forgot to post some eid themed pictures!

My lovely friend Sam (the one who just got married) came over and put mehndi/henna on mumsy, my cousin and I.

She's so talented! She does it all freehand, and does the designs from the top of her head!

Mums black mehndi

xo