Thought for the day...

The Prophet Muhammad (peace be upon him) said:

"Being wealthy does not mean having a great amount of property. Being wealthy is being content."

blood.tests.hurt!

I got back from giving three, yes THREE bottles of blood to the nurse at my surgery and *ahh* it hurt! I didn't actually anticipate so much pain but boy, it killed! Not to mention how it instantly made me feel light-headed thinking that I was doing 360° spins :| I'm such a big baby, I know! And yes, it's probably my own fault for having a sugarful breakfast: a cuppa tea, two rich tea biscuits and a Cabdury's chocolate roll; all to the look of complete disbelief on the nurse's face. Yes, I am 23 and I have a poor, poor diet, and it doesn't improve the slightest before a blood test! Doh.

So yes, I had a blood test. A simple, routine blood test as a follow up to an appointment I had with a doc a couple of weeks back. A fortnight or two back I had been feeling a strange tingling sensation in both my feet, particularly worsening at night. The nurse told me that the blood would be counted and a check for B12 and other important thingies would also be done before the results come out: either this Friday or two weeks later, when the nurse returns from her jollies! TWO WEEKS! Grr!

Anyway, I'm feeling a little better now that my sugar levels have normalised. I drank a glass of OJ and am now munching on a Greek salad dear hubs prepared lastnight (it's so delish!). Feta Cheese - I ♥♥♥♥ U!

Greek Salad, ala Hubs stylee

Yumminess! :-D



Right, I shall now return to the world of real, proper and important work! Ciao!

x

The bootie cover up: long cardis

Wearing trousers with a short-ish top is quite often a no go zone for Mulsim women (including yours truely) who may feel uncomfortable walking around without a long top covering their rear/bum/bottom/bootie/backside (ohh wareva). I've not always felt like this about wearing short tops and trousers, but ever since being together with the other/engaged/married I have become more conscious of it, mostly because hubby prefers me covering *it*, as being quite curvy, my trousers fit a little too well in certain areas. Hugely annoying, and quite literally too, as I feel as though it is immodest for me to not cover up in that region, especially since I do wear a hijab. That said, I have seen many hijabis wear short tops and trousers with modesty, and it's great seeing that. However, most of these hijabi's are typically very slim and slender and therefore their figures are not always accidently revealed as is the case with a woman with a fuller figure (hips etc).

I fell into this 'very slim' category years ago and when I did wear trousers with a short top, with a hijab, the feeling of being immodest wouldn't be one that would instantly come to my mind. Being married and living a very different life does however equal to many changes, and a sometimes inevitable one (depending on one's lifestyle of course) = weight gain, which in turn effects the shape of the body and thus the fit of clothing on the newly developed body frame.

With summer well on its way here in the UK, most of us will be opting to drape loose cotton clothing around our bodies (good news for hijabis!) such as linen trousers and cotton tops. As a matter of fact, I have acquired two pairs of lovely linen trousers to take me through the days when I just want to lounge around in casual wear, which brings me back to the topic of covering the bootie.

One essential aid to overcome the bootie problem is the staple and versatile long cardigan, sleeveless or with sleeves. It covers a multitude of problems, well actually...mainly two: good overall body coverage and v.good bootie coverage. Recently, I've been making the most of my faithful sleeveless black tie cardi and have also purchased a grey one which I think will go great with jeans and trousers alike.

This black one is similar to the one I bought from New Look months ago and the gorgeous yellow one is one that I will keep a good lookout for as I am yet to come across one like it:

Mmm :-)

x

Hay fever and flu sufferers - get well soon!

The combination of hay fever+virus+general unidentified fever = one poor poorly person, namely my hubs.

Poor lamb has been off work for the past two days now as his usual hay fever tablets surprisingly stopped working, leading us to suspect something a bit more sinister. Alhamdulilah the nurse yesterday at the emergency doctor's clinic identified his illness as some sort of virus, causing blocked congestion and a high temperature. The medicine prescribed seems to be working, albeit slowly and the steam facials I've had him enduring seems to be clearing his airways. Oh another benefit of this steam session was that it gave me the perfect opportunity to remove the shockingly gross black and WHITE heads on his NOSE! Gosh it was satisfying! I mean, I never anticipated how great the results would be (yah, he had quite a few visible ones) but boy I was so pleased that I couldn't stop staring at his nose with amazement! Made my (yester)day :D

So yeah, the poor soul is off work today and since he's getting his stamina and good health back, he's been hooked on the Wii playing BoomBlox for God know's how many hours :|

Oh and he keeps poking his head round my laptop from time to time to see what I'm writing about [cuttieee!] claiming to do it because apparently I like it! Yeaah ;)

For anyone suffering from hay fever or such an illness, you have my sympathetics people! Remember, drink plenty of water and fresh and pure orange juice - wonder drinks!

[no name] #1

Doh!

I just gave it one! hehe

Hello world! :-)

Hope you're all well and fine my blogista's around the world! I've been away from my blog for almost a week although I have been snooping around this blog and other blogs and just y'know, generally just procrastinating...I've been meaning to post a new entry about lots of things:

i.e.

1. Iran election and results
   
2. EU election results
   
3. Food
4. Summer clothing

etc etc

However, I just keep getting side tracked and when I do find the motivation to write something I can never think of a suitable post title! Anyways, I was determined today that I would write an entry to ensure I maintain a sustained effort to write about something, anything, even nothing!

So in my vain attempt to write a little something, which is probably nothing, you may have noticed, or perhaps not, that my blog url has now been amended to http://mintfreshmuslim.blogspot.com/.

You may have also noticed that I have in the past changed my url like I change my hijab - the reasoning behind it really just depends on my mood on the day! That said, I like the sound of mint.fresh.muslim. - something about the m.f.m. pattern (if you can call it that) with the .'s in between! Oh also, I sorta decided against using the term Muslimah as although I respect and know sisters who refer to themselves as a Muslimah, I somehow, for some reason, find the term Muslim more 'me', something I'm more used to hearing/seeing and feeling. This is no dig at the sisters who use feminised term, it's just that I don't particularly feel much for the word itself :-)

Okaley dokaley, that's enough of my randomness and I do hope that my words cause no offence to any of you reading this! Hopefully I'll be back soon with more random gibberish!

Cheerio!

x

Books, clothes, shiny lip gloss in a hot hot noodle soup

Hello world!

I've been meaning to update my little personal journal for a while now, but alas, things have been quite hectic recently so here's my update [ooh, btw, I shall write in bullet form as it helps keep my mind focused, eh]:

• I was at uni yesterday for a lil while and during my walk from the bus station to my building, I realised that I wouldn't be there for much longer and so, should utilise my handy camera to snapshot my surrounding since the weather too was on my side. Here's a glimpse of my uni area from yesterday:

Pic of the Law Building, Wills Memorial if I remember correctly. Awesome looking building.

My building! Oh the temple of profound wisdom! Hmm.

• Gosh, got sooo much to do for this final FINAL unit: the dreaded dissertation! Okay, so I have done before, but the thought of doing another, Master's level at that, is quite frightening. InshaAllah, it will be fine, I will put my sweat, blood and tears into it to turn it into a masterpiece and voila, I'll have the Master's under my belt in no time hah! Now to get to those books about educational research and communication technologies......

• Yesterday was also the final day of darling hubby's final exams! The poor love was ill-ish with hay fever as well, I only hope Allah will reward him kindly for his efforts, inshaAllah. Results out in August, fingers and toes crossed until then. But before then, drool over this delish looking supergrub....I say supergrub cos it was belissimo! Halal chicken is a rare treat in UK, non Indian, chain restaurants and we found it at Tampopo (yes, pardon the name, it means daffodil or something similar in Japanases apparently!) T'was a cool restaurant, serving pan far eastern dishes from Singapore to the Philippines to the people of Brizzle!

'Laksa' dish from Singapore was my choice of the day. Fiery cocounut broth and noodle thing with chicken, prawns and tofu - lush! HOT HOT HOT!!!

Hubby's dish, a Malay 'Kway Tweo' - quite tasty. Shame neither of us managed to use the chopsticks, guess we'll have to practise using the one's the waitress so kindly gifted me!

Vietnamese coffee - with condensed milk! Teh tarik nostalgia!

• Okay food indulgence aside I also bought three books, yes THREE reading books! I surprised myself actually, as although I do want to read more for leisure, I rarely find or quite honestly make the time. Will soon change I hope as the following books seem to good to miss:

1. Reading Lolita in Tehran - Azar Nafisi; have already read almost a dozen chapters, definitely a page turner
   
2. Beauty - Zadie Smith; blurb sounded intriguing
   
3. The Glass Palace - Amitav Ghosh; novel on the happenings in colonial India

• I also embarked on a style finding/developing journey with hubby yesterday as he has recently shown a deep interest in pleasing me wrt: fashion, to which I stressed that developing one's own sense of style is far more important than just following fashion. Bless! I don't know what has brought this on right now, but I'm not complaining! His wardrobe has (or had rather) three shades: black, white and blue: ahhh, I suddenly remember why he's doing it now! Shopping for him for hours on end, was definitely worth it :)

• I've also spent half of today shopping, again, and not for myself, again! Gosh. Self restraint or what!! Good feeling :O

• Finally lip gloss: I now have two cute tubes of pure lip shine! One peach the other pink, both very transparent and s.h.i.n.e.y! Perfect for summer!

So there. My update. I feel a need to do more often than before for some obscure reason: actually the thought of sufering with memory loss is quite scary and in case that ever happens, I have this for an extra memory aid! hehe

As for tomorrow, I am offsie to my parent's on a weekend visit, with a wedding squashed in, can't wait iA :)

As for now, I am SHATTERED! EXHAUSTED! SLEEEPY! Huuuge post huh. Right, I'm off! Nite all!

x

A picstory

Here are a few snaps of what went on in the Fatty domain earlier this week, Thursday to be precise:

In summary

1. Bust up with hubby resulted in a bouquet of flowers and a thank you card at 7am in the morning, followed by breakfast in bed. Sweet sweet sweet, I am a lucky girl, I know alhamdulilah.
   
2. On feeling quite silly and yes, guilty for the pettiness, I decided to cook up a treat for hubby and the family. I'd never cooked anything like this before, had only eaten the dauphinoise potatoes at a restaurant and so used recipes of the Internet as a guide. Outcome, well see for yourselves!

Fatty and pretty flowers



Cod & Pepper Bake with Dauphinoise Potatoes



Gosh, posting pics is such a farce, surely there must be an easier way! Please let me know what you guys reckon the easiest way is!

June showers!

Gosh it is so dull and damn out there! We have had a week of glorious sunny warm weather and now dampness! Bleugh. I don't know how some people can find weather like this gorgeously romantic, just the thought of water getting into my toes makes me *shudder*.

So what's been going on in Fatty's world as of late?

I've been swotting up for my driving theory test continuously after a huge slump of nothingness from when I booked my test to the moment hubby rightfully gave me a telling off for not bothering to revise! He never NEVER yells and boy, when he did, it gave me the kick I massively needed! So yes, I am now feeling a lot more confident about my theory test on Tuesday. For those of you not from the UK, all learner drivers must pass a driving theory test and a hazard perception test which covers all the necessary info regarding driving motor vehicles; once passed, the learner can only then proceed to attempting the practical driving test, within two years of passing the theory test: in total, the driving tests consists of three parts. I have actually attempted this test and passed it before, however, due to my laziness for not getting round to taking my practical test in the two year window provided after passing the theory test, my pass has become invalid, hence the retake! Grr grr grr! InshaAllah I'll be okay!


On a more positive note, my two sisters have been on the phone all morning keeping me up to date about the race for life event which they have taken part in for the first time today. I was supposed to be taking part too, but due to hubby's exams, it's been impossible! Well not impossible, but there's no way I'd be able to leave him in the run up to his LAST EVER exam unless it was a life/death situation! InshaAllah I will take part one day as it is a charitable event for a cause very close to the heart of my family. The runners/walkers who have participated will run or walk a number of kilometers to raise money for cancer care, research etc, and since my dad is a cancer sufferer and has been for the last 8-9 years, it is a charity I would definitely become involved with at some point in my life, inshaAllah.

Okay, shall leave it there for now. I fancy a cup of tea to suit my mood in this damp rainy weather so ciao amigos!

Summer styling

I got a little fidgety last night thinking about summer and my need for more versatile summery skirts and so off I embarked on a web hunt for bargain priced gorgeous skirties.

Here is one I totally fell in love, looks great and the price at under £20 is a steal! A plain tee teamed with some beaded sandals and other beady accessories - summery funk!









Bargains in the background for a min, this lovely suede mac/trench/whatever you want to call it in a duck blue is very light and summery, well sort of if you squint your eyes! I love the under-stated yet tailored detailing, would look great with black trousers and jeans alike. One snag, the price tag at a "budget" price of £398! It is an Amanda Wakely piece, however (yes, who the heck is that?!) and all budgetary matters aside, it IS a staple long lasting piece.

Another small ishoo: I already have a fab black Mexx mac which I've loved wearing over the past three years or so and which btw, is still in good nick! Oh, I also have another gorgeous black and white mac which hubby bought for me as a birthday gift whilst we were honeymooning in Kuala Lumpur last year; which actually, is still hung up as brand new in my wardrobe as I just cannot find the most appropriate occasion for its premier outfitting!

Hijabs High!

Afternoon all :-)

I've been doing my usual hijab spotting since the moment I flipped my laptop open this morning and have felt so stylishly inspired by the style and hijab conscious muslim sisters around the world.

Here's one website, Hijabs High, that I frequently visit with the eager anticipation of finding out which stylish hijabista has been chosen for the new muslim style blog entry. It showcases the sometimes simple, sometimes flash, but always stylish hijabi sisters from all around the world. Amazing to see what outfits other hijabi sisters are hijabifying with their own stylish twist!

Love it! Two thumbs up!

Ooh just to add by the way, I would've displayed my favourite feature but since the author of the blog has requested viewers to respect copyright by not copying text/images, I shall respect the author's request :-) Do check it out yourself though!

Fatty x

Woke up to change the world

Hello people :-)

I suggest you don't take the title of this post too seriously, I wish I could in an instant rather than over time but hey that's life, right. No, the title of this post was inspired by the essence of today's events commencing with Mr. Obama's "Muslim speech" [here is a short snippet] and sort of ending with the EU elections.

It was around 10am and I was still fixing myself after having had a lie in contemplating about life all by myself, when my father-in-law quite endearingly shouted out "babies, come down!". Len and I went down to find that Mr. Obama was to address the Muslim nation, in Cairo and beyond regarding the relationship between the US and the Muslim nation. Many points were discussed by Obama from his agenda which in turn raised even more points and questions. In short, he spoke of the long and proud Muslim heritage, which Muslims have contributed to the entire world, mentioning items from mathematical to medical value before moving onto the core meat of his speech consisting of several issues: terrorism, the Palestinian/Israeli conflict, democracy, women's right, the economy and a few other things that my mind seems to have forgotten!

The speech was yet another gripping one, one which had listeners clinging onto his every word and one which was celebrated with a standing ovation from the audience present in Cairo's prestigious University.

Personally speaking, the content of his speech wasn't one I agreed with fully despite it bringing a smile or two on my face as I watched one of the world's most powerful men, the American President, utter Islamic words almost always correctly with a conviction. Okay, so I cringed (and laughed out loud!) when he misread the word 'hijab' as 'hajib' but at least he tried and his slip-up just like his conviction at times, is seemingly genuine. Some commentators have already said how his cautious speech lacked substance, I would agree to an extent as although he did well in acknowledging the troubles in the Middle East, he refrained from expanding on them, I felt. For example, whilst talking about the Palestine/Israel conflict, I hoped Obama would display recognition of the mutual violence taking place by both parties, yet it was Hamas who were once more commanded to end the violence first. Old news man, old news. I was hoping he would command the Israeli Defence Forces (IDF) to also end their violence towards the Palestinian and for them to also recognise that the Palestinian's too have a right to their own state. Nope, that would be too much to ask! I guess we should just be content with the fact that at least Obama has made the effort (whether solely pragmatic or otherwise, who knows?!) to extend the olive branch to the Middle East *sigh*

On a side note to this, although I believe Cairo University is a world renowned University, why Egypt?! Why not another progressive Muslim country outside the Middle East, because hellloooo, they do exist! Kuala Lumpur would be my city of choice for suuure :-) lol

Oh yeah, another reason for the title...well, today is the day of the EU elections where all the 27 EU countries will vote to decide the fate of the EU Parliament. I don't recall knowing, seeing or being part of something like this before but my position on this was quite clear: NO2EU! For one main reason really, as the name of the political party suggest - keep the UK out of the EU! I rather the UK concentrated it's efforts on maintaining its independence, working with other nations for the betterment of its own people first and then the wider community; which would, with a lil hope, keep the current currency - the pound sterling, in tact and away from the reigns of international puppet masters'.

So there you have it, my views on the events of the world today. Hope I haven't bored you half to death with my insight into political life, which I have to say isn't something I used to particularly care too much about but have had to recently due to the absurdness going on around me!

Ciao for now! May be back with some other random stuff later.

Fatty x

All smiles :-)

Hello hello and hello :-)

Hope you're well and happy iA.

I haven't blogged in a few days now, although I haven't been too far away, just haven't had the urge to get things written down recently. Anyway, a little update on everything typeworthy so far:

1. My beloved dad hasn't been too well (will explain later) and was asked to stay over night at the hospital, seems like he will be there for another night only iA before being discharged - he is not in a critical state and is as fine as can be right now :-) . I ask all of you reading this post to take a micro-second of your time when you close your eyes/bow your heads or just remember your beloved God to make a small prayer for dad's health recovery. InshaAllah.
   
2. I have a job! Remember my previous rambling about the possibility of working in a girl's school? Well, I recieved an email yesterday with an offer for the post, which by the way, I only read this morning! I'm so over the moon about this as I genuinely began thinking that there was no way I'd be in employment this September! The relief is just incredible and was evident from the moment I broke the news to hubby and my in-laws. Everyone I think, is just relieved for me as they were worried about me worrying! I'm just waiting for the official contract which will be agreed once the teaching references come through, nothing to worry about iA.
   
3. Thirdly....hmm, nothing else really 'cept that I've been all smiles today, as pointed out by the hubby! I don't think I've looked this happy since,...., I can't remember! All thanks to the most beautiful and kind Almighty :-)

So then. I think I'll leave it here for now before I ramble on and on and on and on...lol

By the way, before I am off, a BIG HEY to my new blog followers: Queen and Aimie. I have been a reader of your blogs for a while now and it is because of all of you sisters (and my hubby's suggestion) that I have felt inspired to start writing a blog. Glad to know I'm not just writing into an empty virtual space!

Cool and out :-)