Merry Christmas

Hoping you all had a lovely Christmas.
We sure did. Totally over indulged ourselves...as you're allowed to!!! We had some lovely days just enjoying ourselves & chilling out. Also managed to visit my parents for a few days too.
Here's some photos taken during the last week.


Out for dinner with Jamila, Fouz & Pavinder plus secret santa gifts too!

My yummy advent calendar. Usually only the kids get one but this year I treated myself.

The famous Bull at the BullRing, Birmingham.

My lovely new toy & it's pink yay!!!

Last night was our Islamic new year. It's tradition to have loads of dishes. How many can you count?

Blessing the thaal.

The boys with their paternal cousins.


My nieces

Sad news

On Wednesday 10th Dec we received some tragic news. My cousin Shabbir's wife Nafisa had suffered a fatal accident. They were out on their motorbike when they had a collision with another. The force caused Nafisa bhaibi to fall off the back of the bike, where she was sitting, & fell on the ground hitting her head badly. She died not long after.
My mum & I are so so upset. It's hard to come to terms with it. She was only in her late thirties & has left behind a teenage son. Shabbir is obviously distraught at the loss of his "jaan" - Nafisa was his everything.

Finally

Well I've been computerless for over a week and gosh, it's like horrendous without it.
I mean we just can't survive without being connected to the www. I must admit that I've really struggled. The boys were ok as they could either go online at school or go to the local cyber cafe. Akber was obviously ok at work. But it's quite difficult to go online at the school plus facebook is banned there.
So now we have a swanky new desktop with a huge monitor which we all love. Now I'm just waiting for my laptop to be repaired.

So in the last week or so I finished reading an amazing book. Twilight by Stephanie Meyers.



I'd orginally bought it for Hussein but I decided to read it first. And I'm so glad I did. I was hooked from the first page & could barely put it down.
So I'm going to add the next book to my Xmas wish list!

Ok so you all know that the new James Bond movie has come out. And obviously with a house full of guys we're gonna go watch it at some point or other. So I thought I'd better have go at watching last year's movie - Casino Royale. Last time we watched the dvd I fell asleep! Plus I wasn't so keen on Daniel Craig which is probably why I fell asleep in the first place! My particular favs are Sean Connery & Pierce Brosnan in that order. But I sat down one afternoon and at the end of the movie I was converted. Daniel Craig is just gorgeous!!! And I think he makes a stunning 007!

It's bitterly cold here. Had a bit of snow yesterday but it was gone by the afternoon.

No pictures to share this time as I still need to get my photos transferred over to this pc. So enjoy the last week of November. Ciao for now.

It's been a while....

I know it's been long time since my last blog entry but, seriously, life has been pretty hectic.
Loads has happened so I've had to resort to my calendar, diary & photos to remind of what I've been up to.
Be warned it's a long entry with tons of pics!!!

We celebrated Eid on 30th Sept. I was pleased as I'd managed to keep most of the fasts though I was convinced I wouldn't be able to keep them as the days were quite long. In the evening, as always, we got together with Akber's family & went out to eat. We totally overindulged ourselves!! The best part was the mango lassi..yumm.




The following week I attended the Scrapping For Wishes charity crop & made some lovely things including a fab countdown to Christmas mdf tree.
5th October saw Hussein's 15th birthay. Phew I can't blieve I'm mum to a 15 year old. Makes me feel slightly old!! We went out to eat at TGI's where the waiters kept adding more & more balloons to Hussein's arms!!!





Later that week I went out with the girls from work to a Turkish restaurant that had just recently opened.




Then on 23rd October Akber & I celebrated our 20th wedding anniversary. He took me to a fabulous resturant, The Orrery, in Marylebone. It was really special especially our drinks. The best one was the Flirtini..think martini & add raspberrys. I was definitely a little merry!!!! The food & service was impeccable and I'd love to go back again.










Then came Halloween. Akber's aunt & cousins had arrived from Holland the day before so they were quite enthralled with the whole thing as Halloween isn't so big over there..yet. Anyway Batula & Imran got on like a house on fire & she came trick or treating with him.



On 1st November, as Akber's sister & family had also flown in from Switzerland, we had a party for his family celebrating our anniversary & the birthdays of two of his nieces. We had birthday cake for the girls but for us I wanted something different and so I ordered cupcakes. They were beautifully decorated and so yummy. I was really pleased with them. We also took tons of pics especially as this was the first time in about 5 years that all the cousins (my mils' grandkids) were together. All in all it was a good night














So finally that brings us to today. End of the first week back at work after half term. Only 6 weeks till we break up for Christmas but who's counting!!!!

MIA

I'm back!!!
Woohoo finally I've made it back to blogging!
I have no excuses except that life is just happening & so updating my blog got put aside.
So this is what's been happening since August:-

• We were excited to find out Imran had won a competition he'd entered in one of his comics....prize a Lazy Town dressing up outfit...which was fabulous as he just loves to dress up.

• We went away for a week with family...about 20 of us. We hired a huge 10 bedroomed mansion out in the middle of nowhere in Angelsey (a small isle in North Wales). We had a lovely time there. It was very relaxing. The weather was a bit naff but the kids enjoyed themselves so much. They were happy just to spend the time with their cousins.

• Celebrated my birthday. Went for a lovely meal with some friends at a fab local restaurant.

• Six days later it was Imran's turn. We didn't really do anything special so we decided quite late in the evening to go into central London,to Leicester Square & indulge ourselves in Haaagen Dazs! Luckily we didn't have to queue for too long & we selected some yummy desserts.

• The next day was the first of Ramadan so the fasts began. Not long now till Eid!

• Returned back to work....could have really done with a longer summer break! But I'm glad to say only another 4 weeks and it'll be half term. Looking forward to that very much!

• Boys started the new school year. Hussein is now in year 10 & doing his GCSE’s. Kaizer is in year 9 and Imran in Year 4.

• Imran took part in the Redbridge Carnival with fellow pupils doing a display/dance of body percussion. I stood there with a huge grin on my face as he remembered every move.

A bit of fun

The Recipe For Yasmin

3 parts Humor 2 parts Bravery 1 part Love Splash of Elegance Limit yourself to one serving. This cocktail is strong!

What's the Recipe for Your Personality?

Monday

I was trying to upload some pictures taken these past few weeks as I'm too tired to type up anything but am having some problems with blogger.
Though I have managed to add a couple of los that I've recently completed.
I really love the May one. Inspired by Rachael, this is my take. Now better catch up & do the June & July ones too!
The bottom one is of my parents silver wedding anniversary in November 1989 when we all looked so young!!
Hope you're all having a lovely summer.

Looking for a phone

Yup it's that time of the year when my mobile phone is due for a upgrade.
In fact it was due a couple of months back but I really love my current model...Nokia 7373. Plus it's in pink which means I love it even more!
But I've been checking out the Nokia site and I seen some pretty impressive looking phones.
N76 (comes in red!)
N810
N95
Now all I need to do is go see them irl and decide which one I really want.

Only 2 more weeks of school left before we break up for the summer hols. I've also got a day off tomorrow and 3 days off next week yay, so the time will, hopefully, go even faster.

Hussein is off to Tossa de Mar, Spain on Friday for a week long school trip. He's really looking forward to it, especially the visit organised to Camp Nou, Barcelona FC's Stadium. Though the house will definitely be a lot quieter with him out of the equation lol, Kaizer & Imran are sure to miss him bigtime.

Hooked

I've recently become hooked on an online site where you do jigsaw puzzles. It's great fun.

Is summer here at last??

Hmmm I sure hope so. The weather's been pretty much up & down lately. You get a hot spell & then days of rain. I'm just praying the sun is here to stay now!!

Last week I dressed up as a Tudor peasant for our year 5 trip to Kentwell Hall in Suffolk. It was my first time & I really enjoyed it. You have to dress up so you can really get into the whole feel of it. They recreated Tudor life as it was in the 16th century. How they lived, worked, cooked & entertained themselves.





Today was Sports day. I wasn't able to see all of Imran's events but managed to take a few pics. He came 2nd in his running heat but didn't get thorough to the final. But I was still proud of him for getting that far.




And finally a lo.

Tragic

This afternoon my mum rang me with the awful news of my cousin, Khozema's death in Mumbai, India.
He was only 31 years old and married just 6 months.
He had suffered a fatal heart attack.
I'm so upset that his life has tragically ended and his going was knocked my family for six.
He was such a sweet guy whom I'd spoken with just a couple of weeks back.
I wish I wasn't so far away from my extended family as, at times like these, you really need one another.
All I can do is keep him in my prayers.

That long??!!!

OMG has it really been that long since I've blogged??
A slapped wrist for me then!
No excuses really apart from a busy home life.

Hussein had to sit his Year 9 SATS in May so spent a lot of time leading up to it, on his case.

Plus I've had the most awful cough that just won't shift. I've had cough mixtures, steam baths, steriods, antibiotics, in fact the whole lot and almost 2 months later I'm still suffering, though admittedly it is a lot better.

Last week was half term but we just chilled out at home. Then on Friday we went up to Birmingham. Kids stayed the night at Laila's and we joined them the next day for my niece Zahara's 2nd birthday. Unfornately I forgot my camera at home so no pics from me :(
I went back to work on Monday and we now have 7 more weeks before we break up for the summer hols. Can you tell I'm counting :P

Nothing yet planned for the holidays apart from a day trip to Kew Gardens to do the Treetop Walk //apps.kew.org/trees/.
My brother Asif mentioned it to me so we're going to go together with the boys when he comes over at the end of July.

Hopefully I'll be updating the blog much more often!!
See you soon...mwaahh

Finally

Finally I've got round to uploading the los I did a couple of weeks ago.





Got a new book - The Designing with Recipes Book by Autumn Leaves so lifted this design.

Paying homage to my man Richard Gere. A class page by Scrapbook Lady. The stickers were my own.

It's snowing

Just woke about half hour ago to find the garden covered in snow & it's still falling!

Won't be long before the kids are out playing in it & I can take tons of pictures. I just love to see the excitement in their faces as they run around & have fun.

Last year when it snowed I was looking after Jamila's children so Akber & I took them to the park where they had a wonderful time. Probably won't do that today as we both have visitors over but maybe tomorrow. We'll see. Only managed to scrap one of the pictures from last year. Thanks to Sharon at Scrapook Lady for creating the paper. I bascially just added the photos, embellies & the bling.

I just spotted this on another blog so I thought I'd share. I've never heard the song and I thought it was a poem till I saw the credits at the end.

There once was a king, who called for the spring,

For his world was still covered with snow,

But the spring had not been, for he was wicked and mean,

In his winter fields nothing would grow;

And when a traveller called, seeking help at the door,

Only food and a bed for a night,

He ordered his slave to turn her away,

The girl with April in her eyes...

Oh, oh, oh, on and on she goes,

Through the winter's night, the wild wind and the snow,

Hi, hi, hi, on and on she rides,

Someone help the girl with April in her eyes...

She rode through the night till she came to the light,

Of a humble man's home in the woods,

He brought her inside, by the firelight she died,

And he buried her gently and good;

Oh the morning was bright, all the world snow-white,

But when he came to the place where she lay,

His field was ablaze with flowers on the grave,

Of the girl with April in her eyes...

Oh, oh, oh, on and on she goes,

Through the winter's night, the wild wind and the snow,

Hi, hi, hi, on and on she flies,

She is gone, the girl with April in her eyes...

Chris De Burgh

Check out Scrap Dreamie (http://scrapdreamie.typepad.com/ for the fabbiest little booty box for the little guys in your life.

I'm free

Oops!! I know it's been a while since my last blog entry but I'm children free till tomorrow morning!! Yes the boys have gone for a sleepover at my sil's house so Akber & I are going out for a meal this evening & later I plan to scrap....loads ....I hope!



Last weekend was pretty hectic. Good Friday was also Akber's birthday so Kaizer made him a wonderful chocolate cake that he'd learnt how to make 2 days previous at school. And before you ask, yes we ate 2 cakes in 2 days!!It was also a friend's 30th birthday so after his birthday meal we popped in at her birthday meal & made it a double celebration.

Here are my handsome guys.

Saturday I drove up to Birmingham with Jamila to attend the Arabian Soiree. It was a fun ladies only do with a belly dancer showing us her talents & also teaching us how to dance like her!
Jamila & I are dressed up & raring to go!!

The belly dancer & boy was she was good at wriggling her hips!!!

We came back really really late (it was almost 2 in the morning when I got into bed) so spent most of Sunday dozing on & off. Though I still had to hide the eggs around the house so Imran could hunt them down LOL.

And here's his stash.....I think he did pretty well .....and that's not counting the other eggs he'd been given by family!