Hellooo...
Salaams,
"Bro bro bro, what you need to do is get some 19 inch alloys, not some puny 17 inch ones. Then you need to sort your exhaust out and get some tinted windows in too. Also some two tone paint work will go nicely..."
Yes, i'm back in Burnley (I never knew Jim Bowen was from Burnley...!!! (look at the bottom of the link...)
Well hello folks, I'm back. It feels pretty weird blogging again as its been such a long time (well it feels like a long time but it's been just over a week) but I'm sure you guys survived without me (well i worry about some of you but I'm sure your all OK)
Anyway last Friday i flew into Liverpool from Granda and alhamdulilla everything went fine. The biggest worry for me prior to the flight was weight issues (no, not personal weight but excess weight with baggage...) When i flew from Egypt to Morocco i had 37KG with me and in Spain i had added a few KGs more. Since i was only allowed 30KG with Ryanair, and it was £5 per extra kilo, this was going to be a problem. Thankfully though, through a combination of my Bengali "salakhi"-ness and stupidity on Ryanairs part i only ended up paying only £3 extra. For my main bag i only put half the bag on the scales whilst i distracted the woman with some random thing so it only weighed in at 20KG and for my hand luggage since it was 12KG and your only allowed 7, the woman said that i had to declare it and it would be £3 for this extra bag. I thought i would have to pay £5X12 since i was 12KG over for declared luggage (sorry, this is turning into a maths lesson) but nope, it was just the £3 for the extra bag...
Regarding Spain, the 4 days i had there went very quickly but alhamdulillah i had a fantastic time. It was sad to think though that all the areas i saw were once part of the Islamic empire but it was due to infighting on the Muslims part that we lost all this. One of the guides said that when the last Islamic ruler (cant remember his name) was fleeing from the Christians, he was at the top of a hill and could see all the land before him at which he started crying. Seeing this his mother replied "You cry like a woman for what you could not defend like a man". Hard hitting...I wouldn't want to mess with her.
On a separate issue, it was quite interesting visiting lots of churches/cathedrals after having visited so many mosques in the other countries. Having done so though, i have to say i'm even more disillusioned with Christianity. The churches i visited in Spain were Ridiculous - one wouldn't think Christianity isn't a monotheistic religion visiting them. In all the churches there's paintings of people everywhere; on the walls, on the doors, on the ceilings, EVERYWHERE, plus at every opportunity they have statues of every Tom, Dick and Harry it seems. So expecting to go into a place of worship, when you first enter one of these churches it turns into quite a shocking spectacle. I really don't know how you could have a "religious" experience in an environment like that. Some of the stuff was pretty shocking too - like semi nude statues/paintings, ridiculous amount of Gold (or gold plated) ornaments etc etc...the whole atmosphere just didn't seem very conducive to "communicating" with God...bring on the mosques i say!
But yes, all the traveling is over and i am back in Burnley. I was genuinely looking forward to coming back, but after a few days, this excitement is already turning boredom. Saying "there's not much to do in Burnley" is quite an understatement, but worse for me anyway is the general lack of opportunities for people leading to drugs, drugs and drugs (and all the other things associated with drugs) flourishing in Burnley. It's very Very sad, when over the last few years whenever i came back to Burnley during the holidays, and this time round coming back from my travels, the same people are on the same street corners doing the same thing (nothing). And the worst thing is they seem quite happy to be in this position. The sad thing is there seems to be very few people in the community who care about these people leading to it perpetuating and no end being in sight.
Regarding me, as i think i've mentioned i start work on 20th July in London. Although it seems a while I'my i'm actually quite busy with a few things in the meantime. Obviously the World Cup is taking many an hour of my valuable time, but i'm having to also do a very gay online course for my employer to be which needs to be finished before i start work. Plus since my Arabic books have finally arrived i have no excuse not to do a few hours of Arabic every day. On top of all this i was thinking of starting some driving lessons since i can't drive yet...and i was expecting a relaxing few day before i start work...!!
The future of this blog - yes, this needs to be discussed too. As odd as it might sI'm, i'm not actually a big fan of all this blogging business. Initially i thought all the people who blog are quite sad as why do they need to share they thoughts with random people, haven't they got friends..?? (obviously my hardline stance has changed somewhat). But i think the remit of this blog has expired since my travels have finished now. Anyway i think there's a few more things i want to say along with a summary maybe of what i have "learnt" on my travels as requested by one reader before this blog will be laid to rest. So watch this space.
Salaam,
"Bro bro bro, what you need to do is get some 19 inch alloys, not some puny 17 inch ones. Then you need to sort your exhaust out and get some tinted windows in too. Also some two tone paint work will go nicely..."
Yes, i'm back in Burnley (I never knew Jim Bowen was from Burnley...!!! (look at the bottom of the link...)
Well hello folks, I'm back. It feels pretty weird blogging again as its been such a long time (well it feels like a long time but it's been just over a week) but I'm sure you guys survived without me (well i worry about some of you but I'm sure your all OK)
Anyway last Friday i flew into Liverpool from Granda and alhamdulilla everything went fine. The biggest worry for me prior to the flight was weight issues (no, not personal weight but excess weight with baggage...) When i flew from Egypt to Morocco i had 37KG with me and in Spain i had added a few KGs more. Since i was only allowed 30KG with Ryanair, and it was £5 per extra kilo, this was going to be a problem. Thankfully though, through a combination of my Bengali "salakhi"-ness and stupidity on Ryanairs part i only ended up paying only £3 extra. For my main bag i only put half the bag on the scales whilst i distracted the woman with some random thing so it only weighed in at 20KG and for my hand luggage since it was 12KG and your only allowed 7, the woman said that i had to declare it and it would be £3 for this extra bag. I thought i would have to pay £5X12 since i was 12KG over for declared luggage (sorry, this is turning into a maths lesson) but nope, it was just the £3 for the extra bag...
Regarding Spain, the 4 days i had there went very quickly but alhamdulillah i had a fantastic time. It was sad to think though that all the areas i saw were once part of the Islamic empire but it was due to infighting on the Muslims part that we lost all this. One of the guides said that when the last Islamic ruler (cant remember his name) was fleeing from the Christians, he was at the top of a hill and could see all the land before him at which he started crying. Seeing this his mother replied "You cry like a woman for what you could not defend like a man". Hard hitting...I wouldn't want to mess with her.
On a separate issue, it was quite interesting visiting lots of churches/cathedrals after having visited so many mosques in the other countries. Having done so though, i have to say i'm even more disillusioned with Christianity. The churches i visited in Spain were Ridiculous - one wouldn't think Christianity isn't a monotheistic religion visiting them. In all the churches there's paintings of people everywhere; on the walls, on the doors, on the ceilings, EVERYWHERE, plus at every opportunity they have statues of every Tom, Dick and Harry it seems. So expecting to go into a place of worship, when you first enter one of these churches it turns into quite a shocking spectacle. I really don't know how you could have a "religious" experience in an environment like that. Some of the stuff was pretty shocking too - like semi nude statues/paintings, ridiculous amount of Gold (or gold plated) ornaments etc etc...the whole atmosphere just didn't seem very conducive to "communicating" with God...bring on the mosques i say!
But yes, all the traveling is over and i am back in Burnley. I was genuinely looking forward to coming back, but after a few days, this excitement is already turning boredom. Saying "there's not much to do in Burnley" is quite an understatement, but worse for me anyway is the general lack of opportunities for people leading to drugs, drugs and drugs (and all the other things associated with drugs) flourishing in Burnley. It's very Very sad, when over the last few years whenever i came back to Burnley during the holidays, and this time round coming back from my travels, the same people are on the same street corners doing the same thing (nothing). And the worst thing is they seem quite happy to be in this position. The sad thing is there seems to be very few people in the community who care about these people leading to it perpetuating and no end being in sight.
Regarding me, as i think i've mentioned i start work on 20th July in London. Although it seems a while I'my i'm actually quite busy with a few things in the meantime. Obviously the World Cup is taking many an hour of my valuable time, but i'm having to also do a very gay online course for my employer to be which needs to be finished before i start work. Plus since my Arabic books have finally arrived i have no excuse not to do a few hours of Arabic every day. On top of all this i was thinking of starting some driving lessons since i can't drive yet...and i was expecting a relaxing few day before i start work...!!
The future of this blog - yes, this needs to be discussed too. As odd as it might sI'm, i'm not actually a big fan of all this blogging business. Initially i thought all the people who blog are quite sad as why do they need to share they thoughts with random people, haven't they got friends..?? (obviously my hardline stance has changed somewhat). But i think the remit of this blog has expired since my travels have finished now. Anyway i think there's a few more things i want to say along with a summary maybe of what i have "learnt" on my travels as requested by one reader before this blog will be laid to rest. So watch this space.
Salaam,
ps, for Burnley people, this is quite an interesting read...one of the stats it shows is Stoneyholme being in the top 1% for deprived areas in the country...rest of the UK people can put in their postcode on the main page to find out about their area.
posted by Me at
2:03 AM
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