Saad Al-Ghamidi is one of my favorites at reciting the Quran, I have many MP3's on my Ipod and most make me cry when listening to them.

When he recites Surah Hud, he begins to cry, it is very emotional and you feel the love in his heart for Allah and the Quran, MashaAllah.

Listening to him break down while reciting reminded me of my sweet mother-in-law. I was listening to her pray once and she became so choked up, tears fell from her eyes as she prayed.

I break down always when I hear the call for prayer from the mosque but they are tears of love and happiness, not sadness.

I think Ramadan is going to be hard this year.
I work longer hours now and do not get home until around 6.30pm, so once I get home and cook, stuff something in my mouth come Iftar, it will be time for bed again.

Ramadan in UK I do feel is difficult, for one thing, my office is open plan, 24 colleagues all chowing down on something scrummy while I am sitting there dying to lick the water out of the plant pot because I am so thirsty.
However its worth it in the end, I hope to loose a few kilo's again this year as well.

I miss Ramadan in UAE, I LOVED IT, in UAE. I fasted and took part in Ramadan way before I was a muslim.
Every evening after I broke the fast, I would drive on over to my best friend Fay's house and we would go out somewhere with her Emirati husband, when we had finished for the evening I would drive through Hamriya in Dubai to "O's" house and he would come out to say hello and bring me plates of yummy stuff to eat before fasting began again.
I never saw much of "O" during Ramadan as he was well known in Hamriya for opening up his house to all his friends, family and neighbours and there would often be almost 100 people there all being fed, playing backgammon and talking until the sun began to rise EVERY SINGLE NIGHT. His son "M" always had a tent out the front where all the young locals used to sit and do whatever they do.

Some evenings we would go sit in the Iftar places down at the creek and sit there all night, sometimes we would be in Ajman or Sharjah. I remember one year Ramadan was during new year 2000. Fay, Jamal and I and their new baby son Obaid spent it in a club house on Sharjah Beach (The Lilly Club), seeing in the new year with our diet pepsi's, we then drove over to a grotty little sheisha shop in Ajman and sat there watching UK bring in 2000 on a little old portable tv. I miss those days a lot.

I guess next week I need to write up my Ramadan menu's and then do a huge food shop for the month so I know what I am cooking each night I get home from work. I think in UK the fast wont be broken until around 9pm, thats a long old day without anything past your lips, but well worth it in the end.

I hope you all have a happy Ramadan

Another great story today in Gulf News
gulfnews : Spas hawk sex on networking sites

Unbelievable......
This is one of the main reasons the UAE government MUST close down all salons and spa's whos staff are not at least NVQ qualified in Beauty, Hair and Spa treatments, plus be a member of one of the Beauty industry organisations such as CIDESCO, CIBTAC or BABTAC.

In UAE they allow anyone to open up shop and trade. Its 100% wrong and the government needs to change the criteria for running a salon or spa.

Properly qualified staff will demand a much higher salary than the unprofessionals, they would also have studied for minimum 1 year to 3 years and would not risk their professional status by working in a knocking shop.

I read this sad story in Gulf News today.

This highlights the fact that not all Emirati's are loaded with cash. Infact a large majority just scrape by each month, in debt up to their eyeballs. I saw many cases like this when I was in UAE, its very sad.

gulfnews : Unpaid loan causes problems for UAE resident

I believe this man should be allowed to renew his passport so he can find work, what a silly rule to not renew his passport making the entire family suffer. Without the passport he cant work, without work he cant pay his loans off, its a never ending story.