sunrise

Return

2008-02-09T05:04:00.000-08:00

2006-09-24T07:34:00.000-07:00

river

2006-09-24T07:33:00.000-07:00

rainbow

2006-09-24T07:30:00.000-07:00

warwick castle

2006-05-04T11:36:00.000-07:00

Daisy

2006-04-22T08:56:00.000-07:00

sprung

2006-04-22T08:55:00.000-07:00

Spring

2006-04-21T16:09:00.000-07:00

Kew gardens

2006-04-19T03:22:00.000-07:00

Pancakes with golden syrup

2006-04-15T12:09:00.000-07:00

Blueberry muffins

2006-04-15T12:07:00.000-07:00

Tray

2006-04-15T12:06:00.000-07:00

Muffins

2006-04-14T14:40:00.000-07:00

With clotted devonshire cream and Rasberry Jam

Never tried clotted cream before and I must say it tasted devine with the hot scones and jam.

2006-04-14T14:38:00.001-07:00

Scones mmmm....

2006-04-14T14:38:00.000-07:00

Breakfast

2006-04-14T14:37:00.000-07:00

Stawberries and cream

2006-04-14T14:36:00.000-07:00

Good Friday

A mini break has arrived and with this oppertunity I have decided to do some baking. Starting off with some simple scones that I made plenty of to feed the family. The recipe I got from an internet site but unfortunatly have lost it, so heres the ingredients and instruction:

225g Plain flour,
1tsp Cream of Tartar,
1/2tsp Bicarbonate of soda,
30g Sugar,
112g Butter,
4 Oz Milk,
Pinch of Salt,

The dry ingredients were sifted together in a bowl. The butter was then diced and rubbed into the dry mixture to make a fine breadcrumb mixture. Then the milk was added to make a dough. Once the dough was made then it was rolled out and cut into scones. The tops were brushed with milk and baked in a hot oven for ~15mins at gas mark 6.

2006-03-14T10:02:00.000-08:00

Light

2006-03-14T09:48:00.000-08:00

Fuzzy trees

2006-03-14T09:44:00.000-08:00

Cross

2006-03-14T09:42:00.000-08:00

Moore Street Station

2006-03-14T09:38:00.000-08:00

Dinner with friends

2006-03-02T14:33:00.000-08:00

Asta Bazeviciute as Princess Aurora and Andrew Murphy as the Prince
When we went to watch The Sleeping Beauty Robert Parker played the part of the Prince and Ambra Vallo played the part of the Princess.

2006-03-02T14:31:00.000-08:00

Beauty

2006-03-02T14:16:00.000-08:00

snow
Today I took the day off as I was to go and watch a ballet performance with a friend. Woke up early to find the streets all layered with wonderful snow just the right touch for a day to go and watch something as magical as sleeping beauty.

It was the first time for me to go and see a ballet performed and it was amazing. I liked it more than I thought I would. The costumes were gorgeous and the dancing was exquisite and most importantly the music was truly magical.

2006-02-14T10:32:00.000-08:00

Picnic

2006-02-12T16:05:00.000-08:00

Mmmm

2006-02-05T11:52:00.000-08:00

H G Wells

2006-01-11T15:24:00.000-08:00

Cleo 2

Cleo taking a nap in our room after the an Eid dinner like the rest of us. Spock was taking a nap in my bed as cleo took hers on the floor for once.

2006-01-11T04:16:00.000-08:00

Eid Clothes

2006-01-10T02:52:00.000-08:00

Eid Mubarak

2006-01-09T18:42:00.000-08:00

Wall

2006-01-05T04:08:00.000-08:00

Graduation flowers for Fizz

2006-01-02T12:55:00.000-08:00

Car

2006-01-01T06:57:00.000-08:00

Moscow state circus

New years eve was spent going to watch the Moscow state circus. There were some amazing feats of skill being done there that made the audience cringe at times but it was great. Never being to the circus at all I was not expecting too much except those things that you see on the telvision occasionally but this was so much better. I think the strongman was the best act where he lifted weights with his teeth while another person was trying to dislodge the weight by hammering on it with another. At that moment most people were holding there hands over their mouths. But the weight did not drop however hard it was hammered. Then another amazing thing was when a car went over the strongman, me and my friend were just holding our breathat that stage.

Overall it was a great experience the arieal acts were breathtaking with a guy walking on the tight rope blindfolded. When I told my mother this she would not believe me. Anyway what a great end to 2005..........

2005-12-30T06:43:00.000-08:00

Chocolate Sundae
It was one of those days where chocolate sundae had to be had. After meeting up with a close friend to have a serious chat and a bite to eat this was all that was needed to lighten things up a bit more. After the pizza and the dessert it was off to the movies to watch Flightplan. It was a good movie and not what we was expecting really. Also we walked into the top level of the cinama hall ecpecting to enter a huge theat, but it was just a small room with about twenty or so seats. But all in all it was great end to the day.......

2005-12-29T18:23:00.000-08:00

The Hearo emerges

2005-12-26T15:12:00.000-08:00

Chicken Little

2005-12-25T12:38:00.000-08:00

Christmas 2005

This was taken at the city centre next to the church. It shows the reflection of the electric christmas tree in the restarurant window opposite.

Phones

2005-10-12T21:39:00.000-07:00

Orange

Well the season is Autumn and the colour is orange so I thought I would put this pic in as I had taken it a while back. I went into the store to charge my sister's mobile but then when we got in she thought better of it and that actually she could survive for a couple of hours window shopping without this essential item. Window shopping only made us hungry because we are fasting for Ramadan and thought we best be off home instead of continuing the expedition.

2005-07-27T14:54:00.000-07:00

Cheesecake

2005-07-22T14:27:00.000-07:00

Mouse

2005-07-20T14:42:00.000-07:00

Market

Jam

2005-07-19T23:36:00.000-07:00

Jam
Well this Sunday I attempted to make some Jam, since on Friday I managed to waste a whole load of money on these cute jars that were just on sale in Smiths. I just could not resist buying 10 of them. I know insane or what as if I needed them. The other thing was how to explain it to mom especially when we all have a go at her for buying things that we don't need that takes up all the space. Anyway managed to persuade mom that they were just a really good bargain and that she could use them to put her spices in and stuff.....so was not too bad.

O.K on with the jam making, following the recipe for strawberry jam that only required 1.5kg strawberries and loads of sugar to make. Thinking that the mixture would need to be reduced somewhat so that the final quantity would not be too much, I continues head-long into the cooking process. Boy was I wrong I ended up with a whole pot full of strawberry jam, and was wondering why I hadn't brought larger jars to put it all in. Note to self just quarter all the recipes for such things so you just end up with a single jar. Finished making the strawberry jam it was time to make the rhubarb and mint jam which is like a jelly rather than a jam. Fortunately there was only two jars of this made compared to the four jars of strawberry jam. So being a hot and glorious day was not too keen to continue to go ahead and make the plum jam so that is still on the list of things to do. Most likely do that next weekend if the fruit doesn't vanish before then.

Harry Potter

2005-07-16T21:17:00.000-07:00

Harry Potter came out at 12.01am today and Fizz and my brother Jameal went off to fetch a copy each from Asda and WHSmith. Have been waiting for the book to come out for the last two years and now that its finally here it seems that I am in no hurry to read it all. Well Fizz and took turns in dreading a chapter each until she dozed of into a soundless sleep. Of course once I had started to read it there was no stopping, finally thought I better get some sleep about 4am. Spent the rest of the day trying to avoid picking up the book and waiting for Fizz to catch up to where I had got to in the book, so we could continue together. Fortunately went shopping for some fresh fruit for the jams I was going to make the following day, and also dropping and picking my nieces and nephew as well as helping with a bit of shopping for my sister in law Shuba.

Anyway that was the day gone in a blink of an eye. I can hardly believe it has been two years wait for this book to come out it seems to have all come at once. Sleep beckons and I'm off the dreamland........

2005-07-12T14:28:00.000-07:00

Banks

2005-07-06T14:36:00.000-07:00

Glass

2005-07-05T14:56:00.000-07:00

Red Light

2005-07-03T13:29:00.000-07:00

Tulip

Firuza on Sammy's bike

2005-07-02T23:39:00.000-07:00

Firuza just fixed Sammy's bike pedal and decided it was time to take it for a spin to the park. Of course it was also time to drag me along as well, any other time I wouldn't mind but since I just came from the exact same place I was not venturing out again. She spent ages trying to convince me otherwise but it was not happening. So she ended up just giving it a quick spin in the back garden.

Bike

2005-07-02T22:16:00.000-07:00

Here’s the bike I brought last weekend. It came from an add in the bargain pages for £25. The bike was brought after a journey and a half trying to locate the place, spent ages driving around trying to find the place and got lost right in front of the house. Finally reached our destination and spent some time speaking to the guy (forgot) his name. My sister being the chatter box was in conversation for a long time finally managed to get away with the bike in tow. I didn't really bargain for it, seeing that he was such a nice person.

Anyway decided to ride the bike to the train station where I left it and traveled by tram the rest of the way into uni. It was a gloriously sunny day and it was great riding to the station. Finishing late just in time for the heavens to open with thunder and lightening. I mean it was fantastic just wish I had a camera with me. My sister Firuza was in town, so I got a lift with her to the station where there was still tropical thunderstorms happening. Fortunately the rain let up and my sister urged me into riding the bike home instead of taking it home in the boot of the car, reassuring me the monsoon was over. So setting out there was cool breeze with a few sprinkles of showers and a feeling of cleaned air and earth. But no further had I traveled half way home the rains began. By the time I finally managed to get home I was soaked through but at least I had managed to make it back in one piece especially how I ride the bike.

All the bike is lacking now is name. Everything has a name the car is Gus. I was thinking monsoon……………..

2005-06-30T16:58:00.000-07:00

Blue Vase

2005-06-29T14:26:00.000-07:00

Lavender milk infusion

Creme Caramel

2005-06-25T07:56:00.000-07:00

Creme Caramel
My friend Mel introduced me to the food blog burning experiment. This month its all about eggs, so I got thinking what dessert might have lots of eggs in them. Ema is forever making egg pudding as it is termed in the Bangladeshi community. In other words Creme Caramel. The only problem was it just tasted too eggy for me and my sister. So I decided to add a little lavender. So me and the rest of the gang meaning Ema and my sister infused some milk with lavender and sugar. Then took three eggs and added about 150mls of the infused lavender milk and a couple of tablespoons of lavender sugar and sweentened to taste. Using caramelised sugar we lined some oven proof containers and added the mixture on top. They were steamed and turned out when they were done.

Unfortunatly they still tasted too eggy but at least my mom enjoyed it.

Scarves

2005-06-23T13:32:00.000-07:00

Scarves
So many colours which to choose?

Snakes

2005-06-21T23:14:00.000-07:00

Last Sunday my sister had a day off from her part-time job and decided it would be nice to go out somewhere. So she managed to talk everyone into being available and ready to go to Drayton Manor Park and Zoo even mom. Mom doesn't much like venturing out unless its somewhere peaceful but we all told her the zoo wouldn't be too packed and so off everyone went. On Sunday the temperature must have been about 28 degrees, and everyone must have had the same idea of having a nice day out. The park was jostling with people and the queues were trailing at 40 minute waits for the most popular rides. The heat and the people was just too much, but everyone had a good time.
The day progressed and everyone got hot and bothered, so they told me and it was time for them to visit the park and here my sister in law Ema took this picture. I wish someone had taken one of her when she went on the hammer. Because I couldn't believe that she went on it when she told me. Let’s just say she’s not the bravest person I know when it comes to scary rides, movies and such. Anyway they all came home just in time to enjoy the thunder storm that began to rage once they stepped through the front door.
Snakes

2005-06-14T14:58:00.000-07:00

Lilly of the Valley

Stawberries

2005-06-08T23:29:00.000-07:00

Today I had my first volunteer finish taking part in my project. He made it through the 12weeks of the project and in celebration I brought some pastries and fruit. I noticed some strawberries going really cheap at a market stall and since they were looking very delicious I brought a punnet. We were pleasantly surprised by the sweetness of taste.

I later started looking up recipes with strawberries in and Mel suggested the blueberry coffee cake from the following website: www.chocolateandzucchini.com All I had to do is replace the blueberries with strawberries. So after uni I dashed to the stall and luckily it was still open. I brought another punnet of strawberries and went off home. On the way purchasing the remainder of the ingredients needed for the cake. Got home and unfortunately left the strawberries in the kitchen unattended and being the lovely hot day that it was everyone felt like fresh fruit. Of course the strawberries were spotted, by the time I got back to the kitchen half had been gobbled up by my nieces and nephews. Anyway went ahead with the cake making scheme. Finally a cake was produced, that supported the weight of the strawberries. I thought all of them would sink to the base of the cake but no they stayed in position. Overall the cake was O.K but could have done with a few more strawberries, very small ones so you fit plenty in the cake.

Homer's brain

2005-06-07T23:36:00.000-07:00

Homer's brain
Just a little thank you to Eva for reminding me to have more faith in myself. Its good to know I may not be suffering from the HOMER SIMPSON syndrome. The picture was taken from the following web site: http://www.biopsych.net/biopsych/biopsychlinks.html

2005-06-07T15:03:00.000-07:00

Light

2005-06-05T03:06:00.000-07:00

Dexter's Lab

2005-06-03T16:00:00.000-07:00

Blossoms

2005-06-02T09:19:00.000-07:00

Blue Skies

2005-06-01T16:27:00.000-07:00

Bull Ring

Angel

2005-05-31T15:21:00.000-07:00

Angel
This is one of my favorite pictures. I took it at our local park that has a memorial to the First World War. I remember my niece Anjum came with me and after I had taken pictures around the park it was becoming very late. So I hastily took this one at the last minute before the park wardens could kick us out. All that was needed was cold shaky hands and this was the result.

Banana and Chocolate Chip Muffins

2005-05-27T21:17:00.000-07:00

Banana and Chocolate Chip Muffins
Last night was frantically looking up easy cake recipes so I could make something the following day for journal club. We don't need to bake anything but everyone does anyway. So at first I thought I would bake something with almonds in it as my project involves them but couldn’t find anything easy enough. (Just a hint I generally tend to burn things or over-spice them). So my sister found this muffin recipe and decided she would make some for the rest of the family, and I'd make some for journal club.

Luckily as you can see from the beautiful picture my sister took they turned out ok. The next day when everyone tried them no one ended up with food poisoning so that’s always a good sign. I didn't really get to taste them as I was too nervous about the paper I was presenting. But all went well and everyone enjoyed the paper and the muffins I'm glad to say. The recipe for the muffins can be found at this site and I just added an extra 50g of chopped walnuts to keep the nutty theme going at Journal club. http://www.muffinrecipes.co.uk/page21.html

revising?

2005-05-25T00:15:00.000-07:00

My brother is revising for his AS Psychology and he comes out with Harlow study something about a monkey preferring a fake monkey cloth over a primary care giver that was also fake. I have no idea what thats about but it sounds funny and I and my sister are in tears of laughter as he earnestly tries to explain it to us. By the way we’re not really listening. Now he’s going on about separation and maternal deprivation.......... O.K so glad I don't do Psychology.

I was just telling my sister about a guy that had hatched a signet and that it had imprinted or something as he was the first thing it saw and hence followed him about. My sister’s query to that….he hatched an egg???? Well they can do that sort of thing with incubators you know. Both of reactions PEELS OF LAUGHTER. Just a weird day.

Snail

2005-05-24T08:51:00.000-07:00

I hate snails but especially slugs they are so slimy. They remind me of leeches which I don't like either. My sister took this picture of the snail's shell in our garden.
I didn't know that the snail's gut was attached to its shell and that it grows its shell throughout its life. It also cannot survive without its shell. I guess you learn something new everyday. The spiral structure of the shell has something to do with phi (the golden ratio) a mathematical number (amazingly something I vaguely remember from maths).

Illeen

2005-05-23T18:05:00.000-07:00

Here's Tiger and Cleo both looking for treats from my niece Illeen. She constantly looks out for them and doesn't miss an opportunity to play with them. Whether that be indoors or out in the rain.

Cleo

2005-05-18T08:35:00.000-07:00

Cleo is definitely a homebody, she finds ingenious ways to get in the house and lounge. My mom tries to kick her out occasionally, even if she is to only lounge on the grass on a nice summer’s day. She’s the more pettable of our two cats and laps up all the attention unless she wants to be left alone, and then she'll let you know.

2005-05-17T04:11:00.000-07:00

Tigger
Naughty Tigger is always ready to play but watch out she has claws. As long as you have treats for her she will be your best friend, following you everywhere. She has been know to follow my sister to the bus stop and even further.

2005-05-13T07:53:00.000-07:00

in the park