Winter is a Memory, and Summer has arrived with Vengeance

Bismillah Ar Rahman Ar Raheem

Assalaamu alaikum wa rahmathullah wa barakatuhu

Last time I wrote a blog, I said that it seemed an age since I last wrote one (in fact it was about one month).  But now, instead of 'seeming' to be an age since I wrote anything here, it IS an age. 

My excuse?  As usual I have lots of small reasons but nothing that should excuse me from posting over the last three months.   Those reasons included a trip to Sweden which was INCREDIBLY cold, even as far as the Swedes were concerned; to me it was a battle not to totally freeze over.   But it was a wonderful trip even if I did lose my main case with most of my clothes in it.  I always thought the stories about luggage supposed to be going to Stockholm ending up in Rio were exaggerations or just fables.  I was wrong................  

Mashallah, I was very lucky as I was staying with a wonderful family who, as soon as they picked me up from the airport, started to find out what had happened to my bag (it has been left behind in Cairo) and then took me to an Islamic-orientated shop near where they lived so I could buy some new clothes.   The only trouble was that I had not budgeted on spending a lot of my money on clothes which, nice as they were, I didn't really need.  But everyone was so kind and didn't seem to allow me to pay the bill for anything that I soon forgot my lost bag and settled to enjoy my stay.  Regardless of the cold and snow. 

I had travelled to Sweden to attend the Nikah of my oldest childhood friend.  Although we have seen little of each other in recent years, we have always remained in close contact through emails and the phone, so I felt that I HAD to go to see her married.   Although she is Jordanian by birth like me,  for the past six years she has lived and worked in Sweden, and was marrying a Pakistani brother who, like my own husband (may he find peace in Jannah), is a doctor.  In detail he is a very brilliant young neurologist and I am sure he and Noor will spend many wonderful years together insha'Allah.

Now I am back at home, I have been tackling a backlog of work which, thanks to my investment in a 'tablet', has not grown to unmanageable size.  The tablet has made working away from while travelling a lot easier  -  for the geekie sisters out there, it's a Samsung Galaxy Tab 2 for which I have bought a bluetooth keyboard.  My faithful old Dell laptop is now semi-redundant but I am too sentimental to get rid of it  -  it served me faultlessly for too many years to be given away or junked.    NOT very business-like of me but I can get attached to inanimate objects now and then !

Summer has arrived with a bang.  Already the external thermometer outside the backdoor is reading well over 30C and we have been promised a storm for later today  -  a brief shower of rain accompanied by high winds from the west.  As the weather is coming in across the desert, the storm will mean higher temperatures and humidity so Amina and I have no intention of going out later.  In here we are fine but today is not the sort of weather you want to be doing anything outdoors.

"Doing things" for me has meant trying to sort out some of my on-line sites.  I have been sucked into Google + without really understand how it works, except that when I post anything it seems hit-or-miss as if the items appears once, twice or even three times, or does not appear at all.   Where it seems to be useful is getting something that interests me to a wide selection of people on something called my Extended Circles.  At time like these I wish I was a nerd, but I am semi-illiterate as far as the web is concerned.   But it has proved useful in telling people about You Tube activities that interest or moves me. 

A pair of examples are videos from a revert sister in Canada and a role-play video made of young muslims in the U.K.  Both moved me and I reposted them to my own channel on You Tube, BUT where I hope they'll get more exposure is via Google + insha'Allah.    

Oh, if you do go to my YouTube channel   -   https://www.youtube.com/user/AliyahHassani   -   please do look at the wonderful "Emotional dua by Hafiz Akbarul hoque "    I feel sure you will be moved and inspired by this video insha'Allah.

Now I must get back to doing some work before the storm hits.  Now I am back to blogging again, I hope to be posting more regularly insha'Allah.  Of course, I have said that before..................