Still procrastinating, but hey what are Monday mornings for?

I’m stealing this Me Meme from Sunni Sister:

1. Last movie you saw in a theater? “Then She Found Me” with Helen Hunt and Colin Firth

2. What book are you reading? The Cultural Studies Reader edited by Simon During for my PhD, Living Presence by Shaykh Kabir Helminski for my soul. I also have Robert Allen’s How to Write Better English on my bedside table. It sends me to sleep in ten minutes. (Sorry Mr Allen).

3. Favorite board game? We are currently playing Candyland in our house. I wouldn’t say it’s my favourite board game, but it’s the only one I can think of at the moment (mummy brain).

4. Favorite magazine? I don’t read ‘em. No point. Why waste good money on absolute rubbish? If I want to kill my brain cells with gossip, I have the internet.

5. Favorite smells? I loved Sunni Sister’s answer of fresh-cut grass mmmmmm… Let me add, warm baked bread, fresh from the oven and (alarmingly) petrol and texta ink.

6. Favorite sounds? Lapping water, my daughter’s giggly laugh when she’s being tickled.

7. Worst feeling in the world? Depression. Is it a feeling though? ‘Coz when you’re depressed you’re not really feeling. How about, that sinking to the bottom of the tummy when you realise you’ve really stuffed up big time.

8. What is the first thing you think of when you wake up? Ten more minutes.

9. Favorite fast food place? I would have said the Afghan kebab shop nearby, but this morning I discovered they use MSG on their kebabs. How do I know? That man-face reappeared this morning after an evening of asthma, coughing, nose-bleeds and throwing-up. I thought I was a bit thirsty after I ate the kebab, and lo-and-behold this morning I wake up with man-face.

The problem is, if you ask a restaurant if they use MSG (I didn’t ask this place, ‘coz who puts MSG on kebabs????) they swear black and blue they don’t even when they do because they think I’m just a yuppy who is catastrophising and doesn’t want to get cancer from a sprinkle of MSG on her teriyaki chicken. Which means people like me who have moderate to serious allergies to MSG get the bums rush.

10. Future child’s name? If Abu Yasmin didn’t get a say in it, Abdullah or Amirah.

11. Finish this statement. “If I had lot of money I’d….? Buy a little block of land, a mud-brick home, some chooks and a goat.

12. Do you sleep with a stuffed animal? Nope, a live four-year-old.

13. Storms - cool or scary? Cool, especially when they are warm summer ones with thunder. (I lived in tropical far north Queensland for a year and loved the Wet season).

14. Favorite drink/Juice? I should say coffee because I drink so much of it. But I really like Sarsparilla.

15. Finish this statement “If I had the spare time I would….”? Write a novel for the love of it.

16. Do you eat the stems on broccoli? Ewww no.

17. If you could dye your hair any color, what would be your choice? Well I did try once, but I never ended up looking much like Meg Ryan *sigh*.

18. Name all the different cities/towns you’ve lived in? Yikes, all of them?? In the interests of not being profiled on the internet, here are the main ones that I’ve blogged about only: Melbourne, Swindon, Atherton.

19. Favorite sports to watch? I don’t watch sports unless Abu Yasmin makes me. I’ll show a vague, passing interest in women’s gymnastics but that’s it.

20. One nice thing about the person who sent this to you? She didn’t send it to me, I nicked it from her, but I admire her taqwa big time. Plus she’s a really cool blogger.

21. What’s under your bed? Clothes in vacuum packed bags. (That’s a bit boring isn’t it.)

22. Would you like to be born as yourself again? Goodness no, been there, done that.

23. Morning person, or night owl? Night owl, no matter how hard I try.

24. Over easy, or sunny side up? Sunny side up.

25. Favorite place to relax? Under a shady tree (can hear Laurie Berkner’s children’s song in my head as I type)

26. Favorite pie? You Americans have a weird thing going with pie. As an Aussie, I’d guess I have to say a home-made meat pie with tomato sauce (I do something really gross, which is lift the lid and put a teaspoon-full of butter under the lid and let it melt into the gravy before I eat it).

27. Favorite ice cream flavor? I’m promiscuous, I don’t have a single favourite flavour. Anything exotic with lots of caramel, chocolate, nuts etc.

28. Of all the people you tagged this to, who’s most likely to respond first? Toby, Barney, Mr Moo has already done it, or I’d tag him, anyone who wishes to respond

Although it’s taken me way too long, Jamila tagged me for this meme.  My first response was ‘what… only eight?’ as weird and random sort of suit me.

ONE: I look after two hermit crabs.  They belong to Yasmin, but as she’s three and a half, I’m the one that feeds and waters them and moves the shells around their crabarium.  They’re funny little critters, and quite endearing for things that don’t make noises, cuddle you or have fur.

TWO: I’ve always wanted a Bajoran earring (a d’ja pagh).  As a Muslim this might be tricky as the earing represents the Bajoran religion (Muslims aren’t supposed to wear items that indicate allegiance to a religion other than Islam).  I am not quite sure of the halal-ness of that one.

THREE: For about four years, I used my middle-name instead of my first-name.  I still have my A.Mus.A. diploma in my middle name.

FOUR: I’ve stopped using shampoo and conditioner, and just wash my hair in water.  A few years ago a friend of mine told me she did that and I thought she was nuts.  But I’ve been doing it for a little while now, and although it took a bit for my hair to settle (when you first stop using shampoo your hair goes through a really greasy phrase, until it realises it doesn’t have to keep replacing the natural oils that shampoo strips) it’s settled down now.  I don’t use shampoo on Yasmin either.  It’s a battle washing her hair, and just doing it in water is so much easier.  It also means that I’m not pouring lots of chemicals on her head.

FIVE: I don’t have any photographs up in my house.  I used to, but a year or so when we moved house I’d packed them all up and made a decision to not put any back up.  Whilst I don’t follow the position that photographs of human or living creatures is haram, I do follow the “just-in-case” position.  Plus, it makes praying easy, as I don’t have to move or shift any photographs to avoid praying in their direction.  Having said that, I do love scrapbooking with pix.

SIX: I have a missing uncle.  He is/was the youngest brother of my mother, and went missing in 1974.  My family suspect that he was killed up in Timor, given the time-period and that he’d talked about going up there before he left. 

SEVEN: I have a relatively rare maiden-name. It seems to have come to Australia from Cornwall, but before that it is believed to be Scandinavian, probably meaning “boatswain”.  There is even a park named after my great-great-grandfather (I might have missed a ‘great’) in Yackandandah.

EIGHT: I love eggplant.  Especially fried eggplant in khoreshte badamjoon - mmmm yummy.

I tag: annalog, Baha’i the Way, Darvish, Dezhen, iMuslim, Lantern Torch.

Fave blog hasn’t tagged me, but I haven’t done a meme in ages, and this one caught my attention.

1. What is your main cell phone ring-tone?

Brring brring. I would be the type of person to have a polyphonic customised ring-tone, but I have an older Blackberry that only does mono and being a musician I can’t bear Greensleeves being murdered in the phone equivalent of a midi file in a Mp3 world, so brring brring is fine for me. Read the rest of this entry »

I tagged myself from she of the good ideas.  The fifth sentence of my twenty-third post was:

“Yes, the terrorism you have when you’re not having a terrorism.”

Read the rest of this entry »

When I was browsing around Kevin from Cogito, Ergo Sum… Atheos’ site, I came across this meme, which I haven’t seen before.

Go into your address bar at the top of the browser window, type http://www. and then a, b, c, and so on through the alphabet, noting which sites pop up first.

Here’s my list:
A, I’m not sure quite how I feel about the RU486 pill except that I really object to Health Ministers enforcing their own personal morality on the Australian public at large.
B: An A-list Aussie blogger.
C: Yes, I actually went and read all the nominated blogs and posts before voting in the Brass Crescent awards.
D: Hmmm, ‘coz I was trawling for Aussie links to put on my blogroll lastnight, I predict there will be quite a few Aussie bloggers in this ABC list.
E: Looking for Dora the Explorer DVDs that my daughter loves so much. Decided I might fork out for an Adam’s World at our local Islamic bookstore instead. (I love Dora too, but she already has a lot of Dora already.)
F: I was checking out this shady Christian lobby group with innocuous looking website after reading about donations to Family First (Christian political party).
G: a broken link. The next working G is a regular read.
Read the rest of this entry »