Did your choccy cake recipe contain chilli before television celebrity chefs? Were you using Firefox when it was Mozilla’s Phoenix browser? Did you laugh when everyone else was buying up tins of canned beans for the Y2K meltdown? If you’re a visionary who enjoys treading the road less commercially travelled, this is the meme for you!

Favourite blog that ranks Lowly Insects or under on the TLB ecosystem:
Notions of a Purple Ontology (doesn’t even show up).

Most useful kitchen gadget that few others use:
Swimming goggles for chopping onions.

Favourite fiction book that hasn’t made the New York Times Bestseller list:
My Family and Other Animals by Gerald Durrell, although technically I think it’s not really fiction as it’s autobiographical. But it’s (and its sequels are) the funniest books.

Most unusual birthday present received / given:
I gave Abu Yasmin a copy of Church and State by Sen McGlinn, before the author was excommunicated and its distributor (Kalimat Press) was proscribed.

Favorite undiscovered sandwich filler:
Nobody in Australia (I know of) eats peanut butter with anything other than maybe honey. So I tried it with jam and it was very nice!

Favourite movie that didn’t win any Oscars:
Well that has to be D’Telly by D’Unbelievables. When my dear Abu Yasmin first sat me down to watch various tapes of this comedic duo, I could barely understand a word they said. But my husband and brothers-in-law (who come from roughly the same area in Ireland as D’Unbelievables) were rolling about on the floor with tears streaming from their eyes. It’s took quite a few playings for me to move beyond bemused but perplexed, to laughing so hard my sides split, but I’m finally there.

Best undiscovered restaurant/takeout:
The chicken shop in Coburg just up from the VideoEzy in that main street where Coles and the Market are.

The one product you can’t live without that no-one else seems to know about:
I have not used tampons or pads for about six years now, thanks to the Keeper which I love and adore, and cannot comprehend why women are still buying tampons and pads in supermarkets in this day and age.

Consider yourself all tagged.

I’m not sure if I’m the Maryam that’s been tagged (there are a few of us out there), but if so here goes:

Four Jobs I’ve Had in My Life

1) Secretarial work for a Bankruptcy and Liquidation firm (baaaaaaad karma place, so I won’t put the URL up.)
2) Tech Support for an Internet Service Provider
3) Voice-over for educational computer programmes.
4) Research Assistant in an Islamic studies department

Four Movies I Could Watch Over and Over, and Have

1) When Harry Met Sally
2) Truly Madly Deeply
3) Star Wars (the original episodes 4,5 & 6)
4) Educating Rita

Four Places I Have Lived

1) Romsey (tiny, country town in Victoria where I lived on a farm until I was nearly nine.)
2) Far North Queensland (Tolga was my base, but I travelled around teaching and doing volunteer work)
3) Swindon, U.K. (round-about capital of England)
4) Sana’a, Yemen, where I left my heart. It’s the friendliest place in the world, and home to a masjid (mosque) that was built while the Prophet Muhammad , peace and blessings be upon him, was alive!!

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Ian tagged me with this (I’ll get him back one day, just you wait and see!)

“What follows is a list of different occupations. You must select at least five of them. You may add more if you like to your list before you pass it on (after you select five of the items as it was passed to you). Of the five you selected, you are to finish each phrase with what you would do as a member of that profession. Then pass it on to three other bloggers.”

Here�s that list:
If I could be a scientist� If I could be a farmer�
If I could be a musician� If I could be a doctor�
If I could be a painter� If I could be a gardener�
If I could be a missionary� If I could be a chef�
If I could be an architect� If I could be a linguist�
If I could be a psychologist� If I could be a librarian�
If I could be an athlete� If I could be a lawyer�
If I could be an innkeeper� If I could be a professor�
If I could be a writer� If I could be a backup dancer�
If I could be a llama-rider� If I could be a bonnie pirate�
If I could be a midget stripper� If I could be a proctologist�
If I could be a TV-Chat Show host� If I could be an actor�
If I could be a judge� If I could be a Jedi�
If I could be a mob boss� If I could be a backup singer�
If I could be a CEO� If I could be a movie reviewer�
If I could be a monkey�s uncle� If I could be a bible archaeologist�
If I could be a prime-minister� If I could be a bookstore owner�

I choose:
If I could be a psychologist: I would probably be too self-indulgent to have patients, and would want to devote all my psychological skills on figuring out my own problems LOL.

If I could be a writer: I’d be a bit like Piers Anthony (I wish). I’d hole myself up in the middle of the woods (or bush ‘coz I live in Ozstraylya) and have a huge desk in front of a big window that looks out onto nature, and it would be me, my laptop and a cup of coffee. I would then write brilliant books that would make people stop and think. Of course, no major publishing house would be interested in them, because they wouldn’t sell in Dymocks, but you’d be able to find my mind-expanding novel in the basement of a small library in Tashkent. (That last bit isn’t what Piers Anthony is like btw.)

If I could be a professor: I certainly wouldn’t let myself get tied down in administration. I’d design a fabulous course on Islamic studies that would engage my students, so much so that they’d be clamouring to have it on their course list. I would make it very interactive, with overseas trips and visits to mosques, and I would even run a special class on “how to succeed at university by actually doing the work instead of spending all your time at the pub and cramming the night before an exam”.

If I could be an architect: I would design a realllllly cool mosque for Melbourne. It would have lots of light coming in from all different angles, it would be Ozstraylyan in flavour (but not kitch), very open and welcoming to people of all faiths, and of course gender-inclusive. I think I’d ditch the minaret, because council laws prohibit the gawd-awful megaphone-style pre-recorded adhan from being blasted out anyway, but I might have a very subtle dome maybe. A very low, lying one (dunno if you can do that architecturally, but then if I was an architect I’d know).

If I could be an actor: Oh man would I be in Episode 7 of Star Wars. But there is no Episode 7 you cry, oh just you wait!!! George Lucas will get sick of retirement and the computer graphics technology will get better and he won’t be able to help himself.

Now, who to tag? Hehehehehe: Arafat; Reid; Karen.

Here are the interview questions for my victi… *cough* fellow bloggers, who have to answer them on their websites and then offer to interview the first five commenters who request to be interviewed and so on. I only got four responses, so if anyone wants to be a fifth let me know.

Hijabman

* What does that dream mosque of yours look/sound/feel like?

* You’re walking innocently down the street one day, when all of a sudden the sky opens up and a loud voice from heaven proclaims: “Hijabman, you can wish for three things which will all come true”. What are your three wishes, and why?

* Where were you at the time it happened, and how did you come up with the name “Hijabman”?

* Where have you travelled and where did you like best?

* What is the single most important thing you learned from your tertiary studies?

Hijabman’s answers

Umm Amr from Underwater Light

* What was your husband doing when he was living in Melbourne?

* What is the most fascinating bit of scientific knowledge you’ve ever come across?

* What will you do differently, insha’Allah , this time around when you give birth?

* How has being a mum/mom changed you (if it has)?

* Where does the name “Underwater Light” come from?

Umm Amr’s answers

Kitty Cheng from Peregrine Sojo

* There are three parts to this question: a) Do you take advantage of living in Southbank? b)how often do you partake of Melbourne art, culture and fine dining? c) what is your favourite restaurant in Southbank?

* What is a typical day in the life of a mission mobilizer with World Team Australia?

* When and how did you find your faith as a Christian?

* What was going to Tabor like?

* If you were going to be stranded on a desert island, what five items would you have to take with you?

Kitty’s answers

Sarah from atoms into suns

* Have you done any Ruhi Institutes? If so, what did you think of them?

* Is your hubby a Baha’i? If so, was he born into a Baha’i family or was he a convert? If not, how do you find having a non-Baha’i partner?

* How big is your local Baha’i community and what do you do together on a regular basis?

* What does equality of the sexes mean to you?

* Have you been to Haifa for a pilgrimage? If so, what is your most outstanding memory of your pilgrimage?

Sarah’s answers

The following are my interview questions and answers from Sunni Sister. The way this works is, I answer my questions on my blog because I waved my hand in Sunni Sister’s direction. Then the first five readers of my blog who put a request in the comments section will have artfully crafted questions pointed in their direction. They then answer the questions on their blogs and offer to write interview questions for the first five of their readers and so on and so on. This is the meme sweeping the blogosphere at the moment, so, here goes.

1. You were raised Baha’i, right? What led you to Islam, and do you think your upbringing as a Baha’i perhaps opened you to Islam in a way that you might not have been if you’d been from a different background?

Phew, talk about starting with a serious one. Yes, my parents met and married as Baha’is, and even converted my paternal grandmother to the post-Islamic religion which came from an Iranian Twelver Shi’i matrix. (Just a bit of extra info. in there for the beloved readers).

I was a very committed Baha’i, and decided that my raison d’�tre was to work as a translator of Baha’i scripture. I took Arabic studies at the University and added Islamic studies to complement them. Being introduced to real, live Muslims and actual Muslim texts threw my world into a tailspin. At the same time I was becoming more and more disillusioned with the Baha’i organisation which Baha’is believe is divinely guided. As I realised Baha’i institutions had about as much divine guidance as the Liberal party (Australian political party currently in government, not too dissimilar to the Republican Party in America), I became more and more drawn to Islam. So at a very basic level, I just felt a gut pull in the direction of Islam which co-incided with my disenchantment with the Baha’i religion.

I’ve since intellectualised my conversion because when people ask why I became a Muslim, they seem to want some sort of rational answer. Ultimately I believe I responded to the call of the Beloved Creator, but I also find Islamic doctrines and practices immensely attractive: the theology of tawhid, the ritual practice incorporated in daily life, the simplicity of Islam as a religion.

I think having been a Baha’i has given me a different path to Islam for sure. To begin with, Baha’is acknowledge the Qur’an as the word of God (even if they never read it) and the Prophet, God love him, as a divinely inspired Messenger. So I have always had some level of acceptance of Islam. Also, I think because so many Baha’i beliefs and practices are drawn from Islam (daily obligatory prayer, an annual month of fasting, the prohibition of alcohol, rules for modest behaviour, having Arabic as a holy language, emphasis on equality of race and sex, the elevation of the importance of education etc.) has meant that incorporating various Islamic practices in my life has not been a huge departure from how I lived my life as a Baha’i.

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