Billings Gate Market

السلام عليكم ورحمة الله وبركاته and good day!

It's the month of Ramadhan! Here in London, we fast for 19 hours!! Alhamdulillah, almost half of the month already pass, and we're are all fine and dandy. huhu...

This is my second time experiencing the month of Ramadhan in London during summer. It will surely teach you to be humble and emphathised with those who are less fortunate.

I have been craving for some seafood for a very long time since I've been here, because seafood is quite expensive. So when my friend asked me to go to Billings gate to buy some seafood, I didn't hesitate. Little that I know, we need to go there by 3am!!! 

The market open from 5am to 9am, Tuesday to Saturday. By 7am, usually most of the fresh seafood would be gone already.

Fajr prayer here is at 2.40am, so we went out around 3am and took the night bus. There were no public transport available accept for the night bus and 24 hour busses. We needed to change three busses to go to the market. The market is located near Canary Wharf, very near the tube and DLR station.

To be honest, London is kind of scary at 3am with all the drunks and crazies came out and about.

This place is actually very big. If you have a car, there's parking spaces available too.

When we arrived there, there were quite a lot of people. And of course, soooo many seafood to choose from!!! I was in cloud nine.

Just looking at all the seafood makes me happy. hahaha

Look at that beauty

Surprisingly, this place is super clean. There is a bit fishy smell (as you would expect), but not strong at all.

Our catch for the day...eye eye mate. Inside the big black bag is a salmon and sardines. 

Outside the market there's this unique traffic light tree. Who's green? Should we stop? Wait, what?!

The price of this big fillet salmon is £12. Woha! 

My aim is only to buy some crabs and squids which I love. My friend and bestie wanted some prawns, scallops and small fish too, so we bought them as well. All of the products are sold minimum 1kg. With such cheap prices. So we have to share. 

We bought two herring sardines for just £5! The price was actually for one box, but the fishmonger gave us two boxes..haha...lucky! Such a nice guy. 

Until next time...

Eidul fitri 2015

السلام عليكم ورحمة الله وبركاته and good day!

Alhamdulillah, infinite praises be to Allah swt for giving all His blessing, for being alive, for making me able to update this blog. Last Friday was the eid celebration for muslim all over the world (some parts celebrate on Saturday), marking the end of Ramadhan. 

SubahanAllah! 29 days went by so fast. Fasting for 19 hours seem so easy now. This year, will be my second year celebrating eid away from home and my family. However, the festivity is just as grand here as it would be back home. 

1st Day of Raya

We went for prayer at the East London Mosque this year because we were late to catch the prayer at the Malaysian High Commission. However, we still go there to take some pictures...again. huhu..

I love seeing a lot of Malaysians gather together here for one day. You can see the massive amount of Malaysians here in London on this day.

After that, we went to the Royal Albert Hall for some photo shoots. hehe...

Wefies...

This will be perfect to be sent for 'salam perantau' next year. LOL

After that we walked to Queen's Gate Terrace to go the one of Mara's officer, En. Shahril's open house.

We were lucky because we arrived just after a big group left.

So it was just us and Mara's director, Tn. Hj. Wahab's family. This pic is with Kak Wan (En. Shahril's wife) and Aunty Nor (Tn. Hj. Wahab's wife).

After that, we went to Chinatown.

As last year, we visited my Mak Lang at her store, Kuala Lumpur Cafe.

The main purpose is for these...Lontong @ London and Chatime..Weehuu!!

The best thing about eid in London is that, you can go for a visit with public transport. It brings back memories when I was at school.

Our last stop for that day is to the Brunei's TYT open house. On our way, we passed the Kensington Olympia where they held comic-con and met these two awesome guys with their costumes and decided to take a picture with them. haha..

We met a lot of great people at the TYT's open house including the Brunei Hall's chef. The TYT and the Datin were super nice and kind. Superb host, great food!!

2nd Day of RAYA

On the second day, we invited friends to come over for Raya Breakfast (It's gonna be a thing after this..hehe).

After that, with our guests, we moved to Rumah Malaysia's open house which was hosted by the embassador and Education Malaysia. 

This year, the makan2 was held the next day because Eid was on Friday and will make it difficult for men to perform Friday Prayer.

There were a lot of people showed up for the open house, from various backgrounds. They opened a tent outside to accommodate the people because the house was under renovation.

This is the inside of the house.

We only get to meet the embassador before we went back.

Thank you for having us!

3rd Day of Raya

During our visit to En. Shahril's house, Tn. Hj. Wahab and Aunty Nor invited us to come over to their house on Sunday, which is today. Their house is actually in the same flat. 

There were soooo many people that came. The food was awesome. Aunty Nor cooked Nasi Kerabu and Laksam (a traditional Kelantanese dish).

Photo shoot before leaving...=D

After that, we went to visit another officer's house which was actually located near my house.

Their house was super gorgeous!

Thank you ustazah for having us!

Last but not least, we went to Brunei Hall's open house. huhu...continuous eating.

Thanks to Kak As who worked there, we get a chance to eat here..=D

Photo shoot with Paddington Bear. 

Earlier in the day, my bestie have been wanting to go to the Magnum Pleasure Store to try it out

Eventhough we were super tired and full, we went there anyway because this store is only open until August and we weren't sure when we can come here after this.

There were lines out the door, but we didn't mind. The store is located beside the Royal Opera House.

You get to choose either vanilla or raspberry ice cream and choose your topping. Nyum3

This is how they do it.

At least my bestie enjoyed it. ok...so did I..=3

Just so you know, this is how the Londoners celebrate eid. huhu...

I'm not kidding. This funfair is for eid celebration. 

Until next time...

Twins of Faith

السلام عليكم ورحمة الله وبركاته and good day!

Last two week, I had the opportunity to go to the Twins of Faith conference. This event is held all over the world inviting many renowned speakers from across the globe. This year, this event was held at the O2 Arena. The venue is a prestigious venue where they usually held massive concerts such as the British Music Awards. This time, the venue was used to embrace Allah, SubhanAllah!

The theme for this year's ToF is Once upon a time in Madinah. The talks reflected on the Sahabat's (apostles/closest followers of the prophet) life during the time of Rasulullah (peace be upon him) both before and after Hijrah to Madinah.

The venue was super big, but it was a full house!! We got the tickets for free from our friends that bought the tickets earlier. Lucky us! Those with free tickets (they call it as general tickets) need to enter from a different door. 

They gave us stamps on the way in.

Luckily, we were one of the first to enter and we get to choose our seats in front! Yeay!!

There were various speakers that shared the life and lessons from the Sahabat. Quran reciters from Riyadh and another country that I don't remember. Their recitations can make you teared up. It was so peaceful in that arena, listening to his recitations.

Part of the talk that I want to share with you:

Twins of faith, means two things in faith which are Iman, and 'Amal. Neither one could be without the other. As Allah swt has said various times in the Quran:

And give glad tidings to those who believe and work righteousness that their portion is gardens beneath which rivers flow. Every time they are fed with fruits therefrom they say: “This is what we were fed with before” for they are given things in similitude, and they have therein companions, and they abide therein (Surah al-Baqarah[2], verse 25).

To have faith, is to believe in Allah as the One true God, and Muhammad peace be upon him is the messenger of God. Also to portray your believe, through actions, by following the guidelines that has been stated clearly in the Quran and Hadith.

There were some nasheed performance in between the talks. The nasheed is not like today's entertainment. It is all about worshiping Allah swt. If your entertainment does not make your faith stronger, then avoid it.

However, we had to leave early because I wanted to pickup my lifelong friend from the airport.

We headed out with my friend that came with her two daughters. 

After we rushed out, I found out that my friend is actually coming on the next day. hahaha...choi! That's another story.

I didn't get to take her anywhere or even pick her up from the airport (It's the weekdays dude!). So to make it up, I sent her off when she's going back to Malaysia. Come again dear friend! =D

Until next time...Ramadhan mubarak to every Muslim out there. May our journey throughout the month of Ramadhan is fruitful and be the ticket towards jannah.