The IslamExpo and The Case of 1001 Salams...


It all started well enough. We would set out to see the expo and enjoy ourselves and return home the same day. I did say Insha Allah despite popular believes held by others (I mean you WA)! I will let the pictures tell the story...

This is the Banker, White African and myself at the first service station. At this time we had been travelling for maybe 2-3hours. We had set of from home at about 5.30am and made it to the mosque (our meeting point) at just before 6am. But this trip been muslim oganised and attended by muslims we ofcourse didn't actualy leave it after 7am! Turns out one of the families had over slept and didn't actualy get up till 6am - when the rest of us were twiddling our thumbs!

This little one was the entertainment on the coach for me! I had not slept well at all the last week or so due to the heat and working. When we actualy starting moving and were heading out of Manchester I decided to lay my weary head down and see if I could maybe get some sleep. I set myself up real nice in the back seat of the coach and was just listeing to the conversations going on around me and was JUST starting to nod of when ... SHE appeared and started to entertain me! She was lovely actualy and even sang one song for me. This girl was wicked and even left when I told her I realy needed sleep.

This was our first look at the Alexandra Palace. It looked amazing but to be honest what had my attention at this moment was the fact that I couldn't BREATH!! It was realy hard for me to climb this hill. It may look small and other people might not have had any great difficulty buit it was torture for me. I was panting and trying to catch my breath before we were even half way up this thing!! The White African pointed out to us the the place looked like Turkey...look closer and you might see the colums at the back do look similar to those found in Turkiya.

This was very funny moment. It took me a while to realise what was wrong with this situation. Basicaly we had to go through security before entering the actual building. Man this place had lots of security but guess what? They had no female security people therefore they COULDN'T search the women at all. At best they looked inside the woems bags!! I later found out some interting facts about the security lot but thats another picture.

Just prior to this picture we had a bit of a problem with getting our tickets...we were basicaly lost anbd kept following each other like children. It was great fun and Alhamdullilah we got the tickets in the end and for free. We had previously been told the expo would cost £20. I put the money i saved to good use but that for later.

This is the first instalment of what promises to be a day (and night and day) never to be forgotten...

Till next time Wasalam people