Love of Manchester

I haven’t been on the net recently (a few weeks I guess). I have been working hard to keep the NHS afloat all by my lonesome! The truth is I have been working (hard and tirelessly) but main reason for not blogging or going on the net has been lack of a computer. My sister has been stressing about an exhibition which she had to design a poster and leaflets for and therefore she has been hogging it day and night. She did well with the designs MashaAllah.
Life, as per usual, has been an up and down affair. I must say that I love the people of Manchester. I can never have two same days either at work or with family and friends. Mainly fantastic days were the days I have been at work and I come home and collapse into bed and on my days off I see my family and friends. I am really enjoying the work area of my life at the moment. On a few shifts at work I have been the most senior person on duty and it didn’t scare me as much as I thought it might. My manager is finally taking a bit of notice of my career development and has put me forward for two training programs. Looking forward to been a part-time student again (although God knows what this will do to my midwifery plans as I can hardly up sticks and leave mid training). My hospital has finaly got me long sleeved tops after 3 years in employment with them. I mean it only took nearly hundreds of phone calls and letters from me and other Muslim nurses for anyone to take notice of our simple request. They do say good things come to those who wait...
I am enjoying not having to take up extra shifts, even though I am broke and in desperate need of money, so that I can see my friends and family much more. In the last month or so I have had two dinner parties at my flat and I have enjoyed them so much that I really do get upset when the guests have to head home!! Some of my friends have just in fact left me now and I felt so sad. They had been here from 530pm till 1030pm and I still couldn’t let them go merrily (I felt better marginally when they themselves showed reluctance to go!). I managed to make some food which they ate and seemed to like. We talked of world politics, niqabs, mosques, women and men’s relations, my water bill, electric bill and finally we had some semi-cooking lessons were we gave each other advice on how to improve our cooking (the advice seemed to come from all the guests to my direction?!). Although I could put the weather down as a down side to life at the moment, I won’t as I am truly enjoying the wet and windy weather as it means I get to wear layers and coats and heavy duty socks and scarves and so much more. I know I am a freak in this sense but I in actuality do enjoy this kind of weather especially when I see idiots who appear to have lived in this country wearing next to nothing in this weather and then I feel smug and that the Lord who gave me common sense.
I leafleted for my sister to day in the centre of Manchester. I got given a few (maybe a couple of hundred or so) leaflets and sent into the world on my own as my partner had not turned up. I was cold and miserable to begin with but cheered up and if truth be told enjoyed it by the end. A few people stopped to talk to me regarding the leaflets once they took it and read it but the majority appeared to do what I normally do when given leaflets in town – put it in my bag or the nearest bin depending on how I feel. I did get a couple weird people. One of them took the leaflet and less than a minute latter came back, threw the leaflet at me and said “absolutely not”, but she failed to elaborate more and stalked off. My reaction?? I laughed and laughed! The second incident was with another woman who snatched the leaflet off me and then read it and said “Islam? Don’t think so”. I should elaborate more and tell you that these leaflets said “Experience Islam” on them and were offering henna, food, tea and exhibitions. I did wonder why the people who seemed to have a problem with the leaflets or the idea of experiencing Islam so horrid were women?!

The down side to the last few weeks has been public transport. I have truly given up on the idea of resurrecting my car. I mean I could buy a new one but they are so expensive and take a lot of maintenance and just sheer EFFORT which I don’t have. So I came to the conclusion that since public transport is good enough for ¾ of population than its fine with me. Obviously this was before I actually started relying on the bus to get me to places other than the once a week leisurely ride into town. What a nightmare the transport system is. The buses have their own time-table not the one that’s printed at the stops. They can turn up 10-50minutes early or late depending on how they (buses and their drivers) feel. Forget the poor sods that have to get to work!!! This is not even the beginning of what’s wrong with the transport system. OH NO! The problem comes once you are on the actual bus. You get on and sit yourself down (if there is a seat available) and nearly 9 out of ten times some weirdo will park himself right next to you and try to start a conversation with you. My last encounter with the species that is known as the Bus Scarab happened Thursday morning. I was heading from work and boarded the bus and sat down and zoned out as per usual. Next stop people got on and off and a man came and sat next to me. He sat and turned to me and said “hello” I replied hi and went back to staring into space as is the decorum when sat next to a stranger (am I alone in thinking this?) on public transport. We sat quietly and next minute he says “how you doing?” I again looked at him and replied in my most monotone voice “fine”. Any normal person would have picked up on my facial expression and my voice that I don’t really want to speak to them and maybe I don’t actually want be sat next to them. But as I said previously said this man is what I like to call Bus Scarab. He them stayed silent for few minutes and then turned to me fully this time and said “so… how’s life going?”
At this I lost control and laughed in his face. It was a compulsion and could not be stopped but Alhamdullilah my stop was next and I made good my escape without any problems.
Really public transport is just irritating and entertaining at the same time. I look forward to meeting some more different species of people on the buses.