LOL noted, a good point.

I went to a biking gym in Soho for some endurance training with other cycling enthusiasts. I left my gel padded seat cover at home and subsequently i woke up with a very sore ar.se. this morning. Emailed the boss to tell him i'll be working from home, didn't tell him why lol, just the proverbial 'under the weather'

Good afternoon all:) The wonders of remote desktop, working from home and loving it. I should do this more often. Alpha get off the beaten track and seek some adventure.

Great photos, cheers Norf!

Your welcome guys. The new one that aired last week. http://www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer/episode/b01h7mjp/Indian_Ocean_with_Simon_Reeve_Madagascar_to_the_Seychelles/ next week is Kenya to Somaliland via Mogadishu 3/6. The third leg of the adventurer's journey takes him from the south of Kenya to the Horn of Africa. Along the way he joins a Ugandan peace-keeping force in Mogadishu, the capital of war-torn Somalia, which turns out to be the most dangerous leg of his journey as he ends up under fire on the front line. In contrast, he finds neighbouring Somaliland a stable and democratic home to thousands of Somalis fleeing fighting and famine. In Kenya's Tana Delta, he meets villagers facing eviction from an area that the government is turning over to sugar cane production for bio-fuels.

These are hilarious.

i saw this in today's Metro, sad!

Somalis have neglected themselves for the past two decades, there's not much they can do for the land they've been bestowed with. They need to learn how to feed themselves again before they can begin to address environmental concerns. The irony is it may be too late when that day dawns, if ever. I'm beginning to lose hope in Somalis and their constant small mindedness. We're a petty people who constantly fail to see the bigger picture, the sad thing is i think we are yet to reach rock bottom.

Scarlett Johansson tells the story of 21-year-old model Samira, returning to Somalia for the first time since her family fled the country's brutal civil war. In a life-changing journey, with danger never far away, Samira discovers the harsh realities of the homeland she never knew and sees how different her life would have been if she'd stayed behind. After an emotional reunion with the father she hasn't seen for 18 years, she experiences what it's like to live in the country's battle-ravaged capital, Mogadishu, and the refugee camps where thousands face a daily battle for survival. As she travels from catwalk to chaos, she encounters horrors she never imagined and, by the time she leaves Africa for the second time, has made an unexpected decision about her future. http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/p00qj6gw

Its finally here, for those who don't have access to BBC iPlayer below is the first episode. I'll update this thread. For those in the UK use the following link : http://www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer/episode/p00pqbfj/Indian_Ocean_with_Simon_Reeve_South_Africa_to_Zanz ibar/ I recommend HD in iPlayer. Episode 2 will feature battle against piracy and episode 3 he visits Somalia and the Mog to be specific. Should make for good viewing.

Alpha Blondy;822325 wrote: Hargeisa - April 2012 First mobile crane i've seen in country. Good Stuff!

Sounds like a story of a homosexual Abdi who attempts to save his little sister from the evils of FGM. So damn cliched. Maybe I've jumped the gun but channel 4 do love their LGBT agenda.

Congratz mate. Wishing you a happy and blessed marriage mate.

beautiful

^^ cheers mate, i've got tonnes of various grades of rice to shift and was thinking as Somalis eat quite a bit of rice then they may prove a good avenue. I've also got a lot of materials to shift in construction e.g UPVC pipes, drainage pipe and fittings ( SWR or for agricultural purposes), PPR, CPVC, HDPE pipes and Fittings, PTFE Thread Sealant tapes, Various kinds of valves, flanges, in PP, Brass and other materials. Sanitary Fittings, Hardware tools and Fasteners. I have access to a vast range of products that can be supplied but just need to get in touch with the buyers in Somalia. Unfortunately there is no directory to contact these companies. Might try my luck in East Africa first. I've heard of Omaar Company and Indhodheero Company. They have a monopoly over food importation in Somaliland, but no website.

I was trying to find facts and figures and hopefully names of the largest food importers in the Somali region and also some of the largest construction companies in the country. Any names, websites and contact details greatly appreciated. Many thanks in advance.

Its in the interest of atheists (a religious cult) to say there is no creator, that his/her existence is a mere accident. With hearts darkened and hardened by sin, they hope and pray that there is none to hold them to account. A tragic irony.

AUN indeed. Very brave and inspirational read. Death should not be far away from the mind of a believer.

Very moving and timely read, http://yahyasheikho786.wordpress.com/2009/10/18/facing-death-with-cancer-at-19-thoughts-of-a-muslim/

From the Author I wrote this article to share certain knowledge that I gained throughout my ordeal dealing with cancer since 2002. But for personal reasons, I prefer this article to be distributed to others after my death: 1) to our brothers and sisters, including abah & emak, 2) for my family, a hardcopy for safekeeping for my children, 3) for my Klang family 4) to Shahlan – for distribution to friends in Australia 5) to Hj Kuchai – for distribution to friends in Waltop (my batch in MRSM) & MRSM KB group, 6) to Azharuddin – for distribution to my staff & SCS group & Sapura friends and TNB friends 7) to my community in my area, via my surau – to be given to Hj Shahrif / Hj Raof. To those people who know the author of this article, I sincerely apologise for any of my wrong doings to you, halal makan & minum, pray that Allah s.w.t. will forgive and bless me with His Mercy (Jannah). Assalaamu’alaikum warahmatullahi wabarakatuh to all of you. The Author 22nd July 2005 (The author passed away peacefully at the age of 39 in his Taman Permata home on the 27th. November 2005due to terminal cancer. He is survived by his wife, a young son and two younger daughters. He left behind a clear request to distribute this article only after his death. Pray that Allah give His Mercy to his soul and reward him with Jannah. Ameen) – his elder brother Bismillahir Rahmanir Rahim FACING DEATH 1. INTRODUCTION Assalamu’alaikum Brothers and Sisters in Islam. First of all, please allow me to identify myself on as K. My main reason to remain anonymous is because I want the readers to concentrate more on the content of this article rather than to concentrate on the character of the author, i.e. me. This is because this article contains things that I learned from personal experience throughout my ordeal in facing death, which I feel is now my obligation to share with my Muslim Brothers and Sisters. At the same time, however, I know I am far from being a perfect Muslim, and I am still unsure of the state I would be in when my Creator finally calls me. I am still worried whether I would really pass the test i.e. the pain, the agony, especially during Sakaratul Maut. Therefore, I do not want the state of my death to affect the credibility of the knowledge that I want to share with you in this article. As the main purpose of this article is to share my knowledge and experience, you may distribute this freely to others. Those who know me, if required you can mention verbally about the author, but no name please. The same applies to those who receive the information. Like I said earlier, it is not important to know who the author was. What is more important to ponder the information I am sharing with you in this article. Last but not least, the views expressed in this article are solely my opinions. This means that I could be right and I could also be wrong. If you have doubts on some of my views, by all means consult the experts, the Islamic Scholars in particular. If I am proven wrong, take the article from the Islamic Scholars and please ignore mine. What I am doing here is just sharing with my fellow Brothers and Sisters in Islam what I have learnt to the best of my knowledge, hoping that we could all learn something from it. 1.1 A Brief History of My Illness In the fourth quarter of year 2002, I was diagnosed with Choroidal Metanoma, a cancer of the choroids behind the retina in my right eye. By the time it was correctly diagnosed, the cancer had already grown to a considerable size where it was no longer possible to save the vision through an operation, although there was still a chance to save the eyeball. But such an operation would be very costly, as it could only be performed in a foreign country. Furthermore, there would be costs for the subsequent treatments (radiation therapy), etc; and yet the risk of “recurrence” would still be very high, plus some other possible complications. A better solution as suggested by the local experts was “Enucleation”, i.e. to remove the right eyeball completely. It was a tough decision to allow the doctors to enucleate my right eyeball. But Alhamdulillah, after a lot of prayers and putting a lot of thoughts to it, I decided to have it done. To cut the story short, Allah s.w.t. gave me another one and a half months before the operation could take place; at first because of my request to spare me from the operation for another two weeks. Subsequently the operation had to be further postponed due to the unavailability of the correct size of the artificial eye that needed to be placed in my right eye’s orbit. The one and a half months is a period that will be referred in this article, so please allow me to term it as Grace Period 1. The enucleation and the artificial eye implant took place in November 2002, during the month of Ramadhan. I had to miss a few days of fasting, but I could no longer postpone the operation due to the high risk of it spreading to other parts of the body. Alhamdulillah, the operation went well, and Alhamdulillah, Allah made me recover from the operation fairly quickly, making it possible for me to carry on with my fasting for the remaining days. The histopathology report that came later confirmed that the cancer was confined to the eyeball and there was still a considerably good margin separating the cancer cells from the eyeball’s main blood vessels, Alhamdulillah. Having done the enucleation was not the end of the story. I became aware by reading articles from the internet and also from doctors, that I was still at risk of experiencing “recurrence” or worse, the fatal metastasis cancer (cancer that spreads to other parts of the body). As for metastasis cancer, the most common part that would be affected due to choroidal melanoma is the liver. Therefore I always had to go for medical checkups every 6 months, to do a CT Scan of the brain and orbit, and an ultrasound of the liver. All praise is due to Allah s.w.t., I lived a normal life from the moment I recovered from the enucleation in November 2002 until the last quarter of year of 2004. For easy reference later in this article, I term this period as Grace Period 2. In the middle of year 2004, I started sensing some changes in me. The changes were in terms of my energy levels; I started to feel very tired at the end of the day. There were times when I just felt a bit tired all out of a sudden, but after a while I felt ok again. I also discovered I had to take a long time to recover from a simple flu, instead of my normal 2 hours (using panadol + sleeping under a blanket), I now took 2 days to recover. I then began to realize that something was not very right with me. It could be either my fitness level had dropped due to the lack of exercise (unlike before the enucleation operation), or because of the possible metastasis cancer mentioned before. Anyway, my next scheduled CT Scan and Ultrasound was just around the corner, i.e. in early August, which would be a good opportunity to check the cause of the problem. The result of the ultrasound scan confirmed that I had Multiple Liver Metastasis. It was indeed a heavy blow to me, previously I was loosing my eye and now I was going to loose my life. I was told that if not treated, I might only have 6 months or so to live. To make things worse, the Head of Oncology Department confirmed that at present, metastasis cancer of the liver due to choroidal melanoma has very limited solutions. And all these solutions have low percentage rate of success. At best even if successful, the solution would only help to prolong life for a few more months or so. Anyhow, he still suggested that I go for the proposed treatments, and I did. So that is the condition I am in today at this point of writing. Still struggling with the cancer. I have gone for most of the proposed treatments (chemotherapy, chemo embolization, etc.) and Alhamdulillah, I am still alive at this point of time. It has been more than 11 months since I was first diagnosed with the metastasis cancer, and I am referring to this period as Grace Period 3. But from the medical reports, I have the feeling that this period will not be long, because the metastasis cancers are still growing and I am beginning to feel and experience the effects. It may just be a matter of time now, before Allah s.w.t. decide to end my life or to cure me through His miracles. The above is a brief history of my illness, which I think is important to know before you will be able to understand the remaining content of my article. [For more information about Choroidal Melanoma and Metastasis Cancer, just do a google search, insyaAllah you will find lots of information about it. One example is the site below: http://www.eyecancer.com/MetastaticMelanoma/MetMel.html] 2. The Principle Attitude to be adopted It is not easy to list down in the right chronology the things that I learned throughout my ordeal, as they involved various time spans. So I will try my best to arrange them according to what I think is best. Honestly, I do not have much time to think about the strategy to write this article. So please forgive me for all shortcomings. I will start with what I term as “The Attitude” to be adopted when facng a situation like mine. This is important as it will determine your next course of actions. “Have a Strong Will to Fight it!” When I was told that I had choroidal melanoma in my right eye, and the best solution was to remove the eyeball completely (enucleation), I was really in total state of confusion. This was because while all the doctors advised me to go for the enucleation immediately, my close relatives and friends said that there existed alternative medications that could help remove or reduce the tumor size, citing several personally known cases, and advising me that I should give some time to try them out.

Sorry to piggy back on your thread Mukulaalow, but what do yanks make of Dearborn MI. Will be heading there later in that year. Nice place, reputation and the like. many thanks in advance folks.

N.O.R.F;816949 wrote: Somali cafes are not the best up there. Kebabish is where I eat when in town. LoL at league of gentlemen. Glad you had a good time and hope you didn't stray offside Oh yes i never stray offside. The place we ate at was called Spital Hill in Pitsmoor, not the nicest part of town I'm afraid. Town centre was great and hotel was also great. Outskirts of town are very picturesque. Overall would do it again.

come on now burahdeer, they don't have any sewerage facilitates.

yeah tell me about it. I'm exhausted after spending the weekend in Norf's old haunt, city of steel. Nice place it had very odd people who reminded me of characters from The League of Gentlemen (BBC Comedy) where they used to say; you're not from around here, are you? We also went to the local Somali cafe for a spot of lunch and all the young New Era cap wearing youths were in xuruuf mode. Nice wedding though. Plenty of pretty gals.

i don't think i can live life without, smooth roads, running piped water from a utility company, sewerage treatment facilitates, adequate street lighting, actual pavements for pedestrians, cash machines, broadband speed internet. It would also be nice if they did something about garbage collection, flying cockroaches, mosquitoes, but that would be asking for too much. I had to be hospitalised the first time i saw one of these hideous creatures. it was in an outside toilet (hole in the ground) in Somalia. This is what they call a flying cockroach, it sounds much like a helicopter only much more frightening.