The prayer times these days are somehow better than in winter. You have enough time to pray and not worry about whether you are going to pray on time or not. Dhuhur is around 1 PM and 3asir is after 5 PM, so there is plenty of time if you head out in the morning, you’ll be back in time before 3asir prayer. Magrib is around 9 PM! Don’t mind this either, sometimes when the skies cool down outside, I got out for a jog and by the time I get back, take a shower, it’s Magrib time.

The dilemma is not Isha prayer, it is Isha + Fajer! Ishar is after 11 PM and Fajer around 2:30 AM.

It is physically difficult for me to pray at 11:15 PM and by the time I get around to sleep, wake up for the Fajer! Sometimes I turn off the alarm without even having a recollection of that action!

I put the alarm at the far end, far beyond my hand reach, I have to get out of bed to turn the alarm off, I used to do that sometimes back home, when I’m exhausted and know there is a high chance of me unconsciously turning the alarm off. I set it to 3:30 AM, for realistic terms, by the time I sleep around 12 midnight, 3:30 AM sounds doable.

You experience the extremes here from Fajer being after 6 AM, Dhuhur at 12 PM, 3asir after 1 PM, Magrib around 4 PM and Isha around 6 PM to summer prayer times. Interesting experience

This trip to Manchester was hilarious from the beginning I’m learning more about myself, if everybody around me is panicking I become calmer and don’t seem to see what the big fuss is about If everyone is calm then I start to panic

Anyway so the train was 9:28 AM and 3alama we walked to the bus station ella tawa mashee el em3afan so we waited for the next bus and we barely arrived at the train station and got our pre-booked tickets from the machine and ran to the platform. All the way the girls with me were afraid we won’t make it on time, so what ?? We’ll take the next one … no biggie … there is another train in the same off-peak time slot, our tickets cover that. What they didn’t know is that I wasn’t sure hehehehe but I assumed who in the right mind schedules a single train in a weekend.

We roamed Manchester, sightseeing, went in Manchester cathedral, did some minor shopping, girls are packing stuff to take back home, there is an Omani girl maskeeena she has to buy for the whole fereeej too,  are you kidding me! laa oo fereejhom 3ooood!!!

We decided to head to Trafford Centre, qilna yamdeee, secretly knowing NOT It is humoungous, there are many activities to do, skiing, lego-land, movies, and it is filled with Halal restaurants. We ended up having lunch/dinner at a place called “RICE”, it was very tasty but my order was a thai dish and it was HOT! My eyes teared up and nose started running and my face flushed, I had to get ice-cream afterwards.

For the trip back we took the same bus, number 100, to the city and were planning to take one of the free buses, 1, 2 or 3, to Piccadilly station only to discover they aren’t running after 7 PM It was pass 7 PM and we already missed our train. We decided to walk we have a map and we did, it took us a while and some were complaining that we are lost, we aren’t going to make, we won’t find a train … so what … kilish kilish we’ll stay the night oo catch a morning train. As soon as we found the train station we congratulated each other and headed to the board to see the departures schedule, one girl took off to buy coffee, I saw it, the next train departs in a few minutes and of course platform 13 is at the other end. I called her, wait get coffee on the train and I ran and the rest followed LOL, we stopped mid run because they were screaming we aren’t going to make it, I can see platform 13 and the big clock and it says we can, YES WE CAN … RUN and we did, one minute ahead of time ba3ad. While running a girl’s mobile flew and some of her things and she just picked up her mobile because the empty bottle of water didn’t matter. We made fun and laughed the whole journey back

While on board, drunk people we all over, one couple actually started a slow dance and then another started singing. It was a sad scene really, they were hopping from one town to another, getting drunk and then heading to the next one! I was glad they didn’t come near us. Ma kan lee khilqhom.

Took the bus back to my dorm and called it a day

I’m always fascinated by people, meeting from different backgrounds and cultures, listening and sharing different views and aspects about life.

From Oman, India, Pakistan, UAE, UK, Libya …

Young chemist extracting substances from palm trees.

English students studying methods to enhance how English is taught back home in their schools.

Computer scientists congratulaing and hugging each other because they just submitted their 6 months long project.

A computer scientist who’s married to a network engineer. That just cracked me up!!!

A 40 year old woman with two kids searching a cure to a disease that I can not even remember its name, it affects malnourished poor parts of the world, India, Iraq, Egypt, it enlarges internal organs leading to death. Not only does she have a PhD but also is supervising 5 PhD students in HER lab. That’s what she calls it, “My Lab”.

One just gave birth … Another looking for a job … Just failed a job interview …

A colourful bunch, talking about Africa, cannibals, food, guessing ages, shoes, badminton, volleyball, football, insects, progress, past …

All that over a barbecue on a sunny/windy day