Do you fancy Irish breakfast?

Picture 1. Full Irish Breakfast

IRISH BREAKFAST. I've seen this phrase many times, either on a menu list or a small board in front of a restaurant or cafe in Ireland. I didn't know what it consists of, but wasn't curious to order one either. I thought, "Hmm.. It's Ireland, a country where the people LOVE drinking alcohol. I wasn't surprised if the breakfast also contains a taste of it." That's my presumption. :P

One day, I and my friend went to a cafe to have breakfast. We ordered some normal meal for breakfast (I think it was scrambled eggs, hash brown, and a cup of tea if I'm not mistaken). Out of curiosity, I asked the waitress who took our orders about what are in the Irish breakfast. She said a lot of things, which I can't remember all, but I remember saying, "Nice!" when she mentioned pudding (black pudding to be precise). Pudding for breakfast, didn't sound bad at all. I love pudding!

So, what does Irish breakfast have? It has sausages, bacon, one pack of black pudding, one pack of white pudding, eggs, tomatoes, hash brown, mushrooms, and beans (Picture 1). That's quite a big portion for breakfast, isn't it? Well, the size might not matter anymore once you know these two "things/specimens": black and white pudding. I thought pudding always correlates with sweet and spongy dessert with wonderful and mouthwatering taste. Ladies and gentlemen, I was wrong!! >_<

Black Pudding

Picture 2. Black Pudding

Black pudding (Picture 2) is a blend of oatmeal, pork fat, blood (usually from a pig), onions, and flavourings. OK, I don't eat pork, bacon, and their friends.. lol, but blood! I didn't expect that at all! It's official, one pudding has ruined my imagination of what a pudding is supposed to be. >_< What about white pudding?

White Pudding

Picture 3. White Pudding

White pudding (Picture 3) is similar to the black one, but without blood. Sounds better, right? Hold on. My colleague said it's worse. How come? Before I tell you what he said about white pudding, I'm going to let you know a proper recipe I got from the internet. In that recipe, white pudding is a blend of oatmeal, onion, beef suet, onions, spices, and seasoning. Sometimes, people also put pork, sheep's heart, liver, and lungs in it. My colleague said it wouldn't be surprising if you find a white pudding that contains any part/organ of a cow/pig/sheep, like nails, ears, everything! :-o How do you know? They're all blended together. Can you imagine how much saturated fat contained in the pudding?

I found these two puddings in particular very weird. I kinda feel lucky I've never tried one. Well, I guess every country has some unusual meal. To name a few, octopus in Hungary (tastes fine btw), pig's *a** in Portugal (shocking and disgusting!), bats in North Sulawesi (Indonesia), frog juice in Philippines, etc.

Anyway, readers, going back to my first question, after reading this article, do you (still) fancy Irish breakfast? :P

sources of the pictures: thedublinerbangkok.com, farm2table.co.uk, eurobrits.com. 

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Are you planning to live in Dublin? Here are a few tips from me. ;)

It has been more than 2 years I've lived in Dublin. My first impression about this city was COLD, not the people, but the weather. I wasn't that prepared for such a cold temperature, and the wind, strong and cold, lovely! :/ However, Irish people are VERY friendly. :) That makes Ireland, after 2 years living here, feels like a second home for me. It's not weather, food, or entertainment that makes me like a country, but the people. I heard that Irish are the most hospitable people in Europe. I couldn't agree more. :)

Based on my description above, it seems like Ireland is a welcoming country, isn't it? That's about the people here, what about other things like transportation, accommodation, shopping, etc? Below is a few tips I could share to whoever plans to stay in Ireland or just visit.

1. The weather in Ireland is quite unpredictable. For example, this winter I expected to see snow, but where is it? It's raining instead, and the rain here is not like the one in tropical countries (e.g. Indonesia), which typically lasts for 1-3 hours, heavy rain with thunder and lightning. Here, raining could last all day long, but not heavy, with strong wind as its companion. >.< So, first tip from me: it's better to use a raincoat instead of an umbrella. Why? Irish wind is so powerful to destroy your umbrella. OK, I exaggerated it. But true! My first three umbrellas were broken at their first or second usage. Now, I've learned my lesson not to use umbrella while the wind is blowing so hard. Why did I have to wait until my three umbrellas were broken? No reason, just to make sure. :P
    
2. The public transportation here is comfortable, but quite expensive. There are three options: bus (http://www.dublinbus.ie/), tram/luas (http://www.luas.ie/), and train/dart (http://www.irishrail.ie). If you take a bus, there are two payment options. Firstly, pay with coins only, and better to pay in fix fare. Why? because the payment machine in the bus (if that's called a payment machine.. lol) only accepts coins and don't give you change. Well, it will give you "change" but not in the form of money (i.e. coins), but a tiny piece of paper with the change value on it. (Picture 1). >_< This paper can be turned into cash if you hand it to the Dublin bus office in city centre. Such a waste of time and energy! So, always have coins in your pocket, and have them in various values. :)
    



   



Picture 1

   

Picture 2

3. Continuing from the previous tip, there is a more efficient way if you travel by bus frequently. Buy a rambler ticket! (Picture 2) There are 3 types of tickets depending on their valid durations: 1-day, 5-day, and 30-day ticket. You should know that 5 and 30 days here are not consecutive. That means you can use the ticket on any day as many as the duration written on your ticket. And this is the best part.. each day you can get on the bus as many as you want, unlimited. If you want to get on and off like 100 times between North and South or West and East Dublin until you feel like you wanna throw up, that's permissible! :P The fare is still the same! Isn't that great? Even greater for students! Students get discounted price. ;) All you have to do is to sign up for a student travel card (for more information, please click here) and show it when you buy the ticket. The point is that using rambler ticket is much cheaper! ^_^
    
4. Still about public transportation.. If you take a tram, or here commonly named as "luas", the ticket can be bought from the machines at every luas stop. Unlike bus tickets where you have to pay in coins, the luas ticket machine accepts either coins or notes. One thing I found strange on luas is that there's no one who checks your ticket, well at least most of the time. Sometimes, there is staff doing so, but that's quite infrequent. Even though there's no one checking your ticket, you still have to buy one though. If you're found with no ticket by the staff, you'll be fined around 50 Euro. Compared to the ticket fare, which is around 2-5 Euro, 50 Euro fine sounds very expensive, well it is actually! Besides, it's not good to use public transportation by cheating, that's dishonesty! *Even kids know that* XD So, another tip from me: always buy a ticket everytime you're using public transportation even though it's rarely checked by the staff. :P
    
5. When you go shopping, don't forget to bring your own plastic bag. In Ireland, plastic bags are not free. You have to pay 22 cents per bag to get one. It's actually a good effort to reduce plastic waste, which needs a long time to decompose naturally. The point is to reuse your plastic bags for the sake of our environmental sustainability. :)
    
6. Regarding choosing an accommodation or a place to stay, choose a house/flat/apartment that is less than 30 years old of age. New buildings usually have walls with better quality, which can preserve the heat inside and block the coldness coming from outside. The most important aspect in choosing a house/flat/apartment is to choose the one whose windows have double glass. It's for the same purpose, which is to keep the warmth inside. I had lived in a house with single-glass windows, and it's always cold, despite how long you turn the heater on. Trust me!
    
7. Don't walk alone at O'Connol Street area (city centre) above 11 pm! People say that it's dangerous, especially for women. There are drunk and stoned people there. *Is "stoned" the correct word?
    
8. For muslims, there are 2 big mosques in Dubin: Islamic Foundation of Ireland (IFI) on 163 South Circular Road, Dublin 8 and The Islamic Cultural Centre of Ireland (ICCI) on 19 Roebuck Road, Clonskeagh, Dublin 14. If you want to know more about these two mosques, please click here.
    
9. Still for muslims, you can get halal meats at the following shops:
   • A shop at ICCI. ICCI also has a restaurant and a salon.
   • Asia Food & Co on Henry Street, city centre
   • Medina on Parnell Street, city centre
     
   
    
10. For muslim women who wear hijab, keep wearing it, don't take it off. Even though Ireland is a Catholic country, most people here are open minded. As I've said earlier, Irish people are well known for their hospitality. So, don't worry, ladies! ;) Actually, even though the people of a country you're going to are very discriminatory, just take it easy, don't take it personally. We should maintain our principle and always be strong! If you experience any form of discrimination, just smile and say nothing. Allah is always by your side. :)
     
11. If you're driving, bear in mind that some roads in Dublin are divided into two: road for buses only and  that for any types of vehicles. Moreover, sometimes ways are diverted to others to tackle traffic jam or if there's an event. So, always beware of the traffic signs while you're driving!
     
12. This last tip is special for those who live in a country where the traffic is on the right side. In Ireland, the traffic is on the left side. So, don't forget to look at your right first, and then your left everytime you're crossing the road! hahaha.. *no, seriously!

Those are several tips from me, hopefully useful for you. Welcome to Dublin! :)

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It started from a game..

Saturday morning.. have a little headache from last night. Last night I and my friends went to a pub. I was overwhelmed by the crowd at the pub. It was so loud that I couldn't hear my own voice. The ceiling was very low. The pub was so packed full of people. I know what you're thinking. "What am I doing there?" The answer is nothing. I was just curious how the social life of Irish people is. My opinion? Not a fan of it. I prefer a quiet place where I could have a relaxing conversation. OK, maybe my definition of relax is different to Irish's definition. :P

Anyway, at the pub, we had a little game. A friend of mine tried to find his potential wife there. Looking for a wife at a pub didn't sound like a good idea. I knew he was joking (I hoped he was). He asked me to give a score to any woman passing us. The score was from 1 to 10, 1 meant yes (could be potential wife) and 10 meant no (could not). For about 15 minutes we played the game, I gave a lot of 9s or 10s. My reason was simple. A lot of women there put too much make up on, so it didn't look natural at all. Some of them looked scary. I'm sorry to say this but that's my honest opinion. Sometimes, too much make up makes you look older than what you really are. I don't say make up is bad, but for me less is more. That night, it was hard to find a simple and naturally beautiful lady there.

One more thing, some of the dresses they wore were outrageous. As a woman, I felt embarrassed just by looking at them. I'm not going to say further about this. I think you get my point of view.

That night triggers something that has been in my mind for a long time. I heard so many times about the statements saying "Women are not objects", "Stop treating us as objects!", and so on. If you don't want to be treated as objects, don't treat yourselves as ones. It's as simple as that. If your mind focuses too much on how you look, what you're going to wear to 'highlight your feature', which part of your body you need to 'improve', etc, can you really blame others who think of you as objects only? I didn't say you can't look good, not at all. Instead you should make an effort to look nice, but don't try too hard, please have some self respect. 

There's another quote: Don't judge a book by its cover! It's true, and I didn't. Don't get me wrong. You could be a wonderful human being with a big heart behind all the heavy make up and the outrageous outfits. What I'm saying is let all the wonderful things inside you shine without being distracted by any other things that are irrelevant. ;) Don't you want to be loved for who you really are? not for all the accessories you put on. Physical appearance will eventually fade, but a big heart won't.

ps: I didn't intend to offend anyone, just my honest thought. If you feel offended, I apologize, and just close this page as soon as possible. ;)

note: Pubs in Ireland are not like the ones in Indonesia. Here, cafe-like and restaurant-like places, some of them are called pubs.

The picture above I took when I visited the Dublin Botanical Garden.

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Simply Amazing! :)

Flowers, who doesn't love them? Well, most men might not. :P (I might be wrong) Everytime I passed a flower shop, I couldn't resist not to look inside. :)

I had never been to a proper flower garden until two years ago. A friend of mine took me to a botanical garden here, in Dublin. It was spring, perfect time to see flowers. I had seen a couple of flower gardens only on magazines, had never gotten a chance to see the real one. That time, I didn't expect much because you know, it's Ireland. The weather here is unpredictable. So, I guessed spring didn't correlate with blossom flowers like those I'd seen on the magazines.

We entered the garden without paying anything. It's free! And it's also easily accessible by bus (bus no. 13). The first thing we saw was a line of trees. "OK, it looked like Bogor botanic garden (in Indonesia)", that's the first thing that popped up in my mind. Just for your information, Bogor botanic garden is rich of various species of plants (in general). It has flowers too, but not many, and it's HUGE!

Anyway, go back to Dublin botanical garden. We kept walking and then had a look briefly at a small sign board not far from where we were standing. Then, we continued walking further to the main flower garden.

"There they are!" my friend told me while pointing to a line of collection of various types of flowers.

"Oh my God! Subhanallah!", I was so surprised. Look at the picture above! It's amazing, breathtaking, incredible, any word that describes amazement! I inhaled deeply and kept my mouth open for a while, literally. That showed how much I was surprised, wonderfully surprised of course. :)

The rest of our trip at this garden was simply wonderful. We didn't get bored at all. How could we get bored being surrounded by beautiful flowers? ;) We were beyond excited!

It was definitely one lovely day. I won't mind to go there again, instead I'd love to! ;)

ps: My friend said that Dublin botanical garden is better than the famous Keukenhof garden in Netherlands (she's been there).

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Recall the giant tsunami in Aceh (December 2004)

Today, I heard a news that an earthquake happened again in Aceh (the westernmost point of Indonesia), with the magnitude of 7.3 RS. A warning of possible tsunami had been issued. It reminded me of a giant tsunami that happened in Aceh at the end of 2004. It was catastrophic. I saw how bad it was from the news broadcasted for around a week. This is one of the videos that showed how strong the tsunami was.

When I saw this video (especially the clip during the tsunami) for the first time, I was in utter shock. The power of the water was unbelievable. Cars, trees, even houses were swept away as if they were made of cotton. It was scary, and I have families living there. We worried because we couldn't contact them at that time, but at the end we finally could. Our houses there collapsed, because of the earthquake, not the tsunami (our houses are on the hill), but my family were fine fortunately.

Behind all the damage it had caused, there was something I found astonishing. A lot of photographs taken not long after the tsunami showed that all buildings and houses were flat on the ground except ones, the mosques. Subhanallah! The mosques in Aceh survived after tsunami. They're still standing strong. Below are some of the photographs.

   

My family living there said so. You may believe it or not. I just hope that tsunami won't happen again after today's earthquake. Amin.

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When does someone start crying?

Have you ever noticed when someone starts crying?

When someone has a problem, does he/she cry immediately? Most people don't. They rather keep it inside, and be quieter than usual.

A couple times, I saw my friend so quiet, and I sensed there's something wrong. I could tell from her face. I asked her, "Are you alright?" That's when she started crying. Have you ever experienced this?

Based on my experience, that someone starts crying is usually not because of his/her problem, at least it's not the main reason. When someone asks him/her if he/she is OK is when the tears come. We are moved by the attention other people give us. Even though it's just a simple question, sometimes that's more than enough to show our form of attention towards someone else. That question is something that triggers whatever it is inside someone's heart.

When you have a problem, you might feel lonely. No one you can share your problem with, or you just don't want to. You tend to keep it inside. People like this have reason why they don't want to talk about their problem. They are simply uncomfortable or they just don't want to make other people worry about them. Thus, when you check their condition by asking one simple question, it's usually considered as an attention that shows that you actually care of them. :)


source of the picture above: sansdosage.blogspot.com.

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"I love you, Mommy.."

A couple days ago, I went to Winter Wonderland with my friends. At the ice skating area, I saw a little girl (about 4-5 years old) playing with her ice skating shoes. She just took them off and carried them around, running. Her mom shouted, "Stop it! That's dangerous! Come here!" The little girl came to her mom and gave her the shoes, then she walked away. Seconds later, she came back to her mom, hugged her and said, "I love you, Mommy!" "I love you too, sweetheart!" her mom hugged her back and smiled.

Awh...

It's so sweet. The little girl somehow understood that what her mom did (shouting) was part of love. Good girl! :) Love is not always melancholic or romantic, a tough love is sometimes needed. :)


source of the picture above: clipartof.com. 

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Quotes by Shaykh Samir Abu Hamza

From 23rd to 26th December 2011, I attended a winter camp organized by Federation of Student Islamic Societies (FOSIS) in Co. Clare, Ireland. We did a lot of activities: lectures, physical challenge, mental challenge, games, and entertainment night. The lectures were delivered by Shaykh Samir Abu Hamza. He flew from Australia just for the purpose of giving lectures at the camp (May Allah bless him).

During his lectures, I took note of several things I found interesting or inspiring. Here are some of his quotes:

• If you feel upset or angry when someone says something bad about a person, that's a clue that you love him/her.
• Your body needs food, so does your soul (shalat). Shalat (prayer) is nutrition to your soul.
• When you're going to do something, the first thing you should do is to think: Do you want it to be done to you or your family members?
• Shyness is part of faith. The greatest character a sister can have is shyness.
• Read the biography of Prophet Muhammad SAW and take him as your role model.
• If you become angry, be quiet! Control your anger!
• Being quiet is better than bad talking. This is very relevant since a lot of people curse nowadays. If you feel like you want to say bad words, just don't! I'm surprised that curse has become a habit for some people nowadays. It's not cool. Personally, I just can't curse, neither through my tongue nor in my mind.
• Sunnah is like the peel of an apple. If you neglect Sunnah, you neglect the foundation. ps: If you don't know what sunnah is, please refer to its brief explanation on Wikipedia (click here).
• What would you do if your boss calls you? I'm pretty sure that you will come to see him/her as soon as possible. What if Allah calls you? If Allah calls you, you must come quickly. This reminds us to perform the 5-time prayers on time and as early as each time comes.
•  Sometimes, Allah puts us in a test (in the forms of sickness, natural disaster, loss, etc) to bring us closer to Him.

What Shaykh said was something that muslims have probably known, but sometimes we need a reminder. The same message could be absorbed or ignored depending on how it's put in a sentence, and Shaykh was so good in conveying the messages that we understood everything he said easily. :)

source of the picture above: islam44.blogspot.com.

 

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A Beautiful Story of Abu Hanifa's Parents

Here is another beautiful story I got during the winter camp about a week ago...

There was a man, let's say his name was Fulan. He worked for someone who had an apple field. One day, he was so hungry that he took one apple from the field and ate it. Afterwards, he regretted what he had done. The apple was not his, thus he felt really bad about it. He went to his boss and apologized. His boss didn't want to forgive him. Fulan never gave up, he came every day to apologize. The answer he got was still the same, "No." 

After many times apologizing, he finally got different answer from his boss, "I will forgive you if you do one thing for me." Fulan immediately said, "Anything, sir. I will do anything to get your forgiveness."  "Marry my daughter!" Fulan couldn't believe what his boss had said. He surely didn't mind at all. He asked for forgiveness, but he got more than that. His boss hadn't finished what he wanted to say, "But my daughter is blind, ugly, stupid, and disabled." The news shocked Fulan. After a while, he made his decision, "If that's the only thing I could do to get your forgiveness, then I will do it, sir."

Fulan didn't get a chance to see his potential wife until the wedding day came. On the day, she came to the wedding, and she didn't look like what his father said. She's a beautiful lady, not blind, not disabled, etc. She's normal. Fulan was surprised as he didn't expect such a beautiful lady. He talked to her, "You're not like what your father said about you at all. Why did he have to lie?" The lady said, "For a long time my father had been looking for a good husband for me. He finally found you. He's impressed of how you felt so guilty and regretted over a small thing, and never gave up to ask for his forgiveness. He knew that you're the one, you have a good character."

They got married and had one son, whose name is Abu Hanifa. He was one of the greatest Islamic scholars. Masha Allah. :)

source of the picture above: www-staff.lboro.ac.uk.

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The Greatness of Salam

Here I want to tell you a simple and beautiful story I got when I attended a winter camp about a week ago. The winter camp was organized by Federation of Student Islamic Societies (FOSIS). It is an organization that consists of Student Islamic Societies of many universities across UK and Ireland. 

First of all, I'd like to explain briefly what salam means to those who don't know about it. Salam (Arabic) means a greeting that muslims say to one another when they meet. Greeting in Islam (salam) is "Assalamu'alaikum", which means "Peace be upon you", and then you answer "Wa'alaikum salam" ("Peace be upon you too"). The complete version of salam is "Assalamu'alaikum warrahmatullahi wabarakatuh" ("Peace be upon you and so may the mercy of Allah and His blessings"). The greatness of salam is that for those who say salam to other muslims, they will be rewarded a palace in heaven.

Let's start the story. One day there was a gathering at Umar's house (Umar bin Khattab RA is one of the companions of Prophet Muhammad's SAW). In the middle of gathering, Ali bin Abu Thalib (cousin of Prophet Muhammad's SAW and one of his companions as well) came. Instead of saying salam, he asked Umar to say salam first. Other people there asked Ali, "Why did you ask Umar to say salam? Shouldn't it be you that say salam because you just came?" Ali answered, "I know, but I want him to get a palace in heaven. That's because I love Umar very much."

Awh..

That's such a short and simple story, but somehow went into my heart deeply. What Ali did is simply sweet.. :)

ps: The conversation above might not be exactly like that, just want the message of the story delivered.

source of the picture above: jalansemut.wordpress.com.

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"Map", Me, and a Stranger

One day I had to go to Blanchardstown, north part of Dublin (I live in south Dublin). In order to go there, I needed to take bus no.39 from Trinity College Dublin (TCD). While I was waiting for the bus, I checked its timetable once again to make sure that I didn't miss the bus. I had already printed it out so I had it in my hand. 

While I was looking at the timetable, somebody approached me. "Are you OK?", he asked me. At first, I didn't realize that he was talking to me, and then he asked me further, "What can I help you?". "Oh, I'm OK. I'm just checking the bus timetable.", I said to him when I realized that he was talking to me. "I thought you're holding a map and trying to figure out where to go.", he responded further. I smiled, "You're so kind. Thanks."

That small experience seemed like nothing, but to me it had put smile on my face. Making someone smile doesn't always need a big effort. Sometimes, something that is considered as nothing to some people could mean something to others. :)

source of the picture above: easyvectors.com.

 

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Age shouldn't stop you from being healthy..

This morning I went to a shop to buy milk and bananas. The shop's not far from my house, reachable by 5 minute walking. After getting what I needed, I stepped outside the shop and stopped for a while to arrange the 2L milk and 5 bananas in my hands since I didn't bring any plastic bag. Just for your information, a plastic bag here is not free. It costs you 22 cents.

While I was arranging my groceries, my eyes glimpsed something interesting not far from where I was standing. An elderly lady stopped at the traffic light, waiting for it to turn green. She looked very old, 60-70ish years old! I could tell from her hair color and the wrinkles on her face. What's interesting about that? Wait.. She was not driving or waiting to cross the road. She was cycling! Wearing a sport wear and a pair of comfortable sport shoes, she looked so energetic, not different to young people. When the traffic light turned green, she started pedaling again, enthusiastically! 

Witnessing that, no wonder the life expectation in this country (or other western countries) is high. People here understand the importance of maintaining health. They not only understand, but also apply it in their daily life. 

Your health is your responsibility. If you care about your health, you should have a serious commitment taking care of your health every day. Start from a small thing, start yourself, and start now! From this experience, I learned that regardless of your age, you're in charge of your own health. Do not let your age stand in your way of having a healthier life. Live healthier and feel younger! ;)

source of the picture above: http://aliki-ka.blogspot.com. 

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