You are MY girl

Our love is a spiritual path, do you agree with me my beloved Natty?  I seem to have you become the rope of a tug of war between the world's two most populous religions, and it is all the more intense because you are beautiful and chaste.  Allah has made me a public figure and because of that, you are also a public figure, because you are me and together we are one.  I was busy with Erin when I first found you, but the Qur'an told me to start looking for other wives.  For that I am grateful, and this is my spiritual path.  Don't worry about the responsibility, my love.  Just follow my lead, and I will take the responsibility: if the people need someone to blame, then they can blame me.  I will take you as my wife inshaAllah, and you will join a Muslim family.  It will be my job to provide for you and our family, to give you a house and pay for your expenses.  You will stay here with me as I fulfill my mission here to please Allah with music, and maintain a tourist attraction.  We will raise our children as Muslims and while I am still alive, I will raise them to never abandon their mother as it is the way of Islam.  I promise to do my best to make you happy and happy with me, I pray that Allah bring us together quickly, guide and protect us and our family.  I love you.

Human of the city

Oh Natty, I miss hummingbirds.  I really do.  We don't get hummingbirds around here, they are native to the Americas only.  They never got around to crossing the ocean I guess, even though it would be a cinch for them to cross into Siberia in summer.  After all, they cross the Bay of Mexico in one non-stop flight.  When I lived in Tempe, I had a hummingbird feeder on my porch.  Then a female built a nest on a branch close to my front door.  Then a crazed human female who lived downstairs destroyed the branch, nest and all.  That looks like a scene from the Amazon jungle, am I right?  I don't recall coconut trees growing in the Amazon, but maybe I forgot.  That looks like pure and pristine green, but I don't think humans are cut out to live in the jungle anymore.  Even us rural folk have become too pampered by city ways and conveniences.  Have you ever been in a jungle, Natty?  I know you ventured into tropical beaches before, but have you ever tried to camp in the deep jungle for a few nights?  The jungle sucks.  So many bugs and vermin.  Leeches, snakes, bats, rats, mosquitoes... ugh.  Cooking on a outdoor wood fire has no finesse, and I would miss my toilet very much.  You would probably learn how to survive, but I bet you would lose much of your beauty due to the stress.  We need the jungle yes, but we humans do not want to live in such an "aboriginal" manner anymore.  What do you think?  I think I want to pamper and love you, and give you the best life I can, and keep you as naturally beautiful as long as possible at the same time.  InshaAllah.  Oh by the way, please don't get me anything for Christmas.  Muslims don't celebrate Christmas.  Muslims celebrate the fasting month of Ramadan, and the 2 Eids.

A million miles an hour

Oh Natty, I don't have that many green clothes.  Does khaki count as green?  I would love to help keep you warm, though.  I seem to have an excessive amount of body heat, which is quite annoying in the tropics.  But the weather now is nice and cool.  Have you been trying to slow down as I asked you to?  I've been getting reports that you have been going around town at a million miles an hour.  Yes I know it's December, and I know you're having fun, and I know I told you to have fun but now I'm telling you to relax and calm yourself.  NYC isn't the best place for a slow pace, but you must take care of your heart.  Try to focus on getting back to a quiet place so you can slow your heart down, and please do that everyday.  If you get heart disease, I'm going to be very unhappy.  How's your tummy?  Are you eating mild and simple foods?  Tofu is great for the tummy, try eating tofu with chicken.  I buy a lot of tofu.  I just got back from the supermarket, and got a lot groceries.  It's time for chili again, and cheeseburgers.  My gherkins are ready!  I forgot to put sugar, but they're still a success.

Local cuisine

Hi Natty!  How are you today?  I hope you are keeping calm and collected.  Please make a serious effort to relax and take care of your heart.  All this power may be very exciting but really, we are all only human.  Yeah, I'm blogging earlier than usual today because I have to be at the mosque by sunset.  How's your tummy?  I had an early dinner today.  I tried to do a little bit of yard work, but everything was so time consuming so I just gave up and heated up my mother's leftover curry.  I fried up some flat noodles with chicken for lunch today.  Fried flat noodles is a local cuisine, usually one would find it with made with cockles around here.  Below is a stock photo from Google of "keow teow kerang".

I like the stuff.  I know how to make it, and I grew up eating it.  But people from other nations may not find it as visually enticing, nor may they like it even after trying it, even though there's really nothing to acquire about the taste.  Some people are just used to eating what they are used to eating and that's all they want to eat, even though they are on a vacation to an exotic country.  So what do the locals do to get them to desire local food?  If they can't be creative then there's nothing they can do. It's the same as opening a restaurant anywhere: if nobody knows you and you're not serving something awesome, then don't expect people to eat your food.

Hello there, my beautiful Natty

How are you?  I do so hope that you are being calm and patient.  I'm sure things seem very exciting, but please try not to get nervous, because you need to look after your precious heart beginning at a young age.  And your precious tummy.  So meditate!  You know.  Relax!  Read a book.  And don't forget to pray.  Don't worry, my beloved.  Everything will work out nicely for us inshaAllah.

I had a busy day today.  I went to pay bills after doing the morning chores, then got back in time to cook my lunch and nap before Mary Unknown7's daily session.  In the evening, I began to take apart the dead old amra tree by my front gate.  It's a big tree and I was scared, so I used a lot of rope to help control the fall of each heavy limb.  Today went without any bad incident, so alhamdulillah.  For dinner, I bought some sweet pancakes at the night market to go with my sauerkraut dogs.  I'm afraid my kraut dogs were a failure: the bamboo shoots sauerkraut I made wasn't sour enough, and I could still taste the bitterness of the bamboo shoots.  Plus the buns I used were too soft for kraut dogs.  Maybe I should just go back to using cabbage for sauerkraut.  But my gherkins are almost ready.  It looks like cheeseburgers are on the menu in the near future, and maybe I'll try making sweet relish.