Amenably Crafty: I've just found out Fish and Chip shops are out!

Monday, 22 August 2011

I've just found out Fish and Chip shops are out!

I am TOTALLY devastated - and this is not going to be a happy ramble tonight. I've just found out that I can't eat fish and chips - I've always thought I could because fish is halal, but of course (I didn't even think this) sausages and burgers are cooked in the same fat! So, for the last 4 years (near enough) I've been eating pork!!!

I'm really upset, not because it's fish and chips, but because a) I've duped myself these last few years, and b) I see it as yet another isolation from my family. No-one understands, they think I'm being totally OTT in my reaction - but then, THEY are married to muslim men, THEY live islamic lifestyles, THEY don't spend 90% of their lives alone and isolated from everyone both christian and muslim. To me it's like it's another nail in the coffin.

I really can't explain how upset I am, I struggle just to get through the basic's of an Islamic life, this is just something else, how many other things am I doing wrong, just because I don't know or understand? Indian restaurants, I know aren't necessarily halal, what about pizza places? everywhere I go to eat when I'm working? It's different when I'm at home, I can cook, but I'm rarely at home, so what do I do then? :(

I am tired of struggling, Islam is NOT supposed to be compex, but here I am struggling with everything - sometimes it just all gets on top of me - the lonliness (especially the lonliness) the constant feeling like I don't belong, and now - food, I feel like quitting! REALLY I do :\

3 comments:

Unknown24 August 2011 at 03:39
I don't think ALL fish and chip shops are out. Our local fish and chip shop frys things separately so it is safe to eat from there.

Sorry to hear you are struggling so much. I hope things improve for you soon x
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The Life of Aaliyah25 August 2011 at 10:24
I agree with Foz. If they fry it separately then there's no issue. You can eat to your hearts content! :D The easiest option when eating out is to go veggie. I found that helps a lot as you don't need to worry about the halal aspect so much.

I understand how difficult it can be when you're alone and isolated. I have been through the same rough time *hugs*. Don't despair, there is light at the end of the road. Adapting to things does take time so don't be too hard on yourself. x
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Happy Muslim Mama10 November 2011 at 11:27
Assalam-alaikam,
I know exactly how you feel about the fish and chips. I recently went to Lyme Regis by the coast. I was starving and the amazing smell of fish and chips was killing me. Unfortunately every place I went fried their chips with their sausages.

I'm kind of used to it and usually order vegetarian when I am out with friends.

Sounds like things are not easy for you right now. I never knew how it felt to be alone until I started working after I had my kids and everyone had an opinion about what a selfish mother I was and I didn't know anyone else in the same situation (thats when I started blogging and met lots of wonderful sisters who were not so quick to judge).

Subhan'Allah for Allah's promise: "Verily, with hardship there is relief". May He make everything you do esay for you.
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My First peruse into the world of Free form Crochet (Scrumbling)

Well! I can hardly be called an exemplary Blogger can I? It's been nigh on 8 months since I last wrote on here - I will endeavour to do better. I didn't take many photos of my latest project, but I'm very proud of it none the less, I'm currently in to making phone socks, mainly because they're relatively quick and easy to make (well, for the average crafter, not me, because I keep getting side tracked!) I'm absolutely determined to get myself a shelf in the crafter's shop on Burton Road at the top of town. It only costs £25 a month, but when you have no job and no money, that's a lot of money to find. However, I keep working on it and thought to make the phone socks as a quick fill for the shelf whilst I'm working on larger and more time consuming projects. Seemed like a good idea anyway. I've made a variety of socks and am relatively pleased with the result but, as always, they're none of them actually 100% complete and ready for sale yet. I really must work on my attention span! Anyway, I was particularly proud of my latest phone sock because I've started tying in different skills that I've been teaching myself - and this particular phone sock was done entirely by SCRUMBLING, or Free form Crochet. I really enjoy this kind of crochet, not least because I have a massive problem with following patterns, I tend to start off reasonably okish and get sidetracked along the way and the next thing I know, I'm completely fobbing it! So free form suits because there are no rules to follow, absolutely perfect for me - but I don't have much imagination, so it's still a pretty hard process for me. Unfortunately there are no photos to show - other than the end result because I didn't think to write a blog about it, however, I shall try to do better next time. I started off with a small piece of green wool from my oddments bag and started practising with the Bullion Stitch, I love it - but haven't really ever got the hang of it, now this is where scrumbling really comes into it's own, because you're not following a pattern, so you can just do as many or as few stitches as you like. My practice piece was 13 bullion stitches long and curved off to the left slightly - that was as far as my attention span took me, so then I got bored and started to add several stitches into one stitch, kept this up for a while to develop a nice little wave. I then moved onto scarlet wool and double (UK triple) stitch except I was doing the chainless double foundation stitch, did enough of those to have a nice curve that allowed me to make a full circle and tail which, rather fantastically seemed to flow nicely from the green Bullion curve - at that point I decided I had to do something with it, and ended up drawing around my phone to get a rectangular base to put my scrumbled pieces on. From that moment forward - I was making a phone case. Grabbing a lilac, I did yet more Bullion stitches, was back on track with my practice by then, (but only briefly, 13 stitches seems to be my limit) did a bit of a chain and made some shell like curves and moved onto dark purple. Tried a bit of lattice stitch and a rectangle of (US) treble (UK) double. Another frilly effort around the base and corner of the phone sock, with a smidgen of scarlet on the top side. Then I had a go at making little puffs, I just stitched in a round from a base of two chains, and kept going round until it was big enough for me (about three rounds) then I started pulling it in by missing a couple of stitches - and the next thing I knew, I had three beautiful puffs! I played around with my scrumbled pieces and chose the best fit for them, and crochet them together in what I considered the best pattern. However, it still looked pretty bland, I wanted more, so I sewed on some beads to bling up the center of the puffs, and crochet in embroidery thread (which is incredibly hard to do I found!) over the top of the green frilly bit and then did a slip stitch chain to highlight the swirl of the lilac bullion stitch. I'm pretty pleased with the result, especially for a first attempt. I do enjoy scrumbling and am in the middle of another set now - I haven't decided on what I'm going to make from it, but I figured, if I just did my own thing and then kept them all in a bag, at some point, they might come in useful. In the meantime, I have a rather interesting phone case to complete and sell. I intend to line it with some kind of matching/complimentary lining, if I said it was mainly because there are so many loose ends for me and my gnat's attention span to concentrate on, would that be a bad thing to say? If it is - then I'm going to line it with a complimentary material because I think it's a necessary addition :p