Blo' Norton

It's amazing how easy it is to get away. This particular group of friends and I did it a (pretty unbelievable) three years ago in The Cotswolds and have been gagging to do the same again at some point despite making the usual promises of making it a yearly tradition. It's not like there's a scarcity of places to visit, after all.

This time around we went for a little village in Norfolk called Blo' Norton. Exotic and distant as it sounds, it was actually less than two hours away so was literally an even quicker win that we could have hoped for.

We were staying in the Blo' Norton Hall Barns, which is exactly that - a barn, except done up Grand Designs style. It was pretty impressive with its large glass front wall, large through lounge taking up the whole of the bottom floor and numerous mod-cons. And as has become a regular occurrence in these places, it even had a bunk bed. Woo!

And to be honest that's all I really have to say about Blo' Norton. Between the weather and the location there wasn't really much to do except relax, unwind and doss; yes there is the village and nearby town of Diss to explore and other activities like horse riding and the clay pigeon shooting we spent an hour doing, but I think our best times were had on the sofas exchanging banter and debating various time-wasting topics. Oh and of course a trip like this wouldn't be complete without some poo-talking late night poker action. I'm telling you: if you want to see what a girl is really like, teach her poker.

As much as it makes me cringe, this was as much a modern retreat as it sounds. But you know what? I had so much fun I don't really care - if anything I feel like we missed out for taking so long to arrange the second outing. Till next year, I suppose.

Book: Small Island, Andrea Levy

Now this is more like it. A book that is such a pleasure to read that you really don't want it to end. And if I'm getting ahead of myself it's only because I loved this book so much.

The story is essentially about the immigration to England of a married Jamaican couple during postwar Britain and the landlady who receives them. This sounds simple enough but the real power of the book comes from how multi-dimensional it is, as it covers first party accounts from multiple characters, and then that over a number of different periods in and out of the war.

It sounds complicated, but it's all done so expertly that it easily flows like a more linear book recounted by a single person. Levy's talent therefore is that of an actor, the ability to single-handedly recreate multiple characters (including dialect, personality and some amazing characterisation) in multiple times and situations in a single book. That's something that's pretty impressive actually.

The story itself is a prop to the characters, but still manages to be funny, informative, poignant and tragic. I don't know much about Jamaica now let alone during the war, so I pretty much lapped it all up out of curiosity.

Small Island is a lovely book, a brilliant read and an example of how all books should be written. I can't recommend it enough.

Book: Mockingjay, Suzanne Collins

So now that I've completed the trilogy (and that in the less romantic environment of the London Underground) I suppose I can give a final idea of what I thought of the series as a whole. It's not pretty, so if you're a fan you may want to look away now.

Mockingjay, and indeed the whole trilogy, comes from that current breed of populist books that are manufactured, manipulative and marketed to pull in as many quick readers as possible. It's rather cheap in that sense, but effective for it - the length perfectly balanced to stop you from giving up on it altogether. On that point I really don't understand why it had to be split into three, unless it was purely to sell more books. A lot of it is laboured and deliberately stretched, with pretty arbitrary cliffhangers marking the end of each chapter.

It doesn't take much investment to take some enjoyment from it I suppose, and I really didn't care much about any of it toward the end.

As an example of good literature I really can't recommend it, but hey, maybe the upcoming film will be better?

Umrah 2012, Day Thirteen: The End

We were actually on time for Fajr this morning. This is surprising seeing how difficult it was to wake up, our collective zealousness clearly running out on this final morning.

I'm not clear if it's as essential during Umrah as it is on Hajj, but I did my farewell tawaf before Zhur jamaat. I was blessed with a cool breeze that pretty amazingly changed into a brief spell of rain - something I've only been lucky enough to have witnessed once before a long time ago. This rain turned into an all out shower during the congregation itself and it was a sight to see.

The final item to pack was the slipper bag that had become a natural extension of me over the last two weeks, and that was pretty much it for my time in Makkah.

We left early for the airport, my family and I. They were to stay an extra night, so they didn't really have to come except we decided to spend some time in Jeddah too. We briefly toured the sea front and corniche, taking in and enjoying the lovely windy weather.

But the time finally came and we headed to the airport proper. After checking in and saying my goodbyes I settled into the journey home, only to be told that all flights were delayed due to a sandstorm. This only delayed me for an hour though (others had been there all day) so I did manage to get on the way home eventually. I went as I came, alone, with the memories of the past two weeks already starting to fade. I guess that's just another excuse to visit again some day.

Book: Catching Fire, Suzanne Collins

It took this, the second book in The Hunger Games Trilogy, to figure out what I didn't like about the writing style. You see, it turns out that not only have I met Katniss before, but I have done so many times in every blog, tweet, facebook post or even email I've read from an angsty person. Heck, I probably sounded like her myself at times. But I read books to get away from all that, and I guess that's where the irritation lies and judging by the ubiquity of this media, I pray that all literature resists following suit.

Aside from that particular revelation, I didn't actually like Catching Fire as much as the first book. I explained in the previous review that, for me at least, The Hunger Games was all about the situation rather than the plot or characters, and now that that situation had all but expired there really wasn't much else to keep my interest.

But the book is still short and accessible and since I had come this far there wasn't a real or compelling need to bail on it. So although it doesn't really get a full recommendation, it is worth bearing with for completion's sake I suppose.

Umrah 2012, Day Twelve: Counting Down

And so it begins - since I'll be leaving for home tomorrow, my last set of prayers in the mosque begin today, starting with Jummah. Sensibly enough we got in early, and since I had secured my place from 11am I didn't really get a full sense of how busy it got, but I'm sure it was. Asr passed by quietly enough, and we even waited for Maghrib adhaan before leaving our hotel - liberties and complacency is obviously taking over during these final moments.

Between Maghrib and Esha I took a final walk around the mosque. I went to the bottom most floor of Al-Masa'a and took in the better view of the two mountains I used to climb as a child, now fully encased behind glass. Too many people kissing them, I guess.

My final Esha also passed without event.

Umrah 2012, Day Eleven: Romancing The Stone

I guess the underlying theme of this trip is an aspect of the ongoing wider debate regarding bad religion versus bad religiousness. Why does the ultimately correct religion of Islam prompt such bad behaviour in its adherents? The Black Stone in one of the corners of the Kaba is a perfect example of this, and you don't have to spend too much time looking for a crowd of faces full of single-minded determination, tears and pain. So naturally my cousins and I got up at 2:15am, thinking that it was going to be as quiet as it would get at that time.

I've have the opportunity to kiss the black stone more than a few times before, so in hindsight I should have known better really, but I guess there's not a lot of protection from hype and groupthink. I certainly don't believe that I'm in a better position now that I managed to during this trip - it's quite possible that I'm in a worse one. So yes, perhaps it's the bragging or blogging rights that spurred me to even try, since I didn't really savour it (and certainly wasn't that God conscious) at the time and don't really remember much of it now. And most of all - it was hardly the most hygienic thing for me to do during my time here.

They do really need to do something about it though, since self-regulation is never going to work. Have them enforce a queue - or hand out time-limited vouchers even. The current approach of re-education doesn't seem too effective; or since it's possibly only the religiously weak who attempt it perhaps it is? As it stands I don't think I will ever attempt it again under these conditions. In fact I was in two minds even writing about it.

I've been resisting bring up this topic lest it adds to my reputation of women bashing (I love you all really), but I have noticed (ahem) a marked increase in women visiting during Umrah season now. Women only tours are pretty common now, but even in the private groups on average there were a number of women to each man. In our own familial group the ratio was nine women to four men.

The number of ladies sections in the Makkan mosque seem to have increased too - I'd say there's at least twice as many now than there was a decade or so ago. Of course there's nothing wrong with that per se, the more the merrier, but it does cause massive logistical issues, particularly when some women invoke their female privilege to behave antisocially.

It would actually be interesting to see the numbers, especially seeing as how it's a sign of Qiyamat. And while we're at it perhaps we should look at the number of Turks and Indonesians visiting too? That last bit was a joke.

They finally opened access to the roof for regular prayer - there is nothing like offering jamaat under the night sky. Of course the reason why they opened it up at all was due to the constantly increasing numbers pouring in each day. Jummah will be very interesting.

Umrah 2012, Day Ten: Hitting The Makkan Tourist Trail

Like the Madinan counterpart, the Makkan ziyarat is pretty essential. In no particular order we have:

• Jabl-e-Saur, the place where the Prophet was said to have sought refuge while escaping from Makkah.
• Jabl Ar-Rahmah, or Mountain of Mercy, the iconic symbol of the most essential of Hajj rites, that of the stay in Arafat. This used to be a very undeveloped area, pretty much a desert, with a mound and a pillar; but now we have car parks, markets, stairs, camel rides, quad bikes and people queuing up to either sign or rub themselves on the white pillar. I predict the place will be gated off in a few years. The empty camps of Arafat themselves were empty yet distinctly recognisable - as I had skipped the ziyarat the last time I was here, it had been exactly a decade since I last visited this place.
• The skeletal remains of a dormant Mina, an impressive sight even when vacant. The train stations are shiny new and rather impressive, although personally there's something about walking back to Makkah that a train will never be as charming as.
• The Jamaraat. Of all the changes, for me this was the most different. Gone are the classic pillars and two level structure of the previous thirty odd years, to be replaced by walls supported by a massive fiver levelled thoroughfare. This is a wonderful improvement, and equally impressive that it had been completed in a year. I'm already less against modernisation than most, but given the stoning of the jamaraat was one of the most physically testing tasks I've had to do (probably topped only when I ran a marathon a few years later), I can't but only fully support it.
• Al 'Aziziyah. Not really a sight per se, but this was the first time I took notice of it in the context of its growing importance as an overflow during the Hajj period.

After lunch I decided to try a pre-Asr tawaf, the idea being to get one done out of the way while it was quiet. And quick it was too - 18 minutes and a pint of sweat later and I was done. Oh and remember how I mentioned how serendipitous my visits to Saudi usually are? Well, on the way to the mosque I came across the exact same pretty girl I had seen during the Madinan ziyarat 300 miles away. Of course I only mention this because of the coincidence.

In the evening we ventured out again, this time catching Maghrib at Hudaibiya (where that important treaty between Muslims and the people of Makkah was signed), after which headed to the "Exhibition of the Two Holy Mosques Architecture" which was far more enjoyable than it should have been. A few things were noticeably missing (probably since they were loaned out somewhere), but there was still enough for a quick one hour visit; in particular the model of how the mosque in Makkah will look once the construction is finished.

Umrah 2012, Day Nine: Back to Makkah

Just another regular day in Makkah today. We took the opportunity to explore the other side of the mosque, now unrecognisable in the wake of the massive amount of construction going on for the extension. As I've already mentioned the scope of it is pretty incredible, and it's difficult to imagine the scale of the end result. Still it is taking shape - perhaps it will be completed on my next visit?

A top tip is to make sure you're sound with how to partake in a janazah (funeral) prayer. Across my time in Makkah and Madinah so far, I've counted two of the five daily prayers that did NOT have a janazah immediately following it. My cousin and had a good look after one of them and counted at least ten bodies, which makes fifty a day and a potential 700 over the two weeks I'll be staying here. That's pretty amazing in a morbid way. So yes, it's well worth learning how to do it.

Book: The Hunger Games, Suzanne Collins

I really shouldn't have loved this book as much as I did. In fact I feel positively guilty for burning through it in a matter of days. So yes, I guess it gets points for being easy to read, accessible and compelling (if not in a particularly deep way).

Where it loses points is in the lack of originality (I was constantly waiting for Katniss to say "he had to split" throughout) and for having had the most annoying characters in fiction since Bella and Edward.

The writing style was a little irritating too. Short, hanging sentences. Moody and abrupt. You get the idea. Of course this is less an objective criticism, and probably something that I personally didn't like rather than a flaw in the book itself.

In fact it was mainly the world and situation that I enjoyed the most and what the book propped itself on. In that sense The Hunger Games is nothing more than a trashy page-turner, but somewhat forgivably so.

It's a quick enough read so it gets a recommendation for that. My only warning is that this is clearly the first part of a trilogy so expect to be in it for the long haul.

Umrah 2012, Day Eight: Farewell Madinah

Today I finally figured out the one thing that Indonesian tour companies can teach their pilgrims which would increase many fold the well being of everyone on the pilgrimage. And that is how to use lifts. The length of time it takes to get out of a hotel purely because empty lifts are going up and down the building tending to incorrect requests is absurd in this day and age.

There was a distinct dust in the air today, something I took personally as an indication that we were going to leave. As a kind of farewell, I got a good eight rakaats in the al-Riad-ul-Jannah - I'm sure it's bigger than it used to be.

On the way to Makkah a few miles out of Madinah, we stopped off at the Miqaat to don our ihrams for our second umrah on this trip. The Miqaat was busier than I remember it being; in my memory it was a deserted and calm place compared to the transit hub it felt like today.

For me this umrah different mainly because I was now with company, but also because it didn't seem as urgent as it was when I had to do it hours after flying in. It took a little longer but it was much more relaxed. I also realised that the hardest part of the ihram conditions by far for me is to keep my gaze lowered. Yeah, yeah.

Umrah 2012, Day Seven: Common Denominators

I made a few more negative observations today - it seems like a lot of pilgrims need to be constantly reminded not to pray toward the Prophet's grave, while others (quite amusingly to me anyway) walk backwards out of the mosque in order to not point their backs in the direction of the same. Now I know wahabis get a lot of stick from others for being so fundamentalist, but after seeing things like these I think I know who'd I prefer to be guardians of these things. My father reckons it'll only be a matter of time before they have to obscure or even full remove access to these relics and artefacts, and I can't help but agree. It's a shame, but I guess that's what the common denominator does.

The museum in the prophet's mosque is worth a quick peek, but don't go out of your way to visit it. Time is much better spent remembering death in the graveyard of Janat-ul-Baqee adjacent to the Mosque. Make sure you don't miss visiting that.

My discomfort with tour groups grew on schedule today. They remind me of how cattle is herded; photo-tourist cattle, where you're instructed exactly what to do and where to do it, and how you must read pages 3-5 of your complimentary tour dua booklet in the right place. To me it's kind of devoid of any will or spirit and is actually quite cancerous.

One of the best ways to calm down after such a rant is to lie down under one of the open domes of the mosque - they didn't seem to open much during our stay here, but I found one this evening and it was lovely to stare into that window of infinity if only for a while.

On the way back to the hotel, I noticed another slight change with the calling card stalls now replaced with PAYG SIMs and top-up vouchers. Otherwise it's the same people sitting on the same stools selling out of the same perspex boxes.

My final achievement of today was to find out the name of the hot presenter from MBC3. Her name is Dania Shafi. I must look her up when I get back.

Umrah 2012, Day Six: The Ziyaraat Circuit

The ziyaraat circuit is pretty essential, and that possibly moreso in Madinah than Makkah. All the stories Muslims have been brought up on, from both the Quran and Seerah, are suddenly brought to life by visiting the locations in which they happened. It's more striking than it should be, but I guess every person of faith is a romantic of some sort too.

The typical itinerary in Madinah is to start at Quba Mosque (the first, and so oldest, mosque), then move onto Qiblatain Mosque (where the Prophet was commanded to change his direction of prayer from Jerusalem to Makkah), then the location of the battle of the trench and the seven mosques that lie around it and then finally to Mount Uhud (including the climb of the mountains where the archers let the side down).

As usual, the landscape here had changed too. Of course it was busy, but I also found it to be developed too, with major highways now running alongside each location instead of them being perched in isolated outskirts as they used to be. Although it's great that more people are visiting these places, I do miss the peace and quiet. And I'm really starting to dislike organised tours now.

Back in the Prophet's Mosque, it turns out that the Library has now been moved. It's always been an essential visit for us, and is more so now it's in the new, bigger, location. I could spend hours in there, or perhaps just the lull between Maghrib and Esha prayers flicking through the books, and that despite the majority of them being in Arabic.

After hours, Madinah will always mean gold shopping. In contrast to all the changes, this is one thing that I believe will stay the same. At least this time around I had Where's My Water. Phew.

Umrah 2012, Day Five: Small Worlds

If I know someone is going on umrah at the same time as I am, or I make friends with someone on the plane to Saudi, I always bid them farewell with a "see you in the Haram". This is usually received as rhetoric; you know, seeing as how unlikely it would be to randomly bump into someone you know under those kind of busy conditions.

And yet each time I say it, I really do mean it. Maybe it's a miracle, or perhaps it's statistical science, but I always bump into people I know while on a pilgrimage. For instance in this trip I've already come across a family I first talked to on the plane (we were doing tawaf on the first floor) and just today in Madinah I met the guy I shared a taxi with from Jeddah airport. And soon after I said goodbye to him, I bumped into an uncle who comes to my mosque back in London. It always happens.

Otherwise today was pretty uneventful. More praying (including Jummah), more crowds, more kissing of doors (of the new extension rather than any older, not that that would make it any better) by random women.

Umrah 2012, Day Four: Madinah

By far the majority of people who I ask say that they prefer Madinah over Makkah. My own reasons for agreeing include the better weather, people and food. Everything there exudes peace and tranquillity, although yes once again it really isn't as calm as it used to be. So changes then? Well Madinah doesn't seem to have changed as much as Makkah really: the mosque has more umbrellas I suppose. Oh and there's a knee high plastic barrier a few feet in front of the Prophet's resting place.

We're staying in the hotel we used during our Hajj trip, and you can imagine how poignant that is. But I do also have strong memories of our previous visits here - the long absent street markets for instance.

Thinking about the peripheral I realised that considering the circumstances under which my last two trips to these places were, I've not really had a chance to chill out in these places for fifteen years or so. I preferred crowd avoidance to savouring all aspects of a visit - I didn't see the point since I had already been lucky enough to have seen and done a lot already.

For instance there was a time when you could leave your room on hearing the adhan and still make the first ten rows of the jamaat in the Prophet's Mosque - more often than not you'd even make the first couple. And you could spend as much time as you liked passing salutations to the Prophet - there were no ladies' time or anything either.

After two trips, I was finally looking forward to enjoying some of these again, but something tells me there won't be a quiet time to go any more. But I'm not sure it's the increase in numbers per se that irritates me; in theory it shouldn't make that much of a difference if everyone behaves in a decent manner. But they don't, and I think that's what I find being the problem.

Although I will always acknowledge the importance of these holy places, it does sometimes feel as if the majority of visitors assign godly attributes to them and the buildings and structures in them. We sometimes forget that the Kaba has actually been built (and rebuilt) by man, and the beautiful mosque in Madinah architectured and constructed by the Saudi Bin Laden group. On the one hand we criticise the clock tower in Makkah, but then in the same moment we allow ourselves to have our breath taken away by a Kiswah that was sewn in a factory a few miles away.

Perhaps as humans we're just designed to worship the tangible, but it's when we use that attitude to justify our fanaticism that it becomes unhelpful and even harmful to others. Yes, it's important to give salutations to the Prophet, but are we really gaining extra benefit by holding up a crowd while we read a whole dua book, take pictures and attempt to wipe the shiny gate that, by incidence, happens to surround him?

Meh. At the very least we should ban cameras from the two mosques.

Umrah 2012, Day Three: Ban Them All

In some ways the increase of numbers I mentioned yesterday indicate a transference of the "struggle" of pilgrimage from the journey to the destination, and that's probably true whether you believe that such a struggle is an inherent part of the whole thing (incidentally I don't believe in walking on coals myself). That said I do think that there are ways to make the whole thing a little easier without reducing the actual total number (and no, none as extreme as what I suggested last time).

First up, tour groups need to be regulated, and groups larger than ten should be discouraged, particularly if they're uniform in terms of race and gender (believe me, the gangs of women are much scarier than the male equivalent). This also means getting rid of the matching luggage, hand bags, hijabs and badges that you see everywhere in the Haram now. Part of the problem isn't the numbers themselves, but the block manner in which these groups move. It's inefficient and disruptive. Instead pilgrims should be taught how to independently make the most of their time here.

Secondly, we should also ban all books, leaflets, phones and cameras inside the mosque. This is a little extreme, but anything that distracts you from taking care of other people is a bad thing in my opinion and all these things do that. They're even worse than the Blackberry zombies you meet on the Tube.

The hatim and black stone areas should be regulated a little too, either by enforcing a real queue or better still implementing some kind of voucher/timeslot system. I don't think this would be impossible to do, it would just require education and discipline. Okay, maybe it is impossible after all.

The last one might be a little controversial, but I genuinely believe it would be beneficial to have a season where anyone over the age of 65 or under the age of 5 or who needs a wheelchair are discouraged from coming. Yes, that sounds wrong and is probably totally unenforceable but as a practical exercise it would allow many more to enjoy facilities on offer over the course of the year, and the only downside is that overzealous parents won't be able to put up those pictures of their disinterested three year old in an ihram. Bless.

The Annual Inevitably Cynical "I Hate Valentine's" Post

You know, you'd think I'd be able to avoid the whole thing over here but nooooooooo. Damn progressives, how dare you hold hands in the holy sanctuary. Tut.

Umrah 2012, Day Two: The Great Unwashed

As I mentioned before, the last time I came here it was for the middle ten days of a Ramadhan month. The time before that was for Hajj. Naturally both periods were very busy, but since that was to be expected I was kind of geared up for it. The times before those two trips, I had visited during the quiet periods of the year including one trip while Umrah was officially closed to foreigners. As such most of my memories of Saudi were of a relatively relaxing and easy going nature.

Which brings us to the next difference I've noticed. The number of people. It used to be the case that the first couple of weeks of Umrah season were pretty much dead, but that doesn't seem to be the case any more. Of course it still wasn't as busy as Ramadhan or Hajj, but it's clear that the times I enjoyed in the previous decade are long gone now.

The main explanation is related to a recently typical criticism of the Saudi authorities; that of the commodification of the holy lands. There's really not much doubt about it really - at times it seems that the vast majority of pilgrims now belong to a Turkish or Indonesian tour group. Of course it can never be a bad thing for more people to have the opportunity to visit Makkah and Madinah, particularly if they come from a place that was otherwise extremely difficult to journey from before.

A difference I missed yesterday was how Safa was now cordoned off behind glass. This sucks, especially since I remember how we used to climb the mountain for both prayer and adventure. I can totally understand why it had to happen though.

And finally now that I'm out of ihram I've begun to notice my environment in a little more detail (no, nothing seems to have changed much at all). All I can say is that it's at times like these that I wish I had a wingwoman. I'm going to hell, I know.

Umrah 2012, Day One: Just Me

Before I begin proper, I want to start with a little bit of a warning. I'm not an Umrah virgin and in fact by some cosmic coincidence this trip actually marks the tenth anniversary to the month since I performed my own Hajj, way back in February of 2002. I've been back once since, for Ramadhan in 2005, a trip that I also blogged about.

The reason why I mention is because a lot of what I write will be in a loosely comparative analysis fashion - in other words there will be a lot of focus on how things have developed and changed over the last 25 years or so and reminiscing about how better things were in the old days.

As such a lot of this may seem a little moany and judgemental. If you want a more gushing and emotionally charged account, then please read many of the blogs and Facebook posts written by recently returning hajjis (here is one if you can't be bothered to search). If on the other hand you want something a little different and hopefully more insightful and objective then stick around. Just don't complain, eh?

The twist in this particular trip was that, due to various scheduling issues, I was to travel to Makkah alone and furthermore reach there half a day before the rest of the party (consisting of my parents and a clutch of my dad's sisters, or phoophis). The main concern here was that I would be performing my entering Umrah on my own. I have to admit I was a little apprehensive of this, mainly because I've always seen pilgrimage as a family thing. I managed to make friends on the plane which made the journey a little more bearable, although we did all split up at the airport. Still it turned out that the lonesome Umrah really wasn't as bad as I thought it would be - in fact I have to admit that I quite enjoyed the solitude.

Still it was a relief once I completed my umrah. After being released from my ihram, I was at liberty to settle into the trip properly. As usual we were staying in the vicinity of my favourite gate, Bab-e-Abdul-Aziz. For some strange reason has traditionally been the gate we lived the closest to and so regularly entered the sanctuary from, and I have a lot of memories associated with it - probably something to do with it being an entrance or the first indication that you're entering a holy site.

Associated with the gate is our usual praying spot, up on the first floor at the top of the Abdul Aziz Stair Number 95 situated to the immediate left of the gate itself. The area here is cool, calm (well, relatively anyway) and offers excellent views of the Kaba. There's a fixed (that is, plumbed) Zamzam spot really close by and for those travelling in a mixed group a ladies section too. The extension serves as a backup plan during the busy periods like Ramadhan and Hajj. So yes, this has pretty much been our spot for the past 15 years or so.

The natural game to play when revisiting a place like this on a regular but sparse basis is to think of what's changed since the last time. The now infamous Clock Tower is the immediate pick this time around - it was being built in 2005 so for me seeing it complete gave a sense of closure and it turns out that I'm not actually that bothered by it - I certainly don't consider it an evil tool of the devil. It's terribly opulent and unnecessary, sure, but only as much as the mosque itself something people sometimes forget is also man made. In fact the major construction happening this time around is that of the extension toward Bab-e-Umrah and Fatah, which in some ways is more ambitious than the clock tower. I guess that will be the change to explore during my next trip.

Other more minor differences I noticed was the new whudhu facility outside of Bab-e-Abdul-Aziz, a more textured Kiswah covering the Kaba and disposable slipper bags being dispensed at most of the entrances (and as an aside we've been using permanent slipper bags for well over a decade and a half now, so will go ahead and stake our claim on that particular idea).

For those of you needing access to wheelchairs, the depot can be found across the way from Bab-e-Salam, perpendicular to Al-Masa'a. They'll require some kind of security so be prepared to give up some identity document (I'd suggest not giving your passport of course).

The evening was spent receiving the rest of my family and assisting them in performing their respective Umrahs. Although the day wasn't too bad, I'm glad to have some company now and for the next couple of weeks.

Film: The Adventures of Tintin: The Secret of the Unicorn

So this is what happens when Spielberg does CGI? Tintin was fast, action packed and lovely to watch, with some of the most amazing virtual imagery I've seen. I thought that I would have been creeped out by how realistic the graphics were, but I was immediately comfortable with it all.

The screenplay was almost perfectly paced, funny when it had to be and dramatic during the rest of it. The voice acting was spot on and the set pieces pretty engaging.

There wasn't much I could fault it on. Recommended.

Hajj: Journey to the Heart of Islam

Like all professional and "in there" Muslims living in London are bound to do at some point during the next three months, a few friends and I paid a visit to the British Museum's Hajj exhibition this morning.

I went knowing exactly what to expect and so I wasn't that surprised with what we saw. Three quarters of the floorspace (perhaps an exaggeration) was reserved for various Kiswah (coverings for the Kabaa) samples, and the remainder was spent on various diggings and artefacts found either in Makkah or its vicinity. And of course there was the inevitable "real life" accounts of those who had already been on the journey - you know, about how life changing it was and all that. If I was being harsh it was a little sales pitchy for me, and I could have done without the back patting and post justification.

For the non-Muslim attendees, there was a wealth of knowledge and insight for an event many will probably never come closer to; for the others however there wasn't much new to learn here (regardless of whether they may have been to Makkah or not).

It's the latter subtlety which I found the most important though: this was an exhibition about Hajj and not Makkah or Muslims, and for many pilgrims both in recent times and in the past that would have been a journey which spanned a much larger time and space than just the five days in the vicinity of the Kabaa.

And it was these aspects of the exhibition that I really enjoyed - the explanation of the various routes used by Muslims worldwide, the archival footage of them departing to and arriving from Hajj, and even the accounts of non-Muslims who smuggled their way in. All were all wonderful examples of the human side of the great pilgrimage.

Perhaps inadvertently, recording this kind of stuff is especially important in an age where Hajj and Umrah are becoming easier and perhaps even commodified - it's clear that the love, expense and real sacrifice people will now make for this obligation will never reach the heights of that made by our predecessors, and it's stories like these that can help remind us of both how lucky we are and what the real point of such a journey is.

On the same theme, it was interesting to see the temporal changes surrounding the tradition, from the almost exponential rise in numbers performing the ritual, to the way in which the sanctuary has physically changed over the years. I know it's fashionable to hate on Makkan development at the moment but I was pretty fascinated by the plans surrounding the extension of the mosque complex.

In conclusion then: if anyone doesn't get the chance to attend the exhibition then I wouldn't think that they were missing much - there's nothing really unmissable here and most of the facts and stories could possibly be found elsewhere. On the other hand if you did happen to be fortunate enough to check it out though I'm sure you'd enjoy it at least as much as I did.

Book: The Amber Spyglass, Philip Pullman

Oh dear, oh dear, oh dear.

It almost seems that my flip flopping opinion of His Dark Materials (Northern Lights was meh, The Subtle Knife brilliant) was predestined to continue with the third book in the trilogy. The Amber Spyglass was dire, awful, bakwas (and I never thought I'd use that word) and nonsensical. I honestly don't know where to begin.

Was it the random, haphazard and redundant plot? The blatant stretching of a story that should have been half the size? The horrendously anti-climatic events toward the end? The heavy baggage with religion that the author threaded throughout this last one (you know, when it was too late to dismiss him as a lunatic)?

So no, I didn't like this third book. In fact I disliked it so much that I would say it tarnishes the trilogy so much that it's not even worth reading The Subtle Knife. Which is a massive shame, since the potential for Pullman's universe to actually spin a compelling tale was most definitely there. But hey: at least it was well written.

No recommendations here.

Book: The Subtle Knife, Philip Pullman

I'll always be the first to admit when I'm proven wrong. Not that I ever said Northern Lights was a bad book, just not as amazing as I was hearing it was.

But I did think that The Subtle Knife was awesome. The fact is that this was a book that I was actually looking forward to reading each morning, something that hasn't really happened for a long time.

Perhaps it was the way things finally begun to unfold; the long game if you will. Or maybe it was because the annoying protagonist from the first book had been replaced by someone much more interesting. Whatever the reason, it worked.

I also finally got a good taste of the whole religious angst those who have read the books always seem to refer to. Those of you sensitive to religious themes in fiction, I would suggest steer clear of this stuff.

Heartily recommended then, and I eagerly look forward to making my way through the third and final book in the series.

The Raindance Saturday Film School

In my opinion Groupon is very much the online version of Next; you know with the whole "fake discount" thing. Take this course for instance - a full day of expert tuition usually worth 120 quid for the princely sum of £40 via the coupon site. How could anyone miss that bargain? Well the truth is that not many did - in fact I doubt any of the house capacity 300 who turned up today actually paid the full price for their place.

But clever marketing aside I do think that the day was worth what we paid for it. Elliot Grove, founder of Raindance, was the star of the show. Yes he was a little arrogant at first but eventually this turned out to to his credit rather than something that alienated. He led three of the four lectures, covering subjects like screenplay writing, movie making and how to break into the industry.

A lot of his advice was anecdotal in nature, something that was fun to listen to if only because Grove is such a good storyteller. I really liked the screenplay lecture myself though; he was extremely practical in the way he told us about the regular patterns found in modern movie making.

Like all great speakers though, most of his lessons were not really about the film industry but instead about life; he even went a little metaphysical toward the end. I thought it was great stuff myself, and even if I never make any movies with the stuff I took away from him, I do think that I learned something of value.

Simon Hunter, a director, took the third lecture about, well, directing. Perhaps it was because he had the dreaded post-lunch sleepy session, or maybe because his lecture was less structured than Groves's, but I found his stuff pretty difficult to follow. That said, Hunter has more of a practical approach, with him describing the tools and methods that directors use in their work. He also directly drew from his own experience, even going as far as showing us examples of the bad work he did.

And that's kinda why I enjoyed the film school really. Unlike other lectures which are either academic (where a lecturer separated themselves from the subject matter) or personal (where the speaker is the subject matter), all of the lectures today were both. We were being led by real people, those truly in the industry. I've never really experience this kind of "apprenticeship" tuition before, and I found it to be quite powerful. This, despite the fact that the school was clearly designed to be a platform to pitch to us the other Raindance offerings.

A final note on the venue: apparently The Old Cinema inside the Regent Street Westminster campus is the oldest in Europe. It was actually quite impressive too in a charming way. There are two more dates for the school in the next couple of months, but I think they are in different places.

Wicked

Wicked is the last of the big shows I had yet to see. It's probably a testament to it's popularity that tickets to it never seemed to get any cheaper than full price, so a few friends and I jumped when a deal did appear.

But a discussion on my tightness aside, Wicked was rather wonderful. It was fun, the (now well known) plot and twist on an existing tale was brilliant and it was much funnier than I expected it to be too.

Technically it was okay - the acting was much better than the singing, but the choreography was pretty and the music catchy. The set and costume were all very simple yet very effective and I had no trouble being pulled in with the running of the show.

I had a couple of complaints with the venue - the Victoria Apollo seemed particularly audience unfriendly with the angle of seating almost guaranteeing a head in your way. Seating was also quite cramped and uncomfortable, something which was compounded by the deceptively above average runtime of the show.

All in all it was definitely worth watching; especially as Lastminute.com have got some weird discounting going on the moment. Much recommended.

Book: Northern Lights, Philip Pullman

First things first: no, this wasn't as good as Harry Potter. I know that's going to annoy those anti-establishment types but it's true.

That's not to say it's not a bad book. I quite liked the universe it was set in, although the fact that a lot of words were not only made up but taken as given by the author did irritate me a bit. Of course as I set more into the book these things mattered less, but I guess I need a little bit of hand-holding when being thrown into a new world.

Oh and it's quite dark, graphic and violent at times too, but not unnecessarily so, so this wasn't that big a deal. The characters, although not as deep as I would have liked, are multi-dimensional; the book constantly keeps you on your toes by making it so ambiguous as to who you're supposed to be gunning for.

But the book is well written and ultimately enjoyable. At least enough to carry on in the trilogy: expect a review of the next instalment soon.

Food: La Sophia

A halal French! Yay! Although having said that I can't say that I've ever had a particular hankering for French food per se so I'm not quite sure why I find this so exciting.

But still it's always nice to have options. Not that I took advantage of that fact, choosing to stick to the safe bets such as the Oven roasted aubergine with fried halloumi for starter and Linguini with king prawns & calamari for the main. Perhaps it's just my age but it seems that anything more exotic is wasted on me now. The fries were awesome too.

But the food was good, the atmosphere intimate and the service impeccable. The menu as it stood was quite pricey, but armed with a taste card those got slashed in half. All in all there really was little to complain about at La Sophia's - perhaps it's location was a little inconvenient - so it gets a hearty recommendation from me.

Food: Khyber Pass

"Of course not! This is the first and only real Khyber Pass restaurant" said the manager, as he pointed to the encircled R in the top right hand corner of his restaurant's logo.

And so we were convinced. Despite there being at least two other Khyber Passes within ten minutes drive of the one we were planning to eat in, this was the real deal, the one that they all copied. Apparently the fame has spread far and wide, with lands as exotic as Manchester boasting their own Khyber Pass. Amazing stuff.

But as interested as we were in the history and integrity of the place, we were there to eat. The menu is nice and straightforward; you order Meat or Chicken Karahi by the kilo and accompany it with rice or naan. We also ordered one of the other two remaining choices for mains, the Chappli Kebabs (the other was a daal dish that I would have tried if the crowd had been different).

The food was more than adequate, although the meat was a bit on the low quality side - a lot of it was fat and gristle and having to dig our way through that kind of spoiled the rest of the meal. The chappli kebabs were pretty amazing though (and of quite a novelty super size), and I would have been more than happy with just those and the decent naans myself.

Green tea and sweet rice were complimentary, and the price was a pretty decent 7-8 quid per head. All in all the place was decent value and a nice place to eat, but unfortunately the experience with the meat was enough to put me off going back. Quite the shame really.

Book: The White Tiger, Aravind Adiga

The White Tiger proves that a good book doesn't have to be ambitious or challenging to read. In fact, I'd say it was in many ways as easy to read as any teen fiction is, with simple themes and characters guiding the reader along the way.

But this isn't teen fiction, and those same simple themes and characters turn out to be very adult and pretty dark. This contrast between the simple and complex is probably the biggest draw of the book.

The White Tiger isn't perfect though. During the beginning it's a bit of a chore to read as the author jumps around a bit too much, and I also felt that the end was a little too rushed and perhaps even contrived. But overall the book is quite inspiring in demonstrating exactly how effective simple story telling can be. Recommended.

Book: One Day, David Nicholls

One Day is an interesting book. It's certainly gripping and engaging and an enjoyable read, but I'm left wondering why since technically it's not that accomplished. But hey; let's go through this one by one.

The main feature of the book is the "one day" device itself (which I totally missed until the fourth chapter or so). We follow the lives of Emma and Dexter over twenty years by covering what they did during the same date of each. Yes, it's very technical possibly redundant and probably a little gimmicky, but in the main it works pretty well. I did find that at times things moved a bit too fast - you don't really get a sense of the passage of time and if I'm honest I wasn't even considering the fact that a year had passed from one chapter to the next - but maybe it's this weird passage of time that was the point of it, how time does fly quickly once you're in your 20s. The auther did paint himself into a corner at times, but managed to get out by some not so artful "reminiscing", but I did get annoyed at missing some of the important bits just because they fell during the wrong month.

Technically the book was written well, and I don't have many complaints about the flow of it. I did trip up a few times over who was saying or thinking what as I kept flipping from third to first person mode, but I suspect that was mostly due to me coming from Shantaram.

Characterisation was okay, but not great. I fancied Emma, of course, but Dexter was largely a waste of words, particularly as he fell into being such a cliché. I didn't think any of the characters were real people though, and that was a little bit of a shame. I did love how so much of it was set in the places I knew and loved, and there were at least three places in the book that I read while actually being in the actual locations themselves.

Like I said, I did enjoy this book, although that was probably more in a shallow than deep way; a bit like watching a trashy TV show or something. I do think that it could have been a lot more, but despite that it does get a recommendation.

As an aside, my copy of the book has been stamped with a BookCrossing.com ID, something which is supposed to encourage random and promiscuous passing around of the book. I've registered my reading of it, and will now attempt to pass it onto a random stranger for it to continue the journey - if you've happened to come from there then please feel free to leave a comment and let us know what you thought of the book too.