My Pet Bambi! =)

..My Pet Bambi..

Everyone has a pet, even I do, but I used to have a pet that had a very warm spot in my heart. He was called Bambi and he was a goat. Even though I had lots of people that used to tease me about my pet but I never put myself down. Everyone used to drive past on a nice sunny day and admire him. 

Firstly, when we got Bambi he was only 3 months old.  My uncle went to this farm and this Chinese guy shot Bambi's mother so my cousin brought Bambi to our house because they had no grass at their house.  At that time it was our Eid festival so he was a gift from our uncle.  My sisters and I would bottle feed him in the back yard until he was old enough that he didn't need milk anymore.  He would eat grass every day without stopping and we would make him drink water even though he didn't want to.  Bambi grew a lot, he was getting fat and he also grew horns on his head.

Secondly, Bambi spent lots of time with us on special events like Halloween and Christmas. On Halloween he was dressed as a reindeer with antlers. We had lots of fun going trick-and-treating with him. On Christmas he had a red nose and antlers to be Rudolf the red-nosed reindeer but his red nose kept on falling off. He also has been to alot of places like Bunnings,  The Warehouse and Wellington but he kept doing his business on the car seat. Thirdly, Bambi had to go because everyone kept on complaining about him so the council guy had to come and tell us to give him away. So then my dad had to sacrifice cultural Kurbaani (where you have sacrifice a loved animal). He was only  11 months old but now he's gone but Bambi is still in our memories.  

And lastly, We loved Bambi and we always will, doesn't matter what anyone says he is a family member for us. Bambi was so cute because he is really small and soft, that's how I remember him. He was the most special pet I ever had. We have a lot of memories with him and I will cherish them and I will never forget him.

Bambi when he was a little baby.
He used to have a light blue collar.

Bambi when he grew up.

Bambi also when he was a little baby.

By Rubana Hafiz. =)

My Culture! - Islam.

My Culture 

Islam

Being a muslim is a really fun thing because of the clothes we wear, the discipline we have and of course the famous food.  There are lots of Muslims countries they are basically everywhere, some countries are Saudi Arabia, Dubai, Iraq, and Pakistan. Some people judge the Muslims about what happened in 9/11 but very, very small of us were part of it.

Firstly, some background information we have only 1 god and only 1 important holy book which is called the Qur'aan. We also have 2 main festivals, 1 of them are called Eid-ul-Fitr which is the festival of Ramadhan (our fasting month) finishes. The other is called Eid-ul-Adha which is the festival of the sacrifice of and animal like a cow, goat or sheep. We also have another celebration which is called Shab-e-baraat, that is our new year. Rather being in January ours is in the middle of July. Us muslims believe that there is an afterlife which in Arabic is called Aakirah. There is Jannat which is heaven and Jahanaam which is hell. We believe that in Jannat is a place of pureness and peace while Jahanaam is a place of fire and snakes.

Secondly, Islam has a lot of rules some of them are that married girls are only allowed to show their eyes and the rest has to be perfectly covered. We have to go to mosque every day after school to learn arabic. Those lessons are 5:00-7:30 and then we can come home and do our homework. We didn't have lessons in Ramadhan because we would get really tiered by the time we would get home late at night. We have daily prayers 5 times a day, there is one at 5:30 in the morning which is called Fajr, Zhur which is at 1:30, Asr which is at 3:00, Magrhib which is at 5:45 and lastly Isha which is at 8:00. Then the cycle starts again.

We have lots of cultural clothes and food. Some of the clothes girls wear are called Abaya's and the boys wear Jubahs which are long dark coloured cloaks. On festivals we wear Salwaar Kameez's which are really fancy and mostly made out of jewels or pretty little sequins.
Here are some photos of the Salwaar kameez's:

This is a really simple colour and design.

This is one of the new designs that have come out.

This is an old design.

And here is the bridal set:

This image is from google images.

This is a Jewelry set.

This is one of the prettiest and heaviest sets

And last but not least our world famous and divine food. Most of the food we eat has to be halal. Halal is when a specific type of meat is cut, the person who's cutting the meat have to recite a Dua'a before slicing its neck off. If it is not halal we are forbbiden allowed to eat it. Here are some of the food we eat:

This is naan bread (roti)

Butter Chicken.

Tomato Chutney

Mango Achaar.

 And this is some of the Eid sweets my mum, my sister (Ashna) and I made:

This is Rasgulla, which is dough in sugar syrup.

This is Murkku, which is dough being fried.

This is Ladoo, its corn flour made into balls.

This is Jalebi.

This is really spicy peas.

This spicy peanuts.

And this is Barfi, which is made is made Besan.

And in conclusion, I have told you lots about my culture like the food we eat, the clothes we wear and our rules and discipline we have that basically covers everything about my culture. I am proud to be a muslim because I dont let all the steriotypes get to me.

By Rubana Hafiz.

Exotic Fiji

Exotic Fiji!

I step get off the cramped car and to my surprised I am welcomed by warm smiles and soft ukulele music. I step into my hotel room and are surrounded by purfumes. With the wonderful tropical sea view it was absolutely paradise. The cool breeze run through the palm trees leaving it perfectly wind swept. Being lazy around the pool and casually snorkeling outside our water bungalow in the Sonaisali holiday resort. 

The first thing I did was go snorkeling,to go see the wildlife with the crystal clear waters and all the fantastic and native fish.  Then it was lunch time, I got a tropical salad with lettuce, onion, tomato and thick Mayo. It was better in Fiji because with the hot sun and the nice beaches. We saw lots of fire dancing and fire walking, it looked a bit scary but it was really cool.

The next few days we went and visited our relatives that live in Fiji, like my Grandparents and lots of other family. I took lots of pictures and visited lots of Fijian attractions. We visited the Fijian Museum, Aboard-a-daydream Cruise and the sleeping giant garden. We also did the KoroSun dive which was really cool. On the cruise we went to different and exotic islands each one with a unique welcoming smile. While we were at Sonaisali, I spent most of my time in the pool or eating Mango's (which were really tasty).

The thing that makes Sonaisali special is the lovely people that live in Fiji. Leaving was the hardest thing but I knew that we were going to come back. I really liked my stay in Fiji, especially Sonaisali.

You can book your next holiday getaway at http://www.sonaisali.com/

My Kitten By Rubana

It had arrived, as soon as I ran into my room there it was, sitting to perfection. The little furry kitten walked towards me and gave me a welcoming meowww. She was the cutest kitten I had ever seen. She had green eyes with a slight touch of sparkling blue.

Good morning show Day 1

Chalk Art Portraits

Another busy week, meet the teacher evening, orienteering, chalk art and almost a Wheelay. Phew.  Just to tide you over until we get some proper, juicy student writing on here.  Here are some of the wonderful chalk art portrait creations we've completed this week.