Welcome to the quintessential Jeddah lifestyle blog!
For a better YOU.
A mish-mash of beauty, fashion brand launches, sweetened with recipes and restaurant reviews, a dose of health, and pinch of life.
Find out what's hot, in fashion, food and fitness and of course beauty!
You may know of my penchant for interesting window displays, well I have to post about the breathtaking boudoir on display Al-Furusiya Jeddah Marina, at the time the Cerruti Baleri store hadn't opened its doors yet but its the display captivated my imagination. For a moment you forget where you are; and you find yourself peeking intto some lucky lady's bedroom. A beautifully etched grand mirror adorns the wall and is matched by a carved mirror table. The opulent furniture marries well with the wallpaper: an intricate white almost lace inspired design on a pale gold background, and for some strange reason it reminds me of Japanese cherry blossoms. The huge perfume bottles exude a sweet decadence, and you just know this lady's luxe fragrance will linger in the air, long after she has left the room.
A prickly seat!
The next display though casual and simple was charming in an artistic yet humourous manner.
Wouldn't you just love to have these modern pouf/ottomans in your bedroom, I certainly would. I'm really amused by the ironic concept, and I think in a living room they would serve both as seating and a talking point; and like the display I would make sure I had a few potted cactuses nearby for added effect!
Today, I'm doing a post about a great website, Expat Blog for current and prospective expats all over the world.
I think its very useful to have a network of support when you are an expat in a foreign land, especially for the first time, it can save you from unecessary hassle and worries and help avoid embarrassing gaffes! You can post questions, make friends, post ads, look for accommodation and even apply for jobs. How to say basic stuff in a new language, basic DOs and DON'Ts all help to make the experience less daunting and more enjoyable.
Check out more information below:
What’s Expat
blog? It’s a web portal launched in 2005 by
expatriates, for expatriates. Its ambition is to help people
living or willing
to live abroad, wherever they are from or would like to go. Expat
blog is the
most active online community of expatriates, with 420 000 members
from 206
countries and 400 big cities, a true online global village. Who is it for? For all the people
living or wishing to live
abroad. It is a platform of expression and exchange, an
information source
about expatriation. How does it
work? The website offers various tools to help
expats and potential expatriates: -discussion
forums -expatriate
blogs directory -guides -photo
albums -business
directory -classifieds.
Jizan Credit: Eihctir, Expat blog
New features : Jobs and Housing sections To meet the
demands of expatriates
and soon-to-be expatriates in Saudi Arabia, Expat blog has
launched two new dedicated spaces: a
jobs section and a housing section. They are aimed at helping
people in their
job and accommodation search, two essential steps when
expatriating. The idea is to
get access to job
offers
in Saudi Arabia and everywhere in the world, wherever you
are. You can have access to the Saudi Arabia job opportunities,
per job category and job contract. You can also create your
CV and contact potential employers.
This is a great resource as information about jobs in Saudi is not always available online.
Jeddah Credit: Jeddah-boy expat blog
The Saudi Arabia
Housing section enables you to
look
for or to offer an accommodation: rental, flat share,
flat,
house…it’s up to you! You can see pictures of the apartment and
get in touch
with the person via Expat blog (you need to be a member of Expat
blog to post
an ad). Real estate agents in Saudi charge alot of money are of little or no use so this is really helpful.
Productive Muslim held their 4th seminar on Wednesday in
wait for it...Jeddah! I was lucky enough to get a ticket, they sold out pretty
fast. YIG volunteers did a fantastic job
organising the event in collaboration
with JCCI who generously provided the venue. It started at 5pm and finished a bit before 11, with Salah and refreshment breaks in between.
(Focus and Energy towards maximising your goal in aakhira)
I wanted to write a review of the seminar but I'm feeling
rather overwhelmed by the task. I can say one thing it was definitely a very
productive seminar seeing that so much was covered in a short time. I will
update this article with the links to the slides handout, once it becomes
available. For now I will include highlights what made the most impact on moi,
hopefully Abu Productive will forgive me if I don't do justice to the material
covered.
Productivity triangle:knowledge, action and consistency
I've been reading many of the articles on the Productive
Muslim website, so I was familiar with some of the topics covered by Abu
Productive, but mashaÁllah, his energy, and enthusiasm is infectious and he is very easy to
relate to. The point that really motivated me was that he was a young brother
who understands all the social media entanglements and Genration X/Y issues
such as our addiction to mobile phones, and the same time he was teaching us
how we could pray Tahajjud/Qiyam right after Isha, how you should be reading at
least 30 minutes of the Quran daily and not slacking off and reading only a
page or much, much, less...somewhere in the back of my mind I hate to admit I
didn't think anyone our age could do any of that.
The resources that Productive Muslim provides such as the
Daily Taskinator, the Habitator and the ultimate Goal Planner are all very practical tools
to help you implement what you learn at the seminar, and printouts were
distributed to all attendees.
Credit: Sister Aneesah/Productive Muslim
One of the main topics that was covered was sleep
management, how to wake up for Fajr, and how to stay awake after Fajr. Now,
although alhamdolilah I don't have trouble waking up fo Fajr, but as soon as
I'm done with my prayers I immediately jump back into bed. I've also become a
bit of a night owl, and I think its really affecting my energy levels and the
amount I get done in any given day. So, I was delighted that this topic was
covered in detail.
Prophet Muhammad (Peace be upon him) said,
"O Allah, make the early morning hours blessed for my
nation/ummah".
Abu Productive also explained that all the productivity
books he'd ever read about successful people from all over the world they all
woke up early.
Do you see a connection here? Now, I'm sitting there
thinking I've been sleeping through the blessed hours ever since I left school
:(...hmm not a very blessed or successful life, huh?
Then he covered on how to stay up: have an early morning
routine. The routine should be planned out before hand so that you don't have
to think of what to do next otherwise you will simply crawl back into bed as
the sheer effort to think of what to do next will slip you up. SO SIMPLE! WHY
DIDN'T I THINK OF THAT BEFORE?
Unfortunately, because of the weekend haven't really been
able to go to bed early, but post-Fajr I've been able to stay up till 630am,
and then I tend to collapse into bed. I guess, I'm using baby steps, and in a
few days inshallah will try to stay awake until ..gasp ..the afternoon
siesta/nap time.
I also want to experiment with the sleep cycles, find out if
my sleep cycle is 90 mins or more, apparently most people have 90 minute sleep
cycle but for some people it can be up to 120 minutes. That was one of the
'Homework assignments'. You can use this tool called sleepyti.me to figure out what time you should
sleep.
The 18 sources of barakah was also touched upon, and we were
asked to chose one source which we wasn't part of our daily life and to tap
into it for a week and try to build on it from their. I'm going to try
incorporating istighfar, as there are loads of benefits :-).
To focus, you need to disconnect and simply your life
What you need to reclaim your focus? Sincerity, commitment and discipline
Ever since Facebook
and Whatsapp became an (I hate to admit it) integral part of my life, I
think my focus, on any task generally, and computer related specifically, has
gone down the proverbial drain.
Abu Productive advised us to have a 'disconnect time' from
all technology, for e.g early morning till 7. I hate to admit after my Fajr
alarm goes off, while I contemplate leaving my comfy bed, I scroll through
Facebook on my phone-I'm not sure what earth shattering revelation I'm
expecting happened through the night, but yeah I do it. So, I've also been
enforcing this and it does help concentration in Fajr.
Disconnect from technology for a specific sacred quiet time
Another cool tip was how to engage in distraction free
writing, and I really need that for my blogging, he suggested WriteRoom for Mac
users, and I Googled and found Q10 for Windows and it’s free. This post was
drafted on it (look how long it ended up being) then I did spell check on Word.
You get full screen black background type no frills writing program, which
hides all tabs.
A crazy tool is Freedom software which is an internet
blocking software- it blocks access to the internet for your desired set amount
of time- will not let you access the internet even if you restart the
computer-dangerously effective!
Freedom: the internet blocking software
The 3 ways in which Islam helps to boost our focus: Salah, recitation of Quran, and lowering the gaze.
Now, I'd heard about the first 2 in relation to focus but
the third one was an eye-opener. I don't have a problem with lowering my gaze,
alhamdolilah, I don't think most sisters have a problem..(but certain TV shows
are making me feel guilty) :(, but I never realised the benefits before.
Focus triangle: Salaah, reciting quran, and lowering your gaze
I'll share the slides on this topic ad verbatim:
Lowering the gaze helps your heart focus.
It Reduces the Distraction of the heart:
" The soul is a temptress and loves to look at
beautiful forms and they is the guide of the heart. The heart commissions its
guide to go and look to see what is there and when the eye informs it of a
beautiful image it shudders out of love and desires for it. Frequently, such
inter-relations tire and wear down the heart and the eye.
Therefore, when the sight is prevented from looking and
investigating the heart finds relief from having to go through the arduous task
of (vainly) seeking and desiring." Ibn Al-Qayyim.
It gives you penetrating insight ("baseera")
"Whosoever builds his outward form upon following the
Sunnah, his internal form upon perpetual contemplation and awareness of Allah,
he restrains his soul from following desires, he lowers his gaze from the
forbidden things and he always eats the lawful things then his perception and
insight shall never be wrong" Ibn Shujaa' Al-Kimaanee
It Strengthens Your Discipline
"the people seek nobility and powers at the door of the
Kings and they will not find it except through the obedience of Allah,"