Good manners and form: Cherrypick of the hadith

This is my favorite hadith.

Imagine if it was everybodies favorite?
Imagine all muslims would actually use this one as an example?
Imagine all the cartoons we could make 😈

Narrated ‘Abdullah bin Mulaika:

Aisha said that the Jews came to the Prophet and said, “As-Samu ‘Alaikum” (death be on you). ‘Aisha said (to them), “(Death) be on you, and may Allah curse you and shower His wrath upon you!” The Prophet said, “Be calm, O ‘Aisha ! You should be kind and lenient, and beware of harshness and Fuhsh (i.e. bad words).” She said (to the Prophet), “Haven’t you heard what they (Jews) have said?” He said, “Haven’t you heard what I have said (to them)? I said the same to them, and my invocation against them will be accepted while theirs against me will be rejected (by Allah). ”

There’s a better way to tell it:
Mohammed and Aisha encountered some Jews and they greeted the prophet with a twist of the Salaam Aleikum, They said ”As Samu Alaikum” which means ”death be upon you” Aisha got all upset but the prophet smiled kindly, pretended not to have understood, and said: ”And the same to you”

Beautiful example of staying polite while still getting your advisaries really miffed!

N1H1 and vaccinations

And don’t die of vaccination, and don’t die of Tamiflu.

Now I’m back in the Netherlands, after experiencing the weird commercials they have on prescription drugs, and the vaccination hype in America, it seems they want to enforce vaccination in the Netherlands! And just as I thought that for once the Netherlands was staying cool about this hype, it seems that was just the silence before the storm.
I have some things to show about vaccinations:

The truth from an ex-pharma pusher: very interesting! The Pharma industrie is out to keep us sick, not to make us better. I have read the research wich proves that excercise is more effective than anti-depressants, that anti-depressants are not more effective as placebos. So in fact they are as useful as a placebo. While excercise is truly helpful. Meanwhile these anti-depressants do alter the chemical pathways in your brain making them highly addictive. Which is brilliant for the pharmaceutical industries because it means you will be buying them  for ever because you will be addicted for life! The withdrawal symptoms are so severe than many people never manage to cut loose. As people suffer so badly from the symptoms they go back to their doctors who give them heavier doses to alleviate the symptoms. etc.

The same goes for the flu-vaccins. There are new flustrains every year. However, flu-vaccins are largely ineffective. Doctors still want you to take them even though 70% of doctors do not take them themselves.

I certainly won’t take the flu-shot.

This is a good video explaining what a flu-shot is, and how much effect it has on your health. They end with the theory that vitamin D might help you against contracting the virus. While it not at all a bad idea to take vitamin D3 supplements (the majority of Americans show depleted vitamin D levels in their blood) There has been decade of scientific research which proves that Ascorbic acid (vitamin C) is the real killer for any virus.

A really disturbing video on vaccines by a Merck Doctor. It’s disturbing because it shows how callous the pharmaceutical industry deals with contaminated vaccins. Including the aids virus. But there were many virusses in old vaccines, including cancer inducing virusses. They just didn’t care. ”Good science” meant you didn’t think of long term effects…

English doctors have said that vaccins are responsible for causing autism in a significant number of children.

Listen to these questions, answered by a a representative from a pharmaceurical prducer. When asked how much more chance one would have of contracting influenza she answered studies showed there is no difference. She admitted some vaccines contain mercury (a horrible poison) as a preservative. When asked if she takes the vaccine herself she answeres NO.

So why do they insist we are vaccinated? Especially against a normal, common influenza like N1H1? Influenza is a serious virus, which should be taken seriously certainly. But as I have writte before, if you take vitamin C in orthomolecular doses you can stop a virus in it’s track. Without serious side-effects, like we know Tamiflu produces, and really stopping the virus from being able to spread inside your body. Something Tamiflu doesn’t do.

Why do I call influenza a ”normal” influenza virus? Because it is. There are many virusses around, and while all are to be taken seriously, there is no reason to single out swimeflu as an extra dangerous one.

Remember the birdflu? The increadible hype around this deadly pandemic?
What happened?
Nothing happened!
You might like to know that in the USA a total of 100 people died of birdflu-related infections. That is of course 100 too many. But to put it into perspective: According to the CDC 36.000 people die every year in the united states of flu related infections!

Don’t be fooled! Don’t be lured into a pandemic scare which doesn’t exist!

Leave off the junk-food, the industrial artifact food. Don’t eat food which keeps forever, such food is embalmed, it’s got more chemicals than nutricion.
Get real fresh vegetables, cook it yourself or eat them raw.  Eat real food. Not junkfood. Take Ascorbic acid (vitamin C) in orthomolecular doses (1 or more grams a day) and you and your loved ones will be safer and healthier as any pharmaceutical drug will ever make you.

for a bit of light relief: Bill Maher on Big Pharma

Staying in California

Well, I wouldn’t want keep ya’all in suspence then.
Remember how I always kept on about American motels in movies? How they are dingy, with a seventies decor and defenitely creepy because people get killed/abducted/harvested for organs in them? But all motels are very clean fresh and newly decorated.
Well…. except the ”Homestead” Monrovia, that was awful! And we were going to spend 17 days there!!!! And I would have to spend all day there! Every day!!!!!

So this is how the room looked on the internet. This, btw, is the luxury suite. Neat, clean, spacious. But the reality was far different! It was a different space, but also it was much smaller, less furniture as what you see, it was smelly, it had a very old, very noisy airconditioning, and it was just very, very depressing! Creepy very synthetic  blanket; I got a shock from just touching it! And half of the room was broken; the phone was broken, knobs of furniture was broken, etc. And it was supposed to have a ”fully stocked kitchen” Woehahahahahahaha! Yeah right. No carving knives, no pots and pans. Two plates, small bowls and cups. Two fork, one knife…. Two crappy ancient electric coil cooking plates. pathetic! And I was going to spend most of my time there!

Q went to complain, and I went with him to observe. (He does that really well, even if he’s miffed, very calm and polite) He looked on the internet, saw the illustration again, and really got miffed! Becasue where we were was so very different from what was promised! The management, young girl in her twenties, was totally uninterested and seemed glad to get rid of us.

Q made me really happy by going to a more expensive, but a hundred times nicer place: the Residence inn! Here we had a lovely fresh cheerful room. Also the staff were very charming and helpful, we could eat breakfast in the reception rooms every morning, there were some activities, like monday-sports night, and a complimentary bar-B-que every wednesday, and the managers invitation to wine and cheese and socialise, meet the employees, on tuesday.

Besides the lovely room we also had clenaers come in every day, (once a week at the homestead) and fresh towels every day. Very nice…. Soooo much better!

Roadtrip, To California!

We left Vegas, drove across Death Valley, which wasn’t as awsome an experience as I had thought. Except from the air being very, very dry, I was sitting in an airconditioned car enjoying the landscape…..

My battery died on me so the photo’s are from my camera.

So this is death valley… Other then it being very hot and very, very dry, that’s it. I had imagined something more scary.

Sometimes I wonder about the Americans. Sometimes I wonder very much…

Q told me some bozo had built a ”Water fairground” here… In the middle of the desert… Sometimes I wonder about the Americans…

Look at all that sand just blown onto the sides of the mountains!

We arrived late in the afternoon in Los Angeles, There we were going to stay for two weeks. Q had booked a large studio room with kitchen, but…
That is another story  🙂

Back in Holland

So, I’ve returned to holland and am really suffering with jetlag, and feeling ill.

So, not much blogging for now, but there is more Roadtrip stories to come.
Meanwhile I am happily reunited with Al Tarq, Zora and the cats!

Roadtrip, Las Vegas 2

Walking around the Las Vegas strip is like a 10 minute tour around the planet.
Monte Carlo….

New York….

Statue of liberty….

Egypt….

erupting volcano’s

Q loves this watergarden.

Venice….

In the doge’s palace,
Again…

I visited the doge’s palace before
in Venice,
Europe  😉

We had a lovely dinner in that restaurant, to the upper left 😛

Another spectecular waterfall near my favorite casino/hotel of all: The Encore

We first went to the Wynn’s, Q complained: he thought it too girly

He was sooooo right: This place was meant for women!

I really loved it, it is designed in a sort of modern Art Deco style, very bold, very imaginative, very amusing, and very detailed.

Entrance to one of the restaurants, the ceiling recess is decorated with cutlery and plates! 😀

The Wynn and the encore have their own theme, flowers for the Wynn, and butterflies for the Encore.

It has some great shops.
With lots of blingy stuff!

I loved the lamps everywhere, every detail in this casino was perfect.

They also have the very best, poshest loos in Vegas

A Ladytree
or Treelady

I immediately had to think of Achelois when I saw these white peacocks with cristal tails!

A crystal dragon in the Chinese restaurant!

The lobby

Even the gambling areas were beautiful, often they are a bit messy. In the Venice they were very disappointing, very cheap-looking and ugly.

Because I liked Vegas so much we stayed another day! We did some shopping, and we went to Paris where I wan $100,- playing blackjack. I brought dinner with my winnings. Paris actually looked even better as Venice. Because of more ceiling hight perhaps? I made photo’s but they seem to have disappeared.

Their buffet is the best ever, and you eat it on a Parisian courtyard which makes you feel you are on a set for a movie about the Grimm Fairy tales!

We later went ”down town” to the cheaper casinos. Playing blackjack in the Golden Nugget was even more fun, but perhaps that was because I got away with another $200,- there  😉
Sadly that was our last night 😦

Bookreview: Master of the Jinn

Happy Eid to whom it may apply. I know it’s a bit late but I am soooo busy!!!!!!
In a good way!
Ok, to celebrate Eid I have added a new category: ”bookreview”

I’m starting off with the book written by fellow blogger Irving Karchmar, writer, poet and darvish.

If you are lucky, you can from time to time get the book for free in Pdf, but I also have brought the book for real, I like reading proper books. It’s available at Amazon.

Master of the Jinn is a gripping story, while it teaches you a lot about the sufi philosophy, and is written in a beautiful poetic style, it also keeps you sitting on the edge of your chair with it’s imaginative and exiting quest.

A mysterious papyrus in a container is found, (in a mysterious manner) which turns out to be sealed by the legendary seal ring of ………, said to give the power of controlling the Jinn.
Following this discovery an unlikely group comes together, becomes friends, and are send out by a modern day sufi master on the quest to find this ancient ring.
But after many adventures the quest leads them further than the world we know….

The quest itself turns out to have a different goal as first thought…

And almost everybody ends up a sufi.

I enjoyed reading this book. It is beautiful and exciting. You can get it from Amazon, or Irving’s website.

Roadtrip, Las Vegas 1

Q loves Las Vegas. To me it was not my dream-place-to-visit. But being together means you have to compromise a bit here and there. We arrived at dark.
Naturally I was falling asleep again, but I did manage to snap a few photos from our room!

We stayed at the Rio.
We entered the hotel, with lots  of luggage, and got a porter, and we went through the casino to the masquerade tower where our room was. I was really tired, and the nois, and flashing lights, and the show which was on at the time almost became too much for me. I longed to be in our room and to be quiet. So we entered the room, and the (very friendly) porter showed us the room, I thought it was going to be a double room, but kept on showing is the ”room”, and on, and on…. That place was bigger as my apartment! and half of it was windows! WAW!!!!!!!
I naturally perked up immediately, and the res of this post is about the ”room”.

And the view….

At night…

You enter in a small vestibule, with a wardrobe for coats,

And a loo

Then around the corner there is a dining area, with a small service area, with a tap, and marble countertop, and a fridge.

There are 180” of windows!

The lounge area… there is a huge flatscreen in the wall.

And then, aften a fairly long hike, you enter the bedroom, with, naturally, another huge flatscreen…

There are two door leading into the Bathroom area… There is anothe loo, a shower, a walk-in closet, and an enormous bath! I took four baths during my stay!
Bliss……

The make-up table, also marble. Managed to fill that with my stuff in 10 minutes.

And the two washbasins

And always…
The View!!!!!!!

Roadtrip, the Hoover Dam

A small airplane museum, with a constellation parked in front of it!

The landscape remained arid after the Grand Canyon.

As we left the Grand canyon far later then we had anticipated, Q told me we would probably not be in time to see the Hoover Dam.
Damned! I really wanted to see that!
So after a harrowing journey, seeing the sun dip, the twilight going…

We arrived at the Hoover Dam!!!!!

It was actually very fairy-ish in the weaning twighlight!

Lake Mead

While the Hoover Dam does have a fairylike quality, it is a powerplant.

You never see this on the photos, or movies, but when you see the whole thing in real you notice it’s surrounded by industrial buildings, machines, wires and of course, electrical cables.

It was now really dark and so on to our next destination: Las Vegas!

Roadtrip, The Grand Canyon

After breakfast, off we went! To our next destination: the Grand Canyon!

Our drive has started! Up to the mountains!

We drove through some very pretty forests

Until we reached the plateau, where it was a very different world, arid, dry, and empty

We arrived at the visitors centre of the Grand Canyon, the rangers were very friendly and helpfull, and they have great loos! I brought some sunscreen as I seemed to have forgotten my own. It was quite expensive, but it’s really nice. We decided to go up in the shuttle, later we regretted that as you can get up quite a bit in your car and get a red shuttle. As it is we had to swich shuttles three times which was a drag, especially as it was very busy.

What can I say… It’s Grand!

You can see a beautiful hotel on the top here, it’s the El Tovar. It’s a very beautiful hotel and very famous. We had lunch there 🙂

There are a few smaller buildings around the rim, two little shops, and the Kolb Studio. We visited an very good exhibition there of artworks inspired by the National Parks.

It all took a very long time, much longer as we had planned! In the end we were so hot and tired we decided not to do the last stretch to what is supposed to be the very best spot, but enjoy the magnificent views, potter around, have a nice lunch and just have a good time. We do plan to come back another time, now we are better informed as what we are up against, have more time and are better equipped and do the Grand Canyon properly.

And do check out my art-blog for another funny sketch!