UK Family Trip: The REAL Unfortunate Event

Hi everyone. Assalamualaikum.

This is Nik, coming in

I posted about a funny unfortunate event that happened during our trip
but this post will be about the real unfortunate event that happened to US during our trip.

Since we know that we are going to the UK in October. We have been prepping ourselves, a few months before.

During ramadhan, the holy month, we prayed hard to make sure that we will be just fine for our trip.

I asked Allah to
i. not making any of us SICK, . Thank You Allah
ii. protect us from people who wanna do wrong or bad towards us, inc our house in Malaysia.
iii. may Allah protect our journey, hoping that we can go there safely and come back safely.
iv. and many more.

Now that I am back I can say I got most of the thing I asked for. Thank You Allah.

nevertheless, I expected we will confront with some problem.
Maybe broken handphone, lost in the middle of nowhere or got scammed. Coz I got scammed last year.

The unfortunate event happen twice in the same day.
First, we were on a bus from Harrods to Oxford Street.
Kak Yana, my sis, decided to loosen up his shoulder muscle so she placed her handbag at the seat in front of her. She was seating at the 4-seat-looking-at-each-other-seat.
Kak Yana and I got off to the Selfridges station while others went to musolla which was a few stations more.
We went inside Selfridges. She went to LV section and I went to Charlotte Tilbury section.
Both of the section was close-by.

I swatch one lipstick and asked one question at the salesgirl, suddenly I got a phone call from Kak Yana. It was weird because supposedly she can see me, Im not that far.

Before I got the chance to pick up the call, she saw me and said "beg kak yana takde"

She already called our family members who were on the bus, just in case they took the handbag with them. BUT THEY DIDNT.

so thats the first one.

the second unfortunate happen  a few hours later.
Everyone were busy shopping and when its time to go back, we gather at a bus station nearby Primark.
The bus that we need to take, delayed for about 15minutes.

So there are lots of people waiting for the same bus.
As it arrives, it was flooded by almost all the people that are waiting at the bus station.
p.s: not everyone takes the same bus even they are waiting at the same bus station.

Then we got off as how it should be.
I realized my dad did not get out of the bus, he was still on the bus as the bus moved to the next station.

Aiman said, papa went back inside coz he thought he left his phone.

At our home, I am getting ready to go to sleep. I decided to have a glass of water so I went downstairs.
There I saw my dad sitting on the floor with frowned face.
I can see his holding his phone. weird. then whats the problem.

Papa lost his wallet. He was pick-pocketed.

hmmmmm
This is Nik Camelia Al Haded, I believe everything that happen, happened for a reason.
over and out.
Assalamualaikum.

p.s: the next post will be about how the issues got resolved.

UK Family Trip - Perform Your Prayer

Hi,

This is Nik, coming in
Assalamualaikum everyone.

This post will be about how we perform our prayer throughout our stay in the UK and at the same time sharing the places that we went to pray.

For first timers to London/UK, you may be surprised at how many mosques/musolla & prayer room that you can easily find in London. When you go outside of London, the possibility to find it as easy as in london may be low unless you are going to a tourist attraction venue.

In London,
There is Central London Mosque which is the biggest mosque in London. It is nearby Reagent's park.
I have visited this place once but havent got the chance to perform my prayer inside.

No question need to be asked. If you are nearby the Central London Mosque just go there to perform your prayer.

but,
there are not much things to see around unless you having a picnic at the park or you went to London Zoo.

If you are in Central London as in footsteps away from London famous attractions such as, Oxford Street, Buckingham Palace, Westminster, Big Ben and many more, then there are several other options of places that you can go to perform your prayer.

You just have to google it. hehehehe

OK.

Lets start

First of all, not every place will provide a Muslim prayer room. As in only muslim can use it. Majority of tourist attraction places will be using a general name in which the room can be use by all religion and not only muslims.

Trust me hunny, You will see only muslim at this prayer room.

Other than "prayer room", the places for you to pray can also be named as
Multifaith room,
Meditation room,
Quiet room and
Contemplation room.

So this mean,
If you want to Google a place to pray you should type in
"Place to pray nearby"
instead of
"Mosque & Musolla nearby"

 You get me?

Next, get ready with bottle because the "rooms" that I said above do not provide any ablution/wudhu area, so you have to go to the toilet.

It will be embarrassing if you have to put your leg up on the sink in a crowded toilets thus the bottle.
You can fill it in first then go inside a toilet to take ablution peacefully.

When I was in Selfridges Oxford Street, we want to perform our prayer at their multifaith room. As soon as I arrive at the place, I saw there is no ablution place and no sink as well, I know I have to go to the toilet. Then when I got out, there are lots of girls queuing to go into the toilet.

As I said, it will be embarrassing for me to take my ablution in a crowded toilet. I didnt have any extra bottle with me at that time, so what I did was, I used the sink in the baby room. Smart? I know.

Selfridges prayer room. Nearby customer service level 4.

Bicester Village is one of the torist must-go shopping place. This place provide a very comfortable contemplation room for you to pray. Praying mat is provided and they even have the Holy Quran.
You just have to take your ablution at the toilet which is just right next to it. They even have seperate room for male and female. So, nothing to complaint.

We went to Oxford city before going to Bicester Village. We visited the Pitts' River Musuem that has all the dinosaurs bones. The best part of it is that the prayer room is just right next to museum.

As for quiet room, we used this room in Cheshire Oak, Chester. My sister said that the prayer room will be nearby Mark and Spencer, so we went looking around the place and it took us awhile for us the find the room. That was our very first time seeing a prayer place labelled as quiet room. The room is a very small room. Only two people can pray at a time, but there is a sink provided and also praying mat.

When we went to Manchester, after we have done with our museum tour, we went to Trafford Centre which was just 10-15 mins away.It is a mall, and it provide a multi-faith room. The mall is a very nice place to go. We had our lunch there at Nandos. There are lots more halal options in there.

As for Heathrow airport terminal 4, there is a mutlifaith room at the departure hall, and also at the mezzanine level. If you are taking Malaysia airline, the mutilfaith room is not far from where MAS gate usually be. So now worried.

Nearby Oxford Street; the famous shopping place, you can find two mosque nearby. They are Soho Mosque, which is called Soho Islamic Centre

This is the best picture I can get from google map

and also Muslim World League Mosque

The mosque is just behind the tree. I cannot get a better picture of this place due to that white truck.

If you are at Oxford Street you can go to both of this of places unless you are a girl, you can only go to Muslim World Mosque because the Soho mosque does not provide female prayer room.

We went to the Muslim World League Mosque, it is A-ok.

Lastly, you definitely find prayer place if you go to any hospitals. Usually hospital will provide multi-faith room. Why am I so confident? Ask yourself again.
For example, you can go to St Mary Hospital @ Paddington.

If you want to see the places that we went to pray visually, you can go to my youtube channel and watch all of my UK Vlog that have "pray" in the title.
You can see the prayer room at bicester village, manchester, oxford and once we prayed at London School of Economics (LSE) because my sisters graduation ceromony was nearby. Easy peasy.

When we were in Edinburgh, most of the time we prayed at our home. We planned our trip according to prayer time. Meaning we will start the daily activities after performing our prayer. Once, we went out before zohor, we still go back to our home and perform jamak takhir.

Edinburgh also has a mosque.

This is Nik Camelia Al Haded, now you tell me the reasons why you dont perform your prayer?
over and out
Assalamualaikum.