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Lady and Lord Sheikh invited us for a farewell family dinner tonight at the West Lodge Park Hotel. Lord Sheikh is chair of the Conservative Muslim Forum, of which I was Head of Policy. It has been quite an adventure!

Just after dinner with Lady and Lord Sheikh

I am on the train back from Liverpool. I was there for two days (since yesterday) for a conference at the Arena and Convention Centre at the Albert Docks. The last time I was in Liverpool must have been at least six to seven years ago. The city has changed quite a bit.

I stayed at Thistle Hotel, Atlantic Tower, which is not far from the Albert Docks. While the hotel was good, it was not that close to the places I really wanted to revisit. Time was not on my side either. I only had a few hours after 5pm on Tuesday to go places. But I did manage to go to a few places.

First stop was The Olive Tree on Renshaw Street. This was, and probably still is, the only shop in Liverpool city centre to sell Islamic books. I almost missed it because its facade is now painted red. Previously it was green. Stepping into the shop, I saw a familiar face but this time looking just a little bit older. Sister Somayya, the owner of the shop, was sitting at the counter. She said I have grown a little bit. She must have meant I have fatten up since Liverppol!

Next stop was the University, in particular, the Guild of Students. As I stepped into the building, I saw a poster advertising a play “Jebat”. I was president of the Liverpool University Islamic Society in 1999 and 2000 so unsurprisingly my next stop would be the prayer room, at the basement under the Guildmore Bar (is that the right name?). Not much have changed, but there was more people there during the Maghrib prayers. And I am glad to see that the wudhu area is now more properly done relatively to when I was leading the ISOC. During my time, we made several requests to get the Guild to install something like a shower basin and a pipe so that people don;t have to put their feet into the sinks when making wudhu. It didn’t happen even when I left, but there were two basins there now.

After a quick walk around the Guild of Students, I made my way to Smithdown Lane. When I was in my second year, I lived at either 27B or 28B Smithdown Lane – can’t remember the exact number. But it was on the top floor, and my room was on the furthest left of the building. I then got married and moved to Huntley Road, near Liverpool FC’s Anfield football stadium. And then I moved back to Smithdown Lane, this time number 31. So, I know the landlord – Mr Kassim, an Iraqi – quite well. The area around Smithdown Lane was well known as a prostitute area during that time. Don’t know if it still is, but when I was there yesterday there was no one asking me if I wanted “business”!

By this time, it was almost 8pm and I was getting hungry. So, after a short bus trip towards town, next stop was Master Chef – used to be my favourite Indian restaurant. The food is still quite good. I had dinner with Dr Jeevan Naidu. We were at Liverpool University together and the last time I met him must have been back in 1999. Had a very interesting chat about Malaysia, and, since it is election time, you can’t run away from Malaysian politics. By the time we finished I was too tired to do anything else so straight to the hotel and to bed.

I got up this morning to the news that Britain had its first earthquake for many years last night. Some people at the hotel were actualy woken up by the tremor which was at around 1am. I must have been half-dead because I didn’t feel anything.

Today, just before boarding the train from Liverpool Lime Street station, I paid a visit to Mr Mann, another former landlord of mine. After Smithdown Lane, I moved to 37 Princes Avenue, one of the properties owned by Mr Mann. He has a shop at St John’s shopping centre called Basic Design.

Unfortunately I didn’t have the time to visit Ar-Rahma Mosque ofthe Malaysia Singapore Association. Next time, hopefully.