letter

Dear mom,

How are you? I hope that you are doing well. It has been long since I last wrote to you so thought that writing to you now might me a god idea as later on i might not get time to do so as my exams are coming up.

I am writing to tell you that I really really miss you alot mom. It has been so long since I last saw your beautiful face. I miss everything about home so much. I am very worried these days for my upcoming exams. The most difficut of them all tends to be my english writing final. Since my 'Generals die in bed' essay mark was so horribly bad, I lost all hope in my writing skills. It seems as if I lost all the knowledge I had about writing essays. Well I hope I do better in the finals as they can raise my mark, but still the loss gained by that bad mark could never be recovered.

Anyways I would go and study now. I has alot of assignments to do. The one thing that all students that I know dislike about CIC is that all our teachers leave our ISP and final test for the last moment! Now should I start reviewing or should I get rid of all the ISP?? :(

Anyways, night mom. I would talk to you tomorrow. ILOVEYOU

Your daughter,
Shahla Hussain

Recipe !

Biryani! My most favorite kind of rice that i miss the most while having to eat Sodexo everyday for my meal =(

Biryani was made by my mom almost every Thursday and that was what woke me up in the afternoon (Thurday and Friday were the weekend back home).

Here is the recipe so you can as well try it at home and enjoy the deadliciously delicious taste of the different spices that tend to give the rice the amazing taste it contains!

This is a two person serving recipe.

The last time I tried to make this recipe, it was a disaster :( The rice was too wet and the chicken was not properly cooked, but woories when you have a mom like mine who can make even the most ruined things taste delicious :D

• 2 cups of Long Grain White Rice 
½ tsp. Saffron Powder
1 ½ cup Yellow Onion (finely chopped)
2 tsp. Fresh Ginger (finely chopped)
1 tbsp. Butter
¼ cup Golden Raisins (optional)
1 cup Plain Yogurt 
½ tsp. Nutmeg
2 tbsp. Cream or Whole Milk
4 cloves of Garlic 
5 tbsp. of Almonds (slivered)
¾ cup Vegetable Oil
1 ½ pounds Chicken Breast & Thighs (skinned & boned)
1 tsp. Cinnamon (grounded)
1 tsp. Cloves 
1 tsp. Coriander Powder 
a dash of salt
a dash of white pepper 
1. Cover rice in large bowl with cold water and let stand minimum of 3 hours or overnight.
Mix milk or cream with saffron and let stand for 3 hours.
In blender or food processor, combine onion, garlic, ginger, 3 tablespoons almonds and 3 tablespoons water and blend until smooth paste is formed. Reserve.
Melt butter over medium heat and add remaining almonds. Cook until golden (about 4 minutes). Drain on paper towel and set aside.
Heat ¼ cup of the oil in large skillet over medium heat. Drop the raisins in the oil and remove as soon as they plump (just a few seconds). Drain on paper towel and reserve.
Add 2 more tablespoons of oil to the same skillet. Add chicken and brown on all sides. Reserve.
Add remaining oil to skillet. Add the onion paste and cook until lightly browned, stirring constantly (5 minutes). If the mixture starts sticking to the pan, add a little water.
Add plain yogurt to the pan slowly and whisk vigorously to blend. Add the chicken and accumulated juices with ½ cup water and bring to a boil. Reduce heat, cover and simmer for 20 minutes.
Preheat oven to 300 degrees. Add the spices, salt and pepper to the chicken and simmer another 5 minutes. Remove from heat and cut chicken into bite size pieces.
In a large stockpot, boil 4 quarts of water. Drain the rice and add slowly to boiling water. Cook for 6 minutes and drain immediately.
Spread 1/3 of the rice on the bottom of a casserole dish. Cover with half the chicken mixture; add another layer of rice. Spread rest of chicken and top with remaining rice. Drizzle the reserved cream or milk over the top. Cover tightly with foil and bake for 25 minutes.
Before serving, sprinkle the fried raisins and almonds. 

Research Paragraph ISP

Media has lately been inspiring alot of the teenagers of our society. It has become a part of our lives. We use media every day and every second of our life! 

Considering the role of media in our lifes today, we have to agree to the fact that media plays a large role in the opinions and decisions of our teenagers today.

There are two types of effects on the teenagers; either the media effects the teenagers negatively or it effects them positively.

Some of the positive effects on the teenagers include:

1) Teenagers have easily learned how to embrace technology. 

2)Increased awarness about their surroundings.

3)it has also inhanced the knowledge and understanding of their curricular sunjects.

4)It has also increased awarness in them about issues like sex, sexually transfered diseases, smoking, alchol etc.

The negative effects also tend to stand out. Some of them include:

1)media is responsible for giving teenagers ideals about body shapes which has led to many teenagers (specifically gilrs) to loose wieght to such a limit that it effects their health negatively. 

2)The amount of violence showed in the media tends to increase the aggression in teenagers today, leading to different sort of damages. 

3)The amount of celebrity hype in the media has caused alot of children to have arrational demands to dress like those who can easily afford it. 

4)It also incurages unhealthy habbits in teenagers, such as smoking, alchol, sex etc. 

In general, media is acceptable for teenagers if the amount of time they spend on media lessens and the habbits learned from the media are advantageous.

Information from : http://www.buzzle.com/articles/media-effects-on-teenagers.html

Assigment 2 ( poem/song not in English)

Part Of The National Anthem Of Pakistan.

Pak sarzamin shad bad
Kishware haseen shad bad
Tunishane azmealishan arze Pakistan
Markazeyaqin shadbad.

Pak sarzamin ka nizam quwate akhuwati awam
Qaum, mulk, Sultanat
Painda ta binda bad shad, bad man zele murad.

Parchame sitarao hilat
Rahbare tarraqio ka mal
Tarjumane mazishane hal jane istaqbal
Sayyai, khudae zul jalal.

Meaning:

This anthem is a prayer for God to keep our country safe from all bad and always keep the people of this country happy, healthy and successfull where ever they are. This is also to pray for the land to be a land of peace, love and harmony.

May this country always be an ideal habitat for all. 

Short Story ( Assignment 1)

This year my birthday was amazing! <3
The 24th of September went as casual and normal as any other day in my life until the clock striked 12.00 midnight and date changed to the 25th of September! My mobile and residence phone both started ringing like there was no tomorrow. Wishes from everyone made me feel valued and precious and I became very excited about being 15 untill I realized who had not been the first one to wish me ..... my bestfriend from Saudi. The friend who knew every and each tiny detail about me and knew how much her being the first one to wish me meant. Sad at the back of my mind, I went to bed in hope that tomorrow might be complete with wishes from all the people who I cared about.
The morning was very fresh and new though nothing had changed much. nothing special had happened yet. I took a shower and went down for brunch where I was greeted with further wishes as the entire cafeteria sang for me as planned by my best friend in Canada, Naba Rizvi. After fullfilling my stomachs requirements of food I went back up to nmy room where i stayed from 1 to 3 P.M choosing what to wear to the stradford play. The extreme boredom led me to getting ready a bit too early for the play and I was up in Nabas' room searching for my sister who had vanished somewhere after brunch with two of her friends. At 4 Naba suggested that we go down and check the lobby as sitting in the room did not help in the least bits.
I stepped out of the lift blind folded by Naba during our way down and that is when I doubted about my special just passing by normally. As I stood in front of the cafeteria door with no clue where I was and why I was where I was, a warm hand pulled me in and Naba followed me inside. I heard the door close behind me and a million different emotions ran throgh me as I heard 12 different voices of my friends wish me my birthday and my blind fold was removed. I was jwelled by 12 bone crushing hugs of which a few lifted me off the ground and then carefully placed me back on my feet.
We all celebrated and had alot of fun which resulted in me covered in cake. We all enjoyed and laughed as Handya and Marks' voice became wierd because they had inhaled Helium thru the Helium baloons by mistake.
I went back up to my room with my face and hands covered in chocolate and my fingers tightly holding on to all the precious gifts I had received. I quickly took a shower as my sister and friends cleaned up the mess we had made down stairs in the cafeteria. I got redressed and made my way back down to join my gardian angels in canada again.
Soon it was time for us all to leave for the Peter Pan play in Stradford. We made our way to the bus and took our seats and then was when my phone rang and i received a call from Areeba (my best friend back in Saudi ). Her excuse for not calling me a bit more earlier was accpeted as well as her apology and my day was complete.
The rest of the evening passed in the same amazing way it had started and we all returned back safely to our residences at around midnight and directly fell to sleep in hope of another amazing day as the 26th of September was not any normal day either, it was my sister Mushis' birthday :)

World Records

Worlds Pizza Record broken by making 3 pizza in 40 seconds!
click HERE to watch :)


Worlds MOST flexible guy !
click HERE to watch :)


FASTEST hands!!!
click HERE to watch :P


Worlds Most dangerous man!
click HERE to watch :/


SOCCER!
click HERE to watch :D

Did You Know ???

The average human brain has about 100 billion nerve cells. Nerve impulses to and from the brain travel as fast as 170 miles (274 km) per hour. The thyroid cartilage is more commonly known as the adams apple. The only jointless bone in your body is the hyoid bone in your throat It's impossible to sneeze with your eyes open. Your stomach needs to produce a new layer of mucus every two weeks or it would digest itself. It takes the interaction of 72 different muscles to produce human speech. The average life of a taste bud is 10 days. The average cough comes out of your mouth at 60 miles (96.5 km) per hour. Relative to size, the strongest muscle in the body is the tongue. Human thigh bones are stronger than concrete. When you sneeze, all your bodily functions stop even your heart. Babies are born without knee caps. They don't appear until the child reaches 2-6 years of age. Children grow faster in the springtime. It takes the stomach an hour to break down cow milk. Women blink nearly twice as much as men. Blondes have more hair than dark-haired people do. There are 10 human body parts that are only 3 letters long (eye hip arm leg ear toe jaw rib lip gum). If you go blind in one eye you only lose about one fifth of your vision but all your sense of depth. The average human head weighs about 8 pounds. Our eyes are always the same size from birth, but our nose and ears never stop growing. In the average lifetime, a person will walk the equivalent of 5 times around the equator. An average human scalp has 100,000 hairs. The length of the finger dictates how fast the fingernail grows. Therefore, the nail on your middle finger grows the fastest, and on average, your toenails grow twice as slow as your fingernails. The average human blinks their eyes 6,205,000 times each year. The entire length of all the eyelashes shed by a human in their life is over 98 feet (30 m). Your skull is made up of 29 different bones. Your ears and nose continue to grow throughout your entire life. After you die, your body starts to dry out creating the illusion that your hair and nails are still growing after death. Hair is made from the same substance as fingernails. The average surface of the human intestine is 656 square feet (200 m). A healthy adult can draw in about 200 to 300 cubic inches (3.3 to 4.9 liters) of air at a single breath, but at rest only about 5% of this volume is used. The surface of the human skin is 6.5 square feet (2m).15 million blood cells are destroyed in the human body every second. The pancreas produces Insulin. The most sensitive cluster of nerves is at the base of the spine. The human body is comprised of 80% water. The average human will shed 40 pounds of skin in a lifetime. Every year about 98% of the atoms in your body are replaced. The human heart creates enough pressure to squirt blood 30 feet (9 m). You were born with 300 bones. When you get to be an adult, you have 206. Human thighbones are stronger than concrete. Every human spent about half an hour as a single cell. There are 45 miles (72 km) of nerves in the skin of a human being. The average human heart will beat 3,000 million times in its lifetime and pump 48 million gallons of blood. Each square inch (2.5 cm) of human skin consists of 20 feet (6 m) of blood vessels. During a 24-hour period, the average human will breathe 23,040 times. Human blood travels 60,000 miles (96,540 km) per day on its journey through the body.