Amal and the birth of iphoneography

It was on the 4th of January when I and my friend Sagal aka Assiyya met the beautiful Amal from Canada. I had the pleasure to meet Amal through twitter and this was our first encounter. I got to know about Amal before and even had her on my flickr account but we've become a little close through twitter. I look forward to knowing her more!

Amal came to visit her family in London; so me and Sagal thought, this is the best opportunity to get together and have a hearty meeting. This is what happened exactly. We've decided to go to the one and only Vapiano, an Italian restaurant I was introduced to via Sagal and Shakur again through twitter and this was our second visit with Amal. Beautiful place with a captivating ambiance and of course the food is mouth-watering and yummy!

I think we've talked about everything and anything; it was a night full of food, laughter and great memory. Around 6ish Amal left us to commute back home. Till now I admire how she commuted alone in this big city. If this was me in Ottawa I doubt I would’ve had the guts to commute alone. I and Sagal decided to hang around in Oxford Circus and it was a must to take her to Momo's cafe. A place my friend Hanaa introduced me to last year, absolutely where you would want to sip a traditional North African mint tea in. Let me not forget about the aroma, oh dear, oh dear! The interior is amazing with a ceiling full of lanterns looking lamps.

 

The room is almost dim and the candle light shines on your face and masks your features with a golden glow. The seats are so soft and let you sink in comfortably. The tables are oak brown and big circler golden trays are placed on top of it to compliment the design. The background music is totally African, I even once heard Maryam Mursal's songs played and at the time I was furious because I thought they claimed it as North African artist. In fact Maryam is from the horn of Africa; specifically Somalia. Of course they didn't because in this visit they even had one of Fela Kuti's songs playing; you should've seen the big smile on Sagal's face. Totally in love with the guy!

After me and Sagal had a heart filing conversation we left Momo and made our way to the underground station and as we walked I couldn’t resist myself from capturing photographs with my Iphone 4. London looks best at night especially with wet floors due to rain which reflects the city's light amusingly. It was then when Sagal suggested that I join Leyla and Ahmed 365 days photography challenge. I wasn't too keen on a whole year round challenge since I don’t have the time and commitment it requires. But as usual Sagal knows how to make the hardest thing sound so easy to do. After a long bus ride contemplating I decided to join them and also threaten them *grins*. I mean you have to scar your competitors so that they keep in mind you're not an easy target *double grins*.

Now it has been 3 nights and the competition is heating. Everyone is producing a gobsmacking iphonegraphy and Mr Ahmed is raising the bar by adding a commentary with each photograph. All I know I need to step up my game. I'm against two passionate competitors and I'm not here to give up on what I'm fond of the most.

- ps: all photos are iphoneographed and edited!