Ok ok, enough about my engagement. And brother Sven will send a guest-post when he can, but at the moment he’s busy writing a thesis titled: Ethical Ramifications and Grounds for the Cross-Ambulation of Certain Poultry Across Certain Roads in the 21st Century: A Paradigm. What did you think they studied in Theology of Veterinary Physics anyway?

So, back to nonsense as usual. Ramadan has been going well so far, Alhamdulillah. Fasting is quite useful actually, in that it makes it easier to concentrate on prayer, and it feels kinda good to be running on an empty stomach. I do ok without the food, though the lack of caffeine kind of slows me down. Still, I enjoy fasting, and find it a good thing for spiritual renewal. One thing fasting is NOT good thing for though, is sewing projects.

Now folks, my sartorial skills are dodgy, even on good days, and I have about a 70% success rate with making my own clothes. Today, regardless of the fact that I’m fasting, I thought I’d make a pair of winter-weight pants. This is where the alarms should’ve gone off, but some of my mental faculties are on break for Ramadan. Oh well.

I brought the cloth out, pinned it in place, drew my pattern and started cutting. So far, so good. I threaded the machine, filled the bobbin and got it ready and oiled for action. No problem. Then I put two pieces together and sewed them, and people, let me tell you that nothing ruins a pair of pants so well as putting one of the legs on inside-out and upside down. (doh!)

Similarly, nothing ruins a big pot of Nihari so well as burning it down to one inch of black sludge. This method for concentrating Nihari isn’t normally in my cooking repertoire, but I started a pot of Nihari while I was fasting, and found the food-smells to be tempting, so I left the kitchen. I might have been ok if I went to wait in the dining room, but I found my way to the living room sofa, and woke up an hour later to a smell reminiscent of burning rubber. But spicier.

Which wasn’t entirely unappetizing…whoops, time to go burn something for Iftar!

posted by Abez @ 11/02/2003 03:12:00 PM