Eid Mubarak

A big festive Eid Mubarak (meaning happy and blessed Eid) to everyone out there and I hope you all enjoy seeing family, friends and eating lots of yummy sweets. The text messages began at around 9pm last night and are still going – thanks to those of you who chose to message me in the middle of the night – hmmm. Saying that though, it is so sweet seeing all the children smiling with their pockets stuffed full of eid-ey-yah - money that their adult family give to them, and seeing the women in the lovely new dresses and abayas. Not to mention those mountains of sweets in all the bakeries and supermarkets! I dare anyone to come to the Middle East during Eid and not eat their weight in those yummy sticky pastries!

I had big plans to make a scrummy breakfast for B who after going to the mosque for Eid prayers this morning, went with a friend of his to Seeb to sacrifice a goat – one of those things I cannot get used to seeing happen despite B's insistance that I should either watch it "live" or on video -  for another friend’s restaurant and then proceeded to eat his weight in liver, onions and bread so returned home not hungry! Good job I hadn’t started cooking or Eid certainly would have started with a bang… right between his eyes!

I have really enjoyed Ramadan this year. Sharing iftar with friends and swapping dishes with my neighbor have reminded me how little effort I make the rest of the year to actually spend proper time with my friends. Even simple things like taking time over a meal seem to be sacrificed during the year, but come Ramadan, meals can last hours thanks to all that chat! So if nothing else, that is what I decided to take from the 30 days this year.

Anyway, I hope everyone has a lovely break and be careful not to put all that lost weight back on if you managed to lose some over Ramadan!

OB