Almost late for week. Cannot believe it is raining like it's late Oct/early Nov. So not cool! Anyway, considering the weird mood I'm in, I thought I'd repost this, er, helpful fact-guide that I posted previously around this time last year.

Ten little known facts about Ramadhan
_{(Shamelessly snarfled from rowana)}

1. Do expect to find yourself having to pull a book/invoice/tablemat up to cover your mouth as you speak to people. Try to do this subtly so as not to draw attention to the fact that you haven't eaten anything or drunk any water in nine hours, and your breath shows it.

2. If you find that you aren't fasting on a particular day, for whatever reason, but dress in a way that indicates your faith quite obviously, do expect random people to cast you disapproving or puzzled looks if you eat in public. (Usually accompanied by mutters about doing it properly if you're going to do it at all).

3. Do expect lots of friends to suddenly need favours. It's Ramadhan, the month of giving, and everybody knows it.

4. Do not expect to be able to eat all the food you horde away during the day once it's dark again. This is usually not due to overestimating the amount you can eat because you're hungry, but down to the fact that your siblings/friends/pet will find your stash and polish it off first. (A lack of food leads to a proportional loss in hording abilities. Hiding the chocolate behind the radiator will not end well. I speak from experience.)

5. Expect to find yourself craving foods you previously found repulsive. (It will happen, trust me. Usually at 4am when you've woken up for breakfast and just stubbed your toe coming down the stairs and have opened the fridge to realise that you're all out of milk.)

6. Expect to watch lots and lots of daytime TV. Expect to watch the cooking shows, in particular, often enough that your parents start to hide the remote. Expect to attempt to make dishes from said cooking shows and to break down crying when you finish the perfect chocolate cake at 2pm and have to wait six hours to eat it.

7. Expect to blow up the microwave at some point. (Though then again, this could just be me...)

8. Expect to search for something, anything, to take your mind off the fact that you desperately need a cup of tea a can of pepsi max, right now. (Again, could just be me...)

9. Expect to tell your friends that it's fine for them to eat in front of you, and then glare pointedly at them the whole time they do so.

10. Expect to write a few slightly odd entries in your online journal, which you will no doubt regret later. (A lack of food also seems to lead to a proportional loss in basic common sense.)