Fasters of the world... Unite!

This morning I got out of bed this morning thinking... mmm roast chicken sounds divine for lunch today (my brain works like that, sadly). I hadn't had any poultry in site for about a month now. So, after some morning chai tea and strawberries for breakfast, I made my way into town in order to buy a chicken for the day's feasting.

As I was walking along the road, among several sbah-al-khairs (good mornings) from neighbourhood children, I reached my half-way point - the mosque at the end of my road. The Friday prayers had already begun - they last about three hours in my neck of the woods - and I happily enjoyed the melodic chanting as I continued my way down the road towards my chicken guy.

That is, until I stopped dead in my tracks and realized - Hey, dumbass, it's a Friday. During Lent. No chicken for you.

So, I rerouted my trajectory and made my way towards the fish guy instead. The half kilo of fish is now comfortably resting in my fridge for roasted consumption this afternoon.

Ironic that an Islamic prayer call can remind me of a Catholic fast, n'est-ce pas?

So, yeah, about that. We've been over the fact that I don't really subscribe to any particular religion, but I'm a respecter of all, yes? And any probing religious questions I receive here in site are usually answered with the crowd-pleasing line of, 'I know there's something out there, I just don't know if his name is Jesus, Allah, Buddha, etc...' Which, is more or less what I actually think.

Thus, I figure if I went to bat for Islam during Ramadan this past year, I should follow suit and play my cards right this Lent. Doesn't hurt to appease all possible deities, am I right? Plus, I grew up with Lent as a prominent fixture in my household. My Dad even respects the no-eating-meat-on-Fridays thing for the entirety of the year. Living at home at as a kid, I was all about the Fish Fridays, as this usually meant a family dinner at a nice beach-side seafood restaurant was involved. Well, that or the infrequent (and disappointing) Mickey D's fish sandwich... shudder.

Moral of the story is, in addition to the no-meat Fridays for the next 40-odd days, I'll also be putting a hold on all baked goods. This includes cookies, cakes, breads, the works. I figure, in addition to offering up a sacrifice to any of the aforementioned gods, it'll have me looking good for an Easter Sunday wedding in London next month. Win-win!