My Family gathering in Ramadan

I must confess, we are not just like any other family we are close but loud, we are affectionate but can slash each other to pieces, we are loving but hate gossip and small talk, we talk the truth to each other even if we don't like it, and most importantly, we all complain but end up conceding to everything that one or the other had suggested.

Ok, enough of this preamble, I want to tell you about our Ramadan; not sure how others celebrate this month, I am sure that no one does it like us.  To me Ramadan is difficult, I can do all the religious stuff, but fasting is very difficult because I hate routine.  I don't want to wake up and not have my coffee,  I don't want to feel sleepy in the afternoon, and I don't want to feel thirsty.  I have no choice though, I must fast as everyone else is fasting and its PC.  Also, all the good stuff happen at night, so if I don't fast I will be missing out.

Good stuff? what are they I wonder?  well, since the past three years my mum has been spending Ramadan with us (she lives in Bahrain otherwise) so we all gather around mum, as she is the flower to the bees, she is the honey to the bears, she is the essence of our being, she is the loveliest person in this world.  We tell her off, and she tells us off, but we end up laughing; she has these oldies who frequent our house when she comes to Dubai, and they are all lovely, stay quite and look at us while we do our own things!! ok, are you curious now to know what we do?

To begin with, I am on my laptop, have both my phones next to me, typing away, replying to students' calls, whatsapps, and like now, writing my blog.  My daughter looking at her IPAD snooping at the pictures her friends paste on Instagram.  My other sister watches her soap opera series on her IPAD too, mum sitting next to her on my chaise long and watching the same series.  Ramadan in our country has a special flavour, I call it the series flavour!!!  my husband finishes Iftar and goes to our living room upstairs, watches his football matches (sometimes my son in law watches them with him, and sometimes he watches his series on either his IPAD, or on his new TV installed in their room; he left today so not sure what he is upto in Bahrain).

Then my other three sisters finish off their work at home, and come here.  A lot happens but the truth is, nothing happens, the technology is even heavier with these three sisters.  Sawsan plays on her IPAD, while talking on her phone, answering the whatapps on the third phone; Nunu, lucky for us, doesn't bring her IPAD, but her fingers types away at the speed of light while she shouts at the maids, scolds Maria (my little niece who decided she will spend Ramadan with us this year and regrets it to the bone, her brother left us ten days ago as he couldn't take it any more), screams if the Turkish coffee is not upto her standards.  But we love Nunu, she is the sugar to the tea, and the salt to the salad.  Lulu, on the other hand is busy with something, we don't know what it is, she comes and leaves like a thunder, she thinks my house is too far and we all think that her house is too far.

We have one brother who lives in Dubai, his family travels to US every year, so he comes and has Iftar with us, then he spends like half hour in the toilette, we thought that he has constipation until we found out that he actually reads my magazines that i keep in the toilette for constipating individuals in my family, and plays his solitaire game during that time.  Okay, its his relaxation time (he had enough of us in another word).

While all of this is happening, we are having red tea, green tea, Karak tea, fruits, nuts, dried fruits, cakes, Lugaimat, znood alsit, cherry pies, and any other goodies you can think of. we also have a constant supply of coffee.

I am changing our name guys, we will call ourselves the techfoodology family instead of the Halwachies.