of chicken, mutton and turkey

for those of us living abroad, with penniless pockets and unwavering needs (or wants), there comes a time every so often, where you have to make a decision on how to cut down on expenses. for me, the obvious choice has always been regarding food. i cannot imagine how people survive eating out every day, so for those who do, pardon my ignorance. for the others amongst us who have to slave over proverbial and literal hot stoves, those who have to brave the perils of grocery-shopping lines, those of us who wane and wax in the comparison between product prices and relative quality, read on.

the every so often i speak of usually comes towards the end of the month, when money is at a dwindling low. or for those people who get it every three months, then okay, it's three months. or for those lucky bastards who mooch of their parents are born into some eastern european royal family, that time never comes. and i hate you so much. *ahem*


so yeah, need to cut down expenditures on food. in conjunction with the fasting month of ramadhan, this means that i just skip all food expenses altogether. it's pretty amazing. every day, i will just turn up to uni, spend the afternoon at the lab and get some work done (which is an extra perk, as i usually don't do anything resembling work). and when the evening comes, off to the uni musolla we go, for free iftar. aw yeah, that's how i roll.

the free food is usually chicken or mutton curry with briyani rice. it's pretty awesome. at any rate, it's way better than anything i can conjure up using the magic of microwave. somehow i've developed a taste for the mutton. mmmm. probably because even when i have to get my own food, i usually get chicken on account of it being the cheapest meat i can get. and as we all know, the more expensive something is, the better tasting it is. except oysters. blegh.

and so this brings us to the end of ramadhan, and it's now time to view the moon to determine when syawal is - the first day of eid al fitr. normally, ramadhan is 29 or 30 days in length, and so i just assumed that it would fall on a friday or saturday, here in perth. but it seems that the powers that be have also decided that eid should fall on thursday. what the currypuff jesus is happening? i always thought it was all about the unity of the ummah and all that jazz. being the perpetually confused person that i am, i sought to find out the source of this disparancy. sure enough, the theme of the month could not stray any further from food, for you see, the culprit in determining the day of eid falling on thursday was no other than turkey.