Togetherness

10 Ramadhan 1430

Hakim, Intan and their rapidly sprouting daughter, Zahira, came round to break the fast with us yesterday. They'd bought with them some particularly tasty satay from a stall at Marine Parade and this supplemented a sumptuous repast prepared by the missus (yes, the language is cliched, but it sort of does justice to the occasion) made up of stuff we got at the new Geylang Market earlier in the afternoon. A quick list: sea bass (too much, so we gave a whole cooked one to our guests); crabs; epok epok; some layered kueh and the ricey green one; brinjal in a sort of red chillie sauce; a mix of green beans, carrot bits with the odd little prawn, done in garlic, I think; plain rice; and lashings of hot, sweet tea. As far as I remember. We did justice to it all, I assure you.

There was so much, I neglected to put on the table the nice little chocolates one of my students had given me ahead of Teachers' Day, which was actually today.

And that was another opportunity for a kind of togetherness. A quirkily Singaporean occasion it's difficult to imagine it taking off in an English school. I'm now loaded with little (and some not- so-little) gifts and cards and goodies. Enough calories for the remainder of fasting month certainly. The trouble so many students go to is very touching - their generosity deep and real. As an aspect of the on-going War on Capitalism I might add that I'd rather get the contents of the table top in the living room (where I temporarily put today's booty) than a banker's bonus for wrecking the economy.