Hey Mr. Tambourine Man ....

Imagine being jarred out of a deliciously deep sleep. Imagine being jarred out of a deliciously deep sleep at 2:21 a.m.. Imagine being jarred out of a deliciously deep sleep by some moron banging a drum. Imagine being jarred out of a deliciously deep sleep by some moron banging a drum incessantly. Imagine being jarred out of a deliciously deep sleep by some moron banging a drum incessantly walking up and down the streets of your neighbourhood so that sometimes the sound begins to fade but then - oh! he's back! - it's louder than ever.

Now imagine that it happened to me, not you. You have probably ceased caring at this point and I wouldn't blame you save for the fact that it happened to me and I am nothing if not self-centred. Already deprived of sleep thanks to the plaintiff whinings of our neighbourhood muezzin (at 4:20 a.m.), hearing Mr. Tambourine Man banging his gong 2 full hours before I was (almost) prepared to be woken up was the last straw.

Oh - did I ask you to imagine being jarred out of a deliciously deep sleep by some moron banging a drum which also succeeded in waking up every dog in the neighbourhood? Bang bang bang. Woof woof woof. Oh sweet mother of god. Bang bang bang. Woof woof woof.

So why was Mr. Tambourine Man meandering through our neighbourhood effectively waking up the dead? - to rouse them to eat. Only a few hours left to chow down before sunrise. Get up! Eat! Eat! Eat! - which to me negates the spirit of Ramadan. Eating at sunset, eating throughout the night, and then getting up once or twice before dawn to put on the feedbag somehow diminishes the "sacrifice" of not eating for 12 hours during the day. In my mind, that's just reversing your inner clock. Maybe I'm a purist.

But one thing I am is getting the hell out of Dodge: one week in glorious Spain. Sangria, sun, sand, and - no less important - pubs bursting with people imbibing & consuming during daylight hours. No social vampires here. One less week of Ramadan and perhaps one week of uninterrupted sleep.

Adiós amigos ~ hasta luego!

p.s. Hey Mr. Tambourine Man ....#@%&($">* off!