First week of Ramadan

Today marks one week since the start of Ramadan, so I thought I would update my blog on how it has been so far. If you read my previous post, this is my first time ever doing Ramadan, but so far, so good!

DAY 1

I thought the first day of Ramadan would have been the hardest, but it was actually the easiest. We managed to change our sleeping pattern so that we wake up later in the day so less time is spent actively fasting. We woke up in the afternoon, and by the time I had a bath, tidied my room and watched a few videos on Youtube, it was time to start preparing the food for Iftar. We had our first Iftar with our flatmates who are also fasting.

Breaking the fast with some water!

The first bit of water was honestly like heaven! Water never tasted so good. We made a big spread of food with lots of different types of bread, a creamy prawn linguine, Moroccan chicken Tagine, followed by dates and other sweet pastries.

Iftar day 1

Moroccan style tagine

Our evenings are then spent watching movies on Netflix or YouTube. On the first day of Ramadan, I caught up on my favourite – the Kardashians! We stay up until around 4am, snacking in between. Around 3am, we try to prepare something light, like a sandwich with fruit and lots of water so we are full just before we sleep.

Keeping up with the Kardashians time!

 

DAY 2

When it comes to around 6:30pm we normally sit out on the balcony and wait to hear the ‘Adhan’ (calling to prayer). In Dubai, a cannon is launched every night to mark Iftar which is a really nice thing to listen out for. We have a bottle of water and some orange juice ready to cheers at sunset.

Sunset = Iftar time

Waiting for the cannon

Cheers!

Roast chicken with potatoes and rice

 

DAY 3 – 6 

By day 3, it was getting a little bit harder, especially in the afternoon around 4-6pm. We normally try and play cards or do something to keep us busy so that we are not thinking about food and water!

We then start preparing the food about an hour or so before sunset. This also keeps our mind off of fasting, but it’s so hard to not taste the food whilst cooking!

Cooking in progress

Moroccan mint tea

Spaghetti Bolognese

Our sunset in Dubai is normally between 6:45 – 6:50pm. Compared to some countries, it is quite early. I couldn’t imagine waiting until almost 8:30pm, like the sunset in the UK.

Beautiful sunset

Sweet treats – Baklava

 

DAY 7 

Seeing as normal life is slowly resuming in Dubai, we decided to eat outside on the final night of week one. I was so glad we did as it makes a change and it was also really nice having Iftar in a restaurant. We wanted to go to our favourite seafood restaurant called Dampa, but it was still closed so we went to a similar one next door called Off The Hook. They prepared our food so it was ready for sunset, and they gave us dates to break the fast.

Dates

Seafood and rice

 

I can’t believe it has been a week already! It is already going so quickly and I imagine the next 3 weeks will also fly by. So far, I am really enjoying it and I haven’t found it as difficult as I thought I would. It is really nice having a set time when to eat, and believe it or not, your body does get used to it!

Thanks for reading.

Kerry May xo