What I forgot about was how bad the traffic would be in the morning. Almost everywhere is on reduced hours and they all start at the same time (at least it appeared to be that way) so everyone is driving to work together. Usually there are staggered hours, most Ministries and Government offices start at 7 or 7:30, other offices at 8 or 9, but now the Ministries are on 9 to 2 as is everyone else. Traffic was worse than usual, yet when I looked out the office windows an hour-and-a-half later the streets had only light traffic. Repeat when work finishes. I came in a half-hour early so that I could leave a half-hour early and beat the rush. It didn't help. Still took double the usual time to get home. Combine that with the fact that everyone is hungry, thirsty, and possibly craving a smoke, and it makes for a bit of tension on the roads. You need to be extra careful as people are more impatient and more likely to quickly switch lanes and speed around.
Got home, and despite having a decent night's sleep I still felt lethargic and wound up napping for an hour. Wasn't feeling great after waking up, a little headachey, which I'm guessing is residual caffeine withdrawal.
Got my iftar prepared:
Vegetable soup with pasta, apple, dates, a hard-boiled egg, slice of wheat bread and two rice cakes, and lots of water of course. No nuts this time, I'm going to try to replace high-calorie nuts with eggs or tuna as the protein. As for dates Muslims will eat an odd number of them when breaking the fast -- it's a hadith that the Prophet would eat an odd number.
It's a bigger meal than most Muslims will eat, they have to go to prayer so they will usually eat a lighter meal, go to prayer, then eat a bigger meal when they return.
It's almost time, just waiting for the call from the mosques to indicate when you can break the fast. If there isn't much noise I can also hear the Ramadan Cannon. I'm sure I'll feel fine after eating.
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