Yom Kippur (JC)

Woke up early, got dressed and went to shul with Uncle Ian.

Shul was really boring because they don't sing the songs they sing back home and lack unity in the Machzor used. So if your bar mitzvah is between 1945-1975, you have one book, everyone after that uses another. I read from a book that was carbon dated at 80+ years as it made reference to KING GEORGE and QUEEN MARY.

I was able to last between 10:00am and 3:00pm but by that time I was fading and heard the same prayers for the third time.

It is typical for families to leave the Yiskor service to go home and feed the kids while the parents continue to fast.

The idea is that one can take a nap or a modest walk to pass the time and be distracted from the hunger. The last two hours before the fast is over, it is typical to return to shul to hear the final blast of the shofar, thus ending the fast.

Ian had asked me what they do back home, I described the sleep portion of the fast. He suggested I sleep in his car?!? I declined and took the train back to the B&B where I collapsed for two hours.

We were picked up at the B&B by my Aunt Claire. She was in shul briefly but while sitting there she looked like a cat that swallowed a sour mouse. I am told she avoids shul religiously. ;)

At Claire's I did my best to make polite conversation until Ian and Joe arrived. Rhonda was no help, she sat on the couch reading the newspaper. Thanks dear.

Breaking the fast was at my uncle's friend's house (the same friend from the chinese restaurant post). Relationship TBD.

The food was yummy and all of my favourites, but the meat meal with the mountain of butter, jam and bread was used to wash down the chopped liver. What our audience doesn't know is that mixing meat and dairy is naughty. Even among modestly observant Jews, bread and butter with an obvious meat meal is not done and is gross. Milk with coffee is not as big a deal, I think it has to do with proximity.

Watching them spread butter on bread with chopped liver was gross. Oh, did I mention the bugs?

Rhonda showed me the bug that was doing the breastroke on her saucer, with rest of the Olympic team warming up in the sugar bowl. This unfortunately was noticed after we had two cups of tea. Is it any wonder that Rhonda was sick?

Our hostess, realizing that we had an early flight, stopped all conversation and threw us out. Thank g-d!

Uncle Ian is a heartless eating machine!

At the end of the evening we said our goodbyes to Ian. We shook hands. Ian reserved kissing Rhonda as his face was sticky from jam; which he stated explicitly. The fam was the chopped liver chaser. AHHH!