Noise makers, Arachnaphobia, Dragons and Golden Syrup !

The weather is gorgeous outside, no rounds of rolling nausea today and although I have been stuck inside in front of a computer most of the day , I did make an excuse and walk over to check the mail, go get some fruit from the big fridge and go to the shop for baking products.

This week we are celebrating probably one of the most fun holidays , especially for kids Purim. Basically a lot like Halloween in that everyone gets dressed up in costumes, there are lots of parties, ( shame I can't take advantage of the open bar !! ) and deliverys trays of home made treats to friends and family, which is a much nicer idea than sending your kids around to other peoples houses to demand and threaten for candy. There is a religious element , in that you read the Book of Esther , a great biblical feminist , ( well kind of still valued for her beauty etc most of all but you can't have everything ! ) but she saves that Jewish people and its kind of fun. The story is read a loud and all the kids are in their costumes and carry all kinds of noise making devices, of course there is a villian of the story called Haman, and whenever his name is mentioned , everybody kids and adults alike, hiss, bang on their pots, hoot their horns or shake their noisemakes and generally boo and make lots of noise. How much fun is that ! I mean where else to you get to behave so terribly, other than perhaps in parliment. They hang him from a tree in the end which is not very nice really and terribly unpolitically correct opps.

Yonatans costume this year is a dragon, very cute and he is looking forward to it. Tomorrow afternoon there is a parade of all the kids costumes outside , followed by a festival ! For the us , more mature ones, there is a costume party tonight, the theme is phobias. Should be fun to see what people come up with. I am predicatble arachnaphoba and E has been been too lazy to think of a costume yet.

So I am off to bake this afternoon , need to buy cookie paper, ( so nice not having to clean the tray - even if it is not very environmental ), only problem a lot of my favourite recipes from NZ contain Golden Syrup, hmm need to find a substitute.