Hot Mustard, Mexican Shabbat, Earl Grey and more!!

So as indicated by the title, this is another collection of thoughts and experiences from the past few days.

I have gotten used to things in the states that advertise themselves as "spicy" and/or "hot" to be generally relatively unimpressive spice-wise. Despite this, spicy mustard is currently my favorite condiment, so when I saw a jar of English Hot Mustard in the store, I figured it was worth purchasing. Since American "hot" is generally not-so-much, I figured how much the more so for English "hot", since the Brits are not exactly renowned for their spice. So I made a sandwich, slathering my bread with the mustard, and took a big tasty bite, upon which I discovered
FIRE FIRE FIRE FIRE FIRE IN MY MOUTH!!!!!!!!! SOMEBODY DO SOMETHING MY TOUNGE IS SCALDED!! AAUUGGHH!!!
Yes, aparently English Hot Mustard is indeed HOT. So much so that I found myself spitting out the sandwich bite and sticking my poor tongue into a cup of cold water (which didn't help) and afterwards pacing around my kitchen doing the sharp inhalation thing people do when they eat something right out of the oven or anytime something is too hot.
In my infinate wisdom, I figured I would get rid of one piece of bread and eat the sandwich in a folded up kind of way, making sure to take smaller bites. Unfortunately I discovered my infinite wisdom does not extend to sandwich eating, and I once again bit off more than I could chew, literally, and had to repeat the above mentioned process, minus the tongue in the water. I eventually finished the sandwich w/o bread (although I'm not sure it still qualifies as a sandwich) and have since been very wary of how much of this toxin I put on any sandwich I have made since.

This past Friday night the main synagogue in Melbourne, Temple Beth Israel, we had "Shabbat Alive" which is their version of "Friday Night Live" or "Rock Shabbat" or whatever its called in your town. It was pretty cheesy. Why do so many of these Friday night services end up being anything but "rock"? Can people not handle a service that isn't centered around Debbie Friedman songs? Ugh. Anyways, following the service there was a 'Young Adults Dinner'. They have this once a month, and it is prepared by volunteers who choose a theme for the food. This week was Mexican Cantina (it is kind of funny because Mexican food is hard to come by around here, but Malaysian food, or Dutch-Indonesian fusian is avaiable on most blocks). I was a bit apprehensive about what the results would be, but it turned out well, largely because I had no part in the cooking.

Saturday night I had my first real "going out" kind of night. One of my co-workers who is around my age, her fiance and a bunch of their peeps were going to hear some music and invited me along. The bar was super cool, it had a nice cozy feel to it and Guiness on draft so I was quickly won over. Sadly I can't say the same for the musicians. There were three solo performers, all of whom played guitar and sang songs that surely had some sort of deep and/or tragic meaning that I didn't get. They were all okay, but kind of boring. The 'main' performer of the night was some dude who goes by Earl Grey but he was not nearly as good as the tea whose name he stole.

I don't know so much about the situation, but I have heard that there are a set of parents who got sentenced to two years in jail for serving alcohol in their home to their sixteen year old son and a few of his friends. Unless there is some major piece of information about this story that I am missing, this is horseshit. I think this is something that should be applauded and copied. Kids are going to drink. So rather than having teenagers drinking in parks or unsupervised parties, and then (often) getting in the car and driving somewhere, we should encourage parents who are willing, to open their homes for their kids and their friends so that there is at least some level of supervision and control. Instead, we are punishing people who are actually trying to show some common sense and understanding of reality. But then again, when has the US government been interested in either of those things (see: war on drugs). It is interesting to see how it is treated over here. All the people I have heard talk about it on the news think the whole thing is rediculous, including the 21 year old drinking age. You've gotta figure we'll learn one of these days...right?

I'm sure there are other things for me to bitch about, but I'll spare you for now. So until next time, take care and be in touch!!

Peace.

Segal