Our chometz has been sold...

Our chometz has been sold...
Originally uploaded by sashinka-uk

Our chometz has been sold through Dayan Ehrentreu

Thank the lord.

See, pesach, you can't own any leavened goods (chometz) so all your everyday stuff is chometz, and you get in pesach food and get out your pesach pots and spring clean, but you still own stuff. So you sell it to a non-Jewish person. Judaism is full of these little legal workarounds.

In fact what you do is appoint someone - typically your Rabbi - to act as your agent, and then they batch-process the sale of their community's chometz.

It's complicated.

But the yichus. This was in the window at Kosher Kingdom. It's not just that the sold their chometz. It's that they did it through the fomer Chief Judge (dayan) at the Beis Din (law courts).

Not everyone takes it this seriously, but I do. Some take it more seriously. My view is that everyone is a little bit frummer on pesach than they are the rest of the year.

Anyway, it's all over Sunday night. Let's just say I've eaten a lot of matzah. And my kishkes are struggling for it.

Matzah wars in North London

It's cho ha mo'ed, the days in the middle of Pesach/Passover. We've been to two seders, done a serious spring clean, put away all the everyday crockery and got out all the pesach stuff, covered all the kitchen surfaces and seriously cleaned all the kitchen appliances. This is why it's called the Festival of Freedom.

I've also had a lot of fun; hanging out with friends, relaxing, eating pesach food, including matzah. Fascinating piece in the Guardian on the first day of yomtov about the matzah price wars in North London.

It's interesting when there's a piece about a subject you know intimately; I did my pesach-shop at Kosher Kingdom, and I know that Richard Hymans from Manchester is really called Richard Hyman. Not because of the Jewish conspiracy, but because I grew up with him (Cheadle lad). And the prices are slightly inaccurate because there are different brands of matzah, and some cost up to £1.19. But then, so does a loaf of bread.

Chag kasherv'same'ach - have a happy and kosher pesach (passover). I'm tired, but chametz - leavened goods - free. May it be a season of freedom for us all.

This is why I like living in Kilburn...

I'm busy. I'm slightly stressed even, with plans to make and things to do and a list as long as both of our collective arms. And it's Pesach friday.

So I'm running around, trying to get stuff done. Dropping off shirts at the shirt service. Finding out they'll charge £14 for a small alteration (I decide to do it myself, I was just trying to make life easier), and I drop into the petrol station to get some petrol.

Some say that North Kilburn is slightly scary, and it is true that someone sadly got murdered at this garage a few years ago. (I was particularly disturbed that he was Romanian, landsleit, if you will). Some say, you shouldn't go out in that part of London after dark, but I think that's rubbish.

So it's busy on the forecourt, and there's a coupla aging Beemers, gyrating to the sound of the beat through their blacked out windows. A guy dressed for urban combat and with some serious jewelry is blocking me in, and I can't leave. Another guy - burly, black - yells at the combat guy in some Carribean/Yoruba patois something along the lines of "move your car for the lady".

After a bit of to-ing and fro-ing he complies, not before trying to make me squeeze through a gap smaller than I really am. I have the window down, I'm stressed. I'm saying to him, I don't fit in there.

And the other guy, the burly guy says to me "deep breaths, count to ten backwards. Not worth getting stressed about, innit. Nice day. Enjoy it."

I smiled and thanked him. Sometimes, those small little human acts just brighten up your day.

Purim Seuda

Purim Seuda
Originally uploaded by sashinka-uk

If only I could cook this well. Went to M&A's (they're not a bank) for Purim Seuda, and it was a veritable mediterranean feast, I tell you.

OK. I've been quiet, sorry. I don't want to go into a whole explanation, but things are good, really. Just busy.

Here are some things I haven't done in the last few weeks:

tell you about ISAs before the deadline. If you didn't do it last year, and have £3,600 floating around, stick it in a high rate cash ISA now. I am not registered by the FSA blah blah blah. On top of that, you can get regular savings accounts at 8% right now, so that's worth doing too.

tell you about Purim. It was great. My cousin phoned me from Golders Green to say she'd just seen a banana wearing a shtreimel crossing the road.

It's the London Romanian Film Festival next week

A ton of other stuff...

Late news: my cousin emailed to say it wasn't a banana, but a chicken. Easy mistake.