While I was waiting for the rice to cook....

.....I picked up a Catholic diary, one of those pocket sized, plastic covered mini books which are distributed by parishes all over the UK, at about Christmas time.
They usually contain some helpful information including which cycle the Sunday readings/weekday readings are from, feastdays, days which are marked 'Feria', the address of the local church and its Mass/confession times, Parish Priest contact details and in this case, notable dates for the year 2011.

Among the notable dates are bank holidays, important days within the liturgical calendar such as Easter Sunday, days of national importance such as the Queen's birthday and .......the first day of Ramadan.

So there you have it: there is no excuse for Catholics in my area at least, to neglect the Muslim season of Ramadan, which apparently begins on 1/8/11, even if they did think they were going on holiday!