Eid Mubarak

That's Happy Feastday in arabic. The muslims celebrate the end of Ramadan today - Eid el Fitri. But actually it ended yesterday. Three canon shots sounded around dusk to announce the end of the fasting season. But my muslim friends tell me they extended Ramadan by one day because this year it ends on the Jewish Rosh HaShana (New Year) and they didn't want to celebrate it on the same day, hence the 24 hour postponement.

This morning thousands upon thousands started gathering into the mosques for prayers. Unbelievable crowds. Started at 4am. Then 3 more canon shots were fired at 7.15am. At 8am the crowds started moving out of the mosques back home to feast. By 10am the streets will be pretty empty as everyone is at home.

While festivity is in the air for Jews and Muslims, unfortunately there's also a sad side to it. Gazans fired rockets into Israel the day before (Rosh HaShana eve) and the Israelis have bombed Gaza yesterday. And another person died from a shooting on the outskirts of Jerusalem, apparently a feud between Israeli Arab families.

The neighbours have been nasty (as usual). While I was working on my computer near the window, they threw two huge firecrakers at my window. They were extremely loud and had a stun effect. We have to put up with these people ....

The weather is turning quickly to autumn shades. Soon the leaves on the trees will be changing colour. At night the temp. falls to 18 degrees or so. Pretty chilly. The days are still pretty hot though, like 30 something. By the way, Mr. Fish died because during the heatwave, my room was so hot the aquarium boiled over. Now that's how hot it was the last too weeks.