Tensions are rising everywhere in the country as the Flotilla aimed at breaking the gaza blockade is due to enter Israeli waters. We all remember what happened last year and the violence that followed. Groups have been canceling their trips in record numbers and everyone is holding off their visit to the Holyland until after September to see if a war does break out then. An unpleasant wait ... for us living here.
My lunch today was a refreshing plate of giant figs and mini peaches. The figs are the size of your palm and the peaches the size of your thumb. Weird but tasty.
A walk through Damascus Gate or Salahaddin Street will inevitably engage you in a barrage of vendors yelling "Karta Silicon" costing 60, 80 or 100 shekels. That puzzled me as "karta" means "card" and "silicon" is obvious. Not until I stopped to ask one of them what he was selling. It's "Cellcom card" (cell phone cards). How Cellcom became Silicon is a mystery but knowing the tendency of arabic to use english words with an arabic twist, I guess it should not come as a surprise.
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