Hail again

Mamilla Pool with water

Went back to Kiryat Atidim to collect the rest of my documents. Another US$100 of transport expense, another 3 hour journey back and forth. It's unbelievably expensive living here. And there was a shower of hail in mid-morning while I was traveling. Well rain has been forecast for this week and the sky seems to be right on track. The Mamilla Pool is still filled with water from the rains and snow of the past month. Nice to see it with water again ... it's been dry these several years. It was here that thousands of christians were slaughtered by the Persians in the early 7th century.

Got home and even before I could sit down, got a call to go to Immigration immediately. It's a kilometer away uphill and I rushed up ... only to be told I have to come back tomorrow morning. This is crazy. I was extremely tired and unhappy. Then as I was sitting in the shop of Signora Lelia - catching my breath and complaining to her - got a call from a friend who was coming to the Old City for lunch. He asked me to join him. So I met him in the Muslim Quarter. We had a nice and very local kabab with pita. Then we went for a carrot juice, and then tea and nargile, and then he went to buy coffee beans and olives. And he showed me some sights that I didn't know existed even though I love here only a couple of hundred meters away. Eye-opening! Well this nice afternoon made up for the horrid morning at the bureaucratic inferno.

Road-divider tulips and pansies

The canaries have started nesting - some 12 eggs in all but 4 were later abandoned. Too bad. Hope the rest will hatch as we lost 6 canaries last year to the cold.

Regarding the gangfight, I hear one has gone to jail (one of the two brothers) and others injured have been treated. I think there was a pow-wow yesterday and things are back to normal. So now we wait for the next fight .....