40 degrees!

Yesterday passed pretty unnoticed. There was not much tension in the streets. Tourists are coming back - mostly asians. But it was 40 degrees at noon. Unbelievably hot. Don't know how they survived that walking around under this heat. Some places have water-sprays to mist the air while others splash water on the floor to cool off the paving stones.

Mean-looking lizard

Had to go out to buy some essentials yesterday evening when it was cooler. Went out with our museum volunteer who needed to buy veggies for dinner. As it was Friday evening, the western/jewish side of the City was closed due to the onset of the Sabbath. So we had to go to the eastern/arab side. Most shops were also closed due to the Friday muslim prayers. But we managed to find some places that were open ... those near Damascus Gate where there is a bazaar type of makeshift stalls in the streets.

At the "pet shop" - really a few planks on which are sold pet food, accessories, fish and budgies, I bought some canary food by the kilo. There was on the table what looked like a plastic/toy lizard ... yellow orange in colour. I thought it was really gross. Until it moved. It was a real thing! A pet of the owner Ali whom I know. He laughed when asked if I wanted a photo with it. So here it is.

Later this morning, Jakub will be defending his thesis. I've been helping him correct his english as he wanted to write his thesis in english. Hope he does well in front of the examining commission. Meanwhile my asthma has become extremely severe. I'm back to taking steroids to stop it ... I hate doing that as it has bad side-effects, but I can hardly breathe or sleep anymore.