Goodbye Sakura

As the heatwave lingers on today, fires around the forests and parks are getting more frequent and intense. Some have been deliberately started   http://www.haaretz.com/news/diplomacy-defense/palestinian-teens-suspected-as-12-idf-soldiers-injured-in-brush-fire-1.436996

And the heat is up at the Gaza border too, where cross-firing has been taking place for the last 2 days.  Shootings and missiles involved. Several have been killed on both sides already.  http://www.haaretz.com/news/diplomacy-defense/israeli-killed-as-idf-terrorists-exchange-fire-along-egypt-border-1.437066   It's not going to be a nice summer ....

Empty unset tables at Sakura

And more heat is up as students are taking the library's fans to their rooms to cool off in the night!!! Fireworks this morning when the power-that-be (or that's what she thinks) found out that fans were missing .... I've reached the end of my patience, so I just switch off and walk away. People forget that I am the director and they work under me ... but being typical of their occidental attitudes, they try to walk all over me like a doormat. They mistake courtesy for weakness ... well ... just a little more of stretching my patience and then I'll turn the heat on for them and show them who's boss.

Meantime I'm also stressed trying to get end-of-year reports done on time. There's so much paper-work .... and I have no secretary!!! Beryl (just finished her MA in archaeology here) offered to do some of the secretarial job but as she can't read italian, there's not much help. So I'm stuck alone.

Our last sushi at Sakura

And sad news .... my favourite and definitely the best japanese restaurant in town "Sakura" is closing down. All the regular waiters are gone ... only one part-time to cover the last few days. The LCD menu screens were removed from the walls. Tables were not set. Gyoza were restricted to vegetarian ones. Limited amounts of sushi could be ordered as they no longer buy ingredients. It's terribly sad because it was such a great place with great food. Had lots of fun there, made lots of friends, shared lots of laughter ... now all will be memories.