Orthodox Good Friday

Israeli soldiers surround the Stone of
the Unction in the Holy Sepulchre
for fear of fighting among the Orthodox

The heatwave still lingers ... but we had an unexpected shower during the evening several days back. It was a relief. Huge drops of rain fell and sent everyone scurrying for cover, shopkeepers rushed to keep their outdoor chairs and tables ... it was quite a sight. But just as the rains suddenly came, it also stopped suddenly. As Good Friday begins for Orthodox today, the bell of the Holy Sepulchre is tolling the death knell.

A lot of happenings in the local scene. Here's a list of tit-for-tat attacks between settlers and arabs this week  http://www.jpost.com/Defense/Shots-fired-at-Israelis-east-of-Jlem-none-hurt-311899  And the cheek of it all is when victims of a racist arson attack are told to pay the bill to fire-fighters. The govt is also going to make tourists pay taxes (VAT) for hotels and services which so far have been exempted. That will make visiting the Holyland more expensive by 16%. Palestinians will of course be very happy because this means more groups will chose to stay in Palestinian hotels and eat in Palestinian restaurants because VAT does not apply in Palestine. A new strain of SARS has killed 5 Saudis in the kingdom and with the start of Ramadan in July, fear is that muslim pilgrims to Mecca will be spreading the virus worldwide.

Ethiopics crowding into
the Flagellation

Healthwise I'm getting the withdrawal symptoms from using prednesone. I hate it but it does efficiently stop my asthma and in this case, to stop the breathing difficulty due to the peanut allergy I developed. Pred is used for SARS, avian flu, swine flu and other such drastic viral attacks. Am weaned to 10mg now. Another week to go before I'm off pred totally ... but the withdrawal symptoms are absolutely awful.