Names

So I forgot to explain what Thanksgivukkah is all about. It's Thanksgiving Day and Hanukkah celebrated on the same day. I think this coincidence of feasts occurs once in 20 years or so. But this name stuck. Like Christmukkah is the coincidence of Christmas and Hanukkah once every 5 years I think.

War in the horizon?

Back home trying to recover from the allergy reaction. It's a terrifying moment when you're gasping for air that doesn't seem to enter the lungs .... it's suffocating ... each deeper breath you draw tightens the air passages even more. Face going blue, going dizzy ... and the only thing I was thinking was "What a stupid way to die ... from nut allergy". Can't recount any saint or martyr dying from an allergy. Anyway am on medication for the next 14 days. Medication makes me very drowsy and weak.

Bad news coming our way. The IDF is warning of an imminent war with Lebanon. Battalions are preparing to go up north. According to news reports, it's going to be "massive". Now dying in war is more glorious than by nut allergy.
http://www.jpost.com/Features/Front-Lines/Security-and-Defense-Seasoned-veterans-333442

New franchise that says it all.

And talking about bad news: the privatisation of public loos means a costly visit each time: US$1 per entry. Just saw a new franchise charging exactly that price. That's the way the world is going ... 2 the loo ...

The weather has gone cloudy, grey and gloomy. Not a nice start to Thanksgivukkah but hopefully the weekend would get better. Not that it'll make a big difference for me. I'll still be in bed under medication. And deathly scared of any food I eat. Everyone is trying to strengthen me by cooking all sorts of food ... but I'm going to eat only boiled veggies and rice to make sure there're no nut products. Today it's a boiled corn on the cob.

Emergency Room again

Yesterday was the first night of Hanukkah ... the jewish feast of lights or dedication of the Temple from the desecration done by the Syrians. Very joyous event, hanukiot in every house and shop lit.

If only life was just as beautiful

But it was hell for me. Was rushed to the Emergency Unit in St Joseph's Hospital because I ate a biscuit made with nuts. Didn't realise it till my eyes swelled and then the tongue and throat ... couldn't breathe. Luckily my jewish security friends at the Gate saw and rushed me to hospital. It's the 2nd time in 6 months I've been admitted. The nurse rushed to put a needle in my arm but as he panicked (the doc wasn't around), he caused my blood to splurt everywhere - on his clothes, the bed, my whole arm and clothes .... I was screaming as it hurt, and all that blood slurting everywhere. Anyway he added alot of pressure to stop the blood and gave a shot of something. Then the doc came and saw it was the same allergy reaction so he ordered the 3 other shots. Made me very sleepy. He told me to sleep for a couple of hours in the EU ... which I did as I had no choice. After I woke, I insisted on going home but the doc said I can't walk straight!! So I rested (slept) for another hour. Then they called a taxi for me to bring me home. Was very very groggy but managed to find my way home.

Today all my security friends were asking if I'm ok. They're a great bunch. I've been mainly sleeping today as the medicine makes me drowsy. Must take the medicine for 14 days. Doc said my resistance is low, blood pressure is low ... so I'm in no position to be working. Now that's a laugh. Sooner or later a call will come ordering me to get back to work. That's life here.

Change in weather

This morning's sunrise was great!

The weather has suddenly shot up to 35 degrees today. Very hot and dusty ... but still everyone is keeping on their pullovers and jackets. You never know when it'll suddenly change and drop to 16 degrees. The weather is as unpredictable as the political situation here.

Helicopters have been flying overhead since yesterday evening. Don't know why. Recently there were attacks in Damascus Gates (arabs on Jews), molotov cocktails thrown in the area of Herod's Gate, scuffles in the Suq toward the Wailing Wall .... the tension seems to be rising. And Israel's building 800 houses inside Palestine is not helping the situation.

Ah Ling at Mandarin Restaurant has been very kind. Every evening she calls me over for dinner ... she boils chicken soup with chinese herbs (gingko nuts, chinese dates and figs, wolfberries, ginseng ....). The guys there are very nice to me too and are concerned that I'm still very weak and fainting always. The arab cooks, ChaCha the filipina waitress all worry over me. They keep saying that since I have no family in Israel, then Mandarin's is my family and they'll take care of me. Problem is sometimes I'm so weak and tired (like yesterday I worked 10 hours flat) I have no energy to walk uphill 1km to Mandarin's. Anyway there's still internal swelling and once internal bleeding in the sinus/eye region ... hope it'll all be gone in a couple more weeks.

Time flies ...

It's Tuesday today ... time flies so quickly. Have been extremely busy as usual. Working 10 hours a day no stop. Still feeling weak ... but work cannot stop. Trudging slowly ...

The weather has warmed up a little but not very much. Luckily I have the heater now so the nights are more bearable. It's funny to see locals wearing hoodies and jackets while tourists are still in T-shirts and shorts .... they don't know how easy it is to get sick in this weather where fluctuations in temperature can be extreme and sudden.

Sugarcane being crushed
in the machine

Managed to have a cup of sugarcane juice on Sunday. Needed the sugar to keep the blood pressure up ... and its always refreshing to have a tropical drink in this country. Have been thinking of curry-puffs lately .......

Well Advent begins in 5 days time .... the end of the year is round the corner. Whatever happen to 2013? Time flies .....

Help

Another cold cloudy day spent in endless work. My blood pressure must have been pretty low because I blacked out twice in the late morning. Luckily I didn't bash my head against anything. I guess I was missing Coca Cola ... haven't drank it for a day ... sugar level dropped as a result.

Sunrise this morning

In the late afternoon I did some gardening in the very tiny plot of the convent of Mother Theresa's sisters. As I had too many Marigold seedlings, I decided to transfer them in their garden. Also gave them an echium grown from seed and sowed Zinnia seeds so in summer there'll be a riot of colours. In return I got a lily bulb and 3 daisy rhisomes which the sisters didn't want.

Winter will be very cold and the sisters from Gaza came to shop for cheap winter clothing for the children under their care. I promised them chemical heat packs as Gaza has no more diesel hence no electricity, no heating ... nothing. Will need your generous help to offer the sisters some means of buying other necessities that will help the children see through this winter. So please consider doing something meaningful this Christmas ... give the poor children in the Holyland a happy Christmas ... heating, light, warm clothing and food.

Jerusalem Knights Festival

So it's November ... time for the annual Jerusalem Knights (nights) Festival which takes place every Thursday night during the month. A very fun and family event. The streets are always packed. But this year the route was switched from the Christian Quarter to the Armenian Quarter and out through Zion Gate and along the City Wall (Gan haBonim) back to Jaffa Gate.

Gravita - the aerial
acrobats at Jaffa Gate

This year's events were not as spectacular as the previous years. Less spectacular except for the aerial acrobats at Jaffa Gate. What was more fun were the arab stalls set up in a hurry to cash in the busy trade of thousands of visitors. Arabs selling toy swords, strobe lights, balloons, sahlab (hot winter beverage) and juice.

Anyway this year there were stilt-walkers, a witch, a medieval fashion show and lots of music ensembles playing medieval music. Most performers were in period costumes. There was an Arts and Craft fair included: potter, cobbler, mandolin maker ....interesting but there was hardly any space to see them at work. I thought it was badly organised. The route was too narrow and the performers were on ground level instead of on a stage where everyone could see.

Trumpeteers on the turrets of
Jaffa Gate

Music ensemble with
performers in period
costume

Day off in Tel Aviv

Sufgoniot breakfast at TLV

It might have been a day off but it was very tiring. Woke up at 3am to do all my chores before leaving for Ramat Gan at 5.30am to see my doc. Arrived there at about 6.30am ... the taxi-driver lost his way (again). A ride at that hour costs US$180 .... very expensive. Finished everything at 10.30am and went off for a late breakfast with doc. We both wanted sufgoniot so we went to downtown Tel Aviv's "Coffee & Bagel". Nice company and great comfort food. Doc is actually one of my best friends.

Then had to rush off to Rothschild Boulevard (it's been 2 yrs since I last been there) to visit a former student who's now a chef at Cafe Noir. He cooked lunch for me, even though I just had breakfast. Good food ... good chef. Good to see my former student doing well. Starters was a plate of calamari and prawns in tomato sauce, followed by veggie risotto with pesto sauce. Main course was fettucine with chicken liver and mushrooms. Exquisite. Shared it with an acolyte from our Jaffa parish who came along. He suffered a stroke recently.

At Rabin Square

After lunch, went off to Rabin Square (memorial to former president Rabin who was assassinated there). It's a lovely park right in the middle of the city but an oasis of calm. A large tranquil pond with carp and goldfish line one side of the park. Water-lilies of red, orange, white, pink and purple hues were blossoming everywhere in the pond. Lazy chairs all along the pond were snapped up by people taking their lunch-break,  soaking up the sun, listening to birds chirp ... and the constant hum of the traffic. I actually fell asleep out in the public on a lazy chair ... that was how tired I was.

Then it was a visit to my community in Jaffa. No one home except the former superior who let me in. Fell asleep on the sofa there for over an hour. Then it was a rush back to Jerusalem because Ah Ling of Mandarin Restaurant called me over for dinner. Special food again. Couscous in veggie sauce and stewed pigs' trotters. Really nice. And she and her husband refused to accept payment.

The evening ended with a walk down the annual Crusader Festival in the Old City held every November. his year's theme was The Knight's Hall. Tell you about it tomorrow. Right now am so tired from a day off ... I need to sleep ... again

Of weather and parchments

The past 2 days saw heavy downpours throughout the country ... floodings and a dip in temperature.

Sara and a beautifully
decorated choral

But not one drop of rain in Jerusalem. Locals say it's a punishment on the Holy City. Nights can become as cold as 8 degrees. I finally have my heaters out. What a relief!

The bombings in Lebanon are causing jitters down here. Regional instability always has a domino effect in the Middle East. Yesterday morning Israeli jets bombed Gaza again after mortars were fired into Israel.  http://www.jpost.com/Defense/IAF-strikes-targets-in-Gaza-Strip-332303

A magnificent 16th
century choral in parchment
once used in the Basilica of
Bethlehem now in the library

Despite feeling very weak, I've been working full-time. That means walking up and down the City from one library to the other ... a total of 2 kms uphill and down. It's terribly tiring especially when my blood pressure is low and I'm feeling giddy all the time. But the "discovery" of ancient manuscripts, incunabulae and other treasures tucked away and long-forgotten in corners of the library is always a great moment. A student from Italy, Sara, is doing her doctoral research in ancient chorals (enormous hymn books used by monks, all handwritten on parchment) and she hunts through the library for these precious relics from the past. Once found, she has to literally lug them (some weigh several kilos and are over a meter in height) to a special table where she cleans each page, studies the contents and calligraphy, and write out a descriptive report. A long slow process but it's the first time a catalogue of the ancient chorals is being compiled.

Well the cold weather is good for bringing out and cleaning the parchments but the rain and damp can be very destructive. Will have to find a suitable place for Sara to do her research.

Cold

Sunrise over Mt. of Olives

The temperature is steadily falling night by night. It gets so cold I cannot sleep. I haven't managed to get my heaters out of the attic. Yesterday night was so cold I had a splitting headache. Today I found out I wasn't the only one. It's so cold the canaries are dying one by one. From 38, it's down to 10. Have to transfer them into a smaller cage and keep them indoors. But one thing nice about the cold weather is that the skies are clearer and sunrises are stupendous.

Inversely there's a rise in violence between Jews and Arabs. A Jew was killed in Afula near Nazareth and now revenge attacks against Arabs are taking place. There was a bombscare 2 days back in the usually busy Hillel Street. The whole street was blocked off by special police while the suspicious package was detonated. Winter doesn't look good.

Lost 2 great Bible scholars in one week: Francois Bovon and Jerome Murphy O'Connor. The latter was my professor 15 years ago at the Ecole Biblique. Went to his funeral Mass.

Healthwise the wounds are healing. A little pain when I sleep on my side as pressure tends to build up on one side. Have to sleep face up only. But the breathing is much better. However I'm still feeling terribly weak. My security friends all say I look so exhausted and weak and pale. They tell me to go and rest ... but I miss their company and laughter. Word has spread among them about my op. so they all come to ask if I'm ok. They're great guys. Some of my arab friends also call me everyday to ask if I'm ok and need anything. I appreciate that. It's comforting to know people outside and from different religions care so much for a foreigner among them. So-called "brothers" do much less. Thanks to all who made this op. possible. But I'll have to go for another op in a couple of months ... this time probably at an Israeli hospital. Don't look forward to it.

Another day

Another day of recovery. Still with swelling but very little pain. Thank goodness. Mouth ulcers are very painful though ... a sure sign of my lack of vitamins and general weakness. People are telling me to rest more but that is an impossibility. The medicine makes me very sleepy but already a load of backlog is forcing me to get back to work. Sunday was my feastday but with the situation I'm in, there wasn't much to feast about.

View of the northern section
of the City : Damascus Gate
and Schmidt College looming
on the upper righthand corner

The weather is still cold but the sun brings in a nice warmth if you stay outdoors. At least that's one good thing happening. Last week I had the chance to go up one of the buildings in Khan ez Zeit and had a spectacular view of Damascus Gate and the Muslim Quarter from a different viewpoint. And talking about weather - the disaster in the Philippines is in everyone's mouth. It's silencing the daily whining and crying of the disgruntled people in the streets ... when they see the utter suffering of the filipinos in the hands of Mother Nature.

Winter has set in. The sun sets by 5pm and darkness shrouds the entire City while people try to continue with work and life in the cold. Not much rain though ... we're expecting a dry winter.

Thanks to Maven, M. Fok, C. Lee, J. Tong, Cavero family, Angela, Rose Chiu, Monday and Wednesday classes, Grace Leung, Gigi and Katie. Received everything.from hoodie to TimTams to medicine to gifts to wellwishes. Appreciate everything.

Recovering

So a week has passed ... and the operation went well. It was supposed to be 2 hours but a complication occurred and it took 3 hrs instead. I survived so I'm grateful. Prior to the surgery, 2 docs came to examine and after some tests, said my blood pressure was very low and was generally too weak. "Must eat more red meat" - that's what they said - "Cannot be a vegetarian!" Well I do eat red meat ... like once in a blue moon. But then again, I hardly eat anything anyway. No wonder the docs said I was too weak. Thanks to everyone who made this possible - spiritually and materially - I can breathe better and had not had an asthma attack all this week.

Season for sufgoniot -
Hanukkah is back!

Most of the time during recovery was spent sleeping. The medicine made me very drowsy. Whenever I was awake, I read Potolsky's "Mimesis" - a good introduction to the theory and history on this subject. Ah Ling from Mandarin's was very kind. She boiled chicken soup with chinese herbs and wanted her worker to bring it over to the hospital for me. But it's not possible for Israelis to enter Palestine, so I told her to leave it. Yesterday when I got home, I passed by Mandarin's and she had 3 packs of food for me to bring home ... all without charge. And insisted tomorrow I had to return and drink the chicken soup that she'll boil tomorrow morning. The Sisters of Mother teresa were also very kind. They cooked plain white rice for me and accompanied me home (carrying my luggage) as I could not see properly.

My arab friends called me everyday to ask if I was ok. When I got home yesterday after the stitches were removed, they came to meet me and though I was tired I stayed with them. Being poor dispossessed people who cannot enter freely into Israel, they can only gather around corners of the eastern (arab) side of the City - so we met along the City wall and sat and drank and chatted for several hours under the trees. They can offer me nothing but their friendship, and I'm glad I have them. And I'm glad I have you too as my friends - it's in times like this taht you realise the value of true friends.

All Souls Day

City Wall by night with
the Latin Cathedral inside

Yesterday was All Saints Day and we were all reminded by the 2nd reading that we too are called to be saints in our own small simple way. Easier said than done. But that's the challenge.

Nerves must be getting on me as operation day draws near. Was pretty nervous and down yesterday ... in fact extremely. Some terribly unjust thing was dumped on me as well .... My two best friends decided to take me on a walk. We sat down on Mamilla Promenade and spoke and drank. It was very quiet ... as Sabbath set in. And it was freezing cold. It was good of them to be with me. I needed that.

Then its All Souls Day today. Lucky for the dead ... no more suffering injustice. Remembered all the souls who have passed on ... friends, relatives and benefactors during Mass.

Stromata

The weather has turned cold and it rained throughout the country since yesterday ... but not in Jerusalem. By 4.30pm the skies become dark ... and a fog wraps around the City.

Fresh boiled chicken soup (chicken
on the side) in chinese herbs

Good thing Ah Ling at the Mandarin Restaurant boiled some hot chicken soup with chinese herbs. It was very rich and warm, something I really needed for this cold weather. I must get my radiator out ... the nights are almost unbearable now. I have asthma attacks every night. And my ankle which I have twisted 3 times within a month is very painful in this cold wether. Am wearing an ankle-guard to strengthen it. But the pain remains.

Meantime yesterday our library team met to learn the procedure in case of fire and earthquake. The National Home Front has been warning everyone everyday about preparing for the big earthquake that is to come. Well when you are on the 5th floor as the library is, there's little you can do when an earthquake hits.

Clashes between jewish settlers and arab farmers are on the rise as the olive harvest begins. Some 50 cases of settlers destroying arab olive trees have been reported but covered up. Arab attacks on jews have also been on the rise. But no one is yet ready to call it the 3rd Intifada. But the growing violence is very frightening ... perhaps more than an earthquake.