Yuan Xiao ... double Valentine's Day

Cloudy skies with
full moon on Yuan Xiao

So it's Valentine's Day twice over ... the western and chinese feasts coincide. The moon was full and beautiful but there were many rain clouds and the wind was bitterly cold. It even started to drizzle. The forecast is for rain this weekend. Let's hope so. Yesterday the muslims made special prayers at the Al Aqsa Mosque for rain. Looks like a drought year for us.

At last the police are doing something about the arab mafia that controls tourism to churches. These guys stand at church entrances and pretend to be guides ... inevitably leading to tipping and going to their shops for shopping or restaurants for meals. Now when they start threatening to stab tourist police whom they deem to be blocking their illegal activities, the Law Enforcement has finally stepped in.  http://www.jpost.com/National-News/Father-son-arrested-for-attempted-stabbing-of-police-officer-in-Jerusalem-341381

Meantime the rest of the country went into turmoil because the central company that handles local credit cards had a  major glitch in their computer system. For the past 2 days, people could not pay with their credit cards. A major inconvenience.