Tense Friday

Self cooked lunch today

Last night I really slept well. About 5 full hours. Got up twice only to cough up phlegm. The medication is strong and I feel weak and very thirsty all the time. There was one medicine Aerovent that is not available in East Jerusalem (meaning the arab side of town) so I had to walk 1 km yesterday evening to the western side (jewish) to buy it. The evening was really cold ... it dropped to 8 degrees! I walked around the City for an hour and that always clears my lungs. The fluids are drained away, my wheezing stops and I feel much better.

Military presence was building up when I was taking my walk. An hour earlier 2 people were killed at Gush Etzion, 7 km south of Jerusalem. And an hour before that 3 people were killed in Tel Aviv. It was a very violent evening ... after a week's lull in the violence. Tensions are high as today is Friday and thousands of muslims will be entering the Old City to get into the Al Aqsa Mosque. With my recuperation, I should ideally be in bed resting ... but there is always urgent business that I must attend to: first a Polish bishop wanted to come visit the school and I had to wait for him at the entrance to welcome him and his entourage and bring them to the school. Then immediately I had to go to the Bishops' Conference Office to pick up 2 documents.

In the afternoon I decided to cook some food to strengthen my constitution: what rice, steamed minced beef with mui choy; and anchovies with bean-sprouts (kana her and towgay). It was a nice poor man's meal.

Buddy the good boy

Don't know if this afternoon there'll be the Way of the Cross. Anyway I'm too weak to go downstairs again. Will stay in bed and do some reading if I can't sleep ... and if the 2 parrots stop giving me trouble. Both are now very jealous of each other. If I let one out of the cage, the other will be screaming his/her lungs out. The other guys at home are not happy with the noise and sooner or later they'll be asking me to get rid of the birds. I think Miss Bird will have to go as she's the loudest and most destructive. She bites through all my electric and computer wires, destroyed countless books and pooped all over my bed. Any wonder why I get sick?