Close call

Another street
performer at Ben
Yehuda Mall

So the witchhunt in Turkey has began. 6000 military and govt. persons have been arrested. In the streets here, conspiracy theorists are saying the coup was a ploy by Erdogan to find an excuse to rid his political enemies. Well it may all seem laughable but nowadays people say anything on social media.

This morning a palestinian from Hebron was arrested for carrying 3 explosives on board our City tram line. Nothing happened as security was quick to respond. That's the difference between Israel and Europe. The thing was I was exactly at that spot just a few minutes before it happened. I was bringing the chinese sisters to some thrift shop to buy clothes which is exactly in front of this tram station. After we finished and walked away, all this happened. Close call ... luckily no bullets were shot.

I thought today being Sunday I could rest a little and do some cleaning in my room. Instead I found myself out the whole day doing some work or other. Luckily despite the heat, there was a cool breeze that occasionally blew. It made the walk outside more bearable. My sprained hamstring isn't all healed yet so walking was a little painful.

Nahalat Shiva neigh-
bourhood is decked
up umbrellas like
last year

One of the shops I showed the chinese sisters was the filipino grocery. Lots of asian stuff there ... especially veggies that are home grown by filipinos living in the Jerusalem and Tel Aviv suburbs. The sisters bought bitter gourd and cooked them for me for lunch. It was very tasty. Italians are horrified that we eat bitter gourd ... they insist it's poisonous.

Late in the afternoon an old friend came to visit. He was a news reporter half a century ago here in Israel and had worked as my reporter/dubber when I was director of the Media. He's retired and had come back for a holiday. It was good to recall the good old days when we created news programmes and documentaries several years back. Well into his 80s, he's retired in France but still teaches catechism in a school.