Feast of the Holy Name

The New Year begins with a series of strikes here. Today teachers from secondary, primary schools and kindergartens have gone on strike over their salary. It's been a very very long dispute and we're not sure it'll be resolved. Then tomorrow bus drivers are on a whole-day no-work strike. This will affect the entire country ... especially soldiers travelling long distances. Let's hope everything gets resolved.  http://www.ynetnews.com/articles/0,7340,L-4902129,00.html  and  http://www.jpost.com/Breaking-News/Egged-strike-planned-for-Jerusalem-Wednesday-477253

Wet, cold night

The weather is still freezing ... between 4 to 9 degrees during the day. Tonight it'll drop to 2 degrees I think. It drizzled all night and the skies, even in the night, is a heavy grey with rain clouds reflecting the street lights.

Last night Johannes invited the 5 of us chinese out for an early Chinese New Year dinner at Mandarin Restaurant. He's retuning home for the celebrations in a few days time, and Sr. Marie Ann will also be returning next week. It's been a very long time since I was at Mandarin's. The food is still good but the prices have gone up. The cooks are still the same but the waiters have changed. It was nice to get together as a chinese catholic community. Everyone is usually so busy, we have little chance of meeting up. In the cold wet weather, the hot "lao huo" soup, dumplings and rice were very welcome. Thoroughly enjoyed it. In fact I think I ate a little too much. Had to go for a little 2 km walk to digest the dinner. The streets in Ben Yehudi Mall were crowded with people despite the drizzle. Of course one fear at the back of my mind was slipping on the wet smooth paving stones. I almost did fall on my way home but I managed to catch myself. The younger guy in front of me was less lucky.

Despite the rains, the Sea (Lake) of Galilee remains well below the red line. It's not good because in a few weeks the raining season will end and drought will be declared, and water prices and taxes will rise. It's the poor people who will suffer most.  http://www.jpost.com/Breaking-News/Lake-Kinneret-water-level-remains-remarkably-low-477275

And one sad news for us asians ... the creator of Lao Fu Zi cartoons died yesterday. He was 93 years old!