Strike

Daffodils for the
New Year

Another very cold day even though temp. rose to 14 degrees this afternoon. Tomorrow's forecast is rain and temp. will drop to zero. I dread having to go out to work in that weather.... aaaggghhhh.

Yesterday I saw a bedouin hawker selling narcissus flowers at Damascus Gate. I thought it would be nice to get some for the Lunar New Year ... a touch of home. But on closer inspection, they were all withering. Further up in the New City a flower shop was selling daffodils ... in effect yellow narcissus. So I bought 4 bunches. 2 for the Chinese convent and 2 for myself. They are delightfully scented, and the bright yellow is very cheery on an otherwise grey cold wet day.

All public services have gone on strike for the 2nd day. The streets are stinking with piling garbage. Trains have stopped, Post Offices closed .... what a chaos. Luckily Jerusalem is full of cats so hopefully they keep the rats at bay. Then again I've seen the rats at Damascus Gate ... they're as big as the cats!! Have to be very careful negotiating through the garbage strewn streets now ... being bitten by one of those rats would be disastrous.

Piling garbage in the streets

Repercussions of Trumps's orders are rippling through Israel as well. Israelis born in those 7 banned countries who hold duel citizenship may be subject to the entry ban as well. Lots of confusion here. But even more serious was the Israeli PM's tweet that Trump's building the wall along Mexico is a good idea because Israel built one along Palestine and it succeeded in keeping terrorists out. Boy ... the backlash. http://www.jpost.com/Diaspora/Mexican-Jews-alarmed-by-Netanyahu-tweet-on-Trumps-wall-479964  and   http://www.haaretz.com/israel-news/1.768340   and   http://www.ynetnews.com/articles/0,7340,L-4914286,00.html