Winter Hot Pot

Hotpot at Mian

The skies turned very grey and the winds are picking up in speed. The forecast is sleet, graupel and snow on Friday ... and it certainly looks like it from today's weather turnaround that snow will come. I only hope it lasts for a day or two ... and not too heavy. I don't want to shovel snow from the roof. It drizzled all night and for the past 2 nights I've forgotten to turn on my heaters. Woke up just after midnight shivering and wondering why it's so cold. My memory is going fast. I think it's the lack of potassium and magnesium again that's causing my lost of memory and inability to focus. Or it's early dementia and I'll walk out one day and don't know my way home again.

Last night the owners of Mian restaurant, Billy and Linda, invited me over for a winter hotpot. It was very nice and fitting for a cold wet winter's night. We ate and chatted until 11pm. The food was as traditional as it could be ... being in Israel we can't get every original ingredient. But it was delicious.

Lentil soup today

The Chinese New Year is in 3 weeks time ... and we asians here in Jerusalem are few. But we hope we can meet up at least for the Reunion Dinner and perhaps a thanksgiving Mass. We'll have to synchronise our timetables so that on Feb. 15, we'll be all free to meet.

For your information, it's Wednesday today. That means abstinence ... which instead of saying no meat, it's more of "lentil and fish" day. Today the cook put fettuccine in the lentil soup. I ate none of it. But I was so hungry I ate a piece of fish ... which I usually never do because it's never ever fully cooked - the centre is always raw. Well I got sick after that. It's definitely a day of penance ... which as you know is twice a week for us - Wednesdays and Fridays. Lentils and fettuccine will definitely not be in the Reunion Dinner menu.

The forced repatriation of refugees saga continues as newspaper comment how a State like Israel, founded by jewish refugees, can expel other refugees ... forgetting it's own past and principles.  http://blogs.timesofisrael.com/a-state-founded-by-refugees-does-not-expel-refugees/

And a big uproar today after the american VP's visit to the Wailing Wall. Some reporters were segregated from the men, and put in the women's part of the plaza separated by a low wall. The women journalists were infuriated and there's been a barrage of condemnation and even a lawsuit against the ultra-orthodox monopoly over the Wall.  https://www.haaretz.com/israel-news/female-journalists-kept-from-male-colleagues-at-pence-s-kotel-visit-1.5762141

To my students of the Book of Revelation .. apologies I couldn't find a good video on the book. I'll continue searching.