Midweek

Sunset over Notre Dame de Zion

Today is the 3rd Wednesday of Lent. That means a pilgrimage Mass at Gethsemane. It used to be at our Flagellation but because the following Wednesday the pilgrimage Mass would have been also our Condemnation Chapel, we have to shoulder twice the responsibility, so they changed the Condemnation for Gethsemane. I won't be able to walk down the Kidron Valley and up again ... so I'll stay and rest at home. But that's always a utopia ... whiten one hour of rest, phone call comes to say a chinese group is downstairs and wants to see me.

Still feeling very sick. There's this heavy pressure on the chest for a week now and makes my walking the staircase or long distances very difficult. Today I'm mainly confined to bed with minimum movement. Sheer lethargy or necessarily recuperation? Later I'll have to go to the pharmacy to get medicine. So much for rest. As the doc and nurses said ... I must leave Jerusalem otherwise I will never recuperate ... I guess they're right.

Waning moon over Damascus Gate

Traffic entering or leaving Jerusalem is in total chaos as the main junction is under major construction. Buses have been rerouted and many people found themselves going to places other than their destinations. And to top it off, the buses no longer accept cash or top-up payment cards. Suddenly people found themselves entering and leaving buses immediately because they cannot pay or top-up. Fixed centres to top-up the cards have queues so long people complain waiting 3 hours for their turn.   https://www.timesofisrael.com/jerusalem-bus-drivers-will-stop-accepting-cash/

The war in Ghouta is still continuing and I have no more news from Damascus ... apparently our hospital has been bombed. UN aid convoys were not allowed to bring in medicines. The situation is terrible for our christians. Let's hope there is at least some respite from the bombings.  https://www.ynetnews.com/articles/0,7340,L-5146364,00.html

And everything was about pig yesterday. There was a news article about malaysians laughing at a foreign celebrity because she called her father in her own language "babi". Then within 12 hours a wild boar charged into a malaysian mosque and allegedly attacked a worshipper. Here in Tel Aviv a restaurant sold and cooked pork instead of advertised beef and was made to serve free food for 30 days to all customers as a penalty. I hope to go there soon for free lunch.  https://www.haaretz.com/israel-news/.premium-tel-aviv-eatery-settles-to-pay-hefty-price-over-pork-scandal-1.5868960